Return of the Luna Queen

19th February - Present Day

Rosalie

The intense rush of sickness rose up my throat and spilled out onto the ground before me. It had been the one thing I had not remembered anything of, the moment I travelled to the past. Only that, one moment I was following the strange voices, and in the next, I was waking up freezing cold in the early morning due, on the worn alter stone that dominated the middle of the stone circle.

This time it was different. I was expecting it. I chose to travel. And this time I had more at stake. Something was coming after me. And I didn't have time to wait around and wait for them to arrive.

Pulling myself up onto wobbly legs and pushing down the rising discomfort fighting its way up my oesophagus, I race through the undergrowth. The bare branches of the shrubs around me, snagging at my woollen skirts as I follow that now too familiar path that I knew would lead me in the direction of what was Castle Black.

I was already weary, and I could feel the blood dripping down my legs as I ran to get as far away from the time opening as I could. But there was no choice but to push forwards.

Once I was away from the stone circle, I could make my way to the village that was now the Eclipse pack.

But first I had to make sure that the darkness was off the scent of what I had done.

It didn't take long for the confirmation that the darkness had indeed followed me.

The demonic roar of anguish sounded from behind me.

Ducking into a bush, I pull myself out of sight and peek through the spikey gorse around me.

"Arghh." The cloaked figure rose up before me. Like me, he had landed on the central alter stone. Only he seemed a little more stable that I had felt. He seemed to look about himself in confusion. Which was not surprising seeing as he thought he was chasing his prize, my new-born daughter.

"I will find you Rosalie, and your daughter. Mark my words." He stepped down from the stone and stalked the perimeter of the stone circle.

"I know you are there. So, listen well. I can feel that the place you have brought me is not the same as the one we have left. If we have travelled back in time, then I will simply finish the task I failed to do previously. If you have brought me forwards in time, I will seek out the last remaining walker bloodline and I will kill every last one of them. I will make sure that the price you have paid to save your daughters life will be felt tenfold." He spoke with an air of otherworldly indifference. His words were promises not threats, and the implications reverberated through me with each syllable he spoke. "I hope the life of one was worth it wolf."

With his last words spoken, he turned and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

After six months of endlessly looking for an answer for how to escape history repeating itself, we had come to this plan not really knowing where else to look.

The old croan had been explicit. In order to kill the Tenebris, demon of darkness and shadows, we had to have three generations of walker witches to break the curse and stop Tenebris falling back into the shadowed lands.

In the 18th century, that was impossible. Alex's mother was the last known walker witch, and she was dead. No one knew where she had come from or what had become of her family. And with our new-born daughter, Adelaide, being, well new-born, she alone would not be able to break the curse, even if it were possible to wait for her to some into her magic. Which meant my only hope was in my own time, where I knew of at least one walker witch.

I couldn't know for certain if the Luna of the Eclipse pack could help, or even would, but it was the only hope that I had now. And in order to keep generations of walker witches safe, I sacrificed my family, all in the hope that I would find a way to break the curse which was wrapped around them so deftly.

Pulling myself back to my feet, I follow the path to Castle Black, only this time at a much slower pace. Recalling the last moments of being with my mate and children.

I had made a life for myself in the past. I had no wish to leave. But I would never have been able to live with myself, knowing that I was cursing Ada to a lifetime of being hunted, knowing that I could have done something to stop it.

I just hope to the Goddess that I had done the right thing. Yes, Ada would live a life free from torment and endless pursuit. But I had now brought down a great evil on my friends here.

I had to warn them. And preferably before Tenebris found any of them.

"Stop, who goes there." I still on the foot path. Every muscle in my body turning ridged as the masculine voice washes over me.

"No," I whisper under my voice. My mind going blank as the familiar feeling of possession and comfort washes through me. "No, this can't be happening."

The man behind me continues to talk, but I bare him no attention. Panic was beginning to rise up in my blood. And I look down to my left shoulder and pull back the fabric of my dress with trembling fingers.

With the layers of fabric gone, I watch in horror, as the once vivid crescent shaped mark that singled me out as mated to the Alpha King, disappeared from my shoulder. It was as if it was evaporating from my skin, dissolving until there was nothing there. Like the last eight years had never happen.

I turn on the spot in panic, to look at the man who had appeared behind me.

Shock registered in my mind as the pieces of my past begin to slot back into place.

"Rosalie?" The man said, his brows disappearing into his blonde hairline. There was no mistaking the man before me. He had not changed one bit in eight years. Landon Coombes stood before me, bare chest and chiselled to perfection, just as I remembered him. The lines that crisscrossed his face told me that his cock sure demeanour had not changed. He was still as he ever was.

But I couldn't think about that right now. I couldn't think about how handsome he was. Or that I wanted to race into his embrace and hold him. To mark him as mine.

"No, no, no" I shout, clawing at my shoulder, hoping above all else that I was mistaken. "No, Alex, no, come back."

I barely noticed the tears falling from my face. All I could feel was the overwhelming emptiness that now resided in my chest, and the irritating feeling of connection to the man in front of me clawing on the outskirts of my heart.

Rosalie

"Rosalie, are you alright?" Somewhere in amongst the confusion, I must have fallen to the floor. Landon's face came back into view as he pulled me into an upright position.

"Just breathe Rosie. Everything is OK, you are home now." He eyed me worriedly. His blue eyes darting around my face. Becoming increasingly aware of how close he was, and the fact I could feel every single inch of his body touching my skin, I try to pull away. But it was no use. It would seem Landon was in no hurry to let me go. My cheeks begin to warm under his scrutiny.

His worry soon began to harden into what looked like anger.

"Where the hell have you been Rosalie." He spat out, not necessarily viciously, but close to it. "You disappear without a trace for eight years, and now you decide to come back. Do you have any idea how worried we have all been?" His words stung. Of course I knew.

In fact, for weeks, months even, after I first fell through time, all I wanted to do was return home and comfort the ones that I had left behind. Knowing how worried they would be for me. That they would have assumed the worst, that I had been kidnapped or even dead, it broke me. And my only goal had been to return to them.

But then I fell in love. I fell in love with a man I shouldn't have fallen in love with, because he did not belong to my time and I did not belong to his, yet despite this, the goddess had chosen him as my mate. And I couldn't forsake that. So I stayed, knowing the pain I was inflicting on my family and friends. And I know that made me selfish.

For the first time he seemed to take in my dress, and the bits of twig and leaves embedded into my hair. And finally to the now bare spot that once held my mates mark. He looked momentarily relieved. But only fleetingly before it was masked back to careful anger.

Seemingly realising that he was not going to get any answers out of me on the spot, he break his gaze away from my face with a sigh.

"We need to get you home." He stated, doing his best to not look back in my direction. That was fine by me, the depth of his hazel eyes were beginning to make me feel very hot. And to be honest, I'm not sure how I would have even answered the question without being immitted to an asylum for the clinically ill.

He lifted me into his arms gently, barely even flinching under my weight and began to walk in the direction of the village.

He walked in silence. His stony gaze set for straight ahead. To start with I tried to resist the connection that was buzzing between us. Trying to fight away from it as much as I physically could without jumping completely from his embrace. But after a while, I knew it was no use and decided instead to relax into it, taking comfort from it instead. Allowing my connection to Landon to ease the heartache of loosing Alexander.

What could it mean? Why had my mark disappeared? Was Alex OK? The more I tried to make sense, the more confused I felt.

Eventually Landon stops, and sets me down under a tree. We had not yet reached the village, but it had come into view.

A part of me had expected this. But I was in no way prepared to tell Landon what I had been through for all these years.

"Do you have any idea, how upset me all were when we found you gone?" He quizzed me. His voice was emotionless. He couldn't even look in my direction as he spoke, yet just by the set of his jaw, I knew that he was upset.

"We sent out search parties for weeks. Scouring every inch of ground. Drake even sent people down into the old mine and caves. We found nothing. Just a pair of shoes. Your scent just disappeared as if you were never there." He finally looked down towards me, his eyes swimming with the memories.

"Even after Drake called it off, I carried on looking. Me and Steph. We never gave up hope. Steph knew you wouldn't just leave without saying something. Your brother even came over. He was fuming with you. But no one could find anything to say where you had gone.... Well no one except Granny Lou."

"Granny Lou?" I snapped my head up at this. Breaking out of the overwhelming guilt I was beginning to feel at what I had put my friends and family through.

"Yes. Granny Lou." Landon seemed to roll his eyes at this, it was obviously he felt more than slightly irritated at Steph's elderly grandmother.

"What did she say?"

"She told us that where you had gone, we could not follow. That you would be back. And that we should hold out hope. That you would come to realise..." Landon stopped short, setting me down onto my feet. And for a moment he looked uncomfortable.

"Come to realise what?" I prompt, moving forward eagerly.

"That you would come to realise our bond." He said the words in a rush, that if I wasn't listening carefully, I might not have understood them at all.

"She knew?" I said more to myself.

Landon looked confused for a moment, but brushed it off.

"Have you?" He asked expectantly.

"Have I what?" I broke out of my buzzing thoughts.

"Have you come to realise?" He shifted on the spot, picking at a non-existent thread on his cotton shorts.

It dawned on me what he was asking. He wanted to know if I could feel the mate bond growing between us. The truth was, yes. I could feel it tugging me towards him. But I also know that I was not ready to embark on another relationship. Certainly not one so intense as a mate bond. Not twelve hours previously, I was in the arms of Alexander. Loving him. Kissing him. Welcoming out daughter into the world. I couldn't just forget my family and move on so quickly.

"I have always known." He continues. His face dejected. "Ever since the moment I saw you. I knew that you were meant for me Rosalie. But when I realised you didn't feel the connection, I knew I had to give you time. Time to see what I knew to be true. And then you disappeared without a trace."

A sadness settles over my heart as I take in his words. Looking over his bare shoulder which was still missing the mark of being mated to someone.

"You never mated?" I ask softly.

He lets out a small guffaw, turning to look down towards the village.

"No." He says simply. "But I am not a saint Rosalie. I am with someone."

I could feel Nina rustle within me. Jealous that, what she saw as our mate, was in a relationship with someone else.

"That is good." I manage to force from my lips with a tight smile. It didn't matter how Nina felt about the situation, my heart was still with Alexander. "I'm happy for you." The words almost strangled me as I spoke them.

Was I happy for him? No, of course not. But I wasn't about to tell him that.

"And what about you Rosalie?" He asks, his head flopped forwards as if he was preparing himself for a heavy answer. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

I thought about this for a moment. I knew that eventually I had to tell someone of what I had been through. And now was as good a time as any. But the way Landon stood, so dejected and saddened, I had never seen a man look so fragile. But he deserved the truth. Regardless of how I felt in this moment, it would seem the goddess gave me two mates. Even if I wasn't ready to admit it.

"That is a complicated question Landon."

"I thought it rather an easy one." He shot back.

"Sit Landon, I had better start from the beginning...."

21st August 1751

Rosalie

Waking with a start, I reach out a hand to find the only comfort that I want after having my visions. Alexander. He seems to have sensed what the issue was and pulls me into him, holding me against his hard chest.

"Another bad dream?" He asks me sleepily.

"I'm not sure it is a dream Alex. They are so vivid, so real." I breath through the soaring adrenaline which came as part of the aftermath of my night terrors, as I try to regain control of my heartrate.

"What else could they be?"

"Visions. I am sure of it. Its always the same thing. The goddess warning me of a great darkness coming. Alex, something bad is about to happen I can feel it in my body. We always knew that the goddess had bigger plans for me, I think that she is making good on her promise."

"If that is true, my Rosa, then we will face it together. But for now, you have to rest. You need to be strong for the baby." His hand came to rest gently on my tummy. The little surprise which we had never expected.

Having already had four children together, Thomas, Edward and then the twins Melinda and Xander, we had agreed our family was complete. But obviously the universe had other plans, and now three months into the pregnancy, I was undeniably expecting another little black to add to the brood.

So far, this pregnancy had been very different from the rest. I had been lucky previously, in that I had managed to escape many of the usual symptoms than come with being pregnant. Even with the twin, I never had sickness, or discomfort. But this time, I was making up for it. Bouts of running to the latrine taking me at the most inconvenient of times. It had led us to make the pregnancy announcement much earlier than we ordinarily would. On top of that, I seem to have popped almost as soon as I knew the news. So much so, that Alex teased that I was having twins once more.

But above everything else, the worse symptom was that I had been plagued with dreams. Sometimes I woke just with a bad feeling, while on other nights, I wake having remembered the warning. But until now, I had never woken remembering anything concrete.

"Tenebris." I said the name out loud.

"Humm?" Alex mumbled.

"The name of what is coming. His name is Tenebris."

Alex's weight next to me shuffled as he pulls himself into a more upright position.

"You have never remembered anything like before, are you sure?" He peeks down at me.

"Yes, why do you recognise the name?"

"Perhaps. I don't really remember..." He looks off into the darkness, trying to recall something from his past. "My mother once talked about a demon that lived in the shadowed lands. A demon that would one day raise the darkness. She said he was called Tenebris."

I shiver runs down my spine as he spoke. The name alone was enough to plunge off shards of ice to my heart.

"Do you think it is connected?" Lifting a hand to his pace and using my thump to smooth out the worry lines across his brow.

"I do not know, but I intend to find out." He lifts himself from the bed, settling a lingering kiss to my brow. "Sleep now, you need to rest. I will come and find you if I find more."

"Alex..." I call after him. His figuring turning just on the outskirts of the small pool of light the moon emitted through the crack in the curtains. "I love you."

"I love you too, little mate." I could here the small smile in his voice as he called me by one of the few pet names that he liked to use, before silently slipping away.

He disappears quickly into the dark shadows around the perimeter of the room before I even have a chance to protest. Alex had always been an early riser. Often leaving before I had woken. It was a rare morning I found myself still wrapped in his arms. So, I had grown used to his disappearances to his office in the east wing of the castle.

But for some reason this morning, I felt the loss of my mate. Like every moment in his arms counted. I had no idea why I felt this way all of a sudden. I had never felt this way before. I could only put it down to pregnancy hormones.

I tried to push the feeling from my mind. Alex was right about one thing. I was incredibly tired. And I could feel sleep trying to pull me back into its warm embrace. But despite my weariness, sleep would not come. Only the niggling feeling that I needed to be with Alex.

Eventually giving up on the idea of sleep coming to me again tonight, I drag my body from the bed and pad across the cold wooden boards to the door that led down to the reception quarters of our tower.

Not much had changed in this space since I moved into Castle Black. Perhaps there were a few more feminine touches here and there. But it was still dominated by Alex's masculine furniture that I had grown to love.

Yet the one thing missing from the space was the man himself.

Deciding he must be in his offices on the other side of the castle. I plod to the door and make my way to the east wing.

By the time I reach the heavy oak door, my feet were blocks of ice. And my body ached from the early morning exertion.

I push open the door to reveal the face of the one person I had hoped to never have to see again. A face that stoked a jealousy in me like none other. Despite the passage of time.

The foreign beauty, who never seemed to age a day.

"Estelle?" I question, taking in her sneering face and that of my mates behind her. "What are you doing here?"