A thousand and five centuries ago. The birth of Birsha
CASIMIR
I stepped through the pack border and came to a sudden halt. The air around me felt stale. The wind seemed to breeze in the wrong direction and the foreign pheromones in the air had me sneezing. The men trailing behind me had all come to a halt, eyeing me warily as I scanned our surroundings.
"Is everything alright?" Amon, my best friend and future beta, asked.
I turned to him with a pinched expression, communicating through the mind link. 'Something is wrong,' I shared with him, not wanting to cause panic among the men that were with me.
'Something like what? I can't sense anything; do you think the pack is under attack?' His shoulders tensed, his senses more alert as he looked around.
I had my senses on high alert but I couldn't tell exactly if we were under attack. The gong would've rang to alert us. Baba should've sent me a warning through the mind link. We went hunting together in no-man's land and he had departed before us to bring the fattest meat back to Ma' so she could start with dinner. 'Maybe not? We would've heard the sound of the gong. There are foreigners in the pack, and there's something eerily unwelcoming about their presence,' I replied.
'Perhaps the Alpha was expecting visitors and he forgot to tell you,' Amon suggested, but that wasn't the case. Baba would've wanted me to stay back home instead of going hunting if he was expecting visitors. He would've wanted me home to attend to them in his absence.
'Baba doesn't forget things like that. It's unlike him.' At the thought, I decided to reach out to my dad and I hit a wall. That's weird. A frown found its place on my face as I tried reaching Baba again and nothing.
Turning to the men who went hunting with us. "Take the rest of the kill to the pack butcher. You know what to do; make sure every household gets a good cut. Store whatever is remaining."
"Yes, Alpha," they chorused, departing in the direction of the main pack settlement.
Untying the sling bag strapped to my shoulder, I handed it over to Amon along with the large deer I had killed for my mate. "What are you doing?" Amon asked.
"Something is going on and I need to get to my family. I can't reach Baba; my link with my mate is cut off as well."
"I'm coming with you. We can come back for these or send someone to get them later," he said, dropping everything in his hand.
"No," shaking my head as I shrug off my cloak. I craned my neck and let the bones crack as I prepared my body for another shift. "Go check on your mate and daughter; they might need you. Be careful," I warned, before my Lycan took over and I bolted down the path that led home.
The agitation in my pit grew the closer I got to the farmhouse. It was silent—too silent for a place that's always filled with the sounds of little ones and different animals running around. The usual party that always greeted me on every arrival after hunting was nowhere to be found. The entire farm seemed deserted as I crossed the wooden gate.
The first thing that hit me was the metallic stench of blood. And, no, this was by no means animal blood. My senses were good enough for me to tell the difference between the blood of animals and the blood of a living being. I didn't need extra sense to know that something had happened in my absence. I barged through the front door of my family house, halting abruptly as I came face to face with two northern wolves.
What were they doing here, and why was their body drenched in blood? There was no time for questions or answers because the minute they noticed my presence, they lunged for me. I don't waste my breath on assessing their attack. I was furious; my Lycan was furious and I needed to taste. I stood my ground, letting my claws sink into the chest of the first beta wolf. A sickening sound cracked through the air as my other hand wrapped around the neck of the second wolf and I snapped his neck. Relishing the sound of his bones, breaking under the force of my grip. The beta wolf let out a stunted sound of pain as I gripped his heart and wrenched it clean out of his chest.
My vision blurred as I tramped through the house with one goal in mind. Kill.
Dead bodies littered the hallway behind me with every foreign wolf I maimed. I needed to get to my family and I needed to get to them fast yet every room I opened came up empty.
A high-pitched sound reached my ears as I kicked another door open. My ears perked up, shoulders going taunt as I recognized the voice.
MATE! My lycan snarled and I was down the hallway in a flash towards the sound of her cries.
I kicked the door open just as Ma's voice rang through the air. "It's a trap, Casimir. Don't come in." She howled in warning, but it was too late. I was through the door in a blink, only to stumble back as something sharp pierced my chest.
I blink hard against the bloody haze in my gaze as my eyes snap downward. An arrow? Did they really think a measly arrow would take me... My line of thought blurred as I staggered on both feet as the presence of the magic in the arrow hit my system. Fuck!
"Don't." My mate's voice had me snapping my head sideways. "Don't pull it out," she warned, sobbing as I wrapped my fingers around the arrow. "The magic will spread faster."
My eyes blazed with rage at the sight before me. They had her on her knees, her stomach slashed open and claw marks all over her body. "What…" I choked on my words as whatever poison they had infused in the arrow gripped my heart in a vice. What did they do to her? To my pup? She was pregnant.
"You can't save her," a voice mocked as I attacked the wolf closest to me. "You're too late." I didn't need to see his face to know who it was. It was the Alpha Lord of the North. I went through the room in a blur, ripping apart every man I came into contact with, and they kept coming. More wolves, more arrows. My mate's cries never seized. They were killing her, yet it felt like I couldn't get to her. I could see her; she was right there but I couldn't get to her. The presence of magic was stifling. But it wasn't like Ma's magic; this was dark and evil.
The effect of the poison in the arrow hit me faster than I anticipated, causing my knees to give out from underneath me. I struggled against the hands that grabbed me, but my limbs grew weaker with each movement. I should've taken my lessons seriously when Ma tried to teach me simple magic. I felt the grip of the magic deep within my soul, even as my lycan struggled to fight back, pushing against the cloud of darkness encroaching my heart.
"I was hoping you'd make it back on time to watch the final stage." The Alpha Lord of the North laughed as someone grabbed me by the hair and raised my head.
"Why are you doing this?" I managed out in a slurred voice as the faces of every member of my family came into view.
Baba was half dead, with all his limbs torn and almost severed from his body. With the way the kids were with their eyes wide open and unfocused, it was obvious they were dead as well. My siblings were all hanging by a thin thread and Ma was shackled in heavy lead chains that I knew were there to prevent her from sourcing magic.
"Your Baba believed he was untouchable. If he had just given us the land we wanted, none of this would have happened." One of the Alphas in the room mocked and I flicked my gaze in his direction.
My soul felt heavy and detached as I scanned the faces of the Alphas that stood behind my mutilated family. It was them, all twenty members of the Alpha Federation. They've been here a few times. Did they do all this because they wanted our land? Because they wanted what Baba wouldn't give?
"You're going to regret this." I managed to snarl, but it was less powerful and threatening than it should be.
"Who is going to make that happen? You?" The Northern Alpha Lord cackled at his own words. "Don't think your life would be spared. You'll die but first, you have to watch the rest of your family die agonizingly before we get to you."
A soundless scream tore out of me as they went for my mate first. Her cries gripped my heart as their claws tore into her. I swore, yelled, growled, struggled, tried to move, and needed to save her, but my body betrayed me. The effect of her pain shooting through our bond was maddening. The magic in the poison was eating me up inside. Eating up every presence of life and energy inside me. I watched helplessly as my mate's lifeless body hit the floor. The pain of her bond suddenly being severed snapped my spine straight and howled helplessly into the night sky. And then they went for Baba.
'Boba. Boba.' I heard Ma's voice in my head but I couldn't move; I couldn't respond.
'Boba, listen and pay attention to my voice. Just my voice, nothing else.'
'Ma?' I called, as exhaustion settled in my bones.
'It's me, my precious boy. Just pay attention to my voice and repeat after me.'
'What are you doing, Ma?' I asked as the whispers of her spell filled my head.
'Repeat after me, Casimir. Don't forget the son of who you are. You are my son, my blood. In your veins runs the blood of the ones before us who birthed this land and gave it life. You bear the blood of every Vidar who came before you, before me and my ancestors. I will not watch my son die, not in this life. So focus on me boy, and let your mama guide you through the darkness that is to come.'
The last thing I heard as I repeated her incantation was the anguished cry of my mother as they struck her and darkness swallowed me.