Page 31 of Protecting His Treasure

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Lying flat on his back, Kaede stared up at the night sky.

Does the test have to take place outside in the cold?

Kaede ignored his dragon’s question. He didn’t want to be outside either. But he wasn’t complaining. He was willing to try anything to keep his mate safe. But he had to admit, he’d had no idea the test would involve him lying on the snow-covered ground, half naked, with the Elders standing around him in a circle chanting.

Shoeless and shirtless, Kaede listening to the Elders’ words. Before they’d started chanting, they had him remove his shirt and shoes and lie down in the clearing in the forest. They’d then used a stick to draw a circle around him and told him that whatever happened, not to leave the circle until they told him to.

Now they were chanting as they circled him, coming just shy of touching the circle they’d drawn around him. In their hands, they each held a clear bottle of some kind of liquid. The liquid in each of the bottles were different colors. One bottle had red liquid in it, the other black, the other clear and the other green.

When he’d asked them why the liquid was different colors, their reply was, “You’ll understand when it’s time.”

I don’t like how I’m starting to feel.

Kaede yawned. He was starting to feel drowsy. His body felt like it was getting heavier. It was a strange sensation. As if the ground was bowing underneath his weight. The Elders began chanting faster. Kaede felt like he was spinning in a circle. He wanted to sit up. He tried to sit up.

It felt as if something large and heavy was pressing against his chest, forcing him to remain lying down. A wave of nausea washed over him. Kaede closed his eyes. But that didn’t stop him from seeing. However, his scenery had changed. No longer was he staring up at the night sky of the Frostlands.

He was now staring down at a puddle of blood. He quickly opened his eyes. But the vision before him remained the same. He was staring down at a puddle of blood. What the fuck was happening? His hands raised. But he wasn’t the one moving them. Kaede stared down at his blood-stained hands.

Why the hell were his hands bloody and why couldn’t he control his body. This had to be a dream. A nightmare. Kaede fought to wake up. Then the sound of Elder Thompson’s voice drifted into his dream.

“Stop fighting it Kaede. This is the test. You must relive this night if you hope to beat the curse of the first full moon. Don’t fight it. Let it guide you. Let it show you why you’re having a hard time telling the difference from love and hate, pleasure and pain.”

This wasn’t a dream. This was a test.

“You hear that, dragon?” Kaede said to his beast. There was no response. “Dragon.”

“Relax, Kaede,” Elder Henry called out from somewhere in the recesses of his mind. “We will pour the green oil and it will take you back to where this all started.”

The green oil?

“It will take you back to the moment where a fit of jealousy sealed your fate.”

Green for jealousy. That made sense. All of a sudden that nauseous feeling returned and Kaede once again felt like he was spinning out of control.

“Don’t fight it,” Elder Henry called out. “You are not alone. We are with you.”

He felt alone. He couldn’t feel his dragon. He could hear the Elders, but he couldn’t see them. The scene before him was a blur as he spun wildly, arms flailing as he tried to reach for something to hold on to, anything to hold on to. All he felt was emptiness and despair. Then just as suddenly as the spinning began, it stopped.

The clouds of confusion faded away and the scene before him became clear. He knew exactly where he was. He remembered this place, this day. It was forever etched into his memory as the worse day of his life. Before him stood the Temple of Alphas, the most scared place in his village.

It was where the shifters of his den came to pray. They prayed to the alphas of old. Those who’d loss their lives in battle. His people believed that the alphas of old would deliver their prayers to the gods. In this holy place was where Kaede had always felt most connected to his ancestors.

It was also in this holy place, where Kaede was force to sever that connection with his ancestors. This was the one place he didn’t want to be. The one place he couldn’t be. Not until he proved to his den that he wasn’t the traitor they thought him to be. Kaede tried to take a step back, but found that he was not in control of his body.

Instead of moving backward as he’d wanted, he strode forward, heading straight for the Temple of Alphas. The sun shined brightly. It was a beautiful day. A perfect day for a new alpha to be initiated. Wait… those weren’t his thoughts. Well, they were his thoughts. Just not the ones he were thinking right now.

They were the thoughts of the old him. The him from sixty years ago. Shit. Kaede fought to wake up. Yet, his body continued heading forward. He was just a passenger in his own mind. All he could do was watch the vision unfold. He couldn’t control it. He couldn’t alter the outcome.

“How can reliving this day help me?” Kaede called out. No one answered. “Dragon. Dragon are you there?” Nothing. He was alone. Again. Shit.

“Kaede.”

He stopped. Not this him. The old him. Kaede turned around. There stood Onaku. Anger and rage filled him. This him. Not the old him. The old him smiled. And though the new him tried to prevent the old him from repeating his past mistakes, the old him still stepped forward. The scene unfolded now in the same manner it had sixty years ago.

He was about to relive the day his parents died.