Iron Heart

Chapter 3 - Leah

    I was still pissed about the patrol orders, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to finagle my way out of it. Alpha Raven has been a little on edge for the past few days, everyone thought it must be because he and the Luna were still unmarked. A very odd occurrence, but I understood where the Luna was coming from if it was her idea.

    It was strange to expect a general to bow so easily to a new Alpha, even if she did ask to join herself. I still hoped regardless, from the few times I met her, I liked her. A strong Luna to balance our charismatic Alpha would work well for us.

    My pups were back home, my mate Kahn watching them in between his Sentinel duties, with the help of the pupsitter Raven had offered. Even though I preferred to take care of them myself, I had to admit that some time to think was good for me.

    I was running ahead of the actual patrol, promising I’d mind-link them if I found anything. But they were all basic warriors, and I doubted I’d need much help with anything below alerting Alira. Alira, we had trained together when we were young, as the only pup her father was able to have that was legitimate at least- she was the only Delta left in their line. She was putting so much hope into Omira, and their pup. Even though Alira had broken some rules, accepting human medical care beyond the care of her wounds, Raven had accepted her regardless of what she did with her body.

    It was one of the things all the she-wolves in the pack could agree on about Raven, that he cared about every wolf equally, and saw no wolf differently for their past. Most she-wolves looked at this pack as a safe haven because of it, a pack where the human in the males didn’t bleed into the hierarchy.

    I stopped, smelled the air around me, I smelt a scent I didn’t recognize; it was deep into the woods outside our borders though. I had the best scent tracking in the pack, my only competition is seeing how Cersy’s birds are doing. But Eren and Cersy are training her Kin privately. No one has really seen much of them yet, besides for those who live near them.

    ‘A day out, maybe more..’ Nuren mumbled in my head, caught in trying to see where the scent led, she wanted to go find him now. Him, Nuren knew it was a male wolf.

    I could only make out that it smelled like cherries and lilacs, I sighed, maybe I should mind-link my patrol after all.

    ‘Ver, I’m going to track a strange wolf scent, continue patrol like usual.’ I heard a shocked reaction on the other end, but I cut them out before they could try to convince me otherwise. I was their Sentinel, they had to listen to my orders.

    I followed the scent, running in my wolf form as fast as I could without losing it. I thought I was running to nowhere contemplating if Nuren and I had been mistaken, and it was just a Scout scent or something, they had left a few days ago. But that was when my nose to the ground wolf form, barreled straight into another wolf.

    I found myself on top of a male I had never seen before, I felt a strange pull to him as well similar to the mate pull like I had with Kahn. But I was already mated, happily so, well..maybe not happily. Khan was named Viletongue for nothing, and he brought his hatred into our home as well.

    The male was a slim wolf with brown and white colorations, his bright green eyes shined with golden flakes. But I could tell that was the shine of fear very quickly, and got off of him, like Nuren had said we were about a day and a half’s journey from Paleclaw,  well for most wolves. It had taken us a few hours at best.

    “I request safe harbor in Paleclaw,” He said, bowing his head low, after he had stood back up, and that was when I noticed the leather harness built around him. I had seen human’s craft similar thing’s to their working dogs. The bad bags that were luckily for him still sealed shut despite his tumble.

    I got into a semi-threatening stance, “Who are you, and why do you need a safe harbor?” He had this strange glint in his eyes when he looked at me like he felt the pull as well, but wasn’t saying anything because of my attitude towards him.

    “My name is Balkin Dragonhelm Kuon, I am Delta to the Ironfang pack. I have come with information and questions for Ironflayer.” I started growling as soon as he said Ironfang.

    “And why should I grant safe harbor to a ranked Ironfang pack member? Ironfang attacked us just this past week for gods’ sake.”

    He bowed lower, “Cain has threatened the lives of the Nihildum, and their families. If she is a prisoner please release her to us, just so we can save innocent lives.”

    I scoffed, I went to some bushes and found clothing I could use and shifted back. There were various articles of clothing all throughout the forest, whether those clothes were in good condition or not was a different story. I shifted back into my human form, and he looked embarrassed and did the same but with the clothing from his pack presumably.

    “You have got yourself some more time to explain, just keep in mind I’m the only one who knows you're here. Safe harbor only really works when you’re on the border itself, where there are witnesses.” He scratched the back of his head in response to that, his hair was a floofy brown.

    “Well, I was planning on doing that, y’know before you found me.” Nuren seemed to agree with him in some sense, she had the feeling he was telling the truth. And it was my job to trust that.

    “So, first of all, Cersy and her Kin have been accepted into Paleclaw, they aren’t prisoners.” As soon as I said that Balkin facepalmed his forehead rather hard.

    “Oh that explains things, we were all startled because Cain was acting so quickly about the Nihildum, we thought he was crazy. But he must have felt the loss..” He went to rub his chin.

    I stopped him there, “You keep saying Nihildum, what are you referring to?”

    “The Nihildum is the formal name for Cersy and her Kin’s army, it’s a separate force from the main warriors.” That explained why they were still being trained separately, even though they should have integrated back in by now. Cersy must have persuaded Eren into keeping them as this ‘special force’.

    ‘Nihildum..’ for some reason I was caught up on the meaning of that name, I couldn’t quite place where I had heard it before now. It seemed to be a title for them only really known by Ironfang, since I’ve never heard of the Ironflayer’s army referred to in any other terms.

    ‘It means  nothing,’ Nuren said quietly, well that was a little rude, ‘Am I not allowed to be curious now?’ I retorted.

    ‘No, it actually means nothing. It refers to a tale from the Homeland, of beings called the Annihilo who were quick and agile like wolves but they always blended into the shadows like they were made from nothing. When set on a hunt they would not rest until they caught you, running you until you couldn’t move at all. Nihildum is the word that remains from that, they are nothing.’

    Well that story wasn’t terrifying at all, though Nihildum and Annihilo didn’t sound anything alike, I wasn’t much of a linguist. And I certainly wouldn’t think of Cersy as nothing, but I suppose it further proved how terrible Cain was.

    “Alpha Raven is waiting till after the Luna ceremony to take action on Ironfang, but I’ll walk you back to Paleclaw and give you your safe haven.”

    He smiled then frowned, “Alpha Raven has found his mate?”

    I nodded, chuckling “How do you think Cersy got in so easily?” I laughed but Balkin only seemed more confused, and even maybe a little concerned. But he seemed to put that away for now.

    “Can I ask for your name?” Now that we were standing near each other, as we were about to start walking back, I finally noticed how tall this man was. I was a generous 5’10 and Kahn always complained about being my height.

    Telling me that my height was one of my biggest flaws in his eyes, keeping me from being perfect for him.

    But Balkin was over 6’ and seemed to not even notice my height at all, moon goddess...what were you doing to me. “ I’m Sentinel Leah Rumblebow Qoutaire Ahhira, of Paleclaw,” I didn’t know why I gave him my maiden name as well as my mated one.

    But even though he seemed a little disappointed by my two last names, an obvious tell I mated even if he couldn’t see my mark. He seemed a little happy, I don’t think he knew I noticed, but he repeated ‘Leah Ahhira’ out loud a few times under his breath.

    And that in itself made me feel warm, but this whole situation with Balkin confused me. I hadn’t heard of a wolf feeling two mate bonds before, maybe a weak one like I already had with Kahn, but not two.