tall shelves that surround the large room. Hundreds of books and scrolls line the walls within the dark wood, making the space feel older than time. Delicate balls of light float around, their gentle glow enabling us to see. A table that could seat thirty takes up room in the middle, pens and papers decorating it as if it’s frequently used.
“This is amazing, “I say to Darius at my back as we walk further into the room.
“The Highers may have their library, but so do we,” he tells me, moving off to the side toward the shelves there. A ladder is placed against them carefully, and Darius moves it to the side on some rolling mechanism.
“Humans?” I ask him, looking at the ladder.
He peaks over his shoulder at me. “They may be weak, but they invent a lot of useful things.” I nod and run my fingers over the spines of books, feeling the leather beneath my fingertips.
“Have you seen one?”
“Human?” I hum in response. “Never, they live off in the far lands to the North supposedly.”
“Isn’t that where the Demons live?” I pull out a book on Vrohkaria and flick through the pages, looking at the settlements in full color.
“They do.” I hear him walk over to me and come to a stop. His arms surround me, resting on the shelves as I continue to look through the book. “Curious about the other lands?”
I huff out a laugh. “Not really. Though I know there are many beings that walk among us, I think we have our hands full with wolves and witches.”
“That we do.”
A door opens and we both turn toward it. I gasp, the book I was holding falling to the floor. “Ellian?” I question, looking over the Omega that brought Sarah to us.
His light eyes widen for a moment before he lowers his head. “Alpha.”
I scramble to pick the book up and put it back. Stepping under Darius’s arms, I move toward him. “What are you doing here?” I look between him and Darius.
“He works for me,” Darius answers, his brows furrowed. “You know of him?”
“I…” Stopping myself before I tell him about Edward, I pick at my fingers, wondering how to answer.
“Alpha Darius kindly gave me the honor of keeping his library organized and clean many moons ago,” Ellian says, his curtain of dark hair now reaching his shoulders.
I look toward Darius. “When you called me an Omega back in The Deadlands, it was like they were beneath you, you called them weak,” I remind him. “Yet you have one working for you.”
Darius moves closer, stepping up beside me. “They are weak in strength, fragile and breakable, but that doesn’t mean they are useless. There is strength in knowledge and intelligence, in willpower and courage.” My eyes bounce between his, wondering if he means more between his words for when he called me an Omega all that time ago.
A throat clears, and our eyes unlock, moving toward Ellian again. “Is there something I can help you with Alpha Darius?” I want to ask him if he told anyone that he helped Sarah that day, if he has seen Edward at all since then. But before I can, Darius speaks.
“No, leave us.”
Ellian bows his head and leaves the room without a word, making the tension rise between the pages in here.
“So,” Darius murmurs, and I tense. “Want to tell me how you know the Omega?” I shake my head. “More secrets.”
I round on him. “You have the audacity to say that when you still have some of your own.”
His eyes dip down to my bare feet, raising them in a slow caress until he meets my eyes again. “Secrets aren’t what I would say I have with you, just knowledge you don’t need to know.”
“That’s bullshit.” He raises a brow. “Then I have knowledge you don’t need to know either.”
Darius tilts his head to the side. “Are you being childish?”
I sputter. “Excuse me?”
He starts to circle me, and I turn with his movements, not wanting him at my back. “It’s cute.” My hands clench at my sides. “Seeing you all worked up, your eyes alight with anger.”
“What is wrong with you?” I keep following him, keeping him in my sights.
“You are what’s wrong with me.” He comes to a stop, and I do the same. “If anyone else spoke to me the way you do, they would be punished for the disrespect.”
“Calling you out on your bullshit is not disrespectful.”
“Not for you, no. You’re lucky I like your fight, your attitude, and your childish pouts. Again,” he looks me up and down, “cute.” My anger rises, making my markings appear. “Now though, when you are like this?” He takes a step, his boots touching the tips of my toes. His scent greets me, and I inhale sharply as he takes a strand of my hair and plays with the ends. “You’re beautiful.” He lets go of my hair and runs his thumb over my lips. They part as he presses down, and my tongue comes out for a taste on its own accord. His eyes darken on a grunt. “Only you can make me react the way I do to you, make my need for you ever present over anything else.” He inhales deeply, letting some of his dominance flow on a small growl. “My patience has never been tested as much when it comes to you, so, little wolf.” He takes another breath. “Stop rubbing your thighs together and looking at me with those damn eyes of yours so we can get some work done.”
Blinking at his words, I take in the color of newly sprouted grass. There is that pull again, something other wanting us closer, needing us closer. It feels stronger now. Instead of guiding, it’s pushing, shoving with a violence that is so hard to deny.
“Let’s see what we can find in here,” Darius says, stepping back and moving off to the shelves at the side.
Runa stretches within me, and I hide my markings, placing my hand over my forearm as I feel a pulse of magic there. I don’t need to look down and see, I can feel what is showing.
And I have to wonder, is his showing too?
“There is nothing here about a plane of the Gods. Just texts on how they would be the destruction of the lands when they went mad, Cazier mainly.”
“He was a God,” Darius says in the seat across from me. “With his power, nothing could have stopped him from getting to his mate.”
“But what changed?” I wonder aloud. “Cazier and Zahariss created the lands. Nurtured them for years upon years. What caused Cazier to go mad, and then just disappear after the Heirs started appearing?”
“That is unknown. Zahariss hadn’t been seen either.”
“I wonder if he loved her,” I say aloud, looking through the large windows at the back of the room. “Can Gods even love?”
“Heirs can, so I can’t see why they wouldn’t be able to.” My eyes swing to Darius. “Heirs have mated with other wolves through history, in secret of course after they were deemed dangerous. They still had families of their own, loved others, and spent their lives together until they died. Records showed their loved ones were also executed if found to be involved with an Heir. Though we are talking about hundreds of years ago now.”
“That’s sad,” I whisper, looking back to the window.
“What is, little wolf?”
“That they had to love in secret. That they couldn’t show others their love in fear of the consequences.”
“They had no choice, they were deemed dangerous and to be dealt with on sight.”
“I know they had no choice.” I wonder how they must have felt. Heirs were in danger from being killed if they were spotted and found, and then that threat would lead to their loved ones. They must have been lonely.
“Things will change,” Darius says suddenly, flipping to another page in the book he’s going through. “When the Highers are gone, and the rogures are defeated, Heirs can love freely if they wish it. Live freely.”
“More Heirs won’t be born until we die,” I remind him.
“There are still two living Heirs in this room.” My eyes lower, and then I pick up another book as silence descends.
“What do you want to do about the notes we found in your father’s basement? Of this new rogure and what they were doing to females?” I ask him.
“We are seeing if we can find the place that was mentioned, then we will try and gather the ingredients and see if we can find out what it does. Anna agreed to help, since we don’t have an Elite witch now. Not that Maize was trustworthy anyway.”
“You would use that on another? Experiment like they did?” My stomach turns at the thought.
“On someone who deserves it, yes,” Darius says without hesitation.
“Do you have anyone in mind?”
“I do.” He flips a page and then flips it back again. “Look at this.” He slides the book toward me.
The Heirs location to where they reside is unknown. It is thought that they rest in nearby forests or within mountains, dwelling inside caves only they know, but this has not been confirmed. In once a tale of old, it is said they had been seen a lot near the ruins of Tyeetha, an old structure that once resembled a temple, a place of worship to the Gods.
“The ruins in Zakith?” I ask, looking up at Darius who nods. “It’s just bare bones, crumbling and deserted. My mom said it used to be a place cherished by all and many would go there to be blessed.”
Darius shrugs. “It’s a start, we will go there once we figure out how to keep what has happened to Maize quiet.”
“And if we don’t?” I question.
“Then a war is coming sooner than we had hoped.”
“That’s the last thing we need right now with the rogures,” I say, and then I sit up straight. “Shit, I saw rogures in the distance, I forgot to tell you.”
“Where,” he demands, his eyes sharp.
“North. Darius, there was so many of them.” I bite my lip. “They will cause so much harm.”
“I’ll send some Elites over there.”
I bite my lip. “What if they’re too late?”
“Unfortunately, little wolf, we always are lately.”
