Chapter Twenty-Four

Ellie

Once I’d polished off the soup, Veronica, true to her word, came in. She gave me a once-over and took out the needle thing from my hand. She called it a cannula.

In my mind, it was always going to be the needle thing. It wasn’t so much painful as it was annoying. Every time I moved my hand, it would poke into my skin.

But now it was gone. With that out of the way, my Grandfather settled on the edge of the bed and started telling me about the war, my other grandfather, the werewolf king, and the human princess.

If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was one of those fairy tales my mother used to tell me when I was a kid. Like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty.

Running away with her prince charming and living happily ever after, once the bad guy was out of the picture. Except they didn’t. I knew better than to believe in that.

In this life, it seemed like there was no such thing as a happily ever after. I thought about the story that Grandpa, Gabriel’s dad, had told me. It was about Goldilocks, I think.

He never did tell me what happened to Goldilocks when she jumped out the window. She probably got killed or tortured to death. That’s how most stories ended, in real life anyway.

He explained to me about mates and how some werewolves had human mates. The human families thought the werewolves had kidnapped their human mates and wouldn’t let them go.

The truth was, once the mate bond kicked in, the human mates didn’t want to leave.

It didn’t matter if the humans had families, even kids. The mate bond was stronger.

That’s when the humans started sending hunters after the werewolves. It wasn’t like werewolves were hard to spot. They were much bigger than humans. I knew this from experience.

When I first met Elijah, he was twelve years old, but he was the same size as my brother, who was seventeen at the time.

For some reason though, the hunters didn’t succeed. The werewolf council and the Alphas were furious that the human government ignored the hunters.

But then the human government was upset about how werewolves were taking human women as mates.

Everything exploded when the Alpha king found out that the crown princess was his mate. When she refused to come back, the royal family thought she had been brainwashed. They declared war on the werewolves.

My other Grandfather, the King, retreated with his mate to the winter palace. Grandfather Alexander had also found his mate.

She was a lady-in-waiting to the princess, and they retreated to the winter palace too.

The war went on for years. Both sides were evenly matched. Well, sort of. The humans had a lot of people, and even though there were fewer werewolves, they had their wolves to heal them.

Injuries that would kill humans were just a scratch to the werewolves.

Finally, both sides realized it was a war that neither of them could win. So they made a truce, created the border. Humans on one side, werewolves on the other.

The council decided that no werewolf should ever have a human mate again. That was when the purge happened. Any humans or half-human kids were killed, including the queen.

It was hard for a wolf to live if their mate died. The council had killed my grandparents. Not the king, but they might as well have. Killing my grandmother ultimately killed the king.

That was when the western pack broke away from council control. Now it seemed they wanted me dead. I had a feeling that the human side would want me dead too.

I furrowed my brow.

“But what about my parents, they looked human. I’m sure they didn’t have a wolf? And my brother?” I asked.

Grandfather Alexander smiled, but I could see the sadness in his eyes.

“Your grandmother was a white witch and a seer. That’s why you’re immune to silver.”

I frowned. I’d never heard of witches before. That said, no one had ever told us why the war had started. Only that all werewolves were monsters, which I now knew wasn’t true.

There were monsters on both sides of the border. I’d seen both.

Grandfather continued.

“She could see the future, and she could cast charms.”

He smiled sadly.

“She knew that the death of all humans and hybrids was coming. While she was still pregnant with your mother, and the queen was pregnant with your father, she cast a charm to remove their wolves.

“They would look human, but they would carry the werewolf gene so any kids they had would be hybrids.”

I frowned. I knew I was a hybrid, but what about Jackson. He had no wolf, and he was like a normal human.

“What about my brother? Jackson was like a human too.”

Grandfather sighed.

“Your grandmother ran over the border with both kids when the truce was called. It turned out both kids were mates.

“They wouldn’t have felt it as strongly as two full hybrids, but they felt it just the same,” he paused.

“The charm your grandmother wove, to make your parents seem human, I believe she also placed on your brother while he was still in your mother's belly. The cost would have been high.

“It would have drained her life force.”

I gasped. My grandmother had given her life to save my parents and my brother from the same fate as me.

She must have died before Jackson was born. I wondered if my parents knew what she had done. Probably not. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have had me.

“Did they know? My mom and dad?” I asked, “who they were? Who their parents were?”

Grandfather rested his large hand on the top of my head.

“I don’t know, little one. All I know is that you are very important, not just to us, but to the humans as well. They just probably don’t realize it yet.”

I looked at my grandfather's face, his eyes flashed from blue to black. I glanced at Clayton. His eyes were black too. They were talking to each other.

I pouted.

“Please don’t keep any secrets from me,” I begged.

Their eyes returned to normal.

Grandfather looked at Clayton and nodded.

Clayton moved his chair closer to the bed and took my hands in his.

“Joseph, the man who tried to kill you. The man that killed Sammy,” he paused, “he was a spy for the council.

“Before his death, he shared a lot with us. We also discovered some notes he’d gotten from the council.”

He inhaled deeply, appearing a bit uneasy. Whatever he was about to reveal, I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it.

“From what we’ve gathered, the council orchestrated your kidnapping. They just needed Alpha Zagan to pay a visit to the crescent moon pack.”

“They used Sammy as a pretext so Zagan could pick up your scent, to kidnap you.”

I gazed at Clayton, tears welling up in my eyes.

“I thought he loved me, but all along Gabriel was working for the council,” I whimpered.

Clayton quickly clasped my hands.

“No, Ellie, it wasn’t Gabriel. It was his father. Gabriel never stopped looking for you,” he paused, “but...”

I swallowed hard.

“But what?”

Clayton sighed.

“We found another note at the border. We think the council grew tired of Alpha Gabriel. We’re not certain, but we think...”

He halted and looked at me, his eyes filled with sympathy.

“We think he’s dead...As well as a brother. Yours or maybe...did Sammy have a brother?”

I stared at him, shocked. Tears streamed down my face.

All the times I’d believed that Gabriel, my adoptive father, had abandoned me, he hadn’t. Now there was a possibility that Jackson, or Elijah had been killed too.

I shook my head.

“No...they can’t be dead...they can’t be. It’s all my fault,” I wailed.

I felt my grandfather's arms envelop me once more.

“No Ellie, it’s not your fault, none of it is. It’s the council. It’s always been the council. We will have our revenge, I promise you.”

I wept into my grandfather's chest. Why? Why did everyone I cared about die? My parents, Jackson, Gabriel, Elijah, Sammy. All gone.

I’d harbored negative thoughts about all of them at some point. But grandfather was right. None of this was my fault.

There was nothing I could have done about my parents. They had fallen ill with the fever. If Jackson and I had stayed with them, Jackson would have died too, but I probably would have survived.

Then everyone would know that I was a hybrid. Then they would have eventually killed me too. Or at least attempted to.

But Gabriel’s father. The man I had called Grandpa. He had sacrificed his own grandchild, just to obey the council. Had he killed the others too? Gabriel, Elijah, Jackson?

A rage welled up in my chest. Yes! I wanted revenge.

Yes!

Nix’s voice echoed in my subconscious. We hadn’t spoken since she had forced me to shift. She had hurt me, and she knew that. But I would forgive her. Because we both wanted revenge.

Once my sobbing had subsided, I heard Clayton’s voice again.

“I’m sorry, Ellie, but there’s more. Joseph said he wasn’t the only spy. He didn’t say who the others were, but I promise you, we’ll protect you at all costs.”

I turned my head to look at Clayton, my eyes swollen from all the crying. My face was veiled with determination.

“How? When you don’t know who they are?” I asked, my jaw clenching.

I glanced up at my grandfather. He answered my question before Clayton had a chance.

“I’ll take you back to the mountains with me,” he looked over at Clayton, “I’ll protect her. Teach her. Train her.”

Clayton stared at my grandfather and shook his head.

“No! I won’t allow it. She’ll be safer here at the pack.”

My grandfather tightened his arms around me, then leaned his head menacingly towards the Alpha.

“Don’t make me challenge you, Clayton. I may hold the title of Beta, but I am still an Alpha and I can still kick your ass,” he growled.

I held my breath. I didn’t want either of them to hurt each other. I had no idea if they fought, who would come out victorious.

Clayton sighed and shook his head.

“I won’t fight you, Uncle. We need every wolf we can get. We’ve also found out they are planning a war. We are gathering as many wolves as possible to train as warriors in preparation.

“The last note we found said the plan for the border is going ahead. But I insist that if you take Ellie back to the mountains, you take some warriors with you. Just in case.”

I glanced between the two men and watched as my grandfather nodded in agreement.

Then I spoke.

“I want you to train me to fight, Grandfather. I want to be the one to end the man who was responsible for hurting the one I cared about.”

My grandfather nodded.

“His name is Joel. Former Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack. Alpha Gabriel’s father.

“And yes, little wolf, I will teach you to fight, and when the time comes, you will be the warrior queen for all werewolves, and we will end the council once and for all.”