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AUBURON I freeze as I watch Liani rush over to my father. I can’t believe this is happening again. Carro whines in my head at the sight of our father. I can feel the anger brewing inside of me, as everyone zips past me in a hurry. I didn’t even realize Liani’s mom had come in. “Auburon!” “Auburon!!” “AUBURON!” Liani roars shaking me out of my thoughts. “Hmm?” I reply, trying to grasp everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in one of those movies where something happens to the main character and everything is just a blur. “I need you to help move your dad to the circle we made on the floor,” she says. I look to my left and see that there is a circle made of salt and candles on the floor with a huge symbol in the middle. I also see four mirrors around the circle. Two on the sides, one on top, and one on the bottom. I snap out of it completely and rush over to the bed where I see my mother, Liani, and Maya all trying to carry my humongous father to the floor. “Watch out!” I
AUBURON “Lay down,” she says. So, I do. I lay face down on my stomach while resting my head on my arms. It feels weird but nice to lay bare on the bed with my mate. She climbs on top of me and feeling her naked body against mine is sending me and Carro into a frenzy. She begins to pour the oil on my body and I ask “What is this?” “Lavender oil, it’ll help you relax and ease into sleep.” She says as she begins to rub the oil into my back, arms, and shoulders. The way she’s touching me is so delicate yet it feels amazing. Her touch ignites tingles in my skin and I can’t help but relax under the softness of her touch. She massages a little harder, rubbing out any tough spots on my back, and takes one hand and slips it up my neck, massaging deeply there too. She even grabs the base of my hairline at the back of my head and pulls gently. I groan. She chuckles. “Where’d you learn to do this?” I ask. “I guess, it’s second nature,” she says teasingly. “Does this feel nice?” She
JACOBY I stand there still oblivious to what she could mean. I must have a stupid expression on my face as she looks at me again and laughs. After a minute she turns and looks back toward the stream of water below us. “When Kaya attacked you, that was never supposed to happen. With Liani being the chosen one, I intervened. After all, you have such a vital role in this as well. Everyone thinks you are buried at the cemetery when in fact I had a couple of witches preserve your body. I wanted to wait till the time is right, but you’re mate is smart. She suspects that you are still tethered to the Earth,” she says smiling. “Maya knew about this?” I ask. “No, but she definitely knows that you haven’t officially crossed over. Why do you think you didn’t know who Liani’s mate was or the fact that she was the one? Once you crossed over, you would have known all of that. Maya knew that but couldn’t understand why,” she says. “So, my body being preserved? What does that mean?” I ask. “W
LIANI There’s no way we can meet them tomorrow, I mean we just got the letter today. I thought to myself. I hear my grandmother sigh and we all look at her. “This is so Shannara, she wants to catch you guys off guard, so you have no time to prepare for the meeting,” she says. I look over at my mom and see the fear etched into her face. This alone makes me nervous because I know my mother is a badass, even when she didn’t have her magic, she would go toe-to-toe with some of the pack’s strongest warriors. “Well, tell her we say No,” says Auburon. “You can’t just tell her no! It’ll give her a reason to attack, especially if she feels disrespected. Shannara is egotistical, we don’t want to bruise her ego right away,” my Grandmother says. “Well we have to figure something out!” says the Queen. We all watch as she goes back to pacing around the room. The room fell silent until the King and I locked eyes. “What do you think we should do Liani?” he asks me. I wanted to scream that I do
AUBURON Seeing Liani match my energy as I tried to tease her when I took off my clothes set both Carro and me ablaze. My little wolf was beautiful, smart, sexy, and powerful. She was perfect to me, let alone for me. Carro has been wanting to take over and mark her for a while now, but I’ve been holding out because I’m afraid something will happen once I do. There’s a part of me that’s not comfortable with happiness. I’m always waiting on the other shoe to drop, for something bad to happen, and since I’ve met Liani my energy has been matched and I have been met with consistency. I like it, but there’s a part of me that won’t let me get comfortable until I know that she’s safe. That my family is safe. That my uncle and her aunt, any witch or anybody that was against us is gone. When she ran from Carro and I, the predator in us woke. If she wanted to run, we would definitely catch her. Her wolf was smart and I can tell Carro loved seeing her for the first time. Her shiny white fur, wi
LIANI As soon as we walked onto the open field, I felt a shift in energy. It was heavy, dark, and absolutely sickening. I looked at Auburon and could tell that he was feeling this too, so I immediately placed my hand over his head to try to set up some sort of boundary with the dark magic. My mother and grandma followed suit. When the seven women appeared before us, I took a look at all of their auras. Surprisingly, all of them weren’t completely tainted with dark magic. It wasn’t until my eyes fell on a woman with long black hair and tan skin that I realized she was Shannara. Her eyes were also dark, almost as if there was no life behind them. “Hello Liani, Auburon,” she says. She didn’t even bother acknowledging the King, or my family. That sort of pissed me off. She and the rest of the elders stood a great length away from us. We were on one side of the open field, and they were on the other. “Hello… you must be Shannara,” I said loudly as my voice echoed across the open field.
LIANI As I make my way toward the direction of where my father is walking from, I stop in my tracks when I see my mom hugging him. Iris whines in my head and I feel my heart beat heavily in my chest as I witness this sight. “H-how?!” I whisper. Iris snaps me out of my thoughts and I continue running toward them. “D-dad! D-daddy!” I say as I run. My mother turns around and moves out of my father’s view as he opens his arms and I jump in them. “Hi, little one,” he says as we hold each other in a death-grip hug. After a minute or two we finally release each other. “How are you here?! How do you have your body!? What the hell-” I say. My dad chuckles and my mother giggles as tears run down her cheeks from her eyes. He simply points to the sky and says “Thank the moon goddess!” I freeze as I feel the energy getting heavier behind me. The hair on my arms stand up again and for a moment, the slither of happiness I felt left in an instant when I realized where we are and who we were
LIANI I thought that I would be more nervous after hearing that it was about time to mate and ascend the throne. But, luckily I’m not. I’ve been waiting for Auburon to mark me and now knowing that it’ll happen soon, has me excited. When King Daniel said that he was ready to pass the crown and that it was time for us to complete the mating process, Auburon’s eyes were locked on mine. For a minute, I thought I had seen flames within his Irises. Goddess, I can only picture what I think our first time will be like the passion that we’ll create, the love that we’ll make once we mate, how my back will arch and our bodies will be pressed together. I envision our souls leaving our bodies and entwining in the air. I blush at the thought and this time my father clears his throat. “Well, uh, it is nice to meet you, your majesties,” he says bowing before King Daniel and Queen Emris. Then he glares at Auburon and extends his hand. “Prince Auburon,” my father says and I hear Queen Emris and