Rogue

14:

It was a silent trip back down the mountain. Most of my silence was due to the pain I was in. Queen Lilith was at my side, helping me walk. Her silence was most likely due to shock.

Alpha Simon had told her to return to the pack with me and stay by my side. She had argued viciously, but he had stayed firm. He didn't even tell us why she had to come, just said that it was our Goddess' way. And then he placed Alpha Theodore as temporary gatekeeper until her return. She wasnt very happy about that either.

But she followed her orders anyway--I guess Alpha Simon was ths top Alpha here; I really needed to ask Blake about the Fathers' Eldest--and now here we were trekking down the mountainside.

"So, what happened in there?" Queen Lilith asked me when we were about halway down.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

She gestured towards me. "I've never seen anyone come out weakened and in pain before. The blessing is just some formal bullshit; you kneel and they put their hands on your forehead and mumble some shit."

"Well, they did that..." After I almost died.

"Yeah, so what happened before or after that?"

I shook my head. "I don't really remember. It's like there's a gap in my memory. Alpha Simon put my hands in this gold stuff, and then I was waking up in a lot of pain."

Queen Lilith gave me a wide-eyed, incredulous look, her lips twitching as if she were trying to stop herself from smiling. "He really did?"

"Yeah, said something about it being the right thing."

"Robin, you have just been given an amazing gift." She gushed. "That was the Tears of the Goddess. It's been there since before Simon was born. And thats a looooooong time."

My eyes widened. "Wh-what does it do?"

She shrugged. "That depends on you. When I dipped my hands I didn't know until I changed into my wolf form. Let me tell you, there is nothing freakier than seeing your own teeth and nails coated in a silver."

"Wait--you did it too?"

"As did those idiots up there." She grinned and shook me a little. "You're one of us now, kid."

I couldn't breathe. It was like my throat constricted and my lungs stopped working. I couldn't get any air. Stopping, I put my hands on my chest as I tried to gasp for air. There was a loud ringing sound in my ears, muffling Queen Lilith's words. She was holding my shoulders and yelling something at me, but I couldn't hear her or let alone respond.

Then pain blossomed in my cheek as my head snapped to the side, and everything suddenly came rushing back in sharp clarity. I took a deep breath, and then another. Queen Lilith put her hand on my cheek, her cold fingers soothing my burning skin.

"Sorry." She did look apologetic. "I had to do something. You were having a panic attack."

"Thank you."

She smiled and grabbed my arm to wrap around her shoulder so we could continue. We were almost there. If I looked hard enough through the trees I could see a couple of houses in the near distance.

"I see why Simon wanted me to come with." She said after a moment. "You have a lot on your plate, and probably more coming soon if Simon put your hand in the Tears of the Goddess. I'm here to take a little off your shoulders."

I sighed. "There's a war brewing. Only issue is, I don't know who our enemies are and I don't know if we're the good guys. I was just forced into being the leader in all this."