The Captain's Forbidden Mate

Episode 35: AIDEN

LENA

Damien met us at the edge of the old warehouse district, alone, with no backup, hands tucked deep in his jacket pockets like even he was cold on this mild night.

"He's inside, in the third building on the left. He said that only two of us should come in, the rest should wait outside," Damien said.

"Not happening," Cole said.

"That's what he wanted."

"I don't care. I want to be with Lena as she walks into an unknown building with the man who has been in hiding for twenty-two years," Cole said, his voice protective. "I'm not letting her go in there by herself without me."

Lena looked at me, waiting for me to decide.

"Fine," I said, "Cole comes. Astra and Noah wait by the cars in the event something goes wrong."

Damien nodded, giving me a look of understanding that told me the night had taken its toll on him physically and emotionally.

"Is he dangerous?" I asked as we walked.

"I don't know. I met him for the first time an hour ago. He found me actually, not the other way around. Turned up outside of my apartment like he'd been waiting for the right time to do so," Damien replied.

"And what did he say to convince you that he's really your uncle?"

"He knew things about me and my family that only close members would know of. A scar on my grandfather's hand from when he got into an accident while hunting as a child. A nickname my father gave him as a boy." He looked at me with a look of such devastation on his face I didn't think I had ever seen in my life. "I want it to be true, I want all of this to be real, but I can't explain any of it."

We arrived at the building where the man stood in the corner waiting.

Inside the warehouse he smelled of dust and old metal, and the only illumination came from a single lamp hanging from the far top corner. It cast shadows in all directions over empty boxes and broken machinery as another man stood in the middle of the room with us. He looked older than I expected, streaks of grey mixed in with the black of his hair, deep wrinkles carved into his face, but it was his eyes that caught my attention as he took us all in. They were shrewd, assessing, waiting to react to whatever we did next.

"Lena. You have your mother's eyes; I always thought that if you survived long enough to grow up, that you would," he said.

"You knew my mother?"

"I loved your mother," he said simply as he looked at me, no shame in his voice. "Not the way you may be thinking, maybe. Not as family, not even as the sister I never had." He looked at Damien again as his words hung in the air. "Hello, nephew. It's been a long time."

Damien ground his jaw in displeasure. "Why now? Why reveal yourself to us now, after twenty-two years?"

"Because the story is set to repeat itself, and I couldn't let it happen again," Aiden replied as he stepped forward into the light, and I could truly see the resemblance to my brother. "Twenty-two years ago I tried to stop a coming war but failed. Your mother died six years later, hunted down by people who should have kept her safe. I have tried every year since to ensure that that mistake never happens again."

"What do you mean by that?" Cole asked.

"It means that the council meeting that is to be held in three days isn't what you're all being led to believe it to be. Someone is using the meeting as a cover to do something much bigger, much longer reaching than any of you are being led to believe. All of it has been set to happen since long before Lena was born," Aiden said.

I looked around the room, the cold settling into my bones despite the warm night. Cole's hand found mine, and he didn't let go, grounding me, this was the one and only constant in this moment of uncertainty.

"You keep saying someone, you must have had an idea as to who," I said.

Aiden's look turned stony for the first time since we had entered the building. "I have theories. Nothing that I'm willing to say yet, not until I have proof that will hold up against the accusations and lies that will come with this. To accuse someone wrongly in this world will get them killed just as fast as staying silent will."

"That's not good enough," Cole said.

"It is the only truth I've got to offer to you tonight. I understand it's not enough, nor is it satisfying. It's the truth that has eluded me for twenty-two years that I still haven't found. Whenever I think I'm close to an answer, it always seems to slip away right when I think I know for sure," Aiden said, walking back towards the edge of the lamps sight where he paused and looked at Lena. "There was a moment, right before the m******e, when I thought I had stopped it. There were enough people from both packs convinced on both sides to stand down and talk things over, rather than kill each other. Then something happened overnight that changed everything. The orders went out, and they came from somewhere that no one can seem to find. By morning it was all over, and there was nothing to do but stop the bleeding and move on." He looked at Lena again. "I have been trying to find out who ordered it to stop, and it's taken me twenty-two years. If I'm going to find out who it was, I'm determined to find out before I die, even if it takes until I'm twenty-two years old again."

The lamp that hung overhead flickered above Aiden's head, casting shadows across his face for half a second before steadying again. No one said a word in the silence in the warehouse, and I could hear my own heartbeat for the longest moment.

"We'll be watching too, for whatever or whoever you're talking about," Cole finally said.

"Good, watch each other especially. The bond between you two of your own free will is stronger than most wolves are ever offered in their entire lives. Whatever else you decide to do tomorrow, don't ever let anyone convince you that it's not real, or that it doesn't matter more than any of this politics ever will, no matter how loud the council gets."