His Lover, My Mate

Forty-One: Something Soulless

*Rush*

When Aletha had finally fallen asleep, he left her in his room, heavily guarded. Newborn vampires experienced intense fatigue and sleep for the first few days after their transition. Aletha had experienced trauma and he knew it would affect her transition to the night world a lot more than just any normally turned vampire. It would be harder, more devastating for her. And with all the shit she went through for most of her life, he knew he needed to be there for her.

He didn't even like the idea of leaving her especially tonight, but he needed to talk to his Beta and Gamma about what would happen next. So he left Aletha sleeping in a curled ball under his covers, a sight that reminded him of a kitten. Then he headed out to his throne room.

Maddox was already out in the fields, watching over the pack. Iyla was nowhere to be seen. And then he saw his sister Anya walking among the shadows of this throne room, her face dark and calculating. Some of his warriors watched her with an almost stricken expression. When he asked what happened, he got a startling response. Apparently, demons were manifesting from the shadows.

"What the hell do you mean demons are here?" he asked.

"I just mean that demons are here," Anya said with a shrug. Sometimes, it was hard to understand his sister and her twisted mind that played only games. "It's really not that hard to understand. What we've thought as the darkness and the demon plague, now we know what's causing it."

"Why exactly do we have these demons running around my territory?"

"Not just your territory, brother mine. They're all around the Darklands. Plenty more in the Moonlands."

"The Moonlands?" Rush said almost with a jeer. "But those are the holiest lands in the Darkworld. Why would the demons go to a holy place? Isn't that counterintuitive?"

Anya looked almost wrathful. "The Moon Goddess is losing power. Meaning the first place the demons will attack is my mate's pack." Her mate being Alpha Archer of the Lunar Pack, one of the strongest packs in the Darkworld.

"Are you saying that we're about to have another apocalypse?" Rush was baffled. "Anya, I don't think I can handle another anticlimactic ending. We wasted so many resources fighting our father and his little dogs. And where did that take us? A victory for sure, but..." He shook his head. "On a serious note, we don't need another apocalypse. Not with the vampires so close."

"There won't be an apocalypse," Anya said firmly. "I'll take on the Moon Throne. Right now, Raegon can't control his demons. He needs more heirs to expand his power. And he needs moon magic to keep the demons in, which Lewana can't give him. So she has to go."

"A new goddess will rise," Rush realized. It was all in the prophecy. When hell came to the Darkworld, it marked the end of an era. There would be a shift in Moon power very soon. "You will be the new goddess. You have to be the new Moon Goddess."

"It's about time that I do, don't you think?" Anya said with a wry smile. "For decades, the darkness has plagued the Darklands. We always thought it was a disease, but didn't know exactly how it infected us. But now we know."

Rush could only shake his head. "What's happening to our world? It's never stable, is it? For the entire fucking millenia I've lived, I've never lived through a day where there wasn't chaos."

Anya laughed now. "That's the Darklands for you. Should have known better than to rule here."

"Ah, you're right about that. That's the Darklands, a neverending spiral of war and death. And you know something, Anya? I wouldn't change it. It gave me everything to live for, even though all it carries with it are shadows and death in the darkness. That's all I've learned."