Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Forty Two

Dominick

Mind linking with Emily was effortless. It felt incredible. Like every nerve in my body was pulling me towards her consciousness. I hadn't expected to find her in Malik's office, but if anyone could make someone feel at ease it was him.

I was expecting Whitt in the morning before we set off, I'd messaged her to make sure that we were still on and she replied excitedly. It wouldn't be a bad thing for her to spend time at home either. I knew that she was part of Logan's pack, especially now he was her mate, but she was born and bred in the Rising Dawn pack and everyone loved having her back. Especially me.

I'd promised Emily that we could go to the dream realm library later, but I was still worried about the whole Kresnik thing. That's how I found myself knocking on Elena's door. She opened it and rolled her eyes, "what can I do for you?" I smiled at her hostility, "we're going into the dream realm later and I want you to come." She looked shocked at my offer, "why?" Because something happened the last time I was in there, you saw it yourself and I'm not entirely sure what will happen if I go in again. I don't want Emily alone through that."

She nodded, "you know you could just order me to join you." I shook my head, "we both know how you'd react to that, besides, I never want to order you against your will. The decision is yours, but I would really appreciate it if you could be there." She sighed and looked me up and down, "you're going to have to come get me, I can't just go under like that without your guidance." I gave her a small smile, "I really appreciate it." Task one down, task two check the flight details and pack.

I'd seen Emily briefly before I went to bed, she was on her way to get an early night herself. I smirked at her as I sent a message through the link.

"Going to bed already?"

She turned to face me, a smile watching my own.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

My smile only grew as I sat on the sofa in the study and relaxed my legs.

"Isn't it amazing that I can enter your thoughts at any point during the day now? Especially the evenings when you're alone."

Her smile faltered and red started to stain her cheeks. It was amusing to make her shy so I carried on.

"Imagine me just planting the image of myself naked in your head."

She turned from me and sent one last message back before she headed to bed.

"It won't be any less than usual."

This stumped me, I'd had no idea that she thought those things about me that often. But now I wanted to know more.

"I want you to tell me whenever you feel like that Emily. I'll relieve you any chance I get."

I didn't hear anything else through the link, but I'd gone to bed happy with the thought that those words would still be playing on her mind when we met in the dream realm later. Now here I was, standing with Elena in the corridor of doors, waiting in front of Emily's door for her arrival. "You don't think you should've picked her up too?" I rolled my eyes, this was the third time she said the exact same thing. I was glad to have her here but she sounded like a broken record at this point. "She'll make it, she's done it a few times now and she really wanted to go back to the library. She'll be here."

As I said it, a portal of mist opened up in front of the door and out it came Emily. When I say 'out of it came', what I really mean is 'sprinting into the middle of nowhere' came Emily. Again, like so many times before, she crashed into me upon arrival. "Welcome little varg." I chuckled. She slowly opened her eyes, "sorry. Again." I waved her off, "it's fine, now we need to hurry because we have a flight to catch tomorrow and I'd like to actually sleep tonight." Everyone nodded and we made our way through the winding corridors.

The library was a lot easier to get to the second time, I don't know if it was purely down to muscle memory, but time seemed to go a lot faster. Part of that could've been because of how on edge I was too. Elena noticed it and picked me up on it a few times already. I'd make it perfectly clear to her that I don't want Emily to know about my worries. The dream realm was kind our thing and I didn't want that ruined because of a bad experience on my part. It could've been a complete fluke for all I knew.

We decided to start in different sections, I went to Word History, Elena started in Magical Mystery and Emily focused on Folklore. I scoured the shelves but all I could find was Swedish war history - or lack of it and random facts about the country. Whoever curated the World History section didn't do a very good job. I wondered if there was a reception in this library so that I could put in a complaint. I decided to go and see how Emily was getting on, hoping above all else that she'd at least got a lead.

When I got there, there were books all over the floor. Certain ones were open on specific pages, others were piled up ready to be looked at. "Wow" I gasped, "I hope this means we're getting somewhere? There was absolutely nothing in the World History section. Seems like Sweden doesn't have a lot going for it over there." She shushed me quickly and carried on with her scanning. I sat down next to her, looking over the seemingly random pages in front of me and waited for her to explain. "Here" she said, pointing to a page in one of the books.

~

Deities are seen as spirits that live inside of nature. They can live inside rock, trees and flowing rivers. It is the perfect hiding place for someone that doesn't intend on being found.

~

I looked at her, my eyebrow raising, "so the Moon Goddess is actually a tree?" She rolled her eyes and pointed to another page.

-

It is said that the Sun God and the Moon Goddess share equal residence in parts of the world with natural beauty. Where the light and dark are both as important, where the day and night are equally beautiful.

For six months of the year the Sun God returns to Earth, they are the months of spring and summer. For the six months of the year when the Sun God returns to the stars, the Moon Goddess is without its warmth and so she allows the Autumn and Winter chill set in until his arrival back.

The nights are darker and the days are shorter but an ancient pact means that the Moon Goddess gets to keep the light given to her by the Sun God.

There are accounts of people who claim that the light gifted by the Sun God is a physical eternal flame, others claim the light is a metaphor for how happy he would make her.

~

I read every single word twice and I still couldn't understand what she was getting at. She was looking at me with expectation I couldn't deliver. "I don't get it..." I told her honestly. She turned the page and explained, "there hasn't been a day without snow in the north of Sweden for decades. That's where she is." I scratched the back of my neck, "but it says here that the sun god comes back every six months?" She shook her head, I clearly wasn't getting something. "He should come back every six months. It appears he hasn't been around for quite a while."

Suddenly all of the pieces started to fall into place, "no wonder the dark witches think they can take her. He isn't there to protect her. 'They both need to co-exist for celestial harmony.' I remember reading that in the book from your mum's house." We looked back at the pile of books, "what in the world happened to the sun god?" Elena came around the corner with another book, "your friend-" she pointed at me, "he's a saami." What friend? And what was a saami?

"The one you had a meeting with and you had to use Emily's parents house or something?" Oh, OH. "You mean Ferdinand?" I asked her. She shrugged, "I don't know his name. But yeah, whenever you met... he's trained from years of ancestry traditions to follow, worship and protect the Moon Goddess." She pointed at the book, "this predates magic. Whoever he is, he's kind of a big deal." My mind was blown, and now I had even more questions.

Hopefully I could talk to Ferdinand after we met up with him in Sweden and try to get some more information on his heritage. I came here looking for answers, and though a lot had been made clear, there were also many many more things we couldn't even begin to understand.