Chosen by The Fates: The prophecy

Chapter I - A King’s business

“Come on! Right hook, Killian! Dammit boy, go harder, this isn’t a joke.” Prometheus yelled at me for the hundredth time today. I don’t think he understands that if I did go harder than this he might have some serious injuries.

“Theo, don’t you think it’s enough for today? We’ve been training since six o’clock in the morning. Give me a break!” I yelled back at him, avoiding one of his jabs. Uncle Theo has been one of my favourites ever since I could walk and talk and he is the one that taught me most of the things my father should have.

He stopped and walked to the side of the training field to pick up a bottle of water. “Killian, you are only twenty-four, if you are already tired now, after six hours of sparring, how are you going to be after millenia of wars?” He plastered a smug smile on and tossed me a bottle of water. I caught it with ease and started drinking it whilst making my way over to him.

“There we go again with this shit.” I replied, rolling my eyes. “Listen uncle, I understand the gravity of the situation, but like you said, I am the only one that can trigger the next Purge, and I will never do that. I love Kerbe, Lerna and Kimmy as if they were my own siblings, we practically grew up together. There is no reason why I need to have six hours worth of human form training.” I looked into his eyes and didn’t see the same laid back confidence he was usually sporting. “Is there something bothering you, uncle? You aren’t your usual self.”

“Everything’s fine, boy, I just want you to be prepared for anything. You know what happened the day you were born. I do not want a repeat of that day. We lost more than we were prepared to lose and even if that happened a long time ago, I cannot stop thinking that she wasn’t working alone. There has to have been someone controlling her.” He voiced out while lost in his thoughts. He was blaming himself for the loss of my father and almost losing my mother and me. He always has, and even if he would never admit it, I knew he wished my father was alive as much as I did.

“Uncle Theo, you and the rest of the Impartials practically raised me and you are worried about what someone could do to me? I haven’t even fully ascended into my vampire side and I could probably kill this whole city with the scent manipulation affinity alone. I know you are looking out for me, but I am no longer a helpless boy. You should relax. Besides, I’m training with the triplets later tonight and I need to feed before then.” I said, trying to take his attention away from his guilt and into something productive for him.

“How long has it been since you last fed? Have you kept track, like Ambro told you?” he asked, making my attempt to distract him successful.

“It’s been 3 weeks. I have, yes. I’m going over to his later on to discuss the start-up date of my feeding training. It has to be done within the month, I can feel another level-up coming.” I chuckled and pointed to his bag, letting him know I was really done with training.

“You are getting well cocky, boy! You might require another ass-kicking soon, just to bring you back to reality.” he picked up his bag, put it over his bulky shoulder and started walking back home and I followed him. As much as I hate to admit, Prometheus was a big man. It shouldn’t surprise me since he was a fully-ascended God, while I was a hybrid youngling. Royal and powerful, but nowhere near the power he had. He stood slightly taller than me, at 6’4, with broad back and shoulders that have tackled me more than once, and long muscular legs that have kicked the s**t out of me one too many times. Yet, the worst was always when he managed to put his hands and arms on me, and more often than not, it would end in a choke-hold and his triceps alone used to be the size of my own head. The man is a beast. A true beast. There's no denying that. But, so am I, and with every ascension I become bigger, the power surge forcing my body to adapt to the new amount of power that is being stored in it. It is one of the main reasons why hybrids that have both sides active are so rare. Because the ascension alone will kill them before they can get powerful enough to be killed by others. It’s the way magic balances itself out.

“I think we both know I was holding back a lot this time… Uncle, I’d hate to see you getting hurt by your favourite nephew!” I mocked him, laughing softly. He turned to me and smacked my head:

“You know, I blame your mother for this, she is way too proud of her “little baby”, it’s getting to your head. You think you could hurt me? You are foolish, young man. There is much to learn. I will teach you everything I know, maybe someday you’ll be able to beat me!” he said and burst out laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. Keep telling that to yourself, old man. If you want to see me go all-out, come to the training session tonight, and you shall see power unfold.” I laughed as well.

“Very well then. Please put on a show for me. Wait, you are going all-out on your brother and sisters?” his face went from full-on laugh to shock and then concern. His usual, whenever me and the triplets were together.

“Yes, I do. It’s three of them, they would break my claws and fangs if I didn’t. They grow back though. Only mine, their fangs don’t grow back.” I shrugged and continued to climb the steps of the back patio.

“Wait, what! You can’t be serious. When your fangs were ripped out last spring, you didn’t actually get them ripped by rogues, did you? One of them little shits ripped them out?” he was still shocked, and slightly appalled.

“It was Kimmy, she had just got her fire affinity and she wanted to see if she could take them out without even being close to me. It was good timing with the rogues, a good cover-up story.” I laughed, but then, as I looked at him, he was no longer shocked but enraged.

“When Larna and Kerbe both got most of their claws cut, that was you?” he asked through gritted teeth. I was starting to lose my confidence as his aura was getting darker and darker. Maybe I shouldn’t have called him to watch tonight’s training session.

“Yup, all me, I had just ascended and got my mind manipulation affinity. I broke their mind barrier and got them to aim to cut each other’s nails in a fight. Kimmy missed that session.” I was quite afraid of his reaction, but he only cursed and started walking away from me, no further questions and I’d lie if I said I wasn’t happy about that. I thought it would be better to let the triplets know about this too, so I walked in through the back door, into the main living area and was about to go upstairs into Kimmy’s room when Larna popped out of the kitchen, her eyes glowing bright blue. Not a good sign.

“You told uncle Theo we fought for real? What were you thinking, Killian?” she yelled at me while stepping dangerously close to me. “There is a reason why we kept it hidden, remember? Now he freaked out and called daddy. Mom knows and we are all f****d. She’s on her way here with your mom and they are both raging. You need to fix this shit.” she raised her finger, threatening me. As I was about to reply to her, Kimmy and Kerbe came down the stairs, also throwing me angry glares.

“Not cool, man. Not cool.” was the only thing Kerbe said to me and before we knew it, our moms were sitting behind me, in the living room.

What followed was the worst and most irrelevant hour and a half of my life. They couldn’t stop us and they knew it, but they liked to make our lives miserable by constantly treating us as if we weren’t some of the most powerful beasts of Nezarches. In the end, we all agreed on “never training all-out on our own ever again”. They were all under the impression that we were wild teenagers that used to get in trouble all the time. That wasn’t the case. Never was. After my father died, saving me and my mother from sharing the same fate, the Lycan Kingdom was left without a King. Thankfully, my father’s brother, uncle Cromus, took over the throne until I ascended and got to the age where I could be crowned. At the same time, my mother will also have to pass the throne of the Vampire Kingdom to me, as her single heir. The plan is for me to unify both Kingdoms, having Kerbe as my Beta, the right hand of the King, Larna as my Gamma,the royal protector, and Kimmy as my Delta, otherwise known as a Hunter or a Tracker. We all had to be in top shape and if we can’t handle each other, then we can’t handle others. I explained this to our mothers, and agreed never to train without supervision, but the two women in front of me kept ignoring all reason, dazed in a dangerous, overprotective high.

“ENOUGH!” my voice boomed through the entire ground floor and the walls were shaken with the power that rolled off me. “As a future King of not one, but two Kingdoms, I expect to be treated as such! I have explained myself when I had no obligation to do so. What I chose to do with the training of my future leading team has got nothing to do with any of you! I am your King and you shall respect that. The triplets are like my siblings and I would NEVER endanger them. Yes, we used our affinities in training, and that's how it will be from now on.” I turned to the triplets with my chest heaving heavily, trying to control my anger. “Tonight’s training session is still on. Midnight. Do not be late.” I let the command roll off my tongue, knowing they would all have to obey. I didn’t want to do this to my family. Alas, they left me no choice. They wanted me to become King; they would have to start treating me like a King and stop questioning my methods, especially when they know nothing of them. We have not only hidden training from them and they were in for a very rude awakening.

I walked out of the room and went upstairs, into my room. I dumped my bag on the floor of the bathroom and jumped into the shower hoping it would help calm me down. I knew there wasn’t a chance it would, but I continued to angrily scrub away today’s inconveniences. I needed to feed in order to keep my anger in check. I got out of the shower and went into the dressing and grabbed a pair of shorts. I threw them over the balcony and jumped over the railing, shifting half-way through my fall, and I started running towards Ambrogio’s house. When I got there, Ambro was waiting for me on the front porch with a blood-bag in his hand. Which could only mean news of my latest outburst had reached him already.