THE MOON COURT

Charlotte POV I run through the castle laughing as I hear little Fredrick running after me with those short toddler legs. I turn a corner and run right into a hard chest making me curse as I land on the cold marble floors. “A princess cursing? Tisk tisk I know where you got that from,” My uncle Eric muses and I roll my eyes as I put the strands of white curly hair that have fallen across my face behind my ear. “Dadda!” Little Fredrick's delighted scream lights up my Uncle’s eyes and even I can’t help, but smile when the three year old jumps into his fathers waiting arms. I really wanted to draw and capture this beautiful moment playing out in front of me. The two redheads one with golden eyes and the other with inhuman green eyes like his mother. Aunt Anastasia didn’t believe having a child was possible, because of her goddess blood, but then a miracle happened three years ago and I knew my uncle was never as happy as he is now. “I know your mother promised you could play with Charlotte the whole morning, but I missed you terribly!” Uncle Eric says as he helps me up and I quickly fix my white summer dress. “You’re all back?” I ask and then before he can say anything I’m running when the scent hits me. I don’t stop until I see him. There are four soldiers standing around him as his crown shines on top of his raven head. “Dad!” I shout, making him turn and then I’m in his arms. He just holds me a moment and then picks me up and swings me around. “Goddess can it be! Could my little girl really be turning twenty one tomorrow?” he says and I can’t fight the tears that run down my cheeks. When I was seventeen the vampires wanted more ground to hunt and my mother denied it and that was the beginning of the war. The ongoing war kept my father away for a year this time and I couldn’t take it anymore. Sometimes I wished he wasn’t the king at all and that we were just a normal family. “I’m so glad you could make it,” I whisper and kiss his cheeks wrapping my arms around his neck once again and clinging to him. He crushes me even harder against him and I squeak with laughter. “LUCAS?!” My mother’s voice bounces off the walls and my father tenses. He puts me down slowly kissing my forehead and smiles at me. He turns around and I follow him down the stairs to the main hall where people have gathered to set up for my coming of age ball. The doors swing open revealing my mother with her beautiful white hair and fierce golden eyes. She’s covered in golden paint. Without thinking twice she throws the brush on the ground and comes towards us. I feel my own heartbeat in my throat, because when their eyes lock it’s as if everything around us stops. “My love,” My father whispers under his breath and then he slowly places his hands on either side of her face. They search each other's eyes. “Never again,” she whispers and I knew what the weight of those words meant. When the battle in the human world happened my family didn’t know that the prophecy was already changed and the moon goddess didn’t know it was possible. My parents being heart mates changed the roles between my father and uncle. It was finally set in motion when my father and uncle had changed the prophecy by sharing the final sacrifice. The bond between my mother and uncle broke when the spear ran through his heart finishing the prophecy, but because my father and mother were heart mates it was impossible to break the bond even in death. My mother had killed the wicked Lance and saved our new world, but my father had barely survived and that almost killed her and I knew he still had nightmares about death, about his friend Edward and how he couldn’t save his pack members that died on the field that horrible day. My mother could still feel the way the bond felt when my fathers heart stopped. I often heard her screaming for him this couple of months. Her night terrors were something I honestly didn’t want to understand or ever experience in my life. “Never again,” my father whispered back and kissed my mother so fiercely I even felt myself blush. He picked her up and without a word they disappeared to their bed chambers making everyone smile knowingly. “I won’t be surprised if you’ll have a new baby sister or brother in the winter!” My aunt Diane says from behind me as she wraps her arm around my shoulders. “I agree,” I say and quickly try to turn around and flee, but she grabs my arm. “No no no! You have to practice for tomorrow night! I need to go find my husband, but then..” she starts to say but is suddenly scooped up into the arms of my uncle Nicolas making her squeal. “No piano practice today! This wife of mine will be occupied the entire day and night!” He shouts loud enough making Diane slap his shoulder, but she was fooling no one with that smile on her face. He ran off before she could say anything and I couldn't stop laughing as everyone around me joined in. I quickly make my way towards my best friend sitting in one of the windows like a cat basking in sunlight. “One would think that my mom and dad would have the decency to not act like two hormonal teenagers!” Erandri says her brown eyes peeking at me from behind her book. “You're almost twenty one and read so much romance smut! I thought you would love seeing it in real life!” I say and she flicks her brown hair over her shoulder and comes to stand next to me. “Anastasia and Eric have a sense not to parade around kissing and making love in every corner of this castle and therefore they have my respect! But OUR parents..” she points to me and then to herself, “have a lack of control that I simply can’t justify!” “Give them a break our parents are who they are!” Gideon’s deep rich voice startles me and I peak down to see him lying against a tree in the garden. He was still in his uniform. His blond hair seemed darker and his brown eyes still filled with laughter like always, but something was wrong. I’ve haven’t seen him for four years because he was anointed as one of the captains of the guard in the army. He seemed different, but still was the most beautiful boy I have ever seen. “Hi Char,” he whispers as our eyes meet and then suddenly he jumps to his feet and shifts. His dark blond wolf is bigger, stronger than I’ve ever seen and my pulse feels like it’s about to pop. “We’ll nice seeing you too half wit!” Erandri shots as he darts towards the training grounds and I just stand there gawking at how fast he’s gotten. Erandri pinches my arm. “What’s wrong with you? Did you hear anything I just said? We're late!” I only nod as she drags me toward the music hall where my grandfather is already waiting for us. It’s strange to know that everyone here can’t grow old and that when I come of age I’ll look like this forever. I could see who’s older with the way they looked at things and the way they talked and yet some part of me wished the prophecy would have changed that immortal part. As we started to waltz I couldn't help but peak out the window each time I had the chance hoping to find Gideon. I missed him terribly and wondered why he had run off like that, like he just wanted to get away from me? ---------------------------------- Gideon POV I rip off the head of the vampire and see four more coming towards me through the woods. “Son! I’m here, how many are left?” Nicolas says through mind speak and I growl throwing my head in the direction of the vampires. Baring my teeth in warning. “Dad watch my back!” I shout and charge towards them hearing my father growl in protest. I hated vampires so much. Bloodsucker animals with their pale skin and red eyes. I rip into both and feel it. A dagger forced into my side laced with wolfsbane with something else. Fuck! The pain is so excruciating I can’t move. My father is on the other two ripping them and then quickly shifts to his human form as do I revealing the cut down my abdomen. “I didn’t see the dagger either, don't beat yourself up,” My dad says and I huff as Eric and Alpha Lucas arrive. Before either of us can explain what happened, they shift revealing the legendary sword and ax of the prophecy on their sides. “We saw, I already summoned Simon,” Lucas says and suddenly Simon, our medic warlock appears. The cocky warlock with his green skin with short white hair was one of my best friends and I almost kicked his ass when he raised his eyebrows at me mockingly. “Are you telling me one dagger and your down?” he says and I growl trying to stand up but then swore as the pain slid down my body. He pushes me on my back and his hands start to glow over the wound and then his eyes widen. “We need Gerard!” He suddenly shouts and then Eric runs off and that’s the last thing I see before I pass out. --------------------------------- “Are you telling me that they have found Cyanide? f*****g Cyanide?” Lucas roars in the tent as I slowly open my eyes. I see them sitting in a circle close by my Uncle Gerard still resting his hand on my wound. “What’s Cyanide?” I sounded like I was heavily drugged. Gerards eyes light up as he says, “I stand corrected, you are indeed becoming a legend among the wolves just like your father,” Suddenly Nicolas is at my side, before I can say thank you. “How do you feel Son?” I only nod and clear my throat by taking a mouthful of glass water in Gerards hand. “Fine, I know the feel of wolfsbane but is that what got me down, Cyanide?” I ask and start to stand up unwrapping my wound. My bare chest was still covered in sweat and blood and my father growled in protest and I only rolled my eyes. “Yes the dagger was laced with both. It’s magic from Lilith that we thought had died years ago during the battle. There was little of it discovered on the field and we never found her stash, but it looks like the vampires did,” Eric says and I nod seeing Lucas’s eyes flash with anger. “We will destroy it all before the next wave hits us in a month,” Lucas says as Simon appears smiling at me eating one of my pies I hid underneath my bed in our tent. Bastard! My stomach growled loudly and then Simon burst out laughing. “You’ve been out for four hours and I knew you’d be hungry! How that ass feeling?” Motherfucker! My father grips my arm trying to stop me from lifting my bandage any further. “I’m fine truely dad, just f*****g hungry!” I growl and then Lucas grabs my other arm, his golden eyes roaming over the scar still healing. “You need to rest. The war is over for today, we’re going home, Gideon. You’re going home and I am not taking no as an answer or your mother will have my head,” I try to argue but I couldn’t when he looked at me like that, like he missed his best friend, my biological father. I only nod and smile at him and Nicolas. “Yeah sure, home sounds nice,” I say and study how our king's hair has gotten long reminding me where Charlotte got the curly hair from. Charlotte. I turned twenty one the day after I left for the war and still wondered if… if she might be my mate. I could feel something between us for years now and the idea that I will be seeing her… Simon throws me with one of my meat pies and I’m about to lunge at him when my other two best friends come waltzing in. “Well glad to see this fucker decided to wake up!” Matteus says and quickly bows to Lucas followed by Ash that follows suit. “Did you really think a little dagger could have taken me down?” I joke seeing my father tense, but I ignore it and grab both of them in a hug and then lunge at Simon. “You're still mad at me about the tattoo?” Simon roared with laughter as Eli and Ash held me back. “Tattoo?” My father asked his eyes filled with laughter like usual. “I thought you had like ten already?” Eric says and I smile guilty. “Eleven,because he lost a game of poker to this one and then he had to get one on his ass!” Ash says and everyone roars with laughter. “Designed by yours truly,” Simon gave a toothy smile. “Out with it then! What is it?” Lucas says his eyes roaming over my two friends holding me assessing them. They might have been legends of this world, but we were legends in this army. The three shadows they called us. I met them when we were forced to share a tent four years ago and now we were inseparable. My brothers with their matching black hair and brown eyes. The only difference was their skin tone. Eli was our giant with skin as dark as he liked his coffee and Ash was our speed and his skin was a little darker than mine. Simon was part of us, but he didn’t like the idea of being called a shadow. The spoiled bogger. “I..” I start to say and then it struck me Lucas is going to kill Simon. “It’s the name of the girl he has loved for years!” Simon says and then everyone is suddenly quiet. “Well I didn’t know you loved your momma so much,” My dad jokes and then everyone is roaring with laughter again and I meet my friends eyes nodding. “Well what can we say he has the finest mother I’ve ever seen!” Eli says and then my dad is on him. Everyone starts to bet and cheer and I can feel someone’s eyes on me, but I act like I don’t. I knew if I met Lucas’s eye now he would see right through me. --------------------------------------------------- “I think the last time I saw this place was when the princess was born and I was a wee little fellow,” Ash says as we walk together towards the training fields watching my father, Lucas and Eric dart into the castle. I see my sister in the window reading and make my way towards her slowly taking in the place I’ve always called home. I only now realize that war has become all I knew and f*****g around with the girls that were willing in the camps, because the possibility of dying the next day was always there in the back of my mind. And I was frustrated because of certain golden eyes that tormented my dreams begging me to come home. “Erandri!” I shout and my sister's brown eyes flick toward me. She gives a uncontrollable squeal. “You’re home! We’ll that means! Oh wait! Uncle Lucas just found Aunt Iris!” she says and I could hear everyone swooning and then I heard my fathers voice and then my mothers. “What happened?” I ask wishing I didn’t have to go check out the training fields to see if our squad would all train here. I go to lay on my favorite spot and then Erandri starts to bicker and only when I hear her voice, I realise Erandri wasn’t talking to me. Charlotte. Her scent hits me and every cell in my body comes alive at once begging me to go to her. Her golden eyes meet mine and I feel my blood rush to my head as my wolf whispers, ‘mate’ Her hair was on top of her head in a messy bun that I wish I could grab and pull apart and see those wild curls that I have come to love. I jump up and dart towards the training field terrified that one person could have so much power over me and not know it...yet. If I didn’t stay away until midnight I don’t know if I could control myself around her. I wanted her more than I wanted anything in my entire life. ----------------------------------------