Chapter 201: I Guess The Moon Goddess Loves Me After All

DECLAN'S POV

This was torment, real torture. My wolf and I couldn't help but stare. Like glue, our views were stuck on our Luna bathing in the river.

Her waist-length hair was dripping wet and delicately settled over her shoulder. Her rear was to us, and her bodacious backside was making my appendage jerk in need. I would rather not be there anymore. I wanted to go, but Maddox's paws kept creeping forward closer to her.

"What are you doing?" I urged my wolf. "Let's go back."

"I can't. There's something in the air telling me she is my mate," he explained. I wanted to agree with him since I felt it too. But out of respect and love for my alpha, I had to do the right thing.

"But she isn't. She belongs to our Alpha and this is wrong," I told him. This caused him to stop, but not before stepping on a twig. The sound startled Hazel and made her to turn hastily in our direction. She was ringing out the excessive water from her hair. Maddox went into a panic when his eyes engaged with hers. Hazel's eyes broadened when she spotted my wolf, her cheeks went pink as she grabbed onto her breasts, using her hands to cover her chest, while sinking her lover half deeper under the water.

"Maddox, what are you doing here?" She sounded flushed and embarrassed.

We couldn't stand the heat.

"I'm sorry, Declan. I can't do this," Maddox rambled to me as he took off sprinting further up the trail.

"Maddox, Wait," Our Luna cried, but Maddox was bitter and disheartened. He felt like the Moon Goddess took pleasure in tormenting our souls.

We must have been running for a long time, since my wolf was growing less agitated. He had shut me out for over half an hour after I tried talking to him about returning to the others.

Maddox slowed when he realized where we were.

"Fuck," he chimed.

"Yes, fuck is right. We are on the castle grounds," I responded. We must have run past the border. "Why did you come here, Maddox? Are you trying to get us killed?"

"Pipe down. I may be a 25-year-old virgin, but I'm not suicidal." He seemed annoyed. "OK, let's go back." Maddox's ears perked. "Shit, someone's coming."

"Quick. Let's hide," I suggested.

"Hide where?"

"I don't know, around the back or something."

"Look at me, Declan. I'm a big wolf. It's not like I can put on a hat and go invisible like good old Joe," Maddox snarled. And I made it clear never to let him watch 'YOU' again.

With Maddox being troublesome to hide, I turned back to my human form.

In my naked glory, I stuck to the surface of the castle wall and tiptoed around the back. The guards were now stationed at the front, so I decided I was going to have to hide behind some rose bushes until the coast was clear, but my eyes docked on a lake a few feet away. It was the glossiest water I'd ever seen. The lake of gold sparkled so beautifully in the surrounding darkness, then a tiny figure caught my eye. It seemed a young girl was hunching down, filling a bucket with the golden water. Her moon-shadow black hair was just as pretty and curly as the Luna's. I couldn't help it but to draw closer to her. She stood up and sat down the bucket at her feet. With her hands clutching her hips, she sighed, still not knowing I was coming up behind her.

Something peculiar was going on, I could feel it. Like a moth to a flame, I was being pulled to her. Maddox had his mouth opened, he was in awe. I had never known him to be this quiet before. My bare feet began treading on sodden earth as I got nearer to the girl standing by the mysterious golden lake.

My eyes were charmed by her sculpted figure, which was twine-thin. Her waistline was tapered and she had a burnished honey-brown complexion.

I held my breath, stopping in my tracks when I saw her bent to pick up the bucket. Then in a blink of an eye, she turned around in a windy swoop. Her scent sailed slowly towards my nose and chocolate and strawberries bombarded my senses.

"MATE," Maddox resounded in my head, thrashing on my brain walls trying to break free and claim her, but I couldn't speak for this young lady looked exactly like Hazel, only she seemed thinner and very sickly.

Her crescent-shaped eyebrows inclined slightly as she watched me gawking at her. She yelped in a panic. Her languid eyelashes of velvet-black blinked once slowly as if to invite me over. She dropped the bucket, spilling its contents.

She hurried closer to me, and I almost melted when she grabbed my wrist. The sparks were undeniable. "You mustn't be here. Please go!" She urged, her eyes petrified.

I craved to nuzzle her with my nose, I just couldn't believe that I had found my mate. It was love at first sight for me.

"Are you slow?" She barked. "Please, you must leave — if he finds you here he'll —" she dwindled off.

"Harper, where are you?" A cold, shilling voice echoed from afar.

Her torso shuddered with fear, and I was so oblivious by the fact I'd found my mate, I didn't notice the bruises on her neck and hands. Maddox growled at the thought of someone hurting her.

"Who did this to you?" I touched the bluish mark on her jaw.

"Declan," she said my name, and my knees almost gave way. "We don't have time for this," she gripped my face and my wolf purred at her touch.

"Harper. Answer me you worthless girl," the voice raved.

I folded my fists wanting to run around the bend and clunk this asshole. But Harper squeezed my wrists. "You can't take on Magnus alone. Get my sister and her mate. Only they can defeat him."

"Why don't you just come with me?"

"I wish I could, but I can't." She showed me the purple, glowing shackles on her ankles. "If I venture too far from the castle, I will explode."

"Harper. Where are you, you little bitch."

"Declan. He's coming, please go." She shoved me, but I just couldn't move and even if I could, Maddox would never let me.

"I am not leaving you. I will kill him," I explained. But Harper pleaded with me to leave. When she realized I wouldn't budge, her eyes lit up like an Eclipse. She nudged her head and my body went sailing into the air over the field I travelled to get here. I landed in the concealment of the woods. My eyes were blurred from the drop, but my werewolf hearing still could make out her voice in the distance.

She squealed in pain. "Magnus, you're hurting me." The man must have snatched her painfully by the arms.

"You used your powers. I can sense it," he grumbled. "I predict you'll be too weak to fuck now," he cackled. I tried to get up, but my body still felt too weak. "Oh well. I guess you'll have to watch me fuck the kitchen wench again."

My ears detected the sound of their feet dragging toward the castle as he pulled her inside.

I lay in the dirt until I could feel my limbs again.

"Let's go get our Alpha and Luna," Maddox barked. "I am not going to rest until I free my mate." I agreed.

The transformation into my wolf was painful. Harper threw me quite hard. My mate is the twin sister of Luna Hazel, so it shouldn't surprise me that she had talents of her own.

My mind was spiralling with thoughts of killing Magnus when Maddox interrupted me.

"We have a mate," he exclaimed. "The most beautiful mate of them all."

"Yes we do." I jogged off.

"She knew your name." Maddox added. "How did she know your name?"

"I'm not certain, but something tells me Lucinda must have told her about me some how. That woman really seems to know it all."

"Maybe that's what she wanted to tell you when you ran off like a man-child. We could have been preparing to save Harper right now," Maddox huffed.

I didn't feel like arguing with Maddox. "The important thing is that we found her, and she's alive."

"You are right, Declan. I'm sorry."

"Me, too, buddy," I finished as I picked up speed.

I guess the Moon Goddess loves me after all.