The Delta's Daughter Chapter 103

HUNJI

3 weeks later.

Travis had made a miraculous recovery over night, even his spinal cord, where an arrow had ripped through it, healed. She never said anything, but I knew what she had done. I saw the bite on his wrist when I went down to sit with him, thinking he was knocking on death's door.

I would never tell Lamia, I knew what her blood could do, how it could heal. It was not my place and the fewer people who knew the better. I just wondered who actually did know. Obviously Mathias, because he would have felt her bite him, knowing what she had done through the bond.

Mathias had hurt Lamia, and I would have killed him that day if he tried to hurt her again.

When he left, he left her broken.

And when he came back, he came back to reclaim her.

They seemed to be doing better than ever now, especially as they found out his state of mind had been altered by the tainted rum. And their bond had become stronger after he marked her with his bite. Something a bear doesn’t do, but with those two, nothing is out of the question and everything is possible.

The Pyilquois was definitely a curve ball, and we still had no idea who had poisoned the bottle, or where it had come from, but it was the only bottle that had been altered. What really got me was how they even got that herb. It was so rare, the flower it came from only growing in a remote part of the realm, Andora, a kingdom close to where I came from, Asiarian. It was not an easy thing to obtain.

Over the past few weeks, Xander had come back, not wanting to be away from his mate for too long. Unfortunately, no one, including Xander, had told Ria he was her mate yet. I shook my head at the thought, I would love to be a fly on the wall when she finally found out.

Ria didn’t feel the mate bond like shifters. She maybe half wolf, but she had more human traits. With no spirit animal she would not feel a pull or connection, although she did look at him and blush whenever in his presence, so maybe she did feel something and I was wrong.

The factory in Avon Wilts, had finally finished fabricating the armor suits for the army. A total of just over three thousand were manufactured, and the armor was split into four. A shipment came here, one to the Kodiak kingdom, where Abner Brooks was still holding the fort. Another went to the New Moon pack and the fourth was sent to Tawny in the kingdom of Cambiador.

Tawny and Crimson were still trying to pull the kingdom together and recover from all the attacks they had suffered.

It was good to talk to her and I smiled when I thought of how hard she had crushed on me a few years back when we were looking for Lamia.

I hadn’t touched a woman in years, almost 13 years to be exact. Three years ago, I came close to having the vixen were-cat. Her suggestiveness and arousal tempted me to taste her, but again I restrained myself and turned a blind eye to my desires, keeping my promise to the goddess in asking for my redemption.

My wolf wanted a mate, but he knew there was no chance. We would never be granted a second chance. And who would want an old broken wolf anyway?

While we worried about Petra, Travis had taken the news the worse; he had really fallen in love with that little girl, as had I. She called us uncles, but she was our baby sister. We knew she was OK. Lamia had been sent messages from an unknown e-mailer, providing pictures of her healthy and clean. I had my suspicions about who the unknown person was, but I would keep that to myself for now too.

In the last three weeks, we trained the warriors hard, especially the teams we would be taking to Riocht with us.

I laughed hard, internally, when I thought of how we got the location of Riocht, it wasn’t like Orion or his band of merry rogues were going to tell us, so we had scrambled, searching for any mention of its location, Our only clue knowing that it was close to the Morngord forest. Or forest of the dead as King calls it.

When Tobias came back to MacTire, he brought Amitola, Xander and Kings, mother. She was a whizz in the kitchen and hadn’t stopped cooking and baking since she got here. We were all sitting in the kitchen one evening, the topic of Riocht ever present.

“Why is this place so hard to find?” Lamia groaned, just as frustrated as the rest of us, that even though we had found mention of the forgotten kingdom, nowhere did it elude its whereabouts.

“Maybe it had a different name back then?” Tobias questioned, looking perplexed. Finding this city was becoming a strain on everybody’s patience.

“How are we meant to get Petra back, if we can’t even find this fucking place!” Mathias growled.

“Mathias King Artos! You mind your tongue in front of our queen,” His mother Amitola scolded.

Lamia chuckled. She and Amitola had hit it off well. The small late 50-something-year-old woman, who barely stood 5 feet tall, crossed the kitchen and hit her son with the spatula she had in her hand. Travis chuckled, but was given a shake of the head and a glare from Tobias and Xander, as if saying ‘don’t poke the bear’.

“What city are you looking for? You know my brain is a lot sharper than you kids think.” She boasted while turning back to the stove to fry up some beef.

“The lost kingdom of Riocht” Xander sang out, opening his arms wide in a dramatic way.

“Riocht?” Amitola questioned, pausing her movements in front of the stove, then turning to face us, her brown eyes wide with surprise. She placed her hands on her hips and regarded us all. “You know if you had asked me before, maybe if you boys visited me more often, I could have told you where that place was a lot sooner. Would have saved you a lot of trouble.” She mocked us with a huff.

I think I can speak for us all, when we all had our mouths hanging open at her words, that we were all internally saying the same thing “What the fuck?”

“Please don’t hit me mom, but how the fuck do you know where Riocht is?” Mathias asked.

“Watch you language young man, you are not too old for me to take you over my knee and spank you.” she waved the spatula at him again and I spit my tea out, amused by her threat to the big bad king. “You,” she turned her motherly glare to me “Has anyone told you, you need a hair cut?”

The smirk I had fell from my face instantly. And my free hand came up to touch my head and feel my hair in the neatly folded bun on top of my head.

“Besides,” she carried on, “Your father searched for it for a long time, until a strange lady gave him a map that led to the heart of the kingdom.” Her face fell and her eyes dimmed and filled with sadness. “He never found it, Orion killed him before he could.”

I don’t know if King and his mother discussed the debacle of Orion, his real father, and Argus, the man he believed was his father, but again, that was none of my business. There didn’t seem to be any tension between them, so I figured all was good.

She had told us she had the map, and Xander had called Abner to go to her house and find it, so he could copy it and send it to us. He did and when we saw the map, we realized it was smack bang in the middle of Morngord and the heart of the continent, between the werewolf kingdom, MacTire and the were-cat kingdom.

Tobias left after a couple of days. He was going to lead the Kodiak kingdom's army to Riocht, as King was not leaving Lamia’s side, for anything. So he entrusted Tobias, his 2nd in command, to lead their kingdom and they would meet at Riocht, taking Amitola with him, much to everyone's dismay. She had become the motherly figure to us all, but it was her cooking we would miss the most.

So here we were, 2 nights before we left for the Riocht, and 9 days before the next full moon. I was really starting to hate these full moon nights, and Lamia shared my sentiments towards them. It seemed everything revolved around the full moon, or the enemies always wanted to fight or try to re-enact some old sacrifice when the moon was full.

I truly hoped that when this was all over, when we sent Orion and his goons to hell along with the crawlers, that peace would find us and the moon goddess would allow us to live a harmonious life. That she would grant these pups a future filled with happiness.

We were all going. And each kingdom’s army would enter the Morngord forest from the borders of their own land, surrounding Riocht as we advanced on it, except for the bears, their army was split into two, half here and half with King Kellen, instead of one huge formation, we had three armies that would move in.

This way, we were able to stay in constant communication. We figured out the four Knight's, Kellen, myself, Mike and Rhett were able to communicate via mind-link. Rhett had finally got the hang of it. Not having a wolf but having all the benefits of one was something he was struggling with.

I had a feeling that being marked as the Queen’s Knights was more about our wolves and their spirits, than our human sides, but I brushed that theory to the back of my head, because then how did Rhett figure into this?

Josiah was bummed that Lamia commanded him to stay behind and man the territory. He would be here with Ria and would oversee our security in our absence.

King Kellen was going to leave his top elite warriors in charge, to make sure the kingdom was protected; Beta Michael and Delta Marcus were still temporarily in charge of the kingdom, until this was over. We weren’t taking every warrior, we still needed to protect our kingdoms, our people.

We had no idea how many crawlers or rogues Orion had on hand, but hopefully we would be ready for him. We didn’t even know what to expect once we reached Riocht, which is why we wanted to get there ahead of Orion’s deadline: the full moon. So we can scope the place out and be ready for him. Hoping we could end the fight fast and quickly.

I watched from my position on a lounge chair, just outside the main hall, as Xander and Ria passed by, a little way's from me. I was sitting in the shadows, contemplating my life, as they walked past unknowingly.

They stopped by one of the small blossom trees and Ria leaned against it. Her hands folded behind her as she leant on them against the tree and looked up at Xander. She was tiny next to his lean frame.

I could hear their whispers from here.

“I like you Xander, you’re very handsome.” Her innocent voice whispered up to him. I couldn’t see the blush, but I would bet my life Ria’s face was flushed pink.

“When this is done, and we come back from Riocht, can I take you out on a date, Ria?” Hopefulness in his voice as Xander leaned closer to her.

“I don’t know Xander, I want to say yes…”

“Then say yes gorgeous, please?” He begged.

“I don’t want my heart broken, you have a mate out there somewhere, I can’t come between a bond.” She stuttered out and he leaned in closer, only an inch between them.

“What if I told you I had already found my mate, that she just didn’t know it because she has no spirit animal?” I could sense his arousal from here, and it was strong.

“Then I would say, you should tell her and stop playing around with me.” Her head bowed and her words were mumbled, the note of disappointment clear.

Xander took her chin between his finger and thumb and lifted her face so she could meet his eyes “Mate” He growled lowly to her. Her eyes widened and he stooped down to kiss her.

That was my cue to leave. Another match made in heaven.

I stood up and left my position, Xander and Ria none the wiser of my presence, as they were lost in their own lust. I rubbed my chest as I felt the sting of loneliness. Just for a second, my mate's face flashed in my head and my wolf gave a low growl. He too hated her and was happy when we killed her.

I wondered what my father would think of me now if he saw me? If he saw the kingdom I had built with Lamia and Travis, to know I was her second in command, Royal Beta and Lord by title. I doubted he would care. He would probably snarl and jeer at me. Tell me my punishment for my crimes wasn’t enough.

The old priestess who found my broken body would probably smile and tell me it is the goddess’ way and my path has been set. I swore I would never step foot on that continent again. The priestess was the one that sent me here, told me my destiny awaited me, that I was chosen to train the one who harnesses the Goddess Inanna. I knew it was Lamia the moment I laid eyes on her.

I had a theory about why her hair streaks, an obvious theory, but a subtle one. Lamia and her wolf were so in sync, they are no longer separate, and her streaks of black belong to Inanna. Simply, Inanna is a constant presence; human and beast in true harmony.

I had read many books about these kinds of things when I studied at the sanctuary. It was all I could do for a long time.

I walked into the castle, and was going to head to my room when I heard everyone else in one of the lounge areas, my steps back tracking to where they were. King, Lamia, and Travis were seated around one of the small coffee tables on the couches and chairs.

“Hunji, my main man!” Travis called out to me when I entered the room, “Where have you been? We were just finalizing a few things; Lamia said your block was up?” Travis was somebody I admired, after everything he had been through and endured, he was still able to smile and take most things in his stride, but he was strong and confident and every day he grew more into the role of an Alpha. The people of MacTire loved him and the whispers around the village were in hopes that Lamia would have taken him as her chosen mate.

 He still had his demons that he needed to confront, but for the most part, he handled himself like a true leader and never let our people see him as anything less than confident.

Unlike King who, like me, always wore a mask with a stoic look. Never giving away our true feelings.

Did I look as constipated as he did most of the time?

“Yeah, was out for a walk, you know… Came across Xander and Ria, looks like things might work out for them” I said and put a grin on my face. I hoped it didn’t look too fake.

“Just like Tobias and Travis, you will find your mate soon.” Mathias said with certainty.

I cast my eyes over to Lamia, whose brows rose at Mathias’ statement. Her gaze then found mine and I saw the pity in her eyes, as they softened, the sorrow of the truth.

Mathias did not know my history; he did not know what my scars were from. Lamia barely knew, but she knew what the scars on my chest were from.

That I would never find a mate; that I would never take a chosen.