You Belong To Me

Chapter Eight: Wren

"Where the f**k have you been, Wren?"

Rehan crosses the room and pulls me into a firm hug, patting me twice on the back in comfort. I return his embrace with just as much emotion before he pulls away to greet Gene.

"I'm assuming I have you to thank for him being here," he said, bending to wrap her in a hug.

I let out a low growl, and they both pull back to glance my way, expressions betraying their astonishment.

"Did I miss something?" Rehan asked Gene.

She smiles softly, her lips twitching in obvious amusement.

"I think Wren is feeling a little possessive. He doesn't like seeing other men touch me."

Rehan is about to say something - probably annoying as hell - when my parents enter the room.

"Gene, would you excuse us, please?" my mother says after the greetings are all done with.

"Of course, Your majesty."

She bows her head subtly and turns to leave the room, her heels clicking with each step she takes. She grabs the handle and closes the door behind her to give us some privacy.

I miss her almost immediately. My eyes stay locked on the door for a while after she's gone before I turn to my parents.

My mother pulls me into an unexpected hug, and she sighs with apparent relief, tightening her embrace before she lets me go.

My father replaces her, his reaction just as shocking as hers.

"We've been terribly worried about you. Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

The emotional response to my presence makes me a touch uncomfortable, since I wasn't used to seeing either one of them act like this.

"I'm fine. Gene… helped me."

My parents glance at each other while Rehan smiles knowingly at me.

"Nothing froths the loins like a beautiful woman coming to your aid during your hour of need. No wonder you're being so weird about her."

I pinched the bridge of my nose in wariness, sighing long and low in my throat.

"'Froths the loins'? This isn't a Shakespearean play, Rey."

He shrugs nonchalantly, his usual nonchalance replacing the worry he'd been feeling earlier.

"Maybe it is. Fated love, dangerous enemies, betrayals…"

"Did anything happen between you and Gene?" my father asks.

"Ah, there it is. Forbidden love, murders in the forest, a deadly plot twist. The intrigue begins."

We all turn to my brother with frowns, and he chuckles while rubbing his hands together.

"No, nothing happened. We don't really have time for this. Gene and I need to talk to you. It's about Russell."

"You'll have to fill us in at the council meeting. You and your brother should head to the conference room while your father and I gather ourselves."

And, they were back.

"Perhaps you should change, Wren."

"Why? It's just the council."

"Well," Rehan begins as he leads me to the conference room. "The D'Almeidas will be there, so I figured you'd at least want to make a good impression now that you smell like their daughter."

I pause.

"How bad?"

"Like, very. I can smell her in your clothes, your skin."

He leans into me and sniffs me, then scrunches up his nose in distaste.

"Goddamn, dude. Even your hair. What were you two doing?"

I let out a breath, exhaustion rushing through me almost immediately.

"I was shot three times. Hardly the time for any… frothing of loins."

"I'd say. Come on. Let's get our asses over there."

We walk into the conference room to find Gene standing by the refreshments. She pours herself a glass of water, and sips from it slowly before turning towards us.

The longing I'd felt at her departure disappeared almost instantly, and I made my way over to her with my brother following slowly behind me.

"Aren't you going to change? Maybe put on actual shoes?" she asks.

I glance down at the pink gliders on my feet, and shrug in dismissal.

"It doesn't matter. It's just the council," I repeated.

Gene hands me a glass of water, then leans over to press her hand against my forehead.

"You're a little warm. Are you feeling okay?"

I nodded, gulping down the water.

"I think I just need some more rest. I'm fine."

She frowns at me with concern, then lowers her hand as the first few members enter the room.

The first ones in are the Knights.

Gregory served as the Treasurer of the council, and was in charge of any and all finances linked to the town and the pack.

Aurora was legal counsel and advisor. She had only earned her chair a few months ago, and was still relatively new to the council.

The three of us split up to find our seats as Aurora's gaze swept over us suspiciously, and she sniffed the air before narrowing her eyes at Gene's back.

Rehan raises his brows pointedly my way, and I roll my eyes as the exhaustion I was feeling worsened.

Next in were Gene's parents. Her mother, the pack healer and seer, graced her with a supportive smile. Her father frowned intensely at her with a narrowed look. I wasn't sure why he had been invited to sit in on the meeting, since he didn't have an official seat on the coubcil.

Next was Silva, who I assumed would be the new head of security, who took his seat next to Gene. My parents, as the alphas, were the last ones in the room.

We stood up as they walked in, then sat back down when they did.

"Thank you all for coming. I apologise that this meeting has been called on such short notice, but it was important that we let you in on what happened."

I noticed that almost everyone's gazes were fixed on Gene, since most of them were curious about her presence at the meeting.

"My bellator, Russell Grahams, was murdered last night in the Black Hills Forest."

Except for myself, Gene and my parents, everyone displayed various reactions of shock. But of course, nobody spoke or even dared murmur while my father spoke.

"We believe that he was hunted down and shot by venatoribus, who we all know have been banned from this realm by the Accords. Not only have they committed a crime against this pack, but they have violated the rules set by the Supreme Council, so this act will be treated as treason against all supernatural creatures."

Well, damn.

Shit was about to hit the fan sideways.

"Wren, could you please account for your presence during last night's event."

All eyes turned to me, and I leaned forward in my borrowed sweats to tell them what had happened last night, carefully excluding the altercation between me and my parents before I disappeared into the forest.

They glance at Gene when I recount how she had come out of nowhere and saved my life from the venatoribus.

I do not miss the look the Knights throw her way, and when I wrap up my story, silence fills the room.

"Gene," my mother begins, leveling a neutral look her way. "What were you doing there in the middle of the night?"

"My mother has been having a series of bad dreams, quite common around this time of year for her. So I took a few herbs when I went to see her last week and she told me what her dreams were about."

She briefly summed up the nightmare.

"So I've been out there every night trying to find the clearing she described in her dream. I was hoping it could give me a clue as to what was coming. I was a few miles away when I heard Wren's roar. I ran towards the noise and found Wren surrounded by the venatoribus. I realised they meant to kill him, so I jumped in and did what I could."

"Is there a reason you neglected to tell the royal guard about what had just happened?" Gregory asked, his brow lifted.

"A bellator was lying dead in the forest while the Prince, and heir to this pack, had been lethally wounded. My first priority was saving his life. I called Silva about Russell's body so he could clean up the scene before anyone stumbled upon it.

"We have no idea who had the power to summon a venator, let alone three of them, but we need to assume that the person responsible is watching us. If I'd alerted everyone, the town would be filled with investigators and I would have been forced to leave His Highness's side to deal with that."

"But that is your job," my father argued.

"My job is ensuring the safety of every member of the pack. Your Majesty, Prince Wren is alive and healthy, Russell's body is safe from the hunters and the situation is contained. If we'd put this on blast, the pack would be scared and worried. If Prince Wren had died, it would have weakened us significantly. I did what I thought was best and I do not regret the way I handled the situation."

The silence in the room is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

My father let out a long breath.

"Father, Gene saved my life."

I add this last bit because I don't like how they seem to be accusing her of insubordination.

"We're not arguing that, but she should have told us immediately."

"So you could do what, exactly?" I argued. "Rush me back here and risk exposing that we know what happened? Send everyone into a craze over Russell's death? I will say this again, since the significance seems somewhat lost on some of you, but she saved my life."

I meet Gene's gaze for a second, and she nods subtly in gratitude for my words. I looked away before I'm pulled into that strange trance that hit me every time I looked at her for too long.

"If you don't mind me adding onto this, Your Majesty, I've taught Gene everything I know in regards to healing and medicines. Based on the fact that Prince Wren is sitting here after three bullets from those venatoribus, we can safely say that she did a good job."

"And if she's going to be punished for saving your son, then I might as well turn down your offer for bellator right now."

We all looked at Gene's father, who was leaning forward in his seat and glaring at my father.

"If Gene hadn't been out there, Wren would be dead right now. I understand your frustration at the situation, but we all would've done the same," Rehan added, tapping his finger onto the table.

"Fair enough," my mother said, lifting her chin. "We need to be on high alert. I've ordered more security, and I want us all to tackle this matter with the attention it needs. We believe that the people orchestrating this may be trying to assassinate us."

Obvious, really, if you think about it.

"Do you think it's similar to what happened all those years ago?" Gene's dad asked.

He's talking about the time every known supernatural creature was almost wiped from existence. It all happened over a thousand years ago, when every supernatural creature had a seat on the Supreme Council. Shifters, vampires, the Fae, magical practitioners, sea creatures, demons, dragons and angels. The Accords were created to help keep the peace between everyone, to prevent us from fighting with one another. The humans were becoming increasingly more dangerous, creating weapons that had the ability to actually kill us by the thousands if we weren't careful.

The sage who sat on the council decided to steal the grimoires hidden in the vault, and then used those spells to slaughter every single member on that council, brutally.

The dragons and most of the other shifters were practically wiped out, demons and angels fled to the underworld and the empyrean, respectively. Most of the Fae slipped into a separate realm where they couldn't be found, the sea creatures hid so deep beneath the waves that the sage couldn't track them down, magical practitioners created spells to help them hide from public view, which left the vampires and the werewolves.

The sage's power grew over the years, and he began to recruit others who shared the same principles as him. They believed the rest of us to be dirtied, and since most of us came from some form of dark magic, they didn't think we were worthy of this realm. They became known as The Twelve because they believed the number to represent perfection and order. There were exactly a dozen members of the organisation, each warlock, witch or sorcerer in charge of an element.

Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Thunder, Force, Ice, Moon, Light, Shadow, Flower and Time. They believed that without these, the world as we knew it, would fall apart entirely.

For a few centuries, werewolves and vampires were able to join forces and live amongst each other for protection. We shared our blood with them, and they helped protect us from the younger wolves from The Twelve. We were able to reproduce, whereas they could only increase their numbers by biting humans. Some of the younger vampires couldn't control themselves, and they started killing people for no reason. It got so bad that they began to pick us off too.

When the alphas realised what was happening, they tried to move their packs away from the vampires, but they couldn't decide on where to go. Like their ancestors, each alpha felt they knew better than the other, and so they decided it would be best to split ourselves from them.

Rowan Dagon had decided to band together the packs to fight The Twelve instead of hiding from them. He convinced the alphas to unite their packs and they were able to bring down The Twelve after centuries of murder and devastation.

Unfortunately, we suffered massive casualties, and we haven't really recovered from them since.

We split back up again, each alpha going their own way. Everything was fine for a few more years, but one day, the first pack's alpha and his beta were murdered. They had been able to get to him after killing his bellatrix. Thankfully, the pack had been spared.

Weeks after that, my father's pack had been attacked, but they had managed to fend off their attackers. Their alpha had been killed though, and his brother, my father, had survived because of Russell.

A month later, my grandfather died from what they claimed were natural causes. My grandmother took my mother and ran to Rowan's for his protection and they stayed there for a few years before they returned to take back the pack.

"It's very possible," my father agreed. "I think they're picking up where they left off. They know an alpha is vulnerable without a bellator to protect them."

"Gene, we need you on the offensive for this. We offered your father the position of bellator because he was one of my closest, and most trusted advisors before we united our packs. He and Silva will be in charge of defenses."

Gene nodded, as if she had been expecting that.

"We need to assume the venatoribus will be back for Russell's body. Wren got to it before they could take his soul from his body. They believe it's owed to them, so they won't hesitate to kill anyone and anything to get it."

"Does that mean Prince Wren is in danger too?" Aurora asks, her eyes flashing briefly with concern.

Gene's mother shakes her head. "His name wasn't on the list. They don't care about him. Besides, the alpha lines were never hunted by the venatoribus."

"Your Majesty, I think I have an idea," Gene says.

We all turned towards her.

"Every magical practitioner has a unique signature, which goes into every spell they cast. We can use the bullets I pulled from Wren to find out who summoned the venatoribus and track them down."

My mother nods approvingly, her brain working fast to process the information.

"Prince Wren had the idea that they may have used sacrifices like that coven did back in the day. We look for any missing person, ritualistic murders, maybe even a pattern. It should narrow our search to a specific location."

There's a murmur of agreement across the room and I glance at Gene, who winks discreetly my way.

"Tracking magical signatures isn't easy. We'll need someone very experienced in magic to do that."

"Unfortunately, I don't trust sorcerers or sages, for obvious reasons. Lorelei, can you do this?"

Gene's mother shook her head. "I use medicines, potions and herbs to heal, but I don't have the power to cast spells or anything along those lines."

"I do know a sage, actually."

"Not surprising," Gregory mumbles.

"What? What's that, Mr. Knight?" Gene asks, leaning over to look at Aurora's father.

He shakes his head, and Gene narrows her eyes slightly at him in warning. If I wasn't so exhausted, I would actually laugh at the look on his face.

"Bartholomew Maddox is a friend of mine. He's a bit of an eccentric character, and he'll definitely demand something in return, but he will help us."

"Where is he?" my mother asked.

"Last I heard, he was in London. But it's possible he may be at his vacation home in the country. I'll call him and set up a meeting."

My mother nods.

"We'll need to alert the other alphas so they know what's going on. My husband and I will personally take care of that. Gene, you go to London with Wren and Rehan to find the sage. I think they'll be safer elsewhere for the time being. You leave tonight. I'll have my assistant get the private plane ready. Hunter and Lorelei, you look into those missing persons reports. Aurora, you'll assist them. Call up any connections you have to help get a lead. Silva, you're in charge of security as of right now. We keep communication regarding this matter off the phones, in case we've been bugged. We will meet in two days to discuss progress."

"If we're leaving tonight, we'll need to transfer the body before nightfall in case they return before the next full moon. We'll need to move quickly."

"We'll take care of that," Silva says, nodding in my direction. "I'll go with Gene while you and Prince Rehan pack for your trip."

"Everyone get to your tasks. We don't have much time. Dismissed."