True Colors and Family Ties

I woke with a yawn and stretched in Edward's arms. He stirs and kisses me on the nose. "Good morning, my Luna."

"Good morning, my wonderful Alpha." He smiles brightly at me. I feel the pride and happiness from him. He loves when I call him Alpha in private like this. We both know I'm stroking his ego, but it has become like a pet name, too. His happiness is mine and vice versa.

It is light out, so we have slept in. I go to climb out of bed. Edward stops me, looking at my left arm, shoulder and chest. "What the hell?"

It is then that I notice his left arm. "You, too?"

I jump up and run to the mirror, Edward right behind me. around my wrist is a Claddaugh symbol - the hands holding the heart with a crown. Two Celtic vines start at the wrists of the hands and crisscross up my arm, over my shoulder and end in a circle around my heart with another heart inside. "Wow...." Edward is mesmerized.

His markings are equally fascinating. The vines encircle his wrist and crisscross up his arm and encircle his heart. Inside the circle was a crown. "We are the two parts of the Claddaugh," I tell him. "You are the Crown and I am the Heart. We hold the future in our hands."

"I love the way you interpret magic and prophecy. You make it all make sense." Edward smiles at me in the mirror.

"Isn't it supposed to?" I ask, honestly.

"Let's ask your family." Edward shrugs as he starts the shower.

....

"Your Grandmother had to leave. You missed all the Council members. She said to call her later." Blaire got coffee for Edward and myself while Claudia made us some sandwiches.

Edward and I decided to wear T-shirts with our matching zip-up sweaters from the Wrynn clan in Ireland. Grandmother's gift had perfect timing. I didn't want to shock the pack with our tattoos until we could interpret them.

"We completely understand. The world does not stop turning because we got married." Edward still uses his practical mind.

"So, the Lycans and the Druids are still here?" I ask between bites.

"Are you kidding?" asks Claudia. "They were trying to drink each other into the ground! The Lycans won, of course." Claudia refers to the high metabolism of the werewolves and especially Lycans.

"Maybe we should visit with the Lycans, first." Edward says with a grin. "Since they are more likely to be lucid."

"Definitely." I agree.

"Let me make sure that Leo can handle the stuff that needs handling this weekend, then we can visit with one, then the other." I love my ever-practical mate.

....

Catarina herself answered our knock. "Welcome! How wonderful to see you! Wait, there's no trouble in paradise, is there?"

I don't know where to start, so I decided to dive right in. I lift the sweater sleeve up past my left wrist. "What can you tell me about this?"

Catarina screams with delight, holding her hands to her mouth. "Ty! You were right! They have their family markings!" She steps back from the door. "Please, come in! Let me see it all! I'm so excited for you! Wait! Do you have an Archivist?"

I'm even more confused. "Why do we want our Archivist here? What do these marks mean?" Meanwhile, Tiberius is on the phone with Andrew, our Archivist, inviting him over. The Lycan Archivist is soon on a video call on the computer, notebook in hand. They all seem excited.

"All of our Lycan markings are unique, with mate's markings similar to one another." Catarina's patience showed itself again. "Can you show us, please?"

I take off my sweater, as does Edward, just as Andrew is escorted into the living room with Blaire. Everyone gasps, the Crosses with surprise and the rest with admiration. Tiberius takes off his shirt and stands behind Catarina, placing his left arm next to hers so that we can see where their tattoos link and intertwine and separate, but make a complete picture.

"We are the Tree of Life." Tiberius proudly claims. Sure enough, at the center of their arms was a tree which spread from one arm to the other, surrounded by the Celtic Vine of the Family. "We are direct descendants of two First Families. Our wolves have lost and found each other time and again for over ten thousand years. We are together again, this time, for 700 years. We have 22 pups, 5 in this life." Tiberius pauses to smile at his mate. "We have been chosen to be the root and the guiding light for one another. If that sounds old-fashioned or sugar-sap sweet, then so be it. I'm in love with the mate to my soul."

Okay, yeah. I get it now. Edward is my "other half." He is everything I had hoped for - courteous, kind, strong and a little rough around the edges. He is not perfect, just perfect for me. If anything happened to him, I would tear his attacker from nose to tail and not think twice.

I take off my T-shirt and hold it to my chest like a tube top, so that everyone can see all my markings. Edward takes his shirt off, too.

"Fascinating!" breathes Catarina.

"Their marks are complete and separate, yet are part of each other!" The Archivist is busy sketching and writing.

"The Leader and the Heart." Tiberius's statement stops all activity. "Could you place your tattoos side by side, as we did ours?"

Edward takes my waist and places his chest on my back. His warmth and the tingles of the mate bond has me blushing in mere seconds. Still, I put my left arm out in front of me, and Edward puts his beside it, hooking my pinkie finger with his thumb. We watch as our tattoos match and show something we hadn't noticed before. The hands from the Claddaugh, there's one on each of us. Only they are not holding a heart, or a crown. They were holding the Earth.

"I admit they're beautiful, but this is my first opportunity to write anything about original Lycan families. I've read that the tattoos are significant. Do these mean that Alpha and Luna Canis are significant to the whole world?" Andrew Cross, though a little star-struck, can't contain his excitement.

"There is a prophecy of a Leader and a Heart. They come together and change the world. All the magical families are stronger, healthier and happier for their influence." The Lycan Archivist speaks up.

"And no longer dependent on one magical sector or the other." Catarina's face clouds over. "Magic is in our bones, in our souls, in our life energy. Anyone who wishes to influence that balance needs to be stopped."

....

"Ugh! Come in out of that blasted light!" the eldest Gilhoughley brother answers the door without a shirt on. His hair is a halo around his head and he squints his bloodshot eyes at us, showing evidence of a raging hangover.

"I would think that you could brew a potion or something to help you with your hangover." I quip.

"We do," his wife, Karen, comes in with a tray of steaming mugs and a bottle of Tylenol. "it's called strong coffee."

"How can we help the newlyweds?" she continues, as she gets her husband three pills from the bottle and hands him a mug. "Please, help yourself," she says to us.

"Do you know anything about the Leader and the Heart?" Edward knows that today calls for the direct approach. He also knows that the silence that follows indicates that they know a lot.

"I think it's time to have a gathering of my families. I want to know what you all know and how it affects everyone." I don't like being uninformed. This is a new occurrence, since I now know that misinformation can lead to violence. I will not put my family in jeopardy from ignorance.