Pureblood (Pureblood series)

by Ellysia Fields

  “Alphas, we greet you and apologize for our rudeness. We were told you wished to speak with us privately, so we came as quickly as we were able,” Allen stated formally to the pair, bowing his head when addressing them.

  “Thank you for coming so quickly. My mate and I have a request for you.”

  “Anything for you and Mrs. Elizabeth. Might I say I am happy to see that you are back safely among us again,” Ariel said. Nick motioned for Elizabeth to continue, so she informed the twins about her dreams and Fenrir. Told the pair about her apparent shift to Hybrid form when she was in danger, and the power of ice it seemed to awake within her. Finally, she discussed the most recent dream she had, much to their surprise. Once she was finished speaking, they looked at each other before returning their gazes to their Alphas.

  “What is it you’d like us to do? Record your story, because-” Allen started, a smile creeping on his face.

  “We’d love to! This is an amazing story!” Ariel finished, excited in her eyes.

  “No, actually. We’d like you to do some research into anything that might be found about a fourth Pureblood, anything that mentions Fenrir or wolves having ice powers. Even a Turned having a Hybrid form would be useful, anything you can find that might help us explain this. We are going to have the doctors here take samples of her blood to be tested, but that will take a while to process.” Nick explained calmly.

  “Of course Alpha, not a problem. We’ll let you know if we find anything,” Ariel said. “We will see you at dinner, Alphas. We have some work to do, brother, let us leave our leaders to their peace and quiet before meal.”

  “Of course, my dear sister. Alphas, thank you for seeing us and trusting us with this information. We shall keep the details to ourselves and inform you when we discover anything,” Allen bowed his head as he spoke. The pair excused themselves and left, leaving Elizabeth alone with Nick once again.

  “Well, what should we do now? We have a little while before dinner, and I’m not really hungry.” Elizabeth looked at Nick as she spoke, raising her brows slightly when she finished. Nick rose in response, a low growl escaping his throat as he leaned down to kiss her softly at first, until he deepened it. She lost herself in his touch, his lips moving along hers, his tongue rolling around with hers. She must have blacked out a moment, because somehow they were moving towards their bedroom, his hand on the doorknob when he pulled back, breaking the kiss.

  “Are you feeling okay? I don’t want to hurt you.” The worry that always seemed to be present in his voice when it came to her was there even now, along with the love he felt for her. She smiled, kissed him again and placed her own hand over his on the doorknob, slowly turning it until the lock clicked open. That was all the answer he needed as he bent down to capture her lips once again, allowing the hours to tick by in exquisite pleasure.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Being the Alpha Female wasn’t the easiest job, especially when you barely knew what you were doing as a werewolf. Elizabeth had been in power a few days now and, while Nick took care of most of the bureaucracy of leading, the pack still looked to her for guidance and answers too. Sometimes she would say she’d have to speak with Nick, but other times she was able to help. The latter didn’t happen often, but they did happen and it made her feel helpful but not as useful as she should be. Her and Nick should be teammates in everything, and she felt like she was nothing more than a soft place for him at night and she hated it.

  So she took it upon herself that morning to confine herself in their Alpha den and read about the different rules and laws werewolves had so she could be more helpful. Sections about territory claims and requests, Alpha interactions with other Alphas, rules about violence and contact with humans, the passages went on in the massive five hundred page book riddled with more lawyer jargon then she had ever seen. Google was her friend in looking up the terms she didn’t know, so she was sitting at the desktop in their den’s main room when the door knocked. Her head jerked toward the door, wondering who could be looking for Nick now. She prepared her response after checking the time, the words dying on her lips as she saw the one who had knocked.

  “Alpha Liza! I am very glad to see you. You must come down to the ritual room as soon as you can,” Ariel wheezed. She seemed out of breath, and the fact that she was a werewolf out of breath brought concern to Elizabeth’s face.

  “Is everything okay? Is it your brother? Are either of you hurt?” She surveyed the Lorekeeper quickly, finding no visible injuries.

  “Yes, Alpha, my brother and I are fine. It’s just, since your return and the request you made of us… I think I may have found something. But you must come to the ritual room as soon as you can.” The look in her eyes told the Alpha that this young woman was convinced she had, indeed, found something.

  “Regarding my Hybrid form?” At the other girl’s nod, Elizabeth stood up straighter. “I shall inform the Alpha Male and find you soon. Be ready for when I arrive,” she spoke in the proper, authoritative tone she had adopted recently.

  “Yes, Alpha Female, I will be ready for your arrival.” She gave a respectful nod of submission, and rushed off down the stairs past Terry. The Beta gave her Alpha a shrug in confusion, Elizabeth smiled in return. The entire pack knew about Elizabeth gaining a Hybrid-like form, but only those who needed to know were privy to the knowledge of a possible new Pureblood line. Beta Terry was not one of those with that knowledge, so she was confused when the Lorekeeper came rushing up, asking to speak to the Alphas. If this kind of thing got out to other packs, it could cause turmoil the likes of which had not been seen in hundreds of years.

  Closing her den door to clean up a little before leaving, she walked back out and toward the stairs in search of her mate. Nick should be in the training room, speaking to the guards about shift changes, which is where she found him as those in the guard role began filing outside the room. Upon seeing her, his eyes lit up with joy and happiness, and he went to her and to wrap her in a tender embrace. She allowed his unnatural warmth to spread over her a few moments before she pulled back to gaze up into his sapphire stare.

  “I do love seeing you out and about, not holed up in the den reading those dusty rulebooks, but you seem to be on a mission. What, pray tell, are you on a mission for?” Nick knew her too well, and their bond didn’t help her hide her anticipation from him.

  “Ariel came by the den and she said she’s found something,” she whispered, eyes sparkling with joy. Nick held her only a moment longer before stepping away and walking toward the exit of the training room. His face had given nothing away. “Where are you going?”

  “To the ritual room. They asked you to go there, right? I wish to see for myself what it is they have found,” his smile was in his voice and on his face when he turned back to her to answer. Elizabeth broke into a grin as she rushed after him and they walked, hand in hand, to the ritual room.

  The door, as always, was open and the room smelled invitingly of herbs. Upon entering, however, the room was vacant. Both pairs of eyes searched the dimly lit room, before Elizabeth finally called, “Ariel?”

  At the sound of her name, there was a great crash behind the door that led to the pack’s library. The Alphas quickly made their way to the sound, but a loud “I’m fine” came out, causing them to stop at the door. They eyed each other only a moment before they both turned towards the door, Nick throwing it open to see a frightening sight. The walls were lined with books and scrolls in all directions, organised from newest to oldest at the farthest area of the rooms. The smell of old paper and dust filled the air, possibly caused by the pile of books fallen onto the Lorekeeper a few feet away. Nick and Elizabeth quickly went to Ariel, removed the books and helped her stand. She fretted about their position on the shelf for several minutes, despite their concern for her state rather than the books. It took several minutes before she was satisfied and turned to them, shocked at keeping the Alphas waiting.

  “It’s alright,” Elizabeth began. “We came
as soon as we could. Is now a good time or are you busy?”

  “Oh no, now is perfect. I was just putting away the tomes I was searching through before you arrived. Come, I shall setup everything quickly so we can begin!” She quickly shooed her Alphas out of the library and toward the front row of benches, calling for her brother once outside.

  “Yes, dear Sister?” he practically purred. He must know something the Alphas did not.

  “It’s time. I will handle the incantation so that you may monitor us. Awaken us should something go wrong,” she explained quickly, Allen nodded in agreement. Elizabeth glanced at the two before speaking.

  “Um, I thought you found something? What ritual are you talking about?” Nick nodded, the questions on his mind as well.

  “Forgive me, Alpha Female. I did not find any information per se, but I did find a way to acquire it. You mentioned you were having dreams about a Fenrir, correct?” Allen had moved to shut the door, signalling to any who wished entry that they were not to be disturbed.

  “Yes, but I have not been able to find anything myself online. Only ancient norse tales about Ragnarok,” Elizabeth explained. Nick had looked up information too, but finding nothing she didn’t already know. Coming up empty had been disheartening, so they set the problem aside to focus on the pack and its needs and let the Lorekeepers find the answers they sought.

  “Well, in our research,” Ariel motioned to her brother before continuing, “we discovered that there was a way to look into a wolf’s history. It was used on a Beta who had a missing family, and they used what they had learned to track down the Beta’s sibling in a neighboring pack. I believe we can use this to look into your past and see why you are having such dreams.”

  “Are you sure this will work? She is still very young, what if it does not go back as far as you need it to?” Nick asked, concern for his mate slowly filling his mind.

  “Will you be able to see all of my history?” Elizabeth asked, not sure she liked someone poking around in her head, seeing things she wanted in her past and not brought up again.

  “The dangers are minimal, exhaustion and dehydration, as well as hunger depending on how far we have to go back but… considering this is back to the Firsts, it could be bad. That’s why Allen will be monitoring us. If he sees any sign of my strain beyond normal limits, then he will stop it,” Ariel explained carefully, meeting the eyes of all in the room.

  Elizabeth stood then, placing a comforting hand on Nick’s shoulder. “I’ll do it. I need to know the answers behind my dreams.”

  “Come, Alpha. Sit before me. Allen, bring the tapestry, please.” Allen nodded to his sister, making his way to the back of the room as Elizabeth sat on the floor before Ariel. The Lorekeeper held out her hand for Elizabeth to take, the other on the tapestry known as The Huntress and the Wolf. “Elizabeth, place your other hand on the tapestry. This story is attached to your dreams, so this will be our conduit to discover what they mean.” Elizabeth did as instructed, placing a gentle hand on the old, rough fabric. “Now, please close your eyes so I can speak the words to bring us to a trance-like state.”

  Elizabeth closed her eyes, feeling her connection to Nick more clearly than when her eyes were open. She also felt her wolf, who had been quiet lately which was not surprising after all she had been through. It seemed both Elizabeth and the wolf inside had recovered enough to lend themselves to this ritual. The wolf, however, while present was not trying to come out, but she simply waited, almost as if she had been waiting a long time for this ritual to begin.

  “Are you prepared, Elizabeth?” Ariel asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Then, I shall begin the incantation.

  Manifestum fiet praeterita

  Quod autem occultae latent fiet ultra

  Past become clear,

  That which was hidden, become hidden no more.”

  With repetition of the chant three times, she felt a shift in the world around her. Reality seemed to ebb away and distort as she felt herself and Ariel pulled away from their bodies, away from their friends, family, and loved ones. Further and further they tumbled into the flow of the spell, still connected by their joined hands, both holding on to avoid becoming lost in the spell. Neither had any concept of how much time had passed for them back where they had come, the pair were barely able to remember their names and their purpose. Fenrir, who was this wolf and why were they important?

  Suddenly, as if they had just landed after jumping down from the sidewalk to the road, they were standing on a rough stone floor. They were somewhere underground, as observed by the large, rounded cavern they now stood in. Four doorways were before them, each with a different symbol chiseled into the uneven rock wall above the openings. The first on the far left appeared to be a templar cross with heart-shaped leaves in each corner of the cross. The second had a swirling tri-pointed pattern with crescents at the curve of each swirl. The middle right engraving was more detailed, appearing like an eight pointed snowflake with a celtic trinity symbol in the middle. The far right door’s carving was similar to a X, but it had a point on the clockwise side of each branch and diamonds at the inner angles.

  ‘I know these symbols,’ Ariel said without speaking. Elizabeth remembered them too, though one of them she didn’t know. ‘The cross is O’Brady and the swirl is O’Connor, both respected the religious symbols of the cross and celtic trinity. Faust is the X symbol, but that one.The eight-pointed wheel-like symbol.’

  ‘It looks like a snowflake to me,’ Elizabeth responded, noting that each “leg” of the snowflake also had three lines on each spoke and had a U shape on each tip. It was clearly the most intricate, but why? It was then, that she got her answer.

  Suddenly, four Hybrids stepped forward from the doorways, into the middle of the room. Each knelt down, a couple feet from each other, eyes closed and channeled something, speechlessly. The earth moved beneath their feet, as one Hybrid’s eyes opened, glowing green. A second Hybrid breathed fire from their mouth at the floor, eyes glowing green like his brother’s, if darker in pigment. The third Hybrid raised one hand-like paw to those gathered, causing their fur to stand on end as his eyes glowed purple. The final Hybrid, breathed out as ice formed to create an image on the floor, an image of the Goddess, Artemis. When the fourth Hybrid opened his eyes, they were two colors, one amber like the sun, the other silver like the moon. Elizabeth heard a gasp from her side, causing her gaze to shift to Ariel and the look of utter shock that formed on her face.

  She was about to ask if she was okay, when movement from the room distracted her. The Hybrids were moving again, standing from their places as the image of Artemis was melting slowly before them all. The one who had two different colored eyes, the one who breathed ice, spoke in a deep, male and unknown voice, loudly enough for the unseen viewers to hear.

  “We are the Four, the First of the Werewolves. All werewolves come from our lines of wolves, and those with our blood shall be greatly gifted as the Goddess has gifted each of us. O’Brady, O’Connor, Faust, and myself, Fenrir, shall live on in our heirs. We shall always be a part of them from now until the end of time!” The other three wolves howled in response to his claim. “Now, let us bring this Council of the Four to order, convene down at the meeting room.” Once he had finished speaking, he turned to the unseen ghosts of Elizabeth and Ariel, passing right by them as the other three followed, seemingly to a lower level. Elizabeth’s eyes were drawn to the door the speaker had come from, the unknown symbol. The Fenrir symbol.

  That feeling of reality shifting again came over the pair, they grabbed each other’s hands tightly again as they were flung back through time and space, back towards the time they belonged. As they came back to themselves, she thought she heard someone speaking but she had no idea who.

  The voice said, “Strike them from the books, the scrolls everything! They have broken the most scared of laws and Fenrir must be punished! So says I, your Lord-!”

  Elizabeth gasped suddenly, coughin
g several times before her breathing finally returned to normal. Ariel was no better, nearly unconscious in her brother’s arms and she was suddenly glad Nick was there holding her as his warmth wrapped around her and seeped into her skin. How long they had been sitting there, she couldn’t begin to say but she felt more than exhausted.

  Ariel stirred then, shooing her brother away before saying, “Allen, bring me a piece of paper. Please. Quickly before I lose this!” Allen did as he was bid as quickly as he was able.

  “Ariel, did you hear that? At the end?” Elizabeth asked, watching as the girl scribbled down something she had almost forgotten.

  “Yes, I did. I also remembered this, too. Elizabeth, this is Fenrir’s symbol, your symbol!” Ariel handed Elizabeth the paper with the 8-pointed snowflake, Nick looked easily over his mate’s shoulder with his eyes widening. “I don’t know why or who but someone has been trying to hide the Fourth Pureblood and I want to be there to help you uncover it.”