Wolf Omega: The Lykanos Chronicles 2

Chapter Twenty-Three

It was a cool autumn evening when I stepped down from Duccio's carriage onto the golden leaves covering the forest road. The sun had set an hour earlier, and the last light from the west had just left the trees in darkness.

They had planned the moment for months to coincide with the night of the Sanguine Moon. In that time, Sempronio had taken me as his pupil, spending his days to provide the start of an education that no woman of that age would ever have sat for.

He started by teaching me the fundamentals of reading, seizing upon our lycan gift for telepathy to speed me through the lessons, so I was already writing full articles. I didn't understand the scope of the curriculum he intended for me, but learning to read changed so much about my ability to think, that I now trusted him implicitly.

Sempronio explained in considerable detail what meaning the Sanguine Moon had for lycan and regular humans alike. It was the first full moon after the September harvest—when animals, naturally wary of the night, emerged to feast on the harvest left behind by the sleeping farmers. It thus became the last ideal opportunity for men to hunt the game successfully before the months of winter arrived. Its namesake regarded how much blood they spilled that night.

For lycan, the night was holy, as were all nights of the full moon, when the Goddess would appear to bathe the world in the full strength of Her light. The full moon for the wolf was a glory like no other, for, in that form, our night vision exploded, and the moon's light appeared almost hypnotic.

"You may return to the castle," Duccio told his driver after the man closed the carriage door behind us.

When the vehicle was out of sight, Duccio took my arm and guided me into the thick of the forest. The trees towered over our heads, offering us only a peek of the first stars to break through the darkening sky. We walked for twenty minutes through the brush until we came to a clearing where I saw the enormous full moon just breaking over the treetops in the distance.

Upon an outcrop at the center of the clearing stood Sempronio and the others. All of them, save Dionisio, had come this evening to witness the ritual and welcome me to the pack.

Pompeia had dressed me herself that evening, wrapping me in a simple garment of nothing more than white wool cloth that she called a toga. She gave me slippers for my feet, but nothing else. She didn't dress my hair, letting it flow wildly at my shoulders.

Now in the clearing, Pompeia was the first to step forward to remove the garment for me. I understood what the ritual would entail, that I would stand naked before Sempronio as he delivered the blessing of the Goddess. Still, I couldn't help stiffen at the exposure when Pompeia pulled the last of the material from my body. As if sensing my struggle, she kissed me sweetly on the cheek to reassure me.

I walked forward up the tiny hill past the others who stood at either side to form a path to their father. When I finally stood before him, I looked up into his eyes and found only his pride staring back at me.

"Dea caeli exponam alio petere filia tua," he began with a thundering voice for all to hear, turning to face the moon rising above the treetops in the east.

He spoke Latin, the words of his youth, and of his people. The magic language poured from him like a song. I did not yet know the words, but I saw their meaning from his mind. It was a prayer to the Goddess, filled with adoration and love, pleading for her to look down upon his child, who stood prepared to receive Her blessing. Sempronio swore that I would surrender my life to Her will; that I would become a vessel of Her immortal strength; that I would fly through time to deliver her justice upon the wicked.

When he finished his prayer, Sempronio turned back to face me. He stepped forward to show me the love in his eyes and gently kissed my forehead. When he was ready, he stepped back to give the Goddess one final glance, then turned his gaze around upon me.

The wave of energy struck me so hard that I fell to the ground with a strangled scream.

When Sempronio had warned me of the pain to come tonight, which would herald my wolf, I only nodded in acknowledgment. I was certain he'd let nothing happen to me that I wasn't prepared to face. I felt now that I was woefully mistaken.

Invisible knives sliced through every part of my body as if they would rip apart my limbs with deep slashes. I screamed out for Sempronio to stop, begging him to release me from the terrible power of his mind. But I quickly realized that the scream existed only in my mind. I had no control over my muscles. I couldn't have breathed to scream. It was a consuming paralysis of pain, the agony incomprehensible, leaving me too weak even to writhe on the soil.

"Arise," Sempronio called.

I heard his command over a storm of pulsating sound that meant to deafen me.

Please, I begged him silently to stop, losing the ability to think about anything else.

My plea seemed to incense him, for a more substantial wave poured out to consume even my sight, leaving me in utter darkness. Alone, I knew only agony, unable to see or breathe or scream. Even the storm grew to such a roar that I lost the constitution to process its sound.

"Come forth," Sempronio commanded. "Stand now before me,"

At last, I felt something beyond the pain; another presence behind me, standing in the shadows. It growled and snarled at Sempronio, growing furious with him.

"Come forth!" my master shouted at the top of his lungs.

In a moment of swift violence, the shadow leaped over my body to stand between Sempronio and me. It shielded me from his power, stopping the pain at once to allow my vision of the world to return with stark clarity. With my new eyes, I stared down at him and roared in anger. I wanted to destroy him—to rip his head from his body.

Then I looked up to see the moon, blinding in its ethereal light. I had seen nothing so magnificent in all my life. The anger in my heart subsided as I beheld the Goddess and felt Her power fill my soul.

I released a howl filled with love and adoration for Her beauty. It rose across the forest for all the world to hear.