The Delta's Daughter Chapter 205

1 WEEK LATER

HUNJI

“Congratulations again your highness, I looked forward to returning and meeting the three of them.” I ended the call with Lamia. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact the young Queen had given birth to triplets and was thankful the little girl had survived.

I shoved the satellite phone into my backpack, along with the power bars, two bottles of water, and a change of clothes. My swords were already attached to my back. It wasn’t much for the journey I was about to embark on but then I was hoping to make quick work of finding Finn’s sister and bring her back in as less time as possible.

“Do you have everything you need” Jasper asked me walking into his office.

“Yes Alpha, as much as I need to carry.” I zipped up the bag replying to him.

I had spent a little over a week here; helping the new Alpha and his Luna adjust. Kellen had left a handful of his warriors here and a Gladiator named Corey had decided to stay in Bhakhil now it was under the rein of a new Alpha.

A few other Gladiators had also stayed and decided to join the warrior ranks and quickly found themselves in leadership positions thanks to Kellen’s training during his stay. The majority of the Gladiators found they had nowhere else to go, either home was a faraway dream or they had no home.

Xander was able to provide Luna Eloise with the specifics to remove the inhibitor chips safely so every shifter who had one, was now free of them.

“Hunji, I can not thank you enough for everything you have done here for me and our people in this short time.” I heard Jasper's words but I let them drift in one ear and out the other. “Is there anything we can do for you to make your journey easier I could send a few men with you…”

“Thank you, Alpha, but they will only slow me down.”

“I have maps so you know where you are heading…”

“That won’t be necessary, I know this land.” I wish I didn’t know this land so well. It had been a long time since I had traveled this continent but it was still fresh in my mind after all these years. I hated being here, it all did was remind me of my past and the place I grew up.

“In that case, I can only wish you a safe journey and good luck.” Jasper sighed “Please be careful, I hear wars have started breaking out in numerous kingdoms, and Andora is not a stable country right now. King Panja started mobilizing troops through Bashenstan in an attempt to claim more kingdoms. We are not sure how far his army has reached or if it has affected the surrounding countries, including Andora.”

“Thank you for your concern, Alpha. This is one reason why I am best to travel solo. I will not draw too much attention myself.”

“Very well,” He gave me a curt bow out of respect and probably because I outranked him. He may be an Alpha but I was second in command to the Queen of shifters which gave my wolf and I a much higher position, if not above than equal to any Alpha excluding King Kellen.

I walked out of the palace, escorted by Alpha Jasper, his Luna Eloise, and Beta Cameron. Who wished me well, yet again. I climbed into the beat-up truck, threw my bag and swords onto the passenger seat, and started the engine. Destination: Andora. Operation: find the witch and bring her home.

My eyes on the sandy dirt road, I looked in the rearview mirror, watching Bhakhil’s Palace get smaller and smaller until the dust from the road hid it from my vision.

“The one place you didn’t want to end up again, and here you are, foolishly sent on another quest.” It was just me and the road right now, I only had myself to talk to. As long as I could stay away from Asiarian, things would be fine. Just being this close to that country and kingdom put me in a bad mood. That was the good thing about heading to the western continent, I was further away.

I hated this continent, more so I loathed the idea of being so close to my home country. I had avoided it and its rulers for thirteen years and I had no desire to even come anywhere close to that goddess-forsaken place. Bad memories, too many memories, ones I didn’t want to see again.

It had taken me a long time to get where I am today. A lot of self-discipline and courage. So many days I wanted to give up, but the priestess's words stayed with me and I found myself repeating them more and more often these past few years.

‘He who walks amongst death and lives to tell the tale shall preview life and its coming attractions. Sometimes we need a wake-up call from fantasy so we may survive reality.’

That kooky old woman never did make sense, yet I still found myself spitting out verses she had told me. I bet the old crone was still alive, sitting on her throne of gold pretending she still believed in prayer and teaching others to pray to their gods. She must be 200 years old now if she still lived.

I pushed thoughts of my old mentor and savior from my head and was going to concentrate on the road again. But the road was deserted and the road was just a worn path on the dry ground. There was nothing to concentrate on.

Ever since we had set foot on this continent, old forgotten memories began to rear their ugly heads, memories I had buried deep down a long time ago. One’s that I wished had stayed forgotten. It was only months ago that I had vowed, yet again, that I would never step foot on this continent.

Yet here I found myself, traveling a road I had been down before. The stagnant air and smell of the desert a forgotten familiar, now stirring up those lost echoes of a life left behind long ago.

‘Get in, get the witch and get out’ My wolf Ruda grumbled, he too, was not keen on being back on this side of the realm. My past life was stirring up his own bad memories, after all, he almost died along with me, and together we had felt and endured the worst pain a shifter can fathom.

Our place was beside our Queen, not out here in the desert. Except, our Queen had sent us on a quest and we had pledged allegiance and our life to her. Refusing her request would hurt us, we were fated to protect her. Sent to another New Kingdom to find her and stay by her side. I hadn’t figured out what was so important about this young witch called Morgan yet, aside from she was Finnegan’s sister and having been locked away most of her life.

Maybe our Queen felt for her or felt sorry for Finn. Whether Lamia made a promise to King's half-brother or not, I was still a little sour on why it had to be. I had no issues coming to find Kellen, he was a brother, a Knight, and I knew how bonded he and Lamia were. If he had truly died that night, I’m not sure she would have recovered.

I don’t think she would have died herself, but Lamia would never have been the same. That I was sure of.

If I remembered correctly, I had 2 days of travel time by car or just under, I should reach the border of Andora by then, and then hopefully I would be able to find her in the heart of the country. Tala’s sister, Shayna hadn’t quite disclosed her exact location but she did describe the large white marbled mansion she visited with Orion. There was only one place I could think of in Andora that was made of all white marble: The Megaron.

A large mansion-type structure consisting of an open porch, a vestibule, and a large hall with a central hearth and a throne, the only place Orion, who thought of himself as a King would reside. It was also on a secure site, sitting above the rest of the city, and was home to hidden chambers beneath the stone structures.

I had never visited it, but I had seen pictures and studied their culture during my time with the priestess. I would head there first, it was my best bet and most obvious place to keep a locked-up princess.

“Hmm, a princess.” I thought out loud. If Orion was a king on this continent, and her half-brother King of the bears, she would actually be a princess. More so than Tala. “A witch princess, a princess witch.” Now that was a title I never thought I would hear myself saying. For all we knew, until Orion’s appearance, all the witches had died out long ago with the fall of the human race.

The shifters had survived with only a hand full of the human population. The disease had wiped them out and left our realm to be ruled by were-folk once again. Then came the shifter wars, each race, and each Kingdom trying to take control. The shifter race had been less in numbers than the human race, to begin with so we filled in the gaps, taking over businesses, and politics and reshaping the realm to fit us.

Things the humans once took for granted became lost relics, like flying machines and in some parts of the realm, things like technology were lost. Packs and clans relied on telepathic communication and basic primal needs while some thing’s from the old world survived and thrived, other things became null and void. Useless in our lives, no longer needed. And with the fall of humans, witches fell along with them, unlike shifters they were not immune to diseases.

Shifters could still have bad hearts, and failing organs, those were genetic malfunctions from impure bloodlines. But simple things like flu, and Ebola, the pox, did not affect us. We could be poisoned by silver, wolfsbane, or some other highly potent drug, but general poisons would not harm us. It took a lot more for a shifter to fall, our genetics allowed us to heal faster, some faster than others, but even then we could be exhausted and die from deep cuts induced with silver or other potent positions. We were not invincible, just more robust.

I groaned out loud at myself, once again I was lost in my own head, thinking of things that bore no consequence to me. This was certainly going to be a long journey. Another reason to get the witch, get out and go home.

I wasn’t a fan of music, I preferred silence or books, It was at this point I wished the radio in the truck worked. I fiddled with the dials anyway. Static and more static. Either the radio truly didn’t work or the East still hadn’t figured out how to work transmitter towers. I had been spoiled living in the west, with all the technology, food and lush greenery, and better transportation. This continent was mostly desert, only the outlying countries closer to bodies of water had vegetation.

If wasn’t for the desert heat I would have run in Wolf form. Unfortunately, the sand and dirt would have burnt my paws, there was nowhere to stop for water and there was little to hunt out here. Running in Wolf form would have consumed a ton of energy and would need to eat. Not to mention I would die of heat exhaustion before I could even cross the wastelands.

*****

Day two into my Journey and I will have to do what I was trying to avoid in the first place. I had pulled over last night to get some shut-eye, waking up at dawn. The heat from the sun stirred me awake as its first rays reached the windows. I turned the key in the ignition and was met with a whirring sound. I tried several times until the engine said ‘fuck it' and wouldn’t turn over.

I grabbed my pack and attached the swords to my back. Luckily I was wearing the suits Lamia had commissioned and just took off the pants, shoving them into the bag, the whole time huffing and grunting, moaning to myself about having to run in wolf form. Ruda wasn't happy either, he missed the forests and mountains of MacTire.

I shifted into my wolf form and picked up my bag hooking it to my back teeth and let Ruda take over. We had already looked at a map and knew the direction we needed to take; luckily we were close to the rocky hills that began before the borders of Andora.

Ruda had a great sense of direction and now we were in wolf form, we didn’t need to follow the road. We could stay close to the mountains that were a few miles away. We should reach them in a few hours. Although it may take us a little longer to reach the outskirts of Andora and even longer before we hit a city.

This wasn’t the first time we had made a journey like this, in these conditions. And I doubt it would be the last time. I huffed and I puffed, still annoyed at the situation I had found myself in and then Ruda took off heading south keeping a steady pace so he wouldn’t wear himself out too fast or too soon. We at least wanted to make it to the low-laying mountains where we would find shade and maybe some fresh water if we were lucky. If not I still had the power bars and a couple of bottles of in my bag.

By nightfall we had reached the mountains, finding a small opening to rest in for the night. I shifted back into my human form and took one of the power bars and bottles of water, scoffing the small meal down in two bites and then sipping the water.

I missed my bed in the castle and the hot steaming water of a shower. I had truly been living a life of luxury these past few years. Far from the mat and pillow, I had at the sanctuary. I pulled on my shorts, laying my swords beside me and putting my pack under my head. The nights could get cool here, temperatures dropping down to what would feel like near freezing. They weren’t but after being out in the dry heat of the desert all day, I would feel the cooler air much more. If I was human I would probably have sunstroke by now and a fever.

I felt an itching at the back of my mind and lifted my block only to hear Lamia’s voice filter through *Hunji,* She spoke softly, rarely did you hear her yell or screech, unless she was pissed or in battle *I just wanted to check in with you*

*I should reach Andora sometime late tomorrow* I replied with my eyes closed.

*Ok, but how are you* Did she sense my apprehension at being back in this goddess-forsaken continent

*Fine, I will find the witch and bring her home as soon as possible* I know it pained her that I never opened up to her, but I had nothing to say, If I told her about my past, my history, she would only look at me with pity. Not with the respect, she looks at me with now. I cared for Lamia, more than I could say I did anyone else. She was akin to a little sister and still, I kept my emotions at a distance from her when she had no problem confiding in me.

*Ok. Just please be careful and come home safe. If you can’t find her in the next week, just come home. We miss you, stay in touch* I could hear the sincerity in her voice but I still mentally scoffed.

How could anyone miss a broken wolf like me I had cut myself off from emotion and personal contact for so long that I didn’t know how to socialize or open up anymore. Tawny came close to breaking that wall of mine down, once. And I had pushed her away too.

*Will do your highness, I will check in with you in a week* I cut the link. As a Knight, there was no restriction to distance for us to Mind-link but it could be mentally exhausting and drain us of our energy and I needed to conserve that energy right now seeing as I had run on all fours.

Fucking truck.