Chapter 30 Diaval
Diaval
Watching my eternal search aimlessly for her past makes my heart hurt. Her past is an enigma at best. The longer I'm in her presence, the more I see the strength within her. Her heart is open, and she gives affection freely.
Watching her sort through the decay of this town, hoping for an answer to who she is, upsets my dragon.
Fix it... my dragon screams in my head. He's angry.
I can't. I don't know how.
That is the crux of the problem. I don't know how to fix it.
Help her search for that new name that was mentioned. Thyra, I believe it was. My dragon muses. I can almost hear his talons clicking in my head.
"May I help you?" I extend my hand, arching my eyebrows, hoping she'll let me try.
Feray's eyes dart down to the book in her arms, then up at me. Quickly, she nods and passes me the book.
Tears rim the edges of her eyes. "I'm scared, Diaval... What if I'm not in there? Then what?"
Her bottom lip quivers as she stares up at me and sniffles.
My dragon propels my body forward, and I crush her against my chest. Wrapping my arms around her, I hold her tightly, willing myself to absorb all her pain.
Unfortunately, it's not a power I possess.
"Then we keep trying. We have all eternity." I press my lips to her forehead, trying to imbue all my strength into her.
I would smite an entire continent just to see her smile.
Walking forward, I pass our mate off to Torben and motion down the hall. "The last room on the right is the cleanest. I set it up for us to sleep there."
Glancing over at Khal as he joins us, I motion back the way he came. "Can you hunt for our girl? She hasn't eaten since we left Blackmore."
Khal looks in the direction he just came from and nods. "Anything specific?"
"No. We'll get her to shift so she can eat as her wolf." Especially since we don't want to start a fire and alert anything that may be lurking.
"I'll see what I can find. I may have to go further away to find life."
"Do what you have to. Worst case, Easton will burn the town to the ground to protect her."
Khal nods to himself and turns on his heels before leaving.
Watching him walk away, my eyes return to the journal in my hands.
I head to the office close to the room where Feray and Torben are obviously mating. The soft sounds of her moans and the slaps of flesh on flesh distract me from the book I need to be reading.
Easton watches me as I open the book on the tabletop and start flipping through the pages.
Feray is somewhere in the twenty-four to twenty-six-year-old range, so I find the years that match that assumption. Hundreds of names are listed—births and deaths all in their columns.
The mention of Anastasia being pregnant catches my attention.
"What was the name Feray's mom had used? Was it Anastasia?" I pause, looking up at Easton.
"Yeah, that was the name mentioned. With an Ivan as the mate. Is he mentioned?"
Easton moves closer, and my finger slides across the page to the mate's name.
There it is. Ivan.
"Yes, both names are mentioned."
"So we're on the right track, then." Easton looks at the book upside down, staring at the two names we were hoping to find.
"Appears so..." I pause, looking at the names, then flip through further pages. "But look here..."
I point to a notation that the child was lost.
"Do you think that was staged?" Easton starts pacing, pondering what we just saw.
"Maybe. Especially if they were trying to hide who they were. Could have been a survival thing."
Shrugging, I stare at the ledger and wonder what actually happened.
"But if they were trying to hide who they were, why did they join a pack? If it was me, I would have gone to a place like Briarvale, where it's mixed species and not just my kind."
Easton makes a valid point—one that offers more questions than answers.
Shaking my head, I look through the lists further. "There were several losses that year." I point to at least six other losses the same year.
The other losses cause me to search my memories. "The water could have been contaminated. Perhaps the council did it."
Cursing under my breath, the thought crosses my mind. "What if Blackmore experienced the same loss?"
Looking up, Easton's eyes ignite at the question.
"There's no way to find out without raising suspicion." He rubs his hands through his hair roughly. "I'll have one of the first years at the hospital inquire."
Easton types furiously on his phone, sending out a Hail Mary text. "If she can find anything out, she'll text me."
He draws in a deep breath, more frustrated than usual.
Running my hands down my face, this book is making my head hurt. All the needless deaths—if the council had a kill order on babies the year she was born.
"I swear, if I find out they killed those babies to find her..."
A deep rumbling growl escapes my lips, and it rumbles the interior of the house. My dragon wants to torch the council and burn their building to the ground.
Scales and bone plates shift and move under my skin. My dragon is fighting me for control. He wants out and is in a murderous rage.
I'm seeing red. My pulse thrums in my ears, and all I can feel is the desire to destroy.
Stepping away from the table, I feel as if my dragon is going to rip me apart.
Babies. Hatchlings. It doesn't matter what you call the innocent ones that died. They are the most precious ones to dragons. Hatchlings are worth more than all the treasures in the hoard.
Just as I reach for the doorknob—pushed by my dragon to seek vengeance for the lost children—lithe hands stop me.
Turning slowly, trying to keep myself from shifting, I see Feray looking up at me. Her eyes are wide, finally seeing my dragon's fury. Her eyes pulse with the power of her wolf.
"Diaval..."
Her voice resonates, sending ripples over my skin, getting my dragon's attention. A warmth moves over my flesh slowly, and my drake settles down. The rage simmering under the surface melts away with the smooth circles her thumb makes on the back of my hand.
"How?" I arch a brow, looking down at my beautiful mate.
"Because I love you..."
Smiling, she stands on her tiptoes and presses her pillowy lips against mine.
Her kiss is like a siren's song, and it settles something in my drake.
She's perfect... My dragon says haughtily, and I can imagine him arching an eye ridge and raising his head in defiance.
I return Feray's passionate kiss and run my fingers through her fiery tresses.
She is my kryptonite, my greatest treasure, and my life for eternity. Until now, I didn't know what love was.
Love is this little wolf in my arms.
Pressing my lips to her forehead, I remain there for several moments. The longer I remain in contact with her, the more my temper subsides.
"We have something to talk about, my eternal."
I lead her over to the table where the book is. Using my index finger, I draw Feray's attention to the names.
Feray's gasp and the shiver that moves through her makes me draw her closer.
"It says the baby died..." Her bottom lip quivers as she looks up at me.
Easton moves to her other side and places his hand on her lower back.
"We believe they faked your death to hide you, since there were other baby deaths around the same time.
We also suspect the council may have been involved.
I've made a call to the hospital to find out if Blackmore had the same issue around the same time. "
Easton pulls his phone out as it pings. His face hardens.
"Blackmore also had a mysterious die-off of pups at the same time."
His first-year med student gave us the answer that confirms the council was involved.
"Why kill pups? Why?" Feray's voice breaks. "It's so hard for wolves to have babies... It doesn't make sense..."
Her bottom lip trembles harder as she tries to restrain the urge to cry.
The injustice of it claws at me. All those pups. All those families. For what? To find one child?
"I will burn the world to ash if I have to. No one will lay a finger on you. Ever." Easton turns Feray to look him in the eyes. His eyes are orbs of pure fire as he stares at her.
In the centuries I've known the man, I've never seen him this angry. He's borderline nuclear.
And then suddenly, the fire dies.
"Easton..." Feray's voice resonates again, and I watch the fire die in his eyes.
She effectively extinguishes the rage simmering in him like she did with me. Watching it happen is more impressive than having it done to me.
Torben moves closer as he watches us interact. "She's gotten good at doing that. It's a Luna gift similar to what a mother sow does with her sleuth. Just remember—still waters run deep."
We will heed Torben's warning. A mother sow is nothing to be fucked with. A female wolf, especially with pups, is the most dangerous creature on earth.
Khal walks through the front door dragging a deer behind him.
Feray pauses and goes deadly still. Her nose twitches, and then her head whips toward the door, seeing the deer.
Without warning, Feray shifts and her wolf tears into the deer, sending fur and skin flying everywhere.
My eyes widen. I've not seen this level of ferocity from her.
Arching a brow, I look over at Torben, who wears the same look of shock.
Easton moves Khal over to the book and catches him up on what we discovered. The rage in Khal's eyes concerns me. Basilisks are not known to keep their rage under control.
"Is this normal?" I motion at Feray's savage display.
"She doesn't feel safe," Torben muses, watching her feed.
"Do you need to eat?" I motion to the deer.
"I will when she's done. My shift can and will eat the bones for the marrow." Torben's tone softens as we watch her.
I didn't know Kodiaks ate bones. A new piece of information to store away.
A good chunk of the deer is gone when Feray comes trotting over. The gentle clicking of her claws on the wood adds to the fixation of watching her.
Feray's shift is seamless, and she manages not to destroy her clothing like mythics can do. Torben kisses her temple before he continues past us and shifts. Feray smiles, watching him, her fingers threading through his fur while he eats.
No one in their right mind would think to mess with Torben while he eats.
"So, what do we do now?" Khal looks from the scene before us, then back to the book.
"We look for the house in the picture." I pull the picture out and show him.
Khal picks it up and stares. "If I didn't know any better, I would have thought this was Feray."
Sighing, he flips to the far back of the book. A rough sketch of the town sits there. A single house south of the graveyard is off the beaten path—to the west of town, with what looks like a small road leading to it across from the windmill.
"We start here. Let's find that road and follow it."
With as simple as Khal makes it seem, hopefully we can find what Feray is looking for.
We wait for Torben to finish eating and head off toward the windmill, using that as our reference point.
The answers are close. I can feel it.