Mated To An Enemy

“Wait, she attacked him?” Ashleigh said. She picked up the journal, turning back the pages to when Irina was mentioned. “I didn’t see that. He said she was upset and wanted to leave the cave but not that he attacked her.”

Clara smiled and took the journal from Ashleigh, turning the pages forward.

“That’s because you didn’t read far enough.”

Clara handed the book back, pointing to a particular page. Ashleigh took the book and read the entry.

[ September 22, 19XX

I knew it was a risk to try and enter the cave when Gorn had already told me to leave it alone. Still, I was surprised when Irina shouted at me to leave. I tried to reason with her, to ask for just a few samples from the tree.

She attacked me. Luckily it was only a few minor injuries, nothing Fiona needs to know about. I don’t particularly want to be the reason for a war to break out between the packs.

Still, it was strange. Irina has always been a very rational person. However, she has changed since the day we discovered the chamber. Her behavior has become erratic and frightened. I wonder if the power source has somehow affected her mind.

I will try once more to convince Gorn to allow me to study the tree. I just know that it holds the answers we need.]

Ashleigh took a breath.

“Yep,” Clara said. “There are a couple more where he mentions her, but she basically disappeared from the world after that. Gorn kept telling everyone that she was sick and resting. Cain asked to see her a few times, but it did not go well. Then Gorn started getting squidgy.”

“Squidgy?” Ashleigh asked.

“Yea… like weird… suspicious.”

“Ah… in what way?”

“Well, I mean the obvious, control over the fae mound without allowing any research to happen. Then he kept his Luna locked away until the day she died.”

“How did she die?” Ashleigh asked, now very curious if the rumors were true.

Clara bit her lower lip and looked away sadly.

“Cain says that one of the guards saw her on the roof of her home…. She kept climbing higher and higher until there was nowhere left to climb but a long way down to fall….”

“Oh…”

Clara nodded.

“He blamed himself. He was sure that something in the chamber affected her mind.”

“Maybe that’s why Gorn was acting strange as well? Because of their bond.”

“Maybe, but it didn’t stop after she died,” Clara said. “He got increasingly aggressive for results from Cain, and finally, about two and half years after the initial search for the cave, Cain refused to continue helping them anymore.”

“He just quit? But that was more than seven years ago? His last entry is from a few months before he died.”

“You know if you had read the journal….”

Ashleigh growled in response.

“Ok, ok,” Clara sighed. “Cain quit, but lowkey didn’t quit. He just started doing his own research away from Tomas and Gorn’s prying eyes. He started investigating all the mounds he could find, but none of them had that same power source.

“I’m not really sure where along the line he turned his attention to genetics… I know he took time in the human world to learn in-depth about it, but I’m not sure why. The journal gets a little light on the details after a while.”

Ashleigh furrowed her brows and looked at the journal in her hands. It seemed strange. This journal had been his thoughts on the events. Why would he begin to censor his own thoughts?

“He must have found something,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Cain must have found something in his research. Something that changed what he was looking for and how. Something he thought that someone else might want,” Ashleigh said. “He started being more careful about what he wrote in case someone else found the journal.”

“That makes sense,” Clara said. “But what doesn’t really make sense is why he returned to working with them.”

“He did?”

“Yep, six years ago, after returning from his time in the human world, he returned to working with Gorn and Tomas.”

“Six years ago…” Ashleigh whispered to herself. Closing her eyes. “Bell.”

“Oh…” Clara whispered.

She didn’t know all the details, but she knew there had been an exchange. In order to save Bell, Cain agreed to a request from Tomas. This must have been what it was, taking up the research again.

“Then… do they know? Did Tomas and Gorn know about this… connection to the fae?” Ashleigh asked.

“Did they know that Alpha Cain claims to have found genetic proof that we descend from our greatest enemies? Enemies that could control nature and shapeshift to look like other people?” Clara asked. “Yea. I think so. But I am more so guessing it was a suspicion, or at the very most they thought they could somehow gain access to the power the fae used.”

Ashleigh sighed.

“Cain was able to leave again,” Clara said. “Four years ago. The details are light, right here.”

Clara pointed to a passage in the journal.

[February 24, 20XX

Caleb’s actions were foolish. He could have gotten himself killed.

But, I am proud of him. His heart was in the right place. And I am also thankful to him. Because of how Tomas treated him, I was able to cut ties and punch him for good measure… that felt damn good.]

“Caleb?” Ashleigh said in surprise. “What did he do?”

“Mmm, well, based on the entry date and the fact that he mentions synthetic blood not long after. I think this was referring to when Caleb started the protocols for safe blood transfusions. It was during my human rotation, so I don’t know the details. Still, I heard it was very dramatic, and Luna Fiona was very unhappy.”

“Guess I’ll need to ask Caleb about that,” Ashleigh said.

“You should ask him about the last entry, too,” Clara said. “There’s only one after the big reveal.”

Ashleigh turned to the marked page and then turned to the next.

[September 25, 20XX

I have completed the updates to the training program. Caleb has already shown great promise and has mastered the primary levels. I hope when it is time for him to learn the advanced levels, he is ready for it.

I leave tonight for the mounds. It’s no longer safe to leave them be. It has become clear that I am not the only one who has made this discovery. But as of last night, I am the only one who knows what the others need to accomplish their goals.

Thank the Goddess Tomas does not have a scientific mind. He will never know how close he was to learning the truth.]

There was a list of explosive devices and essential supplies on the page that followed.

“This was when he left to destroy Loki’s mound… he died on this mission.”

“Not just Loki’s,” Clara said.

She turned back several pages. There was a sketched map marked with the locations of other mounds. There were three between the Broken Crag and Summer territory.

“When we went to Broken Crag to check on Alpha Jonas, I made Nessa stop and help me look for them. These three mounds, they don’t exist anymore.”