“Hello.” The red-head stepped forward, her words tinged with an accent. “I’m Marion.”
A wave of feeling rushed up and over Caia, a safe feeling, like she could trust this woman with anything. Engrossed in the feeling, she almost forgot her manners. “Sorry.” She took the woman’s hand in her own. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I have a lot to thank you for.”
She shrugged, laughing warmly. “Not at all. Oh.” She seemed to remember herself, and turned back to her companion. “This is Saffron. My faerie.”
A faerie? Caia blinked, remembering the amazing stories Ryder had imparted. “Nice to meet you,” she said, trying to hide her awe.
She watched as Saffron wrinkled her nose and turned to Ryder. “She smells different from the rest of you.”
“Shut up,” he hissed back, glaring at her.
“Wh-”
Before Caia could ask her question Magnus stepped forward, interrupting her. “We need to talk,” he said softly. His worried eyes made the hair on Caia’s skin rise. If she had been in wolf form her ears would have twitched, her hair would have spiked, and she would have lowered to her haunches, awaiting the attack.
They knew!
They all knew what was wrong with her... and no one had told her.
Even the witch and the faerie knew.
She could feel everyone’s anxiety over having to tell her. Angry tears pricked the corner of her eyes. All this time they had been keeping something from her. She had trusted them.
Her gaze blazed with accusation as it moved from one to the other. She took perverse delight in watching them squirm. “Is someone finally going to tell me why every time I have an emotional outburst water pipes instantaneously rupture? Why I can throw someone across a room without even touching them? Why I started to change in front of a class of humans yesterday, and could do nothing to stop it?! Why I can actually feel your emotions right now?!”
Their mouths had fallen open, ears disbelieving at what she was telling them had happened to her.
“Caia.” Lucien made a move towards her, his eyes full of guilt and anguish.
“Don’t.” She stepped back from him, her eyes accusing and filled with dislike. He was the last person in the world she wanted touching her right now. She took satisfaction in the way he flinched, hurt by her rejection.
He sighed and looked at Magnus, and then back to her. “You should know Magnus wanted to tell you from the start, but he was outvoted.”
Caia looked at her uncle, and nodded, as if she had known all along he would not hurt her. “Then you explain, Magnus. Please, just tell me what’s happening to me?” She crumpled into a chair, hating the way her eyes filled with tears as they pleaded with his. “I’m scared.”
She looked at Lucien sharply as he made a sound of distress. His emotions hit her like a wave and she gulped under the force of them. Despite whatever had happened between him and Alexa, he had some caring feelings towards Caia - enough to feel hurt when she was hurting. She didn’t want that. She just wanted to be mad at him. She looked away, as Magnus approached her, ignoring her feelings for her Pack Leader, and taking comfort in the strong arm her uncle placed around her shoulders.
“You don’t have to be scared, Cy. We’ll get you through this.”
“Get me through what?”
“For you to understand, we have to go back to the beginning.” He sighed, rubbing her shoulder in comfort.
And then he began to tell her a tale that threw her back into a past she had never known existed. To a history that had been rewritten.
16 - The Awful Truth
19 years ago
“How could you, Mikhail?” Albus burst out in rage, his hands trembling with so much emotion, so much confusion.
His older brother shrugged, defeated and weary. “I don’t know.”
“You’re the Pack Leader. To have an affair... with the enemy?” Rafe added in disbelief. Albus was glad for his presence. It calmed his fiery temperament.
Mikhail’s eyes flashed at the young man. “Why are you even here? This is between me and my brother.”
“Mikhail,” Albus warned, angry at the obvious blow Rafe took. He tried not to show it but Rafe’s eyes darkened with sadness. It had taken Ella’s persuasion for them to see that Rafe was an excellent man, a young man who had suffered for the sins of his father. Albus knew he thought of himself and Mikhail as his own brothers. For Mikhail to hint otherwise was a verbal punch to the stomach that Albus wouldn’t stand for. “Don’t take your own foolishness out on Rafe.”
Mikhail groaned, “Nothing will come of this. I promise. The affair is over with Atia.”
“You had an affair with the wife of the Head of the Midnight Coven! If Devlyn finds out, this will never be over!”
“Well, Atia. You have been a naughty wife, haven’t you?” Devlyn murmured as he circled her like an animal. His eyes raked over his beautiful wife as she dangled by her arms, arms that were clapped in chains attached to the ceiling. A long time ago he had thought Gaia had created this enchanting creature just for him. Now his stomach turned just thinking about where her body had been. “How was it? Sex with a dirty animal? Not even an influential Pack Leader... some small time piece of filth who has the audacity to call himself a leader.”
He watched as her eyes began to tear in rage and frustration. She pulled at her chains, her body swinging from the motion. “I told you I killed Mikhail! It is over, and there is one less lykan in the world!” she cried, her tears turning to blood as they ran over the wounds he had inflicted on her. “Please, Devlyn...”
He laughed humorlessly. “What? You think I’m happy with the death of just one of those mutts? More of them must know that my wife had an affair with one of them. If the Coven ever found out...”
She pulled again at the chains, and looked at him wildly. “They’re strong, Husband. Small-time they may be, but they can’t be killed easily.” Her eyes widened as she thought of something, licking her lips in excitement. “Yes, you won’t be able to kill them unless you infiltrate them. I can help. I can find out their weaknesses, and together we can take them out.”
Devlyn stared, amazed that she would think he would fall for that. “My dear, why would I ask your help to take out this pack, when you’re the reason I have to do a black ops against them in the first place?”
“Devlyn...,”she begged.
It was the last thing she said.
His name.
A plea for his mercy.
He felt nothing after he killed her. Just stared at her in disgust, and turned away from her body. His eyes found his son, who stood in the doorway, his hand on his elder sister’s shoulder protectively, even though he was three years younger than she.
“The Coven is never to hear of this,” Devlyn commanded. He watched as they nodded their heads, their faces belying their own disgust at what their mother had done. He felt their anger hit him like a heat wave, and smiled at their loyalty. They were furious that their mother would have even dared to betray him, let alone with a lykan.
“Adriana,” he coaxed, and his young daughter stepped forward from the shadow of her brother, Ethan. She was just as beautiful as her mother, and the perfect weapon. “Your eighteenth birthday is in what... three months?”
“Yes, Father.”
“I want you training intensively until then.”
“Of course, Father.”
“Don’t you want to know why?”
“Of course, Father.”
He smiled. He had raised his children well at least. They hadn’t been poisoned by their mother’s weaknesses. Adriana would make a fine Head for the Coven once he was gone. “I’m sending you into the pack.”
Her eyes widened at that. “You want me to infiltrate the pack, Father?”
“Yes. I don’t want anyone other than my children knowing of this.” He strode towards her, putting his arm around her small shoulders, leading her to Ethan. His other arm went around his son, and he guided them both from the room in which they’d watched him punish and execute their mother. “If the Coven was to find out, children, this family would be stripped of its title. We go from being royalty to traitors.”
“We understand, Father.” Adriana nodded determinedly. “So, I will infiltrate this pack of mangy dogs and find out all there is to know about them.” She stopped and stared at him with determination in her eyes. “Who their strongest warriors are; their relationships with one another, and thus where their weaknesses lie.”
“Good.” Devlyn was pleased. She had been taught well. He turned to his son. “Why is Adriana’s plan the best we have, Ethan?”
His fifteen year old son pulled himself up straight, his eyes blazing with a hatred that would see him through the worst of the war. “Because there are only three of us, Father, and many more of them. If we can understand their weaknesses, we can exploit them. An emotional lykan is one that we can take by surprise, before they make the change into their... disgusting animal forms. In animal form they are protected from our magik. But as humans...”Ethan smirked. “They’re putty in our hands.”
Devlyn chuckled and squeezed his children closer to him. “Exactly.”
“Albus,” Rafe said quietly, placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “I’ve returned.”
Albus turned, his eyes sad as he looked over his friend. “You look well. I take it that last rogue didn’t give you too much bother?”
“No. Not really.” Rafe shrugged, and then took a seat beside him. “Ella says you are adjusting to your duties.”
It was Albus’ turn to shrug this time.
“Al.” Rafe sighed. “It has been months now. I wish you would stop blaming yourself for Mikhail’s death.”
“I should have known that bitch would come back for him.”
“You did all you could for him. I know you don’t want to hear it, but Mikhail had to have known what he was doing when he got mixed up with a dark witch... for goddess sake, Albus... he signed his own death warrant.”