Chapter 11 Elodie
Elodie
Iknew it wasn’t smart, leaving with him. But damn if I wasn’t all mixed up inside. Holding his hand grounded me in ways I didn’t want to admit. And the story sounded intriguing.
It was a weak excuse, but in this moment, I needed someone else to be strong for a little while.
He led me around behind our cottage, veering left until we came upon a well-beaten path into the forest. I was curious where it led—we hadn’t exactly gotten a welcome-wagon tour from the pack when we’d been settling in—but didn’t want to break the spell of the moment by asking.
His hand was warm and strong in mine, his presence solid at my side as we walked under the bower of trees, branches interlocking and letting only dappled sunlight through to pepper the path.
It was peaceful and beautiful. Chirping birds were our only companions, and for a moment, it felt like I was in a different life, a life with possibilities I didn’t dare dream of.
“The guardians lived before the war, many, many years ago, when the omegas were more plentiful. The guardians were marked to rise up beside them.”
His voice was calm and deep, sexy without trying.
But the story was what captured my attention now.
I’d never heard a whisper of these marked guardians.
They were probably just a bedtime story for little Hungarian wolf pups, but still, it was fascinating how shifter lore changed in different parts of the world.
“They devoted themselves to packs with mated alpha-omega pairs, offering extra protection as they went about sharing their Goddess gifts with other wolf packs. Some say the guardians themselves received extra blessings from the Goddess, just to help them in their calling.”
We walked along in companionable silence for a few more minutes, a cheery little gazebo coming into sight. He led me to the swing that hung inside, and we sat, never letting go of each other’s hands.
“That’s a great bedtime story, Brute, but I’m afraid that’s all there is. Surely if these guardians were real, I’d have heard of them. The Maiden’s Enclave teaches us everything there is to know about omegas, and the guardians are nowhere in our records, that I’ve seen, at least.”
He turned my way, one side of his mouth lifting in a cocky grin. “Bedtime stories, huh? I thought you might say that. But I have proof.”
I snorted. “Proof? Of magical beings that haven’t existed in over four hundred years at least? Okay.”
“Come on, then.”
We were up and out of the gazebo in a blink, and now I was even more curious. We wove deeper into the forest, at times dropping to single file, fingertips still linked, until we stood in front of the trunk of a massive fallen tree.
He scanned the trunk, then led me over to a mossy section and squatted down in front of it.
“Right here.”
He pointed at the age-softened bark, the green carpet of moss ending just above it.
“I see tree bark.” I held back my chuckle at his insistence that this random dead tree was proof of omega guardians.
“You don’t see the mark?” He frowned at me, letting his fingertip trail in an S-like motion over a particular section of bark.
“My grandfather was a guardian, and he carved their mark into this tree. My mom used to bring me here to see it when I’d had a rough day at school.
She’d tell me about the guardians, about how brave my grandpa was, and how one day I might follow in his footsteps, or my children would. ”
“No, I…” My vision blurred, and I blinked rapidly, trying to clear it.
And there it was, etched into the bark of the tree, clear as if it were put there yesterday. My gasp drew Valens’s attention.
“What is it?”
“I couldn’t see it, and it just… appeared. Out of the old, damp bark.” I squeezed his hand hard, my own shaking.
It was irrefutable proof of some kind of magic, I had no doubt.
But why hadn’t I heard of it during my time at the enclave?
Had the head priestess known about these guardians and chosen not to tell us?
Or was it something I would learn about as I continued to move up the ranks?
I supposed it was possible they truly didn’t know at all, though unlikely.
I had no answers, only a million questions.
The symbol meant nothing to me, though I lifted my fingertips to trace the lines anyway. The second I touched the mark, a buzzing sensation went up my arm, almost as if I’d struck a nerve. But I couldn’t pull away. It was magnetic, inexorably drawing me in.
I traced the shape with a reverent finger, committing it to memory.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t in any maiden’s history I’d read.
“This is so cool, I can’t believe—”
A sharp blast rent the quiet forest air, shocking me onto my feet as I reached for my butterfly sword where it hung in its sheath.
“Distress signal. We need to get back!” Valens shouted over the repeating bursts of the noxious sound. We raced through the forest, heading back to the pack as fast as our legs could carry us.
As soon as the distress signal ended, the forest went dead silent besides the muted sounds of our running steps and our breathing, proof there was at least one predator out here. When nature went silent, it was watching for danger.
Valens slowed and crouched as we reached the back of the nearest cottage—one of my and Galyna’s neighbors—but the streets were eerily empty.
We’d been briefed on the Hungarian pack’s emergency protocol.
Three alarm blasts would sound, everybody went to their designated space—for most, it was their homes or the nearest pack mate’s home—and then the last step was clearing the grounds by the designated team.
Valens was on the team, but my job was to get to Olivia and Fiona.
Galyna was probably already there, protecting them alone. While guilt swamped me at the fact that I was letting not just my charges but also my partner down, I still had to hope she was there, the last line of defense. Granted, Fiona wasn’t defenseless, but she was no trained warrior either.
“We have to split up,” I whispered, gesturing toward the old pack mansion, which was Olivia and Fiona’s designated bunker point. There was a giant, warded panic room in the basement, deemed the safest place for two omega-marked females in case of an attack.
“Absolutely not,” he argued, a slight alpha push on his words. Not quite a command, but his wolf was riled by the suggestion.
“I have to get to the mansion and guard the females. You have to clear the city. The quickest way is to split up.”
This time, he growled, eyes flashing bright turquoise with his wolf as his smoky scent filled the air around us. “We will escort you to the mansion.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue. Every minute we wasted talking about moving was a minute I wasn’t doing my duty.
We stayed low as we ran behind the row of houses and cottages toward the pack mansion. All was still quiet, but when we stopped at the house closest to the mansion, the little hairs on the back of my neck lifted, and my eyes sharpened with my wolf’s greater vision.
Something was out here, and it was deadly.
The creak of a hinge drew my attention to the front doors of the mansion, one of the overly tall double doors hanging open.
My stomach flipped with anxiety.
Olivia and Fiona are in there, and they need me.
I drew my sword, my nerves settling as soon as the familiar weight was in my palms. The years of practice, the endless hours of burning muscles on the practice fields were for this exact moment.
When the rubber met the road, I was an unstoppable killing machine.
Every bit of my energy narrowed to one point as adrenaline surged through my veins.
Running full speed in a half crouch, I crossed the road and cleared the entry steps of the mansion in seconds flat, not worrying about Valens or if he was still following me. All that mattered was my charges and their safety.
The luxurious surroundings blurred into shades of beige as I bolted for the stairs, pausing only to listen before charging down to the basement.
I stopped again as I peered around the doorframe out into the basement area, but all the lights were off.
Shit, someone cut the power.
The panic room was self-sustaining for a full forty-eight hours, even without external power, which meant as long as the women were inside, they were fine.
But that meant I was on my own to deal with whoever might be down here.
It could also be a simple wolf-pack disagreement; the Vargas had made many enemies, and there were disgruntled packs all around us.
It was a sad day when the best-case scenario was that your neighbors were so pissed off, they’d come cut the power and raise hell.
I crept out of the stairwell into the darkness, my wolf’s sharper vision letting me see across the cavernous space to the closed panic room door.
A subtle red dot of light on the ground below the door let me know two things: it was secured, and it was occupied. If it were empty, the light would be green. If it had been breached, the light would be off. Knowing that, I breathed a little easier as I worked around the perimeter of the basement.
This particular panic room had been protected with antiflashing wards, among others, etched directly into the metal. Which meant that even if we were under attack by a warlock or fae, no one was getting through that door without heavy-duty power tools.
I quickly cleared the first room, which was full of spare decor.
The next was full of broken gym equipment, and while a dangling punching bag startled me, nothing jumped out to attack.
I stayed alert as I reentered the main open basement area, glancing across the space to where two more shadowy rooms waited.
If those were also clear, there was nothing down here but the panic room, and I could stand guard until the rest of the town was cleared by the Hungarian pack.
I only made it halfway through the next door before a gleaming sword arced toward my head.