Orion

Orion

l
Book On
e
l

Marked Like Me Series

o

Cyndi Goodgame

Also by Cyndi Goodgame

(Fey Court Trilogy)

Deception

Tainted

Betrayal

Guardian (Companion to Deception)

(Goblin
’s Kiss Series)

Denial 

Yield

(Marked Like Me Series)

Son of Ra

Scorpion

Daughter of Anat

Shadow Queen

Protector (Companion Novella to Son of Ra)

(Under Cover Series)

Under Cover

Over Darkness

(Siphon Chronicles)

Siphon

***

Mary Never Had a Lamb, She Was the Lamb (Twisted Paranormal Nursery Rhymes)

Gargoyle (Hyde Chronicles)

© November 2012 Cyndi Goodgame

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher.  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.  This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people.  If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.  Acknowledgements go to the various authors of classic fiction who wrote so eloquently that their words have become easy to quote in today’s written word.  Without inspriration from you, one cannot hope to write their own ideas.  Thanks goes to all those who made this book come together.  You know who you are!  

             
ISBN: 1481018426  ASIN: B00A9LOZB0

             
[1. Supernatural-Fiction. 2. Vampires. 3. Valkyries. 4. Werewolves. 5. Hunters. 6. Gods and Goddesses.   7. Constellations 8.. High School-Fiction]

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Summary:

Anastacia, or Stace, was marked from birth belonging to the Goddess Anat. Her mother launched a balanced plan to create five who would change the tides of the ongoing disputes among the supernatural factions trying to survive in a human world. A prophecy was created to unite them into peace and Stace has to believe she is the one to
do that. And what happens when she is the last to know?
Stace has spent her entire life as the Valkyrie faction court princess. Now sent into a den of Hunter lions by her own father, her goal is find the one who took her twin brother, the heir to her own court. Her obstacles seem few, but there are other cloak-and-dagger factors at work.
Motherless since birth, no one to turn to, resolved to have answers, Stace accepts a Hunter’s aid. Stace’s brother is kept in what was thought to be abandoned warehouse, but soon finds out that the greater the plot thickens, there are more secrets around every corner. It’s guarded by the very Hunters she is now putting her trust in, her own father’s court, and the rumored heartless, evil plotted Vampire faction. Once she has the information she needs, she planned to leave the Hunters and begin a rescue mission, but that doesn’t even come close to the bigger plan she knows nothing about. She didn’t count on Calum Green getting in the way, nor making friends for the first time in her life with supposed enemy strangers who never hesitate to help her in her darkest moments. 
And…others are marked like her. A prophecy that holds answers and little advice but says she will guide them.  What does it all mean? Weres? Vampires? She’s heard of their retributions if crossed the wrong way. Can she conquer this mission or just end up just playing out the fantasy prophecy she doesn’t understand anyway? Or will she uncover the greatest conspiracy the factions have ever held? And no one person chose.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter On
e
Like and equal…             

Chapter Tw
o
…are not the same thing at all.             

Chapter Thre
e
I don’t understand it…             

Chapter Fou
r
…and I don’t like what I don’t understand.

Chapter Five
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me…             

Chapter Six
…I am a free human being with an independent will.             

Chapter Seven
Do or do not do…             

Chapter Eight
...there is no try.             

Chapter Nin
e
Denial…             

Chapter Ten
…ain’t just a river in Egypt.             

Chapter Eleve
n
This above all…             

Chapter Twelve
…to thine own self be true.             

Chapter Thirtee
n
Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave…             

Chapter Fourteen
…When First We Practice to Deceive.             

Chapter Fifteen
The Best Laid Plans…             

Chapter Sixteen
…Often go Awry.             

Chapter Seventee
n
Sentence first…             

Chapter Eightee
n
…verdict afterwards.             

Chapter Ninetee
n
If we did all the things we are capable of…             

Chapter Twenty
…we would literally astound ourselves.             

Chapter Twenty One
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize…             

Chapter Twenty Two
…how close they were to success when they gave up.             

Chapter Twenty Three
The pen…             

Chapter Twenty Four
…is mightier than the sword.             

Chapter Twenty Five
Keep your friends close…             

Chapter Twenty Six
…and your enemies closer.             

Chapter Twenty Seve
n
As if you could kill time...             

Chapter Twenty Eight
...without injuring eternity.             

Chapter Twenty Nine
Happiness and moral duty…             

Chapter Thirt
y
…are inseparably connected.             

Chapter Thirty On
e
We cannot build the future…             

Chapter Thirty Tw
o
…without avenging the past.             

Chapter Thirty Thre
e
The bravest people are the ones…             

Chapter Thirty Fou
r
…who don’t mind looking like cowards.             

Chapter Thirty Fiv
e
Life is such unutterable hell…             

Chapter Thirty Si
x
…solely because it is sometimes beautiful.             

Epilogu
e
If we could be miserable all the time…             

Appendix

Marked Ones

MARKED ONES LETTERS

Questionable Villains

Characters in Limbo

Faction Symbols

“We will rid the earth of our putrid mistakes.  We can right this,” Anat pleaded her case.

“NO!  We cannot correct this.”

“One chance.  If it doesn
’t work, they will be back to where they were.  Aiming to end each other anyhow,” she asked of her superior.

“ONE CHANCE Anat!  ONLY ONE!”

She was at work fast.  RA’s descendant was willing to help.  She wants the same as I.  ORION’s descendant would help regardless.  He would allow his daughter this task.

With
everything was set in motion she relayed her mission to the necessary aid.

The Hunter by day will take with him, a huntress, unlike his own.  She will bear the mark of Orion, as will he.

The Hunter by night will take with him, a huntress, unlike his own. She will bear the mark of the sun.  As will he. 

They will bring forth a mighty nation of all who come together.  They will find Saiph at their right shoulder.  Rigel and his stinging adversary will rule like no other.   Cross will come between severed twins.  Let who stands in the way of fate perish and be no more.  In this great peril, the Anat goddess in human form will be the only light.

This was the last dream though not the only one.  I can’t tell my dreams from my imagination anymore.  Somehow they feel real.

ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ

Gravity!

It is what holds us here.

Love!

It is the gravitational pull that grounds us to the earth. 

Hate!

It’s what pulls us apart. 

Destiny! 

It’s what decides our fate only after we accept that it was DESTINY in the first place.

A Valkyrie.

I was born into a life of luxury at a cost.  I lost my mother due to my own birth. 
Valkyries are born warriors, able to sway men to their doing, and semi control the supernatural races that threaten to end one another.  My father, the only male lord of the Valkyrie court faction, pampered and sheltered me too closely all my life under watchful eye as second place to my brother, the heir to the court.  Yes, my father finally let me leave on missions involving the other factions in our supernatural world hidden by the humans to hold an invisible line of warning to the other factions.  And he even let me enter dangerous missions, but somehow I’d always won.  That made me more nervous.

Yet
, here I was.

A Hunter.

He was this gravity that kept my sanity aligned to the earth I was bound too.  I wouldn’t have known it could come to pass, but it did nonetheless.  My entire universe was realigned the day I met him.  And I didn’t even know on that day I entered his Hunter faction school for my father under the false pretense of saving my brother, and as I said, the Valkyrie prince in line for the throne, that he’d become my light in a world of darkness until the sun appeared.  And then...it was not reversible in the time continuum for the plan laid out for me. 

The Hunter.

It was the first real guy who has ever been allowed to talk to me outside of a sparring ring, so meeting him was...overwhelming.  He was more than just a Hunter too.  Some type of sign was definitely there telling me to delve deeper!  Something was coming.   We had a draw to each other, and we both had more than one thing in common.  For all of our seventeen years.

A Vampire.

The bane of my existence.  Forever cruel and ruthless.  Or so I’ve heard.  I’ve fought a few in small battles, but the faction lord is said to be a cutthroat.  I welcome anything he has to dish out assuming he can handle the wrath.  My court avoids the dealings of their faction and they avoid us.  At some point, we were destined to meet. 

The Vampire.

He would change my life, and everyone around us, forever.

The Were.

To know nothing about the faction and to know it is avoided by my court says much.  I have heard their attempts to “talk” in the past never went well and remain till this day...unresolved.  

ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ

Packed and ready, I headed to my place of destination, the Hunter court’s private school.  I checked my bags twice and my pouch hanging across my side.  I was a Valkyrie princess with the best aim in small weapons across all the factions— or so I told myself. I knew I was the best female Valkyrie. I’ve lived by the standard that nothing can penetrate the icy shell that made me harden years ago.  My father has kept me from any and all society with the exception of my brother, my best friend Kassie who I see less and less, and one other boy who stayed at our faction for a little under two years and then left. 

Movies and books have been my only friends for the most part.  And boys...boys were just sparring and weapons partners and shows on the television.  Yes, I
’ve dealt with their sarcasm and flirtatious natures when my dad wasn’t looking, but their fear of my dad kept them far away. 
Far
away.  So why was my father letting me go to the Hunter school?  I wish I’d never asked.

Then again, I wouldn
’t have what I have now.  Here’s what happened.  I wouldn’t be able to say it was all led by fate if I hadn’t seen it myself. Here’s what happened.