[ Chapter Twenty One—the curse of tsar lunar ]

I opened my eyes only to be greeted by a quickly darkening sky with nothing but shrubs and tall trees around me. Dirt met my bare feet, and the rest of my clothes hung off my body in tatters.

My toes moved on their own accord, grounding against the dirt. I cringed at the repulsive dirty feeling it gave.

Looking down, I frowned at the nice pair of jeans that were utterly ruined. My t-shirt was in no better shape as it adorned many tears.

And my shoes were missing... seeing as I am a shoe girl this did not sit well with me.

It admittedly took me a few minutes to truly get my bearings together as I took in my situation. My canines had long since elongated and my eyes were permanently stuck glowing blue: there was no putting the huge beastly teeth or the glowing eyes away.

I could feel the full moon — Tsar Lunar was closing in quickly. My head is scrambled, my thoughts chaotic and animalistic. Briefly, I was able to get my head above the ocean of madness to grasp the name that came to mind.

Tsar Lunar?

The name was familiar — it sat right on my tongue as though I knew him personally. My attention shifted away from the random name that popped into my head and onto my current circumstances.

A heavy breath escaped me as I attempted to wiggle: at that second, the heavy chains became apparent. My being was chained to a tree.

A growl was beginning to force its way up my throat, but the sound was frozen as my gaze darted around and caught a familiar sight.

Aro, Caius, Felix, Demetri, Alec, and Santiago stood huddled around a phone.

While I was angered at the thought of them putting me in chains, I also understood. The full moon was a scary time to be around a werewolf, especially when my mind was not all here.

They had yet to notice my conscious state and all looked rather... frazzled.

My vampire mate, a man that I had only ever seen looking put together and the epitome of perfection actually looked frazzled. If I did not know that he was incapable of sleep, I would say that Caius appeared to need a serious nap.

He was missing his jacket and tie to his suit. The expensive black collared shirt was unbuttoned toward the top revealing milky pale skin that had me swallowing. It was half untucked from his black dress pants.

His hair was also on the messier side, the long tresses appeared as though he had run his hands through it multiple times which gave it a slight wave that was not normally present. Caius well... he actually appeared quite hot.

It caused a fire to open up in the pits of my stomach.

It made sense, after all, if it was my more animalistic side that was being forced out because of the moon and Caius is my mate... well... I shivered hoping that I did not get too weird with him.

An imagine of myself and him very naked with him taking me right on this tree forced itself to the forefront of my mind.

Shaking it out of my head I immediately scolded myself. No, absolutely NOT!

But then again — he surely had some tricks up his sleeve from how long he'd been around...

NO!

And like that the image was banished from my mind, no matter how much I secretly desire it to be a reality.

I had already been weird enough with him earlier... earlier... oh shit, EARLIER!

Immediately — memories of earlier in the day caught up to me. Memories that led me to how exactly I ended up tied to a tree in a forest no doubt miles away from Volterra with a frazzled-looking Volturi.

How long had I been out?

My mind was clearer than it was earlier, but there was still some static that would not leave my head until after the period of the full moon. Against my will, my gaze drifted back to Caius — there was an odd tingling sensation in my abdomen.

Swallowing, I immediately tried to shift my thoughts so that the sensation did not travel down... south.

It's not my fault, okay! The full moon messes with hormones and mates and shit.

However, it was then that I heard a rather familiar voice coming from over there as well. Actually multiple familiar voices — they were talking to the Cullen's on the phone.

"So she has not spoke of Tsar Lunar before?" Aro questioned and Carlisle gave a response that I did not bother listening to.

Because the name of Tsar Lunar stirred something within me. For a brief moment, anger washed through my system, because how dare a vampire say the great name of Tsar Lunar?! That anger faded away as I stared up at the sun which seemed to be nearly all the way down.

The sky is purple and quickly darkening — the beast within is knocking. The wolf was scraping at the door.

I stopped the groan that desperately wanted to leave my lips, choosing to relax against the tree as pain erupted from inside of me. Fire was forcing its way through my veins.

"Felix, go make sure the chains are tight," at the sound of Caius's words, I immediately dropped my head and closed my eyes pretending to be out still.

There was no way that they would be able to tell if I was awake for my heartbeat was beating far quicker than normal. Another sad side-effect of the full moon.

The sound of Felix's footsteps came closer. His footfalls were silent, but I could hear them clear as day: in this state, I could literally feel where he is. Where the vampire is.

Cold hands quickly came up and tugged on the bindings as though checking where any potential loose spots may be. In that instant, my thoughts turned primal.

Felix is vampire. And Felix is not vampire mate. Felix should not be so close. Only vampire mate is allowed to be close.

My body jerked once again — similar to a reflex or perhaps a twitch that happens in sleep. I was roaring in Felix's face, saliva going everywhere. My teeth had managed to get bigger, bigger than I was even able to make them anytime other than the full moon. From how crystal clear my vision was there was no doubt that they were fully glowing.

I attempted to scratch at him — destroy him, but my clawed hands were still chained down.

I assume I must have looked terrifying from the surprised scream that ripped from Felix, the vampire guard speeding to the other side of the clearing in the forest.

The next thing I was able to pick up was the sound of laughing, familiar boisterous laughing that came from the phone.

"Don't tell me that little girl-sounding scream was Felix?!" It was Emmett cackling but no one paid him any mind other than Esme who I could hear scolding him.

The Volturi turned to me faster than light. Trepidation was rampant in each of the vampire's gazes as they stared at me cautiously.

Caius eyed me before nodding his head toward the guard and they all immediately split off to various areas of the clearing.

It was obviously a trapping effort to make sure that I did not leave this general area.

With one last roar, my head had once again fallen as I began to weakly cough. My bones rattled from within, the slightest shifting beginning to occur.

"You're not real, you're not real, you're not real..." near silent chanting that turned into sobs of, "he hates me, he hates me, my mate hates me..." I was mumbling.

It never exactly bothered me before that Caius hated me, so why did it now feel as though it was the end of the world that he hated me? Rage and panic began to bubble within me the more I thought about it.

I was so distracted that I did not even notice how the Devil himself approached me.

"What are you blabbering about, wolf?" Caius suddenly demanded and my head snapped up.

He stood a few feet away, much closer than before but he was obviously keeping his distance. His head was cocked to the side with a hard look drawn over his face, fair locks falling. He was beauty at its finest.

His red eyes were focused on me with such an intensity it made that feeling in my abdomen flare once more.

Sadly, my mind was internally screaming — the beast within jumping for joy at the sight of our mate so close.

Shaking my head almost angrily, I looked down again not missing the quirk of his brow at my actions. "No — NO!"

"What is the problem?" Caius once again demanded, surprisingly keeping his voice calm but fierce.

"You — you're not real, you're not real, nothing is real," I sobbed, tugging lightly at the chains. My words were hard to understand with the huge incisors in my mouth and the fact that I am beside myself, "it hurts, my mate hates me... he hates me..." Tears streamed down my cheeks.

Damn it, pull yourself together Jackie! This is pathetic!

There was a second of silence, I did not even want to look up to see Caius's reaction. Not to mention the others who were avidly watching the exchange.

I jumped, my head snapped up as a cold palm was suddenly placed on my cheek. Caius had moved forward, no longer cautious — his face was mere centimeters from my own. Fire danced in his red gaze.

He stroked my cheek almost lovingly taking my entire being in. In embarrassment (because I know I can't look like anything other than a wild beast in my current state) I try to look down in an attempt to at least shield some of myself from him.

But Caius was having none of it, forcing my head to stay in place and forcing me to look into his eyes.

"Of course I am real, you lunatic," he scoffed as though I was stupid, "and although you may be a part of the most horrid species to ever roam the Earth... I surprisingly do not hate you..."

Immediately everything in me seemed to calm down, and the Curse of Tsar Lunar seemed to dim in terms of pain. My mind relaxed, a bit more clarity coming back, and I could not stop myself from leaning further into the palm of his hand.

The smooth cold seeped into me.

Caius smirked at this seeming to enjoy this rare submissive nature, this weak side that in normal circumstances I would sooner die than showcase.

"You're cold," I made an attempt at explaining, "it soothes..." the words were strained as they left my lips.

"The warmth that burns throughout your being is... not the worse," Caius admitted, seeming to have to force himself to get the semi-compliment out.

But in Caius language, this was the closest that I would ever get to him out right saying that he enjoyed the warmth I provided.

Bella told me that I felt nice again their skin. Vampires were naturally cold and while it would never bother them it seemed that many vampires often missed the warmth.

According to the Cullen's, I felt like a heater on a cold winter's night.

"Now be a good girl and stay," his voice went back to mocking and demanding, the vampire leaving one last stroke on my cheek before pulling away and walking back toward Aro who stood feet away.

The guards were still spread out around the clearing in a sort of circle.

Against my LITERAL will, a whimper escaped my lips at Caius's retreating figure. Though he continued to walk, I did not miss the way that his shoulders seemed to tense at the sound. Caius made it a point to not so much as look at me as suddenly he was speaking to Aro and to the Cullens on the phone.

My easy-fading attention was taken away from the two conversing vampire kings and rather to the vampire guard around. My eyes skimmed over Santiago before jumping to Felix who flinched at the look I gave him.

I quickly looked toward Demetri who looked equally as spooked as his best friend. Moving my attention to the biggest threat of them all — I stared at Alec, the powerful vampire simply tilting his chin up at the look I was giving him.

Baring my teeth toward the teen vampire, a small snarl escaped.

My attention then flickered to the darkening sky. Clouds rolled by and the sun faded below the skyline completely not to be seen for another ten hours at least. It was not me who noticed the official lack of sun as the guard did as well.

I did not miss the looks that the Volturi guards were throwing at each other. Well, Demetri, Felix, and Santiago were: Alec simply stood straighter his gaze never wavering from my form. Caius and Aro did not seem to notice as the phone call ended and the two were (of course) arguing.

The clouds continued to roll by in the sky. My heart was pounding even harder, my body burning and pain suddenly flared throughout my entire being. A pain worse than anything I had felt tonight. The groan of agony that released from my throat caught the attention of the two arguing kings for their attention was on me in the next second.

They both turned their attention to the dark night sky that was rather overcast.

There was a drumming noise inside my head — louder than all else around.

And like that, the clouds in the heavens split revealing a big, bright, and beautiful full moon. Tsar Lunar twinkled condescendingly, and I could hear his whispering in my head through the drumming noise.

"On the night that the moon
is at its most full shall my curse
spread over the mortal realm.
On this night the beast shall
roam free and the mortals
who harbor my curse
shall bear my power..."

Screams echoes around, and it took me a moment to realize that it was me who screamed so loudly. Pleading for help as my bones broke and twisted and rearranged themselves.

I did not realize that I had been screaming for Caius, but I will never forget the way that he fell to his knees as I yelled his name amidst the noise of bones breaking.

I will never forget the desperation in his eyes as Aro made it a point to grab his shoulder to stop him from coming over.

"There is nothing you can do, brother, we must allow the process to happen," he was saying to Caius.

The chains broke as I ripped myself away from the tree and fell to the ground. My wails only got louder as I stared at the moon, losing myself completely to the beast within.

And at that moment, I gave myself to Tsar Lunar.

My clothing was torn to shreds as my body grew in size, fur sprouting from every area possible.

My screams worp with that of frightful roaring.

It feels like hours but the reality is that it is less than two minutes before the pain is over. And when the pain is over then you feel better than ever because you are free, and you are fast, and you are powerful.

Oh so very powerful.

An unstoppable force. I feel like I am an unstoppable force. I am free to do whatever I choose, kill whomever I want, and run rampant wherever I please.

My thoughts are choppy but I know that I am a giant wolf.

In Norwegian legend, the God Loki gave birth to a giant wolf named Fenrir. But the truth of the matter is that the giant wolf was simply a creature of the Tsar Lunar — a Child of the Moon.

If I had been in my right state of mind then perhaps I would have noticed how all the vampires were mesmerized by my form.

A gigantic wolf that towered over all.

It was the low growling that was escaping me from the presence of all the vampires that had them staring at each other cautiously. Caius stood from his knees backing away with a dark look written over his features, as though just the sight of my being brought him immense distress.

Any previous despair he felt at my pain was long gone.

A part of my brain itched for me to kill them all... well all of them except for mate.

To feel the crunch of their hard skin and their gasps for breath as they died from my venom. And then to race through the woods until I found something else to kill, perhaps a civilization in dire need of a bloodbath.

Devouring the heart of a human did sound quite good.

...And yet, a much larger part of my brain did not really feel like doing that. Wreaking havoc and destruction... killing... it was all fun and good and all but it was also a lot of work. Work that I did not quite feel inspired to do.

But you know what does sound fun?

Prancing around, singing to Tsar Lunar, and exploring.

With that thought in mind, my head bent down as I sniffed around the clearing with my ears perked. It took a few minutes of me sniffing for the vampires to realize that I was not actually planning on doing anything barbaric.

It was not until my head perked up, I sat on my ass, and scratched behind my ears with my foot — tongue hanging out happily that they realized this.

Demetri and Felix were trying but failing to stifle their snickers.

Aro slowly turned to look at Caius with humor in his gaze. Clicking his tongue, Aro said a simple, "I am pleased to witness firsthand what you have been terrified of for over a millennium, brother..."

Caius immediately released a monstrous growl that had me staring at him curiously.

Caius looked at Aro angrily, motioning harshly with his arms as he spoke, "Enough, you know that this is not how werewolves typically act... or at least how they used to act. Otherwise, there would have been no need to decimate an entire population of them!"

Aro cringed at the last part of the sentence, turning back around to face me. "Perhaps we should consider doing as this new generation does and self-reflect on our actions?"

Caius scoffed, "Never!"

Staring at my angry mate made me incredibly happy. My tail was wagging on its own accord and I could not stop myself from happily jumping in a circle.

"Are you seeing this as well?" Demetri scratched the back of his head upon watching me.

Everyone was looking at me in shock and confusion.

Caius growled out a low, "Jaclyn would be this much of an absurd werewolf..." his words trailed as the blond shook his head clicking his tongue in disappointment.

"Brother, this is actually quite delightful..." Aro said with a bright smile and Caius scoffed at his words.

"Preposterous!"

"Perhaps you should be grateful that your mate would rather prance through the forest than slaughter us all..." Aro said darkly, turning to look at Caius with a glare but Caius refused to acknowledge his words.

I want to sing.

Gazing up at the beautiful moon — my tail continued to happily wag. But what should I sing about? There was only one answer: mate.

And like that my tail stopped wagging as I stuck my snout high in the air and sang.

☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽

Caius whipped around upon being met with an angelic sound.

Howling was not supposed to sound like that at all — it was supposed to sound dreadful and rather frightening. It was supposed to warn the vampires that Jaclyn was signaling to other werewolves.

But it was quite apparent that this howl was not her signaling. No, she was singing to the moon.

The others adorned similar expressions to Caius, each of them taken off guard. Aro clapped his hands happily, and Caius easily knew that his ever-curious brother was just over the moon from how many discoveries they had made tonight.

First Jaclyn told them about the deity that werewolves praised, a demi-god named Tsar Lunar. They were all still confused as to why she had not mentioned any of this before (Caius was rather angry about it and was convinced that she was purposefully hiding information from them) but then Aro argued that he had not seen this in her mind before.

Marcus had a theory — Jaclyn was only bestowed this information with the power of the full moon. As Tsar Lunar's curse grew closer it seemed that Jaclyn would have more of a connection to the lycan ancestors and thus would be granted information such as this.

Although even Caius who was not often as curious as his brother still had an immense interest in the discoveries they had made tonight. The Children of the Moon in their prominence; before he drove them nearly extinct had been incredibly secretive.

But Caius's dead unbeating heart seemed to give a thump. It throbbed — his being throbbed from the beautiful howling song.

Never — never — would Caius ever think before this moment that he would ever find one of the dreaded Children of the Moon to be as beautiful in their dastardly wolf form as Jaclyn was. Never would he have imagined being so hypnotized by their howling.

He could not move. Caius was only able to take in her beauty, the giant wolf — how her fur gleamed in the moonlight and how her voice drifted around all of them. His Jaclyn: his beautiful mate.

Caius tried to shake himself out of it because NO! His mate was a lot of unfortunate things: she was stubborn and rude and foolish... but she had heart.

Caius had not known her for long, but he had already caught himself counting how many beats her heart would give a minute.

He had already found himself basking in the warmth that she provided, a warmth that he was always able to feel from even feet away. She was strong-willed and passionate and her smile was brighter than the sun itself.

Jaclyn is an explosion of colors.

Caius would never admit it out loud, and no one would ever see for no one is allowed in his private art studio, but the other day he finally tried an abstract painting that Aro had been adamant about him doing for decades now.

An 'explosion of colors' as Caius had named it because it was just that. He was been thinking of Jaclyn when he doused the canvas in a great many bright colors.

Caius had not had to wear a cover-up when painted for a very long time, but he did for that painting as he splashed color every which way on the large canvas.

To his disdain, he actually quite liked the painting. It was different from anything he had painted in a very long time, and it was so much more bright and colorful and cheerful than anything he had EVER painted.

He loved it so much that he replaced Athenodora's portrait with it in his art studio. He mailed the portrait to his ex-wife without any explanation or note attached, after all, she had always loved that portrait of herself.

Parting with it was bittersweet, but there was now a disgusting wave of happiness that washed over Caius every time he looked up and was greeted by the abstract splash of color.

It was a happiness that had never come over him when he looked at Athenodora's portrait that hung for so many centuries in that spot.

Once upon a time, he would admire it, sure, but it had to have been over a century since he found himself admiring the beautiful portrait of his ex-wife.

Rather, at some point his fondness for it was lost and it became just another decoration.

Nothing like the bright abstract painting of colors.

Sadly, even whilst the painting brought forth happy emotions, it also caused a vibrant picture of Jaclyn smiling brightly to the center of his mind every time he gazed upon it.

NO — this was terrible.

Caius was supposed to detest her, the ghastly beast he was forced to endure as a supposed mate. In a way, Caius suspected this was a punishment for nearly wiping the entire species extinct.

Even deeper though, Caius could not find himself to be actually angry about this. No matter how hard he tried, he was not truly angry with her, but he was angry with himself for not being angry. He took that anger out on Jaclyn often, because this was her fault, he was not sure how but it was definitely her fault!

Yet, upon gazing at her singing, he could not actually see her as a beast. Aro had been right, she was a rather delightful thing.

It was then that Caius realized he had been so deep in his thoughts that he had not taken account of how he approached the singing werewolf with an outstretched hand. He did not realize this until Jaclyn abruptly stopped her exquisite howling and turned to look at him.

Her deep sapphire eyes seemed to stare into his soul. Caius quickly took a step away dropping his arm with a scowl. He was surprised when Jaclyn whimpered and took a step near him again.

The king who was terrified of (most) werewolves took a harsh breath at this. But he did not move instead he looked at the giant wolf cautiously. The last time he had been this close to a werewolf he had nearly been killed.

Rorick, the brave guard who sacrificed himself to save Caius on that day made himself present in Caius's mind.

Rorick's screams as he was torn apart played violently in Caius's ears.

But staring into those sapphire eyes — Caius could not see a monster.

Against his will, his hand outstretched once more. He swore he could hear the excitement practically buzzing from Aro and the curiousness of the guards watching him. This annoyed him but there was nothing he could do as their presence was much needed.

He was not stupid enough to come out here on his own with a werewolf during the full moon.

And seeing as Jaclyn was unfortunately his mate and the Volturi had broke one of their own laws, Caius had broken his own law, by not killing her then it was their responsibility to make sure she did not wreak havoc while under the power of the full moon.

Caius did not move his hand any further, and the king shook his head before casting his head to the side.

Caius, the angry and cruel leader of the Voluri, the one who was ruthless and never showed an ounce of kindness or mercy — the vampire who was practically fearless and would rather fight before talking was so terrified at this moment that he could not even look.

Not when Rorick's screams echoed in his mind. Not with the fear of Jaclyn suddenly lunging and gifting him with her deadly bite.

Caius cringed as Jaclyn moved and suddenly touched her snout to his hand.

She had closed the gap; she met him halfway on the metaphorical bridge they were standing on. And the king looked up, blood red irises met sapphire blue.

His hand moved on his own accord, stroking down to her neck and tangling in her soft fur.

His fear washed away in an instant.

He was mesmerized by her — his wolf.

"Absolutely enchanting..." he murmured upon stroking her fur, staring into her eyes.

Never had a werewolf been so calm in the presence of vampires on the full moon. No one ever thought that they would see the day that a vampire and a werewolf ever became anything more to each other than enemies.