THE AWAKENING

“How can there be two?”
The question, delivered in Tieran’s quiet, deliberate tone was edged with uncertainty and echoed throughout the closed room.
Cassandra remained rigidly silent as the seer removed her weathered palms from Cassandra’s slightly rounded belly and looked
as bewildered as the rest of the Barrachius clan inside the room.
Tieran, the Alpha of Clan Barrachius glared at Cassandra as if she were to blame for this upset in his plans. Cassandra glared
back. It wasn’t her fault she had an overactive womb.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she snapped, moving away from the seer and straightening her shirt. It was bad enough
she already felt like some kind of lab experiment gone awry, now she had to deal with this? “Maybe the prophesy is wrong.”
“Impossible,” Tieran retorted, though his eyes told a different story. He turned to the grizzled woman looking pensively at
Cassandra’s belly. “What does this mean?”
“I do not know,” she answered truthfully. “But it cannot bode well. The prophesy clearly stated there was one child. I must consult
the Mother Goddess for answers.”
“Great, get her on the phone and get some answers so everyone can stop staring at me like I’m the devil,” Cassandra grumbled.
Jandin bowed low to whisper in her ear, “The Mother Goddess is the moon.”
Oh.
She cast a thankful smile Jandin’s way for his explanation but she felt like an idiot. Of course, the Mother Goddess was the
moon.
How obvious. Not.
Why couldn’t she have been part of a kooky religious cult instead of some paranormal underground species that just so happens
to be caught up in this cataclysmic prophecy?
“Are we done here?” she asked, ready to leave this room and all the pairs of eyes staring at her for answers she couldn’t give.
“I’m hungry.” Again.

“Go to your room and I will bring food,” Tieran said and immediately Cassandra bristled. She hated when he bossed her around
like she was an underling of some sort, or worse, a bathroom attendant at a Walmart.
She rose stiffly and stalked from the room, not because Tieran told her to, but because she couldn’t stand another minute being
scrutinized for circumstances that were out of her control.
She took the stairs to her bedroom two at a time. Since discovering she was the Prophesied One, all manner of unpleasant
things had been forced upon her — including losing her virginity and being kidnapped by two separate people on two different
times — and now she was pregnant with not one super human but two.
And God damn, she was hungry enough to eat a horse. Literally.
Cassandra prowled her expansive bedroom as she waited. Tieran, the Alpha, and consequently, one of her baby daddys,
insisted on feeding her himself.
It was some weird custom that the clan adhered to and they were very attached to their customs and traditions. If Tieran and
Cassandra actually liked each other, it wouldn’t be a big deal that Tieran felt obligated to feed her, but as it was, neither wanted
the roles that had been handed to them and chose to take it out on each other.
If it weren’t for the bone-melting sex between them, Cassandra might’ve tried to find a way to rip his throat out.
Okay, maybe not exactly rip his throat out, that was a bit over the top, but lately, her hormones had been kicking into overdrive
and sometimes she couldn’t quite help the thoughts in her head or the words that popped from her mouth.
The fact was, Tieran was gorgeous — the picture of male perfection — and it was no small tragedy to be in his arms or beneath
him, but when he looked at her, there was nothing but pure lust glazed over the veneer of anger and resentment and that just
killed whatever might’ve been possible between them.
And was she ten times the amount of stupid that it mattered to her? Yes.
She’d passed out of the dangerous Phasing period of her Breeding Time and now that she was pregnant, she simply ate and
grew rounder.
She was always hungry and she always wanted sex. And considering that the one person who would oblige couldn’t actually
stand to be around her unless he was forced, didn’t make for a happy Cassandra.

If it weren’t for the biological blueprint etched on their DNA, Cassandra didn’t think Tieran would have sex with her ever again but
as it was, he couldn’t help himself just as she couldn’t help herself when she’d been Phasing.
Each time they had sex, an invisible thread wound itself tighter around them, drawing them ever closer to one another. Which
was why Tieran tried to avoid her.
Except, he was programmed to want her now that she’d conceived his child. Cristophe had told her that it was an evolutionary
protection for the species.
The Alpha would always protect his mate when they were bound.
“So how is it you know so much about werewolves?” Cassandra had groused after Cristophe had educated her in the finer points
of being a werewolf. She’d been shocked to learn Cristophe was with the werewolves when previously he’d disdained their
presence like a man who disliked dogs and was suddenly asked to clean out the dog kennels at an animal shelter.
Somehow they’d entered into an uneasy truce and were working together to prevent Ulster from kidnapping her again. She
wished she could feel all warm and fuzzy about everyone pitching in to protect her but instead she felt intensely scrutinized for
her every breath.
Cristophe sighed. “It was my duty to manage the breeding female stock, remember?”
She grimaced in distaste. “Oh yes. I remember now. So, speaking of...why were you affected by my Phase? Got some werewolf
DNA somewhere in that cold body of yours?” she asked, half-joking, but mostly serious.
She was still trying to forget how much of a slut she’d become while Phasing. Even dead guys weren’t off limits apparently. “I
thought vampires were immune to werewolf mojo.”
Cristophe shifted, his expression pensive. “I don’t know. But I think it has something to do with the prophecy. Everything that has
happened to this point has been carefully orchestrated by the gods to fulfill the prophecy. Even now, I feel strangely protective
toward you and I can’t seem to leave your side. I’ve never suffered from such an affliction before.”
“I wondered why you were hanging out with the werewolves when you’re not exactly BFFs.”
“When Ulster took you...I can’t explain it.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t just let the situation work itself out on its own. I came
here to Tieran to enlist his help in finding you. We were mobilizing when you appeared on your own.”

“That’s me. Impatient to the core. I couldn’t even wait to be rescued,” she quipped. “But to be fair, you guys were taking your
sweet time.”
“We were moving as swiftly as possible,” Cristophe said. “But there were...complications.”
“Such as?”
“Well, Tieran wasn’t all that eager to find you.”