Her Night Wolf (Fall Mountain Shifters Book 5), page 13
She pauses and a soft breeze floats around the room, bringing with it the sweet scent of sugar as I try to process everything they are telling me. “What are the Wolven gods?”
“They are time. They are fate. They are destiny. They are magic shifter energy and the many, many millions of words that have been used to explain them. Their true name could not be spoken by god nor mortal,” they reply together. I walk closer, the light shining upon me. “The only thing they did not have was the long-sightedness of what they created. The Wolven gods wrongly assumed the gods they’d created like children would always be happy under their rule and would never rebel and wish to create their own fate. But they did, and there was a price.”
“I saw this. The Apple of Discord freed some of them, and the Wolven gods killed the rest,” I say.
“The Wolven gods interfered, but that wasn’t the price,” she replies. “Only they may speak the price.”
“How do I find them?”
“The Wolven gods wanted to make sure that the gods left did not harm the balance of the world, so they blessed five families. Five mortal families with the power to contact them, to be a direct link between our worlds and, in return, they will be kept safe and blessed. They do not live in our world, but they touch our world now and then. This connection can be found in the bloodlines of those descendants from such a long time ago.”
“Why are you here telling me all this?” I ask.
“When the seven are all together, our power is strong enough to push into this world from our mortal bound objects. We are created the same. We are the same.”
There is so much sadness in the voice. “I’m sorry.”
“Be sorry for those who are bound to life but not living,” she breathes out into the room. “We are helping you because we know there is a chance for our own freedom. When we were created, the first of us, Morganis, was dying. This was her last chance, but not for us. The rest of us, it was not that simple. We were not virgins or unhappy or dying. We were owned by our gods, yes, but we liked life. We were forced into these mortal bound objects and used. We know you understand what it is like to be trapped and used by those that should protect you, Mairin.”
I do.
“As time went on, when we were lost from the gods, we were abused and used by mortals until we lashed out at mortals, wolves and angels alike in our anger and hate. We took their souls, their emotions, so we could feel alive. We lure those strong souls to us even now, just to feel mortal emotions.”
The lust for emotions, for feelings, makes me feel uncomfortable as much as I feel sorry for them. They aren’t good or evil, but a mixture of both.
“We have never been freed, all these years, just like them. Their curse is ours. We cannot be free until all the gods are gone, their magic left only to mortals to carry on in their bloodline, as it should be.”
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“We help because you are that chance. You were born as a blessing to the world, chosen by the Wolven gods. The chosen of them, not the moon goddess. Three fallen stars. Three names. One blessing from each of the Wolven gods. Our chance at freedom lies within you because you are one of the last of the line of descendants from the families the Wolven gods blessed. Only you can contact them. The firstborn can, just like your mother did.
“Mum?” I whisper.
“She asked them so many times for you to be kept safe. I listened. I was at her side, her friend. I was always there, even as I took her life in another’s hands and felt grief for the first time in a thousand years,” they say.
“Chaitala?” I question.
“You’re speaking to all of us at once. We share our memories, and we will help you in this battle to come. We will fight for you. But when the time comes, when Persephone comes, when there is a chance, you must take it.”
“I don’t know what you need me to do,” I say. “And I have a war to fight. I can’t be running errands for you right now.”
“You need me to contact the Wolven gods...,” they command. “You must pay whatever price they demand, or the world will fall.”
They all disappear, along with the magic, until there is nothing but fog lining the surrounding ground. I search my bond for my mates and show them what happened as I grab the seven and clip them to me until only the book is left. My mates are taking in everything as I flip the pages open.
“You want to help me, show me a spell to call the Wolven gods,” I demand.
The pages burst into silver lights, and as it dims, there is a simple spell written in the centre of the page. Under it is a warning to make an altar with a blood gift.
“Do you want us to come back?” Valentine questions as I close the book. I look over at the corridor where all my guards are passed out, likely from the seven’s magic. I hate to leave them down here, but I don’t have time to wait until they wake up.
“No need, but I need to stay here and make an altar. I remember what they look like from when I was a kid,” I tell them through the bond. “When I’m done, I’ll be there.”
“Be careful. Callahan and Breelyn are on their way,” Silas says before he leaves. They all do, and I hear the bells of war ring out across the city. The shield will hold, and no one will get in. We will go to them and fight for our pack, leaving the safety of our city, so that our people who can’t fight can survive.
We fight for Fall Mountain Pack on this day.
“Mai, this was a long time ago. I can hardly remember what the altar looked like,” Niall says, feeling as frustrated as I am.
“I think it’s right,” I tell him, looking down at the altar I’ve made in the freshly cut grass. Four goat bones are stuck in the ground right behind a massive flat river stone that I’ve pushed into the ground of a tiny garden on the fourth floor of the castle. No one uses this place, and the cooks told me about it when I went to them for the bones. They also told Niall where to get a big river stone without going too far. I can feel the wind whipping around me, pushing against my leather clothes, and it’s still freezing enough to make my fingertips numb. The flowery scent wraps around me as I look down at the circle of salt around the entire altar. This is kind of how I remember my mum used to do it. I pick up ten candles and light them, sticking them on top of the stone with a bit of melted wax at the end. “We just need the blood sacrifice.”
I look in the skies for Callahan, who went hunting in the forest for an animal to kill. I didn’t think it was a good idea to use any of the frozen animals in the kitchen. The Wolven gods might see that as offensive when they want a blood sacrifice. However, they might not like that I’m sacrificing an animal instead of us using our blood.
But blood has power and links souls, and I’m not risking the kind of connection it could give to those gods. Breelyn is pacing up and down in front of my five guards, who woke up and found me in the kitchen. We all start watching the sky as I try not to worry too much. I begin to pace like Breelyn the moment I think about my alphas. They are fighting for our pack out there, using their magic, and it is working. As far as I know, Cenwyn hasn’t come forward, and he is letting his men be slaughtered before he attacks.
It’s a game, and the bastard knows it. What is he waiting for?
Effortlessly, I search the bond for my mates and find Silas first. He sends me some images, flashes across my mind, and I see he’s standing with the archers, thousands of them lining every rooftop near the border of the city. Angels line the skies behind them, waiting.
Just the army outside. Silas isn’t the first team to go out. They are to shoot anything in the sky as the others fight on the ground. Waves of our wolves jump out of the shield, following my alphas into battle. Black against red, wave against wave. It’s horrible, the images Silas sends me, but I want to see them. I need to be witness to the destruction being caused.
It only feeds my anger for Cenwyn.
I can’t help the fear that creeps into my heart and soul at seeing my mates fighting, killing, and destroying angels and Levi left, right and centre. Thankfully, they are easily cutting through anything in their path. So are our wolves. Silas’s army is quick at shooting the angels out of the air, and the wolves are right there to bite into them as they fall. Our army is fast and strong, and we have hundreds of thousands beside us today. We won’t lose as long as the shield holds and we can slowly attack, day after day until the angels flee and only the Levi are left.
We are playing the long game.
I have to remember that.
I know that every weapon has been covered with wolf venom, giving us the edge that Cenwyn doesn’t have. The Levi are the real threat. Mindless, strong animals that they are. The thought of them scares me down to my core. They aren’t easy to beat, and there are so many of them out there. One scratch, and my wolves are dead or worse. The armour and thick skin of their wolf forms should help make sure the scratches don’t hit deep. The angels and wolves who are not shifting have their armour, but I worry it’s not enough.
I pull back out of the mate bond as Callahan lands next to me, dropping a dead fox at my feet. “It will do. Thanks,” I say and look at him. “You need to go to the front. I want as few people as possible here.”
Callahan immediately starts to disagree as Breelyn walks over to us. “The alphas commanded—”
“I’m your alpha female too,” I say softly. “And I’m telling you to go and fight for our pack. I’m about to summon powerful gods. Who knows how they’re going to react. I don’t even want Niall to be here, but we both know he won’t leave.”
“Correct,” Niall agrees, and I glare at him for a second.
“Mai, what if you need to fight? What if somehow an angel gets here?” Breelyn questions.
“Then they will meet with me,” Niall retorts. “And truthfully, they should be scared of her.”
“They should,” I reply with a cool smile. “I will destroy anyone who comes here to hurt me.”
They look at each other, and faced with my stubbornness, they give in. Breelyn comes to me, takes my hands in hers. “Be careful. Call for us, and we’ll be back.”
“I know you will, and be careful yourself,” I tell her. “I want us to have a real party to celebrate our matings when this is over.”
“I might even wear another dress,” she replies with a grin.
“If this all goes wrong, I do love you. Both of you,” I tell her and Callahan. “I want you to be Dip’s wolf guardians. If you will be.”
“It would be an honour,” Callahan says with wide eyes. Wolf guardians are like godparents for humans, but I think we had the tradition first, and they copied it into their own religions. Or that’s the story Ravensword taught us as kids.
“We will protect her as family. Just like you and the alphas are to us,” she says. “And Phim of course.”
“Go,” I tell her softly. “For Fall Mountain Pack.”
“For our alphas,” Callahan replies with a low bow. He picks up Breelyn and shoots off into the sky.
I mentally command the guards to leave and join the protection of the castle outside. They leave at my order.
I glance at Niall as I kneel down in front of the altar. “Last chance to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Maiy,” he replies. “But I’m not going to lie and say this doesn’t freak me out as much as it did when your mama did it.”
I pick up the dead fox and place it on the altar behind the bones, within the circle. This looks just like my mother used to do, but she always used a lamb. I lay the book of the seven down and read the spell once before leaving it on the edge of the circle. I keep the other weapons strapped to me, though, because I have no idea what I’m about to go into.
With one more look at Niall, I begin to read the spell. The old words, written in an old tongue that feels like it should never be spoken, echo from the back of my throat. I remember them…my mum made me say them when I was kid. She gave me everything I ever needed. I repeat them again and again as the wind picks up around us, an unnatural wind, and I see Niall hold his hands out against it, shouting as he is pushed away.
“MAI!” he hollers, but he is pushed too far and the wind is too fast for me to even see through it.
A sudden darkness slams down on me, crushing me to the cold floor. Every bone in my body aches like a train hit me as I try to stand up, my legs shaky. Everything is pitch black, but I’m still able to see a circle of light around me, but not what makes the light. Maybe the light is coming from me. I’m no longer standing on a rooftop with flowers under my feet. I’m now just standing in what looks like a massive black puddle. I step forward, but my steps make no ripples in the water that stays still. It’s completely silent.
I’m not alone.
A low growl fills my ears, and I turn around, my eyes widening as three gigantic wolves step out of the darkness. My body shakes in fear and dread, and I feel like I’m barely breathing as I take them in.
The Wolven gods.
Their coats are white, whiter than any snow or colour could be. They are spotless, shining, and their eyes are like hollow black stars. One of their bared fore-teeth is the size of my head, and they are just as terrifying as I’d imagined them. But worse. I feel myself wanting to run away or bow or cry in their presence, but I’m not sure which. It’s a mixture of all of them.
I can’t feel my bond here. I can’t feel anything but fear as I stare at these gods, and one word fills my mind.
“Bow.”
Now I do as I’m told, falling to my knees immediately and knowing, if I didn’t, I’d be dead. They don’t care for me or mortal things. The power of their word drums through my ears, echoing over and over. They are so powerful, so overwhelming. I feel like I can’t breathe in their presence, and it’s hard to even look at them. They are wolves. The Wolven gods are wolves. Of course they are.
I bow my head low and don’t dare move until they stop and it’s been silent for a while. “Mairin Elysia Astra Fall. Alpha female and queen of Fall Mountain Pack. Queen of the shifters. Rejected wolf. The falling queen. So many names for one so young.”
I still stay silent, words on the tip of my tongue, but it feels impossible to speak them.
“You dare to bring those unholy, mortal bound objects before us?” another one of them questions.
A deadly question.
Their voices are old, older than time, but their threat is all the same, no matter the time. “The weapons, the seven, led me to you. They told me how to call you because you blessed my ancestral line with that power, to watch over the mortals. I’m here because the mortals, the shifters and the world are in danger.”
“We well know what state the world is in,” another one of them responds.
A male hum fills the air. “We blessed both your lines, your mother’s and your father’s, with this gift. It drove your father mad, and he killed himself looking for the seven after we commanded he find them.”
He pauses as a deep shock settles into my chest, but not sorrow, because he might have been my biological father, but he wasn’t my dad. I didn’t know him. “We wanted them destroyed. We wanted them gone from the mortal world, along with any trace of their existence. They were weapons created by our children with our stolen magic, and they should not have existed in the first place. Every drop of magic has a price.”
“And what was the price of the Apple of Discord?”
“Death,” the word echoes. “The Apple of Discord is a very powerful object, made of our magic, but only a tiny part. It bears a certain price. The gods freed themselves from us, from our control over them, only to create something that, in turn, cursed them. Every time they put one of the seven into the waters to make the weapons, their souls were latched onto the weapons through that magic. We dug our claws in and took our price. We might not have had control over them until they died, but we would wait.”
“Time is nothing,” another replies, sounding bored.
“We chose to make a punishment that would stretch forever. The gods who touched the apple would be bound to mortals. So they can never be at peace and never be with each other again. For a certain two, this was not an ending they wished for.”
“They deserve this,” another one breathes out, pleasure in his voice.
I don’t think anyone deserves that. I think it in my mind, but when a deep growl echoes around me, I wonder if they can hear my thoughts.
“We are gods,” one of them coldly states. “You are not here to judge us.”
Bone snapping pain bursts down my spine like someone sticking a thousand needles into it. I scream and fall into the puddle of water, tasting the salt in my mouth, writhing in pain before they suddenly let me go.
I gasp for air, sucking it in.
Not daring to think a thing except wishing to see my mates. Wanting them here.
There is silence for a long time, long enough I manage to stand and wipe away blood that is pouring from my ears. My back hurts something terrible. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to question your choice.”
They watch me with an unnerving gaze.
“I apologise,” I say out loud. “I didn’t summon you to insult you.”
“What do you want, mortal wolf queen?”
Straight to the point. “What are the Levi, and how do I get rid of them? A lot of them at once? Is it a spell?”
“No spell,” they smoothly reply. “They are a curse. A punishment. Magic is complicated and old and twisted. It punishes and breaks whatever it wishes if not used correctly. We are magic, but we do not control all of it, because it is alive on its own. The seven were created with the apple, a price made, but one was not. There was one who cast her own dark spells on her soul, on magic and made sure she would be bound to a mortal object, just like the others, so she could survive her own death and be reborn. Medea, the witch goddess who should have died. Erin.”
