Prologue: Selene

I was a young maiden goddess, newly minted and out on my own for the first time when Pan saw me.  He was the god of nature and we would normally have met walking around Olympus, except for the nature of my job.  I’m literally up and working all night, sleeping during the day.  The only times that I really have freedom to roam are during the nights of the full moon when I am hidden from the world.  One night per month doesn’t really give you a ton of time to explore.

Pan became smitten with me.  He loved the way his domain looked bathed in my light, the dew that covered everything and helped to nourish the flora and fauna below, and the ethereal stillness that comes with me were among the things he loved the most. 

But, there was no way for us to meet.

For months, he planned and conspired on how to draw me to him.  It was a momentous night when it finally happened.

Being the god of nature, Pan was able to create anything that he could think of.  He created a bright white flower, never seen before.  It glowed in the moonlight and a large patch of them drew my attention as my light reflected off of them.  It was like the moon’s reflection bouncing off of the ocean, but on land.  I had to go investigate.

As a young goddess, I hadn’t learned how to separate myself from my power, so when I went down to see the flowers, the moon came with me, creating the first lunar eclipse.  Man, did I get hell from Daddy for that one!  But it was well worth it.

For there, in the middle of the field of flowers was Pan, his lower body covered in a blazing white sheep skin.

I was embarrassed to be this close to a male.  The only males I had ever known were my brothers, my uncles, and my father.  I had never been near any other male, though I had long observed them from above.  And this male, from what I could see above the sheepskin, was one of the best specimens that I had ever seen.  His skin was a deep tan from obviously being in the sun for days on end.  His body was muscled and veined from regular heavy lifting.  He had large rams horns that gleamed in my light, pulling back his hair so that his pointed ears showed.  A human might have been surprised, but there were much weirder things in the realm of gods.

Bashful, I turned my attention to the beautiful flowers that surrounded us.  I reached out and touched them.  “What are these?”

“Moon lilies,” he whispered.  “I made them for you.”

Surprised, I looked at him.  His beautiful eyes and handsome face claimed my attention, but it was the look of pure awe and adoration in his eyes that made me go to him.  I felt strangely drawn to him, like I couldn’t see anything but him.  He was so handsome he was almost beautiful.  His scent was heavenly and I could smell him even above that of the scent of the lilies.  He smelled of moss and grass and wild things.  And when he touched me, it felt like sparks of star power burst along my skin.  It felt like what you would now call electricity, but we didn’t have that back then, so I described it as best I could.  The feeling was magic.

We made love under the night skies and surrounded by the flowers that he created for me.  Later we fucked.  Hard and fast.  But that first time was definitely making love.  He treated me like I was made of fine china.  Like I might disappear if he held me too tight.

I’d never been in love before.  Never thought about it.  As I said, I was a young goddess, barely a century old.  

But Pan awakened that within me.  He showed me how to master my powers, leaving the moon still in the sky when I came to visit him at night.  He brought me out of my once solitary life and showed me love like I had never seen before.

For centuries, it was Pan and I together, but no children ever came from our union.  It was odd, but ok.  We were happy together and the world was changing.

Pan’s role in the world began to change and expand to that of humans.  As the humans began to encroach on the wild places, taking down forests for them to live, he began to care for their livestock and those that cared for them.  Shepherds, in particular, were a great favorite of Pan’s.

And that was how we found Endymion.

He was a human shepherd who had fallen afoul of Hera, being put to sleep for 100 years.  Pan found him when his sheep came to him, bleating and crying for their master.  They were worried for him, for he was a kind and gentle master.  When they found us, Endymion had been asleep for about 10 years.  And, since it was Pan’s job, we went to check on the young shepherd.

He was beautiful.  Whereas Pan was full of wild, powerful, and feral masculinity, Endymion was more delicate, more ethereal.  Though he was very obviously human, his beauty had to be gifted to him by Aphrodite herself.

Both Pan and I immediately fell in love with him.  The same pull that we had felt to each other re-emerged when we found Endymion.

We needed him to talk to him.  We needed him to be ours.  So, we enlisted the help of Morpheus, the god of dreams, through his father Hypnos, the god of sleep.  We visited him in his dreams and it was the same as it had been the first time that I’d seen Pan.  Sparks.  Flames.  It was amazing and all three of us felt it.  It was instant and we knew that we could never be apart.

And we couldn’t part from each other.  It was the three of us.  Somehow, I don’t know how, we convinced Hera to alter her curse on Endymion.  If he slept, it was for a minimum of one year.  During that time, he didn’t age.  Didn’t die.  He remained mortal while awake, but didn’t need sleep as we the gods and goddesses of Olympus didn’t for weeks, months, years, on end.  But eventually, he would have to lay down and sleep.  And this will continue until his 100 year sentence was over.

Then he would die.

It was the best deal that we would ever get from Hera and we took it and ran.

That first night was…fuck I’ll never forget it.  It was better than anything that I ever dreamed before.  So many times, I’ve used it as imagery since my mates have been gone…but that’s another story for another day.

Anyway, through the next few centuries.  We had many, many daughters.  About 50 in total.  Now that the three of us were together, it seemed that we were quite fertile.  Since all of the girls were demi-gods, they were given partial domain of my territory.  Each was given a moon cycle every four years for the Olympiad.  It was a way for the humans to mark time between the games they used to win glory and honor the gods.

But each of our girls appeared to have separate fathers.  About half were from Pan, the others from Endymion.  It was only when I became pregnant with twins that something new was born.  One was a satyr who we named Crotus.  He grew to accompany the Muses, aiding the merriment and song of those beautiful goddesses. 

But the second child…that child was something new.  Something that we had never seen.  A werewolf.  The first of many children of gods and goddesses that could change into many other animals, back and forth between their human self and their animal.  A fine son we named Lycaon.

And as he grew, we knew that he needed a mate.  We wanted our son to have the same connection that we did with our mates and he longed for someone who was like him.  So, through the magic that Pan and I possessed we took two she-wolves and transformed them into werewolves, just like Lycaon.  But I cast spells on them, creating the matebond within them.  The joy that we saw in our son’s eyes when we introduced him to his two she-wolves, Mingan (gray wolf) and Tala (red wolf), was the same as what we had seen in each other’s eyes.  It was the same for them and they gave us many, many grandchildren.

And so, we created more.  Many more.  Giving our children friends and family to create a society around.  They retained many of the hierarchical systems of the wolves, the alpha, beta, delta, gamma, omega, and the like.  They continued to find mates within each other and a great society was born.  Packs moved across the globe, spreading as their numbers required and as human expansion spread.

Finding the matebond continued to be of utmost importance to our children.  Some were pairs and some were trios like us.  And because they were the descendants of a god and goddess, they had their own power, what would later be called a Goddess gift.  At the same time as they were able to find their mate, they would be bequeathed a gift chosen by myself and my mates, all of which would happen on their 21st name day.

But the effect of the trios coming together was the amplification of their powers.  This wasn’t something that we designed, but a natural consequence of all of the magic in close quarters.  At first, it was fine.  But as the wolves became more power hungry, searching for more territory, more people to rule.

At the time, Pan and I missed it.  It was the last cycle.  The last time that Endymion would be awake.  He had just finished his 100th sleep cycle.  Now, he was dying.  We had, at most, another 50 or so years with our love.  And then, he would die.

At the same time, humans were taking over this planet.  The wild, all the glorious and unsettled places on the earth, were disappearing.  And weakening Pan.  As was his sorrow for our mate.  We could see him age, could see him begin to die.

So, we stayed with him.  Forsaking our children, we stayed with our mate to watch him die.  And at the same time, Pan began to fade.  It was slow and all at once at the same time.  The healthy glow of his tan faded.  His luxurious mane of hair began to thin and gray.  His skin and muscle withered and sagged.  His limbs quivered and his gait was unsteady.  

Within a few hours of Endymion’s passing, Pan literally faded away.  And I was alone.  I don’t know how long I stayed in that cave, grieving.

And when I came out…it was all madness.  The wolves no longer resembled the children I had known.  In one generation, they had killed all of the trios.  Hunted them to extermination.

The rage that filled me was beyond measure.  They had destroyed the utopia that my mates and I had created.  They didn’t deserve the gifts that I had given them. My rage spread onto them.  Their crops failed.  Their pups grew sick and died.  Their ventures bore no fruit.  For generations, I watched them fester and flail.

Until Crotus came to me.  He pleaded with me on the behalf of his father and his twin brother to feel pity for my descendants.  To see that those that had perpetrated this horrible deed were long dead, not in my realm, but throne to Hades and in the Fields of Punishment.  He and my daughters sought to give me peace.  And they eventually pulled me out of my grief and rage.  They reminded me that their fathers wouldn’t want this for their children.  That I was holding onto the pain of their loss and taking it out on those who no longer deserve it.

And my children were right.

So, I began to bring the trios back.  To work toward prosperity and bring them back to me.  I began the bloodlines that would bring about the resurgence of the trios.