Chapter 16: Julia

Leviathan

After Flora and Zade’s surprise visit last night, I made sure to ravish Asa’s body over and over again. I couldn’t get enough of her. We moved in sync all night.

The Moon Goddess surely made her perfect for me in every way.

Unfortunately, early this morning, I had to leave right at sunrise to deal with an emergency meeting on the other side of the country.

It’s only a few hours’ flight, but I didn’t want Asa to come.

She has so many things she is trying to figure out right now that we agreed she and Flora should hold back and do some research while Zade and I deal with this.

This trip will only be one day, and I’ll be back in the morning.

Asa didn’t like the idea of me being away for a full day, but in the end, we came to an agreement. Flora will keep her busy, I have no doubt.

I am very lucky that her friend was paired with my beta. They can keep each other busy in our absence.

Being so far away has me on edge. My wolf doesn’t like the distance now that the mating ceremony has been completed.

I don’t have a choice though. Things seem to have gotten bad in my absence the last few days, and this must be dealt with.

Once we arrive at the Desert Pack, we head into the meeting hall of their pack house, and I see the other alphas and betas already seated, waiting for me.

I take my seat, giving the go-ahead to begin the meeting.

“Good evening, gentlemen. You have called me for an emergency meeting. What is going on?” I say with my alpha voice heightened.

“Firstly, King Alpha, we are honored for you to be here. Over the last week we have been getting news of four entire packs being wiped out in various areas across the globe.

“The latest was in Turkey. We tried to handle this ourselves, but this wolf is a ghost. He leaves no trail. Even our best trackers cannot locate him.

“He only leaves a bloody mess behind himself,” the Mountain Pack alpha states.

This pisses me off. Who would dare try and overthrow order and do such a thing?

My voice goes dark in warning, and it booms. “Why was I not told sooner?!”

“Your Highness, with the news of you finding your ~fated~ mate, we thought it was best to let you have time with her and try to deal with this ourselves.” His voice reflects fear.

“And how has that worked for you?! I do not care what reason. You should have come to me the moment the second pack was destroyed without reason!”

“We are sorry, Your Highness. What would you have us do now?” The man’s voice shakes.

“We need to contact the mercenary Ancient,” I demand. “From the sounds of it, she may be the only one who can figure out this mess!”

The moment those words leave my mouth, the meeting room door flies open. All eyes turn to see who would dare interrupt our meeting.

Before me stands a woman over six feet tall. Long straight black hair. Tattoos covering her arms and neck. She is fierce, and her eyes are playful but unforgiving.

“Liddia. We were just speaking of you,” I smirk.

The beautiful Ancient walks around and grabs a seat in the corner.

“I thought my ears were burning,” she jokes. Her voice goes serious. “King, we have a slight dilemma.”

“Yes, these fine men have caught me up. We will need your services to—” My words are interrupted.

“I already know who is doing this.”

All eyes are on Liddia now.

“Leviathan…” She pauses. “Marcus is back.”

Gasps are heard across the room.

“He hasn’t been seen in over 8,000 years. Why would he surface now, and why would he do this?”

The newest pack alpha looks at Liddia with confusion.

“Pardon my ignorance, but who is Marcus?”

My voice is harsh and unforgiving. My wolf is not happy.

“Marcus is the second-made Ancient. He found his mate soon after he was made and has been quiet ever since.”

You could hear a needle drop in this room, it is so quiet.

Liddia stands. “Correction, if I may. His mate has recently died. Nobody knows what happened to her, but from the rumors surfacing, she died giving birth.

“Neither she nor the child made it.” Her voice softens.

“So mate sickness has taken him?”

Mate sickness occurs to a wolf who loses their mate. Normally they go crazy and their wolves take over, massacring everything in their path.

Soon enough, if they do not find a second-chance mate or are killed first, their wolf grows sick and they die.

He is an Ancient, though. We cannot die of normal means. This is why, once we mate, the mate becomes immortal as well.

“It seems so, Leviathan,” Liddia sighs.

AsaLynn

I meet up with Flora in the grand library to try and figure out the meaning behind my mark and its color.

We have been here for hours and haven’t even come close to figuring anything out.

“Maybe I should contact my mom now? She may be able to tell me,” Flora states.

“Why didn’t you do that in the first place? Also how does your mom know so much about, well, everything?” I ask.

“She’s…uh, an old witch, so she knows a lot of stuff, I guess.” Flora’s tone makes me feel like she is hiding something.

Witches are very wise, but even they have their limits. From the way Flora speaks of her mom, she seems too knowledgeable.

I guess I really shouldn’t question it, though. If she can give me answers, then I guess the rest really doesn’t matter.

“Okay, we’ll call her up then and see what you can find out.”

Flora bursts out laughing. “When I say old, I mean, like, really old! That woman doesn’t use phones.”

“Then how do we contact her?” I ask, confused.

“The ~old way~.”

“So we write a letter?”

“Girl, you are funny. No. I have to perform a ritual of sorts to see her. I’ll be right back!”

Flora skips out of the library and comes back a while later with her arms packed with herbs and candles.

“Okay, this will only be a sec, so keep your panties on until I’m done.”

I don’t reply. I just watch as she mixes and grinds herbs together and places the candles on the floor in a triangle and lights them.

She places the bowl of herbs in the center and lights it as well.

“Okay, bitch, sit at the top point, and I’m gonna be here in the middle. Close your eyes and concentrate on breathing,” Flora instructs.

I obey and sit where I am told. Flora grabs the bowl of lit herbs and begins to chant something I don’t understand.

I close my eyes and begin to count my breaths. Focusing on myself in this moment.

Everything goes dark.

When I open my eyes, I’m in a homely cabin. I see herbs and spices on shelves. Liquids in vials with labels in a foreign language.

The place smells of sage. In the far corner of the room, I see a woman sitting next to a fire.

Flora grabs my hand, and my body goes calm.

“Mother?” Flora says.

The woman stands from her spot and smiles and walks over to us.

“Miss me so soon, darling? I just spoke with you,” Flora’s mom says.

She has this peace about her. She reminds me of a motherly figure you could spill all of your worries to.

She looks barely older than us, though. When Flora said old, I expected a wrinkled old hag.

“I am no hag, child.” Her words startle me.

“You are in my domain, child.” Her voice is so steady and knowing.

“Yeah, sooooooo anyways. This is my friend Asa, the one I told you about. She mated that Ancient king. We actually came to you to seek your wisdom, Mom.”

Flora goes and plops down on an old-looking couch and props her feet up on a table, spilling something.

“Have I taught you nothing? Good goddess, Flora!” Her mother walks over to Flora and smacks her upside the head.

Flora lowers her feet off the table and rubs her head where her mother hit her. I can’t contain my giggle.

Her mother looks over at me. “I’m Julia, child. Who are you, and what do you need from me?”

“I am AsaLynn. I wanted to speak to you about my mating mark.”

“Ah. I see. And what is your birth name?”

“Ummm. AsaLynn?”

Flora chuckles. “Mom, you don’t ask it that way. You say, what’s your last name?”

Julia’s eyes shoot a warning glare at Flora.

“What? We ain’t old biddies, like you. You really need to get in this century, Mom,” Flora jokes.

“Oh, uh, Demitri,” I fumble.

Julia’s eyes flicker with an emotion I can’t read.

“Who is your mother, AsaLynn?”

“Lilliana Alga?” I say, questioning her reasoning.

“Alga…” She hesitates. “Okay, show me this mark you wish to understand, child.”

I pull the jacket off and move my hair to show my mark. Julia’s eyes widen.

“What do you know of your mother, Asa?” she questions cryptically.

“Nothing really. She died giving birth to me. I was told she went into a coma when she got pregnant with me, and that’s all I was ever told.”

I debate on if I should tell her my dream.

“Your mark means you will lead a new beginning.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Flora crudely interrupts.

Julia grabs a book and chucks it at Flora’s head.

“Language, Flora!”

“Owwww, what the hell, Mom?! You know this is considered abuse, right!” Flora rubs her forehead where the book landed.

“Seriously though, what does that mean? And why is it blue? We searched all day and cannot find anything about blue marks anywhere. And why does her wolf glow?”

“Wait, what? My wolf doesn’t glow.”

“During the mating howl when Leviathan called to you, your whole wolf started glowing blue, dude. Like bright AF,” Flora responds.

“Nobody told me that. I didn’t see it. I mean Levi said my eyes changed when we… Uh, yeah. He said they turned blue and glowed though.”

I stumble on my words, feeling a blush rise to my cheeks.

“That makes sense,” Julia interjects.

“How?” I respond.

“I cannot tell you that. I will tell you the bluing of your mark has to do with your mother, but that is all I can tell you.”

“My mom was just an average she-wolf, and I never heard of her having a blue mark.”

“You know so little, Asa. Soon you will understand. And Flora, you need to stay at Asa’s side. It is your destiny.”

“Hello, Earth to Mom. Quit talking in riddles. Like nobody understands that shit anymore.”

Flora quickly ducks and covers her head, waiting for her mother to throw something else at her.

“You heard me, Flora.” Her voice darkens.

“You look just like Lilliana Alga. She would be proud to see you now.”

With those words, we are pulled out of the ritual and are sitting back in the library.