Mark of the Damned | 18+

Sail Away

Soft, warm kisses on my cheeks and lips wake me up. When I blink my eyes open, the sun is rising outside of the large window in front of me.

"Wake up," he grumbles behind me.

"No." I pinch my eyes closed again.

"We have to get underway." I know that he's smiling even with my eyes closed. I can hear it.

"I know," I huff, pulling myself to sit up.

I turn to face him just as he slides out of bed. His muscular body moves slowly around the room, picking up our clothing from where it fell when we stripped off each other tin the wee hours of the morning. He's so handsome. My face flushes as I watch him.

"Stop staring at me like that," he smirks, tossing my clothes onto the bed.

"Like what?" I smile innocently.

"You know exactly what you're doing. We have to get underway."

"Fine," I grumble as I pull on my clothes.

"Don't pout; I'll take care of you later," he says with a lopsided grin, dodging the pillow I'd aimed at his head before exiting the room quickly.

Rushing to finish getting dressed, I hurry out into the galley to make breakfast for the crew.

As I bring water to a boil, I realize that I can hear Cooper calling orders to bring up the anchor and release the sails. A silly smile spreads across my face. I can hear him clearly. I can hear him calling out clearly, not just muffled sounds in the distance.

When I finish cooking, I yell out to the crew and step back to avoid being trampled by the stampede of the first group.

Cooper comes to stand beside me, leaning against my old bedroom door. There is a funny little smile on his face that makes my heart flutter.

"What?"

"Things are going to be better now." He wraps his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into his chest.

"Yeah?"

"It's going to be different without him. We don't have to cower anymore. I'm not going to run this ship the way he did." I can feel the promise in his words.

"It'll be better," I say as I lean up on my toes to kiss his cheek.

After finishing our breakfast, he sends the crew to do various chores, and I set out the trays for the second group.

"Did it hurt?" Potter asks as I try to quickly scrub the dishes in the wash bin.

"What?"

"The bite," he gestures up to my neck.

"No." My hand instinctively moves up to rub the mark. "It didn't hurt at all."

He stares at it for a moment longer, and a small smile twitches against his lips. "It doesn't feel so bad anymore, you know?"

I know exactly what he's talking about. It doesn't feel like a curse. The beasts feel like a gift.

"Maybe it's not a curse after all." My chest feels warm and tingly.

The rest of the morning passes in a flurry of cleaning and tasks. Cooper teaches me how to swab the deck, and we repair the sails.

A strange feeling passes over me. The island. Jumping up, I run to the front of the ship to look out. Far in the distance, I can see it with squinted eyes.

My heart starts to pound with anxious anticipation. It's more than just the bone. I'm being drawn back to the island. Something is calling me there. It's pulling me back.

It gets stronger with each passing second. The feeling is all-consuming.

When Cooper starts making the calls to pull in the sails and drop anchor, I'm itching to get into the rowboat. Clutching the tiny fragment of bone in my hand, I practically jump over the side to climb down the ladder.

"Are you alright?" Cooper looks confused by my inability to sit still.

"I just feel like I need to go back. I'm being drawn back to the cave. Each second it grows."

With each row of the oars, we glide through the water, getting closer. It's torturous relief. We're moving closer, but we're still not there. It's excruciating.

My nervous energy moves through the crew. By the time we reach the shore, everyone is distracted.

Jumping out of the row boat, I run through the waist-deep water and up the beach. Cooper is behind me, on my heels, running up the beach toward the trees.

Everyone is behind me, running through the trees. I'm so consumed by the need to just make it there that I hardly notice how much stronger I feel. Hardly, but I do notice. My lungs and legs feel stronger. I'm faster.

When we reach the clearing in the trees, everyone stops. A white glow from the mouth of the cave is both mesmerizing and frightening.

"What is that?" Big Jones' voice sounds small. Awestruck wonder flows through all of us. It's shared, passing through all of us, flowing from one to the other.

"We have to go in," I take the first step forward.

The glow is comforting, it feels warm in my chest.

As we reach the back of the cave, the light seems to be coming from the bones themselves. When I place the tiny fragment that I stole back on the altar, the glow grows so bright that I have to pinch my eyes closed.

"Niamh," a soft, sweet voice calls out my name. On instinct, I drop down to my knees. I can feel everyone behind me dropping to their knees as well. We're pulled down by an invisible force. The wolf inside me demands we bow.

When my eyes open, I gasp and lean back into Cooper. His hand finds the small of my back, holding me up. A woman is sitting on the altar, bathed in soft, white light. A silver moon shines in the center of her chest. The Moon Goddess.

"You have chosen this life for yourself." She smiles. "You chose to live for love. I have given you a gift. You have recognized your mate, the one I made for you. The first Alpha and Luna."

When she says the words, a shiver runs down my spine. I've never heard most of them before; mate, alpha, and luna. Somehow, they all make sense. Cooper is our Alpha, and I am his mate, his Luna.

"You are my children. I have given you the gift of lycanthropy. My first pack. My heart was so touched by your fearlessness and love that I have given you the ability to shift at will. Your beast is not a curse." Her dark eyes move over each of us. "You are my mouthpiece, Niamh. I will use you to communicate with my people. I will use your bloodline to communicate with my people, forevermore. Your descendants will be favored."

"Thank you," I say, tears streaming down my cheeks as the weight of her gifts and grace falls on my shoulders.

"Go, flourish, and live happily with the gifts that I've given you," she smiles. "If you ever need me, I'm always watching from above." Her silver moon glints in the light.

Slowly, the glow starts to fade until we're left, kneeling in the dark.

He's my mate. This is no simple love connection; this was divined from the goddess herself. From our bloodline will come the representatives of our creator. My heart feels full enough to burst. From the moment we locked eyes, I knew.

After several minutes of silence, Cooper takes my hand in his and rises to his feet, pulling me up with him. The bond between us aches in my chest, so real and true that it hurts.

"Well," there is confidence and authority in his tone. "Where do we go from here?"

"Italy?" "Spain?" "Africa?" Several voices call out.

"The Americas?" I turn to face him.

A broad smile stretches across his face. "The Americas."