Arron Liken's Arc

Chapter 4 of 11

The passage opened into gray morning light. Arron climbed out and stopped. Below him lay the valley the seer had promised. A river ran through it. Wildflowers spread across the grass. At the center stood a temple of pale stone, ringed with blooms. Crescent moons crowned its spires. The black wolf padded ahead, then halted and looked back at him. This was the place. His mate was near. But a new fear caught him. He walked as a man now. His mate was a werewolf, and she had never seen his face. A stranger climbing from a hidden crack in the rocks. She would smell danger and run before he spoke. He could shift to his wolf form, but a strange wolf might frighten her worse. Either shape betrayed him. He crept toward the temple. A woman knelt among the flowers there, gathering them into her arms. She had the still, listening look of one raised in the wild. Her head snapped up. She caught his scent. Fear crossed her face. She dropped the flowers and turned to flee. "Wait," Arron called. She kept running. He could not catch her in time. Then the air changed. A cool light spilled from the temple doors. A woman stepped out, and she was not human. Silver hair fell past her waist. A crescent moon rested on her brow. Her feet touched the flowers without bending them. Arron had never seen the goddess, but he knew her at once. He dropped to his knees. The running woman froze and knelt too. "Lilly," the goddess said. Her voice was soft and sure. "Do not run. I made him for you." Lilly turned. She stared at Arron across the grass. "Him?" she said. "He smells wrong. Half of him is not wolf." "Half of him is you," Selene answered. She crossed to Arron and lifted a charm from around her own neck. Silver, set with a pale stone and a small blue moon. She pressed it into his palm. "Your mixed scent frightens her. Wear this. It will quiet what she cannot yet trust." Arron slipped the charm over his head. The strange edge in his own smell faded. He rose slowly. "I crossed the black pines to find you," he told Lilly. "A hunter chased me the whole way. I never turned back." Lilly stood. She came closer now, unafraid. She breathed him in. Something in her face eased. "You're real," she said. "I dreamed a man who was also a wolf. I thought I dreamed a lie." "You didn't," Arron said. The goddess watched them meet. But her calm broke. She looked north, past the temple, and her eyes narrowed. "The one with the marked blade still hunts," Selene said. "He knows this valley. He will come here." Then she was gone, and only cold light remained. Arron gripped Lilly's hand. He had found her. Now he had to keep her alive.