Aries

A/N: I hope you will read the last Author’s note. Important information has been given there. Please read that.

And... Please make yourself comfortable, preferably sit in a cosy place with snacks if you want.

This chapter is just 100 words least than 8k words. No joking.

You might want to read this a little slow, for it has a lot of information.

*********

I stared at the female before me as her energy was sucked again by the chains that bound her.

“You,” I breathed. “You are Luna?”

She nodded calmly as though she was not suffering. “I am.”

I stood up and began pacing. That was when I realised that there was an invisible circle around her past which I could not get closer. It was warding me off.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“I made a mistake,” she said. “A huge one. I am here for my punishment.”

I wanted to scoff. “You made a mistake?”

She took in a deep breath although I knew she did not need to. “Yes. Sit down so I can tell the answers to all your questions.”

As if her word was my command, I sat down before her about ten feet away. “How do you know my questions?”

She tilted her head. “I am the one who cared for you all in the past years. I mean, ever since Cosmos erased the Warrior’s memory of the pulsars, my mother and I were the ones who cared for you. My mother still has Volans and Ophiucus under her care.”

I licked my lips and glanced up to see the same sky. So, all those flashes were indeed my memory. But what had happened?

“I can understand the question that is going on in your mind, Lyra,” Luna said. “Not only your memory was taken, but your identity. Ever since Cosmos saw Volans and Ophiucus, she went crazy. I purposefully brought you in the Maze because it will help with your memory. To hasten the process, perhaps, I will tell you something about Cosmos and Chaos.”

My identity was taken? Who was I to begin with? What was I?

“Polaris refuses to tell me how the universe was before as we know came to be. He was one of the four people who put Cosmos and Chaos on the throne,” Luna began, with a wistful smile on her face. “They refuse to tell the race they belong to, but the seat they sit on is made of the dust of millions of lives before them. No one knows if they are siblings, but most say they are so. Brother and sister, opposites of the same thing, creation and destruction. For in every destruction lies creation and every creation has destruction. They created the law and order of the universe that exists now.”

Chaos? I heard this term in those memory flashes.

“Cosmos and Chaos, they nearly killed all the lives that existed before them and the few who had pledged to them, they took their memory. In short, they abused the power they got until they realised what it was meant to be a ruler and that they should not be taking what was granted. Hence, they began to create souls,” Luna continued. “Souls, they are a form of energy. There was energy before us and there would be so after us. Cosmos and Chaos know how to melt that raw energy and give them form. They knew how to convert this energy into life.”

“Energy and life?” I mused. “Sort of makes sense.”

“The higher the energy they used to create a life, higher would be the power it possessed,” Luna said.

I nodded. “There is no loss and no extra creation.”

“The first few souls they created,” Luna said. “They are the strongest of them all. Some were woken from their creation and some are still asleep. Some are made to protect this part of the universe and some to others. You might know them first-generation stars.”

“The Warriors of Moon,” I whispered.

Luna laughed lightly. “Yes, them. But not only them. If you ask Aries, he will refuse to say about others. If you ask Ceyphris, she will refuse to talk a word about these twelve. Cosmos created so many Warriors of her own, Lyra. So many. And to all, she gave equal powers without any partiality. She and her brother became better at ruling slowly, learning that ruling with an iron fist and mindless order would not benefit anyone.”

Who was this Ceyphris? I had heard of this person somewhere. Would Aries tell me about them? Or would my memory answer?

Luna must have sensed my confusion. “When Cosmos and Chaos created them, they separated them immediately. Chaos and Cosmos knew what could happen if they all knew the existence of each other.”

“You mean to say that Cosmos separated the stars she created or you mean to say Cosmos and Chaos separated their own creation?” I asked.

“Both,” Luna said. “Cosmos separated her own creation among each other and from the creation of Chaos.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“The Siblings separated them all in batches depending on their skill set,” Luna said. “Think it like a team a head researcher would divide. You would create a team where at least someone had a skill, in a way all the skill could be found within the team. Depending on that, Chaos and Cosmos separated their top-notch warriors, creating a barrier between them in such a way that each team can never know the existence of others.”

So... these twelve were not the only powerful creatures?

“After they did this, they began to create galaxies and more lives. After all, so much raw energy was left. While Cosmos designed stars, Chaos designed pulsars. Pulsars are what the opposites of stars are.”

I had a very different definition of pulsars in my life. To put it in simple words, pulsars were neutron stars that neared its end and it had a pulsating character. Next, would she say quasars are stars’ cousins?

Pain wrecked her body as the chains sucked another burst of energy from her. After the chains stopped glowing red for a moment, she regained her breath and colour surfaced to her skin.

“To this part of the universe, which comprises of about, say... a hundred galaxies? I don’t know how Cosmos and Chaos divided the universe. I just know that this galaxy, rather the galaxy where Earth is the capital of this part of the universe,” Luna said. “Not because my parents chose their residence here, but because Polaris is here. So, to this sector, the siblings decided to have very little pulsars. Imagine the universe to be split into two halves, where each sibling rules one. This sector is under Cosmos and hence, stars dominate here. And the pulsars you are thinking about are not the one I am talking about.”

I nodded my head again. “We have very different definitions.”

Luna smiled. “We do. This world, Earth has had only stars as its protectors. There could be a world where both stars and pulsars co-exist, where they both are given equal importance. There could be a world that acknowledges the cosmos and chaos in each one of them, yet a millennia-long battle could go on between the stars and pulsars. There could be a world that is so much like Earth, but instead of worshipping the Moon, they could worship the Sun and where Pulsars are its protectors. A world where their moon is shattered. You can never know, Lyra the possibilities this universe has.”

A world that was a reflection of Earth? The name Roslyn struck me hard when I heard this. Did I know someone from there?

“After creating these powerful creatures, the siblings felt they had used too much energy to create these souls. So, after waking a few, they put the rest of the souls in deep slumber. If you go to the Origins, you will see quite a few first-generation souls in a stupor,” Luna said. “It was around this time that Cosmos gave birth to her children and Chaos to his children. Don’t ask how she gave birth or who her partner was. Some questions are best left unanswered. If you are very curious, ask my mother or if you get your memory back, you will know it yourself.”

Something was linking things but whatever that was, I knew it was something big.

“Surva, Magena, Mayrah are a few daughters of Cosmos,” Luna said. “Aelius, is Cosmos’ son. Similarly, My father, Qamar, also known as Moon was a child of Chaos. Chaos had his fair of children, but the siblings agreed to pair their children together. Surva was to be Soul-bounded to Qamar. Magena to one of Chaos’ son. Aelius to Quila, daughter of Chaos. It did not matter to them, seeing the fact that Cosmos and Chaos were not exactly siblings in the first place.”

Oh my! That was the name of the Moon. Qamar. My brain was trying to absorb all the information she was giving and trying to break the lock that was put on my memory.

“Surva and Qamar had four daughters,” Luna said after the chains sucked her energy. “I hope you know who the four are.”

“Amaris, Kamaria, Chandra and you,” I said. “You four.”

She nodded. “My father is one of the twenty pulsars of this region. Another one is Seren, Polaris’ mate. There might be others apart from this twenty, but their entry is sure as hell illegal. Not even my sisters know, who are not just pretty princess, but warriors made to ensure the order of the space.”

Not even her sisters know this?

“How do I know this?” Luna asked. “Because I had inherited Cosmos’ ability to give Soul-Bonds. While my mother gives Soul-Bonds to stars of this region, I give it to the creatures of Earth.”

“So?” I asked. “So, you are supposed to know?”

Luna laughed richly. “In a way. The females who have the ability to give these Soul-Bonds or Mate-Bonds, our Soul-Bounds are always the ones who control Fate. My father controls the Fate of stars and my mate-”

“-Fate of creatures on earth,” I finished for her.

Luna nodded. “And while the ones who give the bonds are stars, the ones who write the fates are pulsars.”

I gulped. There was always two, was it not? Good and bad. Light and dark. Male and female. Birth and death.

“Yes,” Luna affirmed. “All the opposites in life is because of the play of Cosmos and Chaos.”

I could as well be choking. This was too overwhelming for me. There was a tiny chunk of my memory that was unlocked but I was far into this conversation to look into it.

“Cosmos and Chaos then realised a mistake. The first-generation souls were too powerful for them to control, that they only had to resort to psychological means to control them. Their souls could simply not be torn apart, even by the creators,” Luna continued, “fearing that they might topple them, Cosmos and Chaos then began to create stars and pulsars’ souls with less energy. they are the second-generation stars and pulsars. Alioth, Mizar and all other billions and billions of stars and pulsars are the second generations. Alioth and Mizar maybe the children of a first-generation star and Polaris, but Cosmos gave them the soul of a second-generation.”

I frowned for a minute and then nodded. “Continue.”

“The second generations lives are created quite frequently in Origins and Abyss and released then and there,” Luna said. “Think it like a hive. The queen bee lays eggs. All the eggs that have the potential to be next queen bee are well protected and given the best food, while the eggs that would develop into drones or worker bees are not given that much protection. The former is the first-generation souls and the later is the second.”

I blinked. “So they created many first-generation lives but did not release them all at the same time. They held back a few and guarded them. So first generation lives can be born even now and their powers would be equal to Aries or any one of the first generation born so many years ago.”

Luna nodded enthusiastically but then hissed when the chains drained her again. “Yes, that is what I was trying to tell you.”

I nodded again. “Why? Why are you telling me this?”

Luna smiled. “Because the basis on which the souls were made differed. A pulsar’ soul and a star’s soul would always be opposite of each other and if they came together, they would neutralise each other and stabilise each other. The first-generation stars’ energy was becoming too high for Cosmos to contain it herself and hence she called upon a few first-generation pulsar souls to neutralise the situation. Chaos was facing a similar situation in a province of his and they exchanged a few people. Seeing that Ursa was stabilised by Polaris, fourteen first-generation pulsars came here in exchange for fourteen first-generation stars in a province of Polaris ruled by pulsars.”

I remembered this travel suddenly. I had been in my research lab in Abyss with my friends when Chaos asked us to travel to Origins. It was during that travel I met Roslyn, a shy first-generation star. That was where the name came from. I was one of the few pulsars that were woken up in the first set. And in the Origins, we pulsars were there just to stabilise the stars we were assigned to take care of and that was all.

In our free time, we had been allowed to pursue our passion and that was how I continued my research a few fellow pulsars. But other than Polaris, Qamar, Surva, and three Warriors we were not allowed to contact anyone in this sector. It was some sort of arrest on us.

“I see that your memories are being unlocked,” Luna commented dryly.

“Continue,” I gasped, clutching the dirt under my hands. “It’s helping.”

“The poor fourteen pulsars were made to stay only at Origins and they just had to stabilise the Warrior’s souls. The pulsars were not even allowed to meet the stars they were assigned to neutralise. I guess, the pulsars met the stars just three times.” Luna said. “That was all how Cosmos saw them. But unknown to her, two pairs formed Soul-Bond first.”

“How?” I asked, panting. “How were we assigned?”

“Based on your compatibility, of course,” Luna said. “Your soul did not neutralise Canis’ soul. His matched with Tucana.”

“Only two?” I asked again. “I... don’t think so.”

Luna gave a wry smile. “What Cosmos did not know is that, since the first-generation stars and pulsars were so powerful, she and Chaos could neither give them Soul-Bonds or write their fate. They could control to some extent, but not entirely. They were dictated by force much older than them. By the force that existed in the universe before their rule.”

I vaguely remember Polaris telling us this and asking us to take our fate in our hands. But did we do that? Some parts of my memory were still hazy.

“I said they were the first to bond,” Luna clarified.

“So...” I licked my lips. “So... did the others too?”

Luna smiled. “Yes. Now can you understand why you were never meant to have a mate? Why you love Aries so much?”

This was the mistake Cosmos made. When she thought she was just neutralising her first-generation stars, she made us so compatible that even without her we had begun to bond.

She smirked despite the chains taking her energy. “You are the Pulsar who was assigned to Aries. I hope you remember that at least.”

**********

I remembered that. I remember being assigned to Aries.

Luna was right. I had seen him just thrice in the past. One when the pulsars came to Origins and were assigned. The other when his powers became too much for Cosmos to control and I had to step out of Origins to stabilise him. The third was when someone was sent to assassinate the pulsars in the Origins. I had been hurt in that and Aries came forth to save me.

I began. “Where are the rest of us?”

“I hope you know what happened to Tucana and Canis?”

I nodded and my vision became glassy. “Cosmos wielded her Soul-Cleaving weapon and killed them.”

“They were the first first-generation souls to die,” Luna said. “The other eleven pulsars are on earth. They will meet their assigned stars at the right time and will unlock their memories in their own pace. But... you will know who the others are when you meet them.”

I gulped and nodded.

“How are you accepting?”

“I am not,” I said. “I am still having trouble processing.”

“Really?” She asked in an amused voice.

I nodded. “A few months ago, I was thinking that I was just a human. Then I came to know that I was a shifter and accepted that I am an Alpha. Now I know that I am a pulsar.”

Luna chuckled. “It takes time, I know. But yes. You are a pulsar. You just need some time to mature.”

I resisted the urge to snort. “Mature? I am way older than you, Luna.”

“You are, Lyra,” Luna said with that smile. “You are older than me. But with your identity taken from you, you are like a newborn, without being dead. Only when you mature will you get all your powers and memories back.”

I nodded. Perfect. Everything was absolutely perfect. My head was not spinning and I was not going to pass out. Nope. I was perfect. Who was going to faint again?

“Nice,” I managed to say. “Very nice.”

Luna took a deep breath in. “Sarcasm is appreciated.”

“Good to know,” I mumbled.

Luna cleared her throat again after the chains drew her energy again.

“Why are you suffering?” I asked. “You can walk out.”

Luna shook her head sadly. “My own powers are used to bind me here. Since I have Cosmos as my ancestor, not many have the power to release me from my own magic. Niava could, but she herself is suffering in a world she is responsible for. Only my descendant, Antlia can release me.”

I gasped. “Ant? But she is a kid! I cannot fathom to bring her here! If I cannot, she will die trying to release you.”

Luna nodded. “I know. I could have had any of my descendants to release me, but Antlia is the only one who managed to carry my essence. She has powers even my son did not have. I don’t know how it skipped so many generations, but yes. If a fight was to break between me and Antlia, I don’t know who will walk out alive, for she has equal chances of winning. You have no idea how powerful that girl is. Once she matures, I cannot wait to see the eagle fly.”

I knew Ant was powerful. But hearing it from Luna was an altogether a different story. Antlia was that powerful?

“How will she be able to unlock them?” I asked.

Luna smirked. She seemed to be doing that a lot. “Once she reaches eighteen, she matures, like a normal Royal. But she gets her powers. Half her powers at least. Meeting her mate, just meeting him will grant her complete powers. For when Mizar coded his DNA, I stole it and changed a little.”

“Changed how?”

“Antlia is my scion,” Luna said. “And when I said she carried my essence, I meant she is a star in her own right. Like me, she can too... give and take mate-bonds. And her mate must be a-”

“-pulsar,” I whispered. “You changed the DNA to match a pulsar. You mean to say that there is a rogue pulsar on earth?”

“Not just one rogue pulsar,” Luna said. “There are many rogue pulsars and stars on earth, but I swear many of them don’t know their own heritage.”

I took in deep breaths. “When will Antlia meet her mate?”

Luna shrugged. “I am the one who deals with the affairs of love and destiny. My mate takes over fate. I don’t know when they both will meet, but they definitely will.”

I sat down. “So... only Ant can release you?”

She nodded her head and jerked it towards the chains that bound her. “See?”

On the chains that held her right hand, I could see faint inscriptions. But apart from that, I could see six holes... no keyholes. On the other chain, there was another six.

“This chain was created by my mother Surva when she held the Great Beast down and killed it.” Luna shifted, the chains rattled as she did so. “When she chained this beast, she gave him a chance to escape. She took twelve links and scattered them across the earth and challenged him that if he could find those twelve missing pieces, he can walk away freely.”

I remember the battle. It was a battle that went for ages and Surva emerged as the victor.

“Unfortunately for him, he was unable to find them and he was killed by Surva’s power,” Luna said. “Only when Antlia comes here with those twelve pieces, I can be set free. Or else, this is my fate forever.”

I could not help but ask. “But what did you do to deserve this fate?”

“The question is,” Luna said, her eyes shimmering. “What I did not do.”

I stared at her. Seeing that I was not going anywhere anytime now, I continued to stare at her.

“When I was young and before I met my mate,” Luna began. “I was impulsive. I abused my powers. I purposely gave love between people to watch them tear them apart. I was enjoying. I had the power to give love and take it away. What could harm me? My father and my sisters literally grew me up as a spoilt-brat in your language.

“After my sisters sent their creations down, I accompanied them,” Luna said. “Not to solve fights or give world peace, but to see what else I could mess up.”

I blinked. Really?

“I did bad things Lyra,” Luna said. “I did not give love like I was supposed to do. I took away love and replaced it with lust. That was when I met Inacus. He taught me what love was. It was after him, that I changed my ways and began to stop wars. No one knew that it was me who was behind those wars in the first place. Not even Aqua.”

“Inacus was not your Soul-Bound, was he?” I asked.

Luna nodded and gave me a sad smile. “We were not meant to be. But I still took him as my consort and had my first child with him, Arren. No matter what, Arren will always be my child. That’s when Rionach came to our part of the universe.”

I could not help but feel that all this was indeed connected to Rionach.

“Inacus was her Soul-Bound,” Luna said. “It was common among stars to take consort before meeting our Soul-Bound. And if a child was born, we would never shun them. Apparently, Rionach did not get that. She was furious at me. And she did have all right to be.”

I sucked my breath. Oh my!

“But then, the mistake was on my part too,” Luna said. “I should have let him go. But I could not. Arren, our son needed him. I needed him. I could not let him go. And Inacus... he chose me over Rionach. He was a simple human who did not understand the gravity of the mate bonds.”

She sucked her breath in harshly when the chains drained her again.

“Instead of changing his heart, Rionach killed him,” Luna said, regaining her breath. “She was after my son and me. I tried my best to evade them. Thirty years went by and Arren found a mate. But Rionach managed to kill Arren. She thought that she had erased my bloodline, but Arren’s mate was pregnant with his child. I pleaded to my parents for protection and that’s how Warriors came down to earth to protect my lineage. When I was sure that my family was alive, I tried to escape.”

This was getting weird and weird.

“I met my mate,” Luna said, smiling. “My Soul-Bound. He was Fate, as you may call. He knew it all. Said that it was my Fate to learn about love like that. We had accepted each other. Rioncah found us again. When she saw us, she became jealous and tried to kill us. If love was trapped, it had the chance to escape, but Fate cannot be trapped. To save him, I surrendered,”

I could not blame her for anything. She had been young and she had committed a mistake. All of us made mistakes, didn’t we? It was not part of human. It was part of living. It was part of life. Life made mistakes, sometimes terrible choices, but only because of it, life grew.

“Rionach captured me with these chains and threw me here,” Luna said. “Using my own powers to trap me.”

I nodded. “Then?”

“When Aqua was close to finding me, Rionach mated with Elijah,” Luna said. “He was not her Soul-Bound, but since her Soul-Bound was dead, she made Elijah her Soul-Bound. That bond gave her immense powers to stop Aqua.”

I heaved. “But she has a daughter! That daughter, who does she take after?”

Luna’s lips quirked. “They all think Elijah is a normal shifter, don’t they? Even Amaris and my sisters made that mistake.”

I remembered about Elijah. He had been a rogue pulsar who was caught by a Warrior and that Warrior and Polaris were discussing throwing him in the Dungeon for a crime. Before the could do that, Elijah had escaped.

“Elijah is a pulsar, is he not?” I asked.

“Yes and his daughter takes after both,” Luna said.

“Who is that daughter?” I asked.

“Melantha,” Luna said. “You know her as Harper.”

My heart stopped. Harper as in the Harper who tormented me? The Harper who killed my father and my best friend? Were we talking about the same female?

“Yes,” Luna said. “The same Harper who came to West West pack.”

I was choking. What was happening?

Luna waited until I calmed down and she gave me a tight smile. “I know. She came to West pack for a reason.”

I frowned. “What is that reason?”

“I told you about the twelve links, right?” Luna said, glancing at her chains.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“My son’s daughter, Narah,” Luna said. “She hunted down the twelve links and gave each one to each Great pack, Coven and Tribe.”

I frowned. “But... if that was the case, then how could West pack have one?”

Luna nodded grimly. “Alpha Violet comes from Autumn Pack and she was the Alphas’s last daughter. Unknown to him, he passed their families legacy to Violet. She has one link.”

I gasped and recollected my memory. Alpha Violet was indeed fond of a chain with a pendant I played with when I was a child. But Alpha Violet would always take the chain back once I finished playing and locked it up.

“That chain?” I choked.

Luna nodded. “While Melantha did know that the link was in West Pack, she does not know where it is.”

I frowned. “Why should she need the link?”

Luna’s energy was sucked again. When colour surfaced her skin, Luna said. “If all the links are destroyed, what can release me? Nothing. Only those links brought by Antlia can release me.”

My head spun. “So, Harper came to West pack to destroy that link?”

“And...” Luna drawled.

“And what?” I asked,

“She thought Ethan was the descendant of Ursa and her Soul-Bound,” Luna said. “Ursa is a first generation life and she is powerful. And her child with her Soul-Bound even more so. That’s why she even bothered to mate with Ethan.”

I gasped. “Really? But Mizar said-”

Luna sighed. “Yes. That’s the reason why she mated with Ethan. But sadly, Ethan is not. He does not have a sliver of star essence in him.”

“If you are powerful than Rionach,” I blurted. “Why can’t you-”

“She caught me at my weakest,” Luna said. “And she is using my power to bind me. She is definitely not powerful than Mizar.”

Seconds blended to minutes and it could have melted to hours and days and I would not have cared. I was organising my thoughts and was looking at the female before me as the chains took her energy again and again.

I finally asked. “What did you mean by Cain was a Hunter?”

Luna gulped and she slumped. “It will take a while.”

I frowned but said nothing else.

“Cain... is a strong werewolf,” Luna said. “Twenty-one years ago, he was wandering over the few entry points of the Maze and he fell into it. I sense who is in the Maze. When I felt his soul and found that he did not do any mistake, I brought him to me. He gave me a company, talking about his family, even though I knew.

“He loved his parents and Rhaze so much that I knew he would die for them. He spoke about his friend Warren Whyte with such devotion. That was when I knew this male was worthy. He was worthy to be my Hunter.”

I licked my lips. I had known two Cains in my life. The one before I knew Ethan was my mate and the one after I came to know Ethan was my mate. And to be honest the former Cain was the best brother any girl could ask for.

And to know that he had actually done everything according to Luna’s words just killed me. That means he knew what had to be done. He saw father die.

By the Moon!

My emotions were a mess now. I want to see him, punch him hard and hug him.

If he wanted me out of the pack, he could have just said it. Why did he make himself the bad guy?

But then again, if he had told, there would have been no strong reaction from me or Rhaze to pull it off.

“He cried,” Luna said softly, her voice matching the stillness of the Maze. “He cried because his friend Warren Whyte and his mate Likira Vade were expecting twins and he was not able to attend that.”

I knew Warren Whyte. He had been the great scientist of West Pack. I had seen his works and I had always admired him. Wanted to be like him. His works were so great.

And Cain was his friend? Whenever I gushed how great Warren Whyte was, Cain immediately shut the conversation and left. Cain was Warren Whyte’s friend?

This brought another question to my mind. Warren Whyte and Likira Vade might be dead, but did Luna not say they were expecting twins? Where were those kids?

“Then?” I probed.

“Me being who I am,” Luna said in a shaky voice. “I knew that one of the twins had died in Likira Vade’s womb.”

I blinked. Why couldn’t one thing be simple in my life?

“When I said this to Cain, he roared as if he lost his child,” Luna chuckled as though she was reliving a memory. “Then I offered him a choice.”

I straightened myself.

“I had just one pulsar soul with me,” Luna said. “I had managed to give other eleven bodies and families. But one, I was not able to find any. So I offered Cain a choice. I would alter the genes of the dead child Likira Vade was carrying to that of a shifter in the beginning. Then she would become the pulsar she was meant to be. But she would still remain as Likira Vade and Warren Whyte’s daughter.”

No, no, no, no! This was not happening!

“When that pulsar was born,” Luna continued. “Cain would take care of her completely. You see, since I am stuck here, Rionach uses my power to create mate bonds as and what she wishes. The bonds I give are masked by the bonds she gives. So many people think that the mate bonds Rionach gives are the true ones. But it is not so. She is doing that to disrupt the balance.

“That last pulsar soul was my last chance at reversing these faux mate bonds. But for that, she herself should not be entangled with this bond. I sent Cain to look after her.”

I looked in her eyes, but I saw nothing but truth resonating in those golden depths.

“When Likira Vade gave birth to twins, she named them, Chris Vade and Lyra Vade,” Luna said. “While I had managed to hide the other eleven souls perfectly, somehow she found about your existence. She wanted to kill you. That day, the day your parents, Warren Whyte and Likira Vade died, it was you Rionach wanted to kill. When she entered the house, she found Chris, your twin in the cradle. Cain had taken you out that day. You see, even as a three-day-old baby, you would be at ease only when Cain was next to you. Might be because of who Cain was in his past life. Thinking Chris was you, Rionach killed her. Only when Cain returned, he saw what had happened to Warren, Likira and Chris.”

Tears were streaming down my face. Warren Whyte was my father. The male I so admired was my father. As a first-generation pulsar, I did not have parents or siblings. The other first-generation pulsars were the family I had chosen. But that did not mean I mean I would give up on the family I had here. Family was family as long as there was love. I had a father, a mother and siblings in the life I had on Earth. Why would I give that up?

I covered my mouth and cried harder. I cried for the male who defended me. I cried for the female who birthed me and died protecting her young. I cried for the sister I never knew, the one who had been wrongly killed. I cried for myself for not knowing a family I would have loved.

Rionach had taken my family way before I could even utter a word. Her daughter took my father, Carter Black, shatter my mother Evelyn Thorne and ripped apart the only family I knew.

“Di-did they know?” I whimpered.

“Yes,” Luna said. “Warren and Likira knew about you way before you were even born. They knew that one of their children had died and when the sonogram suddenly showed that both the children were alive, they grew suspicious. Cain, being Warren’s friend, told him everything. The mates knew. That’s why Warren was so immersed in the Shifter project. Because he knew he had to grow up a shifter. For you were assigned to Aries and if you are to be born on earth, you would definitely be a shifter. So, I told them you are a shifter. But when he came to know that his projects were being read by another, he stopped it at all costs.

“You might not be the soul Chris should have had for a twin, but Warren and Likira loved you the same. One that day Rionach was to come, they knew something was off. Maternal instincts kicked in Likira and she had asked Cain to take you. They thought they could protect both their daughters, but they were still happy when they realised that you were alive. You were their daughter as much as Chris was.”

I cried even more. I had been showered in love even before I was born. How many were lucky to have a life as I had? To be constantly surrounded by love.

If I was not grateful, I did not deserve to live.

“Before you were born, Warren and Likira left the pack grounds and moved to neutral lands in the borders of West Pack,” Luna said after the chains took another burst of her energy. “So no one knew the children that were born to them. No one. Not even Zahra Lein, who was Likira Vade’s best friend. Only Cain knew. When you was all he had left of that family, he was torn apart.

“He wanted to grow you up like his own daughter, but he had not met his mate. And you know the law, you can adopt a child only if you have met your mate. He also knew that something was off with Rhaze. Hence, he purposefully placed you in the path where Rhaze did her rounds and watched. When Rhaze picked you up and smiled, he knew that you would be brought up as his sister and that was enough for him.”

I cried more. How much had Cain had to go through for me? He had played Ethan, that I knew now. I sniffed and tried to hold my tears back, but I could not.

“Cain protected you ever since,” Luna said with a small smile. “Then Liv came to your pack’s capital and he saw her. Since Cain was my Hunter, he knew what a faux mate bond was and what a true one is. Rionach gave a false one between him and Aurelia. After he became my Hunter, he knew she was not his mate and he broke off with her. Then he met Liv. Aurelia knew that he was not her mate and she even wished the couple.”

I was barely able to see her through my tears. “Why are you saying this to me?”

“You had thought wrong of him because of me,” Luna said. “I had to rectify that.”

I was not able to say anything.

“I warned him of Ethan.” The chains sucked her powers again. “And Cain played his part. Liv knew about this. She did. She even helped Cain protect you.”

My heart was further breaking. Liv? That female... I knew she loved me but never knew how much.

“That’s why I played with Mizar’s head a little to convince him to give the Shifter genes to Raoul,” Luna said. “The little thing I could do. Liv did use your blood to study, she even used Warren’s thesis to understand. For she had to raise a Shifter herself.”

Those experiments that Reece showed me! It was this. Once little blood was taken, we could amplify the genes using PCR or something. Just one cell with nucleus was needed. I bet that’s how Liv must have done experiments of Raoul. But still, on the report, she had to use his name.

“When Ethan wanted you as his mistress,” Luna said. “Who did you think convinced Harper to banish you? You could have stayed in West pack, but you would have been his Mistress, his whore. That’s why Liv had to betray you to get you to safety. She is still playing a dangerous game. She is doing everything she can by blocking your footage from reaching Harper. You know how well the satellite works in West pack. Have you missed anything when they asked you to track? Think why West Pack had not found you for so long. This time is less, but this was the least Cain and Liv could do.”

Those two had been my shield. Protecting me from within.

Luna then smirked. “Who did you think put the idea in Harper to throw you in Maze?”

Cain. It must have been him. He knew Luna was here and in order for me to meet her, I had to come here.

“But why the Dungeons?” I asked.

“Who else would release Miguel, Alioth and Cathara?” Luna asked. “They had to be released. Cathara knew right from the beginning. That night... your body was not merely going into Heat, for you are a pulsar by your basic nature. It was your body reacting to Aries’ proximity. Polaris sent Aries into the Dungeons that night. That’s why Aries was able to save you. You see, the three times you both met, you both formed a frail bond based on the compatibility of your souls. Since, Cosmos erased your memories, that bond was buried.”

That explained why I was able to hear Aries so well and why he saved me. Cathara too saved me, She too knew about Cain? But the next morning-

By the Moon!

“Cain did everything because of my command,” Luna said. “I cannot escape, but that does not mean, I cannot see what is happening around.”

“If mates given by you are masked,” I began, after what it seemed like hours. “How come everyone in my pack-”

“Antlia,” Luna said. As if that answered everything. “Antlia does have the power of giving and taking Mate bonds. She is with your pack and it is her presence that gives them the bond.”

I curled myself and closed my eyes. How much had Cain and Liv had gone through. Cain had to see Carter Black die and act like he enjoyed it. He had to see mother suffer and walk away.

All because he protected me.

I sniffed. “Is... is Aries my Soul-Bound?”

“Did I not say earlier that Cosmos and Chaos could not control the law and fate of first-generation stars and pulsars?” Luna said with a smile. “Cosmos could give the Soul-Bonds only for the Second-generation stars and pulsars. But for the first generation? They had it all different. They had the ability to choose. Even if Cosmos forced a bond on them, they could brush it off and choose their Soul-Bond. While you and Aries formed a frail connection in the past because Cosmos took your memory, that bond shrivelled. But in recent days, you both have Soul-Bonded. Not just bonded, but claimed and acknowledged it as well. That is half complete bond.”

I licked my lips. “You are saying that we did not bond in the past when I was in the Origins but now in the recent few days?”

Luna nodded. “Indeed. It did not snap suddenly. But rather if formed slowly and both of you wanted it and fell for each other. That’s how you both bonded. You are Soul-bonded to Aries. You chose him and he chose you.”

I gasped. This was the sweetest moment of my life. “When could this have happened?”

“I don’t know,” Luna said. “Why don’t you ask Aries? I bet he would know.”

Was this he was afraid to tell me? Then it struck me. The pattern he was drawing over and over again on my hand when Mizar was talking about Kendra. That was a character that said Soul-Bound.

I really need to have a long conversation with him.

“Lyra,” Luna said. “Get up.”

I pushed myself to my feet. “What is it?”

“If you don’t return to your Soul-Bound,” Luna said. “He will destroy this planet and trust me, you are not on earth, but a space in between. So, he will kill and burn everything, until it is all ashes and cinders before him. You must return back. I worry for other lives on Earth. He already caused so much damage to East tribe that I do not know how they would recuperate.”

I smirked. That was my Soul-Bound alright.

Luna shook her head. “You need to leave, Lyra. You should.”

I gritted. “How can I? Did you not say that I had to mature to get my powers and memories back? As a first-generation pulsar, one of my power is to get out of these entrapments.”

Luna groaned. “Just imagine him. You will find him for the bond between you both are strong enough for you to find him even if he was across the universe. And I will use my powers to send you back. If you come here next time, get your powers and come back. I am not sending you back if you come without any powers here next time.”

“About you-”

Luna sighed. “Your wish to tell. If you want, you can.”

I nodded and closed my eyes. I saw the phosphenes blend to one from I knew so well. First, it formed the silver eyes that lit a fire in me. Then the crinkle that formed lateral to his eyes when he saw something amusing or adorable.

Slowly it spread to his forehead and his hairline above and nose and lips below. The lips that I have kissed. I have kissed a few in my life, but nothing could compare to Aries. His lips were so soft yet so demanding.

The midnight black hair that I had played with. Then his scent surrounded me and covered me like a blanket. As if to protect me

It was then I felt the bond between him and me flare to life with a force that I was pretty sure it would have knocked the life out of me.

I gasped as I entered his mind to see only images of me.

I almost cried at the feeling I had for this male.

My body was light suddenly and when I opened my eyes to see what was happening, I was in a forest. Check that, a small clearing in a forest.

The moon was hanging above, lighting the night with a vigour.

I simply knew I was out of the Maze and on Earth. The scent of earth varied in the two places.

The hair on my neck stood up.

I knew this scent like my own.

I gulped and turned to see him standing there, glaring at me.

“Lyra,” he rasped.

I could not help but race towards him. I had no idea why and how I loved him.

When I neared him, I flung myself at him. He caught me and spun me around.

I laughed through my tears. I could not believe that I was here, with him. The bond between us was happy and content. It just made us drunken in bliss

When he stopped, he brought me down and my feet touched the ground.

He traced my face. “Lyra. I cannot believe-”

I cupped his face and brought it down. His eyebrows crinkled and he was about to say something.

But I could care less. This male was my Soul-Bound and I could have my way with him. That did sound pleasing to some carnal part of me. To my surprise, I found that I would enjoy that too.

His eyes caught that challenge and he did try to win, but I knew he lost. And from the hum of the bond between us, I knew he was happy, freaking happy that he lost to me.

I crashed my lips on his.

This time, if anyone interrupted, I was damn sure I would not mind showing them their place.

After all, stars and pulsars did not leave their Soul-Bound unclaimed for long.

A/N: How was the chapter?

To the ones who have read Blaze and Winter’s Dance, I am sure you can find what worlds Luna was talking about.

That third world might be a hint for the next series I might write after this series.

This chapter is dedicated to all those who guessed that Lyra’s parents were LikiraVade and Warren Whyte. Congratulations!

Any guess on whose pov the next bonus chapter is from?

Did anyone expect Cain to be like that? Did anyone guess Luna’s story?

This is a very important announcement.

No, I am not discontinuing this book.

I won’t be available on Wattpad or on FindNovel.net as frequently as I am for the next three months.

My finals are coming up and I have to dedicate all my time there. I am sorry, but my college is actually more important to me.

This Finals will claim my time and I do have time to update it anywhere until the end of August. If I do update before that, it is purely because you guys are lucky.

If anyone is not happy with my decision to prioritising my college, I can’t help you. From June to September, I will have no laptop and next to no access to the internet. If I am talking, then it is because the internet is borrowed.

This is a fair warning.

Hopefully, I can update on the end of August. (Or before that)

Until then,

~Quill