Persephone's Wolves, page 42
Mairin. My Mai.
For her, I will keep on fighting until the very end, because she will come for me. She will know that king isn’t me. That I’m here, stuck here, and she will see.
I won’t be left here for long…
Fifty-Six
“Give her back to me,” a woman screams, once, twice and one more time, but the final plea is nothing short of a cry. “My daughter does not belong in hell. She is not yours!”
I open my eyes and gasp in shock at the sight below me. I’m floating above a burning hollow in the ground, a hollow filled with red and black darkness shifter energy. Dark magic. It curls around the feet of a tall man in a cloak, his face hidden from sight, as though the shadows and darkness are his friends.
The woman stands right outside the gap, a yellow light shining all over her body. I have no idea who the silver-haired woman is, but there is a pull towards her.
“Persephone is my wife, my mate, and my lover. Her place is at my side, as it has always been and as it shall always be. In this life and the next,” the man smoothly replies, his voice like sugar and seduction. Luring you to him.
Hades.
“She is my daughter!” the woman screams.
“Demeter, all birds leave the nest. You, the goddess of nature, should know this lesson better than most,” Hades responds.
“And I am home, mother,” a soft-spoken female voice echoes from the darkness right before a figure walks up and out of the hollow, lowering her cloak hood. Persephone, the goddess my soul is connected to, stands at Hades’s side. Beautiful. That is the only way to describe her. Persephone softly glows green with blackness at the edges. Her silver hair falls low, braided at the sides with three red roses.
“You are lost,” Demeter whispers in horror. “He has turned your mind with his darkness and—”
“I love him,” Persephone interrupts. “He is mine, and I am his. I chose to stay. I chose to eat the food of the underworld and live here. I won’t leave, and I want you to accept what is.”
Demeter’s eyes are full of unshed tears as she looks to Hades, her body shaking with fury. “Watch as your precious souls weep at the destruction I am going to cause until you let my daughter go. I will destroy the earth.”
“Do what you must, mother,” Persephone replies, turning to Hades.
“The humans,” Hades whispers to her.
“Are not our problem. We will guide their souls, and the blood will be on her head, not ours,” Persephone responds. Demeter screams and yellow energy blasts out of the earth, crumbling the ground around them, and the last thing I see is green light as it burns through me.
I open my eyes, sucking in a deep breath to calm myself down, feeling light flickering into my eyes. It was just a dream.
Ouch.
I lift my hands above my face, frowning at the burns marking my palms.
“By the wolf, what have you done to your hands?” An unfamiliar voice makes me jolt, and I look up to see Erin standing by the bathroom door and hear the sound of the shower running, steam pouring out behind her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Or sneak into my room?” I question, sitting up as she hurriedly walks over.
I did knock, but you never answered, and I left you an extra ten minutes, but if we don’t start getting you ready now, you’ll be late,” she explains to me, frowning at my hands. “How did you hurt yourself is the more important question.”
“Do you think dreams can be real? Dreams of goddesses and gods?” I ask her.
She lifts my hand in hers before looking up at me with her ebony eyes. I believe she is in her twenties, but her hand feels rough under mine, telling me she has worked hard for a good amount of her life.
She shrugs. “My father works in the Pack Prisons, with the worst of our kind, and he is a wise wolf. When I was ten, I had terrible dreams, and he often told me dreams are rarely just dreams. They are our mind’s way of escaping reality.”
“What are the Pack Prisons?” I question.
She steps back from me. “A place where wolves who have committed crimes, unspeakable crimes, are kept. There are other things in there, old and powerful beings and creatures who feed off the energy of wolves in the night.”
“In the pack I was brought up in, they would just have a trial and kill any wolf who committed a crime,” I say.
She smiles, straightening up. “Death is a blessing. A life in the prisons...it’s being drained, slowly, of everything that makes you. They take the memories first, then the voice, then every bit of the soul, until they are in a state of constant pain. They only leave fear, and that is the punishment every man or woman in that prison deserves.”
“Sounds like a place I never want to go or see,” I reply. I definitely think of a person who should be thrown in there for everything he did to me.
“Right, your hands,” she mutters. “You can’t go to the celebrational ceremony meal with burnt hands, and your wolf healing won’t fix it in time. I will have to get a dress with hand coverings or long gloves, and of course, ointment to take the pain away and help with healing. Get in the shower, and I will be back.”
“Thank you,” I tell her as she walks away. I head into the shower room, shutting the door behind me, and I strip off my dirty clothes before climbing into the shower, enjoying the hot water falling down my body. I rest back, trying to push the dream of Hades, Demeter and Persephone to the back of my mind until after the meal when I can get my alphas alone to speak to them about it. My hands sting as the water runs down my palm, the burn covering everything but the upside-down mountain mark. I carefully and painfully wash my hair with my hands, enjoying the watermelon scent and the silky feeling of my hair before finishing up and climbing out. Wrapping a towel around myself and leaving the shower room, I go to continue getting ready in the bathroom.
The bedroom has completely changed in colour, thanks to the setting sun, and I pause. As the sun sets over the waterfall, it casts beautiful shades of poppy reds, burnt oranges and vibrant yellows through the windows of the castle into my room. The sunlight reflects off my body, highlighting my skin and hair, and for a second, I see myself lightly glowing.
The door is knocked once before it opens, and I turn back to see Erin come in. For the next half an hour, she plasters my hands with a green ointment that turns clear, leaving a protective seal over my palms, before drying and curling all of my hair. She applies makeup, drawing delicate bat wings and swirls coming out from the corner of my eyes, and I barely look like myself when she is done. I slide into the dress before standing in front of the mirror as Erin ties up the lace on my back. The dress has loops for my middle finger, covering the top and bottom of my hand in midnight blue lace which runs up my arms to the main part of the dress, which flows down to my feet in folds of star-littered-night-sky blue silk. After putting soft dark blue slippers on my feet, Erin places her hands on her hips and grins.
“You look perfect,” she compliments me. “The city is buzzing to see the alphas and...honestly, you. Everyone knows the reason they put off the rite and left was to find you. And now you’ve come back and entered the rite. It’s all very exciting.”
“Thank you for all your help,” I tenderly say, blowing out a breath. “The Rite of Wolves,” I whisper. “I wasn’t expecting to come here to fight.”
She gently places her hand on my shoulder. “I think you will win. You have my support, whatever you need.”
“Thank you, that means a lot,” I admit. “I’m a little overwhelmed by this place and all the people. I’m glad to know one of you is on my side.”
“More than one, Mai,” she replies as I walk to the bed and pick up the thigh strap and my two daggers. She comes over and shakes her head. “Weapons are banned in the throne room. They won’t let you take them in.”
“Damn,” I mutter. “Alright. I can shift if I’m in danger, anyway.”
“Don’t you dare shift and ruin that dress! It took me days to make it.”
“You stitched this yourself?” I question in awe, and she nods. “It’s really amazing.”
The door is knocked twice, and Erin opens the door where two guards are waiting outside. They speak quietly with her, and she leaves the door open as she comes over to me. “The alpha female has called for you. I will clean your room for when you return.”
“Thank you, Erin,” I say and walk to the door. The guards bow and turn at the same time, holding their back straight, and walk fast down the corridor to the staircase. We go up four staircases, and I’m completely losing track of where we are before we come to a large pair of stained glass double doors. The stained glass is made of panels of every colour in shard shapes, making no particular shape, but as the dimming sunsetting light shines through, it casts the multicolours onto the wooden floor so it looks like a rainbow as we walk across it. The guards open the door for me, but they don’t follow as I go in, and they close the doors behind me.
I turn back to take in the large bedroom, but my eyes flicker upwards first, past the four massive chandeliers to the painted ceiling, which is a forest of dark green trees, a shadow between them all. Two black metal staircases wind up the sides of the room to a veranda that hangs over half of the room. Green vines of dozens of different plants climb up the veranda, curling around the metal bannisters and walls. Several rows of large oak wardrobes hide under the veranda, and a large, impressive four-poster bed is in the middle, and sitting on the edge is the alpha female herself, clipping a crystal earring into her ear. She rises off the bed, her moonlight silver dress trailing after her as she walks to me.
“Thank you for coming to see me privately, Mai,” she says, resting her hands together in front of herself. “How do you like Darkland Castle so far?”
“Unlike anything I’ve seen before,” I truthfully say. “But I doubt the castle is why you asked me to see you alone.”
“You’re in love with them.”
The statement lingers in the air between us, and for a moment, we simply watch each other.
“Why else would I enter The Rite of Wolves?”
She nods and walks away from me, to one of the doors under the veranda to the left, waving her hand for me to follow. “For power? Many of the females I fought never wanted my mate, but they wanted to be alpha female.”
“You fought in the rite?” I question, following her into a small room. There are two cosy chairs in front of a large desk. The desk has four jewellery boxes, each of them a different type of wood, but each has the symbol of Fall Mountain on top. Alpha Reine waves her hand at one of the seats, and I sit down as she walks along the wall. She pushes into the wall, and a panel slides to the left, revealing a lit-up section. Inside are five crowns and an empty cushion. All the crowns are exactly the same: a wolf baring its teeth and holding a diamond inside its mouth at the front, and the rest is twisted silver vines to make the crown. Alpha Reine picks one up, and the panel slides back as she returns to me and sits down, resting the crown in her lap. All I can think of is the crown I promised Persephone I would find, the one I’m on a deadline to find. I doubt it is the crown in front of me, it just doesn’t feel right.
“When the children were young, I met a stray wolf in the forest outside our French home. You have been told about where you grew up, yes?”
I nod and she carries on. “Soren never told me who he was, or about this city, because he was bound not to, but I knew he was an alpha, even as he tried to hide that side of himself from the world. He ran away from here when his parents were killed, and never looked back. Soren fell into our lives, into the space left by my sons’ father, and is a great man. We were happy, even though the secret he hid was a ticking time bomb between us.”
I know that feeling well, I thought before she continued. “When the pack fell and the world became chaos, Soren had no choice and brought us here. I fought to be alpha female, and when I won, I let our heirs go to search for you.”
Reine pauses, seemingly lost in thought for a moment.
“I killed in the rite, and it changed my soul. Even now, the weight of what I did to secure my family’s future and to be with the wolf I was in love with...it haunts me.”
“Being haunted by the darkness in your past is...” I know I don’t have to tell her what it feels like, what it is. I’m sure she has killed more than I have done, and I feel like our past is mixing as one in certain points. My alphas never wanted to bring me here, to the rite, because it could split us apart. I can’t even think about that outcome.
“My sons have told me you do not remember us and you were brutally brought up in the Ravensword Pack. For that, I am sorry,” she states. “Your mother...well, I’m sure she is watching us as we talk now and sending you luck in your trials ahead.”
“My alphas told me the pack I was brought up in, including my mother, tried to protect me from someone. Who is this person?”
Her eyes tighten. “One of you, the babies, a god-bound wolf, but...he twisted what it meant to be bound to a god. The boy was the only one of you that was half-angel, and whatever is in his soul, his blood, turned him into a monster. The world paid for his greed, his obsession with power and you.”
Half-wolf, half-angel. Total monster. King of the rest of the world.
“Me?” I quietly ask, paling.
“Yes,” she replies. “I know it pains my boys to speak of him, and if you remembered, it would hurt you as well. He was in love with you, as much as my sons were as children, but I don’t believe you ever felt the same way. Your connection to my boys was there from infancy. You all grew up together, and you drew them in like bees to a flower.”
“What is his name?” I demand.
“We don’t speak his name, Mai. In fact, we don’t speak of him at all,” she tells me, “like we speak the names of none who betray our pack. He is the king of the angels, let that be his name, and he will fall by our claws and be buried in the ash of his stolen lands.”
“So war is your plan?” I ask.
She smiles and places the crown on her head. “Only alphas discuss the future of the pack, Mai, and right now you are only a wolf.”
“And bound to a goddess,” I add in. “My mother is gone, and I can’t ask her, but what happened when you were pregnant? How did the binding happen?”
She tenses, just a little bit, her eyes watching mine. “Our memories were wiped, and the only one who knows is the angel commander, Oisean.”
“I’ll make a note to ask him...before I kill him,” I say, holding my head high. “I want my friends let out. Breelyn and Callahan.”
Her eyes narrow. “We have a system for judging who stays in the pack lands if they are not sworn to the alphas. They are safe, you have my word as alpha.”
“Fine,” I growl. “Can I see them?”
“I don’t see why not,” she replies. “I’m glad we had this time together, I feel like I understand who you are a little better, Mai.”
“I didn’t come to this pack for a fight, but I know what is mine and what is not. I know what I want. My life hasn’t been good or even worth remembering until I met them, your sons, and they saved me. They fought for me, dragged me back from the darkness, and reminded me why I should be alive. Why I should fight every goddamn day for my life and what I want for my future. I choose to fight for them. The rite is my test, not only for them, but to prove I will make a good alpha female, and then we will discuss the war, Alpha Reine. That is who I am.”
She tilts her head to the side, standing up. “I see why they chose you. Even as a child, you were stronger in your mind than even me.”
I smile, wishing I could remember that girl before I bow my head in respect. “It was an honour spending time with you, Alpha Reine.”
“And you, Mai Fall,” she replies. “The next few weeks will be interesting.”
As I walk away, feeling her eyes on my back, I almost believe I made a good impression.
Fifty-Seven
“Would you like an escort to the meal?” Valentine asks as I step out of the double doors from Alpha Reine’s rooms, startling me.
I look up at him and pause, desire shocking me still. Valentine is wearing a tux. A crisp white shirt presses against his muscular body, stretching the material. His thick thighs fill his dark trousers, and his shiny shoes reflect the lights. Valentine’s hair is a little long, chocolate brown locks falling into his iridescent eyes and reminding me a tad of the more rugged alpha I met in a house on a beach. Even then, he took my breath away. And now it’s just more. I want more of him, more moments like this, more desire filling the air and changing our scents so easily when we are around each other.
I could definitely try to convince Valentine to wear tuxes more often. I’m literally speechless.
Footsteps make me turn to see Ragnar walking out of the shadows, through a door, and coming towards us. Ragnar has a similar tux on, his face clean and smooth at the edges, and the five o’clock shadow he was growing has been shaved away, his face cleanly shaven like Valentine’s. Ragnar pauses at Valentine’s side, his hands in his pockets, his eyes slowly looking at me from the tips of my feet to the top of my head. I do the same, eating up how extraordinary he looks, how both of their scents wrap around me in a comforting woodsy and vanilla scent.
“You smell like watermelon,” Ragnar comments, his voice full of gruff, unspoken desire. “Fuck, I love watermelons.”
“It’s the shampoo,” I reply, my throat dry. I turn to Valentine. “I’d love an escort because I have no idea where I’m going in this castle.”
“We would be honoured to escort you,” Valentine replies, his voice ragged and coated with desire. He clears his throat. “Mai, you look as exquisite as all the stars in the sky.”
Ragnar knocks his shoulder. “Val, always right and always so poetic, it makes us all look bad. Shall we get going?”
