Killian cursed for what was probably the hundredth time in that morning alone, maybe the thousandth, even.
Damn humans and their many festivals!
Everywhere was blocked to maximum, a real human traffic all around as naked men ran around, lashing elite, proper women of the ton… women of rank with shaggy thongs, simply because they had been foolish enough to believe that they who were barren would become fertile, and they who had managed to make it to pregnancy would have a safe delivery if struck, courtesy of some silly Lupercalian belief.
If that wasn’t one of the craziest things Killian had ever heard, he didn’t know what else was.
It was almost eight am, almost six hours after he had discovered than Kendra had snuck out on her own, and the Alpha was worried… for anything could happen in that long period of time. As it was now he was just praying that she was safe, holding herself up like he believed she could. The thing was, even with that belief, he was still afraid that she’d do something drastic and get herself into trouble.
Killian pushed through the masses, desperate to make it to his mate, and for a moment, he contemplated going back for his horse, but that was only going to set him back even further, and so he pushed on.
He bumped so hard into one old woman in his haste that she went tumbling to the ground. The Alpha was quick to help her up, and at first the woman was going to express her gratitude, but when she looked up at him, all she said was, “May the Goddess be praised! We have found a wolf in person! Seize him!”
Killian looked on in horror as men from nowhere grabbed him by the arm. He tried his best to control his temper so he wouldn’t shift and prove the woman’s point even further.
“You must have gotten it all wrong, I am no wolf, woman,” he said to her, his tone leaving no room for argument.
Only that he had forgotten that over here, he was also just a man too, a lord, perhaps… but still a man nonetheless. His powerful looking gaze might have worked in another setting, but not in this festival-crazed one, and so all he got was a loud chuckle instead.
“You can’t fool me,” She snorted, and then signaling to the men holding him down, she said, “Drag him to the podium, because today, fate has decided to shine down on us. We shall finally be able to offer a live sacrifice to Februus!!!”
The crowd burst into cheers at his misfortune.
*****
Killian had honestly given up.
It was already over five hours since Kendra left, and in his state of hopelessness, he was willing to bet everything he had on him that she was most definitely dead by now.
Destiny was always so cruel, wasn’t it?
A day before, he had been on top of the world, thinking that he had been able to successfully outsmart Aphrodite’s plans concerning his life, but with the way things were going now, he didn’t even know anymore.
And you know the funny part?
He could have easily taken down the men who had dragged him up the podium… the very same men who were now tying him to a stake where he would be burnt alive as a living sacrifice for the Goddess, Februus. The Alpha wouldn’t even have needed to shift to be able to achieve such a feat, but someway somehow, something had held him back.
You know what that was?
He had lost the will to fight.
And what was the use? Fighting for a life that was not worth living for? He had lost his pack, and now he had lost the only person who could have made it all better… the only one who could put a smile on his face, who ebbed that feeling of emptiness and loneliness that had always been in him ever since he was a child, the very one that had driven his siblings, Adrian and Antigone to death by their own hands… his one and only best friend and mate.
He had nothing else to live for.
And so he watched silently, jaw clenching slightly as more firewood was brought and fixed to the stake. He bent his head, unable to bear the never ending jeers and chants and cries of jubilations, and at a point, he just tuned everything out— the incantations of the high priestess as she prayed to her goddess for blessings, the clear white skies and the brilliantly glaring rays of the sun— he tuned it all out, choosing instead to reminisce on the few happy moments he had had in his thirty years of existence.
But something unexpected happened.
At first, Killian didn’t know what was going on, all he heard was more excited chattering, and then a general hushed silence. Initially, he thought it was because his end had finally come, but he waited and waited, nothing was fucking happening.
It was only when he raised his head that he saw it.
A real wolf.
Not a wolf like him.
If it were a werewolf, he would have been able to communicate with it in some way, but it wasn’t.
This was a full wolf, a pure wolf. One that wasn’t part human, part wolf like he was.
Now, those were almost fucking nonexistent in QYEPOE.
Hell, in all of Axon, even.
And for it to appear at this exact specific moment, in the midst of a crowd nonetheless. If this wasn’t a sign of divine intervention, he had no idea what else it was.
The Alpha without a pack watched, mesmerised as the animal made its way through the crowd. Everyone dropped to the ground face flat as it passed by, looking regal and otherworldly with its brilliant white fur. The wolf finally stopped right in front of him, tilting its head to the side curiously as it observed him, sniffing the air to catch his unique scent.
The chief priestess, who had frozen in wonder along with her people was the first to recover. “Quick! Release the man at once!” She commanded two of the Luperci, who quickly rushed to do her bidding. Killian wouldn’t have caught it had it not been for his enhanced hearing, but he heard her say, “Oh thank you Goddess for coming to my aid, I now realise how hasty I was. You have saved me from invoking curses instead of blessings, and for that, may your name be praised.”
The Alpha rolled his eyes as he dusted his clothes clean. Without looking back or uttering a word, he climbed down the podium, stopping briefly to pet the giant wolf who had ultimately saved his life. “Thank you,” He whispered and continued along.
He had been given a second chance.
He just prayed that he wasn’t too late.
But an hour later, Killian was staring at a cleared out camp, not a single soul in sight.
It seemed the general and his troupes had moved to another location, taking his mate along with them.
If she was alive, he didn’t know, but something was telling him that if she was dead, he’d have known by now.
He’d have felt it.
The Alpha’s hope had been restored once more. He was going to follow Alaric and his troupes to the ends of Axon if need be, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up anymore.
He was going to find his mate.
****
“Where are we going, milord?” Kendra found herself asking the General for what seemed to the hundredth time.
He had failed to elaborate on his scarily weird statement about her not smelling human, choosing instead to change the topic, and telling her to grab her things for she was joining him on a trip.
They had been riding since then.
“For the last time, Andrea, you’ll know when we get there,” He said with a chuckle. It surprised Kendra to no end when he asked her to ride with him, for she had thought that as maid, her rightful place would have reasonably been with the other maids, but no.
Apparently, he wanted to know more about Silver Crest on the way.
Kendra didn’t buy into that shit one bit.
From the lies she had told, it was obvious that she practically had no information that the General would consider ‘useful’ to help him find the pack, and so as it was now, it only meant two things;
One, either he was onto her. He knew she was lying and was keeping her around so he could punish her at the appropriate time,
Or two, her forwardness even though she was a ‘maid’ had him intrigued.
As it stood now, Kendra hoped to whoever cared to listen that it was the second, even though that one had its own set of consequences that she would eventually bear the brunt of, but whatever effects those will be, the female beta was pretty sure that they will not be as bad as death, or torture in the hands of these jihadists.
“So, do you have family?” The general asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Why couldn’t he just shut up, so they would have a silent ride?
Even though Kendra had hoped for this— this quick relationship with the General, she was already bored. There was nothing thrilling about the part that the quest had taken her to.
She wouldn’t get to spar like she had hoped, and from the look of things, she’d be glued to the General for most of the time when he wasn’t waging war and killing innocent wolves—leaving widows, widowers, and orphans in his wake. Kendra felt her hatred grow even more at the thought, but she did her best to quell it.
“Me don’t have any family left,” She admitted with a hint of sadness as she stared at the back of his head, “Me lost them because of war.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” He consoled, “But that is how war is, people must lose their lives for the greater good.”
“What exactly is the greater good?” Kendra lashed out, too far gone to care about his rank or hers as a ‘maid’. She even wished she could alight from the horse so she’d look at him face to face instead of just staring at his back. “The werewolves have not threatened us in anyway, and yet we go after them, simply because we believe that they have been cursed by the devil. That may be all things, but trust me, the greater good, it is most certainly not.”
The General did not say a single word.
Instead, he slowly brought the galloping horse to a slow trot, and then finally stopped. Kendra felt her heart tumble in her chest uncomfortably. Her big mouth had finally brought her to their end.
This was probably where he’d kill her now.
She watched with bated breath as the Alpha descended from the horse, turning to carry her off it like she weighed nothing… l-like she was some damsel in distress!
Now normally, she’d have protested violently at such an annoying display of chivalry, but she was in character, as a maid… she was supposed to act grateful for the kind consideration.
There was also the fact that all that while, there was that truly murderous look on his face.
The very one she had only heard in stories.
Kendra kept her eyes glued to the ground when she noticed, not wanting to set him off any further, but the general roughly raised her chin so she could meet his gaze.
She had tested his surprising leniency a bit too much and now, this was the end.
“Now tell me the truth Andrea, if that’s even your name,” He snarled, eyes still blazing, “You’re definitely not a maid, are you? So who the fuck are you and what are you doing here among my troupes?”
Shit.