©CRGangell aka Whitesabretooth
Hi everyone
This is book 6 in the Twists of Fate series; this story hasn’t been modified and is in its original form. If you feel you can come up with a better blurb or cover please email me and I might use it.
Have Fun
Chapter 1
The empty computer screen stared back at her, the monitor blank with only the flashing cursor to indicate that the screen wasn’t frozen, only her mind. Amy sighed and rubbed her tired blue eyes, the computer sat before her mocking her inability to write a speech, which was to address everything that had happened over the last two months. To calm the outrage people were feeling, which could well lead to a war. Outrage at the slave ring, which had been disbanded through her daughter’s action, and more outrage as news of what had happened to Ghost and Katie became public knowledge.
It mattered not that Ghost was immortal and had recovered from his savage beating. What had them outraged was that, just as Ghost seemed to be coming out of his self-imposed exile from both human and Were life and had found his soul mate again, she was snatched from him again, killed before him in a mindless act of violence. She had managed to talk him into joining her pack, to keep him from spiralling back into that cycle. However, it was Katie’s last words before she died which had kept him from isolation; ‘live for me, I will return,’ which were keeping him from running away from his pain.
The outrage was high in the Were and other communities, even in the human community, the world needed to hear that everything was being done to ensure that justice would prevail. That those who had committed those crimes, the slave cartel, savage beating of Ghost and murder of his mate Katie, would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Tomorrow she was to talk at a press conference about these events as she had been directly tied to them, she abhorred winging it but had still not managed to write a single thing down.
Her phone rang, she looked over the bank of phones on her desk, she had three - the black one was for normal use, the red one was a direct line to the president of the United States and the third, the white one was for the alphas and her family - she lifted the receiver on the white phone and tucked it beneath her left ear leaving her hands free if she needed them. “Amy speaking,” she said as sometimes Joe answered this phone if she was busy.
“Why aren’t you home yet?” Wolfgang asked slightly grumpy, he didn't like his pushy valet telling him to find out if Amy was coming home for dinner.
“I’ll be home in a few minutes. I promise.”
“Still having problems with that speech.” He asked, as he knew how much trouble she was having trying to write it.
“Yeah.” She admitted, “I’m packing up now, I’ll say goodnight to Joe then go.”
“Okay… I’ll tell Bastion to hold dinner until you’re home,” he told her, “I love you.”
Amy smiled, “I love you too.” She answered before hanging up. She turned to her computer and its mocking blank page before hitting ctl, alt, del and locked it. She stood and grabbed her briefcase stuffing the files on her desk into it before locking it and willing it to her desk back home so that she could try to do some work on that stupid speech, if Wolfgang let her.
Amy walked around her desk and groaned as she remembered the crystal globe she kept a lot of information on, she turned and stuffed it into her pocket before walking out of her office switching off the lights as she left and walked into Joe’s office. “Joe I’m off.”
Joe glanced up from packing up as well, her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail to keep it out of her way, and her hazel eyes scanned her boss taking in the slight frustration in her body language. “I’m off too and I‘ll check to make sure Rachel is gone.” She hesitated for a moment, “Still having problems with that speech?”
Amy nodded.
Joe smiled gently, “You know what you need, you need a nice long relaxing soak in a bath of foamy water if Wolfgang lets you.”
Amy sighed, “That does sound good.”
Joe stood, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said.
“Yes… I’m coming in early, about an hour before the conference.” Amy informed her.
Joe nodded; she would be here to be of assistance. “Please, remind Wolfgang that if he is going to bite you not to do it in any place visible.” She asked firmly as it took her a while to cover those marks and she never managed to completely erase them.
Amy chuckled, “I’ll remind him… no promises he’ll listen though.” She replied with a smile, Wolfgang liked to bite as much as she did and in the heat of the moment, neither could control themselves.
Joe blushed; she had seen her boss and her mate in some very erotic positions around the office. “See you tomorrow.” She said as she picked up her bag and grabbed her coat.
“Tomorrow.” Amy agreed and focused her mind on her home, in particular the entrance hall and the part of it that had been cleared just for this purpose. The office started to fade as she willed her body home; she was mentally tired so she didn’t feel the outside force working on her will, forcing it elsewhere.
She blinked and when she opened her eyes, she stood staring in surprise and shock. The sun was high in the sky, the air had a cold bite to it, and it was closer to noon than dusk, lunch rather than dinner. She checked her watch, which confirmed that she wasn't going mad, her watch still read six thirty pm, but her eyes were telling her it was noon. She then took note of her surrounds, it took her a moment to realise that she was indeed where she wanted to be only the place she had called home was no longer. Her home was little more than rubble which was being reclaimed by the forest and dead autumn leaves which had surrounded it.
It had been abandoned for a long time by the looks and smell of it. Her mind started to tick, trying to come up with a solution to what her eyes and senses were telling her. Three questions came to mind; what happened to her home, when was she, and what happened to her family?
She knew of only one force that was powerful enough to affect her will, only one being could uproot her so. It had her swearing in every single langue she knew before she settled on English to finish her rant, “Bloody, cursed, interfering, goddess of fate.” She finished as she pulled her black hair from her ponytail in frustration as her body paced for several moments, out of all of the gods only one could directly interfere with an Ancient and that was because it was she who had granted them their powers and their immortality. It was their debt to the goddess to be her agents in universes, to instigate change among the people and alter the course of history if she so chose. She knew not to bother trying to will herself back to her time or universe, Fate would not allow it until she had completed whatever task the goddess wanted of her.
She took a deep breath wondering what the hell she should do, should she try to seek out Wolfgang… she quickly dismissed the thought, she didn’t know what happened to this world and she was unwilling to walk into any situation until she did.
That left her one option, she would have to seek the other Ancients, they would know what happened, would be able to tell her what went wrong. She closed her eyes and focused on the temple, as it was the only constant in the Ancients lives. She pictured the arched doorway in her mind and vanished leaving the ruin that had been her home.
She appeared outside of the temple and stood still for several long moments with her eyes closed, afraid to open them and have her hopes crushed. Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes before sighing in relief as the temple stood before her and looked just as ageless as the last time she saw it. Her body moved before she could think, towards the arched doorway and reached out to grab the doorknob; there was an auditable click and was even more relieved that the magic of this place still recognised her as being Ancient. When she first came to the temple she had learnt some of its secrets, like the fact that the doors that led into the temple could only be opened by someone who was Ancient.
She turned the handle, opened the door and glanced into the dark hall for a moment but walked in confidently as this was also home to her. Turning she closed the door throwing the room into complete darkness, just as she was about to will the lights on she sensed movement and ducked instinctively as a sword sliced the air where her neck had been just moments before.
Amy spun away from her attacker and further into the hall. The sword came again but this time she was ready for it. She bent her knees and flung her body towards the floor, her hand supporting her body to avoid the blade. The blade cut the air above her; she pushed herself up and grabbed her attacker’s wrist with her left hand. Amy pushed the sword away, straightened her body and spun into the attacker, elbowing them in the chest. While her attacker tried to recover Amy ripped the sword from their hand and spun pointing it at them.
Amy felt the power in the sword go to work against her; she tightened her grip and focused her will on it, it quickly submitted to her. She shifted her eyes so that she could see in the inky darkness. “Grandma,” she said bewildered for a moment. Her eyes jerked to the blade she held, her eyes ran over the simple, even non-descript blade that she pointed at her grandmother. “Excalibur,” she breathed, before she dropped it letting it clatter to the ground. She felt the insistent pull of the sword, to pick it up and hold it in her hands but she refused even knowing that it was probably too late. The King’s Blade had submitted to her and in lore of old Excalibur only could be wielded by a king or by its maker without turning on them.
“How did you know the sword’s name?” Vivian asked with a slightly shaky voice. She hadn’t changed, she was still tall and willowy with long wavy brown hair and deep honey coloured eyes. She was alarmed at the apparent ease this stranger had used to first avoid her blows and then disarm her, never had she been disarmed while wielding Excalibur.
Amy sighed, obviously, this Vivian had never met her before or she would know how Amy could know Excalibur’s name, that she had shown the sword to Amy and warned her never to touch it or she would be destined to rule humankind for a very long time. “I just do,” she answered evasively.
The hall slowly brightened and Amy shifted her eyes back to normal, as the room brightened others came from hallways or simply appeared, all carried some kind of weapon in their hands. Rhun stepped forward pressing his sword to Amy’s throat, Guinevere also raised her sword and rested the tip of her blade against Amy's throat. Vivian reached down and scooped Excalibur up.
“How did you get in here?” Rhun demanded harshly.
Amy tried to keep the smile from her face as she turned to Rhun. “I opened the door.” She answered with just a slight condescending note to her answer.
“Only Ancients can open the door…” He growled, pressing the razor sharp edge closer to her skin and just nicking it, not enough to make her bleed but enough of a cut to sting like a paper cut. “How did you get in?” He demanded again.
“You answered your own question Rhun… I opened the door… the door let me in… ergo… I… am… Ancient.” She answered starting to feel the impatience and rage of her beast rise up making her more frustrated. Both Amy and her beast also didn’t like to have swords pointed at them even if they could do no permanent harm.
“How do you know my name?” Rhun asked pulling his sword away, Guinevere followed his lead.
Amy glanced around to see who was here, “I know all of your names. Vivian the lady of the Lake, Rhun an early Britton king in the dark ages, Arthur another dark age Britton king, Guinevere a dark age Britton queen, Cleopatra queen of the Nile, Boadicea queen of Picts, Noah builder of the ark, Robin of Loxley or Robin Hood, Taliesin Pen Berd and finally Mryddin the last two being nicknamed the Merlins.”
They watched her in surprise, not only did she know their names but the stories that were connected to those names.
“Although technically Noah never built an actual Ark.” She corrected herself moments before Noah said anything to contradict her.
He looked at her surprised at how much she actually knew, “How did I do it then?”
Amy sighed in annoyance, she knew he was testing her, “you did what any Ancient would have done if tasked with the salvation of humanity and all that lived on land. You willed them to a point forward in time when the great deluge was no more. It took you two years.” She crossed her arms and waited for him to ask more questions. When he didn’t, she glanced around again, “But where is D'Artagnan the Musketeer and Rhiannon the goddess of war?” she asked the room.
Taliesin pushed forward, like all of the Ancients there was nothing different between this man and the man she had breakfast with this morning, his eyes were still a vivid shade of violet and his hair was white even though he looked no older than thirty. “D'Artagnan is off on an errand but there is no Rhiannon goddess of War in our ranks.” He told her beginning to get an inkling of who this woman was, or more importantly, where this woman was from.
“Yes there is.” Amy argued.
“No there isn’t,” Vivian threw back at Amy.
Amy thought for several moments then turned to Vivian, “No wonder you guys don’t know me, I don’t exist in this universe. No Rhiannon… means no Me.”
Mryddin stepped forward; he still looked like a weird forty-ish man, with his weird beard with the V on his chin and wild eyes. “Obviously she is Ancient, the Temple would never have let her in had she not been, and she is obviously from some parallel universe brought here to do something.” He told the room, “Why don’t we sit down and hear her story before we go any further.” He suggested.
Amy shrugged and walked away, she took the first left hallway with everyone following then took the second right walking them into the very sitting room she had met them in all those years ago. Everyone followed her bemused, if they hadn’t been convinced before, her knowing the layout of the temple proved it. She sat and everyone joined her, they waited for her to start.
“First before we get onto my story what year is it?” She asked curious.
“2024.” Mryddin answered, “What year did you come from?” He asked curious.
“2018.” She answered.
Cleopatra frowned and tucked a curl of red hair behind her ear her green eyes thoughtful. “Fate rarely removes someone from their universe and time at the same time.” She said to fill the void as everyone had thought what she had said.
“Is this your first foray into the duties of an Ancient?” Vivian asked.
Amy shook her head, “No but it is the first time I’ve been removed from the universe I was born in… I think…” She said as there was no guarantees that she had been born in the universe she lived in until they found out who her other mother was.
Amy shook her head to clear it and to stall any questions the tacked on comment might have raised. “My name is Amy Wild-heart.” She said using her true Ancient name and not the name she used in her day to day life. “Daughter of Rhiannon Wild-heart and granddaughter of Vivian the lady of the Lake.”
There was a minute of complete and utter silence, then suddenly there was an uproar as some jumped to their feet. One word came out of the loud noise, “Impossible.”
Taliesin waved his hand and everyone went silent, “Amy… Ancients are made not born… it’s why there are so few of us.” He told her firmly.
Amy sat back in her chair, “Yeah… I was told that’s what you all said when Vivian fell pregnant and gave birth to Rhiannon.” She took a deep breath, “You thought Rhiannon was a fluke, an aberration to Fate’s design. Noah even tried to kill her after her birth but Fate made him rethink his action.”
“How?” Vivian asked.
“I asked that, Cleopatra said he just fell down and started writhing on the ground until he promised not to try to kill Rhiannon again.” Amy answered, “He then vanished for a long time.”
“They thought she was a one off, then I showed up and rocked your foundations further. A year later, I gave birth to triplets; all are Ancient and have Ancient abilities.”
“Ancients… don’t… breed.” Noah stressed.
Amy rolled her eyes, “Yeah they do… if they manage to hook up with their soul mate.” She told him firmly.
A woman walked into the room, Amy smiled as she recognised Rhun’s mate Taylor as they had met several times. Her skin was dark chocolate brown and had dark wiry hair that was always kept braided tightly to her skull. She lifted her nose and sniffed the air to smell the stranger. She frowned in confusion, “What are you?” She asked Amy.
“I’m complicated.” Amy answered with a smile.
Rhun turned to his mate, “What do you smell?” he asked curious.
She took another deep breath just to be sure before answering, “She smells Ancient… kind of… Were too… kind of and something… else.” she finished as she couldn’t quite figure out the last part of her.
Amy held up her hands as everyone turned to her. “Wait… no questions… let me tell my story.” She told them forestalling any questions Taylor’s statement had churned up. She took a deep breath and launched into her story, explaining everything that had happened to her. No one interrupted, they listened in stunned silence as more of Amy’s past was relayed to them. When she finished there was silence for several minutes.
Noah shook his head, “Impossible… Magical Law states…” He begun to say.
“I know what Magical and Natural Law states you moron.” She snapped at the somewhat rigid thinking Ancient, they simply had not gotten along in her universe and she doubted that they would get along in this one. “I had you all telling me that what I did was impossible, that the beast within me was not a true beast just a manifestation of my own anger and doubts. You quickly changed your view when I introduced you to the beast in my mind. You then thought I was simply channelling a spirit of a long dead animal, that I was merely shape shifting which Ancients can do. Until Nathanael proved I could turn someone.” She paused for a few moments, “I am for all intents and purposes Were, I’ve even physically turned someone.”
They all stared in bewilderment. Mryddin sighed, “We must seem very uncouth to you, questioning what to you and to those around you is common knowledge. Please forgive us… we have no experience in this kind of situation.”
Amy took a deep breath and shook her head, “it’s not all your fault… I’ve been very stressed the last couple of months and my beast is all riled up because she can’t hear Wolfgang’s mind, we can sense him, I know where he is but we can’t feel his mind and after so many years of having him constantly in the back of our minds it’s unsettling not to have him there.”
Cleopatra held up her hand to get Amy’s attention, “You haven’t told us what you shift into.”
Amy smiled a little embarrassed, “I’m a white sabre tooth tiger.” She told them. “I have a lot of Were characteristics, temper being one of them. I didn’t know I was Ancient, neither did Wolfgang when he attempted to turn me and everyone I asks swears to the goddess of the moon, to Luna, that I smelt human, not something else. I didn’t know so when I needed it I forced my power, my will into a change.”
“But Sabre tooths were never…” Robin started to say.
“A Were race… I know… but that’s what I shifted into.” She told them.
“What did you think just before you shifted?” Vivian asked curious.
Amy thought for a moment, no one had asked her what she was thinking before. “Nothing… well not quite, everything felt wrong then I focused my mind on one word, 'Shift' and my will complied.” She answered.
“Are you sure you didn’t think Wolf or Cat.” Boadicea questioned.
Amy shook her head, “No… just shift, my will took on a life of its own or Fate stepped in and chose the form I would shift into. I just don’t know, I don’t know many things.” She admitted.
“You think the answers to the question lie with your other mother,” Guinevere surmised.
Amy nodded, “Ma and you guys…” She went to correct herself but stopped, they knew what she meant. “Well you have no clue as to what I am, about what the other half of my genetics is. We haven’t figured out why my abilities are growing so diverse, I’m Ancient, I’m Were, I’ve learnt Elemental magic, I‘ve never been formally trained to fight yet I can pick up any weapon and wield it like someone who has trained their entire life to use only that weapon.” She explained, “We hope that my other mother will be able to answer the questions we’re all thinking and will be able to answer the one question I’ve wanted to know… what the hell am I… I’m not Ancient and I’m not Were.”
“But…” Mryddin started to say.
Amy held up her hand stopping him. “Okay… I didn’t say that right…” She went thoughtful for a moment, “Wolfgang says that after I shifted, my scent changed slightly, added a hint of Were to the mix. When I came here and you told me I was Ancient, my scent changed again, Ancient now in the mix. Then when I went into the Kings men and had that experience my scent changed again, Were and Ancient were still there, but there was a new scent, stronger than the Were and Ancient scents, a scent that no-one has smelt before, or can describe.”
Vivian‘s brow furrowed, “I… don’t…”
Amy nodded, “I know… it’s hard even for me to wrap my mind around sometimes. I’m Were and I’m Ancient but I’m also not. I am what I’m…” She stopped and blinked, she stood and started to pace with a kind of surprised yet confused look on her face. “I am what I’m not yet I’m not what I am.” She said saying the exact words she had said on August the 3rd when she had been asked what she was.
“What is that?” Mryddin asked.
Amy stopped pacing, “It’s a riddle, I said it after a great battle, when all this power was coursing through me, I am what I’m not yet I’m not what I am. I’ve known that phrase for years, it’s taunted me for years and only now do I figure it out.”
“Sometimes the most difficult answers are the ones we must work out for ourselves.” Taliesin said with all the wisdom of his years.
Amy smiled, “Yeah… you like my riddles… you still haven’t given me the answer to the last one I gave you.” She told him as she returned to her seat. Taylor and Cleopatra had slid out of the room at one stage and returned with drinks and snacks.
“Really, what was it?” Taliesin said with a pleased smile.
She smile as she thought for a moment, “What comes without being asked and is gone without being stolen.” She told him. She glanced around the room and saw that Cleopatra was about to answer. “Don’t tell him the answer.”
Cleopatra smiled and nodded.
“So…” Guinevere slid in before anyone else could side-track Amy. “What now?” She asked.
“We need to find where the divergence is, the split in time which has allowed this world to go to shit.” Amy answered and everyone nodded as that did indeed seem like the first place to look.
“How… it could take us weeks… months… years even to find the divergence.” Taliesin stated, he didn’t even know where to start.
Amy rolled her eyes at his pessimism and dug into her pocket and pulled out a crystal globe glad and a little bemused that she had it on her, “We start with Were and Other history volumes one, two and three.” She said as she showed the globe to Taliesin with a smile.
“There is only volumes one and two here.” He said itching to take the globe and read what had gone on in her universe. He willed a globe into his hand, it had this universes Were and Other history volume one and two stored in it.
She nodded, “Yeah… shortly after the signing of the Human and Non-Human bill of rights by the world leaders you decided to write volume three, a large part of it dedicated to my deeds. You’ve also started on volume four which has some of my daughters deeds in it.” She offered him the globe after she willed it to change colour so that she would know which globe was hers.
Taliesin took the globe from her and willed a small black dome onto the table. It, like the globes in his hands was a piece of Atlantian technology that made even super computers of the 31st century seem like a primitive piece of technology. He sat both globes on top of the thought controlled computer and willed it to do a cross reference on Were and Other history volumes one and two. He willed a third globe into his hand and copied volume three onto it. He closed his eyes and let what was on the globe to fill his mind, absorbing the knowledge it contained.
He opened his eyes and turned to Amy in surprise.
“What?” Mryddin asked.
“No Ancient… not everything we’ve done combined in our entire existence… measures up to what she has done virtually alone in a decade.” He explained.
Mryddin snatched the globe from his hand and held it like Taliesin had. He held it for several moments then turned to Amy and looked at her in awe. “She got the middle east to stop fighting, permanently.” He tossed the globe on. “She got humans and Were and Others to work together, she adverted the genocide we all bore witness to.”
Taliesin nodded, “Although the genocide we saw happened a lot earlier than the one she stopped.” He added and Mryddin nodded in agreement.
“When did it happen?” Amy asked curious.
“About six years before you meet Wolfgang.” Mryddin answered.
Amy thought for a moment, “That means that whatever happened or didn’t happen directly contributes to the problems I managed to avert.”
Everyone nodded.
Taliesin sighed as three discrepancies were highlighted, the first one he dismissed but the other two were likely candidates. “We have our answer, Ghan never started the first gathering, which meant the improved relations among the Alphas never happened, which in turn meant the borders weren't solidified."
Amy closed her eyes pained. “No solid borders means the raids and constant bickering never stopped, which would lead the humans to try to eradicate us not knowing that we out number them and that a war with us would be their own destruction. There aren’t enough humans to take out us Were.”
Taylor nodded, “And they didn’t expect us to head to ground and do what we do best… hide… which is why this has gone on for so long.”
Amy chewed her thumbnail thinking. “How the fuck am I meant to fix this? Twenty years… almost a whole generation prejudiced against each other.”
“Bring humans and non-humans back together.” Arthur said for the first time getting into this discussion. “Rebuild this world the way it should have been built to begin with.”
Amy stared at him as if he had grown another head in mere moments, “Are you out of your mind? Do you know how hard it was the first time, and that was without twenty years of prejudice to cut through. It took a global mass protest to ram home the point that humans were not the masters of this world. The damage was limited to one battle and even that left its scars all over Harrisburg.”
Everyone glanced to each other, they knew what she was talking about and how difficult this was going to be. “Where do we start?” Vivian asked.
Amy sighed, resigned to the plan of action before her but not liking it, knowing it could take years for her to correct this world. “Where I started the last time… with the Alphas.” She told them. “But before we get to the Alphas we have to get my daughters, Cass, Becky, Shannon, Susan and Mayhem.”
“Why are all those others so important, I can understand your daughters but the others?” Cleopatra asked just as the globe got to her.
“Cass and Shannon are the soul mates of two powerful Alphas, Roberto and Grey-hawk. Becky is the mate to another Alpha Terri.” Amy explained.
“Not to mention that Cass, Shannon and Becky with Amy wrote the bill of rights for humans and non-humans.” Taliesin jumped in, “Those three are important for stability among the Alphas.”
“What about Mayhem?” Arthur asked.
“An Alpha and the soul mate of one of my daughters.” Amy explained as she knew it wouldn’t be in volume three. She looked at the screens and saw that a third discrepancy was highlighted. “Taliesin what’s the other discrepancy.”
Taliesin glanced to the screens then back to Amy, “One of your myths isn’t one of ours.” He answered.
“Which one?” She asked with a sense of foreboding.
“The one about Lupa.” He told her.
She watched him for several moments, “But Lupa isn’t a myth, he is a real person who…” She suddenly trailed off what she was saying; her mind whirled as she started to pace again. She understood why she and Rhiannon didn’t exist in this world; no Lupa meant no Wild-heart as it was his soul that Luna had created. After his first death and subsequent unveiling as her son she had hidden him in the body of a wolf, one of her creatures, to keep him safe. To keep the gods from using him for their own purposes while he was growing into his powers and safe from their games. The only goddess she couldn’t keep her son safe from was the goddess of Fate; no one could escape her or her games.
No Lupa meant no friendship with Ghan, no friendship with Ghan meant no first Alpha gathering as it was Lupa who gave him the idea, no first Alpha gathering meant no border solidification, no border solidification meant genocide for this world. Not to mention no Lupa meant no Wild-heart, no Wild-heart meant no Rhiannon, no Rhiannon meant no her and nothing Fate could do could correct that. All she could do was drag Amy here to correct this but since this universe was not hers she would not be allowed to stay in it once the problem was fixed.
“A person who what?” Taliesin prompted.
Amy stopped pacing and blinked for a moment before she suddenly snatched her globe back to keep that myth to herself. She had suddenly felt this overwhelming need to keep Lupa a secret even though she knew deep down that she wouldn‘t be able to keep him a secret for long.
Everyone frowned at her actions but no one reacted or commented on it, as they all felt ‘compelled’ to do things that defied all reason. They normally chalked it up to the goddess of Fate and left it be.
“So when do we start?” Vivian asked telling her in the same sentence that Amy would not be forced to do this alone, that they would all help her no matter what.
Amy glanced down at her power suit and realised that it was not the best thing to wear in rescue missions and stuff. “As soon as I change. I’ll just go to my room.” She told them before she left the room. Mryddin followed her to see which room she considered to be hers. He smiled as he watched her head to an empty room amongst the rooms in the north wing. She stopped at her room and turned to him.
He willed a name plate into his hand with her name on it. He slid it into the slot on the door and went to give her the key for the room. She smiled as her hand slid down the length of golden rope that looped around her neck, hugging her neck firmly, until she came to the figure eight at the end, her fingers found the hidden panel and tugged it free, exposing an ancient looking skeleton key. She reached out and unlocked the door with her key.
“Amy…” He said to get her attention before she walked in. She turned to him and waited, “We all do things for reasons that we can’t explain, no Ancient will question you about this Lupa, obviously we are not meant to know him.”
“That’s not the whole reason…” She told him. “Vivian’s my grandma… I love her to bits… but I don’t want her to know that her soul mate doesn’t exist in this universe, that she is destined to be alone for the rest of time.”
“Ah…” he said gently as he nodded. “I see… I think… I’ll keep it to myself.”
She nodded her thanks and walked into the room to change.
****
~ Elsewhere in North America. ~
Keira kept low as she rummaged through the rubble of buildings, looking for anything that she could use. At nineteen she was tall and very thin having missed meals. Her green eyes were weary as her eyes darted around what was left of the small ruined town that was now a part of the waste lands. Her blond hair was dirty and dreadlocked in places, tied back with a piece of braided flax. Her clothes were patched and several sizes too big for her, they like her body and hair were covered with dirt, a testament to the hard life she lived scrounging for food and sleeping in hollows. She paused and listened for several moments but as the sound didn‘t reappear she dismissed it. She lifted a panel and found a tin can. She checked to see if it was whole; it was so she stuffed it into her bag then looked around for more. She found another six cans. She didn’t really care what was in them; even dog food was preferable to not eating.
She heard something approaching and slid back into the rubble hoping no one had noticed her movements. Her scruffy appearance helped her blend into the shadows and if she remained still no one would notice her. She held still, trying to not even breathe, it wasn’t safe to wander the wastes; she had to avoid both sides of the war that had been raging for almost the last twenty years.
She had asked her parents how the war had started but they couldn’t tell her. They simply didn’t know; when the war begun they were living in the mountains near the town where she had been born. Both didn’t really like to live with people from either side of the battle lines. She rarely thought about her life before her parents had saved her life. She still had nightmares every now and again and she had the scars to remind her of the brutality of the war and of the loss of her birth parents.
She heard the crunch of booted feet, sliding further back into the shadows of the growing darkness, silently begging the fates that they didn‘t have a dog with them if they were human. She watched as the squad of people walked out of the forest and across the wastes. One was leading a dog, her worst nightmare as they were trained to react to any scent that wasn’t a part of the group, trained also to go berserk if in the presence of a Were. The dog bared his lips exposing his teeth, growling and alerting the squad that someone was nearby. She suddenly felt very foolish for coming out to the wastes, even the canned food she had found was not worth it if it cost her her life.
Shit. She got ready to run as the man with the dog unclipped the lead.
The dog took off in the opposite direction, moving away from her.
Double shit. Keira added hoping she wasn‘t going to be caught in the middle of a fight between Were and Humans. She started to move keeping low and making short quick movements stopping frequently to make sure none of the squad had spotted her. Ducking instinctively as a beam of light skimmed over the upturned car she had been using for cover. She waited for long moments holding perfectly still. The clink of nails on metal above her head alerted her to the fact that she was not alone and in serious danger, the dagger that was always in easy reach was in her hands in moments as her head slowly glanced up to be met with a dog's face. The dog sniffed at her for long moments trying to figure out her scent so that he could react accordingly.
The dog decided to let his masters figure her out and howled to draw attention to him. Keira was up and slit the dog's throat, killing the poor animal instantly. Then she ran. There were shouts behind her as she dodged and weaved through the rubble.
She got to the tree line going in the most direct route she could find, sliding over cars and hurtling objects that were in her way. There were several shots forcing her to duck behind a tree for cover. She winced as she felt burning in her right arm and cursed her foolishness but didn’t stop to tend her newest of wounds. She used the tree she had been hiding behind as a spring board and ran into the forest.
She stopped running an hour later when she felt safe, she sat against a tree and panted slightly, her arm had begun to throb painfully reminding her she had to see if it was a graze or if she would have to dig out a bullet. She felt her right arm; the sleeve was soaked with blood. She never remembered fainting.
*
Ghan approached the woman carefully. He had been out hunting deer at the waste lands; the dog had picked up his scent but had quickly turned in favour of another closer, less threatening, scent than his. He had stuck around to see what would happen. Then when the girl took flight he had followed her. As he approached the woman the scent of blood became stronger. He knelt and looked her over.
He saw the amount of blood she had lost and sighed, questions would have to wait she needed to be seen to, he said to himself. He scooped her up carefully and frowned, she was far too light for his liking. He carried her through the forest and towards his home.
“Picking up strays again.” A woman said, stepping out from behind a tree and into a broken beam of moon light. Her skin was a very light brown, she was tall and lean and predatory in her movements, her violet eyes were piercing, her brown hair fell in long thick waves down her body and stopped just before arse. She was dressed simply like him in a pair of hand woven pants, with a close knit jumper; heavy boots encased her feet yet made no sound when she moved. Her face was gorgeous, almost alien in its perfection.
He glared at her as she had startled him. “Yes… please go ahead and get Blast.”
Crystal sighed. “Okay… I see you failed in your hunt,” she said clearly; a hint of silver could be seen as she spoke. For as long as he knew her she had had a tongue piercing, along with others piercings some he could see and others that he truly never wanted to know about. She had explained once a long time ago it had been considered custom for her kind, although technically they would have used gold not silver as silver was toxic to them… but she was a freak and never conformed to what they considered true and when she had the chance she swapped all the gold for silver. It had ticked her ‘father‘ off something royally but she hadn‘t cared.
He growled at her in response.
“Don’t growl at me… you know if it came to a fight I would kick your arse into next week and back again before you could even blink.” She said, before suddenly she was gone.
He took a deep breath and started to walk again, he had known Crystal for at least two thousand years. She was in a word… complicated, but they were good friends and she was a good second. She was also a tracker which helped them as she could hunt down anything she set her mind to.
He walked into the well hidden compound ten minutes later, then into the bunker as their home was underground, and into his room. Blast was waiting for him, hot water and his tools all lay out and ready, he reflexively took a deep breath and could smell the blood.
Blast had been rescued from a merk death squad by Ghan about three years earlier and had been a boon to his little pack that needed a healer. Blast was of Asian descent with a round friendly face, he kept his hair short as he was a practising Buddhist. “How was she hurt?” He asked.
“Shot… I think.” Ghan explained as he gently laid her down on the towel which had been placed on his bed.
Blast quickly preformed a blood test to see what blood type she was just encase she needed a transfusion. He frowned when he saw no noticeable reaction to his kit, it meant one thing. “Alpha, she’s human,” he said surprised. “How did she get shot?”
Ghan frowned, “I was in the wastes, a squad came the dog reacted, at first I thought it was reacting to me but it wasn’t it reacted to her and not the way dogs are trained to react to a human.” he explained, “She bolted and they shot at her,” he finished the story. “Do what you can for her.”
Blast nodded and cut the sleeve, gently nudging her arm. She moaned and tried to pull her arm away. He grabbed some sedative, he rarely worked on humans so he measured a third of the dose he would give one of his own and injected her. He then went back to work on her arm.
Ghan leant into her hair and took a deep breath, pushing the smell of blood away; he wanted to know why the dog had reacted. His wolf rushed to the surface of his mind, MINE, it growled at its human half telling her that this woman he had meet only by chance was his one true mate. He pushed his wolf back, acknowledging that she was his and that he would not let her go until he had her and then returned to his task. He focused on her scent, he could smell faint traces of her human scent but it was a weird mix, he could almost swear he smelt tiger or some big cat on her as well. That explained why the dog reacted.
Blast hummed to himself as he gently cleaned the wound, “She’s lucky it’s a through and through.”
Ghan frowned as he tried to remember what he could of human physiology. “She has to have some kind of shot, to stop her getting sick right?” He asked Blast.
Blast frowned as he thought; it had been so long since he had last worked on a badly hurt human. “Yes for tetanus and she’ll need antibiotics.” He rummaged in his bag and pulled out the two vials in question, another member of Ghan‘s pack was a chemist who specialised in the making of drugs so Blast always had a good supply of anything he needed.
Ghan watched as Blast tended her wounded arm. A woman walked in with a basin of hot water and cloths, another woman walked in with spare clothes. When Blast finished stitching the wound and wrapping it the women took over, removing her clothes. Ghan growled when he saw the four slash marks that ran from her left shoulder towards her right hip. They were clean so they had been inflicted during a human terror raid and by the way the scars were recessed they were very old.
Blast glanced to Ghan and saw the possessive rage that was in his eyes, he backed away from the woman before his Alpha decided he was a threat; he left a first aid kit so that Ghan could tend her wound. The two women were just as wary having seen what Blast had, if they did anything Ghan didn’t like he would attack.
Ghan picked up her bag and started to rummage through it, he checked everything, looking for anything that might help him find out more about her. The pockets of her pants were emptied as was her jacket. He glanced through that as well. It gave him no clues as to who she was.
He sat back and watched as the women worked, his eyes roaming over her naked form. Under the dirt was pale skin, he knew if he reached out and touched her it would feel soft and silky. The binding she used on her breasts was removed. They were firm luscious globes, large enough for him to cup and squeeze, which sprung free without sag, the nipples hardening in reaction to the cool air. He blinked and moved his eyes down her body, he could count her ribs and knew she had missed meals and knew hunger. Her waist was narrow then flared to full child bearing hips.
His eyes focused for a moment on the blond hair that covered her sex, his eyes shot up to her hair, it was so dirty he never would have thought that her hair was blond. His eyes roamed back down her body, pass her sex and down her long supple legs.
His wolf stirred again wanting to push the women aside and take her, but he didn’t know how old she was. He would have to wait until she woke. He shifted and tugged his pants to rearrange his erection. The woman watched him from the corner of their eyes wondering if they should ask if he wanted relief but as his attention never wavered from the woman he had brought here they chose to ignore him.
They went to dress her.
“Leave her,” he ordered. He helped them move her under the thick blankets.
He followed the women out, “Mike.” He called to the retreating back, the man turned and walked back to his Alpha; he was a slight man, thin and wiry but as he was an Elemental Ghan expected no less. “I want you to sit on the door.”
Mike nodded; he had heard that the Alpha had brought a human here. He moved a box and sat next to the door. Ghan smiled and walked down the hall and into the mess. The room went silent as everyone turned to him, Ghan glared for a moment around the room and everyone suddenly became very interested in their dinners.
He walked over to the kitchen staff and looked at what was on offer. He picked up a tray and was served a generous helping of everything. He grabbed a pitcher of mulled cider and joined Crystal who was eating in the far corner of the mess.
“So… the stray,” she prompted as she scooped up some of the thick stew and put it in her mouth, while she chewed she tore a hunk from the loaf of bread before her. He watched her for a moment wondering not for the first time how she ate with a piece of metal in the centre of her tongue.
He took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened and what he knew so far. “She smells funny, she smells human but at the same time she smells a little like a cat. She also has terror raid scars, old ones by the looks of it.”
She nodded as she sipped her cider and mopped up the last of the stew. “There’s more,” she prompted knowingly, before popping the juice soaked bread into her mouth.
He sighed but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep this quiet for long, not with a pack of this size, “she’s my soul mate.”
Crystal coughed as she choked on the bread she had just tried to force down her throat. She grabbed her cup and took a mouthful to force the bread to go where it was meant to. It took her a couple of moments to compose herself. “You go out for a hunt, and in a moment of pure accident not only stumble across your soul mate but managed to get her in a position to keep her until she agrees to be yours.” She said in amazement. “Maybe I should go out more often if that’s what happens.”
He smiled at her. “Tomorrow you need to organise a hunt, a good one, a dozen more deer should hold us for the rest of the winter and into early spring.”
She nodded. “We’ll try to get two dozen.”
He gulped the rest of his drink and stood to take care of his dishes before returning to the woman his beast had been craving for so long he couldn‘t remember a time when he wasn‘t craving her.
*
Keira woke slowly; a heavenly soft surface hugged her body, easing the aches of sleeping on the rough ground for so long. A pillow supported her neck and heavy blankets covered her keeping her roasty-toasty warm. She slowly opened her eyes but couldn‘t make out anything in the darkness. She sensed movement and closed her eyes feigning sleep. She felt a body move over to hers then nudged her to move over as she was sprawled in the middle of the bed. The blanket was lifted and a body slid into the bed with her. She tried to keep from panicking as she realised the only part of her dressed was her wounded arm. She felt the other body snuggle in close to her and was relieved to notice that the other person was dressed from the waist down.
“Sleep…” A male voice said gently into her ear as he knew she was awake.
She shivered at the deep husky voice. She didn’t want to sleep; she wanted to run as fast and as far away as she could. Her arm started to throb painfully reminding her she was in no condition to run anywhere, she shifted uncomfortably. Ghan sat up grabbing a glass of water and some pills. He offered them to her.
“Aspirin.” He told her.
She took them and settled back down; knowing that escape for now was futile. She felt a strong arm snake around her and pull her possessively to his body. She tried to relax but couldn't, until finally she was too tired to stay awake.