The Alpha's Mother-In-Law's Forbidden Love (The Cresta Chronicles)

Hades POV

Guiding Jude felt right. It seemed to be the most important task he could accomplish.

The glow from below got stronger, more blinding, rippling throughout the water as Jude and Hades reached the bottom of the lake.

A shining figure stood before them, her eyes wolf gold. Golden furry ears stuck up from her human head. She wore a filmy golden gown. "Hello, Jude," she said. "I am your ancestor, Luna Fionnula, mated to Alpha Leonidas."

Jude's mouth dropped open. "You're famous in pack history--but they called you Fiona."

Her laughter rippled throughout the lake. "Did they, now? Well, I always liked the shortened name. I suppose that's why you know me as Fiona."

"Yes--but I don't know you as a witch. How is this possible?"

Fionnula "Fiona" Faolan smiled. "Simple. After that scandal involving the Crimsontail and his witch, I chose not to reveal my powers. It was not easy keeping my magic a secret, let me tell you. Only Leo and the family knew."

Hades thought Jude's head might explode. He himself felt awed. It wasn't easy for a witch or wizard NOT to do magic in public. For a mage, magic was like breathing or walking--simply part of their existence. 

Jude gulped. "So ... we Faolans have had magic ever since then, and never knew? Meaning my children might have magic, and their children?"

Fionnula glanced around them at the swirling water in the depths of the dream lake. "Let's continue this conversation on land, shall we?"

A lake serpent swam along the bottom of the lake and swept them all up in its coils, then shot toward the surface of the lake! Hades found it exhilarating and Jude howled for joy. If this weren't a dream, the whole thrill ride might be terrifying, but Hades had never felt more alive. In no time at all, they breached the surface, and untangled themselves from the lake serpent, then swam to shore with vigor.

Hades, the first to reach the shore, hauled himself up out of the lake. Even in the dream world, he felt invigorated. He pulled Jude out of the lake, and in turn, Jude assisted his ancestor, Fionnula. They turned around, and their faces registered surprise.

The lake had changed.

Now, it was no longer Murmuring Lake, but Diamond Lake close to the Evenhide-Silverpaw border. That made sense, since Jude was exploring family secrets.

"How did we get here?" Jude asked.

Fionnula shrugged. "It's your dream, my dear boy."

Jude blushed. "Oh, right. And a moment ago, I was talking underwater the way I do on land. Of course it's a dream."

"An impressive one," Hades praised. "Many dream walkers don't show such originality the first time. Or control. Look where we are--you're controlling the dream without knowing you're doing it."

"Thanks." But Jude's attention was on Fionnula. "I thought you were a shifter?"

"I became one," Fionnula explained. "In secret. My Leo fell in love with me when I was traveling in the Battlecona Woods near the junction of Evenhide, Silverpaw, and Lugdunum. I was part of a group of witches sent to stop a tribe of barbarians from crossing into the shifter lands to rape, pillage, and plunder. At that time, northern Lugdunum wasn't civilized. Tribes of barbarians reigned supreme, ruling by fear, with the kings and queens having the devil's own time containing them."

Jude's eyes lit up. "Yes, and it was similar to shifters in our Dark Ages, when all we did was make war against each other needlessly."

Fionnula nodded grimly. "Although witches and shifters mostly avoided each other back then, we respected each other instinctively--still do." Her voice took on a lighter note. "Otherwise, Jude, you wouldn't have mated with your Ravyn."

Hades found this all fascinating. "To think, Jude and I have such parallel lives," he mused dreamily. "It's almost as if we were meant to share consciousness--"

Disgruntled, Jude huffed, "I wouldn't go that far."

* * * * *

Jude POV

Meant to share consciousness?

The nerve of the man!

Yes, their lives seemed uncannily similar in ancestry, and they both opposed the dark forces, but otherwise, they had little in common.

Fionnula seemed to divine his thoughts. She frowned. "Don't be hostile to Hades--he's right. He's meant to share consciousness with you. This is your path."

"Fenrir's guts, why?"

But he could guess. The Crestas had too much heavy baggage where Hades was concerned, likewise most of the Sinsworths--except Cyran, which surprised everyone. Jude was technically a Cresta by marriage, but also somewhat removed from the worst of their long feud with Hades.

Fionnula placed her hands on his shoulders, staring into his eyes. "Hades has brought out the powers that lay dormant in the Faolan family line for many generations. You will need all those powers to battle the Dark Goddess. You've experienced her Nightmare Realm-"

The surroundings turned dark, foreboding, gloomy. Jude watched in horror as the entire land transformed. Diamond Lake turned murky, foul, and sinister--a deadly swamp. The lush grass of the shifter lands turned to black brambles and weeds. The moon above ...

It turned blood red, and rained warm blood down on the land. 

All around them, wolves with blood-red eyes stalked, looking like Hades' hypnotized army from Abandonnado Island. The wolves were lean, hungry, lethal. Soulless. cunning. Primal. They howled a song that made Jude's blood turn to ice.

"We live to kill

We kill to live

We live to hunt

We hunt to kill

We kill to eat

We eat to make war

We make war to conquer

And do it all over again.

We live to kill ..."

NO.

Jude blocked out the revolting chorus. This was not what shifters were meant for! In this vision, they were intelligent savages, no more. He shuddered. "Is this ... is this what the Dark Goddess plans for the world?"

Hades snorted. "And it's nothing compared to her darkest, most insidious visions. Picture an entire world like this."

Jude's very skin felt toxic. Slimy. He wanted to vomit. "NO," he howled. "NO. The Moon Goddess must prevail. We'll defend our way of life, our beautiful shifter lands, with our last breath. With our dying howls. We won't go down without a fight to the death!"