A Rare Gem

Chapter 4: Taste of History

Sam POV:

I wake up in my room, a heart monitor beeps steadily next to me. I don’t remember anything after thanking John. I have so many questions that need to be answer and depending how long I was out, I might be up to my ears in paperwork.

My door opened and a shy, timid looking nurse came in with a tray of bandage supplies. Her head was hanging down, her hair blocking her face, she didn’t see that I was sitting up in bed.

“Good morning.” I tried to keep my voice soft and friendly, just loud enough to grab her attention. Instead, I spooked her, she dropped the tray and ran from the room. “Sorry!” I called after her. Damn it. She couldn’t give us answers.

Laying my head back against the headboard, I looked out my big bay window to my left. It gives me an incredible view of the south. I started thinking about the girl from the cabin, John said her cabin was to the south. How did I never know? In all the hours I spent looking out that window, how did a cabin slip through the cracks?

A few minutes later, Dr. Dan came in with a big smile and the nurse from earlier. She immediately brushed past him, cleaned up the things she dropped and ran out again. I was surprised I didn’t see a cloud of smoke in the shape of her. The doc came over and sat on the edge of my bed. He started doing his exam and checking my vitals. I leaned forward for him to check my shoulder.

“So, your wound is healing slow but well.” I lean back against the headboard. “The wound was a poison and wolfsbane laced rogue bite. As you know a rogue bite by its self can be deadly but your bite was laced with a poison we haven’t identified and wolfbane. Your wolf was trying to heal you but it was inefficient. We did get an antidote to the poison, treated the wolfsbane, and gave you the antivenom for the rogue bite.” He explained but didn’t make sense.

“If you couldn’t identify the poison how did you get the antidote?” I asked concerned he was going to tell me I was a guinea pig till they found the one that worked.

“Rose. She looked at your wound and told us what herbs to mix with the antivenom to treat all three at once. It worked almost instantly.”

“Okay, next question. Whose Rose? Was she that skittish nurse?”

“No, that’s Amber. She is one of the refuges from the former Amethyst pack, she had nursing experience so I asked her to work for me. She isn’t good around ranked wolves but does great with the omegas. I sent her up here because I thought you were still asleep and I was hoping to help her over her fear of ranked wolves and show her you are different than HIM.” He didn’t need to explain who HIM was. That son of a murder, Alpha Brent. “Rose is the girl from the cabin. Her parents and her lived off the land and used a more holistic approach to medicine.”

“Oh… I will have to thank her personally. She did save my life and the life of this packs Alpha.” Doc got really nervous.

“That may be an issue.” He took a deep breath as I gave him a concerned glare. “While my staff and I were tending to you in the hospital, she managed to sneak out.”

“So, she saved my life than ran?”

“Shortly afterwards, yes. Beta John said she had fallen asleep while he was talking to her. He said he left her room about 2:30 in the morning. I went in to check on her this morning around 7 am and she was gone.” He sighed. “She is so used to being alone. It was just her and her parents, till they passed away. Yesterday she caused nurse Page to hit the panic alarm because Rose, even with a broken arm, pinned her to the ground when she was trying to put in an IV. After calming the situation, I played a game of Q&A with Rose to get some information from her. Besides her parents and the constant attacks from rogues, I don’t think she ever interacted with anyone. Now that her parents are dead, she is alone. Worried for her safety, I had John join a few trackers to look for her at the cabin. John reported back that there was no sign of her at the cabin. The trackers did find a scent trail leading east. They await your decision whether to follow it or not.”

‘Should we chase her?’ I ask Apollo. He huffed.

‘Yes and no.” He is being short in his answer.

‘Explain please.’

‘Yes because she saved our life and we need answers. No because it is quite obvious she doesn’t want to be here.’

‘Alright’

He went silent and I thought for a moment. A compromise came to mind, bring her back she gives us answers and we never bother her again. She can go to live in her cabin and not deal with the pack. Hell, I’ll sign the land over to her so it is her land.

“Tell them to follow, BUT under no circumstances is she to be harmed. Have them come back here and get basic supplies. She will have at least a day on them so they did to get supplies and antivenom.” I told him. “I want her back here unharmed. If so much as a scratch is on her when they return they will have to answer directly to me.” I make sure that last point is very clear. Doc nods, mind-links the order, and finishes his exam.

“Alright, since you are healing slow you will be on complete bed rest till tomorrow morning. You should be healed by end of day but an extra night of rest won’t hurt.” her wrote it down in my chart and stood to leave.

“Doc, wait a minute.” I stopped him, lightly holding his arm. “What all did Rose tell you? What did you find out? What pack does she belong to if she doesn’t smell like us?”

Doc chuckles. “You want to know everything I do about little Rose?” I nod. “You might be disappointed. I didn’t get much. Her name is Rose, from my exam while she was asleep she is about 17 or 18 years old. She has a wolf, obviously, but I never interacted with her wolf. She doesn’t belong to a pack. It was just her and her parents in that cabin.”

He continued to talk for another couple of minutes, but it seems Rose didn’t give him a lot of information. Doc left after he finished talking.

Throughout the day, John and Kain, my best friends, came in and help me dwindle down my paperwork load. John was playing Alpha for the day so Kain stayed with me more than John. At dinner time, Kain brought me my dinner. A T-Bone steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, loaded potato soup, peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert, and a Coca-Cola to drink. He sat the tray in my lap and lounged in a chair next to my bed.

“So, Kain, how is the hunt for a mate going?” Kain and I are the same age and in the same situation. 21 and no mate.

“Long and disappointing, but last night I accidentally brushed against this cute girl at the pack hospital. It sent a tingle up my spine and made me want to protect her at all cost. I had to leave before I got her name.” he sighed in lovesick puppy. “She was tiny but so pretty. She had dirty blonde hair and was about 5 foot 6.”

“Well why are you just sitting here with me and not knocking this mystery girl off her feet with your awkward charm?” I joke, but I was happy for him. This might be his chance to know love. Something he isn’t used to.

“I tried. I went to the hospital this morning and looked for her. She wasn’t there and there isn’t anyone that matched her description.” He now looked so heart broken.

“I’m sorry man. Look, I’m fine. Go look for this girl. She might be in the refugee camps. She might have just been in the hospital getting checked before joining the others.” I tried to reassure him and give him hope.

He smiled from ear to ear and nodded as he ran from my room to find this girl. Please Goddess, let him find the girl that is meant for him.

After he left me alone, I pulled up google maps on my phone. Zooming in on the southern part of my land where Rose’s cabin is, I couldn’t see anything. It didn’t exist on the map. The only explanation I that I can think of is that magic was protecting the cabin, but why and why now did the scouts find it? I have patrols along the entire border. I was just in at the southeast border a week ago. A group of rogues tried breaking in there. I joined the warriors to stop them. A group of about 6 or 7 managed to slip past us. I chased them further south till they just vanished, tracks, scent, everything. Just went poof. I searched and search but didn’t find a trace of them. Could that have been the barrier? Doc said that Rose and her parents dealt with multiple rogue attacks a week, meaning rogue could cross the barrier but not pack wolves? Why? What were they hiding? Was it a who or a what? Were they hiding it from the pack or the world? Who were her parents? Who put up the barrier? The list of questions kept growing and I wasn’t getting answers soon.

I ate my dinner, then decided to sleep before driving myself insane with the pit of questions. The trackers might have an update tomorrow. I laid down and it didn’t take me long to drift off.

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I knew I was dreaming when I opened my eyes and I was floating over the southern part of my land. Why am I here?

I heard a playful howl and look towards it; it was Apollo playing with someone on the ground. I started walking towards the ground like I was descending a staircase. Apollo’s grey and white fur stood up and he looked at me like I was a bone. He trotted over to me when I reached the ground, I knelt and scratched him behind the ears.

“You have a very wise and strong companion.” The man’s voice carried power.

“Uh… thank you, sir.” I said cautiously.

“My name is Loki. It’s nice to meet you, Samuel.”

“How do you know my name and who exactly is Loki?” I spoke in anger, Apollo whimpers and back up.

“Watch your tone, pup.” His voice screamed power and dominance. “I know your name because I am a good from of your Moon Goddess. She helped save the last of my grandpups.” He only confused me more. “Bless the Gods. Read some Norse legends to figure me out. It would take way too long to explain. Simply though, I fathered a demon wolf, Fenriris or Fenrir, after centuries of my child being imprisoned I staged a prison break. With the help of your Goddess, I brought my child to your realm or world. Where love was found with a child of the Moon and a family was started. Despite never having a human form, the child were born as were wolves. By my order, any wolf with Fenrir’s linage was to remain hidden. As descendants of a God, they all had gifts. So, the descendants of Fenrir formed their own pack. I lost touch with them and this realm, but recently the Moon Goddess informed me that the entire pack was murdered. She ensured me that one wolf survived, the wolf born with the spirit of Fenriris. I want to meet them. So, you are going to help me do so by finding them.” He stopped talking. He never stopped to take a breath during that entire speech, but that didn’t change the fact that he made no sense.

“No.” I said, frankly. Walking away with Apollo whimpering as he follows me. We couldn’t communicate with each other for some reason, this must not be my dream but this Loki’s.

“YOU. WILL. HELP. ME!” I heard him roar as the dream faded away.

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I woke with a startle in my bed. It was morning.

“You fool!” Apollo roared in my head.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You dared to say no to a god. Loki of all Gods. He is a good friend of the Goddess.’ he growled.

‘I don’t know him. I don’t trust him. Plus, he was speaking nonsense. The only wolves with gifts are the royals and no wolves exist that aren’t children of the moon.’

‘Loki’s child mated with a child of the moon. Making all their children and their children’s children and so on children of the God Loki and the Moon Goddesses.’

‘How do you know so much?’

‘I have been with him since yesterday morning! He explained everything.’

‘This still makes no sense to me and you aren’t telling me everything you know. Leave me alone to think.’

With that I closed our communication link and got out of bed. I took a shower and got dressed. Leaving my room and heading for the library. I need to do some research, while I told the God I wouldn’t help him in the moment, I need more information because I make a final decision. Today was going to be a long day.

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A couple of times throughout the day Doc, Kain, and John checked in on me. Kain brought me food and talked. He didn’t find his mystery girl yet. Doc helped me find a good book on Norse legends and history. John… Well… John just came to annoy me.

“So why are you suddenly so interested in Norse Gods?” John asked while flipping through a comic.

“It’s hard to explain. Its more the link between a pack and the Norse god Loki. He said his child mated with a werewolf and their descendants formed their own pack.” Annoyance floods my words.

It was almost 6:30 at night and I’ve found history on Loki and Fenrir, but nothing on the story Loki told. It was frustrating and I was starting to feel like a fool. Apollo wasn’t helping either with his silent treatment all day. I tried to ask him for more information or where to look for the information and he either ignored me or just huffed.

“We will discuss the whole Loki talking to you thing later, but what aren’t you looking in pack history instead of the Norse legends?” I have a lot I need to explain to him but under normal circumstances he had a point.

“Because I don’t know what pack they are, nor when they were sent into ruin.” Being in ruin for a wolf pack is anything from selling your pack to another to settle debts or every member dying off.

“Ruined?” he c***s his head in confusion.

“Yeah. Loki said that the pack was murdered but that one pup survived.” I tell him. John only looks more confused.

“Well, there’s a start. Just look into the history of ruined packs. That narrows it down a lot.” He said matter – a – factly.

I sigh and face plant into the open book in front of me. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you are stressed and moving too fast. Slow down and think things through before acting. At the very least it would’ve save the library staff hours of work putting these books back.”

John and I walked over to the Pack History section and start plucking books off the shelf. Since Loki didn’t tell me when they were murdered, we had to look through every single pack. Even the ones that the BloodHunters’ recently took over. On the way back to the table with stacks of books for us both, I notice a small black book on the shelf. I grabbed it, it looked old and like someone tried to burn it. I say try because all were-species history books are spelled with magic to record history how it happened no matter what details are public known or no, so if someone murders the king the pack history book for that person’s pack will record it, even if they are never caught or suspected. Also, the magic makes them impossible to completely destroy, you can badly damage the book and even make it unreadable, but as long as the cover is around one of the King’s mages and spell the pages back into perfection.

We went and sat at the table. Reading book after book. Hours later, I realized that most packs that went into ruin on their own and not because of the BloodHunters, went into ruined because of either corrupt Alphas or war with a different were-species. One pack was taken down by a war with were-yotes. Crazy little things. Bred by rogues mating with wild coyotes before their human soul is completely absorbed by the crazed wolf. Were-yotes are small, fast, and extinct now, thanks to this war, but at the time were gathering in the hundreds because of starvation.

John was on the book of the Lady Solaris pack, I’ve read it before. The pack went into ruin because their Alpha was killed by his chosen mate and Luna. She then proceeded to take control over everything and took everything for herself. The pack members started fleeing the pack to be rogues than be under her thumb, till finally a group of them stood up and poisoned her. the king ordered the pack be dismantle and sent into ruin. The surviving pack members joined other packs. I picked up the black book I found. I doubt I would be able to read anything in it but maybe a few lines survived the fire and I could at least figure out if this was the pack I was looking for.

Flipping open the cover I gasped. This was the history book on the Nightshade pack. Elder Arnold said when I took over that no history book was ever made for this pack because of how secretive they were. The front cover page was beautiful black and white drawings of bittersweet nightshade vines with “Nightshade” written in beautiful, perfect cursive brush script.

(Author’s note: front mention is the Brush Script MT on Microsoft word. I.E.: Nightshade is what is looked like in the book.)

I flipped to the next page and gasped. John looked over and covered his mouth with his hand. The pages was all burnt some entirely gone others barely left legible. I read what I can aloud so John could hear it to.

(Author’s note PT2: the next part is Sam reading from the book on the Nightshade pack. Most of which is unreadable so in between readable parts ‘Words…Words…Words’ Symbolizes that brief part is all that’s legible and he is going to read the next legible part.)

“The pack cursed for generations…. Blessed to walk as man and wolf…. Gifts unknown…. Descended by Loki…. Generations together…. Protect the gem of Fenriris….. Power to bring kings to their knees…. Born to two Alphas….. secrets to salvation….” I pause to breath and John looks shell shocked still. “A pack known for its secrets. Strong, humble, kind, and caring…. Known to aid their allies and make their Enemies cower at their name…. till the day an old Alpha…. Lost challenge… Rigged to fail… never stood on even ground… entire pack slaughtered….”

That was all I could read. It seemed that there should be a dozen other pages still but they were torn out.

“WAIT!” John shouts, the library ladies shush him. “If this book is telling the truth, which has to be the case because magic and all, then that means Alpha Nickolas never stood a chance against Alpha Brandon. Alpha Brandon cheated. Meaning his son could be doing the same thing today as his father did 18 years ago.”

“I need a meeting with the Elders. See when they will meet with me. NOW” I ordered him. This was too urgent to lollygag on. He rushed out the library.

I grabbed the Nightshade book and walked to the front. Gave my apologies to the library staff for the mess, the noise, and John running in the library. I headed to my office, locked the book in my safe, then headed to my room. After getting ready for bed and laying down, sleep took me quickly into a dreamless abyss.