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Chapter Thirty-Seven

Talia

T he warmth in my cheeks refuses to fade.

To be mated to all of my men officially makes me feel complete in a whole new sense.

Like every piece of me is finally settled and in place.

The men are setting up for the ritual that will help us unlock the magic of our people.

I helped where I could, but I also could see I was getting in the way a bit.

Instead of feeling like I’m in the way, I wander outside and give them space.

My bare feet move through the grass and dirt, the connection to the earth and nature seeping into me and making me feel calmer than I was in that room.

I need to connect more, with my magic and my shifter side.

I lay down in a small clearing, the sun dimmed through the canopy of leaves above me.

The feel of the grass around me fades as I close my eyes and will myself into the meadow.

The subdued sun transforms into the golden glow of the goddesses light and I squint at the change.

My peryton runs up to me, nuzzling into my side and coos with happiness.

“You feel it, too, right?” I ask, running my hand over her head.

“The settling of our soul?”

She coos in response, bumping my hand harder with her head.

We both sit in the warm, dry grass together, our breathing as in sync as our hearts.

We are two parts to a whole, neither one able to exist without the other.

While I’m in this meadow, we feel connected and separate.

I can see her, smell her, touch her, yet I can also sense her, understand her on an impossibly deep level.

She’s as much a part of me as the hair on my head.

My animal side.

My magic.

“Are you ready for the ceremony today?” I ask with a nervous shake in my voice.

“Because I’m feeling nervous about it. This is a big deal, awakening all the dormant magic of the shifters. What if bad ones like Marcus use it to hurt someone? What if we put more magic in the hands of someone evil?”

My peryton doesn’t answer, she just lays beside me, silently watching the sky.

I follow her gaze and let the worry flow through me like waves of water.

It's easier to worry here, in the meadow of the goddess. There's a serenity and peace flowing through the very air itself.

You can't find this kind of thing in the real world. At least not easily.

“Talia.”

The goddesses voice echoes over the meadow. My spine straightens under her attention as I wait for her to continue. Her voice moves through the air, through me, and I feel her in every part of my body.

"It's time. You must do what you were meant to do," The goddess says cryptically, not answering any of my fears.

"But what if--"

" No ," she says the word simply, but with command. " I hear your worries, my child, but that is not for you to know nor for you to decide. To decide who can awaken and who cannot, or to withhold the powers that be, is to play with the threads of fate itself. No immortal or mortal is allowed to tamper with fate. "

The weight of her words settle into me, soothing the worries in my soul. This is what free will is, the ability to choose what you do with what you have and are given. The goddess herself has to trust in her creations to choose what path they will walk.

" Go now, my champion. It's time. "

Nodding my head, I wait for her presence to vanish before I move to stand. My peryton yawns and lays her head down, letting me know that this next part is on me. She's at peace, having mated with all of our mates.

Now it's time to awaken the magic of the shifters.

Opening my eyes to the forest around me is like waking up from a light nap. I feel refreshed and ready to take on the ritual. My magic is excited for what's to come.

This is what it's meant to do, our purpose in this crazy world. Our part in preparing everyone from the war ahead.

"There you are." Penn's voice comes from behind me, his steps soft and quiet as they approach.

I sit up and turn in time to see him squat beside me, his beautiful tattooed arms at eye level for me.

My eyes follow them up until I reach his lopsided smile and sparkling blue eyes.

As beautiful as the first time I saw him in that prison cell.

That feels like a different life that happened forever ago.

It's important for me to remember what they did to me, though. What they did to my mate, and what they do to the shifters that came before and after us.

They need to be stopped.

"Hey, baby girl. I'm here to escort you to the others, if you're ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." I take his hand and let him pull me to my feet. Dusting the grass and dirt off of me, I take a deep breath and center myself.

"This is a big moment," Penn says as he tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. "You're going to do amazing."

A smile stretches across my face and I nod. "Did you see that in a vision?"

"No, actually. I just know you and what you're capable of." Penn winks then takes my hand to lead me towards a different part of the pack lands.

The guys wanted to use an old outpost building at the far end of the forest that used to be used for pack meetings before the new building was made. No one really goes there since it's out of the way, which gives us the privacy and space needed to perform the ceremony.

We walk in silence for a bit, my mind on a bit of an overload with what's coming. The goddess helped the fears I had, but there's still so much that goes into this and it's going to change things in a drastic way.

Penn saying he hasn't seen anything sticks in my head. He's seen most major parts of what has happened, so you would think he'd have been given a glimpse of what happens when dormant magic comes back to shifter kind.

"You really haven't seen anything?" I ask, the worry settling in my chest.

"Nope." Penn shakes his head. "I think the goddess is keeping it under wraps from us."

"But why?" I twirl my hair anxiously. "What's going to happen?"

Penn shrugs and doesn't look worried in the slightest. He’s my most go with the flow mate, I really shouldn't have expected any less.

"I don't think it matters much what happens, we still have to do it. This is our goddess given task," Penn explains in a gentle tone.

"That's pretty much what Adessa said to me back in the meadow," I admit. "That it's fate and to tamper with the threads of fate is not for mortal or immortal beings. Fate is beyond us."

"Exactly, so I would just let it go."

"Of course you would," I tease and bump him with my shoulder. "You let most things go."

"No point in sweating the small stuff," Penn states with a smirk. "Maybe the big stuff we can sweat a little bit, but who has the energy for that?"

A laugh sneaks out, the sound lightening the weight on my chest just a bit. The building comes into view, with Wes and Alaric talking to each other outside of it. Wes is pointing to a few things in the sky and Alaric is nodding in response. I catch the words stars and constellations and decide to leave them to that.

Penn nudges me towards the door before walking over to Wes and Alaric. I take the hint and head inside to find the most beautiful painting on the floor. It looks exactly like the drawing in the journal from the Hartfields.

Drayton approaches me slowly, giving me time to take in the room. Blue circles and runes cover the rustic wood floor. Each rune echoing a symbol from the picture, one that should match each of my wolves as well. In the center is a pair of wings, painted in the same teal colour as my hair, a rune representing me sitting in the middle.

It's me, at the center of it all. Surrounded by my mates.

"Beautiful," I whisper to Dray, my eyes drifting to him for a moment before being drawn back. "I can feel the magic already."

"I can, too. It feels like us, doesn't it?" Drayton pulls me into his arms from behind, resting his head on my shoulder. "This was made for us."

His words ring true right down to my very core. My very soul reaches out for the runes like a long lost lover. A gentle embrace not much different than the one Drayton is giving me right now, but on a spiritual level.

Everything has been leading up to this moment for us. Every touch, every caress, every moment of love and ecstasy. This ritual won't just awaken a dormant magic, it's going to bind our very souls to each other and be the magic.

I move out of Dray's arms and see all of my men now in the room with me. Forrester is to Dray's right, with Penn, Wes, and Alaric to the left, closer to the door. Looking into their eyes, one after another, I feel the hair on my arms stick up and my heart skip a beat.

"It's us," I finally say, tears welling in my eyes. "We're not just waking up dormant magic, we're becoming the conduit for it. The magic will live through us, connecting to each shifter and then connecting them back to us."

Wes looks at me in confusion and awe. "How do you know this? I thought it was just to wake up magic that was already in them."

"I can feel it," I explain, looking back at the circle. "It's talking to my soul."

"What's talking to your soul?" Alaric asks, his voice tight with concern.

Turning to my mates, I smile to reassure them but it just makes them all tense up more. All except for Penn, my nonchalant man.

"The magic in the runes." I gesture to the circle. "They're sentient. Each one of them is a part of you, much like your wolf is. If you stop and listen, I bet you'll hear it too."

A silence descends on all of us, our breathing and heartbeats the only sounds within the building. My magic dances along my skin the longer I listen, seeking to be connected to the runes in front of us. I tame it the best I can, and wait for my mates to come to the same understanding as me.

"Fuck," Forrester breaks the silence with a curse, his grey eyes finding mine in disbelief.

"What he said," Wes says, running a hand through his hair. He releases a deep breath and chuckles. "How did none of us notice this before you got here?"

I shrug, not sure of the answer to that question myself. Maybe I'm more in tune with it? Who knows.

"This is a bigger responsibility than I thought it was going to be," Drayton groans playfully. "Are we ready?"

After my mates all agree, I voice my own consent and nod enthusiastically, my body buzzing with the energy. It is a huge responsibility. The magic of our people, the same ones we are getting ready for war, is in our hands. Or more accurately, our souls. This is why we're the beginning, though.

We are the only ones who can give our people what they need to fight against the tyranny of the humans and their god.

With this ceremony, we will truly be the beginning of the end for the ones that dared to oppress us and forced us into hiding.

"It's time to begin."

We take our places, me at the centre and each of my mates on a rune. My mates shift into their wolf forms and take the rune that matches the one on their forehead.

The words that need to be spoken are in front of me, but I no longer need them. They’re imprinted on my mind as if they’ve been there the whole time. I listen to the magic and do what it says, stripping out of my clothes and laying on my rune. My mates shift back, and follow my lead without question.

Once we’re all naked, I recite the words of the ceremony and submit to the whims of the magic.

Aperio tibi per animam magicam

Ego sum vas tuum

Tuus sum aquaeductus

Per me excitabis

Una sumus unum

Simul resurgemus

In deae nomine factum est

The ritual takes three hours to complete. Our bodies, minds, and souls stripped bare to the magic that infused itself with our human and animal sides, binding our souls into an intricate weave that explodes from within us and wraps around every shifter around this world.

It drains us, taking and taking and taking until we're lying on the ground, drenched in sweat and magic. I glance at my mates from where I'm laying, the glow of the runes covers their skin as they shift in and out of wolf form. My peryton made her own appearance a few times, switching in for me when I felt I couldn't take it anymore.

This was by far the hardest thing I've ever done, but as the magic settles and my body reabsorbs it, I feel alive.

Soul bound and exhausted, we’ve done it. Through us the magic of our people lives on. As Adessa’s champion, I have fulfilled my task and become the conduit to her people.

Now it’s time to find the second champion and pass on the torch to her. I think I know exactly how we’re going to do that.

I sit up, my body stiff and sore, and take my time getting dressed. I walk over to Drayton, my other mates groaning and following my path. We sit on the ground, unable to stand up for long.

It feels like hours that we sit here, the exhaustion of the ritual mixed with the overwhelming aura of the new magical sense is disorienting. I can see all of them if I think about it. The glow and flicker of every shifter’s magic around me and around the world. It’s like a map in my head with glowing dots covering it.

It’ll make it easier to get everyone together, but that will also be a bit in the future. At least the next champion seems to be easy to pinpoint.

“Do you feel her?” I ask softly. “The second champion.”

My men are silent for a moment, then Alaric speaks up from my side. “I feel all of them. Every fucking shifter alive. But yes, I can feel her in particular.”

“She’s fucking bright, similar to you,” Forrester grumbles with a cough. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find her.”

Drayton sighs and pulls me onto his lap. “I need to call Bastien, the leader of the panther pack that couldn’t make it. She’s pretty much in their backyard.”

“How can you tell?” I ask, not able to differentiate the other shifters besides her.

“The gift I had before the ritual seems to be amplified and if I focus enough,” Drayton explains and rubs his forehead. “If I focus on one of the glowing people, I can pull out what drives them and it gives me an idea of who it is. Based on the area and what I know about Bastien, she’s near him.”

“Well, fuck,” Penn slaps his leg. “Now I wish my gift worked like that. That’s fucking cool.”

Forrester chuckles and punches him in the arm. “Ha! I can do it, too. Sucker,” he taunts Penn.

“Alright!” Drayton puts a hand up and growls. “I’m too fucking tired for this. Let’s go call Bastien and then get some sleep. We all need it. Hopefully by nightfall, we know where to find the next mythical shifter.”

And place one hell of a burden on her lap.

As the goddess Adessa decrees, we move on to the next step of this war.

The middle.