"Within a blink, she was gone and I was left behind."
Sunlight flooded through the windows and fell on Xavier's face. He frowned and rubbed his eyes. With a yawn and a deep groan, he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Selena lying beside him.
She was facing away from him as he hugged her from behind. Her steady breaths sounded like purrs to his ears and a small smile graced Xavier's lips when he noticed the skin of her back almost glowing under the skin.
He remembered how smooth the skin felt under his hands last night and leaned in to lay a gentle kiss on her shoulder.
'Well, I am pretty sure she is tired after the rigorous workout.'
Xavier smirked on hearing his wolf and his eyes fell on the midnight blue mark on her neck. The bite mark was healed now, accompanied by a small picture of the side profile of a howling Zion.
He smirked and rested his chin on her shoulder lightly. Softly kissing on her shoulder again, he got up carefully, trying not to wake her up. Once he was out of bed, he hurried to stand in front of the mirror. There on his neck was his mate's mark, and the picture of Izzy just as Xavier had expected. What shocked him was the mark was purple in colour.
The tattoo of the marks depended a lot on the strength of the werewolves too. The howling side profile usually referred to the strongest wolves. The mark of the betas, gammas and very strong warriors often varied between the front profile of the wolves with their hackles raised and the tattoo of the teeth and fangs. If a wolf suddenly gained a lot of strength, its mating mark might change too, but both the wolf and the mate will be able to feel it.
"I am guessing this has to do with her witch."
With a single nod to acknowledge his wolf, Xavier went back to the bed and sat down on the side which Selena was facing. He softly caressed her face with his fingers, and his fingers slowly went down to the mark, appreciating it, when Selena slightly shivered.
Xavier instantly moved his hand back, not wanting to wake her up. He had forgotten that was a sensitive spot.
The girl groaned and opened her eyes. She smiled first, but then she groaned.
"Hey," Xavier kissed the side of her head, "You okay?"
"Pain..." she groaned and curled in, "Cold and Pain."
"Maybe both of them have to do with the fact that you are naked?" Xavier smirked.
Selena's eyes widened.
Xavier chuckled but it didn't last long as Selena hurried to stand up but her legs crumbled under her and Xavier had to hold her up.
She groaned again, and leaned her head on Xavier's chest, "We mated."
"We did..."
Selena never, NEVER, imagined that she'd be one to be shy, "I can't walk."
"Just wait a second before you try again." Xavier rubbed her back.
Selena sighed and waited for a second. She looked up at his face and leaned up to kiss him. Her eyes now fell on the mark.
"Do you like it?" She asked hesitantly.
"I love it. Do you wanna see yours?"
When she nodded, they both walked to the front of the mirror. Xavier lowered the blanket which Selena had wrapped around her. He lowered them on both sides, revealing her neck and her shoulders.
As Selena looked at her mark in wonder, Xavier wrapped one of his hands around her chest, and one around her waist. He kissed the other shoulder and Selena closed her eyes in pleasure.
"I love it."
Selena turned around and after getting her hands out of the blanket, she wrapped them around him.
"I love you."
Xavier froze. He thought about it, what it would be like to be at the receiving end of her love. He had been waiting to hear this from her but...
He pulled back and placed both his hands on her cheeks. Selena could see the tears in his eyes but remained quiet, "Are you serious?"
She chuckled, "I have loved you since our first date."
Xavier looked at her as like she had lost her mind.
"After everything that I put you through..."
"Even with all which happened in between, I wouldn't be here if I didn't love you. As alphas, there are a lot of things we have to do even if we don't want to."
Xavier nodded.
"They hurt, but I understand, and I forgive you."
Xavier chuckled but Selena could see the single tear that rolled down his cheeks. She got on her toes and kissed him.
The blanket slid down her body as Xavier wrapped his arms around her tightly, kissing her back with equal enthusiasm.
"I love you," she mumbled in between the kisses.
Xavier sighed, "Let's just pause this one day and stay here.
Selena kissed him one last time, "I'd love that too, except that Lorcan has a few questions to answer."
Saying this she escaped to the shower. Xavier walked her hips sway as she walked away and just as she closed the door he groaned and fell backwards on the bed.
____|~.~|____
"There is still so much that makes no sense."
Lorcan nodded.
Selena, Lorcan and Connor were now sitting in Xavier's office.
"Ask me, and I'll tell you."
"My grandmother's the queen of the witches, my mom's dead, my aunt is a prisoner."
Lorcan nodded.
Selena shook her head, "How did it get so bad?"
He shook his head, "Marcella was secretly in touch with Robert all the while... how long do you think she could have hidden it?"
Selena quietly let him continue.
"When Irene found out, she was frantic. Marcella knew that her secret was out, so she fled to Robert. A few months after the incident, some witches hired by Irene ambushed Robert and Marcella. They brought them back to the empire as captives. She wanted to do a lot worse, her worse fear being that the wolf saw an opportunity to hurt her daughter for her mother's part in the fall of the werewolf king and is lying about being mates."
"She really hated the wolves."
"You gotta understand that the last werewolf king was the only werewolf Irene had seen up close, and he was a tyrant."
"Then what happened?" Selena asked after a moment of silence.
"Irene couldn't do anything because she didn't want to hurt Marcella. But she wasn't ready to risk her empire. So she told her that she could only be with Robert if she gave up her power and if they aged faster than normal werewolves."
"If she gave up her power then how am I sitting here with a witch inside my head?"
"It doesn't matter if she lost her power. You are the daughter of the Royal Coven. Of course you have powers!"
A knock sounded on the door and Roy walked in, "Um sorry to interrupt, I thought Alpha would be here..."
"He is in the training grounds," Selena informed him.
"Thank you, Luna," he said and left.
"So what happened then?"
Lorcan breathed, "They returned after she gave away her powers. Irene had used her magic on them to increase their ageing speed. By that time Robert was already the alpha. They had no idea how much they had fastened their ageing speed so they already started trying for kids."
"Okay, that's not something I wanna know..."
"But they found out that they couldn't... for a long time, until Connor happened, years later, it was a surprise. And after Connor, they weren't even trying. You, Leah and Sam were all surprises."
"That's great to know."
"That doesn't mean they loved you any less."
"I know."
Lorcan stood up and knelt down in front of her on one knee. He lowered his head and one of his hands was fisted across his chest.
"Lorcan what the hell!"
He smirked and looked up, "Your coven knows that you have received your power. They felt it the moment you first used magic. Technically, you still are their next queen and they will be coming for you."
"Please stand up. I am a wolf. I am an Alpha. I don't care if I have magic, I don't care if I..."
"Selena. Selena Nigelia Genevieve Wilson. That is your name. You are a queen. You are born to lead a whole species, and the fact that you were born as a werewolf and mated to a werewolf alpha means that you absolutely can lead them while being a werewolf."
"Genevieve is my middle name." Selena chuckled confused.
"No, princess. Genevieve is your mother's surname. Your middle name is Nigelia. You were born a queen. And I have seen enough to know that you can excel at it."
Lorcan stood up and took her hand in his to place a kiss on it. He turned around to leave only to be stopped by her again.
"Wait, Lorcan. How do you know so much?"
Lorcan gave a sad smile, "I was their friend." Selena's eyes slightly widened, "It was me who was with them when they met their mates."
"You know a whole lot more than someone who was just a friend, especially since they were royals," Selena said without missing a beat.
Lorcan froze. He turned around and looked at her with a poker face.
"What are you not telling me, Lorcan?"
"I told you everything that you need to know."
"But you still kept out something."
"It is none of your business."
"Damn right it is. It is my family, people I didn't even know existed and I am getting to know about them from you. So every little bit of information you have on them is my business. So tell me. Now."
Her eyes glowed violet, making the man gasped inaudibly.
Lorcan just stared at those eyes, those same eyes that had won over him years ago.
"I am the son of the advisor of the Queen of the Royal Coven," he blurted out, "I was in love with Marcella. It was all decided. We would marry and rule the Royal Coven. Then Robert came around. Within a blink, she was gone and I was left behind. I was the guy who created the opportunities for them to go meet the men they love. I helped them both in running, and then I had to run too. I am not allowed in that Coven anymore." Lorcan chuckled, "I loved her more than anything."
For a minute, neither Selena nor Connor knew what to say. Lorcan didn't look at them but they could both feel the painful aura coming from Lorcan.
"I am sorry you had to go through that," she whispered, now thinking she should have just let it go.
He smiled, "You not only look like her but your personality is also exactly like hers. She needed to know everything as well."
Selena looked down awkwardly, "You knew her pretty well."
"She was my best friend princess, and she was my first love." Lorcan saw her eyes again which had now turned back into their normal colour, "Okay enough. You might be my queen but you are still a kid, go cuddle up against your mate. I am gonna go meet my lover."
"Why don't you ever bring her here?" Selena asked.
"Because there is a war brewing, and I want her alive. I cannot lose her."
Selena nodded with understanding but before she could say anything, he spoke again, "Also, Lila was not actually Jayce's mate, she was sent there, under a spell by Irene to lay a trap. Jayce didn't make a mistake, he was just a victim, a pawn in your grandmother's game."
Before Selena could say another word, Lorcan was gone.
"How many more cheap tricks do they have under their sleeves?" she grumbled.
Selena looked at Connor, almost forgetting that he was there.
"You were awfully quiet," she pointed out.
"Are we okay?" he asked abruptly, shocking Selena.
"What?"
"Are you still upset that I didn't tell you sooner?"
Selena sighed, "Not anymore, they made you promise. It's okay, big bro."
He sighed and hugged her, she held him back.
"You reek of him."
Selena hit his back making him laugh.
"Fun night I see."
"Shut up."
Xavier on the other hand was just done with training.
He and Jayce were sitting side by side as the others were just packing up.
"You are in quite a good shape. It's great to have you with us," Xavier praised.
"Thank you, Alpha." Xavier nodded, after a few seconds pause, Jayce couldn't help but ask, "Is she okay?"
Xavier sighed, "It was obviously a shock, but she is talking to Lorcan currently."
"I just... I want to make them pay."
Xavier looked at the man beside him and his burning eyes.
"The hunters, they have taken so much from us. I don't care if it was the witches who set them up. They have a conscience, they can decide what's good or bad. I need to see them pay."
"Xavier nodded, "They will."
"God knows what they did to her."
Xavier froze.
This was a conversation they hadn't had yet. He turned to the side and looked at Jayce.
"I never asked."
Jayce looked at the alpha bewildered, "How could you not ask her? If it was my mate, I would have died if I didn't know what happened."
Xavier scoffed, "No you wouldn't have. You would have seen how even the mere mention of those creatures terrified her, and you would have reigned in your need to know, even if you were dying to confirm that all the worse things that are coming to your mind didn't actually happen to her, that you are just being paranoid."
"I am sorry I didn't mean to..."
Xavier shook his head with a small smile, "You were her best friend, I understand where you are coming from. But I saw how terrified she looked, I didn't want her to go through those memories again only because I needed to know what happened."
Jayce nodded, "I understand."
Xavier stood up, "Also, I don't want to intrude, and I am not sure what is going on within you and my brother, but don't make assumptions which will ruin your relationship."
With this, Xavier walked back to the packhouse, leaving Jayce with his eyes wide. He went straight to their room only to find Selena already there.
He walked in slowly and dropped his sweaty t-shirt in the laundry basket, "You didn't come to training."
"Lorcan was my mom's boyfriend before mom met dad. He was the closest person to my mother." She scoffed in disbelief.
"That's... Wow," Xavier blinked, "Marcella was his first true love? The one he couldn't shut up about?"
"Also, we have decided to meet tomorrow, he will teach me how to control and use my magic, everything I need to learn."
"That's nice," Xavier muttered. Selena was still in her thoughts, looking out the woods, and Xavier had his eyes on her.
What all did she had to go through to be as terrified as she is of them? She might not openly show it but now that they had mated, Xavier could feel how terrified she was even if she was acting brave. He, however, had no access to the memories of the hunters as she had locked them up very deep inside her mind.
He breathed in and moved to enter the shower. He knew how Max and Leon looked from the video as well as from when Leon had ambushed him, Evelyn and Aiden. He took off his sweats and stepped into the shower naked. Turning it on, he let the warm water wash down his back.
Did they beat her up? Of course they did, Ryan had told him all about it.
Did they touch her...
He sighed and rubbed his face. He couldn't take one more second of the images of all the possibly horrible things that they might have done to her, and with the type of notes Leon keeps sending for her, it doesn't seem too off.
Hands wrapped around his waist from his back.
Zion huffed in relief on smelling his mate right there with him and Xavier felt it too.
"If you want I can tell you about it."
He turned to look at her in surprise. She was fully clothed right in front of him, standing under the spray of the water, her eyes slightly red.
"The bond, I could hear your thoughts." Xavier was going to deny but Selena stopped him, "It's okay, you should know. At least don't let all those horrible thoughts plague your mind."
"Oh goddess, babe I am so sorry I didn't mean to..."
Selena shook her head, "I am fine."
Xavierlooked at her only for a second before wrapping his hands around her, wonderinghow much about the images in his head she saw.