Zira, Isaiah, Alistar, Zed, and Bella followed a very whimsical girl, Clary, on a tour of the Lunar Pride packhouse. Her bright spirit, matching clothes, and the need to fill the silence with her incessant talking reminded Zira of her pixie friend Trixie. They didn’t even have time to put away their bags and were told it would be done for them before they were pulled on this tour.
As long as they don’t touch my snacks, Zira thought, dragging her feet across the floor. Halfway through the tour, Bella took away her bag of cookies, claiming Zira's snacking was giving her a headache. As if her yammering about Luna's responsibilities wasn't doing that already, Zira thought.
It's been almost an hour and there was no mention of food. She was starting to feel a bit peckish. She noticed Isaiah giving her a look of empathy. Earlier, he told her it would be impolite to decline, and it was normal for Alphas and their Lunas to tour whatever pack they visit for the first time. Of course, Bella agreed, saying it was a Luna’s duty to follow her Alpha everywhere he went. Zira wanted to point out she wasn't Luna yet but didn't want that to turn into anything.
Arias tugged at her clothes, and she looked down at him. He held out a cookie for her. It nearly melted her heart that he was sharing with her. She quickly took the cookie and popped it in her mouth with a smile before Bella saw them. She didn’t know how he was able to sneak these out of her stash, but she was grateful.
“He gets that from you,” Nina said as Zira rolled her eyes.
“...and this castle is the origin of the White Wolf Elders. With the help of the Alpha King, we renovated and restored some of the original stones. We had it transported from the Nexus and right into the Royal Kingdom’s backyard. Most people think the Nexus wasn’t real, but it was,” Clary said with the biggest smile as they continued down the hallway. That got Zira’s attention. Percy was right all along. “It was the mecca for white wolves all over the world. A place to feel safe and not shun for being born with a blessing. Or so I heard. The great tragedy happened before I was born but the stories sound so great.”
“Does this mean that the Nexus Spring is real too,” Zira asked.
“Nexus Spring?”
“I heard from Percy that white wolves used it to heal themselves.”
“Percy?” Zira saw a flash of recognition on Clary’s face which only added to Zira’s suspicion of Percy being involved with Lana. Who else would know what happened on their journey together?
“I’m surprised I haven’t seen him around. He’s been searching for this group for quite some time. Do you know him,” Zira pressed.
Clary laughed a bit. “Oh no, I don’t, but the Nexus Spring is just a fable. Though, one of the founders was a healer and she was the creator of the legendary fountain that was in the center of the town at the time. Maybe people got it confused with that. We do have a replica of the fountain down the way, if you want to give it a try," she laughed again. "Let me tell you the history of the founders…”
Zira internally groaned at the soon-to-be boring lesson as they continued down the hallway. They came upon the center of the castle, which led out to an open courtyard. The fountain in the center looked like the one she found in the cave. From the water sprouts to every carved out werewolf on the sides, but there was something missing she couldn’t quite remember. She didn’t have time to think about it when she noticed two members staring at her. They whispered something to each other as they walked by, casually pointing her way.
Zira started to acknowledge them when she noticed movement further down the hall. She walked around the corner to get a better look and noticed a group of people moving what looked like medical supplies. She moved to take a closer look when she noticed Lana coming out of the same room.
Well, this is suspicious, Zira thought. She knew that room was the library for when they passed it on the tour. Apparently, it was being renovated so they couldn’t go in. Now pack members are moving medical supplies. Weird.
“Lana, hi.”
A momentary shock passed over Lana’s face before she replaced it with the fakest smile Zira had ever seen. Lana whispered something to the other pack members before making her way over to Zira. She quickly glanced at her watch.
“Zira…hi. I thought Clary already gave you a tour of this area,” Lana asked.
“She did. I’m just taking a breather. That girl can talk,” Zira laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a name for every room in this place.”
“She does,” Lana said plainly. A nice silence settled between the two. Zira’s eyes moved towards the door, she saw the others going through and Lana followed. “Just some light renovating.”
“With medical supplies?”
Zira saw Lana’s lip twitch before she actually smiled. “The library is also a great place for storage. Is something wrong with that?”
“No, I jus-”
“Besides,” Lana interrupted, “I had to make room for the other guests you brought along. Here I only thought it was going to just the three of you. A minor inconvenience I wanted you to be aware of.”
“Well-”
“Oh, don’t worry your pretty little head about it. It’s only a slight communication problem with an easy fix.” She looked down at her watch. “Well, that’s all the time I have for idle chit chat. Enjoy the rest of the tour.”
With that, Lana turned and disappeared around the corner. Zira waited a beat or two before going to the doors and, of course, they were locked. Zira put her ear against the door when the smell of pie tickled her nose. Her stomach growled loud enough for it to sound like Nina coming through her. She quickly turned towards the smell and bumped into an older woman carrying it. The woman screamed and the pie went up in the air.
With quick reflexes, Zira grabbed the woman before she fell over and spun to catch the pie before it hit the ground. She took a big whiff of the pie before smiling.
“This is Shepard's pie,” Zira grinned, looking up at the woman whose eyes were as wide as saucers. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to spook you. I…I was just-”
“You…you’re…” the older woman didn’t finish her sentence but instead gave Zira a tight hug. Zira would’ve dodged it, but she was more focused on not squishing the pie. So, she lifted the pie over her head as the woman held her.
“Um…okay…lady, I’m going to need my body back so...”
The woman didn’t seem to hear her, so Zira stood still in the hug for a few moments. She looked back to see if she could find someone to help her, but her group was nowhere to be seen.
“So, I have to get back to my group and this boring tour, and I need my body to do…”
The older woman let her go abruptly. “I prayed and prayed for the Moon Goddess to bring you back to us. We really need you.”
Zira looked at her confused. “Need me? For what?”
“Something is going wrong here. Something evil and I know you will be able to defeat it like last time, Lady Niamh.”
The woman looked at Zira with hope in her eyes, but Zira knew she had to let her know she wasn’t who she thought. She handed the pie back to the woman. “I’m not this Nia-”
“Zi, there you are,” Isaiah interrupted them. “You need to come and see this. Excuse me, ma'am.”
Isaiah ushered Zira down the hall until they came to a room where the others were standing in front of a large oil painting. In the painting, there was a woman and three men in a room. The men hovered around a red velvet-back chair the woman was sitting in. She was smiling and touching the hand on her shoulder, belonging to one of the men, who was smiling at her. The other two had no emotion and looked as if they would rather be someplace else. The woman got Zira’s attention.
“Do you see the resemblance,” Isaiah asked. “You look just like her, Zi.”
Zira smacked her lips and looked at everyone who was looking between her and the painting.
“Come on, guys,” Zira laughed. “This better not be one of those ‘They all look alike’ scenarios.”
“No, Zi. He’s right,” Zed agreed. “This lady is a carbon copy of you. Maybe she’s from dad’s side.”
Zira studied the painting again. Maybe they had a point. Aside from the build, the woman did resemble Zira from her hazel eyes to her curly hair and even to her smile. Zira noticed around the woman's neck was the same crystal Arias had around his. Even the man behind her, touching her shoulder, had a slightly different crystal around his neck. Maybe they were an item, Zira wondered, looking at the man, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar.
“What are their names again?”
Clary turned back to the painting and pointed to each one in turn. “Well, there’s Gregor Macclean, Finnick Gustav, Rodin Thorne, your great-great-grandfather, Alpha Isaiah, and the legendary Niamh Limni. We have descendants from each of the founders here…well except for Niamh. She was the only healer of the pack and people say she could even do more than that.”
“Like what?”
“Well,” Clary said, looking around cautiously, “it was said she had a way of taking a white wolf’s powers away. Making them human.” They all looked at Clary with shocked expressions.
“Are you serious,” Zira asked.
“I don’t know,” Clary laughed, clapping her hands. “I just like to see people’s reactions. I’ve never met anyone with such power. Then again, I never met another healer until your son. I heard he brought you back to life. Has he ever…”
“Not that we know of,” Isaiah said quickly, giving Zira a knowing look. They couldn't link with each other, but she knew what he was thinking. If Arias had such power, they weren't ready for the world to know it just yet. It would most likely bring too much attention to him. “We’re just looking to get him back to normal.”
“Of course,” Clary said with an earnest smile, “and we will.”
“What about the crystal they’re wearing,” Zira asked. “What can they do and why only the two?”
“Well...,” Clary said with a smile as if she was about to tell a juicy secret, “...from the stories Niamh Limni and Finnick Gustav were lovers until she found her mate. She gave him this necklace so he would always know who her heart belonged to. Her mate found out and the jealousy made him so mad, he killed Finnick Gustav in cold-blood. Though other stories say she rejected her mate to be with Finnick. Who knows? Anyway, let's finish this tour and later we can eat. I can already smell Mama Essie’s shepherd pie.”
“Food!” Arias and Zira both said excitedly while everyone followed Clary down the hall. Zira’s eyes wandered back to the painting. Niamh Limni. She wore a smile as if she knew something and wanted to tell Zira. Then words the older woman said to her rang in her ear.
Something evil is happening here. It made her wonder why Lana was so insistent on bringing just Arias alone. Something was going on and Lana didn’t want outsiders to find out, but Zira was going to find out. One way or another.