Chapter 23

Eudora

"What happened back there?" Gia asks me, once we are all dried off and back inside the guys suite comfortably sitting around their common room. 

I recount all of the memories I received and then what my mother told me. Once I am finished, everyone sits in silence for a few moments absorbing the information.

Leon is the first to break the silence. "What are we going to do?" 

Aren leans forward and looks around the group with a serious expression across his face. "Let's take it one step at a time, and make sure that Ora is at the oasis at midnight on her birthday in three days. Then we can figure out the rest." 

Everyone nods in agreement. 

I take a long sip of the warm tea I am holding and before I speak up. "I want to speak to my dad." 

I have to know what he has to say about all of this. I am so confused and angry about everything he has kept from me. My whole life I thought I was broken for not shifting, but it turns out that he knew the whole time that I wouldn't have my first shift until the day I came of age. I am so tired of having information about me kept from me. Now that I have more answers, I feel the need to find out what my father was thinking.

Aren looks at me and frowns disapprovingly. "You should wait to leave the campus until after your birthday."

"I can't wait until then. I need to speak to him now." 

"It's too risky."

"It's just a trip to visit my father. It's not a risk." 

"Yes it is."

"You can't tell me when I can and can't see my own family."

Everyone has been watching Aren and I argue bouncing their heads from me to him as if they are watching a tennis match.

Aren sighs and then stands up.

"Fine, I'll take you." Everyone takes this as their que to stand up as well.

"If you're going, we will all go." Jayden says speaking for the group and they all nod in agreement. 

In the matter of only an hour we are all crammed into a large van and on the road. The ride to my parent's estate passes in silence. I am fuming at my father and I keep going over what I should say to him in my head. All of my planning is useless though, because as soon as I see my father standing in the entryway, I fly into a rage.

"How dare you keep information about my biological mom from me. How dare you not tell me I could be the reincarnation of the moon goddess!"

My father eyes the group of nine people following me in. "Why don't you come to my office where we can speak about this sensitive information more privately?"

"I trust them and they all already know."

"Still, I would prefer not to have this conversation in the entryway."

"Fine. We can talk in your office." I grumble in agreement.

"We are coming." Jay says as he and Aren both step forward towards my father and me.

"This conversation is between Eudora and me."

Before Jay can say anything I put a hand out to stop him. "It's okay. It's about time dear old dad and I have a heart to heart." I can see that Jay and Aren don't want to leave me alone with my birthday so close, but they acquiesce and allow me to talk to my father alone.

They turn and allow a maid to lead them along with the rest of my friends to one of the large sitting rooms.

I follow my father down the long corridor and into his office. He takes a seat at the large leather chair behind his desk and motions for me to sit in the hard backed chair across from him. I sit in the slightly uncomfortable seat and look at my father, really look at him for the first time in years.

He has always been handsome, but lately his age has been showing. His hair is mostly gray and his face is deeply lined from years of stress. The glint I used to see in his eyes is all but gone. All I see now when I look at him is a tired, beaten down man. A shadow of who he thought he was and used to be.

I clear my throat and ask my father again trying to sound calmer now even though anger still rages through me. "Why did you keep the information about my biological mother away from me?"

He sighs and clasps his hands together on top of his desk. "We kept it from you, and from everyone, for your own safety. If people even suspected they would try to use you or kill you. I was not going to put your life at risk."

"You still could have told me."

"I see that now, but at the time I thought it would be better for you to not know."

"You watched as I mourned my mother. I blamed myself for her death and you just stood by. How could that be better for me?" My voice raises as I respond to him and by the end I find that I am shouting. 

"You couldn't possibly understand the tough choices that being your father has forced me to make." He roars back at me.

I shout right back, but my tears betray me and slide down my cheeks. "How much else have you kept from me? Did you know about the prophecy?" 

My father takes a deep breath trying to regain control of his anger. When he speaks again it is calm. "I know about the prophecy. Eudora, I know you are angry at me for withholding information from you, but I did what I thought would be best for you. I am the forest kingdom's High Alpha, so I have to make tough decisions everyday. Everything I do, I do it for our people. I believed keeping you oblivious was the best way to protect you." I open my mouth to talk, but he cuts me off. "Doing what is best for our people is also why I have agreed to the Emperor's offer of your betrothal to his oldest son."

My mouth drops open. "What?" How could that possibly be what's best?"

"I have done my best to protect you from the hardships of this world, but the kingdoms are suffering. Birth rates are down even with mating other species, disease is taking out our crops and we can barely feed the people we do have, plus a plague has been tearing through the outer packs. The Emperor wants his son to mate with a powerful female shifter, and since you are the daughter of a high alpha, you are the perfect candidate. The Emperor has promised our kingdom priority with food and medicine. Mating the prince will provide you with more protection. Plus, once he steps down, you will be queen. I know an arranged matehood sounds awful, but you only have to mate him if you get a string. You will see, one day, how much good you can do as queen. You will make an amazing queen." I am in shock. I can't believe my own father would force me to mate with someone I have never met. The Emperor has a reputation for being cruel and sinister and I bet his son is the same. 

"I don't want to be queen. I don't need the power of a crown. I am a goddess."

"You don't have the powers of a goddess yet, and we don't know if you will. I am setting you up in the best position possible for you to make a change. Don't you see that?"

"You're just putting me in the best position for you." I snap back at him. He doesn't respond. We sit in silence for what feels like forever. "I need a minute." I finally say and turn for the doors.

"Don't go too far. The Emperor will be here soon to meet you." With that, I run out the doors and don't stop. I run all the way to my mother's grave, which I now know isn't even a grave. I crumple to the ground and cry, mourning the loss of the future I thought I had. I thought I would be able to finish my degree. I thought I would be able to choose my own mate. I thought I had choices, but with one handshake, my father has chosen my future for me. I hear a stick break. Hopeful that the dark forest witch had returned to save me, I sit up and look towards the woods, but it's not the ancient woman who emerges, but a group of foul looking men. 

"You're coming with us, little lady." The leader of the group says.

"I'm not going with you anywhere." I stand up and try to look tough.

"You don't get a say in the matter." He leaps forward and grabs my arm. I use my pheromones to take him down, but the next guy just grabs me instead. I use pheromone attack after pheromone attack to take down my would-be captors until I am panting and exhausted. No matter how many I take down, more just keep coming. Eventually, one manages to get a foul smelling cloth over my face and the whole world goes black.

Aren

Twenty minutes after Ora left with her father, Gia grabs my arm, a worried look on her face. "Something bad is about to happen to Ora. You need to find her." 

I have learned to trust Gia and her psychic premonitions so I only ask one question. "Where is she?"

"Somewhere outside that is important to her."

I know exactly where that is. I know exactly where Ora goes everytime she needs to process something or work through her emotions. I jump into action and run outside, shifting immediately. Jay is right behind me and he shifts into his giant wolf form. We both rush to Ora's mother's grave. Unfortunately, we are too late. The ground around the grave site disturbed, looking as if a fight took place. We follow Ora's scent trail into the woods until we make it to a street. The trail disappears there. Jay and I shift back into our human forms just as Koda, Kaden, Leon and Max catch up to us.

"She was probably put into a carriage. She could be anywhere."

"I'll fly down the road and see if I can find her. You should all search by land." I shift back into my eagle form and take off before Jay can respond. I fly for hours looking for any sign of her, but I am unsuccessful. When I return to the palace it's well past midnight but Max and Ryland both have yet to return. I walk into the sitting room where we all waited before to find Jay interrogating his father.

"Where is she?" He shouts.

"She is safe. That is all you need to know."

"This is so fucked up. You sold off your daughter for what? Favor with the Emperor?"

"Wait, what?" I ask, clearly I have missed something.

"This fucker betrothed Ora to the crown prince. The Emperor took her so he could keep her safe until she comes of age."

"You did what?" I roar at Ora's father. The man sags and for the first time I see shame and doubt on his face.

"I did what I had to do for my people."

"You betrayed your people and gifted the moon goddess into the very hands of people who will abuse her and her power. The Emperor's ancestor is the one who killed Selene." This statement shocks him and his eyes go wide.

"What do you mean?" Now he is the one who is confused.

"We found the oasis and Ora got some of Selene's memories. She learned that Selene was murdered by Sir William."

"I knew the moon goddess had died from Theia, but she never told me how. All I knew was that it is my family's duty to raise the reincarnation of the moon goddess whenever she is reborn. I know that if Ora comes into her power, then she can fix what's broken in this world. I thought putting her on the throne would help her with her destiny."

"Maybe you should have let her find her own path."

He sags. "I was just doing what I thought was best. I never thought she would be in danger with the Emperor."

"Where did the Emperor take her?" Jayden asks again.

"I don't know. The Emperor said he wanted to keep her safe leading up to her coming of age. He wouldn't even tell me where he planned to keep her."

Jayden punches the wall. Koda, Kaden, Leon, Charlotte and Gia all look tired and defeated.