by Victoria Sue
“You’re beautiful,” Taegan whispered in awe.
And mine, an inner voice whispered back. Taegan didn’t say the words out loud though; it would have made him a liar. Caleb wasn’t his and sometime soon — too soon — he had to let him go.
Chapter Thirteen
The next afternoon Caleb sat idly watching Gia play, remembering the feel of Taegan’s arms as he had held him all night until he had to rouse because of the children. He had even brushed a gentle kiss on Caleb’s lips as he had reluctantly got out of bed.
Renee had a separate cave just across from Taegan’s that she and Elspeth, Jenner’s sister used to sleep in with the children who had no one else. Missy, Anna, Jake, Thomas, and of course Rayne and Neal all slept in there. Renee had suggested they try to let Gia sleep in there with them tonight and Caleb was doing his best not to get ridiculously excited. He felt his whole life had turned around in two days and for the first time in a lot of years was looking forward to tomorrow.
He watched as Renee came over and called Missy and Thomas for a nap. Gia was rubbing his eyes, and she gently suggested he come with them. Gia immediately looked up and focused on Caleb. “That sounds good, huh?” Caleb said, going to join Renee. Gia flung his arms around Caleb and Caleb ruffled his black curls.
“Gia?” Renee held out her hand. Gia looked at it and then looked back at Caleb.
“I’ll be in the cave opposite you the whole time so if you shout, I will come,” he promised.
“Okay,” Gia said and yawned, which immediately set Caleb off as well, making him chuckle. Gia went with Renee and the two kids.
“Is that the first time he’s actually left you?”
Caleb turned around to see Silas clutching a pile of papers and books. He smiled back. The wolf had been gone two days and Caleb had missed his company. “Second actually,” he beamed, “and if you need help with that, we need to go to Taegan’s room so I can keep the promise I just made.”
“Excellent.” Silas clapped him on the back. “I need to talk to you and Taegan very urgently. I’ll make some tea.”
“Taegan is meeting all his team leaders. Dargan and Talam are back.” Caleb had found out that Taegan was very skilled with a small knife similar to the ceremonial Kataya all Alphas carried and he had left early to train, and then to meet Dargan and Talam.
“It might be better if we talk first,” Silas suggested carefully. “I will send someone to ask him to come here as soon as the meeting is done.”
“No need.” Caleb grinned. “He will come straight back.” Gia had slept with him again last night but Taegan had moved his bed roll close and Caleb had dropped asleep with his hand clutched tightly in Taegan’s.
Silas arched an eyebrow. “I thought you looked better.”
By the time Silas let himself in Taegan’s room with the tea, Caleb had all the documents spread out. “Is this in Askaran?” Caleb murmured and picked up the small leather bound book.
Silas peered over. “Not as we know it. It is an earlier dialect. I recognize some words, but not many, which is why I went to see my friend.”
Caleb smiled and put the book down. “If you can’t understand it I’m definitely not going to be able to.”
Caleb looked up and flushed under Silas’s appraising stare. He was dying to ask some advice about Taegan, but Silas’s loyalty was to Renee and Taegan, and he didn’t want to get in between that. In fact, he had a sneaking suspicion, as far as Renee was concerned, it was a little more than loyalty.
“When are you going to tell Taegan how you feel?” Silas asked, abruptly.
Caleb gaped, but he shot back, “When are you going to tell Renee?”
Silas slumped into the nearest chair. “Is it obvious?”
Caleb shook his head. “I think it’s because I’m an outsider.”
The wolf leaned back on the chair and stared unseeing at the ceiling. Sadness — futility almost — was reflected in the downturned mouth and the emptiness of the brown eyes. “I have loved Renee since before Taegan was born. She worked in the pack house of my Alpha.”
Caleb drew in a hurried breath and Silas heard him. “No, much as I would love to claim Taegan as my son,” he said emphatically, “I would never have put her in that sort of danger. I travelled a good deal for my Alpha to remove myself from temptation and one time I returned Renee had mated and had birthed Taegan.”
“Did you know his father? Taegan never mentions him.”
Silas fingered one of the documents on the table but didn’t answer. Caleb immediately regretted the question and tried another. “Why can’t you be together now?”
Silas glanced back up at Taegan and laughed shortly. “Did Taegan tell you where his hatred of the wolves comes from?”
“He had seen many cruelties.”
“Yes, but not just any. His father was killed by a wolf, and then the human girl Taegan was living with was also killed in a village massacre.”
Caleb inhaled sharply, stunned. “Then no wonder,” he whispered, feeling the earlier happiness shrivel inside him. It was no good. He’d been living a fantasy for a few days. It was easy to forget who he was when Taegan sent him the slow smiles that warmed his heart as well as his body.
“Don’t lose hope, Caleb,” Silas said gently. “He’s a good man.”
Caleb nodded. “He is, but I am putting them all in danger. I doubt Warwick will ever stop wanting revenge especially now as he will lose the ruling pack designation. He has no heirs and there are other senior Alphas.”
“He has posted a reward for your whereabouts.”
“What?” Caleb said incredulously. “A reward? But why? I mean I knew he hated me, but that seems extreme.”
“I thought revenge at first. Mason is dead and not only are you still alive, you escaped his clutches, but from the information we have now I’m not sure that is the case.” Silas leaned forward. “Tell me, were the other pack Alphas supportive of Warwick?”
Caleb opened his mouth to say yes but then remembered what it had been like at Mason’s choosing. “Actually, I’ve been thinking of what you said before—” He caught the quick satisfied smile on Silas’s face. “No, I don’t mean that I am suddenly Alpha-heir, I meant about Warwick not controlling the pack. There are nine packs in Tethra, but the only heirs there were Mason’s cronies — Maer and Aldred. In my father’s day, no-one would have insulted the leading Alpha by not being present at his heir’s choosing. The only other heir there was Gage, Kyan’s elder brother and he is not due to become Alpha for another few weeks I think.” He remembered the horror he had seen in Gage’s eyes. There had been frustration there as well, but Caleb hadn’t thought about it. “I’m pretty sure Gage didn’t like what was happening but there would be nothing he could do. He could not risk his uncle stopping his choosing.”
“So,” Silas pondered. “If we include Gage and the fact that at least five packs weren’t represented, then Warwick has bigger problems than we thought. Do you know of any other packs who have heirs the same age as you?”
Caleb thought hard. “No, they were all younger or older by quite a few years and had already succeeded. Gage was the nearest one to me in age by at least three years, and Alpha Bertram and Warwick had a large disagreement just after I was locked away.” He frowned. “Something to do with a land deal, I think. In fact, yes, now I remember,” Caleb said excitedly. “Alpha Bertram’s pack lands are the furthest west, adjacent to Niandes. There was a small Tanzanite mine discovered there about five years ago very close to the border.”
Silas looked surprised. “How do you know? Did the gammas guarding you talk?”
“No, not the gammas. No wolves were allowed near me. I was guarded by humans, but it was the slaves that talked. Some of them took pity on me, and while they were forbidden from talking to me directly there were two who used to talk to each other a lot. I knew it was their way of telling me what was happening outside. Bertram was ecstatic because it would make him very wealthy even though the deposit seemed
to be small. Anyway, I’m not sure exactly what happened but there was a border dispute and Alpha Cain from Niandes claimed the mine.”
“Let me guess,” Silas interrupted. “Warwick sided against Bertram. I wonder how much it would have taken to buy him off?”
“Not much if he was desperate,” Caleb agreed. He looked at Silas. “Especially if Alpha Cain promised him support with the territory and the other Alphas.”
“You know, it may be that the other Alphas in your territory didn’t think your father died in a rightful challenge either, but it would be risky to challenge him since he had Alpha Cain’s support.”
Caleb nodded. He had met all the Alphas as he had been growing up, and while most of them had been distant and not interested in a pup, they had all had the greatest respect for his father.
He blew a breath out. “I guess it’s not something I’m ever gonna know.”
“No, perhaps not,” Silas said softly.
Caleb rubbed his belly absently. All this talk of Taegan made him feel empty. He reached over and picked up an old document. It was written in Askaran, but it was legible. “I can make out some of the words, but not all of them. Ver Ritek. That’s something blood?”
“It actually translates as Blood Rites. I thought it might refer to first-blood but it doesn’t. These are human documents but they contain many wolf references. They also seem to be in a dialect neither I nor my friend, Barton, has ever seen, and he is fluent in Askaran.”
“Artatlan,” Caleb repeated, slowly reading another.
“It means Innocent,” Silas said. Have you heard of “Kiraldere?”
Caleb frowned. “I know Kiral means Alpha.”
“We think it actually translates directly to Prince or King. My friend is either quite a famous historian or an addled old fool depending on whose opinion you ask, but significantly he is paid for his translations and has been kept in gold by Alpha Warwick for some years. The latest document was one of two commissioned by Alpha Warwick some five days ago. The first was returned a few days ago and details some of the superstitions concerning the blood rites and transfer of Alpha power. It dates back to a previous time the humans and wolves existed separately and the humans were undertaking experiments to gain knowledge of the Alpha power. The second one however is completely astonishing and much, much older. We are lucky he hasn’t returned this or we would probably never have known. My guess is my friend would not have remained alive to repeat it to anyone.”
Caleb looked up in astonishment.
Silas nodded excitedly. “We think it dates back to early human settlement on Askara and refers to an animal that gives life to man. It has to be a reference to the early wolf-shifters but there is something even more startling. The early wolves on Askara had already started walking upright. They had no speech, but their front paws were becoming dexterous. The humans were intellectually superior. Barton’s theory is that they may have even come from beyond our suns seeking a new world to settle in — for whatever reason we do not know — but they were threatened by the possibility of the evolving wolves. They feared that a race with the physical strength of a wolf and the intelligence of a human would be unstoppable. Their medical and science understanding far surpasses anything I have ever heard of, which supports Barton’s theory they originated somewhere else. The humans started capturing the wolves and using them for experiments, specifically breeding.”
“Breeding?” Caleb almost squeaked.
“Yes. We think they were deliberately creating hybrids to make a more powerful race — one they could control, but the hybrids couldn’t shift. The early ones were born with all sorts of physical deformities, and the humans performed hideous experiments on the ones that survived trying to perfect their techniques. Then some sort of disagreement happened between the humans. There were a group that hated what they had become and what they were doing to the wolves. They fought the others and they left.”
“Left? You mean they went somewhere else or that they were killed?”
“No, not killed. Barton actually thinks they left Askara in the same manner they arrived. We have no idea what vessel they had that would allow them to travel to another world, and there is no documented evidence of this. The humans that were left instituted something called Emberi Saran, which Barton has found many mentions of in other documents and which roughly translates to Human Law. The experiments were banned and all scientific equipment was destroyed. The humans shunned what technological advantages they brought with them and became basic farmers. The breeding of wolves and humans was punishable by death, and any hybrids, if found, would be immediately executed.”
“And fast forward many thousands of years,” Caleb interrupted, “and you have the werewolves we currently know in their present form because there will have been some that escaped the persecution and bred amongst themselves, and created a variation of the law that makes it illegal to make hybrids between werewolves and humans.” It was incredible, but made a strange sort of sense.
“It is ironic, is it not,” Silas said, “that werewolves are hybrids themselves. The werewolves style themselves as a true race, when in fact they are anything but.”
“What has any of that to do with so called blood rites?” Caleb asked.
Silas looked eager. “Now this is where it becomes complicated.”
Caleb chuckled, unable to help himself even in the midst of a horrible conversation, and Silas had the grace to look embarrassed. “You remember I told you about Surya’s followers performing what they call blood magic?”
A chill ran through Caleb and he rubbed his arms.
“Magic, traditions, rites; however you name them, all become diluted from the original with each passing century. Unless you have a copy of the first ever instance — which most people don’t, then everything gets changed overtime.”
“Wolf whispers,” Caleb mused, naming a childhood game of repetition. One cub whispered to another cub a word or phrase and it was repeated. By the time it had been repeated three or four times it was nothing like the original, and often hysterically so.
Silas smiled. “Exactly. So we have on one hand biological experiments which involved blood as a basic used to turn one creature into another. Then fast forward to a different set of people without the scientific knowledge to make this happen and such experiments become magic, wrapped in folklore and mysticism. There are no obvious explanations as to why one creature can ‘magically’ become another, and on top of that we have ‘magical’ gifts like shifting, ability to heal bodily injuries—”
“And Alpha power,” Caleb interrupted with a flash of understanding.
“Yes, exactly. There have been many theories how these happen. Many humans who would give anything to be able to harness that sort of ability, and that, I think, is where the blood priestesses of Surya come in.”
Caleb shivered. He almost didn’t want to know.
“The first document Barton managed to translate refers to the Alpha power. Humans craved this. The thought of bending another being to their will without superior force is something that humans desperately wanted, and there were experiments, sacrifices, a million hideous things before the last wars when the wolves took over.”
“And Jacind-aa wanted this knowledge? But why would the wolves be interested in helping humans mimic something that they can already do? Especially when it gives humans power they don’t currently have? It makes no sense.”
Silas looked at Caleb in resignation. “But what happens if a wolf — an Alpha specifically — doesn’t have that ability?”
Caleb closed his eyes in sickening realization. “You mean Warwick.”
“Yes,” Silas confirmed. “We have the details of the blood rites specifically mentioning the half-man, half-wolf, and we think that’s how Jacind-aa had originally meant to attempt the transfer of Alpha power to her husband.”
“But from whom?” Caleb said. “The only wolf that had it is Mason and he is dead.”
“No, Caleb; think. T
he last true Alpha of your pack was your father. The original challenge wasn’t valid because Warwick likely cheated. He couldn’t risk a ruling council because it means another Alpha’s pack would have taken over and named his own heir. Mason would have been cut out of succession entirely. It was overwhelming greed. Mason would have ruled their pack, but Warwick wanted the lead pack position.”
Caleb stared at Silas. The brown eyes were kind, but his gaze was intent as if he was waiting for Caleb to catch up. “That still doesn’t explain where they believe they can transfer the power from.”
“You, Caleb. You are the proper Alpha-heir.”
“No,” Caleb shook his head. “It wasn’t me. Mason was named as his heir.”
“You were present at the council meeting?”
“No,” Caleb admitted. “The law of maturity.”
“Of course,” Silas sighed. “The rule that wolves that had not had their first shift cannot attend a council meeting. It was meant as a way of making sure they were mature enough. The inference being that those that could not shift would be pups. Whoever made the laws wasn’t expecting an adult Alpha-heir that still couldn’t shift.”
“No-one was,” Caleb said dejectedly.
“You said you ran after your father told you. What happened?”
“I was heartbroken. He dismissed Warwick and Mason, and I said he owed me a chance until I was at least twenty-one. I had heard a story about a cub that didn’t shift until he was eighteen.” But he had lied, and his father had known it. “He said he would talk to Warwick again before the meeting and if I wished for some more time he would see what he could do. I was distraught and decided to go into the Dorn forest. I had heard that trauma can sometimes initiate a shift, and I set out to see if I could find a hadrax.”