Chapter 14

I crossed my legs on the soft leather settling in as Damian sat next to me, his legs sliding under my knees. “Allianna is coming, she can probably fill in some gaps” Nicos leant back. “So, you’ve met our lovely overlords?”

“Overlords?”

“Yes,” Damian responded as he rubbed his face. “The Fae,” he shuffled on the sofa a little just as Allianna strolled in, dropping herself down into the sofa to sit next to Nicos. “Should have expected them really. Are you OK?” She directed the question to me.

“Fine… I just want to know who they are,” she nodded and cleared her throat.

“I’ll start at the beginning. The Fae are an ancient race filled with magic and tricks. They enjoy stirring up trouble particularly when we’re involved. They used to only live amongst the trees, their magic is strongest there. But humans began living there too, making the Fae retreat. They didn’t want to be discovered. They did a good job, there were legends of them of course but they always seemed to come up squeaky clean in those tales.

“We were searching for boar in the forest, it was close to the midsummer feast so we wanted something special for our village, and what better than Wild Boar? But we slipped into Fae lands unknowingly, we didn’t even know they existed!” Allianna sat forward but Nicos took over.

“We were tracking the boars, we had found their prints. I felt something odd, a bit like going through a waterfall… but there was none there. I thought nothing of it and we pushed on following the tracks. I heard a bird… it wasn’t a bird. We were stopped by spears against our necks. I panicked and instantly started fighting, not even noticing who I was punching. When I got a spear off one of them and used it against them, when I looked down I noticed the wings and looked to Damian and Allianna who had also fought. There had only been three of them but they all had thin clear wings.”

“I suggested to turn back, cut our losses,” Alliana interjected.

“I suggested to find out who the hell they were.” Damian’s voice rumbled. “So… we did, we went deeper into the forest keeping on alert but after ten minutes we were captured… we hadn’t seen or heard them. It was like they just appeared around us, we were bound and led to a clearing. Archimedes was waiting. He did something to us and said he needed an army. It was like everything he said I wanted too. They’re tricksters Eva, they play mind games. But we didn’t realise at the time. He said our strength at killing his people had to be punished and rewarded.”

Nicos interjected “So he gave us the reward of strength and immortality. But the punishment was we were servants to the moon. Every full moon we would shift into mindless beasts and we would be alone… we would see everyone around us die, usually by our own hands.”

“He didn’t actually tell us that though… he just said we would be immortal and have the power of the wolf,” Damian interrupted.

“But… you can turn others… you can have mates?” Something wasn’t clicking for me in that part

“I’m getting there,” Nicos responded, a note of irritation and being interrupted. “We agreed without realising what we were agreeing to. He had addled our minds and made us susceptible to his demands. We don’t actually remember what happened next… we lost three days and awoke hundreds of miles from our village. All we know… the Fae had changed us. Like they had said, we were stronger, invincible. But as we found out on the next full moon… we changed. We turned into wolves with no control.”

“We killed our family...” Allianna stated sadly “We killed everyone.” A tear silently slid down her cheek “Apart from one,” Damian shifted again, “Peta somehow survived, we found him badly injured and we prayed for him… we prayed to the moon because the moon seemed to be controlling us. We had no memories when we were wolves… our human minds were gone. Something strange happened. A woman appeared dressed in a glowing white dress… somehow… we knew she was the Moon. The Moon Goddess.”

Nicos interrupted “She said that the Fae had tricked her too, she was angry. Furious that they wanted revenge on the humans for doing nothing but living. She said we shouldn’t be a servant to anyone but she could only do so much due to the Fae’s trickery. She allowed us the ability to bite humans and turn them. She gave us the ability to make others immortal with our venom. Those turned could turn others. But they would not be able to make them immortal… only we had that power… the three of us.”

“What couldn’t she undo?” I asked quietly

“Infertility,” Damian growled, “The Fae had somehow destroyed our ability to have children. The Moon said that their magic was too strong, and it even passed on to those we bit… the price of immortality is no offspring… ever,” I looked up to him, my mind working out what he had just said

“Wait… anyone you’ve bitten? I… we?… No pups?” I blinked at him wanting him to deny it.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed. I looked away. I couldn’t have children? I would never bring a pup into the world? Tears sprung into my eyes “Why didn’t you… how could you not have told me that?” I scooted away from Damian so he wasn’t touching me “How could you take that away from me?” A tear broke through the barrier of my eyelid.

I wasn’t sure if I was angry or upset, but I began to shake as I clenched my hands, my nails cutting into my palms

“Darling, I’m sorry… I… you’re my mate, I wanted you.”

“But I can’t have pups? I can never be a mum!” I stood from the sofa “How could you?!” I screamed and I ran, I couldn’t look at him. How could he have bitten me knowing I then could never have pups? How dare he without telling me?

I ran to the bedroom slamming the door behind me. Then went to the bathroom, locking the door. I slid down the door and cried… I sobbed into my knees feeling like something had been ripped from me. Sure I hadn’t thought to have Damian’s pups straight away. It had fluttered in my subconscious, thinking how beautiful our pups would be.

“Eva open the door,” Damian knocked softly

“No! Go away!”

“I want to talk about it,” he said gently

“There’s nothing to talk about! I can’t have your pups! End of story.” I heard him sigh then his footsteps across the rug. A fresh wave of tears racked my body with sobs. I needed my wolf but she had buried herself deep within my mind behind a very big wall… she was upset. She had always dreamt of having pups, always thought she would teach them how to weave between the trees.

My tears dried up so I crawled further into the bathroom, the door was safely locked. I didn't want to be disturbed, I needed to work it out alone, my wolf wished to mourn, and to an extent, I suppose I did too.

I began twisting knobs trying to turn on the bath. I accidentally turned the shower on… didn’t realise there was a control out of the shower. After a few tries, I found the hot dial which poured fresh clean water into the bathtub. I added bubble bath and before I knew it the tub was full. I stripped and slid into the scalding water.