I heard a loud gasp from the other end of the phone.
"What!? Are you serious!?... Martha is– is dead!?... Miranda killed Martha!?..." Uncle Knox continues to mutter exclamations of disbelief. I refused to say another word to help convince him further.
Yes, his friend's daughter is that evil! He can either take my wo rd for it or believe whatever he chooses to believe.
He continued talking when he didn't hear me say another word. His tone changed from disbelief to anger...
"Oh god, no! Not poor Martha! But why the hell would Miranda do that!? Why? Martha was such a good woman. Why would she kill her!?...
I don't understand. What happened to that girl? She was such a sweet little girl back then the last time we had them over for dinner. She was vain, yes but she was sweet. What happened to her? Why did she suddenly turn evil? She's just eighteen for goodness sake! How could the heart of an eighteen year old girl be that dark and evil!? How!?..."
I sigh in exasperation. God knows I don't have the time and patience to listen to him tell me over and over about how sweet Miranda used to be before she turned evil. Shit happens. The world we live in is full of evil humans and shifters alike who would do unimaginable things to survive.
As old as he is and for a man who had worked almost half his life as a Council investigator, I believed he should have seen it all. Nothing should be this surprising to him anymore.
Well, I don't know, maybe he reacted that way because Miranda is a girl he knew from when she was a baby or I'm just expecting too much from the old wolf because of the way we were trained to be cold and emotionless when faced with difficult situations. Whichever it is even though I don't have the time to be unnecessarily chatty with him, I remain calm and listen to him talk.
"You know what Eric?..."
"Yes, Uncle?..."
"I don't think Miranda alone is capable of all this evil she's doing. No, I strongly believe she's not. Someone is behind this, manipulating her to do all this evil. Otherwise, where would she get the mind to murder an innocent woman? A human at that!? When she knew quite alright that this could mean war between the shifters and humans.
I'm sure she knew quite alright that being an Alpha's daughter doesn't excuse her from being charged with murder! The girl I know wouldn't risk such if the people backing her hadn't assured her she would get away with anything.
And another thing I know for sure is that her parents knew nothing about this. Nate is a good man and Raina– she might be the aloof kind of person– she's a very good woman all the same.
"Hmm, okay. So who do you think is behind her? Do you have any idea?"
"Do I have any idea!?" He repeats with a snort.
"Eric, the only shifter I know that had a grudge against me and is evil enough to mastermind this is Evelyn and her House Denton...
You know, back then, I always wondered, 'How can I hate Evelyn so much and still be attracted to her essence?' It had always been a mystery to me until now. There's indeed a similarity between my situation with Viveka back then and what Thor and his mate are going through right now.
I can't help but nod in agreement even when he can't see me.
He pauses and says after a while
"I think I now know when this whole conspiracy started."
"You do?..." I asked in surprise. My interest is piqued. Now I'm eager to hear what he just remembered.
"Yes, I do. I think the Dentons have always known the chosen one would likely come from my family. Like I knew it would since I was a teenager.
"You've known since that long!?..."
"Yes... My father told me his dad, my grandfather once told him about a seer he happened upon that prophesied to him that one of the chosen offspring would come from the Quinn family. My grandad never believed of course, for two reasons...
He thought the seer was speaking nonsense. According to him, the seer was in a drunken state when he met with my granddad so he felt the seer didn't know what he was talking about.
The second reason was that the Quinn family were ordinary shifters who were just lucky to have amassed great wealth through businesses and investments. He never believed his family could produce a chosen offspring when we're not Original. I never believed myself."
I'm surprised indeed
"I never would've believed you knew. You were in shock and had a heart attack when I mentioned Thor is an original..."
"Yes because like my father I never took it seriously until Viveka and I fell in love and she told me the truth about her family. Then I fervently prayed and offered sacrifices to Moon goddess against the prophecy coming to pass. Praying for her to give the honor to a more worthy family."
"A more worthy family?" I ask in disbelief, surprised to hear him speak so little about his family. "Uncle Knox, which other family is more worthy than the Quinns? Your family controls the largest pack in North America! What was your definition of worthy back then?"
He sighs deeply
"It's not only about the wealth and being the largest pack for me, Eric. I've seen enough of what House Denton is capable of to not want any of my offspring locking horns with them. If aiming to see my son grow old and give me grandchildren means I'm a coward then, I am a coward.
Aside from that, I had Elias watching Thor for me. When the mark didn't appear on him the moment he turned eighteen, I was glad and gave up on him being among the chosen ones..."
As I continue to listen to him talk, I start to deeply think about what he said about the mark not appearing on Thor when he turned eighteen. I've seen Thor bathe many times before and the mark wasn't on him then. Why did it suddenly appear now?...
As I wonder about that, my hand drifts up to my temple to massage it because of the dull ache I'm beginning to feel there and at the base of my neck. I put my phone on speaker mode and placed it on the table before me so I would be able to massage myself properly.
To be able to concentrate on what Uncle Knox is saying, I push the thought of Thor's mark to the back of my mind in the meantime. I will consider it later.
"If house Denton knew about the prophecy of the chosen offspring that would restore the glory of their various houses. If they knew about Thor being one of the offspring then I'm very sure they knew about Viveka being a first generation offspring the moment they saw we loved each other.
The more I talked to you about this, the more I'm convinced that all this mess started with my grandad. He must have told someone else apart from his son about what the drunk seer told him that day since he never took it seriously.
And... I think your Aunt Viveka is my one true mate, Eric. I think because of this information that my granddad must have shared with the wrong person, House Denton did something to me so I would not be able to recognize my mate and she wouldn't be able to recognize me, all in a bid to prevent the chosen one from being born through us– but love still prevail..."