14 Arch 1 Chapter 14

Arch 1

Chapter 14

"I'm glad I kept you, girl." Everett said in his gravelly voice.

"Glad to be of service, Sir." Gretchen replied, which wasn't a lie, because if he had been displeased, she'd have been dead.

A couple of months had passed, and it was full summer now. Claron had been reduced to nothing more than an animal, his human form completely abandoned, and, because of his familiarity with her, Gretchen had, for all intents and purposes, become his trainer. Of course, the injections to make him agreeable and obedient-plus the failsafe they'd put in his brain, like he'd done with Eira-had insured the safety of the entirety of the Cloak and Dagger, but he already had some connection to her, even if he couldn't remember exactly what it was, and, after his betrayal, Gretchen was all too happy to take advantage of that.

"I think the time for our first strike on Moon Down has come." Everett grinned.

He had, of course, had his spies out to find where his quarry had been taken. He'd be the one to breed his army with her. He took no pleasure in the thought, and would not in the act. It was naught but a duty he must perform to ensure the safety and longevity of humanity. He didn't expect any of the others in the Cloak and Dagger to shoulder that responsibility, or have to do such a heinous thing. And after he had used their offspring for their purpose, and didn't need her to reproduce, he'd dispose of her and them.

The only part of this that unsettled him came from within. The soothsayer was a constant thorn in his side, with his constant nagging worries and doubts, but that was a mere annoyance. The boy was far too fragile to do anything against him, nonetheless the Cloak and Dagger at large. No, what worried him was his own son, Adler, and his scruples. He was soft, like his mother, and look at where it had gotten her! Cadence, though…she was all him. All viciousness and single-minded dedication to the cause. She wanted to rage against those that had taken her mother away from her. He didn't understand why Adler didn't. No matter. He would drag his son kicking and screaming into the revolution if he had to. He would see, he would understand. He had to. And if he didn't, he would be made to.

"You." he said to one of the guards standing at the door.

"Sir."

"Go fetch my children. They will be leading the charge to suss out Moon Down's defenses. Tonight."

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"Max…" Eira groaned. "But why the math again?"

"Because that's part of it, too, my love, unfortunately. Eira, baby, you can literally do math I do not even understand like you're discussing the weather."

"But I hate it."

"What am I gonna do with you?" Max said indulgently, shaking his head with a smile and kissed her.

Over the past few months, they had gotten tutors for Eira, and they had expected it to be a challenge for her to grasp, but they had been utterly wrong.

She had devoured and consumed facts and numbers and dates and names like her mind had been starving for it for all of her existence, blowing through grades like a bullet through tissue paper. She was drawn to history, of course, because she had lived through so much of it without actually being able to be a part of it. But she also loved to string beautiful words together into a tapestry to create a picture. She found she could express the feelings she couldn't express, even with her newfound words, through art, simply by using different colors. She found science interesting and engaging. But she could look at figures and equations and instantaneously comprehend them, multiply insane sums in her head, and that was the subject that caught her scorn and loathing.

"It is a beautiful day outside, isn't it?" Max asked, looking out the window as a little blue butterfly lazily drifted past the window, seemingly without a worry in the world, for the flowers were plentiful and varied within the walls of Moon Down. Fat little bumble bees drifted along on the song of the warm breeze merrily. It was particularly hot that summer, though the nights were comfortably cooler.

"Yes, and it is calling to me with great desperation." Eira lamented.

"Alright, alright. I guess that's enough for today, anyway. I simply cannot seem to torture you. And you know you get whatever you want, you don't have to give me that face."

"That is merely because you have conditioned me to expect it."

"I know. It was intentional, because I would give you the moon, if only you'd ask." he said, taking her hand and leaning over it to kiss it. "Shall we go to the beach, my heart?"

"YES!" she cried enthusiastically. She already was wearing her black bikini under her tank top and shorts.

"Shall we then?" he asked with a grin, proffering her his arm, which she took.

They filled their backpacks with towels, a blanket, snacks, drinks, and warmer clothes for later, plus a lighter to start a fire-they'd pick up the firewood on their way through the forest-and exited their new house for the beach. The house had been built alongside the main mansion, exactly the same, but was downsized to two stories to fit a single family; the two of them, and the children they would have in the future, and of course expanding was an option, should they need it. It was no secret that they were encouraged to need to expand. Stella had grandbaby fever, and, though Markus was rather more reserved about it, he was not free of its grip. Then they had Bear and Sophie backing them up, and even Stormy had said, "It would be cool if you guys had some kids or whatever. They'd be so. Damn. Cute!".

Though, Max was quickly discovering one of the pitfalls of being an alpha was…having to be an alpha. The younger wolves who had not claimed mates yet were naturally drawn to Eira, out of curiosity, from sensing the raw power she had, from the fact that, with a proper diet and care, she'd managed to fill out a little bit, giving her a very pleasing hourglass shape… Yes, wolf pairings were absolute, but Eira being what she was, it was a bit of a wild card, because she wasn't one. They were still hormonal, after all, the young wolves, and it was worse for wolves than humans going through puberty. Crushes happened, until they came of age, where their gears shifted automatically to find that one. It wasn't unheard of, even, for alphas to be challenged-though Markus had never been-in a surge of hormones and the need to prove themselves, more so if they were a particularly big or strong individual, and all this was not limited to the males, as all wolves went through this horribly tumultuous time, just as human males and females did, though it was somewhat more prominent in the male wolves because of the testosterone.

There had been times where some had sniffed a little too closely and Max had had to use his teeth, whether metaphorical or literal. It was also, in part, due to his quiet, gentle nature. He had never really acted like an alpha because he hadn't had a reason to before. Now he had his mate to defend, and he'd had to become more aggressive in response to it. It was a perfectly normal thing for a wolf, but the violent things he thought and did sometimes took him a bit aback, though he still had no remorse for it. This was the life of a wolf. When someone pushed a little too far, you had to push back harder to get the point across to, hopefully, avoid having to do it ever again. And if they didn't learn, well…

Though that was a very rare thing, indeed.

Arm in arm, they walked leisurely on their way. Eira picked a purple flower and stuck it behind her ear, and a green flower behind Max's ear, and smiled up at him from behind her round Ozzy glasses; she'd certainly found her style, and it was that Refined Adult Goth Aesthetic that many adopted after their scene teen days.

Green always made her think of Max. From the lighter shades to exemplify the happiness he made her feel, and his enthusiasm and zest for life, and his energy, to the deeper shades that made her thing of him in the dappled light of the forest, of the deeper feelings she had for him, and the times they spent in their bed, and speaking to each other of things only shared between the two of them in hushed whispers in the dead of the night, when all was calm and quiet, a time tailored to them, and them alone to contemplate the other.

She had also discovered that she erred towards the cooler colors in not just her fashion choices, but just everything in general. She didn't completely hate warm colors, but she felt better suited to and comforted by the greens, the blues, the purples. Red got to her a little. She related it to all the red she'd spilled, and, she knew, would again if it meant protecting those she cared about.

She really had been flourishing, though, coming into her own. She would always be different, but that was ok, as it was now a thing to be celebrated, because it made her her. She no longer felt like a stranger in her own skin, though there was still the matter of Other Eira that she wasn't sure how to handle, but there was the accord there that if it meant protecting Max, they would do what they needed to do. Somewhere in the back of her mind was starting to come to grips with the fact that Other Eira had to be some part of her, because only she could love Max like that. It was in her subconscious, though, and not in the forefront of her mind, her conscious, to actually deal with yet.

Sophie had helped her work through a lot, and gave her a better understanding of herself. Eira was not unintelligent, she'd just hadn't been taught the things everyone else had by being around others, and she'd previously had to focus solely on survival.

Before too long, they arrived at the beach-the name of which, Eira had learned, was Moon Beach-set down their bags and laid down their blanket.

They made a day of it, down at the shore, and lit a fire when the sun exited stage left.

Nobody else was out on the beach, and they were just lying on their blanket, holding each other and stealing kisses, staring up at the stars, picking out constellations…when their sharp hearing picked up the first of the screams filtering through the air.

They were immediately on their feet, running back to the pack.

"MAX!" Eira cried, reaching out her hand for his.

He took it and, with Eira putting her all into her speed, winked out of existence, appearing at the residential area and into a horror movie.