Artemis' Gift Book 2
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M. Syrah
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In a world where werewolf packs are tearing each other apart, the Moon Goddess sends her four lycan champions to Earth to restore order. Desmond, one of the champions, is cursed for disobeying her orders and spends a thousand years in isolation. When his curse is lifted, he meets Cassandra, an alpha werewolf, and together they face internal betrayals, rogue attacks, and a looming war with vampires. As they navigate their growing bond and the challenges of leadership, they uncover deeper conspiracies that threaten their world.
The Moon Goddess's Punishment
Book Two: The Four Horsemen Walk with Death
For a thousand years, the lycan Death roamed the earth alone, cursed by the Moon Goddess for disobedience. When she lifts the curse, she directs him to his mate, Alpha Cassandra. But can he bring her anything but death and destruction? And what if he loses control when he finds out someone is betraying her and threatening her pack?
The Moon Goddess walked the long white halls of her palace in the realm of gods. She marched with a determined expression etched on her refined face.
She wouldn’t back down from her decision. She was prepared to make the rebellious packs pay.
As their maker and deity, she had a duty toward the werewolves. That included killing them if they broke her laws. She was walking toward her lycans, her faithful personal army and carriers of deeds.
The lycans were her first children.
They were bigger and stronger than werewolves, with the particularity of having three forms instead of two. They had a human form, a half-beast form, and a wolf form.
It gave them advantages over the werewolves.
She loved them dearly and had made them her army in case she needed to punish or to help her werewolves. Tonight, she was on a punitive mission, and she knew exactly which lycans were fit for the job.
She walked into her throne hall and noticed that the males were already there.
They all dropped to one knee as she entered and walked to her throne, her ethereal light-blue gown floating with each step she took.
Selene sat down and watched the four men in front of her. Her champions. Her favorite soldiers.
They were all tall and muscular, as were all her lycans, but these four had passion and a level of loyalty that she loved and needed.
“Please stand up,” she said, her voice soft. “I gathered you here because I need the four of you to deal with a situation on Earth.”
The four men looked expectant at her words, but they didn’t say anything before she was done.
“Two of the largest packs in Europe are fighting each other, causing numerous casualties. It would be simple if the casualties were only wolves, but sadly, humans got caught up in this affair.
“I need you to go take care of their leaders. They must pay for their crimes.”
The four men bowed to their Goddess and left the palace behind to carry out their task.
The Goddess had opened a portal for them to arrive on the battlefield. She had mentioned that the leaders had to pay, but it was easier said than done.
The lycans took a whole week to assess the situation, and they weren’t pleased with what they saw.
The werewolves were successfully destroying each other but also all the humans they crossed paths with.
If only their sins had stopped at killing.
The four lycans noticed the wolves were also taking advantage of the situation to rape and plunder, risking exposure of their world.
They knew what would happen if the humans suspected their presence. What had happened to the vampires was the perfect example.
When the vampires had tried to impose themselves on humans, they’d ended up being slaughtered, and now they were back in hiding.
Humans were weak, but they had numbers. Every good strategist knew what that meant.
On the seventh night of their arrival on Earth, the lycans decided to establish a plan to get rid of their targets.
They sat around a fire, cooking their dinner in the middle of a wood somewhere in middle Europe.
Fabian was the cook out of the four, and he loved to indulge in the activity. He was making sure with an expert eye that the meat was roasting nicely over the fire.
Payne was looking at him intently, scowling because Fabian was making cheery little hums as he busied himself with the meat.
It irritated Payne with a passion. He wanted to read the information he had on the alphas without being pestered.
Desmond was looking at both of them and was utterly bored by the situation. He’d always been a cool, detached person, but you’d better never get on his bad side, or things would turn ugly fast.
In that way, he was the opposite of Wade.
Wade was watching the other lycans and could barely keep his temper in check. He was a ticking bomb and was soon about to explode. He wanted one thing, to finish this mission and go home.
“Let’s just kill them. Why do we have to plan anything?” Wade asked, annoyed.
“That’s always your solution.” Payne sighed. “We can’t just go in their camps and murder them. I don’t really want to deal with hundreds of angry werewolves. Even we wouldn’t survive that.”
“Payne is right,” Desmond said, boredom dripping from his every word. “We’d have to kill them all if we did that, and I’m not sure we’d survive.”
“Then what do we do?” Wade snarled toward Desmond. “If you’re so clever! Tell me, what do we do?”
Desmond stared at the other man, and it was enough to calm Wade down. He knew what Desmond was capable of if triggered, and he didn’t want that to happen to him.
Desmond was like the sea—calm one second and a raging hell the next. He never missed his target when he was a raging hell, and pain would be the least of Wade’s problems in this situation.
“We infiltrate the ranks, and we strike,” Payne said to disengage the two men. “That’s the best we can do.”
“Do we have to split, then?” Fabian asked.
Payne nodded to the other man before scratching his blond hair at the back of his head.
“It’s best if I go with Desmond, while you team up with Wade. We know what happens when Desmond and Wade are together, and the Moon Goddess said to kill the leaders only.
“We don’t want to make it worse.”
“Fine,” Wade said, relaxing his shoulders. “We do it your way. Shall we start first thing in the morning?”
Payne nodded again.
“That would be best. The wolves will be busy, and we’ll be able to blend in.”
Wade smiled a fierce smile. He would finally get some action.
He wasn’t particularly fond of gathering intelligence, and spending a whole week at it was the maximum he could endure. He needed action, and fast.
“Perfect.” He smirked.
The others nodded, and they started their dinner. They would need the strength that the food could provide them because killing an alpha was never an easy task.
It was as dreadful as it was draining, but they would always abide by their Goddess’s wish. No matter what.
