“He didn’t lead his pack, in so much as, he ruled over them. He was dominant in every way. My mother was not his mate, she was part of his harem. He had many women, many children, many warriors and many slaves. None of the women were treated well. They were there for his pleasure and sometimes that pleasure was gained through violence. Horrendous acts of violence that may not have scarred them permanently on the outside, but without doubt left marks on the inside. The children were very often nearby when these things occured, not in the same room, but close enough to hear the screams.”
Looking at the man beside her, Aurora caught a fleeting sadness in his eyes. One blink and it was gone. She tried to envision him as a child, bearing witness to these horrific acts of violence against women, against his mother. This story, she knew, would answer many of her questions about him.
“My Grandmother was my only salvation during these times. When my mother was chosen as his bedmate, giagia- the Greek for grandma, would come for me and take me to her kitchen. It was she who taught me a love of food, an appreciation of good ingredients. Those are my only happy memories of a dark and violent childhood.”
Lykos, needing a moment to collect his thoughts, stood and moved to the bar in the corner of the room. He took two brandy goblets and a bottle of brown liquid from the shelf, then returned to sit by her side. He had never relayed his story to anyone since leaving his home and wasn’t sure why he felt he could tell Aurora such intimate details about himself, he merely knew it was what was needed.
“Metaxa, Greek brandy.” He lifted his chin to indicate the bottle as he set it on the table. “There is nothing quite like it. Will you join me, Koraki?”
She nodded, unable to find suitable words to fit the moment. Lykos poured the brandy into the goblets and passed one to her.
Raising the glass he said, “Yamas”
“Yamas?” She raised her glass to drink with him.
“To our health, is probably the closest translation. Similar to cheers,” he explained.
“Ah, then Slainte,” she replied, with a slight smile and the Gaelic for the same word. His eyes darkened as he looked at her, watching her raise the glass to her lips and drink. She watched him back over the rim of the glass. Something in the way he looked at her changed in that shared glance. Before, it had been hunger, desire, raw, unbound lust. This was tender, gentle, words she should not be associating with her kidnapper. Needing suddenly to change the mood, she asked, “Will you continue?”
“Of course, Koraki.” He took another drink from his glass and set it on the table, seeming to shake himself out of whatever mood had taken him. “I was a small child. Skinny and short for many years, difficult to envision when you look at me now, I realise. Let’s say I was a late bloomer.”
“But you’re an alpha.”
“Suppressed alpha, my mother and Grandmother gave me a tincture to suppress the alpha gene. They feared for my life.”
“Why?”
“My father was threatened by the thought that one of his sons could challenge him for the pack one day. He rarely let the alpha sons live and being an alpha himself, he produced many. The tincture my mother gave to me put the alpha gene into a sort of stasis, slowing its development. My father referred to me as the runt. I tried not to dwell on it, at least he was acknowledging me. If I had been a girl, I would not have been given a single moment of his time. His sons were to be warriors. Daughters, he had no use for. They were sold to other packs as soon as they came of age.”
“I was an only child, in that my mother only bore him one child. My siblings came from different mothers and I was never close to them. My brothers were much like my father, imitating his behaviour. We were trained in physical combat almost from the moment we could walk and pitted against eachother in fights. Of course, being so much smaller than the others, I rarely came out of one of these fights unhurt. There isn’t much to say about the years in between. My life was a cycle of vicious attacks from my father and brothers and witnessing the same violence towards my mother and his other women.”
Lykos drained the remainder of his drink and poured another one. He leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Before she could stop herself, Aurora reached out and smoothed her hand across his back, rubbing the spot between his shoulder blades. His rigid body relaxed against her hand and he breathed in deeply.
“I was seventeen when I killed my Father,” he announced, raising his head. She failed to contain the sharp intake of breath. He smiled, wryly. “I’m sure you saw it coming, you are much smarter than you allow people to know.”
“I knew something awful must have happened,” she admitted. Her shock wasn’t that he had killed, most shifters and paranormal creatures in general killed at some point in their lives. Her reaction had been because he was so young when it happened. “But to feel you had to resort to that.”
“It wasn’t planned, I can assure you. The tincture wore off after my giagia’s death and I finally began developing when I was around fifteen. I still had no idea I was an alpha and despite my body and my skills growing at speed, the damage had already been done with my father. I would always be the runt, so the abuse continued. I think he must have realised the secrets my mother had kept and he punished me for them, not that I would have seen my mother suffer in my place. He ensured I fought longer and harder than any of the others, taking more turns in his arena than them. That part never bothered me, I saw it as training, experience. It was the fact that my mother had become sick that troubled me.”
“As I said, giagia had passed away a few years earlier, so I had nobody to explain to me what was happening. Father refused to have doctors on his land, any outsider was killed on sight, less they draw attention to his abusive ways. Even a shifter doctor was forbidden and it was left to the other women to care for her. They did what they could, but she withered away before my eyes. Throughout her illness, which I now believe was silver poisoning, he never once stopped his visits with her. If anything, he took her more than any of the others, as though her frailty turned him on in some twisted way.”
“Sick,” Aurora whispered, horrified and angered by what she was hearing. A male shifter’s natural instincts were to protect the females and weaker pack members, that an alpha could abuse them in this way was an atrocity.
“One night, I was called to her room by one of the other women. They always bathed her after he was there, she was unable to care for herself by then. The sight that met me is one I will carry with me until the day I die. He had left her bloody and beaten, barely breathing. We both knew that she was leaving this world. I held her hand and we looked into each other’s eyes. She somehow managed to muster the strength to tell me about the tincture and that I was an alpha wolf, I just had to believe it. She had been taking his money and hiding it for me. She said she loved me and she was proud of me and with her last breath she willed me to get away from my father. Take the money and go, even if it meant being alone. I promised her I would not stay another night under his roof, but I promised myself I would not leave without avenging my mother.”
“I waited until the house was silent to pack my things. The money was where she told me it would be. I gathered everything else I thought I would need to get off the island and crept into my father’s room. As I sat on the edge of the bed I knew I was there to kill him, I was finally bigger and stronger than him. I nudged him awake and he swore at me, demanding to know what I was doing in his room. I remember my exact words to him; “I want you to know who killed you.” Then I stabbed him through the heart, a silver blade laced with wolfsbane ensured his death by morning. I left him to die alone.”
“I left the island that night and have never returned. I heard, over the years, that the pack disbanded. My siblings split among other packs across the world. As far as I am aware, the territory was sold and now houses an exclusive holiday resort. I have one brother left on Crete, alpha of his own pack, some of whom I imagine he took with him from my father�
�s pack. I travelled for many years, gradually gathering the pack you and I now have. Eventually we ended up here, in Ireland.”
Aurora didn’t think she had ever been lost for words. Marco and Jax would have found it hilarious, because she literally could not speak. Lykos reached out and gently wiped away the tear she hadn’t realised was making its way down her cheek.
“Don’t waste your tears on me, Aurora. I am not worthy of them. I know you asked me for my story in order to try and figure me out, discover why I am the man I am. The fact is, I chose to be this man, I could easily have been someone different, but I am not. I am my father’s son.”
“No!” she blurted, her voice full of anguish and his eyes shot to hers. “You are nothing like him. I mean, you’re not exactly a peace pipe smoking hippie, but you would never dream of hurting people the way he did. You don’t condone abuse towards the women of this pack, just look at what you did today for Melaina. You did what you did to survive, to make a better life for yourself. You are more of a man than your father could ever have been.”
“I would not have done those things for Mel if not for your council,” he countered.
“Perhaps not, but you listened to that council and acted on it. I’m sure that isn’t a trait inherited from your father.”
He looked at her silently again, not hungrily, that wistful look was back and while it unnerved her slightly, she didn’t look away. Lykos leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“There is something you should see,” he decided, with a nod of his head and took her hand to lead her to the office.
Once inside, he moved to the bookcase and beckoned for her to follow. She stood by his side as he indicated a black leather bound book on the shelf, she looked up at him in question and he smiled, as though they shared a secret. He pulled the book out and stepped back, the shelf slid backwards into the wall and to the side, to reveal a small room. Inside were more bookshelves and a table. Lykos held out a hand inviting Aurora to enter before him, but she held back and waited for him to go first. She was not about to be lead into a trap.
“So suspicious, Koraki. Don’t ever change that.” He walked in before her and turned to look at her. “This will work best if we are both in the room when I close the door.”
Curiosity getting the better of her, she followed him inside. Lykos flicked a switch on the wall, and the shelf slid back into place.
“So, what is this, your secret lair? Is this where you do all your evil plotting? Is it judgemental of me that I was expecting a torture chamber or a sex dungeon?”
“This is where I keep the things that I trust nobody else with, but I can always find space for a sex dungeon, if that makes my queen happy.” He didn’t wait for her response, but led her attention to an old parchment laid out on the table. “That is my own copy of the Morrigan Prophecy, given to me by my Grandmother, before she passed from this world. She never confided where she got it from, but she knew it to be about me the moment she saw it.”
Aurora peered at the brown, faded paper. “It’s in Greek.”
“Ancient Greek, however, I have the translation.” He flipped open a laptop and turned it on. After a few seconds of clicking, the screen showed a document in English. “Read it.”
The writing, in short, told her that there was an unbreakable bond, between the Greek Wolf, who would free his pack from his father, and the Raven Queen. To her relief, it didn’t state that it was a true mate bond, not that she knew of any other kind, but it was a start.
“How do I know this is true? You could have just written anything on that page and I wouldn’t know the difference, I don’t speak Greek.”
“You feel the bond, Aurora. I know you do,” he emplored.
“No.” She shook her head, preparing to lie through her teeth. She did feel something, there was a connection of some kind with him. She’d realised that almost immediately, when she’d looked at him across the clearing in front of her parent’s house. There was no way it was the mate bond he claimed it to be, but yes, there was something. To admit to it would not be in her advantage, it would only fuel his eagerness to claim her. She maintained her denial. “I don’t feel it, I told you this.”
Lykos exhaled a disappointed sigh and proceeded to show her a Greek version of the document on the laptop. He matched it up with the words on the parchment, to prove the words were the same and then used an app to translate it. “It doesn’t fully translate with the app, there are words in the ancient Greek that even the most advanced technology doesn’t understand, but you get the jist. The rest you can find with these books.”
“You want me to translate it? I can’t read Greek!” She lifted both arms and let them fall heavily back to her sides, letting out an exasperated sigh.
“For your own satisfaction. I see no other way you’ll believe me, since you don’t yet trust my word.” He pointed to a notebook, containing all the Greek letters and their counterparts in the modern English alphabet. “There will be some confusion because Greek has more letters than English, but as I already said, it will give you the jist. Stay, read it, translate it. Flick the switch on the wall when you wish to leave and use the book on the other side to close the door.”
“Feel like I’m going back to school,” she grumbled. “Wait, you’re leaving me alone in here?”
“As much as I would like to lock myself away with you for the afternoon, I have a pack to run and two betas to deal with. I trust you, Aurora. I will greet Caspian and you may join us when you’re ready. If you wish to. I admit to liking the idea of you waiting here for my return, but I know submissive housewife isn’t on your bucket list and I would not wish it to be.” He winked as he left her gaping in his wake. He had teased her, Lykos had actually teased her. The big bad wolf had a playful side, that was new.
She didn’t know how long she sat in front of that screen. Between the books and the translator, she believed Lykos was speaking the truth about his prophecy, it just wouldn’t sink in. Aurora stared at the screen in front of her and went over things in her head. She felt the bond with Lykos that his prophecy spoke of, but it couldn’t be a mate bond. She knew what one of those felt like, she knew the power it brought and the gap it left in her soul when her mate wasn’t nearby. So, what the hell was it? And could she continue to deny it to him?
The more he showed her of himself, the more she knew that Melaina had been right, he wasn’t that bad. She still didn’t trust him and knew he was capable of terrible things, kidnapping for one. The prophecy had also brought questions to light, that she meant to address with him. Yet, she now knew why he was the way he was. He hadn’t once laid a finger on her that she hadn’t allowed. He’d done everything he could to ensure she remained safe and unhurt while she’d been there. She didn’t want to like this man, but was finding she couldn’t help herself. Shit! Maybe she was coming down with a case of Stockholm syndrome after all. Not good Aurora, not good at all.
“Ah, here she is, my beautiful mate. Did you finish everything you needed to do, Koraki?” Lykos addressed her, when she found him with Caspian in what served as a sort of common room, on the ground floor of the castle. He reached out his arm to her and she stepped into his side. Caspian watched, thoughtfully, while Lykos intimately wrapped his arm around the tops of her thighs, from his seated position.
“I did,” she replied, laying a hand on his shoulder. She didn’t look at Lykos, instead narrowing her eyes at Caspian.
“And?” Lykos picked up on the fact that something was bothering her.
“I have questions,” she supplied, unwilling to voice them in company. “They can wait.”
“As you wish. I’m just settling in our new beta, join us.” Lykos had decided to play heavily on the mating and was happily rewarded when Aurora allowed him to pull her into his lap.
He didn’t trust Caspian and if he was acting as a double agent by reporting back to the shadow pack, he wanted them to think Aurora was accepting Lykos as her mate. He knew very well that Zane Guerrero an
d his team would be in the process of planning a rescue, his own intention was for Aurora to not want to be rescued when that attempt came. Fortunately for him, she had more than a few trust issues with Caspian herself and as much as she didn’t want her pack to believe she was accepting Lykos, she was on board with his ruse.
“Aurora.” Caspian nodded, watching closely as the couple wound themselves around each other.
“Dickhead.” She nodded back and Lykos laughed.
“As you can see, Caspian, my queen does not trust you. Understandable, I’m sure you will agree. Her trust is something you must gain once more, should you wish to remain in position as our beta. Aurora’s safety and happiness is my priority and you will play a major role in ensuring those things. I realise the two of you have... history. It is exactly that, Caspian. Any romantic relationship you had with Aurora is over, you will not attempt to rekindle it. As an alpha in her own right, my mate is my equal and you will follow her orders as you would mine, is that clear?” Lykos set out clear ground rules.
“Crystal,” Caspian replied.
“Aurora was telling me earlier how much she would like to get back to her combat training, perhaps you two could reacquaint yourselves in the gym.” Lykos looked to Aurora. “Koraki?”
“It would be my pleasure.” She bestowed a wicked smile upon Caspian. He attempted to return a confident one but couldn’t hide the nervous laughter that went with it.
“Good. I will join you after I deal with the other matter we discussed.” Lykos kissed Aurora’s lips as they stood. She was mildly curious as to what he would do with Axel but could wait to find out.
“You know where to find me.” She walked from the room, knowing Caspian was following hot on her heels.
The gym was a huge hall, with crash mats laid out on the floor, workout equipment and machines, and a boxing ring at one end. One wall was all windows, as was every wall on the side of the castle that over-looked the gardens within its centre. Aurora headed straight for the ring.
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