Chapter 59 - The Alpha’s Goddess

~GUNNER’S P.O.V~

We finally got a plan together; one I think will be effective. It took us almost 6 hours after Ashley arrived to form an efficient plan that was foolproof. I hate how long it’s taken to go rescue her, it has been a long 7 hours total, but if Jakus is as powerful as Lovett and Ashley have made him sound, a well-thought-out plan was needed. No irrational decisions can be made when it comes to the safety of my Luna.

For the last 30 minutes, Timber has been more uneasy than normal. I wonder if she is okay. I can’t bear the thought of something happening to her on account of my not being able to protect her the way I vowed.

Ashley filled me in on her sister's twisted ways. She told me about the previous moon goddess and how Azalea betrayed her, which ultimately led to her capture and soon after her departure from this world.

Lovett has tried to keep her distance, which I thank the goddess for. She did mention that her father's palace is in an alternate universe. He has his own plane from this dimension. She also informed us that time works differently there than here. It kills my soul that Callie may not know we are coming. She probably lost hope. And to top it off, I have no way of contacting her. It’s like our link is blocked. Even Timber cannot reach Emery, Callie’s wolf, something that has put us both on edge.

“Hey Gunner, I was wondering if, by chance, I could come on this mission? Maybe Alpha James will watch the pack. If I cannot go, then I understand, I do. But I feel this need to be there. I wasn’t there earlier, and I feel like if I were, then maybe just maybe the outcome would have been different. Probably not, but maybe I wouldn’t feel so guilty if I wasn't there to do anything in my power to protect Callie.” Laken said as he entered the room. We don’t use formalities when we are alone, and right now we are all spread out to gather essential items.

“I think that’s a good idea, my dad is great, but he is getting older. Same for your father, but I know I can’t convince him to stay back. Callie was like his daughter. I’ll speak to him, go get ready. We leave in 15 minutes, no later. Will you also ask your mate if she would be willing to come?”

A smile spread across his face. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for Skila to come too. I’ve watched her train, the royals ensured she was strong and had skills. They made sure she was safe when they weren’t around to protect her. She may have some strategies that a normal pack member wouldn’t have.

“Of course, Alpha, she would be honored. I will still ask her for you, but I already know the answer.” He says while beaming, walking away from the office.

I grab the map and put it in my bag along with other various items we may need. If he's anything like they are saying, he will have traps upon traps before we even make it to the border. Let’s hope not, but I won’t put it past him.

I looked at the clock again, 5 more minutes to go. I chucked the bag over my shoulder before heading off to find my father.

Of course, he wasn’t far. “Hey, Dad, can I ask a favor?” I asked as I entered the room he was in.

“Let me guess, you’d like me to sit this one out?” He says with a frown.

He blames himself for Callie slipping through his fingers and I hate to make him feel like it’s a punishment, because it’s not. I just think Laken would be better. We have amazing team skills. That’ll do that for you when you use each other during training. You’re trained to have each other’s backs.

“Dad, it’s not a punishment, there was nothing you could do.”

“It’s twice now, twice I’ve watched her disappear, this time she slipped right out of my hands. I just don’t understand how.”

“It’s not your fault, his spell wasn’t meant for anyone else to tag along and it also wasn’t meant for you to pull her away. You can’t blame yourself, Dad.” He nodded, knowing I was right.

“However, I have a major request. Could you please stay back and run the pack? They still need someone in my absence. Laken can take your place; we’ve trained for this.” I reassured him.

My father simply nodded. He knew inside that asking him to stay behind wasn’t about him failing, it was simply the fact that someone had to stay behind to watch the pack. Laken is my beta and has trained rigorously alongside me for years. We know each other's next moves like the backs of our hands, we know how to be a team and lead a team together. My father and I may only butt heads with orders. He is also an Alpha by blood, it’s in an Alpha's nature to be the dominant one, a leader. As much as I know, my father tries to refrain from overstepping boundaries. He’d have the urge to try and be the leader and this isn’t something we need during this mission. This mission is too important to fuck up, the power struggle would only confuse our warriors. There is one leader and one leader alone on this mission, me.

Now that that conversation is taken care of, I can get to the group, it’s about time to head out. Once I make it to the meeting point, we wait a few more minutes in case any stragglers happen to come in late.

Everyone is already breaking up into groups without having to be told. That tells me I chose the right people to come with me on this mission, ones that follow the discussed plan without having to be told.

“Looks like everyone is here and ready. Trying to remember your choices today will determine life and death decisions, as is any mission you will ever go on. With that being said, be alert, and be ready for any kind of attack or trap at any point. Always and I mean always have 1 man with you at all times. If something happens to your partner, inform someone immediately, and help will come to your aid immediately. Do not go off on your thinking you can handle it. We’ve never been up against a man like Jakus. Please stick as close to the plan as possible. I understand shit happens, but the plan is the best option for everyone to make it out alive. Does everyone understand?”

I saw some heads nod while others spoke 'yes' out loud.

“Alright, everyone holds hands, and hold on tight, this is different from before. We aren’t just jumping to another state, we are jumping into another dimension, this is tricky and harder to do.” Ashley says, informing everyone of what they must do.

Once again, all around the room, heads bobbed up and down in understanding. Ashley then turned to me.

“I think we are ready, Alpha Gunner.”

“Okay, let’s go get my mate,” I said as everyone took a hand.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

~LEONIDAS’S P.O.V~

This last week has been blissful. I got to spend every waking moment with my soul mate. She hasn’t allowed even so much as a touch. I want to feel her in my arms. But I respect her wishes. I understand she had a mate before me, and he has yet to know that I exist. If I were in her shoes, I would be hesitant as well, so I understand. I sleep on the couch that is in the room she was provided. We can’t exactly get another bed in her room, that would raise red flags.

Right now, I’m sitting on the ground looking over the top of my book admiring her beauty. I watch as her eyes glide across the pages she reads from the book she has in her hands. Her eyes sometimes glaze over. I recognized that as her speaking to Emery, her wolf. I remember Emery. Railynn had just gotten her, and she was so excited to show me. I knew that day that Railynn was more special than anyone realized and that’s where I made my first mistake of many. I told my dad about how special she was, not realizing that Railynn was the very person he had waited for over a century to have for himself. I didn’t know that she was a goddess, of course, but I knew she was more special than anyone else I knew. I should’ve known something was up when my father was interested and asking questions. However, I was young and naive. I thought he cared.

“What are you looking at?” Rai says, taking me out of my thoughts.

“You. I was watching you read.”

“Weirdo.” She says as she throws a pillow at me, making me laugh.

“What, you’re beautiful. I’ll never stop admiring your beauty.”

Her face goes crimson at the compliment. I can tell that my mere presence affects her. There have been a few times I was so close to her while reading books that her breath could be felt on my skin. If I knew she wasn’t struggling with the situation, I would have kissed her. I would have pulled her body plush against my own and worshiped her body like the goddess she is. But I can’t, not yet at least. Gunner has to accept the fact I exist. I deserve my soul mate just as much as he deserves his mate. Plus, I’m not going anywhere, so he is going to have to accept me one way or another.

Railynn is incredibly smart. She studies history, she loves the history of super-naturals. She knows about the big wars, the losses, the wins. It makes sense why she loves history so much; she is the goddess. History is what she will one day write.

“Hey, I have a sort of personal question.” She says, taking me out of my head.

“Okay.”

“Please don’t be upset about it because it is a hard subject.” I nodded my head for her to continue. “Did you have a soul mate before me?”

I sit and think about it for a minute, contemplating if I want to tell her.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s just I had a first mate before Gunner and Gunner also had a first mate before me and I was just wondering if you had one before as well.”

“I had a fling when I was 15 before I was put in my coma. We didn’t have sex, I would just drink from her, and she’d suck my dic- well, you get the picture. I don’t need to go into details. But no soul mate. It’s always been you.”

I almost went too much into detail. That was dumb on my end. She didn’t need to know I allowed another woman’s lips around my cock when I knew she was out there somewhere. But it slipped, not that she is a virgin, she lost hers to her mate. I hadn’t had the chance to lose mine. I’m not ashamed by any means, I probably wouldn’t have been a saint if I hadn’t been put in that coma. I honestly just didn’t have the opportunity to have sex. The lady that got me off by sucking my cock, we didn't take it further than oral pleasures. I also never actually had the urge to fuck until being in the same room as Railynn again. Now her pheromones drive me mad, and her smell is phenomenal. I still feel really bad about drinking from her without full permission. There are no words I can say that’ll take my guilt away. She swears it’s fine but that’s something personal, me just doing it was out of line.

“It’s okay, you kind of saw some not-so-innocent memories when you brought back all of my memories to me,” Railynn said after a short amount of silence.

“I can’t wait to make you mine fully,” I said without filtering. Dammit Leo, don’t fucking scare her away before she even agrees to be your soul mate!

“Soon.”

Soon? Does she think a Gunner is just going to be okay with this? He is an Alpha Wolf. Aren’t they super territorial about what’s theirs? I know I am, I can’t stand watching the butlers check her out. I want to rip their throats out sometimes, but yet the idea of sharing her with Gunner doesn’t upset me. Is it because he had her first? Or was it because this is what was meant to be?

Her eyes scanned the pile of books again and she sighed.

“Hey, how about we go and train?”

We’ve been training in one of the bunker hideaway rooms. We have managed to find some really old spell books that taught us a lot. Magic can be so tricky, there is a fine line between good and bad. We have been riding that line lately.

“Yea, I’m tired of reading.” She says as she sits her book down.

We got up to head to the training room, aka a living room of some sort.

“So what do you want to practice today?” She asks nonchalantly.

“I was thinking we could practice some stuff from this book,” I said as I lifted the book I had found moments before.

“What is it?”

“It’s your power,” I said with a smile. We’ve been searching for a week now and the search has come to an end. We have finally found what Railynn needed. The moon goddess's power and known spells.

I can’t believe my father had this. I wonder if he read it all? I bet he did. He is obsessed with the idea of the goddess. But I wonder how much he remembers.

“No freaking way!” She yells as she jumps up and down like a child. “Gimme gimme gimme!” She says as she bounces trying to reach the book, I had suspended in the air just out of her reach.

“I require one thing for this,” I said, knowing it was taunting her. She stops jumping and crosses her arms over her chest, which only brings attention to her breast.

“Hey sir, eyes up here.”

“Fine...” I said dramatically, looking up into her eyes. “I require one thing. A kiss. I don’t want any peck. I want a kiss. And before you say no, hear me out. After tonight I’m not sure what will happen. I may die in battle against my father. Or Gunner may not allow us to be together. So please grant me this one request. Kiss me.”

“That’s not going to happen.” She says as she lays a hand on my arm for comfort.

I took the chance to pull her body against mine. My breath radiated from my mouth onto her neck, my lips hovering over where I had drunk from her a week prior, where that bite mark transformed her mark into something more. An accident, I wasn't thinking. I also had no idea that my drinking from her would mark her as mine until it happened. I could hear her heart rate speed up. I slid my arms from hers to her waist, pulling her in even more. She doesn’t say a word, allowing me to do so. I move my lips from her neck to her ear as I whisper, “Kiss me.”

Her chest is heaving up and down as she gently pulls back. I loosen my grip in case she doesn’t want to and say no. Before I had time to even think, she smashed her lips against mine. I feel sparks shooting down my body, sending my body into overdrive. The kiss was passionate and needy. My hands find her face as I deepen the kiss. I pull away, slightly peppering kisses along her neck until I touch her lips again. “Do it” she whispers. “Bite me”

I want to, so Goddess help me, I want to so badly. But it’s the heat of the moment, I don’t want to bite her again until I’m deep inside of her making her scream my name. And that is not going to happen, at least not right now.

I pulled away and kissed her forehead. Making her groan in frustration.

“Railynn, when I bite you the next time, it won’t be for hunger, it will be for pleasure and also when I make you mine officially. So no, I won’t bite you now, but I will. Just wait and see. We will be together, all of us.”

Her body returns to my chest as she molds her body into my own. I have loved this girl for as long as I can remember. I won’t tell her yet. It’s not the right time. She is and will always be my soul mate, the love of my life.

“Let’s open that book now!” She pulls away from the embrace too soon for my liking, but then again, I do hold the power, well, at least the book that contains the goddess's power.

We flip to the first page and its basic powers a normal witch can do, like speaking telepathically, transportation, and levitation.

We flipped through the pages reading and learning for a while before she was finally ready to try some out. Unfortunately, these are powers I do not have access to without severe punishment, but Railynn has no limits and no personal punishment for using magic. That’s something we also learned in the book.

“What time are you supposed to be going to dinner again?”

“7 pm.”

“Fuck.” I said, looking at the clock.

“What?”

“It’s 7:10 now.”

“Oh god, he is going to know! I’m not being obedient and submissive.”

“You can try to lie? Say you fell asleep while reading in the study?”

“He’ll see right through me.”

“I’ll come, if he tries anything I’ll stop him.”

“We aren’t ready to go against him, we just found the book of the knowledge we need.”

“If push comes to shove, we will fight. I will protect you; do you understand?” She nods her head, but I see the fear in her eyes.

Maybe he won’t notice, and it’ll buy us time for the rescue team to make it. But if he suspects something and tries something, I won’t hesitate to protect what is mine. Something I should’ve done a long time ago, if only I’d known what I do now.

“Let’s go have dinner,” I said as we walked to the door to exit and face reality.

Here goes nothing.