Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Seventy One

Dominick

We'd been meandering around the dream realm for a while, I had been shown places I didn't even realise existed in here. But the most impressive place was the room of memories. You could choose a memory and have it play out as if you were actually there. I had explained that when the witches first got me to start looking for my sister we had used a similar method of searching through memories, she explained that it probably came from this room without me realising. The moon goddess had taken me through one to demonstrate and we had ended up in some strange looking cathedral.

"If you look closely, you'll see some people that you recognise." She told me, smiling and pointing toward the altar. "I watched this couple for a little while before I knew who they were, or more correctly, before I found you." Standing in a dress covered in tiny ivory coloured beads and chiffon was my mother. Next to her was my father, Daniel. They smiled at each other, happy, content. That's not how I remembered them. The stress of pack life had clearly got to them.

"They weren't mated, but they found happiness together." I rolled my eyes, already aware of where this was going. "They weren't mated but at the time my dad didn't know that he had a mate." My mum looked beautiful, she was extremely pretty, it's what I think drove my dad to pick her as his Luna anyway. I wondered if they would still be together if she hadn't been killed and if Hazel hadn't come to rescue my pack. Seeing her like this was strange, she looked so young and pure.

Her hair was tied up into a beautiful knot and the dress really showed off her figure. No one else was in the congregation, it was just them and it was intimate. I had never considered what my own wedding would look like, I didn't realise I would ever want one until I met Emily. She changed everything. My father would have approved of her, her mind was sharp and her wit was on point. I had no idea what my mother would've thought, but Hazel would've loved her.

"Did you bring me here just to show me that my parents weren't mated?" I asked her, looking around the cathedral. Candles were lit in every corner which set a soft glowing atmosphere around the couple. She looked around the grand building, her eyes sparkling as she took everything in. "I didn't know that Daniel was a descendant. I could've righted everything such a long time ago if only I'd have known."

Righted?

"What could you possibly need to right? The balance? Because I'm pretty sure that my father was set in his ways." She walked through the pews and sat on the light wood. "This isn't fun for me either, Dominick." Her hands were folding and unfolding. "I have lived for a very long time, I have lived without companionship for such a very long time." Her eyes glazed over as she looked towards my father, "it's not about having a partner or having a mate. It's about having someone to turn to. Someone who understands."

Well, that I could relate to. Before Emily, I hadn't known anything different either. I thought I would never find someone who could make me feel as whole as she did. I did sympathie with her, I didn't agree with her methods, but I did understand. "I thought I was loved once, I thought someone was in love with me. I'm the moon goddess. I'm supposed to know what that means." She looked down at her hands again and I saw water droplets drip onto her hands.

When she looked up again, I could see the trail of where the tears had sat. "I didn't expect you to fall in love with me, but I wanted you to be able to open up to me, to trust me." Seeing her like this shattered my heart. I hadn't given her a fair chance, I had been so suspicious of her because of my blinding love for Emily that I hadn't given myself a chance to just get to know her as a person. She was the moon goddess, worshipped and admired by all... but she was also just a woman who was tired of being alone in the world.

"What about Ferdinand?" I asked, hoping to change the conversation to something a little more positive. A soft small smile itched at the corner of her mouth, "he's lovely, but everyone that is around me wants something. Even Ferdinand has his price." Price? "What did he want?" I asked her, afraid to know the answer. "He wanted adventure. I gave him that when he came to find you." What a smart woman. Two birds one stone.

"Your parents might not have been mates, but they respected each other. Your mother respected the position your father held and she gave up her freedom to be by his side." Her wet eyes held onto mine, "all I ask of you is to open your heart to the idea. I won't force you into anything Dominick, but the world depends on it." My muscles stiffened, would all hell really break loose if I didn't do this? Would the Earth and heavens freeze over? How would the world end?

What I was struggling to see from this, was what would happen if we didn't balance things out. Everything seemed perfectly fine as it was. Suddenly, the moon goddess stood. Her hands were shaking and her body looked rigid. "What's wrong?" I asked her, holding her upright. "We need to go. Something has happened. I can feel it. The dark witches were trying to figure out a way to destroy everything and I fear that they've managed to rally the final parts of their puzzle together.

The dark witches? "You mean the witches that tried to kill my sister? The ones that hunted her down?" When she looked at me this time, her eyes were sodden with tears, "I think they've found her. If they use her, she'll die. They'll drain her power and destroy everything Dominick. We have to go." I shot up from my seat and ran towards the doors, "how do we get out?" She thought fur a minute before she lifted her necklace from around her neck, "hold tight to this. It'll take us back."

I sprinted to the necklace and as soon as my fingers touched the chain, we blinked into nothingness. Left behind were the thoughts of the past, I needed to think about the future. I needed to think about my family and my pack and I needed to think about what was right. In a split decision I knew what I had to do.