Chapter 99

Oliver

“You’re already a member of the family, but I never really got a chance to talk to you like a son.” Said Frigus. “Autumn truly is rare, and very special. I don’t want you putting her in danger.” He warned.

“I know that. Everything I’ve done since I found her was For her. I mean that. Even what I did with Brutus. It’s so that he leaves her alone. I know he’s plotting something big…. I can feel it.” I said looking out the window. We were driving around in his police car. His mate Diana was out getting the venue ready for the wedding, and we would have the reception in the packhouse.

“I know…He’s a strange one.. he hates us hybrids more than he hates himself.” Said Frigus.

“I just can’t see how a regular wolf can run circles around everyone…” I mumbled, but Frigus gave me a look that told me to be quiet. I could never really read this guy.

“He’s a special case… He doesn’t belong on the council but it isn’t why you think. Did you know his mother was an Omega? He is half human, but it is a well kept secret that he has human linage. Some say he’s only a quarter mortal, but his hatred for them is all the same.”

“I’m not surprised….” I said completely surprised.

He grinned. I assume that was as close to a chuckle as I’d get out of him since I swear he didn’t like me. “He harbors ill will to humans because he feels like he would have been born of ancient blood like my father. Only pure wolves can Start a line… and him being a quarter mortal maybe stopped the process, maybe not. He wasn’t allowed on the council… he was initially rejected by many wolves at the time. I’m not the first hybrid… I’m the first hybrid of a willing mother to put it nicely.” He said turning left.

“That makes since… from what my father told me, was that the old times were ruthless. Packs that had new Alphas take over would often times allow the former Alpha to stay as a Beta, like with my Beta’s late father. It was safer to keep the strong close, because humans hunted all supernaturals. They found our weaknesses and used them…. and they were very effective.”

“And in turn our people would absolutely Massacre entire villages and pillage the women. Dragons were especially ruthless… it’s why some humans today are born with amber eyes. It’s also one of the sources of their second sight… ironic that those who are Hunters or Sun Priests today may have an ancestor of supernatural lineage. Brutus is the product of this… It doesn’t make an excuse for his actions, but you should know what you’re dealing with. He’s a literal monster. From the time he was accepted by my father when no one else would have him, he plotted against his back.”

“I heard… and saw what happened to your mother…. I’m glad Susanna is still alive.” I said quietly, and it seemed we reached our destination.

“I am too, but you only see the tail end on only One of the things he’s done…. Father wasn’t the first to willingly take a mortal mate. Brutus had many wolves convinced that killing those couples was right. That no pup should be willingly born mortal. That it would make us weak.” His eyes flashed white, and he took a breath to park. “Brutus is the literal founder of the modern hatred you see and feel. It’s something no one wants to admit, especially when they find themselves mated to the thing responsible for the decimation of your people, so you are here to learn.”

“Wait… what do you mean ‘literal founder’. Did he perpetuate the war?” I asked in pure confusion… that was a tall accusation…

“Come share the right of passage with me boy, and become a man.” He said taking off his uniform, and shifting. He waited for me, and we both ran in the snow. How we would find mushrooms was beyond me, but they had been here a long time… and they may have brought things from the other continent.

The Treaty of 1605 was really the treaty of 1463, 1285, 1107, 502…108 but every time he would start something to restart the war. He linked. Every time, the leaders of mortal men would be killed by his assassins, kidnapped, or their homes burned. It was strategic. He was just mortal enough to pass…. His eyes don’t reflect the light back. It’s why he can’t see in the dark. He sold weapons to both. He sold secrets to both. He and Jang pulled their connections to keep the war going, so that everyone was divided…. He wanted there to be hatred. He thought if the younger generations felt as he did, that he would be justified in all his wrongdoings. He even tried turning me against my own mother. He scoffed in the link.

So everything I think of humans is a lie? I asked. What of their frailty?

They are frail, but they are also resourceful. Living such short lives are often lived twenty times more meaningful than one as old as even the King. What they learn they willingly share to preserve themselves. What they do is with a dedication of haste even I cannot fathom. I was born immortal, as was my mate, a pureblood… but for my pups’ pups that were born mortal…. they lived. He linked turning a sharp right, and I had trouble keeping up.

We were deep in the woods before he abruptly stopped…. There was a flowering tree with green broad leaves. The light blue petals of the tree fell endlessly, but they seemed not to touch the ground…. Underneath were bright red, purple spotted mushrooms. There was no snow under the tree, only perfect grass, and the mushrooms… it was a place perpetually in spring.

He shifted, and broke one clean down the middle as if it were made to do that, and passed me half. The other he placed on the ground, and it rotted, only to sprout up again as a whole mushroom. “Eat. I will protect you.” He said sternly, and I hesitated.

What will I see? I asked still a wolf, and he looked at the overcast sky, then back at me.

“The truth.” He said honestly.

With one bite I was collapsed on the ground.

“This is a link to the old places… the abandoned places of old…. The mushrooms here remember, so no one can forget.” He sat cross legged in the snow, and I passed out as my wolf.

I opened my eyes to see everything on fire. All of it. Mortals were running away while a band of drakes flew through the sky. Time skipped, and there was a meeting of the men.

“Lord Neern’yea, we Have to do something!” Said a man in his 40’s pounding his fist. “What the Dragons don’t take, the wolves do…. and my precious daughter… I couldn’t bare the look of her…. laying with ‘um.” Said the man with a heavy accent, but I couldn’t make out what language this was, I just understood it. They looked to be European, but they lived in wooden and stacked stone huts.

“Aye, but we all know she run off with the White Wolf willingly. Since she’s been took, not a drake in the sky, not a wolf at your heals. You sold her fair n’ square, now you be wantin’ ‘er back because of a little pride?” Said a man about the same age, though he sat on some kind of throne.

“It ain’t right!” He growled.

“It’s fair. We got our peace, we have our crops back, and most importantly she Wanted to leave. He swore his oath that he’d protect her. She’s already with child too… what man would have ‘er? He’s took her flower, and gave her babes. You can’t rally a gang to go get someone that wants to stay.” He grumbled. “Plus, the creatures want a truce, and I’ll not have you mess that up because your girl wants to lay with beasts.”

“There’s nothing any of us could do for ‘er anyway? We’ve all seen it! The beast Changed into a man pale as the clouds and tall as a giant…. plus He’s hung like a fucking horse in heat.” Snickered one of the men, and they all pretty much laughed the man out the meeting house.

“He’s downright breeding ‘er like a mare.” Said one.

There was a flash of time, and there was war again. This time there was the White Wolf they all spoke of. Phillip snarled, smashing homes and ripped any who were in the way to absolute shreds. He was chewing on them like dog toys…. But the only thing he kept screaming was ‘Give me my Susana! I know you took her, Brutus told me so.’ Repeatedly… They wouldn’t know that; they didn’t speak wolf.

But the next flash was …. it was Brutus. He laughed with Phillip, and they were all naked around a large fire, but they seemed to be giving the Frosted One a hard time like pals would.

“You smell of sex again Gamma. Tell me who is the lucky wolf and why have you not brought her to your Alpha?” Asked the Wolf King, holding a mug made of cow horn.

“Come on Philly, tell us who you mated with. Was it the Omega from Greenbrook? No, No! I know! That spicey ginger female minotaur From Ireland?” asked the Second Seat, patting him on the back roughly.

“She nearly gored you lot.” Said Wisp. “I bet it’s that vampire from Rome.” He giggled.

“We’d smell that. This is too faint. I bet it’s the Omega.” Said Jang, the former Fifth Seat.

“Just leave me be, won’t you?” he said taking a sip of his drink.

“The War’s over, take off the scowl from your face!” Laughed Brutus. “All the Kings breathe and all that’s left is conquering the mortals, and they already surrendered after you walked through their gates 4 moons ago… now that I think of it, you’ve been gone every night since keeping them in line...”

“No…. We don’t have to sack anymore villages. They already have surrendered Beta. You Know this. You’ve served me seven hundred and eight summers.”

“Why is that important? Did I not aid you with the Old Ones? Did you not take me in when no one else would since I hold… mortal blood?” He said standing tall.

“You come to me too bold, and my wolf does not like it.” He snarled, and Brutus submitted.

“I only ask who will be my Luna. When we part, I will go with you to FrostMoon… Everyone else is branching off now that all the Old Ones have slept a few hundred summers… and the humans now know what kills us thanks to their god…” He said with a bowed head.

“…She’s a mortal from the market.” Said Phillip quietly, and the boisterous laughter and merry making died down in front of the bonfire…. “I didn’t say anything because we have only recently made our own packs and council seats… have I not served since the beginning?” he growled.

“That isn’t the problem.” Said Jang. “Mortals have no place in this sanctum meant to be AWAY from their Kind.” He spat. “Did they not take my mother and skin her like a beast of the field?” He asked angrily.

“My mother lived mateless because of MY lineage…. And I am rejected everywhere I go.” Snarled Brutus. “I am an Omega Born Half Wolf of low standing…. Even though I should be of Old Blood. I was Robbed of my bloodline, and you Willingly do that to your pups who have no choice. No pup should be born this way.” He growled. “How long have I served you, and you spit in my face by laying with a mortal. My mother that you so kindly took in will have to kneel to the creature that took her happiness.” He hissed.

“You spit in your own face.” Hissed back Phillip. “Your mother instilled that hatred into you, blaming you fer other wolves’ choices. It is not Susanna’s fault Arttinious rejected her. It isn’t her fault that you hate yourself that you aren’t of ancient blood even though your grandfather was Unshifted. She is innocent, with pup, and she is my true. I already marked what is mine, now bow down, or leave.” He challenged Brutus, and he had no choice but to kneel…

However, I knew the rest of this story. That was only to keep Phillip from ripping him a new one.