Chapter 49

Samael POV

I could hear her huffing and puffing right behind me. I knew it wasn’t all because she was out of stamina. Goddess, that woman was a warrior after all. I felt Ades push forward with some snarky remarks. It was unnecessary, but I blocked him out completely. Everything was already heavy enough, and with all the adding details, I could use a short break.

Being one with a wolf wasn’t an easy deal for me. Mine was an opinionated creature, with the strength of a bear, cunning as a fox and the agility of a monkey. Well, I could say I was well-doted with an all around package. But his head and resolve were as hard as rock and it wasn’t an easy thing to deal with him when I had to block him.

I had the shield for the last 15 years. It wasn’t a gift from the Moon Goddess from birth, but it definitely saved me and was a blessing. And it could shield me from more than just my wolf.

Luck and odds haven't always been in my favor. From the moment my mother died delivering me into this world, more like into the hands of the Elders, my life had been deprived from any form of youth and curiosity. The urge of learning about the world and its wonders never occurred to me. Quite the opposite. The moment I could think and understand what I fell into, the only thing I focused on learning was how to destroy it.

I was blessed by being a werewolf. Strength, keen senses, ability to shape-shift, acute healing. But how was it useful for an 8 years old kid who gets molested. For a long time, I hated being a shapeshifter. I hated all the experiments that were done on me, all the injections, the exercises. I came to hate the Moon Goddess, for allowing all this to happen to us, to me. I wasn’t alone with this fate, but I felt like I was. It was scary, painful. I endured as much as I could. Until I made a vow. 10 springs of life and I was taking an oath, towards my kind, the oppressed and outcasts, the lab animals. That night, I got a shield. And a goal.

The cold and wet shiver that ran down my spine made Ades perked up, pressing forward. For once, I let him be there. Feeling the presence of your wolf was supposed to be soothing, enticing. For me, it was a constant fight, even more so now that we’ve stumbled upon a fated mate, marked her by accident, marked and been marked by my chosen mate.

The memories were flooding, rushing to my brain as we kept going through the jungle. The neutral territory had a diversity of climates beyond the comprehension of this world. Elders fucced with Nature. And with what we knew now, Nature was preparing to fight back. And it wouldn’t do it alone. I knew of a passage, binding a remote and unexploited part of the hunting grounds with Kodard’s domain. I knew of it because I escaped by that same tunnel.

I was guided by a wolf. Not a shapeshifter. A real wolf, of those we thought were extinct, as well as Vampires, Elves, Witches, and Healers. The latter two were a close category, but not quite the same. Both powerful, the former got its power through the spirits and energies, manipulating the invisible while the latter were a passive species, isolated in a reserve none knew about at the time of their peak of prosperity. They were thriving, living in harmony with Earth and Nature, blessed with the gift of healing others, great vessels for magic. It was said that their origin came from Mother Earth herself, Younger sister of the Moon Goddess. And both were betrayed.

‘I thought you believed these stories were only tales for children.’

For once, he was not nagging. Ades was genuinely surprised, so was I, to actually remember all of these details when it was just some lines I used to recite among others for the Elders. The shift I had in my beliefs was that string pulled by a detail mentioned by Malia, who, from a quick glance, looked as far in her thoughts as I was myself, following me like an adorable puppy, without even realizing it.

‘Adorable huh?’ Ades huffed, snarkling.

‘I never said I didn’t like her.’

‘You acted and keep acting like you despise her. The torture you inflicted on them is almost to the point of beyond repair!’

‘Not my intention. But I never asked for a fated. It is a burden, Ades, a weakness. And she has too much value to risk her becoming a target for both herself and myself.’

‘So the other one…’

‘Is kind of a bait, you dimmwit. If you didn’t fight that much, you would’ve understood sooner.’

‘That’s still not unforgivable.’

‘I did what I had to do. And we are still far from reaching our goal. Her sister is the heiress, but she is a twin, and her twin is the shapeshifter. Now that we know there is a Healer, or half-Healer, who’s most likely to be the heiress of Mother Earth, we’re not missing a lot of pieces but still. It is too soon for Sarabella to be in the hands of the Elders. Considering they might know about the other heiress, we have to get her out.’

“SAMAEL!”

“Huh?”

“Finally…” Malia sighed, bumping her tight fist on my arm. I didn’t flinch, but even as an antic, the strength she put in her hit almost made me flinch. Of surprise. “I’ve been calling you out for minutes now.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. What do you want?”

“Huh, nothing much really. Only to say we are surrendered by a bunch of wolves. Know anything about them?”

“They are supposed to be extinct, Malia. It’s not a time to joke around and have fun, be a bit more mature now.” Raising up my chin, lifting my nose, I tried to smell the air, but didn’t catch a whiff of smell other than hers. And it smelled strangely divine, considering it didn’t affect me since I’ve been marked.

“Oh, ok, so I’m just hallucinating things. Great. So these yellow eyes burning in the shadows of the trees, and that peculiar smell, I’m imagining all that? Oh, I sure am imagining that huge one, that is standing right behind you now. It is…”

She stopped talking, her finger pointing over my shoulder slowly falling back along her legs. Frowning, I couldn’t let her think that this was anything other than the fruit of her fatigue, but indeed, the huge wolf standing behind me, on our chosen path didn’t help me.

“Magnificent.” A soft whisper, deprived of fear came out of Malia, who tried to pass around me. I stopped her, keeping her joint to my hips, pushing her slightly behind.

“It’s as huge as Shila. And almost as white, but don’t you think it looks like it glows?”

Silence fell on me, ripping the ability to talk from me. I didn’t feel any of them approaching. And with a longer observation, that wolf reminded me of the one that helped me escape years ago.

“You…”

“Oh, so now you play with wolves too? Animal.” She mumbled under her breath, tensing alongside my body.

Shaking her up, I felt tempted to capture this proud chin to force her to look into my eyes while I gave her all the explanations she wanted. But I didn’t.

“She is the wolf who helped me escape from the claws of the Elders.”