The Moon Goddess' Chosen

503 Jeremiah Undercover

Caden felt as tough an unfathomable weight had just been lifted off his shoulders, pried from the innermost depths of his heart… and it had taken talking to a mirage of the person his grief revolved around.

He didn’t know what to think of the spectre before him. ‘Was she real or was she not?’ He could not say. But one thing he was certain about was that it wasn’t have been a figment of his imagination.

Ashley was standing—floating in front of him. His eyes were not playing tricks. The ghost had memories that only she could have had, sounded and spoke just like her.

Ashley had died. There was no amount of divine energy in the world that could change that. But because of this same fact, he’d lost himself to grief. Caden wasn’t the same person he always wanted to be…

A beta alpha capable of protecting all those around him. A beta alpha they could look up to in times of need. The proof of this was all too clear. He hadn’t gone with the king simply because he was now the weakest of the three beta alphas…

He’d hit a wall… a wall that was now crumbling. He didn’t have to be afraid anymore. If he could put his emotions into one word, it would be ‘Grateful.’

Grateful for the second chance Ashley was offering him.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Look at me… Coming to your rescue this time. Seriously, Caden, what would you do without me?” Ashley puffed out her chest in mock superiority.

.....

“Quite a lot actually. I can breathe, sleep, run, eat, shift, clap, jump, sniff, hunt, crawl…”

“Okay okay, I get it. You’re a big boy with a wide range of verbs,” Ashley chuckled.

Their conversation seemed to be coming to a close. After what she’d told him, there was no doubt the beta alpha would be headed back to his mate… this time to let events unfold the way they were supposed to and not hold himself back from what could be.

“Yes… a grown-up indeed. I was meaning to tell you. Kyle became one of Katie’s beta alphas and she…”

“I know all that, Caden. And… I’ll say I’m proud of Kyle for opening up to a new world. I wouldn’t call him a fitting replacement but… it is how it is,” the girl replied, her voice laced with subtle irritation.

“I don’t think Kyle has accepted…” the beta alpha’s voice was cut short—

“Cade—Caden… Why you?” a male voice snapped behind the pair.

Turning around swiftly, Caden came eye-to-eye with Jeremiah. The black-hooded hunter was clenching his fists till his knuckles turned white. His eyebrows were set in an expression of resentment towards the alpha.

“Jeremiah? How long have you been there?” Caden hurriedly asked, wondering how much the man had heard from their conversation.

Jeremiah squinted his eyebrows before his expression softened, “Have you been… crying!?”

“No, I haven’t. How long have you been there? How much did you hear?” Caden asked, this time more desperately.

“I just got here. I didn’t hear much, okay,” the hunter raised his hands up in surrender, taking a few steps back to avoid any rash confrontation, “I promise.”

Caden sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with a sigh. There was no hiding the signs of his tears. Thankfully, he could live with Jeremiah only knowing the story but not as a witness to the events, “That’s a relief.”

“Welcome, Jeremiah. It’s been a while,” the floating girl stopped Caden’s sentence in the middle.

For the beta alpha, a storm of confusion roared through his head. Could the hunter actually see Ashley and if that was the case, was Ashley actually alive? Could she assume a form like this one more time? Perhaps that way, he could see her again.

Then again, the last time he checked, the girl didn’t know who Jeremiah was. Caden looked between the hunter and the spectre and noticed something he didn’t want to believe.

Both of them bore looks of recognition in their eyes. They knew each other… and from the looks of it, they knew each other well. “When…”

His words were cut short when the hunter knelt down on one knee and bowed in respect of the girl, “My Lady, it’s an honour to be in your presence. Forgive my sudden outburst earlier.”

“No need for formalities. You’re creeping Caden out,” Ashley sighed.

“I would prefer to give you the respect you deserve. However, forgive me if I misstep, but how is it that you know Alpha Caden?” the hunter asked.

“What kind of question is that?” Caden scoffed.

“Caden is one of my most trusted friends. You could say that I met him in a previous life… and that I came to him to offer him some help and guidance,” Ashley replied.

“Now, I’ll ask. How is it that you know Jeremiah?” Caden interrupted, starting to hate the way the hunter was ignoring him. For some reason, Jeremiah was treating Ashley’s spirit like a queen… like a holy grail of some sort.

It was unheard of for a hunter to bow to a wolf in the first place… which made this situation all the more bizarre.

Ashley turned to Caden, then back to Jeremiah before sighing, “I think it would be best if Jeremiah explained that part. I believe you had questions for him.”

Caden reluctantly turned his attention to the hunter and raised a brow at him, “Well, get on with it. Where have you been all this time? I’m guessing there is an answer in there to how you met Ashley.”

Jeremiah sighed, taking a seat on the blue carpet of moon lotuses, tapping a spot in front of him, “You’ll want to seat for this one.”

Caden did as he was told and allowed the hunter to gather his thoughts before he started talking.

“When—when we defeated Aidan two years ago, I was not sure what would happen to me. I was already wanted for shooting Katie with arrows. She might have forgiven me but there were a lot of unanswered questions I would be hounded with and I wasn’t in the capacity to answer them at the time.

More like, it wasn’t my place to reveal a lot about myself. I worked for someone else… and revealing anything about my work would jeopardize that person as well and I couldn’t let that happen—not that it matters now since he’s imprisoned.

…so, I ran.

I ran and did not look back. I didn’t know where I was going but anywhere was better than staying behind. I just needed to disappear and gather my thoughts on my next move. I needed to figure something out. But I guess I never got the chance.

Almost immediately I started running, a secret sect of hunters found me. It was like they were waiting for me when I started running.

They called themselves, ‘The Bane of Cirrus.’

At the time, I didn’t even know who Cirrus was, let alone Rana. But I stayed with them and they taught me a lot, along with what they do.

Under the Bane of Cirrus, I watched as the world crumbled. As the rogues attacked the Lycaon capital and killed hundreds. Katie’s fight against the rogue king and her eventual disappearance.

I wanted to help so badly. Seriously, there was a lot that I could do. But the Bane of Cirrus forbade me from taking any action. Hunters—Capable hunters who could turn the tide of the war. Doing nothing!

I was infuriated… and that’s when they chose to reveal to me their motives and what they were doing.

I was taken to a secret place where I met with their leader, their previous leader now though, was an even more capable individual.

The Bane’s last moment of action was twenty years ago… Against the two capitals. It was the Bane of Cirrus that aided the Rogue King in attacking the Moon Goddess’s Chosen.”

“WHY WOULD THEY DO SUCH A THING?” Caden suddenly bellowed.

“There were a lot of reasons why they did this. One of them was to destroy the notion of loyalty that everyone had towards the hunters of Prometheus. By working with the Rogue King, it was made clear that Prometheus’s hunters weren’t incorruptible.

With that out of the way, it was possible for spies like me to infiltrate the rogues.”

“But… King Trevor…”

“On behalf of the Bane of Cirrus, I apologise. It was never intended to have the king caught in the crossfire. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for the healer they sent after Queen Martha that night, she would have died as well.

The Bane of Cirrus didn’t have control over everything but what little they could control, they used to the best of their abilities.”

Caden’s mind was swirling in search of answers. This all made no sense to him. Why would a sect of hunters just choose to remain dormant and do nothing? Was it even possible for that many hunters to exist without the knowledge of the Hunter’s Agency?

“How come no one has ever heard of this group? Where do they get hunters to join them? Everyone who gains an ability is immediately taken for a test and is required to get a license to operate as a professional hunter,” Caden asked.

“Prometheus grants humans that prove themselves worthy of his gift without fail. That means that all the humans out there that end up proving this to him without the intervention of hunters also earn his gifts. It could be something as simple as a boy saving his sister from a bear out in the woods.

Or a little girl selflessly rescuing a baby from a house going up in flames. I met a lot of hunters who gained their abilities without the skill or training of a junior hunter. But then again, with their kind of drive and determination, they quickly grew into fearsome warriors. With their gifts, it wasn’t so hard to catch up to their peers,” Jeremiah explained.

Jeremiah chuckled, “Honestly, learning from them was like training alongside Katie. They only care about getting stronger… and not competing to know who’s stronger. Their principles appealed to me so fast… and through hard work, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of my ability. Far greater than I ever thought possible.”

Caden remained silent for a bit digesting this information. It seemed Jeremiah had chosen to end the tale of where he had been at that note… which made the beta alpha’s brows twitch.

This… Bane of Cirrus, was not making much sense to him. He still had a grove of questions swarming within his mind. None of them answered, no thanks to the black-hooded hunter.

“I have two more questions. One… How is this all connected to Ashley? And two… Why? Why now? Why has the Bane of Cirrus decided to go active again?”

While these questions hadn’t been answered, there seemed to be a hint of suspicion going through the beta alpha’s mind. Jeremiah’s opportune arrival and the way the birds had responded to his attacks, almost like they were fighting alongside him.

And there it was again… that intense nostalgic feeling of his Luna’s presence.