Alpha Markus
Chapter 41

Celeste P.O.V.

The mists swirled around us. We were back at my parents’ Pack grounds. We were having a picnic by the banks of the river. I saw 6 year old me chasing a butterfly, my parents talking happily from blankets on the ground feeding each other food from a picnic basket. The scene was in fast forward but my heart was overflowing with love for them. Being able to remember them happily. I only have a couple of memories of them after so many years. So many lost memories.

Suddenly, I saw as 6 year old me got too close to the edge of the bank and started falling in, but then she didn’t. She floated upwards on the top of a small wind tornado. My father grabbed me from the top and carried me back to my mother who was running towards us with her hand upraised. I cried into his chest, scared.

“You have to be more careful,” Mom said tenderly before I saw my dad lift his head and sniff. They both turned to the other side of the river and I saw the back of a man running into the woods with inhuman speed.

“Cory-“ Mom whispered and I could see worry in her face. My father shifted and ran after him.

Five minutes later, my father runs back. I see my mother sigh in relief until my father shifted.

“I couldn’t catch him. It had too big a head start.”

“Do you think it’s him?” My mother asked. Fear evident in her brown eyes.

“I don’t know. We have never seen his face. How could he replace us?”

“Do you think he saw?” She asked, referring to her wind tornado.

“I don’t think so, but we should be more careful. Little Celeste, we should not run by the end of the river,” he said. I giggled as he tickled me and then my eyes went white. When my eyes went back to their normal color, I was smiling.

“What did you see baby?” My mother asked.

“Mommy, I saw a boy! He had the prettiest grey eyes and he called me his little Tuli and then he made a kissy face.” 6 year old me made a face that made my parents laugh. “What does Tuli mean mommy?”

“I don’t know my love, but we’ll look it up when we get home OK?”

My eyes went wide at the exchange. I couldn’t remember any of this but I knew who I must have seen in my vision at 6 years old.

You saw your future with Markus many times when you were younger. You just don’t remember. You were destined to meet. Everything that happens, happens for a reason. It will be important for you to remember this.

Kara, why? Why are you showing me all of this? What does it mean?

Some things are destined to come to pass. You need to understand because you can’t blame yourself for anything that happens in the coming months or what you will learned happened in the past. It is not your fault, it is destined.

What’s going to happen?

I don’t have that knowledge. I only know what our mother tells me. -she said sadly

We walk out of the mists more frustrated than when this whole thing started. I was being shown so many things and I was to believe that it was for a purpose and would make sense, but without an explanation. I only hoped when we got to the top, it would all make sense.

We reached the last platform and I hesitated. This one was different. The mist was golden instead of orange and I could hear things happening inside already. I looked down at Kara and she also looked a bit worried as we stepped in.

We were instantly in the middle of a war unlike anything I had ever seen. We’re in a big ancient plaza. A strange pyramid in front of us and another one some way away. But these pyramids were not like the ones from Egypt you could see in movies. They looked older…more ancient and primal. The pyramids seemed to have several levels tapering up to a small platform. Big stairs going up the middle all the way to the top. The area was surrounded by similar-style platforms, as if they had begun building smaller pyramids but had stopped at the first level. The entire ground was littered with bodies, b***d and weapons. There are wolves fighting against humans everywhere. The growls, howls and screams were all around us. I put my hands to my ears, not wanting to hear so many agonizing sounds.

My heart was breaking as I took in the fighting, seeing how many souls were lost. The warriors’ skin was a deep copper. Muscles rippled through their bodies. Each was dressed for battle in leather and feathers. Their chests were bare and painted, their waists adorned with loins. Their heads were adorned with animal headdresses: eagles, jaguars, wolves. They looked like they belonged to an ancient period, their weapons made of wood and stone. They were as beautiful as the wolves they were fighting. I felt a pull and was transported to the top of one of the pyramids. I could see a woman on the ground, a dark beauty to her. Her face was ethereal, though at the moment she was smirking at the two people fighting each other. I gave me a shiver. Something seemed off about her. There seemed to be a dark shadow behind her.

I turned to look at the two people fighting. It was a man and a woman. They were both beautiful and there was a resemblance between them.

The woman had raven black hair flowing behind her down to her waist. Her flawless dark skin is adorned with paint in hues of blue and yellow. She was wearing a giant feathered headdress framing her head. She was wearing a matching chest covering made of cloth and gold beading, her loin cloth in the same style, the skirting dropping below her knees. She was holding a spear, a curved crystal knife held at her waist. Her movements were defensive. I could see no attempt to attack the man.

The man was beautiful. He looked like he had been kissed by the sun. His body was dark and full of muscle adorned with the same paint as the woman. He was wearing a smaller but more vicious looking headdress with blue feathers adorning the skull of an eagle. He had on a leather shoulder piece that looked similar to a cape and matching loin cloth. He was holding a big flat bat-looking weapon with sharp flat stones attached to either side of the wood. He was attacking the woman.

“Brother, I am not your enermy!” she cried as she deflected another attack.

“She’s lying! You saw her trying to kill me son!” the woman on the floor attacked. She smirked at the woman from behind her son’s back when the man charged. The weapon he was holding slashed her side. They continued fighting for what seemed like an eternity. I could see the sun and moon rise and set for what looked to be years. Suddenly, she was near the edge of the top. She looked down at the fighting, a sob catching in her throat as she saw the destruction. She turned to face the man, her eyes glowing white with tears flowing down her face. She threw her lance. The man tried to deflect, but it was not aimed at him. I see it fly past him and with a sickening thud, slam into the heart of the woman on the ground. The man turned and ran to her, roaring in anger. He held her in her arms and sobbed. He turned to look back at the woman, his eyes black as night. The woman sobbed and dropped to the ground.

“I’m sorry mother. I’m sorry brother. There was no other way.” She looked again at the fighting below. “They will not be lost. I will bring them together and one day, you will see the truth. Until then, I will protect my people and yours.” The man stood and began to charge, but she grabbed the crystal knife from her belt and plunged it into her heart. A blinding light burst forth from it and I had to shield my eyes from it.

The mists swirled and this time they disappeared. I was standing on the platform. Kara whined and pushed into my leg.

“What was that?”I asked her.

“That was my end and the beginning of the werewolf race,” I snapped my head towards the top of the path. The woman whose back to me was now looking down and I couldn’t help but gasp. Her clothing was different, her hair longer and she was no longer adorned in paint, but there was no mistaking it: this was the woman in the vision. I knew then that she was the moon goddess. “Come children. I won’t bite.” She said with a smile.

Kara left my side and bounded up towards her like a pup, jumping on her with her front paws to lick her face. The Moon goddess laughed and buried her face in Kara’s fur. I watched enthralled with her ethereal laughter as I walked towards her.

I arrived at the top to see Kara on her back twitching her leg as the moon goddess rubbed her belly while sitting on the ground, somehow looking graceful on the floor.

She got up at me smiling, “So you found me. I have been waiting for you for a very long time, Celeste,” she said as she pulled me into a hug.