Crossing Paths With The White Wolf

Natalia's

POV

Despite my worry, I started chuckling. "Yeah right," I said.

Gonzalo sighed, "It's the truth, Natalia."

"Thank you for the chuckle, but can we get serious," I said. I looked at Gonzalo, Celeste and Alpha Markus. None of them were laughing. "You can't be serious? You think I'm going to believe that the moon goddess mated me to her immortal brother? A god? When I've done nothing but disappoint her?" I said.

The moon goddess loves us. This changes everything. - Hestia said in my head. There was nothing but hope and love flowing from her. "Gonzalo, can I borrow your laptop?" Celeste asked.

Gonzalo passed her the laptop on the coffee table. Celeste typed away for a couple of minutes before she passed me the laptop. It was a page out of what looked like an old book. There was a hand painted picture of an Aztec warrior. It looked eerily similar to Helios.

Huitzilopochtli

God of Sun and War

Brother of Moon Goddess Coyolxauhqui

Goes by:

Ra The Egyptian Sun God.

Helios - The Sun God of the Greeks.

Surya The Hindu Sun God.

Inti The Incan Sun God.

Kinich Ahau - Mayan Sun God.

I looked back at the picture. Could this really be him? I looked back up at Celeste. "You are telling me that Helios is immortal and thousands of years old?"

"One thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine in December," Gonzalo said, "I have been his right-hand man since the battle with his sister, Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon. You know her as Selene."

I looked at Celeste, "You're not f*****g with me?"

"We're not Nat. We really aren't. It's why we wanted you to stop healing him when you were draining yourself. We thought you would die and we knew he wouldn't," Celeste said kindly.

That made sense. I did briefly wondered why there were so quick to give up on him. We don't have to be alone anymore -Hestia said. I started feeling something I hadn't felt in a long time. Hope. Hope that Selene wasn't punishing me with another mate who would just leave me one day. This was it. The end of my torment and loneliness. The end of regretting that deal we'd made when we were broken.

I nodded to myself, lost in my thoughts. I almost f****d this up, but I had a chance to make things right. I just needed to find him and beg his forgiveness. "What's the plan?"

"We wait for Helios. He's always come through before," Gonzalo said with sadness in his eyes, and I nodded, my brain was in overload mode.

I looked at Eun and asked Gonzalo, "How long do you think that will be?"

"Hard to tell. I don't think he'll get word to us to recover him until he gets the information he needs. A week or two, I would guess," Gonzalo said.

"He said two months tops," Markus added.

"He will let them torture him for that long?" I asked, my heart sinking.

Markus sighed, "You need to understand Natalia. Helios spent almost his whole life hunting his siblings because he thought that they had killed his mother. He killed them all on a full moon, to force Selene to watch as he murdered them. When Helios learned the truth last year, Selene sent him on a quest to redeem himself. When we talked today, he said he believes this to be what she's tasked him to do. Helios is determined to earn the forgiveness of his sister. He will do whatever is necessary, including allowing them to ******e him so that he can set her children free."

I felt the tears flowing down my face at his words. I looked down at Eun-Kyung who was playing on what Gabriel had called a Nintendo Switch. "We need to get these girls home. It should only take a day or two. If I could borrow a few warriors, I would like to get rid of the poachers there before we come back. I need them safe so I can focus on getting my mate back."

"I'll ask for a couple of volunteers. I'm sure we'll have no trouble getting them after they saw how they treated the shifters we rescued," Alpha Markus said. "I would come but..." he looked at Celeste.

I nodded in understanding. "Your place is with your pregnant Luna. It's understandable, Alpha Markus." Markus' eyes widened before he looked at Celeste, who looked at me with wide eyes and then blushed under the gaze of her mate. "You're pregnant Tuli?" Markus got up.

"s**t, you didn't tell him!" I squeaked.

"There hasn't been time!" Celeste told me before she turned to her mate. "Markus, I didn't know. Nat told me when she healed my side at the compound. Then we got shot at, we had to organize all those poor feral shifters and then the house blew up. I don't even know how far along I am." Markus pulled her up from the couch and hugged her. "Goddess, we have to get you to Dr. West. You took a really bad fall when the house blew up."

"The pup is fine, Alpha Markus," I said and he pulled away and sat back down, pulling Celeste onto his lap. "The first thing I did after the explosion was check on it so I could heal it if needed. The pup's heartbeat was strong and my gift saw no damage to her womb. The pup is less than a week old. It will take more than a small bump to hurt it."

"Thank you, Natalia. Please call me Markus. I'll call Gillian and see who we can send with you," he said.

"Thank you Al- Thank you Markus. I - I hate to continue to be a burden, but I'll need a place to stay after I come back. Helios' house was blown up and I don't know anyone but you guys."

"You're all coming to Crescent Moon. I already texted for Theo and Sebastian to stay there. We're leaving tonight, after we eat and after I clean up and borrow a shirt?" He said to Gonzalo.

"Umm, I'm not sure anything I have will fit you, but I'll take a look," he said, getting up. "I can keep the business going from Crescent Moon, but if you don't mind, I'll need access to a computer for a few zoom meetings? I'm sure once they realize who owns the house that blew up, I'm going to be busy fielding some questions," he said. Right, I forgot that they are also business men.

"Of course. We have some small offices on the first floor equipped with everything you'll need. You can take over one of them. I'll also make a few calls to see if we can keep his name out of the news," he said as they headed over to one of the bedrooms. "Celeste, do you want me to heal that head wound?" I asked her.

"Oh no, it healed a while ago. I just need to clean the blood off," she said, and headed to the sink to wet a cloth.

"Can I ask you a question?" I said nervously.

"Of course," she said while she cleaned her face.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

"Do you think Helios will forgive me?"

Celeste stopped and looked over at me, confused, "Why would you think he needs to forgive you?"

I looked down at the cutlery I was putting on the table, "I've known he's my mate since the night the containers arrived with us in it. I wasn't planning on telling him until the night I would reject him. Then back at the house...we..." I blushed. "We're werewolves, Natalia. His house is not soundproof," she said, and when I got really flustered she added, "It's perfectly normal."

"After we had s*x, I said some things. I could tell they hurt him and I didn't get a chance to explain to him," I finished.

"Everyone has their own demons, Natalia. Helios will understand that. Just talk to him." I nodded at her words. "So, you're technically related to Helios then?"

She brightened at that, "Technically, I'm a great great great- many other great grandaughter of his sister Chantico, but I also have her wolf, Kara. We may have started out with a weird relationship, but to me, he's family." "There's stuff about me. I don't know what he'll think of me when I tell him everything I've done."

"A past only matters for the lessons. Helios knows this better than anyone, and if he doesn't, let me know. I'll give him a good talking to," she said.

"You're not even going to ask what it is?" I asked.

"When you're ready, I'm all ears," She smiled, "If you're his mate, you are family too."

I smiled at her. She had this warmth about her that just soothed and inspired. 'Can you hear this?' I tested.

She jumped and turned around, then gave me a huge grin, "I knew you liked me!" She hugged me and I laughed.

"It's hard not to like you, Tuli" Markus' voice came from behind. He was wearing a wife beater shirt and it was too small for him. I tried to hide my smirk, but he caught it. "It's all he has that fits me. I'll send Gabriel down to the corner store to pick something up for me after dinner. I thought this was better than eating bare chested," he said as he blushed.

"Pardon me for being average sized," Gonzalo smirked, though honestly, he could pass for a werewolf, though not an Alpha.

"Are you immortal too?" I asked Gonzalo half way through dinner.

"No, only Helios. We haven't aged since the battle all those years ago, but we can be killed. We never quite figured out how or why."

"Hmmm," I said thoughtfully.

Two days later. I was in a plane with the girls, and the warriors Zack, Matteo, and three others. I kept forgetting their names. I wanted this done as soon as possible in case Helios found a way to contact us. I had started feeling discomfort in different places on my body and I knew they were torturing him. He'd shown up in the live feed Evergreen was plugged into. I don't know what kind of contacts Markus had pulled, but the house explosion was deemed a gas leak and Evergreen had faked a visa record along with a statement from Gonzalo and the police believed that Helios was abroad at the time of the explosion. They were dealing with the insurance but overall, they had kept his name and picture out of the news feeds.

We dropped off Dan-Bi and Si-Woo first. As expected, their parents cried when they found out their girls were alive. By the time we approached Eun-Kyung's parents, they were already running towards us, having been linked by their pack members. They dropped to their knees as they embraced and it brought tears to my eyes. Hae-Wan hugged me and thanked me for keeping my promise.

It turned out that once the pack figured out who the poachers were from the cameras, they took matters into their own hands. No one had been taken and the camera feeds were going to be kept open in the woods until they were sure no one else would take their people. In the end, the warriors got a hero's welcome and then helped me pack a few keep sakes I would be taking with me. I said good bye to Haw-Wan and Eun-Kyung and I left them an email that Celeste had helped me set up before we left so that they could reach out if they needed anything. They asked me to stay for a few days, but I was too anxious to enjoy any kind of visit. There was nothing left for me to do here. Mate was home and we needed to find him. We began our return that same night.