Golden: A Paranormal Romance

by Ellis Marie

  Deli appears with Trent on the other side of the door, narrowing her eyes at Cole, hesitation clear on her face as she approaches him.

  “Not that I’m not incredibly happy that you’ve woken up, but you really shouldn’t have been able to. I had you in a medically induced coma.”

  The fear on Cole’s face grows as she touches his skin and prods it with something, scanning his body as if she’s running tests.

  “What? I just woke up?” he asks incredulously. “And tried to attack our luna? That doesn’t sound right at all. I would never.”

  Luna?

  That is the second time someone has used that name today, and I definitely have never heard it before.

  “We know you wouldn’t, Cole,” Trent reassures, throwing me a quick glance. “I’d trust you with her life any day.”

  “Just maybe not today,” Cole mumbles, disappointment clear on his features. He looks so sad that I want to reach out and hug him, but I think if I tried he would move away.

  I look to Trent for some help, but he’s just watching Cole with a concerned look, following all of Deli’s movements as she takes out something and slices it across Cole’s wrist, blood beginning to drip from it immediately.

  “Ow!” he complains but she shushes him, dipping something into the blood quickly before the wound heals up. “You at least could have warned me,” he grumbles, a moody pout following as he yanks his arm away from her.

  “What is it?” Trent asks, standing beside them. Deli raises the material above her head and into the sunlight before she brings it to her nose and inhales, closing her eyes as she focuses.

  Yuck.

  I can’t help it when my mouth curves up in disgust. Cole chuckles at my expression, rolling his eyes.

  “You giving me a drug test, Deli?” Cole teases, wiping away the dried blood from his skin, “Promise, I’ve not been smoking while I’m in a coma.”

  “As much as I appreciate your sarcasm, Mr. Edwards,” Deli replies, narrowing her eyes at the fabric in her hands. “I don’t think you’ve got drugs in your system.” Cole pretends to be relieved, but I do the opposite as her eyes narrow at me, causing my whole body to tense.

  “I would, however, like to know how wolfsbane got in your bloodstream.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  I lie on my bed, staring up at the ceiling.

  Every single worried thought flying through my head is going at such a pace that it’s beginning to give me a headache.

  Trying to explain to Trent and Deli what had happened with Cole, the witches, and the vial was pretty difficult when, as soon as the words had begun to leave my lips, everyone started shouting and screaming about wolfsbane and how dangerous it is.

  Of course, I don’t know this. I don’t even know what it is.

  It turns out that Cole definitely should not have had it injected into his body, that’s clear from the scolding that Deli gave me that almost made me cry, but the issue is that it fixed Cole and woke him up, so she really couldn’t be angry at me.

  The person that is angry, however, is Trent. I could see straight away by the look that he threw me that he’s furious at me for doing it behind his back. Especially when Deli started raving about how dangerous it is and how I could have been killed along with Cole.

  Yeah, it definitely isn’t a great time. I think Deli has lost whatever fear she had of me and, instead, is ready to kick me out.

  Shortly after that, Cole suggests that I go upstairs to my room and maybe wait out the debate that is about to take place. It has a lot to do with the wolves and their pack, so I listen to Cole and retreat to my room.

  Which is where I now lie . . . one hour later.

  It’s strange for me to feel so comfortable in a place that I have barely lived in, but I suppose that when I compare it to where I lived before, there isn’t much worse that it could have been.

  My walls are a beautiful ocean blue colour and the bed is cream and fluffy; there are so many pillows that I wonder if I can possibly smother myself in them if the conversation downstairs goes really bad, but I’ll have to wait and see.

  The wait is killing me. I hadn’t meant to betray their trust or go behind their backs. I don’t think it would cause such an uproar.

  I just want to help Cole.

  A knock comes from my door. I sit up quickly, nerves pulsing through me as it opens.

  “How are you holding up?” Scarlette’s red hair is a welcomed sight as she comes into the room with a timid smile on her face. I throw myself back onto my bed, a huff of air leaving my lips as I do.

  “That bad, huh?” she says, chuckling.

  I groan at her chuckle as she sits down on the bed before lying back and joining me in looking up at the ceiling.

  “Am I being kicked out?” I ask and she laughs again.

  “I don’t think Trent would ever let that happen, so you have nothing to be worried about.”

  “But he’s pissed at me, isn’t he?”

  I saw the way he looked at me; I know that he’s disappointed. I’ve done something that clearly could have caused a lot of damage to his pack, even though I didn’t mean to.

  It doesn’t make it any better.

  “I think he was just annoyed that you didn’t tell him,” Scarlette says after a moment. “It’s pretty hard for anyone to be angry at you when Cole is bouncing around and complaining about their worries considering he’s in full health. If anything, they’re probably more annoyed that he didn’t shut up for longer.”

  We both laugh a little at that. I’m so grateful for Cole and his energy.

  “So you’re not annoyed at me?” I ask timidly, turning my head to look at her as she rolls her eyes, shoving me gently.

  “Of course not.”

  I smile and turn back, a smirk making its way onto my lips. “That’s good then. I don’t know if I could take your fat wolf ass if you tried to fight me.”

  She gasps and grabs the pillow beside her, hitting me in the face with it as I sit up laughing, deflecting her blows. “You know, just because I love you doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you,” she jokes, tossing the pillow aside as she sits up with me. “Luna or not.”

  Luna.

  “Scarlette?” I ask, brushing down my hair. “What exactly is a luna?”

  She looks at me in shock for a second before she groans and shakes her head, settling herself against the frame of the bed.

  “Honestly, my cousin is such an idiot sometimes. He hasn’t told you the story of the first wolf or mates, has he?”

  I shake my head gently, smiling at her frustration as she mumbles under her breath about how incompetent men are and something about how she’s going to castrate him.

  “Honestly, I have to do everything myself in this house,” she huffs while making herself comfortable. “Okay, sit back because this isn’t a short story.”

  I obey her and snuggle against my pillow, excitement filling me as I prepare myself to find out the secrets of wolves and actually get an insight into their world. I’ve been caught up in everything else that I haven’t had a chance to really understand the new world I’ve been introduced to.

  “Okay, so first of all, we have a goddess. We usually refer to her as the moon goddess.” She rolls her eyes at my chuckle, shaking her head. “Yeah, it’s a little cliché, but it’s where all our powers originated from, so she’s kind of a big deal.

  “The moon goddess watched over animals of the night in a time when greek gods walked among humans. There’s some speculation that maybe we, werewolves, and vampires worship the same god because of the whole bat thing, but that’s never been confirmed.”

  “Wait,” I interrupt in shock. “Vampires?”

  Scarlette looks at my wide eyes and horrified expression and snorts.

  “It’s alright, they’re pretty much extinct and don’t really hang about anywhere apart from up in the mountains in some cold regions. I doubt you’d ever see one in your lifetime.”

  I nod, deciding to just pus
h the image out of my mind instead of trying to comprehend it right now.

  Werewolves. Let’s focus on werewolves for now.

  “Anyway, there was this man; his name was Alphario Kronos Stavros. He was a human, but he was born into a family of hunters who took it upon themselves to try and rid their land of wolves. The moon goddess saw this and obviously wasn’t a fan, so, as punishment, when he turned sixteen, she made the families’ firstborn son turn into the one thing they hated on the next full moon: a wolf.”

  “At the time, he didn’t know what was happening or that he would turn back into a human. So when he approached his family and they tried to kill him because they didn’t realise it was their son, he ran. When the moon disappeared, he returned to his human form, but it took him some time to understand the connection between his emotions and the wolf that he could become. At first, he thought it was a curse. He tried to kill himself in the nearby river and continued the attempts for many months, but when he saw how much he could endure, he realised that what he had been given was a gift.”

  Was that how Cam felt when he first turned and didn’t know what happened? Was he as distraught?

  “So Alphario was the first werewolf, and he found his mate?”

  “No.” Scarlette laughs, shaking her head. “Mates were created, not found. It was by chance actually that they happened, although the moon goddess had a little something to do with it.”

  “The story goes that there was a girl from a nearby village who had gone out into the woods. There, she was attacked by a man, which forced her to run further in. She happened to go to where Alphario was hiding. It was there that the man caught her and tried to harm her. In order to protect her, Alphario changed and attacked the man, leaving him alive but injured. It was only when the attacker had run off that he changed back and the girl realised that he was not just a wolf, but also a man. Instead of running or being frightened by him, she thanked him. He offered her to stay the night so he could tend to her injuries and then get her home safely the next day.”

  “Did he make a move on her?” I tease. Scarlette laughs but it’s almost wistful, her eyes glistening with a look that I can only describe as longing.

  “It’s said that when the two of them sat in the moonlight, they bore their souls to one another. The connection between them was so pure that the moon goddess saw it and made it so that instead of the moon being what controlled the wolf, it was now his soulmate. He no longer stared at the moon in awe but her—she was his luna.”

  My heart squeezes in my chest at the story and the feelings that start to float through me. The idea of a love is so magical, realising that this is what I can have with Trent.

  “That’s beautiful,” I murmur. “Did they just stay in their own little world forever?”

  “Unfortunately not.” Scarlette’s smile dwindles from her lips. “She had her family back in her village, and so, she told him that she had to go and say goodbye, but she’d be back for him.” Her eyes move down to my neck. “Do you have your pendant?”

  Confused by her question but curious nonetheless, I nod and reach into the drawer beside my bed, pulling out the pendant and carefully passing it to her.

  She holds it in her hands and softly turns it over, stroking the gem in such a delicate way that I feel bad for the times I’ve thrown it in my bag or not treated it with such care.

  “It’s said that the moon goddess gave the couple a gift that night—a necklace that would let them stay connected even with the girl miles away, a necklace that could let Alphario know that his luna was okay. She could let him know that she was thinking of him with just a thought and a touch of her hand to it . . .” she trails off, passing it back to me with a smile. “I’ve never really believed it. No one has seen it in centuries in this part of the world and those who did say that it doesn’t work anymore . . . yet here it is.”

  I look down at the object in disbelief, the gem shining so clearly that I can almost see my own reflection in the dark colour.

  “Wait . . . you’re saying that this is the same necklace? That it’s thousands of years old?” I ask, waiting for her to make a joke or laugh. “You can’t be serious?”

  Scarlette shrugs and leans back. “I’m sure that there are witches who could create similar pendants, ones that connect two people together, but that magic would fade pretty quickly, and they would need personal things from the two of you to make it work. I’m just saying that you’ve had that for quite some time, and as far as I’m aware, it’s just as strong as the first day you got it. Trent didn’t tell me where he got it, but maybe you should ask him.”

  I nod and clip the chain behind my neck, feeling comfort as it settles on my chest. He’s never mentioned where he got it, and he almost seemed happy that it worked when I first used it. Is he waiting for it to fail?

  “So what happened then?” I push, eager to move on from the strange questions that are beginning to make my heart pound. “He waited for her for years?”

  Scarlette rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “No, he wouldn’t have lasted years for sure. Being away from your mate hurts your wolf. He probably wouldn’t have even lasted a month.”

  I blush, embarrassed by my guess but also by the thought of Trent pining for me. I had shut him out for days. Had he been hurting the same?

  “Luna returned to her village, Alphario made sure she was safe and then left to return back to the home they planned to make together once she had told her family that she was leaving. However, when she got inside, she found the man who had attacked her there, along with most of the village. He told everyone about the ‘wolfman’—in his words, ‘the devil reincarnated’ and he said that she was cursed too.”

  An awful realisation hits me when I see the look on Scarlette’s face and feel the goose bumps rising on my skin.

  You can always count on mankind to be afraid of what they don’t know.

  “They killed her,” Scarlette confirms. “They took a blade of iron and dipped it in wolfsbane, which they believed would kill the wolf in her as it did to the animals, but of course, it wasn’t the plant that killed her, but the fact they’d stabbed her in the heart.”

  There’s a moment of silence between us as I process the story and how far back the legends go for them—wolfsbane, this necklace, the moon goddess, it all feels so real. What things in the real world do I believe are fake? What myths are actually true stories from years ago?

  I suppose Lou was right when he told me to start believing I wasn’t crazy.

  “Of course, they didn’t know that the necklace she was wearing connected her to Alphario who came to her rescue. He tore through the village, taking her from them and out to the forest where he tried to save her, but he was too late. She was so close to death by the time he got there that there was nothing he could do, and his heart broke in two. That was when the moon goddess revealed herself and told him that when she cursed him, she gave him two hearts—one of a man and one of a wolf.”

  Scarlette cringes a little and runs a hand through her hair, smiling slightly.

  “Now, this next part may be the reason for some ill feelings between wolves and witches—where werewolves believe that it was the moon goddess that helped them while the witches believe it was one of their own, saying that a young girl from the village had witnessed everything and came to help. It’s been an argument that’s drawn on for centuries, and everyone is quite stubborn on their belief. Whoever it was that helped doesn’t really affect the story, the basics of what happened are the same. Alphario reached into his chest and took out his hearts. When his luna died, he felt heartbreak but it was so strong that it actually split them in two. From the remains, he formed two new hearts—each one half-human and half-wolf. He put one back in his chest and one into hers. The human part woke her up, but thanks to the wolfsbane running through her system, the wolf inside of her woke too.”

  “Do you believe that?” I ask incredulously, trying to imagine someone ripping out their heart and putting
it in someone else. “Do you honestly believe that someone could survive that or that you can just slot hearts together?” I scoff. “Or that someone has two hearts?”

  Scarlette studies me for a second before taking my hand gently. “Did you believe that people could turn into wolves and survive a bomb because of magic before you saw it? The world’s a big place. Legends have to come from somewhere.”

  Carefully, she raises my hand to her rib cage and places it on her body, pressing it into her chest. I lift an eyebrow at her and try to pull my hand away with a laugh but she holds it still.

  “Scarlette, what are you—” I stop speaking as rhythmic beating hits against my fingertips, her heartbeat steady like a metronome. Underneath it, in the space between beats that is usually silent, I feel it.

  A faint second beat.

  “There’s not a chance that you have a heart condition is there?” I joke quietly, which makes her chuckle as she lets go, sitting back again. “So you have two hearts?”

  “Not quite,” she reassures. “There are not two separate hearts in my chest, but the heartbeat of our wolf is there, whether it’s inside our own heart, we’re not sure but we can feel it. It’s there.”

  “That’s incredible,” I whisper, looking at my fingertips, which I want to believe are lying to me, but I know that they’re not; they really felt it.

  “So did she turn into a werewolf too?”

  Scarlette nods, getting up to stretch her back. “That’s how the first pack was created. Instead of killing the villagers that tried to murder her, the two of them bit everyone and turned them.” She sees my look of alarm and waves me off, picking up the photo on my desk. “Don’t worry, we can’t do that anymore. The only way you become a werewolf is if you’re born one. You can’t be turned. Trust me, people have tried.”

  The weight of all the information sits on me. I sift through it—images of Alphario, the first werewolf, and his soulmate replaying over and over again on a loop. The story is incredible, even more so if it is all real.

  But do I believe it? Is it possible that creatures could be created by gods, and hearts could be split in half to save someone you love?