Connection - Golden Lycans Sequel 3/3 [Complete]

At the Turn of Midnight

***Austin***

I fling open the patio doors and stride quickly down the tiers of our garden toward the tree, where Ophelia has just been returned home by Serena.

I see her, relief flooding through me as I see that she is physically okay, thankfully. Serena looks up at me, her expression apologetic as I get closer to them both.

"Serena. You bloody i***t!" I say bluntly as I scowl at her.

She just sighs lightly and tilts her head at me, almost as if she expected all of this. Arguably, she probably had.

"Calm down, Aus," she says, fairly calm herself. This only irritates me further.

"Ophelia, wish your aunt a Merry Christmas, as she and James are no longer welcome for Christmas lunch tomorrow," I tell her. Serena rolls her eyes at me and sighs dejectedly, folding her arms across her chest.

Well that's gotten to her, Atlas says with satisfaction.

"Really, Aus? You are cancelling Christmas?" she asks, flaring her nostrils in annoyance at me. I laugh lightly and frown back at her.

"Don't fret, you'll still have your media circus church service, and whatever your staff can whip up in the kitchen. But you are not welcome here tomorrow," I say gruffly, channelling Atlas' pissed off influence.

"What? Why?" Ophelia says, folding her arms across her chest now too.

"Go back to the house Ophelia, I need to have a few words with your aunt," I tell her, trying my best to smile at her.

"I am so lost," Ophelia says with a sigh.

"Now, Ophelia," I growl. She promptly embraces Serena before she takes her suitcase, leaving Serena and I, standing by the tree.

"WHAT possessed you, to take her to Katz's winter ball? James KNEW that Ares was Katz's son!" I ask her angrily.

"Yes, well he never told me that he knew about Ares! Let alone that he sodding well lived with Ophelia. But regardless, she needed a break from all this, here, Aus. With Joshua snapping at her ankles. She needed to go...it was the best thing for her," Serena replies hotly.

"Best thing? Tell me this has nothing to do with Her. Tell me there wasn't some greater purpose to this," I growl. She averts her gazes for a moment and sighs.

"I cannot do that, Austin. Because there absolutely was, and it worked almost flawlessly. I knew Augustus had a son...and I knew Ophelia needed to know him...I just didn't know he was the same guy from Vale, okay?" she replies. I growl menacingly at her and step closer, towering over her.

"Do NOT interfere with my children, without coming to me first. Do you realise what you've done? You've made her more of a target than she was already. Now the vampires know who she is, and they have smelled her, Ser. Her blood is so unique and now...they know just where they could get it from."

"Yes, Aus. But let's be honest-this NEEDED to happen. Both were too afraid to be real about how they felt. They kissed, they connected, and Ophelia...oh...Aus, you need to see it," Serena says passionately, taking her phone out of her bag. She taps it a few times and she then shows me the screen. On it is a wide angled photograph of an intensely abundant and colourful garden...surrounded by snow.

"I don't understand, Ser," I admit. She pockets her phone and looks at me earnestly.

"I would never do anything to put Lia in harm’s way," she assures me, "but...they are important. Both of them. She will never be whole without him, and he will never be whole without her. That garden blossomed like that, after just one kiss. Tell me when that ever occurred between you and Ella."

"You talk, almost as if they are divine mates," I mutter. She smiles and flicks her eyebrows at me, briefly.

"Because maybe they are, in a definition of the term. I do not know for sure. But in any case, Ophelia needs to safely come into her Fae heritage first, Aus, and she cannot do that without reciprocal LOVE. The threshold for that to happen is unfortunately SO much higher for her, because she is hybrid. EVERYTHING is an uphill battle for her, but once she reaches the top…"

"How can you possibly know that?" I ask, before a follow up comes into my mind, "and if you do know that, why the hell have you never mentioned this? We've all been beside ourselves over this!"

Serena tilts her head at me and huffs.

"Only recently. Because I had qualms over Her plan, because we all firmly believed Ophelia was just never going to get there. But she does have two sides, Aus; Her wolf IS out there. But when one side is trying to speak louder than the other...it has to be LOUD. You get it? She needs love. Real, soul-shifting love. Not familial love that will work fine for Fern and Sage...real, reciprocal, pure, love."

I swallow hard.

"Why him, though? Why Augustus Katz's son?” I ask impatiently.

"Because, literally, only HE can help her get to her wolf. You need to trust me, Aus, and trust the goddess. SHE started this as soon as she realised her mistake, and this is how She corrects it," Serena says, biting her lip.

"She's my daughter, Ser. My heir," I say simply, feeling defeated, now. What good was mine and Atlas' strength against divinity?

"I know, and I know it is hard," Serena says, stepping closer and putting her hands onto my arms, "and when I heard those final words from Her, when I held Ophelia as a baby...I knew things weren't going to be straight forward. But I knew it would help shape her into the resilient leader she is going to become."

...

***Ophelia***

After avoiding my chaotic siblings entirely, I open the door to my room, greeted by a wonderfully familiar sight.

As weird as it was being home, my bedroom was still my safe-haven. I shut the door and immediately open my suitcase, carefully removing Ares' drawing of me from the top of my clothes. I pin it to my corkboard, and I sit down on the edge of my bed as I look back at it.

I soon smile to myself, feeling content and warm, the longer I look at it, the longer I feel it.

Because I had thought about it all endlessly, and I had since firmly decided; I did forgive Ares for it all, and I hoped he could forgive me too, because I hadn't stopped to think before I ran from him. Too embarrassed and momentarily baffled over the growth of the garden...

But in actuality, there was no escaping this fact: that in my heart, I know that I most definitely could - and if given the chance, I absolutely would - fall hopelessly in love with that unusual man.

...

***Ares***

I lay down the paintbrush and let out a satisfied sigh, taking a few steps back from the canvas to look at it properly. The door opens while I'm doing so, and I glance briefly to see that Atticus has wandered in. He hadn't been here for a number of days.

"Oh my word. Now, THIS level of sappiness, you perhaps do get from father," he jokes as he comes to stand next to me. I fold my arms across my chest and continue to look at my painting. It is of Ophelia and I, in the gazebo in the garden, surrounded by all the flowers.

"You're not going to paint the scene, every time you kiss her, are you?" Atticus then asks. I laugh lightly and shake my head.

"I can only hope there is a next time," I admit.

"Oh, I am sure there will be. Yet, how someone as naive and socially inept as you, has somehow managed to romance somebody like her, the world will never know," Atticus says, looking bewildered.

"Silly comment. Ophelia is just...Ophelia. Until a week ago she was a human being, a very normal one. Knowing her full name and who her parents are, has changed nothing. She is still the same person she was before, to me," I point out.

"No, she was always the person you just aren't able to comprehend. She may be pretty and innocent looking, but to regard her as human is entirely shortsighted, Ares. Inside of her is enormous potential, should she manage to unlock it all."

"The flowers have made mother very happy," I say with a smile, purposefully changing the subject. Atticus rolls his eyes a little.

"It isn't just the flowers that have made her happy. It is because you finally did something for yourself, Ares. THAT makes her far happier than a bunch of flowers," he points out. His point rings home, and I acknowledge this with a casual nod as I stare at the painting once again.

"You're old enough, and actually around this time. Fancy coming with me to London for New Year's? I am leaving in an hour, if our people can finally behave, of course," Atticus then says casually.

"No thank you, I have no desire to attend one of your debauched parties," I reply. He laughs heartily and seems to accept what I have just said. Having heard a number of stories from Amadeus; the man hasn't really got a leg to stand on.

"Shame. I have a fair few female friends who would enjoy teaching you a few things. All in preparation for the real thing with blondie, of course," Atticus says with a quick arch of his eyebrows.

"I do not know what you mean, but I do not need to meet any more of your female friends. The ones I have met remind me too much of my flatmate Madeleine," I reply, putting lids back onto my oil paints, "and she is more than enough."

Atticus watches me for a few moments before he speaks once more.

"Are you in love with her?" He asks. I pause what I am doing, as it is a perplexing question. I turn to look at him and shrug my shoulders.

"I do not know. I have no basis for comparison," I reply honestly. He laughs again before he finally leaves the room.

I sigh and check my watch; it is three o'clock in the afternoon. The sky is finally clear after all the snow we have recently had, and the sky is getting warmer with the appearance of oranges and pinks as the evening draws nearer.

I take myself out of the house and into the garden; the sight of it all still looks incredibly bizarre to me. Leafless trees surround the property in this rural area, but inside the grounds is another matter. Vibrant colours all around, bushes in full bloom, large, perfect flowers, vines and more...everywhere that I look, there is life. Heavy snow had fallen in the last week, but none of it had managed to settle within the garden. It was like…magic.

I walk to the orchard, snagging one of the shiny red apples off one of the trees, vaulting myself up onto the surrounding stone wall, and watching the impending sunset while I eat the delicious apple. The apples had never really tasted any good in this orchard, but apparently, all they really needed was a faerie's influence.

I still couldn't believe it. I had gone over many occasions in my head, where I perhaps ought to have figured out Ophelia's secret. So many things did now make sense, but in reality, I wouldn't have guessed, because Ophelia really was very human.

...Except when kissing a vampire in his back garden, apparently.

I throw the finished apple core as hard as I can, and it hits the trunk of the great wisteria tree, all the way at the back of the orchard. I smile, wondering how Ophelia would have reacted if it were a ball and the tree were a basketball hoop.

I missed her far more than I ever thought I would.

I had not considered just how important a person could become to me, without being a member of my family. Multiple times a day, I was going over and over in my head what I would say to her when I next saw her at Vale.

I needed to rectify my mistake.

Apparently, it was now easier to deal with the bloodlust, if I didn't completely shy away from it. I felt ready to deal with it, now, particularly now I knew what was at stake. It wasn't too scary, if I did what she told me to do, which was to embrace it. I was a vampire, and nothing about that was going to change any time soon. I needed to learn to live with it all.

I frown as I take in the details of the wisteria tree; it looks terrible. Amongst the burst of life that had happened in the grounds, the wisteria looks decrepit by comparison. It did not look like that a few weeks ago when I was last here. I slide off the wall and stride through the orchard towards it, taking in the bare branches and dead, curled up leaves. I run my hand over the trunk, feeling a strange tingle in my fingertips as I do so.

The light is quickly beginning to fade, so I turn around and head back to the house.

...

***Ella***

"That's another one that has gone down," I tell Austin as I hang up my phone while we are in his office, "that's the third, fourth and fifth one, now. All of them were the most recent."

Austin gently tugs on my hand, pulling me down onto his lap to snuggle into his broad chest. I sigh as I settle against him, feeling a little overwhelmed for a moment.

"Why do you think it's happening?" Austin asks quietly, stroking my hair.

"The influence of this ‘Him’ Serena mentioned, perhaps? I even said to Will the day he came to lecture, that I felt like the light was draining from the world," I admit. He shifts me a little and looks into my face with concern.

"But draining where?" he asks.

"I don't know. Somewhere? Nowhere? There is definitely less of it, these days. Bad intentions, harmful thoughts, cruel acts...I am no warden at all. The younger generation are so self-centred, too," I admit sadly. Austin shakes his head at my comment, his green eyes sincere as he looks back at me.

"Be reasonable, Els, it is not your job to govern how good people are in this world. Hell, you do enough good on your own to balance out a lot of the badness," Austin says warmly, tucking my hair behind my ear and smiling at me.

"Evidently there isn't enough good in this world to power all those trees, though. I have probably grown too many," I point out, knowing I had gone over the top with making the world more accessible to good people.

"Perhaps. But...let's just shelve all this sad stuff just for tonight. Soon, you're going to put on the insane dress I saw hanging on the back of the door, and we are going to have a great time at king wotsits palace. Because, annoyingly, the guy knows how to throw a seriously good party," Austin says, beginning to plant little kisses from my jawline up to my earlobe. I chuckle a little at the sweetness of his action and I sigh as I shut my eyes.

"True. No one needs a break more than we do, Aus," I mutter as he starts to nip lightly on my lobe.

"Four more days and they'll all be back at school," Austin whispers in my ear.

"Well, that's just about the sexiest thing I've heard in a long time."

...

***Ophelia***

There is a knock on my bedroom door, and I sit up, having lost myself in a sea of various thoughts. The door opens and my mother walks in, looking sensational in an emerald green gown, adorned with sequins and crystals. Her super long, platinum-blonde hair is braided down to one side. Sometimes it sucks having such an insanely beautiful mother. Next to her I am sure I look plain and boring.

"You know you don't look like a mum, right? Like, ever," I joke as she comes further into the room. She smiles as she perches on the end of my bed.

"How are you doing?" she asks, as she begins to stare at Ares' drawing on the wall next to her.

Once I had come back from my brief stint in London, I had come clean with my parents about what was going on and what happened in Katz's garden.

They already knew, of course, but they were kind and understanding of it all. In fact, mum seemed over the moon, if anything. But that was because it was evident that the way I and Ares had begun to feel about each other, had started to coax out some faerie qualities within me. It had not been enough for me to achieve my wings, though, and I wondered if it ever would be.

"Better," I admit, having had a few days of moping about in my room to dwell on various things, "I have come to terms with a few things. I do in fact, have strong feelings for my friend. The fact of that, caused me to start expressing some of my dormant Fae qualities, such as brewing a thunderstorm, or causing an entire garden to bloom from just a kiss-" I begin to say, when my mother interrupts.

"-that is the part I am having trouble with, Lia. The strength of that storm and then causing an entire garden;- a huge garden on a palatial estate, no less- to bloom the way it did in the dead of winter..." she looks at me with clear concern on her face, "the amount of power required to do the thunderstorm was an impressive idea. But that garden, for a novice, as well..."

"From a person who still has no light, and is still just a dormant faerie," I sigh.

"Well...the thunderstorm was definitely you," she begins, and I turn to look at her oddly, "but...maybe the garden was both of you."

I raise my eyebrows in surprise at this, because actually...while it is a crazy idea, it also isn't. The world got crazier all the time, in my mind.

"Both of us? You think Ares has magic?” I ask. I had kept my word, and I hadn’t told any of them about Ares’ mother.

"No. Maybe? But largely, no. I don't know, Ophelia. He hasn't felt like a vampire to me, although he evidently is. However, being from Augustus Katz, who came into being, never from procreation like the rest of us, anything is possible, I suppose," she muses. She gets up to get closer to the drawing, her fingers reaching out and resting lightly on the vibrantly coloured eyes as she smiles coyly to herself.

"I hate that I have to wait another four days to talk to him about everything. If he even shows, of course," I sigh. Mum makes a humming noise of agreement in her throat, still looking at the drawing.

"He will, Ophelia. This drawing was a labour of love, I can tell you that much. But, your father and I are leaving shortly. You are in charge, and the others do know that. We might be back quite late-“

"-honestly, mum, you and dad deserve a night away. You should've booked a hotel room or something," I reply with a laugh. She smiles at me and makes an agreeing expression.

"Perhaps. Any problems, just call. If Joshua gives you grief...just let your father deal with him once we've returned. Don't get into it with him. Money for a chinese is on the side in the kitchen," she says with a wink.

"Have an amazing time. Don't worry about us, I'll have it under control," I assure her, even though the idea of commanding my supernatural siblings for the night, sounds like absolutely torture for us all.

"I know," she says, shooting me a smile before she leaves the room. Once she has shut the door, I go back to laying on my bed, staring at my ceiling. I was perhaps the most boring eighteen-year-old in existence, given that I was staying home on New Year's Eve. But I didn't want to celebrate anything, these days. I never did.

...

***Ella***

"Do you think they'll behave for her?" Austin asks as we approach the tree. I look back at the house briefly, seeing a couple of our children moving around in the brightly lit kitchen diner.

"Not a chance. They have very little respect for her, Aus," I admit sadly.

"Have we not raised them well?" Austin mutters, his green eyes fierce as he too looks back at the house.

"It's not that. They're hormonal teenagers, Aus. We built them a strong foundation and we have given them the space to grow into the people they need to be. They'll come back to that foundation eventually. We need to have faith," I say to him as I slip my hand into his. He looks down at me fondly and smiles.

"Just a little bit longer," he says, a hopeful feeling coming to me across our bond, "now let's go let our hair down. A little."

I laugh as he turns, leading me through the tree and out the other side into an even snowier landscape than the one we've just left. Where king Valmir's palace in Austria is in an area called Hochfeiler, which straddled Austria and Italy. The area is incredibly beautiful, but it is freezing cold; cold enough that tonight, this faerie was actually feeling it.

"G-good grief it is cold," I mutter, pulling my thin, gold stole further around my shoulders.

"Some of that Elven whiskey will warm you right up," Austin jokes, as we reach the stone path that leads through Valmir's plentiful back gardens toward his ridiculously opulent castle.

...

***Ophelia***

It is nearing midnight as I wearily stack our dishwasher after the chaotic Chinese takeaway we had eaten for dinner. I was not in the mindset of having my own children, right now, after the arguing and pettiness I had just experienced with my siblings. Having the triplets reach twelve years of age was apparently a lot more perilous than I gave credit.

No wonder my parents seemed completely exhausted.

I shut the door and press the start button, before leaning on the side of the worktop, sighing to myself as my eyes fall a bottle of red wine on the side. I was old enough, now, and having laid in this morning I didn't feel particularly tired, just yet.

I open the drawer and get the corkscrew out, proceeding to open the bottle. It smells good, but then my parents always got the best of everything. If you're going to have wine, have the better wine, was something my mum often said.

The door opens, and Joshua strolls in, looking oddly cheerful, and in an entirely new set of clothes. Dark denim jeans, an unbuttoned white shirt...

"Are you...do you think you're going somewhere?" I ask in mild amusement. He's styled his hair, he's definitely wearing cologne, and he just smirks back at me as he sorts the cuffs of his shirt out.

"I don't think, Lia, I am," he informs me, rolling the sleeves up.

"Do you DO realise your alpha grounded you, right?" I ask him, wondering if the Chinese somehow gave him a lobotomy. He just smirks at me more and starts fussing around with this hair in a mirror on the wall.

All this feels...purposeful. He wants me to know he’s doing this.

"He did. But, he should've picked his words better when he gave me the command. A good alpha would’ve done so," Joshua points out before clearing his throat, "you're grounded for the rest of the year."

My heart sinks.

Wording was everything when it came to finding loopholes.

"In approximately," he checks his watch, "thirteen minutes, that command wears off, and I have a date."

“Did you…did you really just imply our father is a bad alpha?” I exclaim incredulously, coming around the kitchen island towards him.

“Just saying, Lia, that if he wanted me to be grounded, he’d have picked his words better,” he smirks.

"So, where are you going, and with who?" I ask, feeling frustrated at his absolute disregard for our father's decision.

"Cornwall, actually. Thankfully, mum enjoyed our west country holidays a little too much, so I can get there very easily. She's a beta, and she’s rich. I've been waiting for weeks to get her on her own. Good job Valmir decided to throw a huge bash to get our parents out of here, right at the right time. I should thank him next time I see him," he says blithely. I utter a short laugh and cross my arms, shaking my head in disbelief at this.

"Dad is going to f**k up your life if you do this, Josh," I say bluntly, "combat classes, more kitchen duties, and he will ground you until the end of your entire time at Exton if you're not careful. You'd be better off relocating permanently to Cornwall if you do this. Is getting in some girl’s pants really worth it?”

He laughs and looks at me with mock pity.

"Yes, well, let's be honest, Lia. He's going to need me, so I don't think he will be doing any of that. I've got two-hundred-and-eight days until you formally give up your blood-right," he informs me. I bite my lip and stare back at him in disappointment.

"Nature isn't going to be picking either of you," I say a little spitefully.

But truly, I had been shocked by my sibling's behaviour since I came back at Christmas. I kept wondering where the kind people I had grown up with, had disappeared to.

Hormones had a lot to answer for.

"Let us Lycans of the family, sort that out amongst ourselves," he says, a little coldly. With that, he looks smugly at me once more before he strides across the dining area and out of the patio doors. I sigh loudly and lean against the breakfast bar, my face in my hands. When had my brother turned into such a dickhead? I grab the bottle of wine and give myself a generous pour, deciding to go watch the London celebrations on the TV in the front room.

I settle down onto the corner of the sofa, finding the living room oddly peaceful now that the triplets were in bed. I didn't give a damn what Joshua got up to, now. He was turning seventeen in a couple of weeks, and he needed to make his own mistakes. At least my parents understood that he felt he was a law unto himself, and his indiscretion wasn't a reflection on me.

I turn the TV on and snuggle back, putting my feet up across the other side and swirling my wine around in the glass to aerate it a little more. It is now three minutes til midnight, and the landmarks of London have been decorated highly for the big occasion.

"Goodbye twenty-forty-eight," I say to myself, toasting the air toward the screen as the countdown begins. I take a sip of the fancy wine and focus on the warmth it gives me as it goes down my throat.

"Five…four...three....two...ONE!" the presenter says along with the huge crowd on the TV, clapping exuberantly along as a loud gong sounds, and the beginning of an extravagant firework display starts.

Suddenly, the TV cuts out and the room is plunged into darkness.

I sit there for a moment, wondering what has happened. The only light visible is the light coming from the waning gibbous in the cloudless sky outside.

I stand up, wondering if I can figure out how to sort the fuse box, but then I can't tell why the generator hasn't kicked in either.

Electricity shouldn't be a problem here. At all…

Now that I think more about it...we had never had a power cut, and a faulty fuse wouldn't cut out everything. In the next moment, when I hear a resounding crash from somewhere outside the window, and a haunting howl, I realise...

...something is outside.

…

***Ares***

I cannot sleep.

I feel acutely restless and I am not sure why, because I generally slept quite well. But, my mind is annoyingly active, on edge, and I have been tossing and turning for a while.

I get out of bed, needing to mobilise my restless legs, and I walk over to the window to look out. Outside, I can see faint fireworks from neighbouring households, indicating the turn of midnight.

The moon is a waning gibbous, and it is the first clear night we've had in a good while. I had enjoyed the snow, but I was very glad to be able to see the stars once again.

I turn to go back to bed, but something catches my eye through the window, somewhere outside. I open the window wide, leaning out as I squint into the darkness. I can definitely see a strange glowing light coming from the orchard.

I feel inexplicably drawn to it, like a magnet pulling from my chest to whatever it is. Driven by instinct alone, I hastily pull on a t-shirt as I leave my room...