His Little Ember • BOOK III

Chapter XX

A throbbing headache welcomed me when I woke up. Trying to blink the drowsiness away, I saw that everyone had already packed everything up and were just sitting down eating breakfast. Feeling embarrassed, I immediately rolled up my blanket and went to the group. 

"Sorry I overslept." I mumbled, taking a strawberry jam packet and smearing it on a piece of white bread. I was always one of the first ones to get up first so I felt terrible. 

Isla smiled at me, waving it off. "You're good, besides we were discussing the easiest way down from here. If we thought yesterday was difficult, today is going to be worse." She took a bite of a bagel with cream cheese that had a piece of cantaloupe on top to which I grimaced. Talk about weird pregnancy foods.

West looked at Mallory. "Yeah, I'm not sure about my mate going down the mountain despite her thinking she's completely capable. She might be, but our pup might not."

Mal chuckled, "I was planning to do so in the first place. It's steep, slippery, and there are narrow edges. I'll be extending the carrier I made for Alaric and you can fit in right next to him."

The Alpha huffed and crossed her arms. "Great, now I'm getting treated like a grandma."

During their conversation, I was surprised that Kain hadn't mentioned anything about last night's event. Deciding it was for the better, I got up off the grassy ground and wiped the crumbs off my lap, connecting the latch of my cape but keeping the hood down to let my face feel the cool morning breeze.

Once the group was all set, we slowly started down the narrow edge. Little pebbles slid beneath our feet and down the steep mountain, making our hike unstable as we tried to maintain our ground going downwards. 

The slight pulsing I felt in my chest on the top of the hill before became even more erratic as we came closer to our destination. Why did we have to go back to the clan's home to find the BloodStone? Meeting my family was also a big pain in the butt. It wasn't like I didn't have one in the first place. Then again, I would want to know what happened; we came this far.

W stepped onto the flat land and sighed in relief. "Thank goddess. That was tricky. Now what?" He turned to Kain.

Mal stepped in front of him and put her head around the corner of the mountain wall then gasped. She turned back to us, her eyes wide. "You guys have got to see this."

I walked around it then my mouth dropped open. The mountain walls created a circle around us, almost enclosing us in. Green vines were climbing up in various areas and one waterfall was in the background. Grass was on the ground in contrast to the dirt and rocky trail we had previously been on.

"Welcome. This is the outside of our safe haven." Kain said, gesturing to the scenery before us.

"It's...it's beautiful." I whispered.

A smile appeared on his face which I loved. We followed him a mile into the mountain ring to where he stopped. He put a hand down on a random place on the stone. A blue ring appeared around his palm, scanning his fingers. 

'They must use technology.' I thought.

Suddenly a rumbling sound echoed throughout the caverns and beneath our feet making me gasp. The mountain wall opened up creating two doors for us to walk into.

Walking in, my heart was pounding against my chest intensely. Faint red lights produced a pathway for us to walk through. Chattering could be heard as we got closer. Soon the path opened up into a dome that was inside of the mountain. 

Stone houses were carved in the walls from top to bottom, all the way around. In the middle of the room, there were four thrones I assumed for the royals, on a high rock, surrounded by lava. Other rocks put in the lava and spaced out as steps to lead to them. While I was admiring the layout of the cave, I then quickly noticed the talking had died down a bit and curious eyes were on the group. 

"It's her..." Someone whispered from the side.

Another one said, "Are you sure?"

"No he's right! Look at her hair!" A girl squealed loudly.

My eyebrows furrowed and I picked at a strand of my hair. Kain grabbed my hand and squeezed it lightly making me look at him strangely. "Don't worry. Ready to meet your past?"

Chuckling nervously, I nodded. Suddenly, a blur of black and orange ran past me promptly smacking.

"Kain!" A little boy had his arms just below Kain's waist, hugging him tightly, making him groan. "I've missed you, I'm so glad you're back!" 

I giggled. My soulmate took the boy and put him on his shoulder. "This little runner is my brother, Kyle. Kyle, this is Ariella. Be nice."

"Well, as long as she's cool, then we're cool."

Smiling, I crossed my arms. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not only cool, I'm awesome."

"Someone's cocky." Kain muttered.

Raising an eyebrow, I poked Kain in the chest. "I do deserve that word because I can shoot arrows precisely and I am an experienced tree climber. I've only seen you practice with your blade, I doubt you can put it to use."

He leaned a bit closer, smirking. "Trust me Little Ember, I can definitely put it in action."

Dion coughed loudly, interrupting us. "Um, yeah, so we have an audience...and a kid...right on your shoulder?" 

Kain leaned back and chuckled. He started to walk a bit and I followed him, feeling more and more excited with every step.

"This is the first place where vampires lived. Soon multiple hideouts got started throughout the world but right here is exceptional. We vampires may seem like terrible creatures to others, but with our own family, we would die for them."

I looked at him strangely. Then why did he lash out at me when we first met? Wait. Was it because I was living with werewolves? A horn started to resound throughout the cave and my eyes widened. 

He put Kyle on the ground and put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry. It's the Royal Family. You're going to meet them."

"I'm going to what!?" I shrieked, trying to keep my voice down. "Um, can we just do that?" Kain nodded. "There's something you're not telling me about you, isn't there?" He didn't look at me.

Rolling my eyes, I tried to mentally prepare myself and calm my nerves down as we came closer to the backs of two tall people covered in dark red robes lined in thin white fabric.

"Duke Kain greets His Majesty Konstantin and Queen Yelena."

I clenched my fists, looking down at my boots, screaming inside. Holy frickin what the blazes is going on?! 

When I heard silence, I slowly turned to look up and gasped. Yup, they were them. The ones that birthed me into this world. The hazel-eyed older man had slicked back black hair with faded red streaks, peppered with grey. Next to him, a woman had blue eyes and had her hair in a black and scarlet braided bun. Both of them wore gold crowns, embedded with red jewels.

She gave a slight gasp but made no move to come to hug me which I was grateful for. I was in more than enough shock as it was. They looked so much like me. I couldn't get over how familiar they felt.

"Duke Kain, I see you brought company." The King was still stone-faced, however his hazel eyes were looking right at me.

"I--I am Ariella, your Majesties." I gave an awkward curtsy.

Fay suddenly fluttered over my shoulder and bowed her head in front of the two. "Greetings. This pixie has been a part of helping bring her home."

The Queen waved her off. "We'll record it in the books, Fayline." The pixie nodded and flew away to another part of the cave. "Ariella... I'm--I'm sure you know who I am."

"Yes. I do."

"Then we shouldn't really make it awkward. Let's just talk inside."