Doomsday

Memories.

I chuckled then Athena brought the knife back to the table.

“You do know that Deimos has a wife, correct?”

“What?”

“Theoi. She’s with him right now.”

I shook my head.

“No, he would have told me about her.”

“How sure are you?”

She looked up at his bedroom door and I walked up there. I knocked at the door but I didn’t hear anything then I remembered the playroom. I walked in and I heard moaning from the room. I opened the door and there they were. 

“Seriously?”

He looked up at me and he had a fearful expression on his face. 

“Who’s this dear?”

“Tori.”

I c****d my eyebrow.

“We had s*x together last night. Don’t worry, I’m not attached to him. But just to let you know, he’s a whore.”

I walked out and went to my room. Athena was sitting there.

“Would you like to come to my temple?”

“Yes.”

She nodded her head and I packed my things up. Deimos came bursting into the room and Athena stood in front of me.

“You have no authority to touch her.”

“Tori, please let me explain.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were married?”

“Because it’s an open marriage. She asked that question in a s****l way because we usually have multiple people with us and thought you were one.”

“That doesn’t explain anything.”

“I was going to tell you today but you have so much going on and I didn’t want to stress you out with this too. You found out in the worst way possible. Me and her have no love for each other but the only way for us to get a divorce in a way is-”

“You have to kill her. I know about that because someone I know told me about a way that you could mate me.”

“Tori, the only time we see each other is every once in a while to have s*x and catch up. We have no relationship and I was going to tell her about us afterwards because we didn’t exactly start off tonight with words.”

I shook my head and finished packing the last few things in my bags. Athena grabbed one of my bags for me and we walked out. We left and she brought me to her temple and it was even more beautiful than Deimos’. She brought me to a room and I set my things in there.

“Would you like to go train some more or rest? No one will be in there besides you.”

“I’ll train.”

She nodded her head then brought me down there. I started training then she showed me the weapons display.

“Tomorrow I will teach you the history of winning battles and show you the ones I lost and how I should have done things differently.”

“Okay.”

“You can train for however long you please. No one will bother you for a few hours because they are all asleep right now.”

“I’ll be quiet going back to my room.”

She nodded her head then left me there. I continued boxing for a while then I started training with the knives. My brother is better than I am at these but the more practice I have, the better I’ll get. 

“Widen your legs and use your wrist more. Keep the knife at eye level.”

I looked at who was talking and it was a tall dark skinned man.

“You are?”

“I should be asking you the same thing. You’re new here.”

“I was training with Deimos but I came here because Athena can help me more than he can.”

“Ahh. Well it’s nice to meet you newbie.”

“Tori.”

“I’m Kiran.”

I nodded my head.

“May I?”

He came closer and I nodded my head. He showed me how I’m supposed to throw and I hit the bullseye.

“Thanks. I’m not as good with knives as I am with my hands.”

“I saw you boxing and I have to agree.”

“Well thank you. I figured that I could perfect other skills too.”

“It’s good that you decided to do this while everyone was asleep because they would clown you.”

“I’d just ignore them. I don’t care what others have to say unless it’s useful.”

“That’s good.”

I nodded my head then he saw my shoulder.

“A wolf.”

“Hybrid, wolf and witch.”

He looked shocked.

“That’s cool.”

“I get that a lot.”

“I bet you do.”

“I’m mainly going to be training with Athena one on one so we probably won’t be seeing each other a lot unless we keep meeting here and training together.”

“Or.” He looked me up and down flirty. “We could get together.”

I rolled my eyes and he started laughing.

“I’m just joking. I can see your mark.”

“You can also see I burned it off.”

“I can. Which means that he’s either dead or you want him dead.”

“The second one.”

He nodded his head and I threw the knife and split the board.

“I wasn’t going to ask anyways. I can tell by the look on your face that he really hurt you and you don’t have trust in anyone right now.”

“I got played by my mate, a got played by a f*****g God, and his brother is trying to f**k me. I have no idea who I am anymore and I just found out that my parents are dead.”

I threw another knife and half the board came off. He stood there with me in silence.

“I can’t imagine your pain right now.”

“There is so much more to everything.”

“May I?”

I looked at him confused.

“I’m also a wolf but I was brought up by witches and I can feel others' pain by touching their heart.”

I faced him and he put his hand on my heart. He looked me in the eyes and I connected us. I showed him memories of me and Kyree together, how happy we were. Then his cheating, us fighting, me burning my mark off, me and Deimos together and how he made me feel, him and his wife, me leaving. The swearing ceremony, me finding out about my parents, everything.

He looked me in the eyes the whole time and a single tear streamed down my face.

“You didn’t deserve any of that.”

“Apparently I did. Because it happened.”

“Apparently I did. Because it happened.”

He shook his head.

“No one deserves to go through all of that. Let alone in just two days.”

“I know. But it happened and I’m just here to train as much as I can so I can go back to my pack and be the leader they need me to be.”

He nodded his head.

“Are you mated?”

“No, she died before we could create our bond.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. This was several years ago.”

“Do you mind if I ask?”

“Illness. She got seriously ill and died before we could cure her.”

I nodded my head then chuckled.

“We just met and are sharing our trauma.”

He chuckled too then we sat on the mats.

“You smell like you’ve sweated a horse.”

“Thanks.”

I hit him and we started laughing. I looked at the time and it was almost two in the mourning.

“Damn, we have to go to bed like, now.”

“Yeah. It was good talking to you.”

“You too.”

We got up and parted ways to our dorm rooms. I took a quick shower and got into bed. I slept for a few hours then the alarm went off at six and I put on my camo top and black military pants. I walked out of my room and followed the scent of food and found the cafeteria. As soon as I walked in, I was alienated because no one knew who I was.

I decided that I was just going to ignore everyone and get my food and that’s exactly what I did. I got my food and started eating while I looked for Kiran and I saw him sitting with a group of guys laughing. We made eye contact and he came over to me.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Good, you?”

“Same. Why don’t you come with me and meet the other wolves here.”

I pointed at my tray and he chuckled.

“I’ll take it up if you come with me.”

“Deal.”

He grabbed my tray and he put it away then we walked over to the group of guys. I stood there for a second and they studied me.

“This is Tori. She was bought here last night and she’s actually pretty cool so be nice.”

They chuckled then one stared at my mark.

“Go ahead, ask.”

He looked confused.

“Ask.”

“What happened?”

He pointed at my mark and all of the wolves looked at what he was talking about.

“My mate cheated with another wolf while I was in training. I left him alone for a day and he was sleeping with another girl so to show him that I don’t give second chances, I burned our mark which broke our bond.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Receiving it not really. Destroying it, absolutely. But the betrayal hurt worse.”

He nodded his head.

“So you’re single?”

“Well this also happened yesterday so calm down buddy.”

They started laughing but the dude was intrigued. I looked over and saw Athena standing there so I walked over to her.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

She nodded her head then we walked off and she brought me to a library. We sat there and she told me stories of the different battles she fought and the different strategies that she has used and the ones that have always been successful. 

“I want you to stay here and do research. I want you to read as much as your brain can take and I want you to come up with a way that I could have won this battle.”

I nodded my head.

“Am I allowed breaks?”

“Yes, take as many as you need but I want something by midnight.”

I nodded my head.

“Alright. Tomorrow Ares and I will be doing combat training with you and no, we are not attacking you again.”

“Okay.”

She walked out and I continued reading the different books that she had laid out for me. I saw the librarian so I walked up to her.

“Hello, can you point out where the battle strategy books would be?”

“Section thirty- seven. Column F.”

I nodded my head and thanked her. I walked over to the ladder and dragged it to section thirty- seven and climbed up. It had a basket so I brought it up with me and I started reading the book titles. I grabbed two books then climbed down with them and went back to the table. I continued with my readings and I put it into the simulation board that Athena had given me. I tried out a few different ideas that I had but all had ended in death.

After a few hours I started getting frustrated so I locked up the room I was in and went to the cafeteria. I made myself some green tea with honey and I started walking back to the room as I was reading a book. 

“Tori.”

I looked up and saw Kiran with two of the other wolves.

“Hey guys.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m doing a project for Athena. I have to find a different strategy to win a battle that she has lost.”

“If Athena lost the battle, there is no way that you could win it.”

I looked at the guy and I smirked.

“And you think you can?”

“No, I’m saying that she’s the Goddess of Battle Strategy meaning that she thought of every single outcome.”

“Well I have to come up with something she didn’t. And I have all of the different strategies that she did and failed.”

Kiran nodded his head.

“Can I take a look? Maybe two brains are better than one and you are kind of tired.”

“From last night? I’ve stayed up later.”

“Than two in the morning?”

“Yep.”

He chuckled then we walked up to the library and I opened the door to the room. We walked in and he saw the piles of books that I went through already and the pile of papers filled with my notes.

“So what all have you tried?”

“Defense, offense, peace, head on, sneak attacks, hell I even tried doing the battlefield version of checkers and chess and nothing has worked.”

“Have you done something like the Trojan Horse?”

“Yes, that didn’t work because it had already happened and they were smart about not bringing it in.”

“Have you tried tricking them?”

“Yes, I made them believe that we were going to attack head on and did while we had teams already sneaking in and attacking them from the inside.”

Then it hit me. 

“I have to flip it.”

I entered the data into the simulator and we watched the teams go through the tunnels and start attacking from the inside and change their uniforms into theirs and continue to attack during the night. Then the rest of the teams started attacking and brought down their wall.

“That was it!”

I hugged him and I was proud.

“See, all you had to do was talk it out.”

“I think having everything locked in my head wasn’t helping at all.”

We watched the simulation pop up the word ‘Victory’ and I was happy.

“I have to bring this to Athena so she can tell me my next assignment.”

“Another one?”

“Well yeah, I’m here to work and train.”

“Take a break and at least take a couple of drinks of your tea.”

I nodded my head and took a sip of my tea. I put the data into the simulation once again and it gave me the same results. Athena walked in and saw Kiran with me.

“I told you that you had to do this on your own.”

“She did boss. She came up with everything on her own but needed to talk it out. I didn’t help her at all.”

She looked through us and it was like she was looking back in time.

“Okay, you’re right.”

“I completed it. I just had one of my ideas in the wrong order but once I fixed it, everything worked.”

“Do you expect me to congratulate you?”

I looked at her confused.

“No, but I do expect a little less attitude considering I completed this in three hours whereas you lost this battle.”

She looked at me and smirked.

“Okay, I’ll take that. But good job, that was the fastest I’ve had a student complete this.”

“What’s next?”

“Next you get the day off. Since you finished what was supposed to keep you busy all day in a few hours, you have the day to yourself. And Kiran, don’t interrupt me again.”

“My apologies boss.”

He bowed his head to her then she walked out.

“Why is there bad blood between you two?”

“I used to train under Poseidon and I asked a few days ago if I could go back.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s where my mate died and I would like to see our friends and family again.”

“That’s a good answer.”

He chuckled then I remembered the necklace.

“Are you done with your training for the day?”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, shower and put on some clean clothes. Since we have the day off, why don’t we travel a little bit.”

He looked confused then I pushed him out of the room. He went and showered then I put on my tan uniform. I met him back in the training room then we walked outside. I handed him the necklace and told him what to think about. The door appeared and we went to the temple. 

We walked up to the doors as I put the necklace back on and as soon as we walked in, a dude basically tackled Kiran.

“He’s back!”

They continued hugging then a group of people came up to us. They let each other go then he hugged the rest of the group.

“This is Tori, she brought me here so I can finally see you guys again.”

“Thank you, Tori. We haven’t seen him in a little over a year.”

“Yes, thank you.”

I smiled then I looked at Kiran.

“Well, we are here for about an hour so how about you spend some time catching up with them. I’ll come back-”

“Stay, please.”

“Fine but you’re coming with me to see something.”

“Deal.”

We walked to one of their rooms and we sat there while everyone caught up. There was a loud knock at the door and everyone stood at attention. An attention demanding man walked in and looked between me and Kiran.

“Kiran, Athena didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“She doesn’t know. She wouldn’t let me come.”

“And who said you could?”

“I did.”

I looked him in the eyes.

“Pleasure to meet you, I’m Torrence Andrews, Alpha of the Blood Moon pack, descendant of the Elders.”

“So you’re the hybrid that made Deimos want to end things with his wife.”

I rolled my eyes.

“That’s not the only way that I know about you. I’ve heard of the wonderful things that you’ve done for the humans and for your people as well.”

I nodded my head.

“So you brought him here, why?”

“He needed to be with his family even for just an hour. I know what it’s like needing that support and I don’t think anyone can be mad at wanting to see your loved ones.”

He nodded his head.

“As long as I don’t get cussed out by Athena, I don’t care what you do.”

I nodded my head then he shook my hand. He walked out and everyone looked at me.

“Why didn’t you mention any of that?”

“What?”

“Being an Alpha.”

“Because it’s not important.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I just didn’t want having that title change anything. So I just didn’t mention it.”

He nodded his head.

“Well we are almost out of time so I’m going to say my goodbyes.”

I nodded my head then walked out of the room. Luckily all of the temples so far have been built almost the same way so I walked to the doors waiting for Kiran. Poseidon walked up to me.

“Torrence.”

“Sir?”

“Your name has a lot of meaning to me. Being a lighthouse is the same as being a leader.”

“So I’ve heard. If this is your way of asking me to join you, I’m going to have to decline.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because Athena is a woman that I looked up to my entire life. Reading her story and how she challenged every man that looked at her wrong, inspired me.”

“But you also know that me and my brothers are even more powerful than the others.”

“I feel as though you three are egomaniacs and that I couldn’t work with any of you because I don’t filter what I say. If I think about it, I’ll say it.”

He nodded his head then Kiran walked up.

“Nice talking to you though.”

“You too Torrence.”

We shook hands again and he gave me a single pearl necklace.

“What’s this for?”

“That is a protection pearl. Wear it if you go into battle.”

I nodded my head then put it in my pocket. We walked out and I thought about my house before all of this. The door appeared and I took a shaky breath. 

“What’s wrong?”

“This location.”

We walked through the door and we were standing in front of my house, or what was left of it. I stared at the house and thought about everything that happened while we lived here.

“Where are we?”

“Bradley Illinois. This used to be my house.”

He nodded his head and I started to feel my emotions take over. I stared at the remains and I thought about what it used to look like. The pieces started building itself back up and there it was, my old home. We walked inside and I went into my brother's room first.

“My brother was six foot three living in this tiny ass room where I was five foot seven with a much bigger room than him.”

He chuckled then we went into my room. All of my things were sitting where it usually was and my bed was messy as usual. 

“I had a box where I’d hide all of my illegal things. It was strictly vapes and weed but I was also a teenager.”

“Yeah. I used to hide my things in the garage because my parents never went in there.”

I nodded my head then I went into my parents room. I opened my mom's chest and grabbed her tote of pictures.

“This holds everything that happened in my life.”

He took it from me and we walked around a little longer. We went back to the living room and Deimos was standing there.

“You figured out how to create.”

“Why are you here? How’d you find me?”