Chosen by The Fates: The prophecy

Chapter IV - Facing the crowd

It’s been four days since me and Kim have been pretty much locked in the Council House. Last night, her heat ended and everyone is coming back to the house today. I hope by now Ambrogio has brought everyone up to speed with what has happened and I don’t have to explain anything to anyone. The only one I really didn‘t want to face was Kerbe. I had no idea how he was going to react and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to find out.

“What are you thinking about? Kimmy asked, getting rid of the towel on her head and letting her wet curly dark brown hair spill out of its confinement. Her olive skin had a special glow, as the morning rays breaking through the half-drawn curtains were gracing her skin. I just stood there for a minute and admired this magnificent beast in all of her glory as she took her bathrobe off and got dressed. For the past four days, all we’ve done was mate to ease her heat and I am pretty sure If I was naked right now I’d just just pull her on top of me and continue for four more days.

Fuck! She has to learn how to control this or it will get hard to do anything else besides her.

“Just before your heat started, I was talking with Ambro about what happened between us. Apparently you have a latent succubus side and it looks like you kind of imprinted on me when you drank my blood.” I said, rubbing my neck. “He thinks I will be the only one that will be able to teach you how to control this.” I said, gesturing between us.

“Okay, that makes sense. So what is this that we ” she mockingly pointed between us like I had done an instant ago, “are training?” She leaned in close to me and I could feel her warm breath on my neck.

“You are making it very hard for me to focus on anything else that isn’t you at the moment.” I said, and she looked down, smirking triumphantly. I rearranged myself and continued, before she got the chance to continue whatever thoughts were going on in that pretty head of hers. “And I may not have a mate, but you do and he won’t be very happy with me as it is.” I said, trying to get her attention back to our problem. “Because you imprinted on me, I will have to teach you how to control your new powers. You will become very territorial of me, which is why you will be training with me until we get your new...abilities under control. You will also have to sleep in my room. It shouldn’t be longer than a month considering we will ascend soon. Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.” I put my hands on each side of her face and gently kissed her lips.

I reminded her our family would be here soon, so she got dressed and we went downstairs for breakfast. The staff that left was back, getting the house ready to receive people again. Shortly after we had breakfast, the house began to fill with people. One by one, they came home and we decided to move into the conference room for a more private space. I began to worry when I didn't see Kerbe show up. Was he that mad that he would disrespect his Alpha like this? As I was about to ask Larna what was going on, Kerbe burst through the door.

“Your majesty, future King and my Alpha, before this meeting starts I would like to ask for a moment, in private, if possible?” he quickly spoke, as if losing his patience. I nodded and walked out of the room with him behind me. As soon as the door closed behind him, I turned to ask what he wanted to talk to me about, knowing full well what he wanted. I didn't turn around properly when his fist struck me in the face. I lost my footing for a minute and stumbled onto the wall on my left.

“Bit of a s**t move, this was. Kerbe, you don’t punch a man when he isn’t looking.” I spat the blood that was in my mouth and looked him in the eyes while straightening my clothes.

“Bit of a s**t move to mate with my sister for four days!” he was shaking and his jaw was clenched as he spoke “don’t you think you deserved more than just a punch? Be happy you still have your fangs, prick!” He bit angrily and I could see his green glimmering eyes turning black, then back to green again, signaling I should be very careful what I said next.

“Listen, Kerbe, I’m very sorry I slept with your sister. Like Ambro probably already told you, she has a latent succubus side and she got me under her spell. I shouldn’t have done any of that s**t and, trust me, I tried my best to resist her. I had failed miserably, and when her heat started I lost my mind. I barely remember the past three days as it is! I didn’t really mean for any of this to happen. You know very well that I had no desire to do this in the past, but since she imprinted on me I don’t really get a choice.” I raised my voice maybe a bit more than was necessary, as Kim came out of the conference room before Kerbe got the chance to say anything back.

“Kerbe, please, could you stop this? I am not a little girl anymore and I can take care of myself. Killian didn’t do anything that I didn’t want him to do. You are going to have to get used to it, because it is probably going to happen up until we ascend. Now, let’s get back to the meeting before you two get the chance to destroy this wing of the house.” She put her hand on her brother and nudged him back in the room. He put up some resistance, but completely gave in when she reached up and hugged him. She whispered something in his ear and he opened the door and went into the conference room. When I saw him sitting down on the chair, I too walked back in and closed the door after me.

“Now, if there are no more interruptions, I would like to start this meeting.” I said, and sat down in my chair at the top of the table. They all nodded and I continued “I assume by now Ambro has already explained to all of you what has happened and what will happen for the next month, until we ascend.” I looked at everyone before I stopped on Hades and said “Des, I want to apologise for this, like I told your son, this was not something I planned on.” I turned to glare at Kerbe remembering the surprise punch he threw, like the wuss he is.

“Killian, we are all beasts, some of us more violent than others, but we do understand what succubi can do and we are just glad Kimmy will be taken care of while learning how to take control of her new powers. Let’s just hope her mate doesn’t come in the picture or you’ll be f****d, kid.” He said and started laughing, which also drew a laugh from almost everyone, besides Kerbe and his mom.

“I don’t agree with this happening...” Persephone started but didn’t get the chance to finish.

“I knew it! I’m not crazy, tell him mom!” Kerbe rudely interrupted his mother. She just glared at him and continued:

“BUT… Des is right, she will be taken care of and this will all be over after her ascension. It doesn’t mean I like it, but it has happened and there is nothing we can do about it.” She looked at Kim, who was sitting next to her and she grabbed her hand to reassure her.

“Okay, well then, if that’s settled…” I drifted off when I caught sight of my mom. She wasn’t showing any signs of disappointment. That was good, right? “Mom, are you okay?” I asked her, not knowing what I was getting into.

“I’m fine, I mean, you’ve been doing this with loads of other girls before, so the only thing shocking here is just the fact that it is Kimmy. Which is slightly gross. But like Kora said, there’s not much we can do, so ...” She raised her glass and downed the remaining contents in one go. Vodka, as per usual.

“Wow, mom, vodka at 10 o’clock in the morning. Classy.” I scoffed.

“Killian Demetry Romanov, if you ever speak to me like that again I will back slap you into tomorrow. You may be the future King, but remember I am still the Queen of an entire kingdom and your mother on top. So, if you want to be treated like the King you will be, you will treat me like the Queen that I am, young man. I have lived many centuries before I had you, hybrid or not, I will beat the living s**t out of you and you will learn to respect us.” she put her hand up in the air and I could feel an invisible hand wrap around my throat. I couldn’t believe my own mother was trying to choke me. “When you f**k around with people’s lives like this, you don’t get to judge other people’s choices. Do you understand me, you little s**t?” I guess she wasn’t as happy about this as I thought. I concentrated on what little air I could still breathe and focused on breaking the walls of her mind. Considering how much she drank and the amount of anger she was holding onto, it wasn’t hard for me to break down the walls and get into her head. I then proceeded to force her brain to think of spiders crawling on her, her biggest fear. It had to counteract the anger, right? She released me from her invisible grip and the next thing I know, her glass comes flying for my head and it would’ve gotten it, had I not moved out of the way at the last second. I looked at her in shock and she just yelled: “I am going to kill you, you little s**t!” as she was making her way over to me, Ambro intercepted her and grabbed her hand while Hades grabbed her other hand. Theo then placed his hands on her cheeks and whispered something in Greek before her body went limp. Ambro and Des carried my mom outside of the room while head gesturing for everyone to follow. I got off the floor not really processing what just happened when Theo asked me:

“What did you do to her to let you go, kid?” He put one hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes.

“I made her think spiders were crawling on her.” I said, trying not to laugh.

“Are you f*****g insane Killian? Spiders are one of her worst fears, probably after losing you. No wonder she f*****g threw the glass at you. You’re lucky to be alive, kid. I’ve seen the woman kill a pack of rogues with her bare hands just because the wolves were disrespectful to her. You have to understand, she is still a Queen by blood and a violent one at that. That is what you get for pushing her buttons for the past week.” Theo said while walking to the bar and pouring himself a glass of whiskey.

“I know, that’s why I’ve done it. She would’ve suffocated me otherwise and I really am not a fan of the headache I get when I wake up. She may be a Queen, but soon that throne will be mine and she is having a hard time accepting me as her King. If I hadn't done that to her, I would have been a weak King. She now knows she is no longer the strongest being in the room and she has to get used to it. What did you do to her anyway? I saw you whispering something to her before she passed out.” I looked at him for an explanation of what had just happened.

“I put her to sleep. You forget that I have been with Circe for the past millennia. The mate bond is not only spiritual, in a way, you share each other’s magic as well. I may have learned a spell or two in all of this time.” he chuckled lightly, and downed the remaining of his drink. He walked to the bar and poured himself some more, then he took out a glass, poured some in it and passed it to me. I took it. After all, my mother had just attempted to establish her dominance over me by strangling me with her affinity. Top of the morning y’all.

“Things haven’t gone exactly as planned lately, you know, Kim imprinting on me, her heat, Kerbe being pissed off, my mother trying to kill me, none of this s**t was planned. It’s f*****g up with my plans and I don’t like that at all. The closer we get to ascending, the more violent we become and everyone seems to consider that this is the right time to question our abilities to lead these kingdoms. If this carries on like this, we might have to go away until the ascension, which in itself isn’t a bad idea. I can’t be bothered to deal with childish behaviour from those that claim that they want to protect us. So, I am going to count on you, to call yet another f*****g meeting, hoping this one will go better, where, hopefully, I get to tell everyone what I need them to do, if this doesn’t work, I’ll have to execute plan B.” I said to him and downed the contents of the glass.

“When do you want to meet up again?” Theo asked and looked at me with a worried expression. “What is plan B?”

“As soon as possible, maybe give them today to burn down whatever frustration everyone is feeling. I want the triplets to train with me tonight, everyone else can do whatever they want.” I put the glass down and made my way to the door. “For this family’s sake, I hope it doesn’t get to plan B, Theo.”

I walked out of the room, heading for the back door. I shifted into my wolf form once I got into the woods and put up my mental block, not wanting to deal with anyone else for the remainder of the day. I did not imagine that the people that have been raising us would have such little confidence in our abilities to lead and protect. Since we were born, all we’ve ever done was train for this specific reason, to take over and rule Nezarches. We’ve devoted our lives to the prophecy we'd been part of before we were even born. Instead of focusing on the issues we were going to face once we ascended, our family was adamant we were not ready to step into this role.

I stopped running and slowly made my way over to the clearing where the lake was. I shifted back and made my way into the lake. The cold water of the lake felt great on my bare skin, as if it was washing away all remnants of the anger I felt earlier. I would lie if I said I didn’t understand their fears. I did. I was also scared for the triplets losing their lives in the process, just as the prophecy says. However, as a future King of all races, I cannot let this fear cloud my judgement nor stand in the way of fate. I got out of the water and I could hear paws making their way over to where I was, so I decided to drop my mental block just in case anyone was trying to get to me. As soon as it dropped I could hear Kimmy’s voice in my head:

“Killian, where the f**k are you?!” she yelled at me through our mind-link.

“I’m at the lake. What happened?” I asked, getting worried at the anxiety in her voice.

“Your mom has woken up and she’s asking for you. That and I, uhm… kind of need you.” I swear I could see her cheeks blushing from that last part.

“Tell her I will speak to her tomorrow. I am not in the mood for another face-off with my own mother. Go wait for me in my room, I’ll be there shortly.” As soon as I closed the link with Kimmy I could hear the paws getting closer and closer.

“I can hear you, you big, fat prick.” I said as he came closer and closer. He shifted back and spoke:

“I’m not fat. You’re fat. “ He rolled his eyes at me and huffed. “I am sorry for punching you in the face earlier. It was a s**t move. I was just angry at you for sleeping with my sister. You don’t have to run away, I will continue to be your bestie.” He said mockingly and looked at me. “You good, man?”

“I’m… fine. Like I said, it wasn’t in my plans to sleep with Kim… It sort of just happened…” I rubbed the back of my neck feeling awkward, knowing he was here, apologising, when I knew what I would be doing in a bit. “No need to apologise, Kerb, I deserved it. And probably many more, but thank you for granting me the honour of you being my best friend, it means the world to me.” I crossed my hands over my chest to fake the honour, playing along in his game. He laughed wholeheartedly and I was happy to have my friend back. “Anyway, how’s things at the house? Is my mom still raging?”

“Kind of, not wanting to kill you anymore, swapped to Theo and Des now. Probably ‘cause you ain’t there.” he could barely hold in a laugh to finish that sentence.

“Yeah, Kim told me she woke up and was asking for me. I’m not going to be around her today. She needs to chill the f**k down and feed. I know she hasn’t been feeding. Ever since Theo told her I could last three weeks without feeding, she’s been starving herself to prove that no one can take her crown. Not even her son.” I sighed and let my head fall down, finally admitting my defeat.

“You think that’s what she’s doing? Asserting dominance?” He laughed.

“Partly. I’m too angry right now to think of anything else. Come on, let’s get back, training in an hour.” I got up and held my hand out to him, not sure if he was going to accept it.

“I was hoping Theo was joking when he said training is on…” he looked at my hand for a few moments and then took it and I pulled him slightly to aid him in getting up. We’ve been doing this since we were five, when Kerbe and Larna both broke their left legs snowboarding in Switzerland. They were having trouble getting back up on their feet with the cast, so me and Kimmy started offering them a “helping hand”. We laughed so hard when we made that pun. We were only five, we hadn't even had our first ascension yet, so their healing powers weren’t quite as developed as they are now.

“Yeah, no, we need to be prepared for next month when I take over the throne and we both also need an outlet. Have you spoken to the others recently?” I asked him while we were making our way back to the house.

“I have actually. They are prepared for us whenever we may come. I went ahead and told them we might have to come earlier, thinking they needed time to set up everything, but when I spoke to Ben he said everything was up and running, already.” He looked at me with a smirk on his face and said “ We haven’t raced in a while. Wanna see who makes it back to the house first?”

“Go on then, give it your best. You’re going to lose anyway, but please do try.” I smirked confidently at him and started running towards the mansion. He got a slight advantage and I let him have it while I waited for the last corner to take the advantage away. I reached the back garden first, with Kerbe right behind me.

“I did tell you, didn’t I, Kerb? I’ll see you in an hour. Do not be late.” I laughed, looking at him over my shoulder, and he rolled his eyes but nodded. I walked upstairs and into my room. Having completely forgotten, I told Kimmy to wait for me in my room. When I got in, she was sitting on the side of the bed with her arms crossed over her chest.

“What took you so long?” she pouted.