SECOND CHANCES - Chapter 5
04 May 2018Jemine Caesar
Arcturus Morgana entered the world covered in blood and amniotic fluid, screaming in tandem with his mother. The latter part of the pregnancy had been hard on the girl, her petite frame bearing the burden only with great difficulty. It had even been speculated that Sola might die in childbirth. Yet both her and the child clung to life, pale and spent and collapsed against each other. The newborn’s cord that linked him to his mother had scarcely been severed when he was snatched away by Jyrron, held aloft before his assembled clan for all to see. The roar of approval from his peers drowned out the cries from his warrior mate, desperate to hold her newborn son herself.
Yet Jyrron’s appetite for the adulation of his peers soon passed, and baby Arcturus was returned to his mother’s arms. His father was led away, ignoring his mate in favor of drink and song. With only a handmaid and an elderly wetnurse for company, Sola was left with little to guide her except instinct. Still trembling from the shock of childbirth, the girl slipped one shoulder from her tunic and offered a nipple to the screaming bundle in her arms. The familiar voice and warm touch calmed the newborn, the life-giving milk sating its first hunger pangs in the cold new world it found itself in. At that moment, Sola knew some semblance of peace. Here was a life that was a part of her, as helpless in its new surroundings as she was.
Within her soul the first shadowy embers of purpose began to form. Since that fateful night when her blood was mixed with Jyrron’s, hers had been a life of fear and hatred- and now love. Hatred of her father for his betrayal. Fear of her warrior mate for everything that he was. Love for the tiny bundle of flesh in her arms, greedily sucking at the earthy tip before it.
For the first time, Sola Morgana looked up, her eyes flashing. In her arms was a renewed purpose for her life, more powerful than anything she'd believed possible. She looked around herself and saw naught but strangers and enemies. It wouldn’t be today or tomorrow or even next year, but the day would come when the hatred she harbored would give her power beyond her station. The first whispers of the Crone echoed in her feminine intellect.
Hold on to this, the voice said. Embrace your hatred like the babe in your arms. Nurture it at your breast. Groom it and let it grow strong. And when the time is right, send it into the world as you would a man...
You can read the whole of chapter 5 here...