"Somewhat ninety to hundred years ago."
"And she doesn't know?" Lorcan asked.
Damien stood by the window as he answered, "She has no idea, she doesn't even know that her mother was a witch. In fact, Marcella didn't want anyone to know, they only told Connor, in case something happened to them, which I guess, was her fear of her mother."
"She wasn't just a witch," Lorcan said, his voice rose as his eyes full of emotions fell on Damien, "She was royalty for the witches."
"Yeah, I don't think even Connor knows that..." Damien said.
Lorcan sighed and rubbed his temple, "Why didn't she tell them?" he wondered out loud.
"Even though Connor seems to know about Marcella, I don't think he knows about you."
Lorcan glared at Damien and amusement filled the previous alpha's eyes.
"So this woman you brought with you, is she your soul mate?"
Lorcan smiled slightly but shook his head, Damien could see the pain and anger in the eyes of his old friend, "She was in the coven I went to a few years back. A late bloomer, she has magic definitely," Lorcan nodded while speaking, "but still doesn't know how to control it. They treated her so poorly that I brought her with me when I left."
"You love her," Damien commented.
"I do." Lorcan smiled, "She balances my craziness out."
"Lorcan..."
"Damien." Lorcan maintained the calm look on his face but his voice was hard. Damien knew when to not push the warlock, so he remained quiet, allowing him to finish. "I know what you will say, and I will tell you what I have a thousand times before. Not every witch or warlock gets a soulmate. I believe I fall under that category. I love Clysmic, it feels like my heart is constricting when I am away from her for long."
"Then maybe she is..."
"There are no sparks," Lorcan whispered, his voice so sad it made the alpha's heart ache. I have waited centuries for my soulmate before I gave up. Now that I have found love, without the meddling of the old gods, I will grasp it with both hands and never let it go. No matter what."
Damien looked at Lorcan who had moved to stand in front of her as he spoke. he saw the pain the warlock tried to hide behind his angry front. It's hard to hide things when they had known each other for so long.
"Okay," Damien sighed but he still looked confused, "Why did you send her back then?"
"She still has a lot to learn, I am not letting her come here if there is a war on our hands."
Damien nodded, "I am happy for your, brother."
"You do realize that I am older than you, like, by a hundred years..." Lorcan spoke flatly and Damien rolled his eyes.
"Do me a favour, and talk to Xavier."
They both sat in silence for a few seconds.
Lorcan remembered how he had found his mate, broken down, defeated, and to be responsible for one's mate's pain, he could only imagine how Xavier was dealing with it.
"She isn't making it any easier huh?" he asked.
"Can you blame her?"
The warlock scoffed, "I am actually glad she isn't. Your son can be quite a stubborn ass sometimes, Damien. If she is making it hard for him, as she should too, all I can say is it is a good match."
Damien sighed but smiled.
"I will talk to the both of them. Also, this witch you think they have with them, could it be her?" Damien asked.
Lorcan knew what he meant by 'her', but he chose to remain silent.
"Let's drop this for now, training will be over soon and the kids will be here any moment, they need to know about this."
Lorcan agreed with his old friend and changed the topic, choosing now to go down the nostalgia trip and live through some old memories.
When Selena, Connor, Ileana and Ryan entered the room, they saw the two males talking and laughing about some of their earliest memories.
"You've known each other for quite some time," Selena observed.
"I've known him since he was a pup." Selena's eyes widened in shock but Damien rolled his eyes on hearing his old friend.
"There are a few things you all should know."
All of them sat down in various places throughout the room, Selena and Connor leaned against the wall by the window side by side, Damien sat on Xavier's chair and Ryan and Lorcan sat opposite to him, Ileana sat on the couch beside the door to the office.
"I have a theory about the witch in the hunter's group."
He instantly had everyone's attention as they all looked at him curiously.
"Do you remember our trip to South Asia? I had shared the stories about that place with you and Xavier." When Ryan nodded, he was about to speak again but Ileana spoke up.
"How come I don't know about this?" she asked.
Damien smiled at her, "You didn't like these stories, we used to all sit together when I told everyone this, Evelyn and Aiden listened to it, but you either dozed off or left to do some other work."
"Oh..." she said sheepishly as Ryan smirked at her. "Well, this time I am not leaving."
"I would hope so," Damien continued, "It is important that you all know."
"Is it about the wolves and witches in India?"
"You know?" he asked as they all looked at Selena surprised.
Selena shrugged, "My dad used to tell me those stories too."
"No offence, but I don't know," Ileana spoke up and Damien chuckled and continued with the story. He had also asked Ryan to keep Xavier on the speakerphone, to take part in the conversation.
"I had gone to India when you guys were very little for training. Robert had a friend there, and we had gone there to learn from them." Lorcan looked at Damien, but the latter continued speaking without giving any attention to him, "We made friends with their alpha."
"The Warrior Pack," Selena whispered.
Damien nodded, "I am guessing Robert has told you almost everything about them."
"He did," she said softly, "when he trained me, he told me a lot about the alpha of the Warrior pack in India. In fact, he had insisted that I go there to train with them for one year. He had also mentioned needing more physical strength to go through something in future but I don't remember much about that," Selena said with a shrug. "The alpha there trained me with his son, Vishal. He had become one of my closest friends there. Alpha Shardul was so scary but then again, that man has a lot to teach."
"He was that strong?" Xavier asked from the call.
"He is," Damien spoke, "Do you know the story of Asteria?"
Selena's eyes widened this time, "I had heard her name a few times there but I never knew the story. And even though I was very curious, I didn't really feel like going against Alpha Shardul, no one there really liked to talk about it. I figured that might be a sore topic." She shivered, remembering how scary the alpha was when he was serious.
"Asteria, her soul mate, Saanjh and Shardul and come to visit us, just to see how we were doing after our return from their land. Her husband, Saanjh, was kidnapped by a few men while they were here."
"Asteria, I've heard that somewhere," Ryan pondered with a frown.
"It was the name of the Titan Goddess of the stars and dream," Selena commented. The day Damien told the stories, reminded her of her own dad, and Connor could see that on her face. He pulled her closer by her should and let his hand rest there, providing some brotherly comfort.
Selena leaned against him as he held her like he did when their father told them stories like these.
"Asteria had met Saanjh while they came to visit us once before that. They had gone back to his land. But she was kidnapped only a few days later after she visited us the next time."
"When did this happen?" Connor asked.
"Somewhat ninety to hundred years ago."
"Wow..." he breathed.
"If she was so strong, how did they take her?" Xavier asked.
Damien sighed, "It was a group of kids hunting for what they only believed existed but had no proof, this was their proof. They kidnapped Saanjh, he was a young boy, still learning to control and use his magic. They had asked Asteria to go to them alone, only with her spellbook, and in fear of losing her mate, she did exactly what she was asked."
"Damn..."
"They took her spellbook, gave her a portion which weakened her, locked her up, and only then did they allow Saanjh to leave. He had no idea the sacrifice she had made for him."
"Saanjh had come out and asked for his mate, only to be informed that she gave herself up for her. He felt the mate bond break, and he saw her soul leave, he said. They had stayed for a while, and looked around, but didn't find anything, no signs of the kidnappers or even Asteria."
"No one stopped her?"
"She was a witch, Selena, and a very powerful one. There was no stopping her once she made up her mind," Lorcan answered.
"How do you know so much?"
"Asteria and I were close once, we were great friends, from the connection, I could teleport myself to where she was, but she wouldn't leave, scared they would destroy the book, or worse, hurt her mate," Lorcan answered, "but after a few times, she closed me off, saying she didn't want me to see her like that. Since then I haven't seen her."
"You just left her there all alone because she said she didn't want your help?"
Selena sounded stunned, and Lorcan didn't miss the accusing tone. Selena was angry and Lorcan was filled with pride to see her care so much. However, that didn't make the sting of her words go away.
"I can only teleport to her if I know properly where she is, princess. The address, or even how the place looks, both works. But they changed their locations regularly and went to a new place every time. Without her help, I had no idea where she was. I had no other option. I didn't abandon her."
Selena wanted to flinch, but she held her front, for some reason, it hurt seeing Lorcan so... angry, hurt, disappointed? She didn't know which one he was feeling exactly.
"I didn't mean to offend you, Lorcan. I apologize."
"It's cool, princess," he smiled brightly, "I know it's all new to you."
"Tell me about it," she scoffed, "My pack didn't have a witch or warlock associate which is very weird."
After a long silence, Lorcan continued, "Shardul had called me quite a few times, Saanjh wasn't doing so well, Asteria didn't want them to know so I couldn't tell them about her. But Saanjh is a warlock too, he could feel something was wrong, but he couldn't point it."
"This, Alpha Shardul, he didn't realize?" Ryan asked.
"He knew I knew something, but he also believed I had reasons for not telling him. So he let it be."
"He sounds terrific," Evelyn whispered from over the phone.
"He is nearly seven feet tall. In a war ground, he is so intimidating that he can make you wet your pants with just a glare. His huge, black eyes were as vast as the universe. You wouldn't dare to look at them for more than a few seconds. Yet, he is so soft in front of his mate. I was there for five years and Shardul and his mate, Vaishali treated me like their brother. Shardul never even spoke harshly in front of Vaishali, his mate. I admired that in him. No matter how strong, he never used his power over his son or his mate.
"Shardul and I became good friends. Saanjh lived on the adjoining land with his parents, his father used to teach him to control and utilize his power while Shardul trained me. the man met his mate late, but he is even older than me. Shardul, Saanjh and I used to spend most of our free time together. They would show me the beauty of their land, the green trees, the beautiful hillside landscape and the frequent waterfalls. It had a different kind of beauty to it."
"Seems like you were mesmerized by it, dad," Ileana whispered softly, smiling at her father.
"I was, sweetie. Anyway, I have gone way off track here. So when they were here, the witch's queen was also here with her children, that's how they met, Asteria is the younger daughter of the queen."
"Even her mother didn't care?" Selena asked confused.
Damien shook his head, "For the queen, her pride was more important than anything else, she was not okay with her daughter being mated to a younger witch who had no superior rank."
"Sounds like someone I wouldn't like to meet."
Damien and Lorcan shared a look but they didn't utter a word.
Xavier spoke from through the call, "How is a hundred year old story relevant to our situation right now, dad?"
"Your father thinks that Asteria might be the witch helping the hunters. After all, it was the hunters who had kidnapped her and I know for a fact she isn't dead. Also, it was a bunch of young hunters who had kidnapped her."
"Young hunters like a century ago," Aiden spoke.
Ever heard how much humans love the method of procreation?"
Aiden groaned, Lorcan chuckled.
"Just great," Xavier muttered making Selena smirk slightly, sometimes it was just so easy for him to get angry.
"We don't know for sure."
"All we gotta do is check where the hunters are residing," Damien said looking at her pointedly, but she remained silent, knowing what he was hinting at.
"We must come up with a plan, and soon too."
Selena sighed, "These guys are way too skilled. No matter how prepared we are, people will die, and I brought it upon the pack."
"No, you didn't," Xavier said immediately, his voice was strong yet soft at the same time, "They had killed my gamma and turned quite a few of my pack members into traitors. We were on their hit list anyway. It isn't your fault."
Selena nodded but realized he couldn't see her. She didn't bother to respond. Lorcan couldn't help but smirk seeing the amount of strength Selena needed to ignore her mate.
"The rogue attack was weird, they worked all together like a pack does, it doesn't make sense," Ryan muttered.
"You're saying they are breeding rogues?" voiced Connor.
"No, hunters are too disgusted by our kind to breed rogues, but they might have asked the witch to do spell them, isn't there a spell to get loyalty?"
Lorcan nodded impressed, "There is."
Everyone remained quiet and Lorcan was really running out of patience now, he needed to be with his girl.
The witch stood up, "I gotta go, I have someone waiting for me. We are staying in the town. Just message me if you need me, or rather don't if you can handle it yourself."
Saying this Lorcan saluted the group with a cheeky smile and walked out.
"He's a fine character," Connor voiced in an amused tone, making Damien chuckle.
"I have some work with Alpha Parker, I gotta go too. See you guys soon, you too Selena."
The girl blushed but remained quiet as Connor tried not to smirk. She rolled her eyes at her brother and walked out of the room and he looked at Damien.
"When are we planning a strategy?"
"Assoon as we can."