Odin POV:
There was something ominous and devastating about the wolf who slowly approached us as his massive claws dug into the crumbled ground with each stride. There was a centuries old air about him as his opal-like eyes stared down my mate, I wanted to peer within the intruder’s mind within that moment and decipher the threatening things were coursing through his mind. I shifted my focus over to my mate as her body remained stiff and rigid as she stared down the wolf who continued to close the distance between them and yet no one seemed to stop his advance.
This isn’t good, I thought to myself as I removed myself from the wolf who I had been pinning to the ground.
“stop!” I growled possessively.
“Odin, don’t,” Caoimhe said with a quiver in her voice.
My irises enlarged at the panic within her voice, it was the thing that urged me to climb off the wolf that I had been pinning down, the wolf didn’t seem phased as he bled from under me and yet he easily climbed to all fours within moments the moment I turned my back on him. Caoimhe finally took a step back as she motioned for the wolf who I had attacked to stand before her and guard her, it was something that drove my mind wild as she urged another life to protect her from danger and not her own mate.
“Conri,” Caoimhe said as her voice quivered from fear.
Conri? I thought as my attention quickly shot to the wolf who limped over to his master.
That name, it struck a chord of familiarity and yet I couldn’t grasp where I knew it from.
“My lady,” an old widow pleaded as she crumbled to her knees.
My mind began to drag me under as an intricate ringing filled my senses, it was something I had never experienced before as I tilted my head from the intense pain. My ears drew back and flattened against my head as the world began to sway and disperse from around me as a nauseous feeling swept over me. I couldn’t resist the urge as I crumpled to the ground and released a pained howl as the visions that were threatening my sanity finally burst through and overwhelmed my mind.
“Please,” The woman begged after a moment.
She bravely kneeled before the ruthless woman who had proclaimed herself as the first reigning female Alpha, it was said to have killed her father and her only child within the same night. She was a ruthless woman who knew no love for the people who despised her and everything that she believed in and yet it never stopped her from achieving her ambitious dreams. Her dreams consisted of smiting those who opposed her and hiding the darkest secrets that splattered the earth like a bloodied curse and yet now her secrets would be coming to light. Lelia’s bodyguards approached the elderly widow as she sat in a shaken mess before the woman whose attention she sought.
“Wait,” Lelia ordered as she held out her palm towards the two older men, men who had been loyal to only her, men who had sacrificed their lives to ensure her rule and her safety.
“I beg of you to reclaim the child who you relinquished into my care the moment you bore him into this world,” The woman cried out now, she didn’t care at that moment if Lelia’s secret was revealed, or if Lelia took her head for revealing the one secret that had been held between the two women for so long.
“Child?” Lelia’s mate asked flabbergasted as he rose from his seat and glanced between Lelia and the old woman.
“you should not have come,” Lelia instructed as she gritted her teeth nervously.
“Lelia!” The man demanded angrily as he shifted his attention to Lelia.
“Not now Milo,” Lelia said as she shook her head from frustration.
“Not now? Not now!” Her mate Milo demanded as he stood before her flabbergasted.
“I am dying, and the boy will soon be alone in this world, he deserves to take his rightful place as your heir!” The woman stated firmly as she rose to her feet now.
“Who is this child she speaks of?” Milo demanded.
“It’s non of your concern Milo,” Lelia said as she finally rose to her feet.
“Who the hell do you think you are, woman!” Milo shouted as his anger grew in volume.
“I am your wife and your Alpha!” Lelia said as her anger soon matched that of her mate.
“And clearly a mother!” Milo said disgusted as he sneered at her.
“My past is non of your concern!” Lelia’s shouted as tears began to spring from her eyes.
“You wont even bare me a child and here you are hiding a bastard!” Milo said as he grabbed the bridge of his nose and squeezed it in frustrated.
“Mother?” A child’s voice asked.
“What now!” Milo demanded as he turned to face the voice of the child.
“No…” Lelia breathed nervously as the child caught her eye.
The child was undeniably her child as he resembled her in the utmost way, he had the distinctive opal-like eyes of the Ayer blood line and Lelia’s gentle dark brown hair. The young boy looked on at the scene that was occurring before him with curiosity until his eyes finally landed on the woman who he instinctively knew to be his biological mother and yet Lelia couldn’t stand to look at him.
“Please look at him,” The widow pleaded.
“You were never meant to come back,” Lelia grumbled and yet she knew that there was no going back now that her secret was out.
“Conri,” Lelia reluctantly said.
It had been seven years since she had last held the child within her arms and yet the one thing she yearned for at that moment was to hold the child within her arms and never release him as she had once done. She finally met the gaze of the child who had longed to stand before her and she was determined to never let him down as she took a step forward to finally greet the son that she had hidden away so long ago.
I can protect him now, she reassured herself.