120
120
Thane's POV
Three-month-old abilities, I think in awe as my eyes become fixated on Draco, still exhibiting growth that defies the birthed knowledge of child development. Where our son is concerned — who a mere three months ago came into the world physically, but whose cognitive awareness exceeds that of beings several centuries old —... He's barely been a part of this world for three months and is already changing the very fabric of reality just by being.
“Brother, brother, look,” Yvonne beams with excitement at the empty face of a child and holds up a blossoming winter bloom that grew from Draco smiling directly at it. While his participation is unwitting, he creates a way for even the most improbable of possibilities to come together on its own accord. There is a shift in the whole pack territory and for his sake.
I feel her half-pride, half-fear as she stands above the sleeping boy — our son, the one we share no blood with and never, ever could because I'm a male of my species and thus infertile — on a wide cushion before the fire in the nursery that sits in the very center of ourselves. Brown eyes watch every breath he takes, every twitch in the plane of airflow around him that signals his ace quality pushing through.
"Lord Valerian, the visiting delegations are coming faster than we had hoped," introductory aside, the man's snow white complexion lending a sinister clamminess to his already weary demeanor. “Seventeen pack territories, twelve vampire covens, eight witch circles and five fae courts. The child who lives in thousands of realities at once that's who.”
“our son is no concern of theirs, — and never was.” I growl, my Alpha King power rising with newfound protection that I've only felt since Draco's arrival. “I will not allow him to be treated like a freak or some political pawn. He's a baby, not a weapon or representation."
I'm surprised by Yvonne's insight, even after everything we've been through together. "You know what else? A symbol of what can be achieved when predators and prey cooperate. That just proves the point that his unity leads to something bigger than its individual parts.”
The ancient lands swarm with supernatural beings from realms no one has ever thought to visit, and I witness them through the massive windows of the nursery. There are werewolves who have come from other regions and packs, vampires whose skin sparkles in the winter sun that they can withstand because of changes in reality caused unconsciously by Draco, witches with magic stronger whenever he's near as it resonates more powerfully when touching his spirit and fae who seem somehow more real when close to him..
They are not conquerors or enemies, Astella notes, a shaman who has learned to read the intentions of our guests by feeling their vibrations far deeper than any single timeline allows.
"They're here as... pilgrims? Seekers? There are others who have heard stories about what we did and want to see if this can happen where they live, too.”
“Change is on its way,” High Priestess Morgana says to no one and everyone as she walks in with intel from her local witch network. “Single pack isolates of centuries are letting their borders be traversed in the….I think this is vampires making nice with werewolf alphas. Fae courts are teaching old secrets to Human sorcerers. Draco's birth was as if it sent ripples of potential throughout the paranatural community.”
However, as I attempt to unpack this, one thing completely absorbs my focus — a traitorous smell drifting on the winter breeze that has me hypervigilant beyond belief. I feel the similar responses to our pack bonds from our sentries posted around the territory's perimeter.
“Visitors,” I growl darkly, my voice deep and low as it always gets on the way to those commanding the Paradise Kingdom. And when we're this close to seeing someone for the first time in far too long, it's as if your heart is screaming.
"Who?" Astella asks, her brown eyes revealing that the shaman powers of hers have already given an answer that her cheery conscious mind does not want to accept.
I grimace, feeling the faintest tickle of another presence about to enter our broad web of supernatural awareness that now extends over our territory out into the wider world — “Liam.”
Liam Jones is such a person, and he isn't alone. My kind of consciousness is quaking clear to my subconscious, I can feel at least twelve other wolves with him, they all smell like desperation and anger.
This news causes everyone there to bristle with unease. The last time Liam ever spoke to us, in an agreement that saw him accept rather hesitantly the reality that Astella was indeed meant for me, but after months of separation and whispers over our son's uniqueness it seems like his mind has turned.
"What does he want?" Yvonne questions, her hand immediately resting on the whip at her hip as she steps forward with a protective jolt that matches mine.
"Only I can imagine," Astella sighs, a tone only sad and determined as her large, pale hands clench the edge of Draco's crib. He knows what our son is and the strength he holds. Liam had always felt inferior compared to other people, but now there was a child who was walking evidence of how some relationships opened up worlds he would never touch.
I watch the party crest the hill, near our land, outside the nursery windows. Liam guides them in the powerful walk of any Alpha, yet I can sense there is an edge to his stride and the uneasiness he carries on his shoulders with something he is still quite uncertain about.
A suspicion becomes a truth, I think to myself and Alpha King optics flashing in my head above the approaching group and my pack's dynamics. “He's taken to believing Astella's tie to me is not genuine, but somehow an illusion of relationship… that her power over our son derives from coercion instead of a real bond. He is bringing in witnesses to back up his theory.”
“Absurd.” Lord Cassius gives a look of ancient disdain that befits the sort designed for foolish politicking. “I could just see it that you both are true to each other. The way you support each other, the power of that connection — there is no duplicating it; you cannot make or fake it.”
“Logic and jealousy don't generally live peacefully,” Queen Titania says, her fey voice filled with centuries of political experience. “If Liam truly believes that your happiness now somehow reflects negatively on his value as a human being, reason is going to have a hard time breaking through.”
And then, in the quarter of his consciousness that remains unaffected by any external event or presence, I suspect he cannot help but turn towards the approaching party because Draco undergoes some kind of change as they come closer and I see everyone else in the nursery shift so they all look at Draco's crib in surprise. My three-month-old little boy, laying peacefully beside me should be asleep right now but instead he slowly opens his eyes and gazes directly in the direction of the windows where Liam's faction is heading.
Astella breathes, her grasp on our child allowing her to detect what could not be readily perceived. Somehow he senses someone is coming; a threat to our family peace. “He's... protecting us.”
The air around Draco's plush crib begins to shimmer as the familiar multidimensional energy that swirled around his birth courses through my living room, but this time there is a difference: not the raw potential of wave function collapse into beingness, but something more human -- it is like the protective instincts that drive a mother bear. The very fabric of reality appears to warp around our son, who unknowingly readies himself for protecting the ties that bring sense into his life.
I made my decision, it was critical of a King balancing between his Alpha instincts and protecting his family while keeping the relationships he worked so hard to build. Liam isn't a threat to us, not unless he acts soon. An Alpha male in his territory, insecure of foreign elements. We can't let it ruin everything we've built.
But when Liam's group moves to the border of our lands and I feel his challenge echoing across the pack bonds that still tie all werewolves together no matter who we ally with, I know that we will soon come face-to-face with our first real threat as one greater supernatural nation --and no-one can afford to lose.