Chosen by The Fates: The prophecy

Chapter X - The beginning

“What do you mean the meeting is postponed?” my mom asked me, glaring daggers at me. Her hunger was strong and her aura powerful and dominant, fit for the queen of vampires. However, the violence in this room was making my gums itch for my fags to come out. I had to switch to feeding daily, although I was burning through my stash quicker than I could replenish it.

“The Triton King was assassinated last night. Their House has been taken by surprise and, as you would expect, the Royal Court is mourning the loss of their King, as well as busy with preparations for Amariel’s coronation as the next Queen. She is due to take over in eight days, after the mandatory seven-day mourning period has passed. While I understand that it is incredibly annoying to have to account for someone else’s vulnerability these days, I’d kindly ask you, mother, that you control your temper or leave the territory because, in the eventuality that you do end up losing it and I end up losing as much as one member of my kingdom, I will lock you in the holding cells and forget to feed you for a couple of days.” I said to her, losing my patience.

No wonder other Houses knew her as The Mad Queen. The previous King, my grandfather, was a barbarian. When he found his mate, my grandmother, it made little to no difference to his cruel ways. He forced my grandmother to flee with my unborn mother in her womb after he found out his heir was going to be a girl. He tried to murder my pregnant grandmother. She managed to escape and stayed hidden for fifteen years, until he found her and killed her. Fortunately for me, he couldn’t find my mother. Unfortunately for him, that was his last mistake, for my mother vowed that night to avenge her mother and take over the throne, which she did. Meeting my father and having me were the only good things that happened in her life and she would often say that my father was the one that showed her kindness and love and taught her how to be a better Queen for her people. Losing my father did nothing but revert everything that he had taught her. She will never be that person again, not without my father. And when he died, that part of her had died with him.

“Just try it and see what happens.” She growled at me. I could feel Jax pushing to the surface and, for once, we were in agreement. I couldn’t be bothered to deal with another one of her tantrums and he was more than happy to put her back in her place. Vampire Queen or not, he was her King. He pushed forward and I let him take control.

“Anastasiia. I’d say it is a pleasure to see you again, but I would be lying.” Jax said, leaning back in the chair and taking a swig of whiskey in the glass.

“f**k you, you mutt. Bring my son back, you worthless shit.” she hissed at him. Her hate for wolves was more evident than ever. In her hunger-induced daze she even forgot Jax was a part of me. Maybe I was wrong to think I could let her be in charge. I now see that an alliance between wolves and vampires will never happen as long as she is in power. How was I going to challenge my own mother?

“Now, now Ana, this isn’t the way you address your King." Before I could do anything, Jax got up and grabbed her throat, pinning her to the door across the room. “I am only going to say this once, so you better listen carefully. You will never disrespect your King ever again. If you do, you will bear the same circumstances as everyone else. Which means we get to decide what punishment is suitable for you, and you better pray that I am not strong enough to take over, because if I do, I will not hesitate to bathe in your blood. He is fighting for control, if you are wondering." I wasn't." Consider this next time you’re thinking of disrespecting us.” He said and let her go. She fell on the floor in front of us and looked back up at Jax, her eyes glowing a brilliant shade of red.

“You wouldn’t dare! He will hate you forever!” She yelled angrily at him.

“He’ll get over it, after all we have eternity together.” He gave her a wicked smile and went back to the desk to finish our drink. He then stepped back and let me take over. I felt guilty seeing my mother on the floor, broken like that. Just as I stepped forward to help her up, Jax flashed in my mind the image of me lying on the floor after she had forcefully released me from her mental choke hold, a couple of days ago. He was right. I could not continue doing this. My mother’s tantrums were starting to take their toll on me and my pack and I couldn’t afford to let her destroy everything I had worked so hard for.

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and the image in front of me tore my heart open. It shouldn’t have to be like this. I shouldn’t have to force her to submit. I was about to say something but she got up and stormed out of my office. As soon as she did, Kerbe stepped in.

“Another one?” he asked me with an understanding look.

“Yep. I let Jax take over, he threatened to kill her next time she disrespects us.” I said, filling my glass.

“I heard, can’t say I’m surprised. She’s been a lot to handle lately and I am quite surprised by the level of control you’ve had thus far. It was bound to happen. Meeting postponed until next Thursday then?” He gave me a wicked smile.

“Dammit! Have I forgotten to press the f*****g thing again?” Yet again I had forgotten to soundproof the room. We have included in the design of the whole house an operated system to soundproof the rooms. We initially designed the bedrooms to be soundproof, until someone broke through the balcony and tried to kill me. After that attempt, we decided that all rooms in the house should be soundproofed with the press of a button. Which I, of course, had forgotten to press, which in turn meant that the entire scene from earlier had probably been heard by everyone in the house.

“Yes, you did. Don’t worry, we cleared the house for the time being. It was just the three of us.” He got up and headed for the door before he stopped and continued “The review is coming up at the end of the week, we’re going to need to hold a meeting. For now, we should keep everything as it is, until the level-up. Then we can move onto the permanent positions like we’ve discussed.“ I nodded and he left, closing the door behind him.

In retrospect, the meeting being postponed was good for us. By the end of the week, we would have stepped into our final positions. We would have even more power and it would be a brilliant display. I couldn’t help the smile that was taking over my face. These coming days are going to be a treat. Hyped by the anticipation, I decided to go into the simulation room. I asked Kerbe if he was going to monitor it for me and he agreed. When I got into the ops room, Kerbe was already in there, setting up the parameters of the simulation.

“What is it going to be today, my King? Shall I throw some entrancing sirens your way? Or maybe some cunning witch?” He laughed.

“Whatever, I don’t care. Just make it difficult for me. I don’t want to know my name when we're done.” I stretched my arms over my head and cracked my head side to side, preparing for the simulation to start.

“Have it your way then.” Kerbe started the simulation. The room morphed into a forest and three enemies appeared in front of me.

“What are they, Kerbe?” I asked while seizing the three females in front of me.

“You will see, Killian. Is there someone on the battlefield to let you know?” He did have a point. However, on the battlefield, I could smell the power in my opponents' blood and it would speak to me. The simulation wasn’t this accurate, couldn't be either. No matter how much we tried, we weren’t able to integrate any scent whatsoever. Regardless, I made my way to the girl in the centre. As I got close to her, vines grew out of the ground and wrapped around my legs. I swiped at them with my claws and pounced on the girl, like I intended to, before the f*****g vines stopped me. I grabbed her neck with both hands and cracked her neck. The cracking sound made my fangs break through my gums, thirsty for blood. I went over to the girl on my left, but when I got too close to her, the other girl jumped on my back and bit my shoulder. I threw myself backwards and fell on her, crushing her in the process. I then went over to the other girl who was casting fireballs all around me, some actually hitting me. This did nothing but anger me and I jumped on top of her, knocking her over and sank my fangs in her neck, breaking her neck in the process. I stood up and the whole room was spinning. My heart was pounding and my senses were hypersensitive to everything around me. I felt the girls moving fast in my office towards the underground levels and I heard Kerbe’s laboured breathing as he got out of the control room into the room I was in.

“We need to get downstairs, it’s starting.” he said to me, doubling over in pain. The girls were outside in the ops room waiting for us and I could see beads of sweat glistening on their foreheads when the door finally opened. They were barely standing and I could barely speak. My whole being felt like it was on fire, in desperate need of something and I had no idea what it was.

` "Stella." I said hoarsely. My throat was dry and I could barely speak. "Send word to Ambro and Selene. They need to get here now." I had used most of my strength to stand up and support myself on the glass panel of the chamber.

"They should be here any minute now. I called Ambrogio as soon as Kim mind-linked us." I nodded at her.

"Tell him my skin is on fire, my senses are overstimulated and the blood I have in this room is not going to suffice. I am going to pass out any moment now. When I do, secure the room and don't open it until I've awakened." my legs gave up before I could reach the bed and I had to drag myself to get there.

My hearing was overstimulated by all the sounds and voices in here and it felt as if the gentlest whisper would break my eardrums. My skin felt like it was on fire and the clothes that I was wearing were rubbing on my skin, the friction intensifying the burning feeling. I extended my claws and shredded my clothes off me. I laid down on the cold floor, closed my eyes and concentrated on blocking the voices, then all of the sounds. As soon as it was all quiet, I closed my eyes and succumbed to the burning heat in my body. When it reached my temples, I felt darkness envelop me. At last.

Ambrogio's POV

We got there as fast as we could after Stella had called me, letting me know Killian and the triplets were ascending. As soon as we arrived at the border, a tall, black-haired hybrid came to lead us to the underground floors. When we got downstairs, Selene and I couldn't believe our eyes. All of them had been locked alone in separate rooms. The triplets were syphoning Killian's magic and power despite being separated and I could feel how much of his ousia they were using up. Looking at their vitals, the triplets were fine, the occasional screams of pain could be heard from each of their cells, meaning the power they were stepping into was forcing their bodies to adapt. Normally, they would need to absorb the magic of many crystals to complete the ascension. However, the crystals they had in their room were untouched. They were drawn to Killian's energy and if they continued syphoning him this way, none of them would make it.

"Stella. I need you to completely isolate Killian from the triplets." She turned to me with a panicked expression on her face.

"No, we can't do that. If we sever the link we could lose all of them." She replied "I know what you're thinking, they'll drain him soon, but we have to find another way." I wasn't happy about this, but I did remember Killian telling me this as well. The prophecy binding them would link them during the ascension and it was vital that the connection was not broken. f**k! He would last maybe another hour, possibly less, judging by how fast the room was filling up with screams of pain. At this point, I was searching my mind for any possibility of anchoring them to a stronger source of magic, but no matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t come up with a source that would be strong enough or last enough for this to work. It didn’t make sense. How were they this powerful? What have we done?

I realised I was pacing the room when Selene caught my arm and turned me to face her. She cupped my cheek and spoke softly:

"Love, what if we were to power him up? Circe has to have a spell so we can charge him up with our ousia." She looked in my eyes, gaining my full attention. She was right, we could potentially charge him, let him syphon us.

"Selene my love, you are as brilliant as always." I stepped towards her and pulled her into my arms. "I don't know what I'd do without you." She smiled and kissed my lips briefly. Just as Selene was mind-linking Circe to get the spell, a loud banging noise drew our attention to the end of the room. The wall started cracking and soon collapsed, the room getting hot, to the point where it became unbearable. Stella put up a protection dome and we all watched what seemed to be a ball of fire come in through the collapsed wall, morphing into a naked young woman. She walked towards Killian's room and put her hands on the glass. I had no idea who she was but she needed to be stopped. I stepped forward, growling at her when she turned and looked at me with her piercing red eyes. She let out a menacing growl and, without realising, I bowed my head in submission. Who was she? Why was she able to command me? She continued stepping into Killian's room while I was fighting to take a step forward.

"Look!" Selene whispered, never taking her eyes off one of the screens. I looked at the same screen she was looking at and more questions sprung into my mind. As soon as she stepped into the room, everything changed like she was the missing piece of the puzzle. The triplets were still syphoning Killian but his vitals were stronger than before.

"Stel, can you hook her up to the screens as well?" the dark-haired man, named Ajax asked her.

"I can try." she nodded and started working on it. Her vitals popped on the screen shortly alongside the triplets and Killian's. Her heartbeat was the same as Killian's. That was impossible. It couldn't be. As soon as the realisation hit me, the screen went off.

"She's isolating them. The room is compromised. None of the systems work. She could literally murder him and we wouldn't be able to do f**k all." Ajax balled his fists to his side and clenched his jaws.

"She isn't going to hurt him." I looked into Selene's eyes, knowing she understood why.

"How do you know?" Ajax asked.

"If she wanted him dead he would've been dead by now. She's helping him." my love spoke in a soft voice while pointing at the screens. They were working again, showing that all five of them were alright.