Mated to the Alpha and His Beta (Lanie Stanton) novel Chapter 375

Chapter 375
Lanie
I paused and closed my eyes so I could make a better connection with my wolf Lily couldn’t read, of course. She could understand words that I read, but even if I gave her control of my eyes so I could use her vision, she could only see the words on the page, their sharp strokes and spatters of ink, or the erasure marks that were too faint for my human vision to pick up. She couldn’t comprehend anything without my
interpretation.
Still, she wouldn’t stop whining and pacing, pawing at the ground and even howling so fiercely that the sound almost jumped out of my throat-something I was pretty sure would get me kicked out of the library
I soothed her and let her see through my eyes. At her wordless urging. I turned the pages slowly, scanning each line and trying to see what she saw.
The watermark was clearest when I held the paper up to the light, but with Lily’s enhanced gaze, I could also see the outlines of the image beneath the words on the page. Over and over again, she had me look at the pages, up and down, line by line. The watermark was the same on each page, but no matter how many times I looked over them, I couldn’t seem to figure out what it was that she wanted me to see.
Finally in frustration, I shuffled all the papers together and turned them upside down, hoping that a different point of view might make a difference.
I spun the papers around the right way and read another snippet about twins and hybrids, but again the author of the paper was referring to historical figures and events I’d never heard of
was getting super frustrated, and my anger came out in my shaking hands. Lily wasn’t happy, either anything, she seemed annoyed with me!
Deciding to take some breaths and relax, hoping that somehow I could figure out what she was tryin tell me, I closed my eyes again. I put my hands on the papers, which were resting on top of the large book where I’d found them. I let my body settle into the comfortable chair:
If I wasn’t careful, I might just doze off The library was super quiet, but I could hear the murmurs of othe people sometimes, like a far-off distant hum
White noise, like a fan whirring. I hadn’t thought I was tired when I got here, but now it felt like all I wanted
to do was sleep…
And then I was walking in the forest with Lily at my side This didn’t feel like a dream. Not exactly
But I knew it had to be, because when my wolf took her control, me, Lanie, was inside her the way Lily
remained inside me the rest of the time
We never walked next to each other this way. It was impossible. There was no Lily without Lanie, no Lanie without the wolf We were one being in two parts
Yet, here we both were, padding along the crunching pine needles beneath trees so tall they seemed to
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fantastic, it had everything anyone could ever need or want…except, despite its name, the bright sky.
My hand rested on the top of my wolfs head as we walked, I thought she might speak to me, since this was a dream or a vision or whatever, but Lily remained silent except for a few chuffs and rumbling growls when she wanted me to take one path or another. She led me deeper into the forest until we reached a
clearing.
Above us, the moon shone so brightly it was almost blinding. And…there she was. The woman from the watermark. She held a bottle in her hand. More like a pitcher, really. She tipped it into a glass and held it out.
It was full of blood.
I took it, wondering if the Moon Goddess meant for me to drink. The liquid inside was rich crimson and
swirled like it had a life of its own.
Lily went to Moon Goddess’s side and curled up at her feet, just like in the image on those papers. I’ waited for the Goddess to tell me what she wanted me to do.
Without words, she made a graceful gesture toward a book on the ground next to my wolf. I swore it
hadn’t been there before.
Lily took it in her teeth and trotted to me to lay it at my feet. I looked down at its faded, green leather cover and the title stamped in gold foil.
My fingers trembled as I stroked them over the ancient book. The title jumped out at me, almost stopping
my heart.
Celestial.
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