Greykin Valley

| 55 | Bloodlines

"It doesn't," Raphael said as he moved aside so that someone else could get into the weapons locker. "All that tells me is that he's an Epsilon."

"He's a Zeta," Jackson corrected.

Raphael stopped counting his rounds and looked at Jackson. "A Zeta?"

He nodded.

"All right," Cyrus then called loudly. "Let's move out."

Jackson exhaled shakily as his nervousness consumed him. Everyone started filing out of the room, and when Raphael and the twins started walking, he followed, keeping close to the orange-haired man.

"Fetch Maleki," Cyrus' voice echoed from the front of the crowd as he led them from the war room and through the massive house.

"When we get there, don't try to be a hero," Raphael muttered.

Jackson looked at him. "I'm not reckless, don't worry. I've been training with Sebastien to—"

"Training or not, your job is to find the inimă, and that's it," he said sternly. "You leave the fighting and rescuing to everyone else."

"But what if they need my help?" Jackson asked desperately.

Raphael scoffed amusedly. "Trust me, they won't."

"Well, forgive me if I don't just take your word for it," Jackson muttered.

The orange-haired man shot him and aggravated scowl.

"S-sorry," Jackson stuttered as he followed the crowd outside. "I just...this is my pack, my friends, and...one of them is my mate. We've all been through so much already, and we've lost too many people, too. I just wanna help."

"While I understand your motives, we have orders from the top to keep you out of harm's way."

"I'll be fine," Jackson grumbled.

"And Strămoş Luca believes otherwise," he replied as he stopped in the courtyard.

Jackson stopped, too. The fog had cleared, revealing the vast manor gardens. The ground was covered in a bed of snow, and there were a few dead fruit trees and hedges here and there. He could see more gargoyle sentries sitting on the surrounding walls, and a few wolves were prowling the grounds, too.

He then looked at Raphael. "What does Strămoş mean?"

The man glanced at him as he answered, "It's ancestor in Dor-Sanguian; one side of my family originates from there. We use Strămoş whenever we talk about any relative older than our parents. Strămoş Luca is who you know as Lord Caedis or Alucard, and Strămoş Zalith is the Zenith. You'll hear a lot of names and titles being thrown around this place, so you best remember everything fast if you want to keep up."

Jackson nodded slowly. "Okay...so tell me."

Raphael glanced around at everyone. "Maleki's going to take his sweet ass time, so I guess," he said with a shrug. "Elder Idina is Alpha Cyrus' mother and Fenrisúlfr's mate and wife, and an Apex demon. Since you're both a demon and a wolf, I don't know which title you should be using for her; it's best to ask Alpha Cyrus. Fenrisúlfr is Greymore, a God to some, a friend to others. We always refer to him as Fenrisúlfr."

"Okay...and I just call all of you guys by your names, right? I'm not a part of your pack, so I don't have to use ranks, do I?"

"Correct."

Jackson then spotted Maleki. "What's his deal?" he mumbled, glancing at Raphael.

"He hates wolves, and he hates working with us even more. Strămoş Luca posted him out here to help us when the cadejo started showing up. Being an elf gives him immunity to silver, so he's one of Strămoş Luca's most valuable subordinates; it's why he acts so high and mighty all the time."

"Guy's used to being pampered and eating rich people food back in DeiganLupus," Amos muttered.

"And getting his feet kissed," Elias added.

Raphael rolled his eyes.

Jackson watched as Maleki—the very angry, very flamboyant elf-vampire—strutted through the crowd and towards Cyrus. He frowned and looked at Raphael again. "Cyrus said something about him knowing stuff about the Holy Grail."

"He was Strămoş Luca's inside man for a long time back when the Holy Grail had just surfaced. The information he gathered saved millions of Caeleste lives," Raphael said as he, too, watched the elf-vampire tell Cyrus just how much he'd rather not be accompanying them on their mission.

"At least he doesn't boast about it," Amos muttered.

"Yeah, he just boasts about everything else," his brother said.

Cyrus then clapped his hands loudly. "All right, everyone. Time to shift. Let's get a move on."

Everyone swiftly shifted into their wolf form, so Jackson did the same. And then he set his eyes on Cyrus, who was the only pure white wolf among them; he looked very much like Damon, which made sense since they were related, right?

Right?

Jackson frowned as he followed Raphael when the pack started heading for the gates. He remembered Sebastien saying something about the Grey bloodline, but he couldn't recall exactly what. So, he looked at Raphael and asked, "So, Cyrus and Damon are related, right?"

However, Amos answered instead, "Distantly. It's likely they don't know each other; Alpha's like...three hundred and sixty years old or something crazy like that."

Jackson's eyes widened as he stared at the silver wolf in confusion. "What?" But then he remembered what he was told about Idina and Fenrisúlfr. Idina was a demon, which meant her children—Cyrus and his siblings—were the 'sort of hybrids' that Amos mentioned. "Oh, never mind, I got it. He stopped ageing like demons do, right?"

Amos nodded as they passed the gates and headed into the forest. "And Three hundred years is a lot of space for a lot of new Grey babies," he said with a wink.

Raphael rolled his eyes.

And then the pack picked up the pace. It seemed like the time for questions was over.

It was time to run.

Jackson kept up with the orange wolf, and the deeper into the woods they ran, the tighter his anxiety gripped his racing heart. They were heading to Kane's territory, and they were going to save Damon and the others. And while they did that, Jackson had to find the inimă.

It was going to be hard to ignore the battle, though. He knew that he was going to want to help Damon and Wilson, but he had to trust Cyrus and these wolves, who clearly knew what they were doing—especially since they were working for Lord Caedis.

And he hoped that he was making the right choice.

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