Blackheart

.XIV.

"What do you mean 'I don't get a say in this'!" he bellowed, "Those are my pups you are carrying, or did you forget?". The way he had stated that irked me and touched all the wrong places. I stood up and growled at him, baring my fangs, which were longer and sharper than his. He stared at me, shocked, and took several steps back away from me. I glowered at him from where I stood.

"This conversation is over," I said between gritted teeth.

The meeting was interrupted by our mail omega pounding on the door. Midnight looked to me, and I nodded, and he let her in. I made silent notice that she had the same scent that had lingered on Atto, the scent of an omega marking her alpha, not only that but he had scented her as well as she seemed to be in the early stages of pregnancy.

“Excuse my interruption, Alpha...Luna, you have a letter from Queen Aphrodite of The Amazonian Night Pack.” She handed me the letter and left the room in a hurry. I looked at Hephaestus, who nodded at the envelope in my hands. The sender said, “Queen Aphrodite Blackheart-Marvel.” My eyes widened in shock. It was from my grandmother. I tore open the envelope, took out the letter, and read it aloud.

“My Dearest Tempest, I am sorry that you had to endure what you did for all those years. Your grandfather and I could not intervene. You see, when you and your brother were born, you were born with the gifts of our family, and therefore, the rightful heir to the thrones, your elder brother, Ares, did not like that. Your mother took you away from us and moved to your father’s old pack so that you and Cato would have a chance to grow up normal, without the burdens of a crown. We would visit you from time to time, but on the night your parents had died, we witnessed it all but were too slow and far out to do anything, and by the time we had gotten there, you and your brothers were already taken to the packhouse. Your grandfather and I tracked down those Lycans for days but came up short. I soon had to return to the palace, and your grandfather took Cato to his old castle. I do not have all the details as to what transpired after that. But as proof that it is me, do you remember The Morro Castle in Cuba? You and your brothers Cato and Phoenix loved it there. You three would play endlessly on the shores of the beach, your grandfather had to drag you in for lunch and dinner. You, my little Lua, would stow away on the nights of a full moon and sit and stare at it for hours until you fell asleep singing The Lullaby of The Moon, every version you knew. And your grandfather says ‘hello, little vixen’, by the way. We will be there soon enough to explain everything; for now, we have sent an envoy to your pack to settle things. Love Grangran.”

When I finished reading the letter I tipped over the envelope, and a heart-shaped locket fell out. My name was inscribed on it. I opened it, and it revealed a photo of a three-year-old Cato and me in front of Morro Castle, hugging and being hugged by our mother with Grangran standing behind us, laughing. Six months before the incident that changed my life, that gave me nightmares. My hands began shaking, and I placed my hand on my growing belly.

“It was her. It is my gran.” I said, crumbling to the floor as tears spilled down my cheeks.

“How do you know?” Wyatt asked, taking the letter from my hands.

“Because Morro Castle is a family relic, humans think of it as an attraction, but we went there for vacations. And no one knows about my singing the moon’s lullabies.” I said, “Also, I’ve been smelling Cato, over and over, but was always too slow.” They nodded, understanding what my mind was transcribing

It had been a couple of weeks since we found out about Helion’s plan to attack. Lycan pregnancy clearly moved faster than werewolf pregnancies. I was now a month pregnant with a small baby bump and twins growing inside of me. Calypso, Ilta, and I were walking through the halls of the packhouse when I caught the scent of Cato in the passing breeze. As my head whipped around, a warrior came rushing to our side.

“My apologies, Luna Ororo, but Alpha Atto sent me because a vampire was spotted at our borders,” he said. My eyes widened in shock, and I made my way to the front door and toward the scent.

"Midnight!" I called. He came bounding up my side in his wolf form, and I jumped on his back and signaled to head toward the border.

“Atto tell them to hold their fire and withdraw!” I demanded through our mind-link.

“What? Why would I do that?” he asked

“IT'S MY BROTHER! IT'S CATO!” I screamed back. There was no reply, but I heard the wolves continue to advance. He remained pissy after I continued with my decision to make Hephaestus our personal guard. Midnight had gotten there before Atto and the other warriors. He stopped and stood in the middle of the vast forest, and a figure appeared before us. His dark, chocolaty skin glowed in the evening sun’s rays, his long curly raven black hair still had that streak of deep fiery red on the left, that I remembered being opposite to my own deep red hair with a black streak on the right, and his striking blue eyes paired and complimented my bright purple ones. As our eyes met, he smiled that stupid crooked smile he always did.

“Cato?” I asked.

“Hey, Tuk-tuk,” he replied, calling me that stupid nickname our dad had given me. I climbed down from Midnight's back and walked slowly over to him...watching, analyzing, memorizing. When I'd gotten in a suitable range, I pulled back and punched him in his face and grabbed his shirt, pulling him close, and began to cry.

“How could you leave me like that!” I yelled, “You promised me! You promised that you would never leave me! But you did! You left me to suffer alone!”. He simply hugged me and sank to the floor, apologizing.

“I’m sorry, Roro,” he said, gently brushing my hair with his hand. “There was nothing I could do. I was already almost dead when grandfather and grandmother found me. Grandfather turned me into a full vampire and took me back to his castle to train me on how to control my vampire urges, rage, and whatnot. I stowed away occasionally and came to see you; I wanted so badly to tear Ares’ tongue from his mouth and break all of his bones for hurting you. Then I saw you found your mate. I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner." Atto broke the thicket of trees and, looking at us, he walks over. The way he spat the word mate tells me he knows what Atto has done to me.

“I take it you are the envoy gran was speaking of.” Atto said, “And judging by your looks, my mate’s twin.”. Cato smiled at him, flashing his pearly white fangs, and nodded.

“Cato Blackheart,” he said, stretching his hand to Atto, who took it gladly. Atto winced as Cato squeezed his hand. Atto pulled his hand away, rubbing it as he watched Cato embrace me again.

“Uh, you may want to watch for her claws; they tend to come out when she’s really sad, angry, or feels endangered now that she’s pregnant,” Atto said to Cato.

"At you maybe," Cato answered quietly. Cato then turned his head to me, noticing my baby bump, and lifted me into his arms. He walks over to Midnight and places me back on his back. The walk back to the pack-house was tense and quiet.

“Why don’t you come inside? We have an extra room on the top floor.” Atto said, walking to the packhouse.

"Like I need your permission, mutt," Cato replied, brushing past Atto. We went up to our floor and into Atto and I’s room. Cato explained in detail all that had happened from the time of our parents’ death to our current situation. I laid curled up on our air mattress as Cato spoke.

“The Royal Archives say that the only way a Dark Alpha can truly become powerful is my marking and mating a royal child,” Cato says “but the thing is, this Dark Alpha seems to be about our age, so he couldn’t have possibly known that Ororo was the she-wolf that he was to mate to ascend to power, even if he had a witch, Ororo was hidden. This means that the Dark Alpha before him, his father, knew of Ororo and told him, groomed him just for the day he would take her away. Whether it be against her will or if she came willingly. And if she had any close companions, say her females beta, gamma, and warrior, he’d take them too and give them to his beta, gamma, and warrior.”