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“Thank god,” I groaned as I pushed my book away and stood. My muscles protested as I stretched them out. Apparently it’d been longer than I realized since I last stood up. My point was further proven by the fact that Leven, Perseus, and Callum were all missing for the room. “Where is everyone?”
Nyx snorted. “I was going to ask you the same question.”
“Well it appears when Vanya reads, she tunes out the world,” Perseus teased as he walked out of the back hall to join us. “We’ll eat in the conference room.”
By eat, he definitely meant they’d be drinking. Because apparently blood is all they consume to survive. I almost felt bad that we were eating takeout in front of them every day but neither of them had complained. I would have pitched a huge fit if I could only drink liquid and never got to bite into a juicy burger again. But I guess things change when you have literal centuries to get used to it.
“There you are,” Leven said when I walked in. “Look what we found.”
“You could have shaken me out of it if I wasn’t responding,” I grumbled. My cheeks flared with heat at the fact they’d all tried and failed to get my attention. Meira used to yell at me for ignoring her when I read. It was never intentional, I just got lost in my own little world. Of course if it’s a fantasy or paranormal book it’s even easier. Research is a different level but the book I had was really interesting. “And I have something to share too.”
“Food first,” Callum demanded. Nyx distributed the giant Styrofoam cups of blood to the vampires before handing out our to-go containers and bottled drinks. After almost grabbing the wrong cup the first night, Leven put a rule in place we only drink bottled sodas and waters so we could see what the contents were.
“You can eat and listen,” I countered. He raised an eyebrow at me ignoring his orders but was too busy stuffing a cheesesteak sandwich in his face to complain. Vince knew all the local eateries despite not actually eating. “So I took a different approach today and found a book about our kind. It discusses how we were theorized to be formed, but I’m not going into a debate on if there’s a Moon God or whatever. What was more interesting was some of the traditions that were forgotten over time. Our kind actually has fated mates.”
“What?” Callum asked with a laugh. “That’s just folklore shit.”
“Garren used to talk about it,” Leven countered. “It was an old legend about the Moon God falling in love with the Mother of Wolves. They were a pair tied in fate and she bestowed the gift among their children, the wolf shifters. He explained the loss as us forgetting our roots, ignoring our elders, and letting pride rule our packs.”
“He’s not far off,” I admitted. “Apparently mates started as chosen and underwent a ceremony with only the elders present. It was rare but some pairings were blessed by the gods and it changed them.”
“Changed them how?” Nyx asked. He was leaning forward and hanging onto my words, his food left ignored. Being in the archives was his dream vacation and he’d literally spent more hours than any of us theorizing and reading like a madman. Full nerd mode was engaged, and I was living for his passion. He’d get excited and talk with his hands, explaining everything he just read with enough enthusiasm that it made it interesting.
“Their senses sharpened, their bond allowed them to speak in their minds, and it bound them together as a full pack, a true pack,” I explained. Now that I knew it was a real thing I couldn’t help but wonder if they would be my fated mates. Would they even want to try? “It apparently happened for alphas more often than not and among groupings like ours.”
“Groups such as this were much more common in your history. But as Leven explained, pride wouldn’t allow it for most wolves. They forgot leadership and ruled by fear and pain,” Ophir said in a melancholy voice. It must have been hard to know how things were intended to be and how far we strayed from those paths. To see species after species fall at the hands of their leaders until they dwindled away to nothing.
“Did species ever mix?” Nyx asked. He sounded so hungry for the answer that Leven grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back down in his seat when he started to rise.
“Down boy,” Leven joked and Nyx flushed and sent him a glare. But even then he only looked away from the vampires for a moment.
“Oh, all the time,” Ophir said. “Vince, for example, is a byproduct of a witch and vampire.”
“That explains the amazing food recommendations,” Callum said as he sat back and patted his belly. His box was now empty and I hadn’t even started mine. Meeting his eyes, I pulled mine closer, not letting him snatch it away before I had the chance. He laughed but at least didn’t grab it this time.
“Yes.” Perseus chuckled. “He both eats food and drinks blood. Best of both worlds I suppose since blood gives us our strength and longevity.”
“Wait. I thought vampires couldn’t breed,” Nyx said. I choked on my first bite of food at his word choice and Leven shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Ophir and Perseus didn’t seem fazed in the least.
“Not with each other and we can’t make more vampires, necessarily. But if a vampire mates within their first year with a species outside of our own, it is rare, but possible,” Ophir explained. “He doesn’t have the same restrictions as we do, like avoiding the sun, but he also isn’t as strong as we are.”
“Interesting,” Nyx said. Callum apparently had enough and pushed Nyx’s food toward him and gave me a pointed look. We both started to eat, giving the others a chance to explain their own findings.
“We think that they are forcing bonds with the witches,” Perseus said without warning, cutting right to the point. I blinked at him for a moment as I processed it.
“Like the mating bonds I was reading about?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, not really. That’s a ceremony for wolves to find their fated partners and solidify a pack bond. This is a bond between two people. It’s not easy finding a compatible match between a wolf and a witch, but when magic is involved, anything is possible. When witches find their mates they do a binding of sorts, tying those two together until one of them chooses to break it and even then it is not an easy thing to break. But it would explain how the wolves have the magic at their hands to achieve what they are.” The idea of it sparked my interest and I tucked the information away for later, when we didn’t have eyes on us.
“But I don’t think the tracker had a mate, he used trinkets and runes to use his magic,” I explained.
“You also mentioned that he worked as more of a freelance mercenary; he probably was gifted those items as payments and gets the charms renewed each delivery he makes,” Ophir explained. Anger laced his words. It was sick to think of them just imprisoning women and witches alike, keeping them bound and spelled into submission like animals.
“Is the dark witch by the Grave Alpha’s side?” Callum asked.
Ophir nodded. “Unfortunately yes. I believe they are working together. They seem to have similar ambitions that drive them.”
“So what does he gain by separating his wolves like this?” I questioned. “It thins out his soldiers.”
