Legend Of The Moon Princess
Episode 21

Melody’s POV

After hours of flying, we are finally getting close to land in Russia. It looks so beautiful and amazing with all the snow. ‘I can’t wait to go for a run in the snow.’ Artemis said. I giggle at her. ‘Let focus on finding that poor she-wolf first, then we can play and roll around in the snow.’ I compromise. She nodded. “Hey, Melody?” Luca called. “What’s up?” I asked, turning from the window to face him. “How come we have to wait until we find your other mates to mark and mate each other?” He asked while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Oh well, um. When werewolves mark and mate with their true mate… their scents mix together. So to other people, I would smell taken.” I tried my best to explain. I guess even though he knows about it, it is different to finally experience all this with his wolf not being sealed away. “So I have to watch other unmated males gawk at you until we find the others?” He asked in an annoyed tone. I laugh and go over to sit on his lap. “Sorry, but I need my normal scent to help find my other mates.”

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me close. EJ tried to lighten the mood a bit. “If it makes you feel any better Luca, Terrance, and I both have to be present when we find our mate.” Luca looked over at him with wide eyes. “You do?” EJ nodded. “If I was to meet someone that scent drove me crazy, then I would have to bring them to Terrance to see if it works for him.” “Yeah. Since we are identical in human form, but not in wolf form, the elders say it is a 50-50 shot if we share a mate like our dads or if each of us has our own mate.” TJ chimed in.

“Wow, I feel like I should know a lot of this.” Luca said, looking down at the floor. EJ shrugged. “The elders probably thought that it would not do you any good to know this kind of stuff since they thought you had no wolf.” “Yeah, and even if it is explained to you, some things are better off experiencing yourself.” TJ said. I hugged Luca and nuzzled into his neck. He growled and pulled me closer to his body.

‘Attention passengers, we are reaching the landing strip. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts for landing.’ The intercom buzzed. I slid off of Luca’s lap and returned to my seat. EJ and TJ loaded our bags into the car. Zezar was going to drive us to a resort country house my parents reserved for us as we were flying out. It was in Yanino so we would be about 30 minutes away from St. Petersburg. In case we ran into more trouble than we could handle.

Once we got to the house, Zezar pulled out his phone and made a call. I laughed when I heard Tobias’s voice on the other line. It was 7:30 pm here so it was about 10:30 back home with the time difference. I went to my room and Luca went to his own. We agreed that it would be better to sleep in separate rooms, so neither of us would lose control. I started to unpack when my head started to throb. Artemis began to feel agitated in my head. She was pacing around and lightly growling and snarling. ‘Artemis? What the hell is wrong?’ I asked, feeling a bit annoyed myself. Her constant growling and pacing was starting to give me a headache. ‘I am not 100% sure, but I need to run and let some energy out. I feel so pent up.’

I sigh. I know the boys are all tired from the trip here and honestly so was I. But if Artemis was this pent up then there was no way I would be getting any sleep. ‘Ok. We will head out after the boys go to sleep. I don’t want them to push themselves to come with us or to stay up waiting for us. I will just leave them a note before we head out.’ Artemis seemed to agree with that and settled down, only a bit though. I finished unpacking and went downstairs to see that it was empty. I used my wolf hearing to check each of the boys’ rooms. EJ and TJ were both snoring away. Zezar didn’t snore but his breathing was even and deep. I didn’t hear anything from Luca’s room, so I quietly opened the door a bit and peeked inside.

Luca was laying on his bed just staring at the ceiling. “You can come in sweetheart. I promise not to bite.” I rolled my eyes. I should have known that even though he is new to his werewolf senses he would still be able to smell me a lot better than others. I walked in and sat on the edge of his bed. Luca grabs me and pulls me into his arms and almost crushes me into a tight hug. I snuggle into his broad chest. His scent seemed to calm Artemis down a little bit, but she was still worked up about something.

“Good night my little moon princess. I’ll see you in the morning.” I looked up a little surprised and confused at his sudden good night. He smiled down at me. “Your scent both calms my nerves, but it drives me and Remus crazy to be near you and not mate and mark you. If you stay here any longer I may just take you right now.” I feel myself blush and nod. I give him a quick k**s on the cheek and leave his room. Then I hear the shower start going. ‘I guess we accidentally worked him up and now he has to cool off’ Artemis said with a wolfy chuckle.

I rolled my eyes at her statement and quickly went downstairs to the front door. Opening it quietly and closing it quietly. I made my way to the tree line and stripped. The cold doesn’t bother us werewolves since we have such high body temperatures. The cold snow felt nice on my bare feet and legs. I shifted into Artemis and she took off like a freaking bullet. Running through the trees and jumping over anything in our way. We ran around for about two hours before we came to an unfrozen river. Stopping to get a drink. While we were drinking, we suddenly heard a faint sound.

Artemis perked her ears up and listened closely to what was around us. It was a whimpering sound. Like a child crying. ‘Artemis, we got to find it.’ I urged. If a child was lost then they were easy pickings for whatever could be out here in the dark forest. Artemis huffed in agreement and we went searching for the child.

Hearing the cry coming in a little more clearly meant that we were getting closer. Finally, after about 20 minutes we saw a little girl sitting curled up in the snow. She had white-blonde hair that went to her just under her shoulder blades, she was in a nightgown and slippers, and she held her knees to her chest and was sniffling and crying. I didn’t want to startle her with a growl, but I couldn’t shift back since I would be completely naked either.

Artemis softly walked forward and gently whined to get her attention. The little girl’s head popped up and looked right at me. She hissed and her eyes started to glow a vibrant red. ‘Oh a little vampire. She is so cute.’ I cooed. Artemis snorted. ‘Cute? I doubt she would stay that way for long.’ I rolled my eyes. Even though vampires and werewolves have had a long history of being enemies, I really saw no difference between us besides a few.

We eat food, they drink b***d. We shift into wolves, they don’t. They can’t go out in the sunlight without some kind of help, and we can. I gently laid down in the snow and barked at the little girl. She looked at me as if I grew another head. Staying on the ground I slowly crawled to her. She kept a wary eye on me as I crawled, but didn’t move from her spot. Once I was close enough I lightly nuzzled my muzzle into her stomach. I was acting like an overgrown puppy wanting attention to show her I meant no harm. She began to scratch behind my ears and giggle. Artemis started to purr.

When a gust of wind blew through she shivered from the cold. I stood and walked behind her, laying down again before she moved away. Using my tail, I pushed her into the soft pit of my fur to warm her up. Even for a vampire, she was freezing cold. She smiled and rubbed her face into my fur like it was the softest pillow ever to her. After warming her up a bit, I sniffed her hair to pick up her scent. I should try and find a way to get her home. I have a few hours before the sun comes up and I don’t want her burning to death in the sun.

I don’t have any of that potion that Anthony takes to be able to stand the sunlight. I sniff the air and get a faint scent in the direction that the wind was coming from. I nudge the little girl on my back and stand up. She giggles a bit and holds on tight. I started walking in the direction her scent was coming from. ‘We need to be more careful. We don’t want any rogues or vampires to hurt the child. So keep your guard up.’ Artemis says. ‘Yeah. I got it. I just need to get her close enough where she is familiar so she gets home safely.’

After about an hour of walking. Some rustling came from the shadows. The little girl clung tightly to my fur. I gave a warning growl. If this turned into an ugly fight, the child would be put in danger. I needed to get her to safety. “Виктория!” (Viktoriya!) I heard a man’s voice boom in Russian. I looked over my shoulder to the little girl on my back and she perked up at the man’s voice. “Папочка!” (Papochka/Daddy) the little girl said. I am so glad mama taught me Russian. I could now take the little girl to her father. I relaxed my muscles and started walking towards her father’s voice.

All of a sudden a silver chain was ringed around my neck and pulled tightly, throwing me off balance. I fell to the ground and the little girl was thrown off my back. Artemis and I growled and tugged the chain to cover the little girl. Then out of the shadows, there were 20 vampires that surrounded me and the little girl. Five of them had thick gloves on and holding silver chains, one of them was holding the chain that was wrapped around my neck. I stood over the little girl protectively and bared my teeth at these men.

They were all shouting so fast and overlapping each other that I couldn’t understand them. They hissed and swiped at me. I growled and swiped back. I didn’t know who these vampires were and I was not letting them near this child. Another chain was thrown around my neck and one on my front right leg. They started pulling trying to get me away from the child. Artemis snarled and we tried to pull ourselves back closer to the girl. Ignoring the burning pain from the silver.

I saw a vampire reaching for the little girl so I kicked him with my back legs. The shouts got louder and I noticed more vampires were gathering around. More chains and more pulling. I was soon overwhelmed. There were too many vampires pulling and the silver was getting to both Artemis and I. I fell into the snow. Someone jumped up and straddled my neck, wrapping some of the chains around my muzzle. With the exhaustion from the trip, the run, burning pain from silver, and trying to fight off a swarm of vampires… my body was at its limit. Darkness surrounded my vision and I blacked out.