Ivy POV
There was once a time in my life when I considered and aspired to be a princess. A single phrase from a child’s book made me feel like anything was possible and that was—Once upon a time.
Who knew those four little words could change so fucking much in my life?
Every young girl dreams of her once upon a time at some point in her life, and when we are young, we never really consider what the complications of our dreams could be. In reality, we aren’t given the choice of where our path is going, but instead, how we handled the shit thrown at us.
Some might say that is predetermination, but for me… I call it a miscalculation.
I felt lighter than I ever had before, and when the mist started to clear, I found myself walking from the clouds that surrounded me towards the figure of a woman I had never seen before.
Her golden hair hung around her face in gentle waves while a curious glint held unwavering light in her eyes. “You’re finally here,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing to happen.
“I’m finally where?” I asked with confusion, watching the amusement flow off of her.
“It isn’t about where you are, but where you have been,” she replied, confusing me even more.
I had been a patient person most of my life, and over the course of the last few months. I would like to think I had been a very patient and understanding individual. So for this woman to stand before me speaking riddles—it was fucking annoying.
“Do you care to elaborate on whatever it is you’re talking about since I’m dead and need to like voodoo hoodoo or whatever to the great beyond?” I sighed, not wanting to deal with cryptic messages from this woman.
“Dead?” Laughter escaped her lips. “You’re not dead. Do you not know who I am?”
“No.” I deadpanned, crossing my arms over my chest. “Am I supposed to?”
A sparkle in her eye caught me off guard as she stepped towards me. Her long white and blue dress flowed behind her like the Greek goddess she seemed to be. There was no telling what would happen to me here, but then again, I have had a lot of peculiar shit happen to me lately.
“I have many names. The wolves, you know, refer to me as the moon goddess. Some even refer to me as Selene. However, the name I preferred for many centuries was the name my husband called me—Frigg.
“Frigg… as in the Norse goddess, Frigg?”
There was no way that was possible, but her smile told me otherwise.
“Ivy, over hundreds of years, people have ordained what they will to find the faith that fits them. The gods and goddesses all have had many names, but there was always one thing that never changed—the love we had for those on earth.”
Confusion filled me trying to understand what she meant. If she had loved so many on earth humans and other creatures alike, then why did they not save those who should have been saved?
It didn’t make sense.
“I’m sorry. I’m just not a religious person—” I replied, giving her an uninterested look. “So you will have to forgive me when I ask where the fuck you and the others have been for hundreds of years while those on earth have suffered left and right.”
“Well,” she smiled warmly. “Even though we are what we are, people have to learn to follow their own guidance. It wouldn’t be right of us to tell them what to do. How would they grow if we constantly held their hand?”
She had a point. One I couldn’t deny.
Evolution was an important aspect of life, and even though we tried to tell ourselves everything happens for a reason and there is always a purpose… it doesn’t always make sense.
“I can understand that,” I replied. “But what am I doing here?”
Reaching out, she looped her arm through mine and smiled. “Now that is a question I was waiting for you to ask, my child.”
The ominous feeling of the place I was in did nothing to ease my mind. I wasn’t sure what this woman’s intent was, no matter who she claimed to be. Also, if I wasn’t dead, then how the hell did I get here?
“Care to elaborate, then?” I asked with a pointed glance.
“Of course, but first… there is someone I want you to meet.”
Letting a small sigh escape me, I follow her without complaints. It wasn’t like I really had much of a choice anyway because her grip on my arm was like a vise.
“Kara…” Frigg sing-songed as we turned a corner that opened up into a lush garden area with tall white pillars that seemed to disappear into the sky.
My eyes landed on a tall warrior woman with long red hair that cascaded down over the front of her. Her deep sea-green eyes met mine, and as they did, a warm smile crossed her face.
“Is this her?” The woman asked as she took a step closer with a calming aura that ran off her body like a rushing river. Merely being around her made me feel at peace, but I fought against it. I had to stay aware of everything so I could get back to my mates.
I couldn’t fall prey to whatever these two women wanted.
Frigg let go of her grip on me and smiled, making her way towards Kara. The sudden feeling of being in the wrong place set a course through me I wasn’t sure of.
“Yes, it is. Our very own Eternal.” Frigg turned to stare at me, tilting her head. “Never had I thought the Eternal would be as beautiful as she is.”
“Eternal?” I questioned. “Will one of you please fucking tell me what’s going on because honestly, if I’m not dead and supposed to be here, I would love to go back to where I was.”
Both women began to cackle at my response as Kara took the initiative to come closer to me. “You were never told anything about your history?”
“No, up until I went to live with—” pausing, I realized the one thing I hadn’t even thought about before. “I need to go back. They’re waiting for me. Please tell me how I get back to them. Are they okay?”
My heart clenched thing how they would be reacting to me not being there if I wasn’t dead. They barely had made it without me before, and Talon.
“Oh god, is Talon okay?”
“Shhh—” Frigg hushed as she appeared at my side. “Your mates are okay. They think you’re sleeping, child. Don’t worry.”
“But Talon… did it work?” I asked, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall.
“Talon?” she questioned, looking off while she was thinking. “Oh! You mean the angry ancient? Yes, he is still alive.”
“Angry ancient?” I replied with hesitation. “Why do you call him the “angry” ancient?”
“Because he is,” Kara snickered. “Volaire was angry in the beginning and even though he was recreated in his new form, he will continue to be angry. Such a grumpy creature. I don’t understand why…”
Running my hands over my face with furrowed brows, I tried to understand what the hell they were talking about. “You mean that he was alive before Talon? I’m so confused right now. You guys are literally talking in circles around me.”
“Everything runs in circles, Ivy. Life grows, lives, and dies. When you die, your spirit is cast-off to be reborn again. Typically, within the same family generation you lived before, and without any memory of your prior life.” Kara explained as she picked up a flower and watched it wilt in her hand.
“Well, there is an exception to that…” Frigg chuckled, looking at Kara, who rolled her eyes and nodded.
“Yes, because your sister loves to play funny jokes, Frigg.”
Both women continued going back and forth about some family dilemma as I stood trying to process everything they were telling me. Talon and Hale were not just as they were by accident.
They were reborn with the spirit and bloodline of another creature?
“Look, will you both stop? You’re confusing the shit out of me,” I finally snapped, catching their attention. “So, you’re telling me that someone else is inside them?”
“No,” Kara replied with a raised brow. “They are reborn into new lives, but the gene in which they care is descendent from the original.”
“Why don’t Damian and James have it? They don’t have the gene?” I replied, trying to catch them up on whatever webs they were spinning.
Instead, though, their faces fell, and sorrow took over them. “They have the gene, Ivy. James has not unlocked his, and Damian… well, his was destroyed when he was a child.”
There were so many questions racing through my mind at her words, but I felt the metaphorical stab of a large blade through my heart.
“What do you mean Damian’s was destroyed? What happen to him?”
With a heavy sigh, Frigg shook her head. “That isn’t our story to tell Ivy. You will have to wait until he is ready to tell you.”
Damian will never be what his brothers are, and James… He hadn’t unlocked the side of him that he was so thankful he wouldn’t have.
“Can you tell me why you said I’m Eternal?” I whispered before I let my eyes lift to meet their gazes.
“Ivy, you are the one we have waited for, for so many generations. You defied the odds and broke your father’s family curse. You were not recreated, but the heavens created you. You’re not one of them.”
Frigg seemed almost speechless at what she was trying to explain, and slowly the pieces started to fit and I felt myself understanding.
“I’m like you?” I asked, watching as tears filled her eyes.
“Yes. You’re one of us, but you are the celestial of earth. You derive from an eternal bloodline that was extinct, or at least, that was what we thought.”
All of this… It was more overwhelming than I expected. I knew when I completed the circle with the guys, things were going to change, but with all the answers they gave, there was still so much context that was missing.
Everything was a mystery I felt in the end only I could figure out.
“So what does this mean for our future?”
Kara stood firm as she thought over my question.
“There will be a large hurdle in your future, Ivy,” Kara finally spoke up. “You will be challenged, but no matter how hard it gets, you need to listen to yourself. We won’t be able to help you in the future… you will be on your own.”
Of course, I would be. I groaned internally.
“Alrighty then. Well, as much as this has been fun, I need to go. So, can one of you show me how to get home?”
“Ivy, this is serious..” Kara tried to explain, but holding up my hand, I cut her off.
“No, I am quite aware of how serious this is. Like you said, though, you can’t help me. I have to figure this out on my own. Right now, though, I need to go home.”
Kara stepped forward but was quickly stopped by Frigg, who gave her a stern glare and shook her head.
As her eyes turned to lie upon me once more, the corners of her lips turned up into a smile. “You’re right. We shouldn’t keep you away.”
As she spoke, a tingling sensation rose over my skin, and the white light that had blinded me once before slowly began to grow. There was more I had wanted to know, but there was no time for me to consider them now.
I needed to get home to the guys. I needed to make sure they were okay, because with things the way they were before I completed the circle, there was no telling how Damian would be acting.
“Ivy!” Frigg called out one last time as the white began to close, “control your hunger. Don’t let it control you.”
Her words were the last thing I heard before I was once again plunged into a blinding light with no escape. My heart grew warm and my fists clenched, I felt a jolt of pain through my system like that of a bolt of lightning.
The pain caused a scream to tear through my throat as I found myself jolted from my sleep with wide eyes looking around at the white walls of my room from a different perspective.
“Holy fuck.”
