Chapter 26

King Carson “Why won’t you talk about this? Why haven’t we explored this option?!” Kelly yelled, trying to keep in step with me while also holding half a dozen books and scrolls.

“Kelly, it’s an old fable. Nothing more.” I said, continuing along. I was already late for a meeting with my Beta, Gamma, and Delta.

“Our ancestor King Wallace set off on this journey! Its not a fable!” She protested.

“Yes, and do you know what happened to him? He went on that journey and never came back. His son eventually got better, which is why our bloodline continued.” I barked.

“But that was so long ago! We have technology on our side! If we could just get a little more information, I think we could set out on a journey to retrieve-“

“No.” I stopped dead in my tracks, turning to face my overly ambitious daughter. “It is dangerous and pointless.”

“You don’t know that for a fact!” She yelled.

“But I do!” I roared back. “You don’t think I walked down every avenue to try and get my mates’ health back?! I read the scrolls, all of them, hundreds of times, Kelly. And you know what I found? Dead ends. But I pursued it none the less, when you were just a pup, before your sisters came along. I set out on the perilous journey and you want to know what happened? Dozens of my men were slaughtered in front of me by beings I never knew even existed. We never even found the first item. I lost more innocent lives than it was worth.”

Kelly stood there in stunned silence, her eyes welling up with tears.

“I know you want your mother to live a long and happy, healthy life. We all do. But chasing old fables is not the way. Not when you could be spending time with her during her last days. Let it go.”

“I don’t want to give up on her,” Kelly cried.

I sighed and pulled her in for a hug. “I know. But there is nothing more that we can do.”

– – – – – – – – –

Kelly He couldn’t be right. Everything else our ancestor King Wallace wrote was true. Why wouldn’t this be? He only made one attempt to find the rare items, and it was when he had a pup waiting for him back at home and a mate who was sick, but not that sick. Not like she is now. I refused to give up hope of finding a cure, and I refused to stop looking into this. So, I went to the next person I thought could be helpful in the matter.

“Hey Emmett, got a minute?” I asked.

“Come on in.” He smiled, happy to see me. Since my new medications were non-addictive, Emmett felt comfortable with giving me a month’s supply at a time as long as I checked in every month to make sure I was still doing well with it. So we don’t see each other as frequently these days. “What can I help you with?” He asked as I began dropping down all of the scrolls and books I had on the matter.

“I want you to read this and tell me what you think.” I said, handing him the scroll with the letter from my grandfather, the one written before his departure.

I watched him intently as he carefully read it over. His expression was unreadable, making me even more crazy.

“The moonflower is no myth.” He said, scooting away from his desk and going over to his bookcase. “But it is in fact the rarest plant out there.” He pulled out a tiny book with a broken spine that was covered in dust, flipping through the old pages. “Here.” He said showing me a picture of a flower. “This is the only recording I have of it.”

“It’s really real..” I said in awe, taking in the beautiful outline of the drawing of the flower. Under it was its name, and that was it. There was no other information.

“It is…and extremely hard to find, hence the lack of information.” He sighed. “I hope you aren’t having any wild ideas.”

“And if I am?” I asked, studying the page.

“I should warn you against it. It would be a dangerous journey.”

“It could save the queen.” I shrugged. “Your Luna, my mother.”

“Key word, could. There is no way of knowing if the elixir would work even if we were to gather all the ingredients and mix it perfectly.”

“But maybe you could do some research and find out?” I asked, batting my eyes at him.

“And then what? We leave to go on some perilous, deadly journey?”

“We?” I smirked.

“Well, there is no way I’d let you go alone, plus you probably don’t have any idea how to harvest the items. You need me.” He shrugged a bit cockily.

“Oh? Is that right?” I chuckled. “Well, if I were you, I would start doing some research.” I winked. “And speak of this to no one.”

“I have a feeling I’m going to regret this.” He yelled as I walked out of his office.

“Probably!” I yelled back.

Good, at least that was one person on my side. I knew I could trust Emmett to do the research. But what would happen after I had the information I wanted? My father obviously wasn’t going to be on the elixir quest train. Emmett seemed willing, but how willing would he be after doing some digging on the old fable? And then what? I may or may not have a willing participant on this journey, while my father and all of his warriors try to stop me? Two people against the world? I knew I couldn’t bring many people, but I would need a few others.

So, there I was, looking for Thorin. If I was going to go on a dangerous journey, he would be the one I wanted by my side. He taught me everything I knew and put me on my a*s more than once. And I was an Alpha, that should say something. Thorin was a walking lethal weapon.

“Thorin?” I called out.

“Da?” He called back from behind me, making me jump.

“If I wanted to go away, at like the drop of a dime, without being stopped by my father’s army, how might I do that?” I vaguely asked.

“You kill the boyfriend again?”

“No!” I huffed. “I might have found a way to save my mother. But its probably stupidly dangerous and I already know my father doesn’t approve.”

“I have the plane, we take that.” He shrugged, as if it were old news.

“You have a plane? Since when?”

“How do you think I arrived here from Russia?” He let out a long belly laugh.

“How many can it fit?”

“Only four.”

“Perfect.”

“When do we leave?” He asked.

“I’m not sure, but soon. My mother’s health is going downhill fast.” I frowned.

“I will see that plane is up and running with the spit shine.”

“Thanks Thorin,” I said, giving him a peck on the cheek before heading off to my next and final destination.

– – – – – – – –

“Jonas, my good old friend who never disappoints…” I began.

“Uh-oh. What do you need?” He laughed, eating his lunch under our favorite tree while studying.

I snatched half his sandwich, flopping down next to him, completely disrupting his once tranquil learning space.

“I think I might do something really stupid soon, and I would like your help,” I said, taking a bite of the ham and turkey sandwich.

“Sure.” He shrugged, his attention returning to his lunch.

“That easy?” I laughed.

“I mean, you’ll owe me half a sandwich, but you know I’m always down for anything with you.”

“It might be the perfect opportunity for you to practice diplomacy.” I shrugged, gaining his interest.

“Tell me more.” He said, his mouth full of food.

“Well, I found this old scroll…”

I filled Jonas in on the whole situation, and he seemed quite interested. I think. There were a ton of questions I couldn’t answer, lots of hypotheticals, and even more what if’s. I had no clue when I would set out on this journey, if I would even set out on it. I mean, technically, I was supposed to become Dereks queen soon. I don’t know how he would feel about the situation, but as his Luna, he couldn’t technically tell me no. My father, being my king, could technically use his alpha command to tell me no and I would have to listen. I was going to keep all of this under wraps though until I had more information. Maybe my honeymoon will be spent searching for ingredients. How romantic. No matter. If it meant saving my mother’s life, I was willing to do it.