Defying A Goddess Part 2

*The name at the top of each chapter is the point of view the chapter is based on. Bold is inner wolf voices, italic text is mental links*

Sinlan:

"Sylve?" Sie asked, prompting her to tell us the rest. I shot him a warning glance, we didn't want to push her. He just gave me a small assuring smile.

"Uhm yeah, Sylvia, this is Melinda." Her voice was hesitant, she clearly had debated telling us her name, but it had worked. We now knew the lovely beauty was named Sylvia, the name began to race through my mind. Sylvia, my mate. "Melinda, this is Silas and Sinlan." She motioned to us and hearing our names in her beautiful voice sent chills down my spine and put my wolf on a spiral. 

"Lovely to meet you, I saw you at the party." She put her hand out to me so I took it and shook it gently with a small smile.

"You as well, and you Sylvia." I paused on her name, letting it linger in the air as I put my eyes back on her and dropped her friend's hand. 

"You helped with that poor guy's leg, didn't you? I saw you while Sylve did her thing, she's a wonder for emergencies!" Her friend was talking to Sie, she gave Sylvia a slight shove and her tone was definitely boasting about her. If I had to guess I'd say she was encouraging Sylvia to open up a bit.

"I did yes, nice to meet you. I'm the Alpha of the Shadow Moon pack, this is my Beta. The event was wonderful despite the accident." Why did he mention our roles? I saw Sylvia's eyes about bulge out of her head before she quickly hid it behind a mask of nothingness. Her eyes then flinched one more time, this time more briefly as she pushed a loose strand of the black side of her hair that had fallen back behind her ear. The pup must be in pain again.

Her friend didn't bother to hide her surprise, her voice getting higher in pitch from excitement as she spoke, "The Alpha and Beta? Well, this is an honor for us, ain't it Sylve?" She gave Sylvia another small push but Sylvia just gave her friend a small forced smile, she needed to get to bed, she was clearly in pain and did not want to be pushed right now. 

Although it was nice having her friend go to bat for us, even if it was without all of the details. "Surprised you got Sylve here to talk, she usually tries to hide away at these things." Not surprised since she's only tried to hide ever since she saw us. She probably hid to avoid this exact situation, although it still made no sense to me why she would be avoiding a mate.

"We noticed, well I'm sure the lovely Sylvia wants to be getting back to the hotel. We'll find you tomorrow, if that is alright?" I saw the relief in her eyes as I gave an excuse for her to hurry this situation along. 

"Sure, bye." She pulled her friend by the elbow, quickly walking away.

"Oh okay, bye! Tell Daniel to call me tomorrow, we are leaving around lunch time." Lunchtime, that wouldn't give us much time to find her and change her mind. Wait, Daniel? When did they meet him?

I turned to Sie, "Well, that went better than expected actually, and at least now we have a name.

"Yes, and a deadline. Let's go see what Daniel knows." I followed him back to the crowd, our minds both focused on one thing. Figuring out a way to convince Sylvia to give us a chance, just one chance. 

POV Shift to Sylvia:

The pain that was running through me was mostly leveled out now. Marshall must finally be in one place and no longer being moved around. My chest was beginning to ache just from the constant grounding. I sent a silent cry for them to get the kid to sleep soon. "Come on, tell me something! They were clearly interested in you! What happened?"

I rolled my eyes at Melinda as we entered the hotel room and I plopped onto the bed, closing my eyes and wishing this entire night had never happened. My wolf was pounding on the barrier in my mind. I didn't need to hear her to know she was howling and whimpering. "Can you just stop!" I called into my own mind, wishing she'd stop trying to break through that wall. "Out of everything that happened tonight, the two strangers are the part you want to focus on?"

Please take the bait for a new topic! "Absolutely it is, you saving the day is as casual to me as breathing at this point! Besides, if I offered help right now for the pain I know you are feeling, would you take it?" I sighed as I got up shaking my head. She was right, I'd never share the pain. 

I walked to the bathroom, hoping some cold water would put this headache at bay. "Exactly, so come on! Just give me something, like why they were talking to you or why you didn't just immediately run away when they did?" I splashed cold water on my face and looked into the mirror.

My eyes sunken in and exhausted. Carrying the pain of a shattered leg does that I guess. Along with the constant pain of a wolf trying to wake up. Melinda would actually be someone I could bounce my problem off of, although she'd probably just encourage me to jump at the chance of a mate. "Okay!" I said giving in as I came back into the room and turned off the bathroom light. I took the clip out of my hair and looked down at my best friend who had leaned over the side of her bed. 

She was lying flat on it with her elbows up and her head resting on her chin, like a child being told a bedtime story. "So, it seems…" could I say this, it made it so much more real. Would I be able to really convince her why I had to turn them away if I was honest? Ugh, shut up brain! "Okay, they were my mates." I waited for the screaming, the jumping, or celebrating, but she didn't do any of that.

She just sat up, her eyes wide in shock and her jaw practically on the floor as she stared at me. "Wha, who, wha, what? Mates? Like wolf mates? Like fated by the Moon Goddess of werewolves mates?" 

I just nodded as I sat on my own bed. She turned her entire body to face me now, her feet hanging off the bed and her hands holding the edge. "What did you do? Wait, why are you here then? Aren't werewolf mates like some magnetic pull or something? Wait, what about your sleeping wolf?"

"Melinda!" I put my hands up with a small smile, "One question at a time. Let me try to answer those all, hold on." We both shared a small laugh as I laid down and looked at the ceiling, the pain in my chest gave a sharp spike, his leg must be getting officially set with proper boarding. I sent the energy away into the ground as quickly as possible, trying not to show my pain to Melinda right now. If she knew how bad it was she may not ask to help and just start pulling.

I took a steadying breath thinking back to her questions. "Okay, in order I think." I turned to the side and looked at her still while laying down, the pain and exhaustion were becoming too much to sit or stand from, but I could hold out a bit longer. "I did nothing honestly, just tried to hide, but that failed so I went to reject them, but they stopped me. 

I'm here because I don't want a mate, I still don't. Yes, the mate bond makes us want to be with them, but it takes time for it to grow to that level and I'm not planning to keep them as mates. They just let me put a pin in it because rejecting a mate is painful, so I've heard" and seen, "and I'm already dealing with the pup's pain and my wolf trying to wake up. So yeah, my wolf is awake, but she isn't out exactly. I still have the barrier there, I'm guessing until I accept them as my mates." 

I felt the pang of pain spike again, this time higher than before. It must have not set right and they were resetting it. At least my wolf had laid back down, awake from the feel of it, but no longer trying to break out. "Oh, did you want some help with that?" I smiled at her.

"I'm fine, I'll call on Xain if it gets to be too much." Like as soon as she was asleep so she wouldn't worry about me. 

"Ah, yeah that makes the most sense I guess. But wait, I thought people only had one mate, you said they?" I watched her piece together the craziest part of the entire night, "So like, both of them?"

"Apparently." She fell back on the bed and I couldn't help but laugh. "It's rare but it is known to happen." I was actually really appreciating my best friend right now. She was holding it together way better than I had.

"How rare?" She turned to me, her head propped up and a huge smile on her face.

"I mean I'm not entirely up to speed on wolf history but last I heard it had only happened a handful of times. The most anyone has ever been reported having was three and that happened twice, in all of wolf history unless something's changed recently." I thought back to my wolf history lessons with my father, the lineage side my wolf came from. 

"Twice? Wait, why is it so rare? If this Goddess chooses, why would she put someone with multiple mates? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of growing the population by limiting offspring or something?" 

I shook my head, "Well according to what I knew, it was seen as a sign. Apparently multiple mates meant the person was meant for greatness. Like the two times someone had three it was two different Alphas. One supposedly conquered half his country during his rule, but this was thousands of years ago and not on this continent so who knows how true that is. 

The other was a low level wolf who had three low level mates but they turned out to be one of the best fighting teams ever seen in North American wolf history. They defended their clan against full blown armies just by themselves with the four of them." I actually smiled at the memory of the story of Lamille and her three mates who single-handedly wiped out an entire clan during an invasion while the rest of their clan slept through the night. They'd met the army a mile away and stopped the battle before it even started. 

"Well, can't say I'm surprised you are due for greatness. I come from a full blood witch lineage and you could kick my ass with magic while you slept!" I laughed with her, knowing she wasn't entirely wrong. She was absolutely the strongest witch I'd ever met, but she was no match if we ever became opponents. We had done exercises together to learn one another's levels when I first moved in and I surpassed her before even really trying. "You know, it makes sense actually."

"What does?" I felt the pain in my chest silence. Marshall was finally asleep! I let out a slow breath, thankful for that pain to be done tonight. 

"Shadow Moon are the energy workers. I have been to enough of these wolf gatherings to know the basics of the packs up here at least. They are the ones known for blending energy manipulation into their battling and healing. All their Lunas were apparently great healers. Makes sense you'd be in that pack." 

Although I wasn't born into that pack, in fact, if they found out the pack I was born in they may just reject me themselves. I felt a pain in my chest at the thought, but it wasn't a bad card to play as a way out if I needed it. Another sharp pain, not from Marshall, it was from my wolf, she was whining about the idea of rejecting our mates.

"Well, I won't be their next Luna. They'll have to find someone else."