Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2
what he wants

Nyall woke to the sound of Del moaning as she squirmed in her sleep. Dawn was just painting the eastern sky. He raised up on an elbow to look down at her, her eyes were open but unseeing, their deep cornflower blue replaced by a strange silvery white.

“The son of the Sun is coming. The sins of generations shall be reaped by this one. Be careful Comhnyall. It is your duty to teach many the warrior’s way, to restrain his blood lust, to be the noble beast to his creature of nightmares. He will seduce the souls of the lost to worship his god of war and abandon their goddesses and messiahs. They will claim him to be king, but he will be death. He will summon the lost of every sort of creature to him.”

“I don’t want to be king...” Nyall muttered.

“But he does... He is a golden demon of burning destruction, and only a noble and penitent heart can defeat him. Be wary, Comhnyall, he wants you to serve him. He wants to take what is rightfully yours. You do not have to be their ruler to be their king in this time of tribulation.” Her vision was whispered out in harsh, breathy words, then she gasped and shuddered before sinking back down into sleep. He watched her, waiting to see if there was more of the vision come.

Moments passed, her eyes fluttered open, her normal voice asked, “What’s wrong?”

“What were you just dreaming about?” He swallowed after he asked.

She inhaled slowly, then answered quietly, “I was dreaming about the Moon’s wrath falling on the wolves of this land, the arrogance and disrespect of Alphas shall be punished.”

“And?”

“And you were in a stone temple covered in vines, there was fire surrounding you and the carving on the wall was promising to bring Moire back to you.” She blinked, looking pained.

“You told me to be careful and spoke of a golden demon who wanted me to serve him, so he could take what was mine,” Nyall stated carefully.

“It wasn’t me; it was the Moon. You’ve seen him. He’s the abomination. Born to a witch and an alpha wolf, he was raised to worship the sun and make blood sacrifices. The deceiver Alpha will do terrible things to all wolves in his god’s name.” She seemed hesitant to continue.

“What else? When does it start,” He did not want to live alone, not now. Not ever again.

“I don’t know, but soon. Everything between here and there is in too much flux to see. Great evil will be done, apathy and apostasy have settled like a blanket over the land. You will be as much priest as Master-of-Arms for years, training the faithful to fight and to believe.” She curled into his shoulder, quiet for a few moments before whispering almost too softly to be heard, “I don’t want you to go.”

He could feel her tears on his skin, “I don’t want to go.”

Delilah lifted her head to look at him, “And what does your wolf want?”

“My wolf wants you.”

When he answered, she inched up slowly until her lips were touching his. It only took a moment for their passion to ignite as the kiss became deeper.

Nyall lifted his head away, “Del, I promised you, I would not do that tonight.”

She shifted until all of her flesh was pressing down on his with nothing between them and whispered against his neck, “But it isn’t night anymore,” as she nipped at him with her teeth.

He groaned in tingling pleasure, something he hadn’t felt for almost a decade, none of the females who touched him since Moire felt like this. It had always been so meaningless and empty, so without love, just a physical sensation. But this was different. Delilah’s gentle touch tingled, and he let her seduce him with butterfly kisses trailing down his chest. Her firm hands and suckling lips caressing every muscle and scar as she memorized his skin. Teeth and tongue tasting his flesh until she finished drinking him in. His body shuddered afterward, he didn’t realize it would be so overwhelming, so bittersweet. To be loved again by someone not Moire... Afterward, her breath brushed his sensitive flesh as she lightly kissed his tears. Holding him as he let go of the pain that had kept him existing in lonely limbo. He could feel her love wrapping around his tortured soul like balm on a silver burn.

“Why didn’t you tell me you loved me?” He palmed her cheek, as his other hand played down the curve of her back.

“I didn’t want to be hurt when you chose another.” She confessed, turning her face to kiss and nip at the soft part of his wrist.

His desire returned as if it never was satisfied. Breathless, he whispered, “I don’t want to choose another, Delilah.”

Her cornflower blue eyes confirmed her words, “I want you too, Nyall.”

His calloused fingers tangled in her hair and pressed into her moon-pale skin while they kissed deeply. Nyall felt like he was drowning, like the time the long line bite caught his calf and dragged him into the sea. He had welcomed the sinking feeling, but his wolf had fought to return to the world of light and air when Del begged him to live. This time, surrounded by the smell of desire and fresh snow blowing over ice, his wolf nudged him to let himself drown. His rough hands roamed over her silky skin. She moaned into his mouth and his wolf growled back. They rolled, trading places and her back arched, pressing herself up against him, submitting her body to his touch and his need. Sinking slowly into her, he was overwhelmed by the feeling, hopeful for the first time since another morning so long ago when his tears had frozen in Moire’s hair and she had left him to go to the Moon.

It was afternoon when they woke to an amused Essie sitting on the end of Delilah’s bed, smoking.

“I can’t believe you two finally took my advice. Want one?” Essie smirked, holding out a pack of unfiltered reds.

“Ewww, Essie. Don’t smoke those in my bedroom!” Del snapped, as she wrinkled up her face.

Nyall rolled over and buried his face in the sheet covering Del’s breast, grumbling, “Pretend to be asleep, maybe she’ll go away until morning.”

Essie slapped his foot, and scowled, “Ha haaaa. Is that anyway to treat the wolf who brought you breakfast, opps, I mean a very late brunch, and kept the petitioners coordinator at bay? We’ve had at least two dozen wolves demanding to see the Delphi. They showed up with friends between today and yesterday, and a delegation from some pack I have never heard of will be here tomorrow, so if you want to go with Comhnyall and Ainsley to bury Mamó, you need to leave soon. I’ll meet you at Moon’s Gate and we can switch back.”

“Wait, did you say today and yesterday? We slept two entire days away?”

Her sister smirked and winked at her, holding up two fingers. “Sleeping, sure yeah, we’ll say you were sleeping. Smells like a lot of sleeping going on in here.” Essie’s tone was teasing, and Del loudly facepalmed. “Awww sis, you’re blushing.”

Del groaned, “Oh, Goddess.”

Nyall growled, “Essie, we love ye, but get out.”

She just laughed at him, bouncing up off the end of the bed. “Ainsley is ready to leave when you are with those acolytes you wanted to go to the Gate. Malcolm can fly you all there. There’s make-up on the table to look like me, don’t forget to put it on. Love you sis. Nyall...” Essie pointed two fingers at her eyes and at him and back several times, then laughed at his glare as she walked out with several of Del’s oracle gowns over her arm.

“Love you too, thank you,” Del called after her.

“Yada yada,” Essie called back, laughing, as the door close.

Del sat up and swayed before falling back against Nyall, “Ohhh, I need food.”

He smelled her neck, making her giggle. “Aye, but I need more than food.”

Squirming out of his arms, “No, food first.” She wrapped herself in a robe and marched out to the dining table. Waving her hand through the tendrils of incense rising from a censer.

Nyall was surprised to see a large robe, a change of clothes and his travel knapsack on the chair. He wandered out to find Del with a cup of coffee and a piece of bacon hanging out of her lips the way a cigarette normally hung out of her sister’s. He watched amused as she daintily nibbled at it. She was looking over a list of petitioners and request, scribbling names in pencil with a scowl crinkling her normally beautiful features. He gulped some orange juice and started on eggs and sausage.

“What?” He asked.

“No wonder Essie is letting me go.” She shoved the list away.

“Problem?”

“No. Just assigning petitioners to my oracles. Just a bunch of generic questions that any sideshow fortune teller with a deck of tarot could answer. But this is the time of year, we get a lot of them.” She bared her teeth at the list of questions, “My newest acolytes could answer these. They don’t need an oracle, just some common sense.”

She devoured several crepes before she spoke again, “I am thinking of making Ainsley head Oracle of Moon’s Gate, so I don’t have to keep traveling back and forth between east and west. She’ll manage petitions and training with Grandpapa overseeing, I’m taking the four acolytes with her there. And in a year or so, we could switch or something.” She doesn’t look at him as she spread jam on toast.

“Or so? As in you join me whenever and wherever this war is supposed to be?” he shook his head, “No, it’s too dangerous if he is seeking war, I don’t want you close to it. How will I even find him anyway?”

“The Moon w...”

“Will show me I know, I know,” He scrubs his face, hating again how vague oracles always are, “But how long am I supposed to travel looking for him? Or am I just supposed to go from pack to pack training and asking if a sun-worshiping wolf showed up?”

“That’s what the Moon said forty-eight ago,” she reminded, absently stuffing more bacon in her mouth.

“When?” He felt annoyed.

“The eclipse was two nights ago. And I don’t know, all I saw was you traveling from place to place, teaching. And I know he is connected with Des Rues. He will find you, again and the Moon will show you a sign over his shoulder the day of the war.” She shrugged, eating. “But you will face his god alone in a place of fire and vines before you lead the wolves to war.”

He made a frustrated sound, “What exactly did you dream?”

“You are the Moon’s Chosen one.”

“You’ve said that before, what does it mean?” Nyall hated it when she talked in abstracts and circles.

“You will go through many trials and not all of your comrades will survive. One that you hate could become your most trusted. Some will die with great honor, and some the Moon’s hounds will drag away for their lack of faith.” She looked very sad for a moment, as tears threatened.

“Del?”

“Sorry, it’s just many good wolves will die for the sins of the bad. And we will lose Essie to him. Perhaps forever unless another has a change of heart.” They sat quietly eating for a few moments. She pushed her food away, “I’m going to bathe.” Then she closed the door behind her.

Comhnyall headed down the hall to Ainsley’s washroom to shower, wondering where she disappeared to and thinking hard about all Del had dreamed. He couldn’t help wondering what she hadn’t told him, oracles always kept secrets. As he scrubbed his hair, he decided to ask Ainsley what she had seen, maybe some drawings would help him understand how he was to find and kill the elusive Alpha whose destiny it was to invoke the Moon’s wrath and bring war. The sooner the halfling son of Des Rues was dead, the sooner he could start a life with Delilah.

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