My Rogue

Chapter 20: The Moon Spirit

Adriel's POV

I jumped from the couch and launched myself towards my falling mate, my mind forgetting everything that has happened in the last few hours as the need to protect my mate overcame everything else.

However, when I managed to grip him tight before his head hit the ground, I was stunned to find not Mika, but someone else entirely in my arms.

The boy was smaller than Mika with a body more like a child than a teen. HIs hair was as white as the snow and as he struggled to lift his aching head, his pale complexion and youthful face caught me by surprise. He looked around ten to twelve years old yet the eyes as pale as the moon held too much maturity in them to ever belong to that of a child.

The boy gave me a warm smile as he leaned into my touch. "Thank you, Adriel." The boy spoke my name in a soft voice like the whisper of the wind.

"H-how do you know my name?" I knew the answer to that question but it still found its way out of my mouth.

The boy in my arms struggled out of my grip as he stood and looked around the room, his eyes filled with a warmth yet were also laced with sadness.

"I thank you all for taking care of my Mika. It has been so long since we've last felt love like this."

My heart clenched at his words. If anyone else had tried to claim my mate as their own, I would have let my wolf loose to tear them apart. This boy, however, I could not bring myself to harm. It wasn't that he was young, it was as if he was someone familiar, someone close to my heart. It felt different than what I felt for my mate, nothing pulled me to the boy like my heart did Mika, but I still felt the urge to protect him, even when my bond to Mika howled at his words. The confusion tore through my mind as I tried to settle on an emotion to feel.

As if feeling my mix of emotions, the boy turned and gave me a cute but quiet laugh.

"Fear not, my relationship with Mika is not what you fear, Adriel. I am but a part of Mika, a gift to him from the Goddess."

"Y-you're the Moon Spirit?" Bly stuttered as I too watched the boy in front of us with hesitation. Of course, having just heard what Elder Simi told us, it made sense. I was still not sure if I even believed it yet here was the proof in front of me.

"Mm," the boy spoke, a sadness in his eyes. "Though, I suppose I'm more of a curse than a gift in this case."

"Surely that is not so, oh great moon spirit," Elder Simi spoke as she approached the small boy with a bowed head. "The gift of the moon spirit is the greatest present the goddess has given her children since the gift of the wolf itself."

The boy smiled. "Please, call me Nokomis. Mika does. Or at least, he did."

We all looked at the boy in curiosity as a hopeless smile seemed to grace his lips, sad eyes trained on the ground as if lost within himself.

"Even I can not tell you as to why the Goddess granted Mika with the gift of a Moon Spirit, but you must know it was because she foresaw something quite troublesome ahead for her children. We Moon Spirits are here to ease the pain and trauma of the children of the moon, but I fear this burden has caused my host, Mika, quite a great deal of unwarranted pain through his early years."

"What do you mean?" I spoke, my heart suddenly hurt from the words Nokomis spoke.

"From a young age, we were held within the bounds of a horrid pack. Somehow, the pack knew of me, knew of what I could do but I know not how. They must have heard the story your Elder just spoke of and went to search for the truth of the tale. They searched wide for the host until they finally found us. Mika was just a baby, he doesn't even remember the annihilation of his original pack, The Blue Moon pack."