Book 1 of the Alpha Trilogy
Ariel Lowell had a normal life up until the day she found out her family's secret when she was 11. Now , that's all her life is. Secrets. But when she moves to the small town of Wise Creek, Oregon, everything changes.
N...
*Content Warning: Contains themes of violence and rape*
I sat at the kitchen counter, hands clean of the blood I had spilled once again. I felt sick. I felt weak. But most of all...
I felt scared.
Eric sat next to me, rubbing my back reassuringly. I'm sure he could feel how scared I was, too. We somehow have always been able to pick up on how the other was feeling. Now, I kind of understood why.
Someone set a steaming mug of what looked like tea in front of me. I looked up.
"You have some explaining to do." I told Dad as I took a sip from the mug. Chamomile with a dash of lemon and two squirts of honey, my favorite.
"I know, kiddo, I know." Dad rubbed his face with both his hands, elbows coming down on the counter. I looked out the window behind him. The sun had already set, the night leaving the giant cabin feeling a little colder. Had I been down there that long?
"Well you can start by answering this question." Jonah came up the stairs, having went back down there to check on the woman that I had almost killed.
Twice.
Dad set his elbows on the counter, looking up at Jonah. He sighed as he glance at me and Eric.
"I think I already know what you're going to ask. And that's a long story, so you might want to sit down."
Jonah sat next to me, taking my hand. I gave it a squeeze. I was happy to have something to ground me before Dad released what I felt like was about to be a giant bomb on us.
Alex came to sit on the remaining chair next to Jonah and Kaden leaned against the counter next to Eric. Now, Dad had a full audience. He sighed again, turning his back against us and leaning on the counter.
"It all started, with the Moon Goddess..."
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The Moon Goddess, Artemis, only ever fell in love with one man before swearing them off forever.
His name was Lycone.
He was a gentle man, a great hunter in his own right. He had three sons, each a year apart, whom he loved dearly. Alec, the eldest, Orrin, the kindest, and Josias, the mightiest. Their mother, the most beautiful woman in the village, fell ill to the fever that once swept through the land, leaving her sons to be brought up under their father.
He taught them to hunt, to speak, to write, even to read. He fostered them into great men, soon sending them out into the world to find the greatness he saw in each of them. Only Orrin stayed behind, not wanting his father to become lonely.
It was he who found the goddess, mistaking here for a lovely faun during his hunt. As Orrin went to fetch the deer which he shot down, he found not an animal, but a woman, arrow shot through her leg.
Orrin immediately took the woman to his father, who nursed her back to health. During the months of her recovery, Lycone and Artemis grew close, soon finding love within one another.
It was then, when she knew his love to be true, she revealed herself as the Moon Goddess. He was frightened at first, scared of her immense power over the Earth, but soon forgot his fear and reignited his love for her.
For 20 years they loved each other, which is no time for a goddess, but is for a human. In this time, Orrin saw his father to not be alone, and went out into the world on his own, on a quest to find his brothers and tell them of his father's new beloved.
Orrin found Alec and Josias, brought them and their wives home to bask in the glory and beauty that was Artemis. Orrin and Josias were happy for their father, happy that he finally found love again. Only, Alec grew angry and hateful.
Alec could not believe his father had forgotten their mother so easily. Therefore, he hatched a plan. His father had shared everything, his wealth, fortune, and home, with his sons when they came back. Alec believed his father could share even more.
On the night of a full moon, Alec convince Orrin and Josias to take their father on a hunt. While gone, he snuck into his father's bedroom chambers where Artemis lay happily asleep. He bound her hands, tied her to the bed, and covered her mouth so no one would hear her screams while Alec took what his father wouldn't share.
He took the Moon Goddess' virginity. Forcefully. Wrongfully.
Artemis cried and screamed for Lycone to help her, for any of the Gods to help her, but no one came. Alec took what he wanted.
After he had his fun, and her golden blood was all over her once porcelain sheets, Alec lied to Artemis, telling her his father told him he could do this as a welcoming present.
The goddess cried so much for her now broken love, that her silver tears melted through the ropes that bound her. Once released, she waited for the men to return from their hunt.
Orrin, Josias, and Lycone arrived back at the home at dawn. Unaware of what had transpired that night, Lycone came to his beloved gleefully with 2 deer, 10 sparrow, and 16 fish. That night, they would eat like kings.
Only, they never got to that part of the story.
Artemis, tears in her eyes and full of rage, killed Alec right in front of his father, proclaiming and shouting her story of the night before.
Full of fear, Lycone began to weep and tell her that it was all a lie, that he had never told Alec to do such a thing.
Artemis, scorned and distrustful, did not believe him, and put a curse on him, Orrin, and Josias to turn into the very thing she hunted on a full moon.
She turned them into monster ours wolves, forever to live a cursed life under the moon's control, and to only be able to be killed by silver, just like the tears she wept as her most precious gift was stolen from her.
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Everyone in the room was silent as Dad finished his story. Kaden was the first to speak up.
"Okay, yeah, every wolf knows that story. My mom used to tell me it at night, saying that the evil Lycone would come steal me in my sleep if I didn't eat all my vegetables." Kaden shrugged and Dad turned to him.
"What if I told you it was true?That Artemis exists, that Lycone was once her lover, and Orrin and Josias are still alive to this day." I looked Dad in the eyes. I could always tell when he or Eric was lying, and this wasn't one of those times.
"It's true, isn't it?" I asked. All heads turned to me. "You're one of the sons of Lycone."
