The Lost Goddess, A War On Mates

Chapter 24

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of bacon wafting into my tiny room. Sitting up and stretching I groggily put some shorts on and walked out of my room. The halls were silent, and I had to believe that it was early morning. Glancing around I found myself heading towards the mess hall again. The smell of bacon intensified as I made my way into the kitchen. It was the slave cooking again. I smirked and plopped down loudly onto the barstool. “Good morning sugar!”  I burst out laughing at Aeris jumping.

She clutched her chest and pouted, “You almost scared me to death, Colt!”

“Sorry darlin, I could not help myself. Anyways why are you here so early when you were here late?”  Her smile faltered and she turned back to pulling out more food from the oven.

She spoke softly continuing her tasks, “I make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the pack. I am also to care for anything the pack tells me to. I do deep cleaning once a month and daily maintenance cleaning for the pack house. If you ever need my assistance do not hesitate to ask, okay Colt?” She smiled sadly and my heart broke. They were running this girl ragged.

Then I realized something, “Hey Aeris, you know a lot of what happens here right?”

Turning to me she raises a brow, “I suppose I know a lot of the pack and what goes on, why?”

I could feel my face light up, I might have a willing witness to testify against the pack! I looked at her and gently grab her hand. She seemed reluctant and tried to tug away.

I whisper, “Would you tell me the truth about the pack?” She stiffened with wide eyes whipping her head around to see if anyone heard. The house remained silent. She bit her lip nervously and fidgeted. She seemed to be contemplating what I had said. I leaned a bit closer to her and whispered again, “Would you be willing to tell me why you are here?”  Her lips parted with an answer when the kitchen door burst open with that kid Lucas.

“Aeris, when is breakfast going to be on the table?” He stared at her angrily and it was a complete flip from how he stared at her yesterday. He noticed me holding her hands and she quickly yanked them away and looked to the floor.

“I am sorry Alpha; I was helping this warrior with his pack duties later. I will bring it all out to the table now.” She scurried around and quickly left the kitchen leaving me with a seething Lucas.

He quickly came up to me boasting his chest forward, “What do you think you are doing with the slave?” He was territorial in his body language and unfriendly in his tone.

I smirked and stood towering over him,” I was simply asking her where other omegas are to help her. She also mentioned she had to handle any pack affairs assigned to her, so I asked for her help later. She can show me around the area. Besides, a beautiful girl like her should know her way around town.”

He frowned and clenched his teeth,” She is forbidden from leaving pack land so you will have to find someone else. Besides some of the old warriors have arrived and you will be training with them now. You should settle in, Colt.”

“Will do little wolf, I am heading to eat that marvelous smelling breakfast.” Without another word I walked out of the kitchen to be met with a tear stricken Aeris and three grown men bombarding her. I could not make out their interaction, but no one was around to stop it.

I yelled across the hall, “Hey leave her be!” This earned me a growl and a few distinct glares from their wolves. She took this chance to run to my side though. I let her slide behind me, she was shaking and hiccupping with full blown tears. This girl knew just how to pull on my heart strings.

The three men immediately ran up to me, “We were busy speaking to her. You can go on with your breakfast…” Suddenly they stiffened and growled lowly, “Rogue!” They tried to attack me, but I was suddenly pushed back, and it felt like it happened in slow motion. Aeris jumped forward and punched this guy in the jaw sending him ten feet backwards. The room was so silent except for her small panting breaths.

I quickly stood up and cautiously walked towards her. I looked around, amazed the hall was still empty except for us. She was glowing and seemed to be in pain. I quickly grabbed her as the other two boys were in shock. I ran outside and took her a distance from the pack house. She curled into a ball grinding her teeth when I noticed suddenly a barbed wire tattoo connected to a whip was glowing on her right wrist. Refocusing I set her down near a small hidden cove and she was on fire. Suddenly another tattoo glowed and appeared on her left wrist, a shield decorated in fire and the moon. It was gorgeous and terrifying to watch it appear on her skin. Underneath the whip it read in cursive born to judge, born to punish. Underneath the shield was born to shield, born to lead.

I sat baffled at this young girl and scared. She was most definitely not human, or maybe cursed. Either way she was something else, I mumbled out, “What the literal f**k is this pack?” I looked over to see her sitting up staring at me with glowing red eyes. I hitched my breath and stood. I was weary of this pack, but this girl did not seem like a threat to me, yet.

“Who are you?” I whispered out.

She tilted her head and gave a dry laugh, “I do not remember. Do you remember who you are Colt Hart?” I stiffened as her expression never changed. She was blank and made no indication of malice or plotting.

“How…how do you know?” I slid a bit closer and sat down a few feet in front of her.

She had her knees to her chest as she sighed and looked at the water nearby,” Your wolf told me Colt, he’s a sweet boy by the way.” She smiled slightly at the water.

“I am confused Aeris, are you human?” She nodded at my question and looked at me with teary eyes again.

“Is something wrong with me Colt? I cannot remember who I am, where I am from, I have these dreams that feel so real. I now have three tattoos and no idea why they are even here. I will be in trouble for all of this, I really am a freak…” She mumbled into her arms, and I had no idea what to do.

“Aeris, come here.” I opened my arms wide, and she looked at me uncertain and finally crawled over and hugged me.

She mumbled into my chest, “No one knows about my tattoos, except Drew but it was only one and he thought I went and left the pack lands to get it done. Please do not tell them. They might kill me!” She clung to me tightly.

I nuzzled her and pulled her away cupping her face. I looked into her eyes,” Aeris, what is going on in this pack, why are you here? I can help you be set free, but I need evidence against this pack to take to the high council. Do you know anything?” I was almost pleading with her. If they made her this afraid then who knows where these omegas were going. The Alpha was also shady, these members only seemed to be clueless or in on the game.

She nodded, “They never tell me where they go but I always see them leaving the pack around two in the morning when I leave the kitchen. It’s been happening for years since I have been here. I have no idea where they go but it cannot be to a mate. None of them seem happy and why would they leave for their mate’s pack at two in the morning?” She started to cry, I held her tighter rocking slightly.

“It’s okay, Aeris we will find them. Do you know how old these members are?” She shakes her head no and bites her lip.

She lets out a shaky breath, “Colt, they’ll kill me if they know I told you. No one else knows. If they do, they deny it or hide it.” She looks at me with fear. No one this young should be this afraid. I stand up and pull her to her feet.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and pretend everything is okay. By the way, who were those guys you were talking to?” She stiffened and looked down. Her eyes had stopped glowing and so had the tattoos.

She whispered, “Just some people who abandoned me. It’s fine…” She seemed sad and lifted her head high. She seemed like a fighter. I smiled at that and took her back to her house. It was far off into the woods, and I felt it was almost unsafe. She entered the house without a care in the world and visibly relaxed. It was nice to see her that way.

Turning to me she semi-smiled, “You can sit on the couch or wait in my room. I need to shower and find clothes to hide my wrists…” She stared at them and gently traced her fingers across each tattoo. I had to admit they were beautiful.

“I will stay in your room if you do not mind?” She smiled shaking her head and started to walk up the stairs.

She opened the first door to the right, and I immediately smirked, “Wow, you must really like purple?” She giggled and shook her head grabbing some clothes form her closet as I sat down on her bed. It was super soft. I almost groaned out. This was way too comfortable, but I guess after a day of literally slaving away you would need a comfy bed to rest on.

She walked back out with a towel and some clothes, “I actually love the color pink more, but Drew did all this for me and I love it anyway.” She blushed talking about Drew and I smiled.

Sitting up, “He seems like a good dad.”

Her eyes widened and she furrowed her brows in thought, “Um, he is not my dad. I guess I do not know exactly what Drew is…I guess my fiancé?” She seemed flustered and bit her lip hard in thought.

I frowned, “How do you not know, but you live with him?” She sighed and ruffled her shoulder length hair.

“Well, he takes care of me and gives me a place to live, but he is not my dad. He is like a guardian, but the Alpha made it clear if I was unmated after I turned eighteen, I would be turned into the pack slut so we could have more omegas. Drew mentioned a few times that he could fix that, and I think he meant with mating. Humans do not get mates, so I do not have much of an idea…” As she rambled, I was getting pissed, Drew was using her. He had to be, it was him or forced r**e with random men. Any young girl would take that.

Sighing I rubbed my face, “Aeris, go shower sugar so you can get back to the house and do all those chores you mentioned the other day, yeah?” She nodded and ran off to the room next door. I stood up pacing back and forth. I really need her as a witness for the high council. She knew a lot on these pack members and seems to have had the most contact with the Alpha. I look around her room and smile. At least she has decent living conditions now.

The sound of water came from the other room, it had been almost thirty minutes. Thoughts kept running rampant in his head, ‘What if she fell, she seems weak, but she hit a wolf and he went flying. Maybe I should check on her? She never did say how old she was, I wonder if she would leave with me if I asked. She seemed anxious about being Drew’s mate, does she want a mate?’ stopping in his tracks he looked at the partially open door with a sad thought.

‘She might actually have a mate; humans get mates sometimes…’ With that thought he settled in and peeked into the bathroom. Steam filled the air and made it a bit hard to see but her back was to him and he gasped at her tattoo. She had large black angel wings that folded neatly together and on the base of her neck in cursive read fallen angel. He quickly left the door and sat thinking hard.

After another five minutes Aeris entered, and Colt jumped up. She was wearing a black long sleeve shirt with a deeper V-neck, with black skinny jeans. She had her hair tied up in a bun with some bangs falling forward.

“You ready to go back to the pack house?” She smiled and I felt hesitant.

“Yeah, let’s go back.” I smiled and we left her house and headed back to the pack house. She walked to the lobby and started to clean while I went back to my room. I needed to make some calls.

Basil, Jake, and Adrian all entered the pack territory around five in the morning. They quickly headed back to their rooms in the pack house getting cleaned up, haircuts, and clean shaven for their mate. Each of them was extremely excited to see her but were on edge. As they met in the hallway Jake stopped and sniffed the air sighing in content, “Bacon, our girl is the best cook.” They all nodded and dreamily walked down the stairs trying to stay calm.

As they entered the dining room they saw her, she was different from when they left. She had longer hair again, in a ponytail to her shoulders. She seemed focused at setting up breakfast and did not realize we walked in. It hurt a bit but as we moved forward, we smelt him on her, Drew. An angry growl escaped Basil and he charged forward and grabbed her arm startling Aeris.

Her eyes went wide, and she stammered out, “Ba-Basil? What are you doing here?”  Jake and Adrian followed closely behind and stared in shock.

Basil got close to her face as Sebastian came out growling,” Why do you smell like Drew this early in the morning?” She flinched and started to tear up yanking her arm away hard. It would have a bruise later.

She held herself and stepped back, “Why do you care! You left me, you know what they do to me, and you left me…” She looked down as her voice cracked and we all growled angry.

“We left you? At least we never ran around behind our friend’s backs with another person. Look at you being all friendly with Drew. Maybe this pack is right, you are a slut!” Dominic roared out in furry with Adrian’s hurt heart. A gasp came from Aeris as tears spilled.

She bit her lip when suddenly Jake stepped forward growling lowly,” Why do you reek of Drew!” Before she could answer a man stepped in front of her and made the three growl again. Basil lunged forward pissed another person would steal Aeris right when he came home.

Before he could make contact though he felt a hit to his jaw and flew back, when he looked up in a daze, he saw Aeris with her eyes and hair glowing, she seemed to be in pain and anger flowed through her. As I stood up that guy picked her up and ran out of the house.

Standing Basil held his head, “What just happened?” Adrian smacked Basil and ran out of the hall towards the training grounds. Jake shook his head and followed Adrian. Basil sulked at the dining room table. People slowly flowed into the mess hall and after about an hour it was empty again. Basil stood up and headed to the front lobby to see Aeris cleaning tiredly.

He rubbed the back of his neck and slowly approached her.

“Aeris, can I talk to you?” She stiffened and bowed.

“Of course, warrior Basil, how can I help you.” She refused to make eye contact making me whimper.

“I just wanted to say I was sorry for this morning; I was just so angry that you have been around Drew, and I missed you. Can I please get a hug?” I smiled at her, and she fidgeted biting her lip.

She shook her head no and mumbled out,” You tried to hurt my friend Colt. You need to work for anything from me after you abandoned me. All of you need to work to even be my friend, I loved you and then you just left me.” She teared up and turned away, “I have a lot of cleaning to do. I will see you later.” I frowned and walked away giving her space. I headed out to the training ground where I found Adrian, Jake, Drew, and that Colt guy.

I groaned, “f**k this is not good”.

Running down to the field I see Adrian ready to fight Colt and Jake ready to fight Drew. I come up and yell, “Hey guys, what’s going on here?”

Drew smirks and crosses his arms over his chest, “Well, it seems that now that you have come back from your special training you want to challenge me, one of the elite lead warriors? Colt here is new to the pack and has not been fully initiated but he is still higher than you both.” Colt seems weary and stands with his hands on his hips sizing us all up.

I pull Adrian and Jake aside shaking my head, “This will not end in our favor, trust me.” Both yanked their arms away and gave me a death glare.

Jake stood tall and puffed out his chest, “If either Adrian, Basil, or I beat you in a spar we get to take Aeris back to the pack house and care for her.” Drew started to laugh causing Roman to come forward,” She was ours to care for before we left, and it will go back that way.”

Drew narrowed his eyes and smiled, “If you lose, you dogs do not get to try and convince her to move into the pack house with you.” Colt looked at each of us and seemed amused.

“Deal…” Jake and Drew shook hands.

Basil tensed and ruffled his hair anxiously, “We are so f****d…”