🖤

🖤

With the news travelling fast of Artemis' attack on all the leaders amongst everyone who had been present, it had been decided collectively that a few would stay on our territory. The news and gossip was hush hush, and we knew as leaders to keep this significantly damaging information on the down low.

It wasn't to be discussed.

Some were so frightened they had bid us goodbye immediately following the commotion, and others didn't want to be involved with something so dark. They couldn't accept their precious Moon Goddess was actually a psychopath, I thought bitterly. No one had died during the attack, thankfully. There were lots of injuries and a bloody mess to clean up, but the leaders of the strongest packs globally had managed to fight Artemis' wolves off. I wanted to guess the entire thing was a small warning from Artemis; she wanted me to stop. This just fuelled my passion to end her nightmare regime once and for all.

There were two people who were specifically requested to stay on our territory by Klayton, and of course they were the two people I had most disliked from the ball.

Berry, and the strange man I had a brief encounter with who told me I wasn't really human. It was weird, because although I know I'm not human anymore, I am unsure of how he had sensed it. Maybe that is why he is one of the people Klayton wanted to stay behind. They had slept in one of the empty wings of the pack house mansion, and I had no idea how long they would be.

Currently, the lot of us were behind the pack house in a large training field. I hadn't bothered much with this particular part of it; I never felt the need to train here amongst wolves who could easily shred me to pieces. But alas, Klayton deemed this training was necessary and finally that is something we could agree on. As of recently, Klayton now knows the darkness that makes up Artemis —and understand why she is not fit for her role as a Goddess.

I was wearing my trusty black lululemon leggings and a white tank top, pairing them with my favourite pair of black and white shoes. The tank top admittedly was quite tight in my chest area and as I had entered the field I felt very self-conscious. It didn't help when the stranger had blatantly checked me out, earning a loud warning growl from Klayton.

Klayton had ordered pack members to stay clear from the training fields for the day, although giving no proper explanation as to why. Perks of being an Alpha, I suppose. Select few knew some of the information (like Isaac and Lenna) although I had barely scratched the surface when I had informed them some time ago. The sky was grey and the field was slightly fogging, dropping my mood before the day had even begun really. Right now there was only Berry, Klayton, the Strange Man, and I standing on the field ready to talk. Feeling a newly found confidence, I decided to confront the stranger yet again.

"Are you going to give me your name this time? Or just insult me a bit more beforehand?" I spit. My attitude was not lost on the ears around me as Klayton glared at the man and Berry snorted at my words.

"I'll probably just insult you a bit more beforehand, human." The man chuckles, showing the laugh lines beside his eyes as he does so. "I'm kidding —relax. I'm Alpha Paxton," Klayton snarls at his blatant disrespect towards me and my eyes narrow.

"The Alpha Ball happens annually, so I'm sure you two will get to know each other better eventually," Klayton sighs and continues. "Berry, Pax, I wanted you two to talk to Adira about the magic she possess. Pax had approached me at the ball and told me he had felt a darkness within you, Adira. Dark magic has severe consequences and you need to be educated on it," he says while looking at me.

"Why are we out here then? Why am I wearing fitness clothes?!" I exclaim. "You told me I would be training,"

"You are— you will be. This sort of thing takes patience. I'll be right here the whole time, in the pack house." Klayton says assuringly and gently takes my hand in his. We both looks towards Alpha Paxton and Berry who silently watch our exchange in boredom.

"Okay," I start. "Who wants to start?"

~

The three of us stay on the field for what feels like hours.

"Why are you two so willing to help me? You know I'm trying to kill Artemis right?" I tell them as we all sit cross-legged in a circle.

"That's not a problem from me. I may be a wolf, but I've had my fair share of encounters with the she-devil," Alpha Paxton says. "That's how I could feel the magic you possess within you. Her essence,"

"I wasn't aware it was that obvious," I tell him, offended and slightly alarmed.

"It's not, only to those who have felt her power before. Oh, and witches too." He smirks towards Berry and she turns her nose up in disgust towards him.

"So what are we out here doing? How are you two going to train me?" I ask the both of them incredulously. Berry turns her attention towards me and for a moment I am struck by her elf-like features yet again.

"Klayton wants you to stay far the hell away from dark magic. I say, we harness its power. This could work in your favour, and be the key to finally overthrowing Artemis," She tells me with an eyebrow raised. "Pax, wouldn't you agree?" She asks him without breaking eye contact with me.

"Pax? Is that a nickname?" I ask.

"Only for my friends. So, you can call me Paxton." He says while stretching his arms over his head, showcasing his massive muscles under his tight grey shirt. I roll my eyes at him in response.

"Although I normally wouldn't want to go against Klayton's wishes, I think you're right Berry," He says. "The darkness you have in you in already there. We can help you feed off it —yet control it."

"Will you ever tell me why you know so much about this?" I ask him.

"Maybe another time. Maybe in another story," He says. "But this is your battle, your story —let's focus on you." His words are cryptic and don't make sense to me but I shrug and move on from it. It's time for me to win this thing.

"Where do we start?" I ask Berry.

"Well," she says. "Do you have anything that may possess dark magic? Something we can practise on?"

"Oh my god..." I tell her while shaking my head. "I have the perfect thing. I will have to go get it. Is there a place we could start meeting? This field just isn't doing it for me,"

"You're familiar with the witches house in the forest on the outskirts of Myersdale? The broken down hut you and Klayton had visited?" I nod. "We will not disrupt the witch if we only use the house for fundamental reasons. We won't make a sacrifice to nature, so once we go inside it will stay the beat up shack it is."

I didn't bother asking her how she knew that Klayton and I had visited Eleanor. She was a witch; one of dark magic. I'm sure she had her ways.

"That is fine," I tell her and Paxton, who just sits watching us with narrowed eyes. "Both of you —meet me there in an hour."

~

After retrieving the small red book, I made my way to the hut that Berry had suggested. The small broken down shack wasn't any less creepy than the first time Klayton and I had ventured to it, and the moss that had been there before still lay there unscathed. It still amazes me how Eleanor has concealed her own home within such a different perception like this.

I step onto the creaky wooden floorboards and push on the door, which had already been left open. The small hut was small and immediately my eyes found Berry and Paxton sitting lazily on the dirty floor, undoubtedly covered in old dust and dirt.

"You're late," Berry muses and I scoff.

"By a literal minute. Let's get on with this," I say while tossing the red book towards her. Easily she catches it and examines it thoroughly. "Have you ever seen it before?" I ask.

"Only in my dreams," she says. "But I do know what lay inside of it... Embry,"

"You know him?" I ask in confusion and slight shock. "Is he even someone we should be letting out of the book?" I finish quietly.

"Of course. If he were a bad warlock, then I wouldn't allow it. He, as well as I, have tampered with unnatural magic and this is indeed one. I can feel the darkness of it just from my fingertips."

"So Artemis used dark magic to trap him in it," I say.

"And we need to use dark and unnatural magic to get him out I'm guessing?" Paxton groans from the other side of the room. I roll him eyes in annoyance at his boyish words.

"Why is he even here again?" I hiss quietly to Berry.

"He has similar knowledge to dark magic as I do. Also, he can physically train you as well as mentally to prepare you for all the steps you need to complete to become the next Moon Goddess," she says.

"I have werewolf hearing, you know?" Paxton says sarcastically. I look between the two of them and gulp as my next train of thought comes soaring out of no where.

"Did Klayton tell you then? About the process I have to do before rightfully taking Artemis' spot?" I ask.

"If you're talking about how you need to collect a bunch of missing and scattered souls —yes, we know," Berry says and Paxton nods his head in agreement with a bored expression on his face. "I'm a witch, so I know these things. Spirits talk,"

"And I'm friends with witches, and we know they all like to gossip!" Paxton winks towards Berry and she responds with a scowl. I'm beginning to realize these two aren't very fond of one another.

"How are we going to free Embry?" I ask Berry as she gently lays the red book down. I watch as she pulls out a few candles from a small clutch she had been carrying and lays them down in a circle around it. Raising her hand swiftly, the candles are start burning. I gasp as I witness the magic before me and Paxton rolls his eyes.

"I have matches on me. No need for theatrics, Berry!" He says.

"And take the fun out of it?" She asks and sends a wink my way, although my mouth lay agape. "We need to harness dark magic to free him. Do something so unnatural it disrupts nature's magical balance and gives us what we seek."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Pax?" Berry asks while straightening some of the candles in her tiny formed circle. He sighs and gets up to leave, pulling my arm and dragging me outside with him.

"You have to kill something," he tells me. Immediately I shake my head. No fucking way. "You are the who needs to collect the missing piece, so you have to be the one to destroy the book. This means following every order we tell you."

My lip trembles as I recall my very first kill —the wolf. The turmoil had eaten through me and I barely survived, how was I to do this again? However, I knew I had to. For the greater good, I repeat and tell myself.

"What do I have to kill?" I ask Paxton as I straighten up my shoulders.

"Anything, really. The death just has to be executed through malicious intent and boom! Qualifies as unnatural," He tells me.

"Like an animal?" I shudder as we start to walk around the forest and away from the small hut.

"Or a person," He says. "Y'know, if I strain my excellent werewolf hearing just enough I think I can hear someone running down a trail. Shall we?" He winks and holds out his hand.

"Charming," I spit out sarcastically. "This is actually hard for me. I'm not a soulless fucking monster."

"Not yet," he murmurs quietly but I hear it anyway. I ignore him and speed up our walk, briskly pacing into nowhere. I look around and am dumbfounded when I can't find a single living creature.

"You're being too loud," Paxton remarks as he leans against a tree coolly. "To kill a prey, you gotta think like a predator."

"What do I do?" I whisper.

"I'll catch... but you have to kill,"