by G. Bailey
“Makes me feel better about coming here again,” I say.
“Not alone,” Phim states. “There is something wrong about her, and I can’t put my finger on it.”
“I don’t get the feeling she will hurt me,” I admit.
Phim doesn’t answer and looks at the book in my hands. “What did Miss Know-It-All get you then?”
“Maybe it’s a book on what she is, considering I’ve asked,” I ponder.
“Many people tried that over the years, even the Alpha Female Reine herself,” Erin says. “It was one of the rare things she gave up on and said to us all that Dot’s secrets are hers to keep as long as she harms no one.”
“And she hasn’t,” I reply. I look down at the red book in my hands and turn to the first page.
“The Wolves of Mnemosyne. How could she possibly know?” I mutter to myself. Erin leans over my shoulder and frowns, whereas Phim rolls her eyes.
“Makes perfect sense to me,” she mutters. “Show Mai a dangerous place with dangerous wolves, and she runs to find out how to find them.”
“I doubt this book is a map to their current location,” Erin says, waving at one of the seats to the left, five chairs tucked around a circular oak table with four lit candles in the middle. We all sit down, Erin and Phim on either side of me, as I place the book down. “Why do you want to know about those wolves?”
“I don’t remember who I was before I was twelve, and I don’t remember who my mother was. I lost everything, and it’s all up here somewhere,” I say, tapping the side of my head. “The pack I grew up in, the secrets I might know, all of it. It’s all just a mystery to me, and they can help me remember. I need to speak with them.”
“And that means you’re desperate for help,” she replies. “Going to them is a death wish. They aren’t normal wolves, Mai. They trade with magic, they have their own pack, and they always win in their deals. Anybody who’s desperate goes to them, and no one has ever come back with a good solution. I can’t press how bad an idea this is.”
“She knows this,” Phim says. “But Mai is more stubborn than anyone I know. Even the alpha heirs have forbidden her from going, but here we are.”
“I know what I’m asking and the risk I will take. It’s my choice,” I tell them both. “Could you imagine what it’s like to not know who you are, where you came from? I have stories from the alphas, but that’s it. That’s all I have, and stories are not memories. I need them back.”
“I understand but—”
“I can’t tell my sister about our mother who I grew up with. I can’t tell you what she looks like, what she was like as a person. I miss someone I can’t remember, and I’ve always had this emptiness, this hollow feeling I can’t shake. My past is a part of me, and if there is a chance of getting it back, I have to try,” I say. “I have to.”
Erin stares at me for a moment, her eyes soft. “My mother died when I was young. There is almost nothing I wouldn’t do to find out who she was and have memories of her.”
“Will you help me?”
“Yes,” she says reluctantly. “I don’t want to, but without my help, you will end up never finding their real location. There are wolves in the city who will guide you to The Wolves of Mnemosyne in exchange for gold. They don’t let just anyone see them, as the alphas want their heads, so I will have to ask around. Until then, read up on them and learn anything you can that could help. We are going to need all the help we can get.”
I meet Erin’s eyes, the haunting words of Dot floating around in my mind. She said Erin wasn’t worth her time, the little she has left… Why would she say that? Gods, I hope she is wrong.
“No, right not left,” Erin corrects me, and I backstep, flashing her a thankful smile. I want to try to figure out my own way to the courtyard, and I was pretty sure I was right. Five guards wordlessly follow Erin, Phim and me through the castle to the awaiting carriages to take us to the pledge ceremony of the rite. From what I’ve been told, I have to make a blood oath in front of the alpha heirs to enter their rite and, if I win, to willingly take them as my mates.
I shiver, a mixture of excitement and dread for what The Rite of Wolves will actually be like.
We head through the castle until we come back out to the entrance in the courtyard. Thankfully, I wasn’t that lost, and there waiting are two much smaller carriages.
I scent my alphas in the one carriage as I walk over, but Adira cuts in front of me. “Sorry, I’m taking the last space in this carriage.”
Her sweet tone doesn’t match the bitter statement. I barely look at her outfit, the same as mine in style, but somehow she looks far better than I do. Or at least I think she does.
“That’s fine,” I tightly reply, hearing a growl in my throat. I walk to the next carriage as Phim comes to my side.
“I could drag her out by her hair if you asked,” she suggests.
“She isn’t worth it. Not today,” I reply. “Let her have this tiny victory, because I only care about winning one thing. And it’s not an argument over a carriage seat.”
She looks at me. “Playing the long game, I like it. As long as it ends with her death.”
We climb into the other carriage, and Erin closes the door behind us. The carriages immediately take off after we sit down, Phim opposite me and Erin at my side.
I glance at Erin, wondering how safe it is to speak in front of her. I do like her, but trust is hard to come by and we don’t know each other all that well. Telling her about my plan to get my memories back was a risk I had to take, but this is different. I decide to sit silently, looking out the window as we head out of the courtyard and through the forest before getting to the city. The carriage takes a sharp right, pushing my shoulder against the carriage wall.
“I haven’t been able to find anything out about the other females taking the rite,” Erin says. I was unaware she was looking. “Other than Adira, it’s going to be a surprise. Once we know who is in it, I can tell you about their families and anything I know about what they might have been trained in.”
I smile. “Any information would be good.”
I do believe Erin is on my side, but I don’t trust her like I do Phim and Breelyn.
Breelyn... Gods, I wish she was watching the rite ceremony today, and I hate that she is locked up. Callahan too.
Eventually we slow down, and I glance out the window to see the streets covered in crowds of people, some holding signs. All of them have red markings painted on their faces. It’s a sea of red and black wolves. The pressure of so many of them almost makes me want to turn away until I catch the eyes of a little girl at the front of the street. She is waving so excitedly, and I can’t help but wave back at her, seeing how happy she is when she spots me.
The road steers around a bend before a river bridge, and for a brief second, I see a towering, white stone, square building in the middle of a circle of tall, daunting oak trees with large roots.
“Why aren’t you wearing your usual red cloak like the rest of the city?” Phim questions, with her own red cloak on her shoulders.
“Royal staff wear black,” Erin explains, messing with her black tunic-style dress and cloak clipped to her shoulders. “The alpha heir, or in this case alpha heirs, wear white trousers, and the females entering the rite wear white dresses in the same style to show who they are. Everyone else wears red except for royal staff. We are meant to blend in like shadows.”
“Since when did clothes mean so much?” Phim mutters to herself. “Give me leather trousers and a crop top any day.”
I chuckle, knowing she isn’t joking, but she is funny.
The carriage comes to a jolting stop, and Phim and Erin look at me as the door is opened. The cheering from the crowds of wolves echoes into the silent space. My body feels warm as I nod to them and duck my head as I step out of the carriage, taking the hand of the male guard waiting for me. I let go of his hand, speechless, as I look over at the crowds below me. We are on a raised hill, and below are thous
ands of wolves, shifted or not, a sea of red and black. They cheer, and I hear my name bellowed in the wind, all of it so overwhelming. I was the foster kid who no one would even speak to, and here?
Here, they cheer for me. Support me.
A single tear escapes my eye, and a warm hand wipes it away before it can fall and ruin my makeup. I look up to see Ragnar standing over me, and he licks the tear from his finger before winking. His moon marks look strange, catching my gaze and I could have sworn they were higher than they are currently are on his chest, near his heart. He walks away, leaving me to watch his marked back of corded muscles. I look away from Ragnar and to the building he is going into, a massive, towering, square building made of pillars on the outside, holding up the roof. Seven fire pits line the edges, casting deep shadows up the pillars, like shadow monsters are lurking within the walls. I can feel something, like an echo throughout my chest, when I look at this place. An echo of deep, strong, shifter energy that is undoubtedly coming from within the building.
Ragnar goes inside, followed by Adira and six other females behind her in a line, all of them looking my way. The others in the rite. The female at the back catches my attention. An aura around her is a little different from what I expected. One side of her head is shaved, the other thick with locks of deep, dark brown hair that falls to her waist, and she has a soft, dark tan that makes me wonder if she loves the sun. Marks, unlike the ones painted on us both that match, cover the side of her neck and go down to her waist, almost like a snake pattern. Scales and symbols that slowly change before my eyes.
The language of the gods. I can’t read all of what she has marked on her, but it’s random letters that I can’t make a word from that would make any sense.
A. V. C.
“Dammit, you’re going to be the last one in,” Phim whispers behind me, snapping me out of it. She looks over at the line as four guards come over.
“Only Mairin may go ahead into the sacred,” one of them states.
“Are any of you guards female?” Phim questions, eyeing them up.
They look at each other. “A few.”
“Not enough,” Phim says, looking at me. “You best change that when you win this rite and take your mates. Your mates, sister.”
“I will,” I state, holding my head high, pushing down all the nervous energy I feel. I nod to the guards, two of them walking in front of me and two behind. There are fourteen steps—I count each to distract myself—as we head up to the front of the building, the place I don’t even know the name of. The guards in front of me step back, and I walk to the back of the line, behind the marked female, who immediately looks back at me. Most of the females have gone except this one and two in front of her, both of them blonde, and neither look at me.
“You and Adira are my only real competition,” she claims outright as her brown eyes, the colour of deep mud, watch mine. “My name is Tualla Fall, Mairin, and I will not enjoy taking your life. It is the way of the gods.”
“May the gods watch over you, Tualla. You won’t be the only one who will take no pleasure in this rite,” I reply as the female in front of Tualla goes into the building, her footsteps soon disappearing.
“You’re a goddess,” she replies with a smile. “Isn’t it like you’re asking to watch over yourself, Persephone?”
I smile. “I am no more Persephone than she is me. Being soul-linked to a goddess doesn’t make you one. I am myself, always.”
“We will see, Mairin,” she replies, clearly doubting I’m telling her the truth, and I don’t blame her. The guard waves her in, and she looks back at me just once before walking in. The cheering keeps me company and my thoughts from wandering as I wait outside, a chilling breeze blowing around my body. It’s not exactly cold, but with so little clothing on and the weather slowly drifting into autumn, it’s cold enough to make me shiver and for goose bumps to litter my arms.
The guard eventually nods and waves me in, and I blow out a long breath to calm my nerves before I start walking in. The building seems to engulf me in pure silence in the darkness of the entrance before I step into the main room. It is bewildering in here. Four massive statues of wolves fill each corner of the room, their heads meeting together, and glowing red water falls down from the ceiling in the space between them into a pool in the middle. The red water glows with so much shifter energy. I feel it smack into my chest, and it threatens to knock me to my knees as I freeze to the spot. The alphas, standing on either side of the room, have shifted, with their wolves’ heads bowed, and in front of the pool are my alphas.
All four of them stand in a line, white stag crowns on their heads that glitter in the red light encompassing their bodies, like the gods are shining down on them. Not just any god...Hades. I can feel his soul here with me, like an old lover, and any fear I had seems to relax as my alphas look at me and bring my body to light with another feeling entirely.
Their desire flares to life in the room while I watch each of them as I walk to them, feeling like a magnet pulled to its other half. I stop in front of them, and Silas speaks first.
“If you wish to enter The Rite of Wolves, hear our rules.”
Henderson takes over. “There will be three tests, each to show a god or goddess your skills and loyalty to the pack, to our people and to your alphas. If your soul dies in the rite, you will not leave the walls of this city.”
Ragnar speaks next, his voice like ice with no warmth to be found. I try to ignore his tone. “The final test, shall you make it thus far, is called the Forest Rite. You will enter a sacred place and follow these rules. The six instructions for the Forest Rite: Once you enter, you can’t shift; you can’t leave unless you win, not even in death; don’t look into the shadows; if a path appears, take it at your own risk; this is the forest of the gods, pray to them for help; only one wolf leaves unless the gods allow another path. That rarely happens.”
Valentine finishes the speech, goose bumps littering my arms. “Cut your hand and offer your blood to the pool. The gods will decide your fate from that point onwards.”
“I wish to enter The Rite of Wolves,” I reply, my voice echoing around the room like Silas’s did.
They each step aside, and with them here, I don’t feel nervous as I pick up the jewelled dagger on the edge of the pool. I don’t pause or halt as I cut my hand and hold it over the pool, looking down into its dark, glowing waters. Time seems to slow as two drops of blood fall from my hand and splash into the water. The water bursts with so much light, but it doesn’t hurt my eyes as I watch the light dance out of the water like wolves and run up invisible stairs, frolicking around the room before bursting into light balls of fire and raining sparks down on us all.
“I think we know the gods’ opinion,” Ragnar says, watching me closely.
“There was never any—” Valentine cuts off when five guards run into the room, their faces pale.
“Alphas, there are Levi in the city! They are attacking wolves!”
“What?” I whisper. Valentine, Silas and Henderson immediately shift and run out of the room with Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren.
I take a step to go after them, but Ragnar catches my arm. “We are staying here, it isn’t safe.”
His grip tightens when I try to pull my arm away. “What are you talking about? I’m not staying here when there are Levi in the city! Let me go and come help save your people, Ragnar!”
Screams echo in from outside, and my heart drops.
“No,” he replies, cold and calculated, and without warning, he lowers his lips to mine, kissing me brutally and passionately. I shove him away, slipping out of his grip.
“Ragnar, this isn’t the time, and I will never be the damsel you can lock away,” I breathlessly tell him. “I will always fight.”
“Mai—” He reaches for me, but I run from him, something I never thought I had to do with Ragnar before in my life. I push down the emotion building in my chest and shift mid run. The wash of shifter energy shakes the ground at my f
eet as I land outside. It’s chaos. Pure chaos. Hundreds of Levi are attacking rows of wolves, teeth and claws ripping them apart in a black wave, my alphas at the front. Everyone is running away, back to the city, and four women run past me into the building, two of them carrying small children. Six more people are running towards me when five Levi run out of nowhere, cutting them off. With a growl, I run and jump in front of them, baring my teeth at the Levi as they run at me.
I shift back, naked as I crouch down in front of the Levi, and with a scream, I hold my hands up and push everything I can into my hands, the power stirring in the middle of my chest. Green shifter energy slams out of my hands like tendrils, wrapping around the Levi who whine as my magic crushes their bodies until they explode in a pile of blood. Hot blood sprays over me as I look back, not caring about being naked.
The six people are huddled together. Two of them shift into small black wolves. One of them is only a toddler, clinging to its mother’s chest. “Get inside, it’s safe there.”
“Thank you, goddess,” a male says. “Thank you so much.”
Goddess? I guess I must look like one, using all my shifter energy, the connection I have to Persephone.
I look into the mixed crowds, unsure where to go next. Red shifter energy blasts into the air within the crowds.
My alphas. I see Phim and Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren fighting a bunch of Levi on the left, Phim using swords to cut through them, and the alphas using teeth.
“Here,” a female wolf says behind me, and I turn to see a red cloak being held for me. “You should wear this, goddess.”
“It’s Mai,” I say before accepting the cloak. “And thank you.”
I slide my arms in the cloak and tie it up at the waist, covering myself as I hear a cry before me.
“Mairin,” Tualla calls out, and I turn to see her in the crowds ahead, crouched over two males and holding in the stomach of one. I run over to her, kneeling in the blood and mud. “Can you heal anyone? This is my brother, please.”
“That isn’t my power,” I softly say, shaking my head. “I c-can’t do anything.”