Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
I’d come to accept the will of the Moon Goddess, even if it meant I only had a short time left here in Constantine, and in this world as a whole. I’d pushed aside my sadness, not so much at the thought of leaving my family, since I knew that wherever the Goddess took me would be the place I was meant to be. My sorrow was focused more on the knowledge that my loved ones would grieve for me, and there wasn’t anything I could do to ease that pain.
But now…now, my Abba was grinning at me with a wild light in his eyes. He squeezed my hand, a little too hard. It didn’t hurt, but it surprised me enough to tug it out of his.
“You deserve a life, Stella. A real, true life. Celestial or not…in fact, maybe even more so because of that,” he said. “If the Moon Goddess expects you to be her servant, surely she also has to give you some kind of rewards.”
I thought about this. It wasn’t like me and the Moon Goddess had heart to heart chats or anything like that. She gave me visions of what must happen, or what was to come. She guided me.
“I think she might intend my reward simply to be…here,” I said after a second.
My father frowned. “See? This is why I’m not religious.”
I laughed. “Oh, Abba.”
“Look. I know you didn’t become a Celestial because of anything that came through me. But you are my daughter as much as if I’d sired you.” Abba looked grim. “I’ve seen you do wonderful and terrible things. I know what you are, but more importantly, Stella, I know who you are. And I refuse to believe that your destiny in life includes being lonely.”In Brightsky, I’d been friendly with the other children in the school, but none of them had truly been my friends. My closest companions had been my sister Alaina and brother Isaac, but even though they’d grown up faster than most other wolf pups because they were hybrids, they were still much younger than me, both in physical and mental form. I loved them dearly, but we weren’t in the same place. Besides, they had each other.
I’d always been set off. Different. Alone.
My chin lifted, and I tried hard to keep the wobble out of my voice. My father could hear it, though. I hated that this was causing him pain, even though at the same time, I was kind of desperate to hear what he had to say.
“Sweetheart, I don’t say this to embarrass or shame you, but you’ve never really been like anyone else,” he began, then stopped.
I laughed, shaking my head. “We’ve already established that I’m weird, Abba. I’m not ashamed of it.
I am who I am. What I am.”
“You’ve also never really been able to just…be,” he said.
I pondered this. “When I was a baby—”
“Even when you were a baby,” he said.
We sat in silence for a few minutes. A soft breeze caressed my face, bringing with it the scent of the blooming roses and other flowers in the garden. I closed my eyes and let the sunlight make patterns behind the lids. I reached out to the Moon Goddess and felt her presence, but she was quiet.
Listening? Waiting for me to make a choice?
How could I know which was the right one?“I do want friends, Abba,” I said finally and opened my eyes. “For however long I have in this world, I don’t want to be alone.”
I wanted to laugh with girlfriends over silly outfits. I wanted to be asked out for coffee, to join a book club, to do one of those paint and sip wine things I’d overheard my grandma talking about once on the phone.
I wanted a boyfriend.
A mate, children…I shook my head, not wanting to get too far ahead of myself. I told myself the Goddess would provide what I was meant to have.
But oh…how I yearned to have a life.
When I focused on my father, he was staring at me intently. I loved all four of my parents, of course, but Abba was the one I sometimes felt most alike. My Papa Zane and Dad Xander had each other.
My mom had all of her mates, plus her pups. But Abba and I always seemed to stand a little outside of everyone else.
“You’ve always been special, Stella. Even before we discovered you’re a Celestial. The pack here in Constantine isn’t really going to have the chance to think of you as anything other than that.
Something to be marveled at, be curious about…”
“Maybe even a little afraid of,” I added, and Abba nodded.
“That too. But there is a way for people to learn about who Stella the person is. Not Stella the Celestial.”
I frowned, feeling disheartened. “But how?”
Abba grinned. “I’ve just thought of the way.”
Mason–
When Lanie needed to sneak into the hybrid facility to rescue the twins, she’d used a potion from the witch Rhiannon to change her appearance.
When I described that quickly to Stella, she tipped her head back in laughter that rang throughout the walled garden. When she looked back at me, her eyes twinkled. She patted my hand.
“I don’t need a potion, Abba! I can access the powers of a shapeshifter, remember?”
I shook my head with a chuckle. “Sweetheart, there’s so much you can do that I can’t even begin to comprehend.”
As I watched, Stella’s features rippled. Her eyes turned a dark amber, while her hair faded into pale gold. Faint freckles scattered suddenly across her nose and cheeks, which were pudgier than they’d been a moment ago. Her smiling mouth changed, too. The effect lasted only a few seconds before she returned to her familiar face.
“That’s beyond amazing,” I told her, the hairs rising on the back of my neck. “It’s incredible.”
“It’s weird,” she said matter-of-factly.
I laughed again. “It’s not something I think you’d want to trot out in front of people who don’t know you, that’s for sure. But it’s still an amazing gift.”
“How’s it going to help me, though?” She bit her lower lip with straight, white teeth, then let her head hang so her hair covered her face for a moment. Her fingers knotted in her lap as she shook her head. “Looking like a different person isn’t going to make me into a different person.”I thought of Lanie when she’d been Katie. She had looked the same as she did now, but she had been different. And why? Because those of us in Stillwood hadn’t known her already. We hadn’t had any preconceived notions of how she ought to behave, or anything about her personality at all.
“Looking like a different person is going to give you the chance to figure out who you want to be. Not who the Goddess expects you to be,” I cautioned her. “You’re still discovering yourself, little star.
You might have every gift a supernatural can have, and you might have all the weight of the universe on your shoulders, but so far in your life, have you ever had the chance to truly understand yourself?”
I could tell she had not. Her eyes welled with tears she dashed away with quick swipes of her fingertips. She gave me a watery, brave, and genuine smile.
“I think I’m starting to. I definitely want to,” she added quickly.
“If you look like someone else for a while, you might be able to put down some of your burden. Just for a short time, here and there,” I said hastily when it looked like she meant to protest. “But you are not only a Celestial, Stella. You’re more than that.”
“I don’t know if it’s possible to be more than a Celestial, Abba.” She shook her head. “I’m not trying to brag, but Celestials are a pretty big deal.”
I laughed and leaned forward to hug her with one arm. She leaned against me. “So let yourself be ordinary sometimes.”
She was quiet for a moment or so before she pulled away with a nod. “I think I understand what you’re getting at.”
Excitement edged her voice, and the gleam of tears became a shine of interest.“As long as everyone here recognizes me, I won’t be able to do much. I won’t be able to hang out with anyone other than people who already know me…which is a very small group,” she said.
I nodded, letting her put the pieces together, as I knew she’d be able to. “Yep.”
“But if I change my appearance, I could go out. In public. Anywhere I wanted to go!” She sounded even more excited and even clapped her hands together a couple of times. “People I meet won’t be stuck on the fact that I’m a Celestial. Heck, they won’t even know!”
“That’s exactly right. It will give you some freedom. You’ll be able to have some privacy, too,” I told her.
Stella’s excitement faded. She frowned. “But…Abba, won’t people be upset with me once they find out? It will feel like I’ve tricked them.”
“That’s possible. But if you make the right sorts of friends, they’ll care more about what’s inside of you, the real you, than how you look.”
“But when they find out I’m Stella the Celestial, they’ll be upset I didn’t tell them already.”
“Why would they?” I point out. “Unless you straight up lie and say ‘Hi there, I’m absolutely not a Celestial, happy to meet you,’ what could they really say?’”
“Abba,” Stella said with a frown.
I grinned. “I know it’s splitting hairs. A technicality. As your father, I certainly wouldn’t suggest you practice dishonesty as a general rule. But…”
“But,” Stella agreed after a second’s hesitation. Her grin returned. “Maybe it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission?”I held up my hand so she could fist bump it. “Let’s start with that.”
Stella–
“What are you two up to?”
I turned toward my mom’s voice as she approached us with a smile. She looked so much more relaxed here in Constantine than she did when we were living in Brightsky. My Abba and I shared a quick look of mutual understanding before he got up off the bench to greet her with a hug and a kiss.
I watched them wistfully, but with some hope brewing inside me. My father’s suggestion that I use my shapeshifting skills to change my appearance was a wild idea…but one that I really hoped would work.
It was also something I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell my mom about. I figured she’d worry about me.
And I definitely knew that Dad would lose his mind over the idea of me going out into the world.
Papa might be okay with it, but for now, Abba and I shared another look that said he was going to help me keep my secret.
After all, it was just a small one.
Right?
“Mason? Stella?” Mom frowned, looking from him to me and back again. “What’s up? Everything okay?”
The edge of worry in her voice made me sad. I didn’t want her to fret, especially not here in the packlands, where we were all supposed to be happy. I stood up to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.“Everything’s great, Mama. We’re just getting used to being settled. That’s all. And Abba says he stayed up too late last night.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?