Page 53 of Raiding Road
"That's a beautiful dress, Dafi, you're truly learning how to weave your magic." Roman says making my chest squeeze with how sweet he is to the little girl. He must know her well if he knows how far she's come with her magic. I don't know why it surprises me that Roman takes his time to know everyone in his pack. It's what makes him, and his brothers stand apart from every other Alpha I've ever seen or heard of.
"I'm becoming a master seamstress, whoopty woo." Dafi says with an eye roll as she stuffs a cookie in her mouth, "even magicless humans can do that. I need to catch that shifty littleZiphler,and mama will finally start teaching me how to grow plants rather than create things from them."
"Well," I start, "you already know a lot more than me. I can't even thread a needle, and that takes no magic at all. You should be proud of what you know."
"Thanks!" She beams as her mother comes back in.
"Dafi, help Alpha Atticus find the flowers they need while I speak with Alpha Roman."
As the three of them leave for the surrounding flowers, I look back to Aster, "Can you get this hex off me?"
"She put a powerful one on you, an emotional enhancer. But I'm guessing you already know this." She says eyeing the dried blood on my skin.
"You guessed right. Can you remove it?" Patience is not one of Roman's many qualities.
Aster moves her lips too rapidly for me to read them while sliding her fingers up my arms and meeting over my breastbone where she knocks once, "I already have. The hex on her would have worn off, I just sped up the process usingmoonshadowseeds. You can already see the difference in her appearance.”
I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but Roman seemed to agree with her.
His nose flared, “Yes, your scent is stronger now, cleansed of the taint.”
“Be careful with Sara, Alpha. This hex was not something she picked up on her own. This is specifically taught with grave intentions.”
Roman nods, “I believe it was her. Do you know anything about the Prophecy of the True Alpha’s?”
Aster looks between us, curiosity shining brightly, “Yes, I’ve heard of it in passing. I’m no Werewolf so I’m not sure if what I know is true or not.”
Just then Zatrina and Atticus come back with Dafi not far behind.
“There’s been numerous attacks from a group called the Dark Bloods or the Coven of Nine. They are trying to prevent this Prophecy from happening, but we aren’t exactly sure of their plans nor how to stop them. Whatever you know could help.”
With just the flick of her wrist, Aster has an old book in her hand. Magic is seriously cool. I need to learn a few tricks, even if it’s just potions and basic spells like Zatrina knows. Aster flips through pages and from what I can tell, the old book seems to contain information about all the races.
“This is one of my family’s personal diaries. It’s been updated throughout the generations since the first species came to the human world from the Fae world. As you know, Blood Crows and Werewolves are a created species—”
The first supernaturals crossed over to the human world in the tenth century after the Fae world fell after the great shadow war. It’s now called the Underworld, and it holds the supernatural prison which is guarded by the Hellhounds.
“Many, many centuries ago, there was a Witch who cursed a human family after land issues arose. Her dark magic turned them into the first Werewolves,” She turns the book around to show us a sketch of the first Werewolves. Six Werewolves, each looking exactly like the beasts we fought in the field not that many days ago, “these are your Ancients. The only known picture of them is before their curse was partially broken by the Elders.”
I pull the book closer and try to read the writing, but I don’t understand the language, so I flip to the next page. On this one, there’s a full moon and the six beasts look like they are turning back into humans. Whoever drew this was really artistic. It’s almost three dimensional. They are surrounded by cloaked people, each of them has a symbol over their heads.
“These are the elders who were from the Fae world, one from each species. Witches, Fairies, Demons, Angels, and Nymphs,” Aster points at each cloaked person, “just as the Ancients were about to lose themselves to the madness, the Elders helped break the curse upon them. They were able to procreate and shift at will and their Werewolf forms looked as they do to this day. But like you and your brothers, Roman, they had multiple shift forms. TheAlpha form, thepartial form, and thefull form.”
“What happened to them after that?” Atticus asks and it honestly has me wondering why we,fucking Werewolves,don’t know the entirety of our own history.
“No one knows. Some say they left and hid themselves after birthing their own children. Others say they went from village to village changing humans into Werewolves with their venomous bites. Either way, no one ever heard from the Ancients again, we just saw their creations. Not long after their disappearance, the Prophecy began to make its way through the supernatural grapevine.”
“And what were the rumors?” I ask her.
Aster looks between us four, “The Sons of the Ancients will rise.”