by Asher North
“I’m not afraid,” Rhys said, perhaps more brazenly than he’d meant to, but it was easy to do when everything in the moment felt so right. “We have the Gold Eyes and Eleo to keep us safe.”
“Will you fight, if they find us?” Damon asked.
“I won’t have any other choice,” Rhys answered.
“I wish I were as brave as you are.”
“You already are,” Rhys said. “I could teach you to fight, if you’d like. We’ll have time now that we’re here with the Gold Eyes. I don’t know how long we’ll stay but I can teach you everything I know, everything my father taught me,” he continued, his throat tightening at the mention of his father. It’d been easy to forget the loss of Juno as things intensified with Damon but the thought of him brought the pain screaming back.
“I might take you up on that,” Damon said with a smile and for a moment, Rhys didn’t care what happened between now and whatever waited for them on the other side of this journey because he had friends and he had Damon, whatever Damon was or was becoming.
Rhys
The following day, Rhys was summoned by the Lunalis twins to their living quarters, which he thought odd. When he arrived, escorted by another of the Gold Eyes he didn’t recognize, he was surprised to find he was meeting with the two of them alone.
“Good afternoon,” Knox said. The two wolves sat in the center of their surprisingly small room that looked more like a space meant for storage than living.
“Hello,” Rhys said, joining them in the center of the room.
“I’m sure your summons was a surprise,” Lux said.
“Yes, it was,” Rhys admitted. He’d been woken by Aero Silverback just after dawn that morning in the Healer’s quarters, still lying on the floor next to Damon’s bed with Damon’s hand wound in his fur. Thankfully, Damon hadn’t stirred when he’d risen. He had no idea what the twin pack leaders wanted to talk to him about but he didn’t doubt it was important.
“We see great things in your future, Rhys,” Knox said and Lux nodded his agreement. Their eyes seemed to twinkle, despite the relative darkness in their living quarters. Their cheeriness in the midst of the state of Moonvalley seemed foolish to Rhys but he’d been told more than once that the Gold Eyes often had trouble living in reality. The stars were more frequently their concern.
“Oh? Such as what?” Rhys asked. He’d been thinking off and on about the words that the twins recited to him and Damon when they’d arrived the day prior. He still hadn’t been able to make any sense of it but it seemed to be gravely important to the them so Rhys didn’t want to discount it.
“Battle. Leadership. Birth,” Lux answered and Rhys’s throat tightened. Do they know about Damon and I? he wondered, hoping that they didn’t. Still, if they had even a quarter of the foresight they were rumored to, Rhys would’ve been surprised if they didn’t know there was something developing between he and Damon. It didn’t take a seer to discern that. But making a child with him? Even Rhys, with his feelings for Damon and in the midst of his heat, didn’t see that as likely. For one, Eleo would never allow it, and Rhys wasn’t sure how smart it would be for him to be with Damon in that way. As inflamed as their respective packs already were, it didn’t seem wise to give them more reason to be angry.
“Birth?” Rhys asked. “As in, new life?” He was sure it sounded ignorant coming from his mouth but he had to be sure that they were talking about the same thing.
“Indeed,” Knox said.
“Who’s giving birth?” Rhys asked and Knox and Lux looked at each other before looking back to him. If his throat had been tight before, it was now sealed. He found it difficult to breathe.
“And you saw this in the stars?” Rhys asked and the twins laughed. “What?” he asked.
“No, we didn’t see it in the stars. We saw it in your eyes,” Lux said. “We derive a great many things from the Aurora from which we were all born but it’s not always necessary to look further than what’s right in front of us to find the truth of things.”
“We would like to make sure this union comes to pass,” Knox said.
“You would?” Rhys asked, feeling more confused by the second. None of this made much sense. Why would the Lunalis twins care if Rhys gave birth? What good would it do for them?
“Yes. You are special, Rhys. Surely you’ve noticed by now,” Lux said. “You are not like other Omegas and I doubt we’re the first wolves to tell you so.”
“No. I’ve heard it and felt it all my life,” Rhys admitted and both wolves smiled.
“Have you ever wondered why that might be?” Knox asked.
“Of course. I’ve spent twenty one years wondering why and never once came up with an adequate answer,” Rhys said.
“Often life’s biggest questions have no clear answers. Other times they are as clear as the stars,” Lux said. Rhys still hadn’t adjusted to the back and forth way the twins spoke and he doubted he’d ever get used to the way that they finished each other’s sentences, as if they shared one mind and one mouth.
“So what is the answer? If you could tell me that, I would believe anything else you might have to say to me,” Rhys said and he meant it. Though he’d struggled with faith and belief for most of his relatively short adult life, standing in front of the Lunalis twins as a wolf hunted by his own pack and accused of murder and knowing the wolf he’d developed deep feelings toward waited for him in another room, he wondered if he might’ve been too quick to dismiss faith.
“Do you know the story of Oberon Mooneye and Rohn Greyborn?” Knox asked.
“Of course I do. I’m a direct descendent of them both,” Rhys said.
“And so is your friend the Black Claw,” Lux said.
“Does that mean something great?” Rhys asked and no sooner had he finished speaking did he realize the answer. Are Damon and I related? he wondered with a shudder. That would certainly complicate things for the both of them but surely there was enough time and distance between their bloodlines that nothing would be made of it if in fact they were.
“It does. You’re both born of heroes and though we’d thought the age of great heroes had long past, it seems our world has need of them once more,” Knox said and Rhys dared to breathe, realizing what the Lunalis wolves were implying.
“You think I’m your hero?” Rhys asked.
“Not just you. Two and one, or so the prophecy goes,” Lux said.
“So Damon, Eleo, and me?” Rhys asked. He wished they’d stop being so cryptic and just say what they meant to say. It had long ago lost its charm.
“Only time will tell but we believe that you have a great role to play in this. There is war coming, Rhys Greyborn, have no doubt of it,” Knox said. “We hope that you’ll heed our words and prepare with us for that war. Our packs have a history more than a century old. Our ancestors built the peace that now threatens to collapse thanks to greed and recklessness. We must stop it.”
“I will do whatever I can to make sure it doesn’t come to war and, if it does, I will be here with my body and mind to fight for the things we hold sacred,” Rhys said, his whole body vibrating with excitement. Truthfully, he had only the faintest idea what the twins were talking about but it didn’t make much difference because Rhys was ready to fight. As far as he was concerned, it’s what he’d been put on this earth to do, Omega or not, and the fact that at least two wolves now saw that in him gave him courage.
“We hoped so,” Lux said. “There is a great fire in you, Rhys, a fire that the whole of Moonvalley needs if it is to have any hope of survival. But the road ahead is dark and full of uncertainty, a darkness that not even the heavens can illuminate. Know that your path will not be an easy one.”
“It never has been,” Rhys said. “This world has never taken well to the idea of a strong Omega.”
“No, it hasn’t. But the world as we once knew it is changing as we speak, for better or worse we cannot yet say,” Knox said. “Perhaps it is up to us to build the world we want to live in,
the kind of world we’d like to see our children inherit.” Chills seized Rhys then. He hadn’t ever thought of the generations that would follow him. He thought as well of the life he might one day create. As an Omega, Rhys would no doubt give life to a child or children at some point in his life but he had never once stopped to consider what that might mean.
His father’s words returned to him: “You might not understand this until you have a child of your own but every time the Rangers report to me the only thing I can think of is you and what I need to do to keep you safe because you are the only thing that matters to me.” Rhys wasn’t entirely sure but he felt he at least had an inkling now what that meant. He may not yet have a child but he did have a family, or a group of wolves that now served as one, and he had to keep them safe. It was no longer solely about himself and his own needs. He had other wolves to think of and care for and he fully intended to do just that.
“I look forward to that new world,” Rhys said and again the twins smiled.
“As do we,” they said together.
“Have you read the Book of the Dawn, Rhys?” Knox asked after a beat of silence passed.
“Some of it,” Rhys admitted. The Book told the “truth” of shifter kind’s birth in Aurora Falls via the First Shifter, along with the history of Moonvalley Lake, from Oberon Mooneye’s great mission onward. “Creed was never something that held my interest as a pup.” Knox smirked.
“It does for very few wolves. Are you familiar with the prophecy that our ancestor, Pollux Lunalis, delivered to the great packs of his day?” Knox asked.
“Somewhat, yes. We studied it for a while when I was younger,” Rhys said.
“Then you know the gravity of our current situation. It has been many moons since the Gold Eye pack has seen fit to share any of our prophecies with the rest of Moonvalley. We would not have shared this with you if we didn’t think it important,” Lux said. That much Rhys already knew. The Gold Eyes were notoriously secretive and reclusive, only pulling their heads out of the heavens long enough to communicate with the other packs when they deemed it necessary. If Knox and Lux Lunalis had decided it was important for Rhys to know about what kept them awake at night, Rhys had to take it seriously for the simple truth was that war was not a matter of if but rather a matter of when. Rhys intended to be prepared.
“I understand,” Rhys said.
“We knew you would,” the twins said together and again Rhys felt chills on his spine. Of course they knew, they know everything, he thought.
“There are many copies of the Book in our library. It might behoove you to study it and Pollux’s prophecy,” Knox said. “Throughout the ages, we’ve found history has a strange, near circular manner.”
Rhys took the point.
Damon
Damon was half asleep when Rhys came to see him again. While he appreciated being taken in by the Gold Eyes, he couldn’t deny that being a refugee was unbearably boring, especially with injuries that limited his movement. His thoughts were his only company , which were uncomfortably concentrated on Rhys and Rhys alone. He could no longer deny his attraction to Rhys, not after the explosive kiss they’d shared, and each time he closed his eyes he thought only of recreating and adding to it, of claiming Rhys in the way that only an Alpha could claim an Omega.
But I’m not an Alpha, not really, he thought despairingly. Even with his attraction to me, Rhys would never submit to me in that way. He’s too strong. Still, it didn’t deter him from fantasizing about what it might be like to hold Rhys down, to enter him, to give him what his hormones clearly longed for—the same thing Damon’s own had gone wild about. It was unlike anything Damon had ever thought possible. After reading hundreds of stories of Alpha and Omega pairs in the Black Claw history books, he’d doubted it was possible to feel as intense as the stories described, but Damon knew now it was in fact more intense.
Damon had felt attractions to other wolves before, but they were nothing compared to the draw that Rhys seemed to have. It wasn’t just that he was beautiful and strong and brave and everything that Damon knew he would never be, it was also that he had a certain duality to him; he may have been strong on the exterior but there was a softness inside that Damon had never known any other Alpha to possess. It was far more than purely physical. To Damon, it almost felt like something spiritual, something that went beyond the limited language he had to describe his feelings. Throughout his musings on is relationship with Rhys, he’d never been able to deny that their meeting felt like fate. Too many events had aligned at once to label the entire thing a coincidence.
Is this what the soul bond is like? he wondered as he stared up at the vine-covered ceiling of the room that had been his home since they’d arrived at the Gold Eye den. The thought made him shiver. The soul bond was something sacred, something ceremonial among the Black Claws. Damon had been to many such ceremonies for wolves in his pack before but doubted he’d ever see one of his own. Things had changed since then, in so many different ways.
“Daydreaming again?” a voice asked, stirring Damon from his thoughts. He turned on his bed to find Rhys standing in the entrance, a wide smile on his face. It was still odd to Damon to see him in his human form—and arousing. Each time he saw Rhys now he couldn’t help thinking of the kiss they’d shared and couldn’t shake the burning desire he felt for more.
“What else is there for me to do here?” Damon asked and Rhys chuckled as he approached. “What have you been doing? I missed you when I woke up.”
“The twins wanted to talk to me alone,” Rhys said.
“Alone? What about?”
“It was odd, to say the least,” he said as he sat down at the foot of Damon’s bed. Damon made to sit up but Rhys stopped him.
“Don’t move. Rest your body,” he said, as if that were an easy thing for Damon to do with Rhys in his presence. To the contrary, all of his many muscles were as tense and taut as they could be.
“What did they say?” Damon asked, curious. He could imagine a great many things that the Lunalis wolves might want to discuss with Rhys.
“It was the strangest thing, which I suppose is a strong thing to say after all of the strange things we’ve seen since coming here,” Rhys said and Damon chuckled, which triggered a knife of pain in his side. He grimaced.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“You’ve never once hurt me,” Damon said and he meant it. The smile Rhys wore grew brighter. “But tell me more, I want to know it all.”
“The twins seem to think I have some sort of great role to play in a war that’s yet to come.” Rhys’s words made Damon’s incredibly tense body go slack almost immediately. It’d been so easy to forget about everything going on outside of the Gold Eye den thanks to the developments in his relationship with Rhys, but Rhys’s words reminded Damon starkly of why they’d had to come in the first place.
“War?” he asked.
“Yes, a war, a war they claimed I was to fight in,” Rhys said, a thought that gave Damon pause. The idea of war, of Rhys being wounded or worse, made him feel as if the entire world were spinning away from him. “They said they saw a fire in me, a fire they want me to embrace,” he continued.
“I’ve seen it,” Damon said, though he hadn’t meant to. His cheeks bloomed with blood.
“You have?” Rhys asked, holding his gaze.
“From the moment we met, I sensed something different, maybe even special, about you,” Damon said. There wasn’t any going back now that he’d started the conversation, but Damon didn’t mind.
“I could say the same of you,” Rhys said and if Damon hadn’t already been blushing, he certainly would have at those words. “The twins spoke of more than me alone.”
“Oh?” Damon asked, not imagining for a second that Rhys had been referring to him. What could the Lunalis twins possibly have to say of him?
“They seem to think that there might be new life in my future,” he said and Damon’s heart skipped a beat.
&n
bsp; “Do you mean…?”
“Yes, they spoke quite clearly of the prospect of birth and of creating the kind of world that I might like for my children to grow up in,” Rhys said.
“But you’re not with child, are you?” Damon asked and Rhys laughed.
“Not to my knowledge, no,” he said and something flashed in his eyes. Is he implying what I think he is? Damon wondered, not daring to believe it.
“Then I don’t understand,” Damon said.
“Do you remember the odd words the twins said to us when we first met them?” Rhys asked.
“How could I forget?” Damon asked and Rhys chuckled.
“They mentioned that ‘two and one’ would save us all. When we spoke today, it was clear to me they were referring to the two of us and another who might help us win the war that’s coming,” Rhys said.
“Who might the third be?” Damon asked and Rhys fixed his beautiful eyes on Damon’s, making his body roar to life with desire.
“Perhaps the third doesn’t yet exist. Perhaps I’m not the only one who needs to embrace their inner fire,” Rhys said and his hand found Damon’s calf, which he stroked gently, giving Damon gooseflesh. Despite the way he fought against his body, it refused to respond the way he wanted it to. He grew increasingly aroused, a fact he didn’t doubt Rhys had noticed.
“Rhys, we shouldn’t,” Damon said, pulling his leg away from Rhys though it was the last thing he wanted to do.
“Why shouldn’t we? Do we have anything left to lose?” Rhys asked.
“Not yet,” Damon said, thinking only of what it might do to him if he allowed this moment between them to continue in the direction it’d started on. He wanted it, there was no denying that, but there was a part of him that insisted it was an idea best left to fantasy. If the Lunalis twins spoke truly, then they were both at risk of creating a life, a life that Damon wasn’t sure he wanted to bring into the chaotic world they lived in. What kind of life would that be for a child?