Chapter III. The gravitational pull of the Moon Goddess.

Elizabet.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, present day.

"Eli, do you think the families coming today will adopt me?" asked Nicole, a sweet, affectionate, and adorable five-year-old girl.

"I don't know. I hope so. But if that doesn't happen, remember that Faith and I love you very much," I said, finishing her hair so that she would look as pretty as possible.

Unfortunately, at these events, parents usually came looking for young children or babies. Once you passed a certain age, you were no longer adoptable. There were some cases where it did happen, but it was rare.

They also tended to look for children who resembled them physically. If their family was blonde, they looked for blonde children. If they were Black, they tended to choose Black children. Few parents risked adopting children of a different race, though it happened twice in the eighteen years I lived there.

Some children were still there when I left at eighteen to live with Faith, who had left a year earlier when she turned eighteen. One case was little Nicole.

We weren't lucky with adoption precisely because of the color of our hair. Few redheaded or silver-haired parents came through the orphanage door. So, when we were eleven, we accepted that we would never be adopted. A year later, on a trip to the Great Lakes, our future was decided, and we dreamed of being adopted.

Besides, we suffered less because of my ability to read the minds of the parents who came to adopt. I knew which children would be adopted and which would not. Faith and I used to be among the first discarded.

But Nicole had a good chance of being adopted. She was the right age, had brown hair, and was usually the most adoptable, especially in cases where the parents had different hair colors. Not to mention, she was sweetness personified. If the parents didn't fall in love with her as soon as they saw her, she would stop calling me "Queen Eli."

"Of course, sweetie. I doubt you'll leave here today without holding the hand of a daddy or a mommy," I said.

At that moment, I heard Faith's voice. That could only mean one thing: she was right behind me. One of the flaws in my power, as Faith said, was that I couldn't read minds from a distance. I had to be in the same room as them to do it. Unlike Faith, that was fine with me. I imagined how crazy I would go if I could read people's minds from a distance. Besides, I could read people better when I looked at them directly.

"Finish up quickly. The big fish are starting to arrive. We have to get their money," Faith the Phoenix said cheekily in my mind.

"You're incredible, Phoenix. You only want me so you can find out how much you can get from them while I rummage through their minds," I whispered in her ear as I turned to look at her. She didn't answer me, at least not verbally. She just smiled and started walking down the hall, talking to me in her mind.

"That's why I love you. I never deceive you," I said, laughing.

I looked in the mirror to see if I was presentable. The first hour of the event would be filled with millionaire philanthropists who had been invited to donate to the orphanage. It was convenient for them because they could deduct the donations from their taxes, which were high in Toronto. We were raising funds for these children.

I used to see it from a child's point of view, but now, as a volunteer at the orphanage, I see how necessary these donations are to keep this orphanage from closing. For years, the church's contributions had not been as high as before. In many cases, people had stopped believing in mercy.

The mirror reflected the image of a beautiful twenty-year-old girl with straight, silvery hair that fell to her waist, gray eyes, fair skin, and a curvy body. My hips and bust were wide, but I was thin. I was like a sexy ghost from a cartoon.

Faith used to say it wasn't fair that I had that body and height, although I preferred to be like her: full of color with red, curly hair falling to the middle of her back; large, green, tigress eyes; and a curvy, smaller frame that left no man indifferent. She was temptation in motion, fire from head to toe. Next to her, I seemed lifeless, black and white.

She was the one who seduced the big fish with her smooth talk. I analyzed potential victims from afar and sent her messages so she could catch a certain fish.

I took a deep breath and began descending the stairs to join the rest of the orphanage staff in the large central park. As I descended, I began to feel strange things: an unusual heat and an even more unusual smell. It was the delicious smell of damp earth and freshly cut grass. Without realizing it, I stopped to inhale deeply. I love that smell. It made my heart beat faster and my inner heat increase.

The urge to find the source of the smell overwhelmed me. I ran down the stairs and, as I turned the corner, I felt someone very close behind me moving at an unpredictable speed. I tried to read his mind, but I couldn't. It was as if there were a wall around him.

Suddenly, I was grabbed by the waist, pulled backward, and pressed against a much taller and stronger body. The scent I was looking for intoxicated me, making me dizzy. He was responsible for how I felt.

"Mine!" An animalistic growl reached my ear as I felt him sniff my neck.

This man had claimed me as if I were a trophy. I had never seen him nor knew what he looked like, yet his scent overwhelmed me and made me salivate. I hadn't been able to read his intentions because his mind was closed to me. He was the first person whose thoughts I couldn't read. For some reason, I felt safe by his side.

I was afraid because I wanted to stay there, let myself go, and let him claim me. I wanted him to hold me tighter and succeed as a woman. My body burned inside as if that were inevitable. I had lost all ability to think. I was a willing prisoner to that man, and I couldn't help but moan with pleasure.

Faith.

"This is crazy. People keep coming. Let's see if my secret weapon arrives so I can choose my pieces," I thought as I headed to the lawn area where the tour of the large esplanade of shops and food tables would begin.

Children ran around uncontrollably, trying to steal food from the tables. I stood next to the big tree where Eli and I used to sit and read as kids.

Suddenly, I felt a great pressure in my heart. My body temperature rose. Something was wrong. My body woke up as if I had just had sex. As if that weren't enough, I had only had sex once, with a guy who left me for a rich girl in high school after getting what he wanted. I had never felt this unbearable desire before.

My skin became sensitive, and my sense of smell sharpened. There was a faint smell of cinnamon and apple in the air. What was happening to me? Was I going crazy?

I looked around as if I were drugged, searching for something or someone. I couldn't help it; my body was taking over.

I turned around a large tree instinctively, and in a second, I was pushed against it with force while a man pinned me against the tree. His eyes weren't normal; they were red, like boiling lava. I could smell him, feel his heat, and my body trembled with pleasure. He was what I had been looking for.

"Mine! You're mine!" I heard him growl as he buried his face in my neck and sniffed me.

Suddenly, he straightened up and pulled away, his face expressing disgust. He was upset.

"You're human! Damn it! You're a human. My mate can't be a weak human," he said, looking at me with disgust.

For some reason, my heart filled with pain. It was a sharp, unbearable pain, but I refused to show it. I just kept staring at him with the same expression of disgust.