Chapter 108: The Strings of the Bond

Kayden POV

"Kayden my friend, don't you guys have street and drag races where you're from? We used to have a few, but since these crazy French wolves arrived it's been almost every week at this time and that's not just here, they're having a few in the capital too. It didn't take long to activate The Drag." The guys from the next shop come over and sit.

"Hey Paco did you get the route?" Some people ask.

"Hacking in now... There we go! Do we have any bets before the patrols show up?!" And people from across the street come over.

"Paco who's racing?" And we see ten massive wolves run by!

"They gotta be good if they sent ten just this way!" A girl from the other shop says.

"Is Hatuey and Delphine! I have a hundred Guanies on Delphine! And add 50 if the patrols don't get them!" Some dude says.

"Paco, put 50 on the French girl! She's been kicking ass at these races!" Now I feel like shit cuz I don't have money on me but they really look like they're having fun. Shit, I'm having fun!

"Francisco! What are you doing?" And a woman walks out of the shop with four kids. "Paco stop indulging this! The French are crazy with it!" He grabs her by the waist and sat her on his lap as she kissed him. "Who's racing this time?" And the kids climb on the chairs.

"Yo Hatuey is racing that French chick, Delphine!" One of the kids said exited.

"Hey Kayden this is my mate Nyima and these two are her first and these two are my first." She shakes my hand.

"Hey isn't that the name of the Alpha's mate?" She asks.

"He is her mate... shit Hatuey are you serious right now?!" She just rolls her eyes.

"Once they get a lead on a race they are lost! Alpha Kayden I pray that that everything turns out well with our Alpha. She means a lot to my people, we were just surviving in Senegal, but the constant attacks from The Council were to much. Other packs were fine, but because we were rogues we were a target and even after what Dawda did she still allowed us to stay. I had lost my mate last year and I meet Francisco who had lost his mate when Mt. Cemí blew and as if we haven't lived what we did, here we are!" And she caresses her stomach, a successful Heat.

"You two are second chances? Congratulations." I look around and the cars pass again and the patrols are catching up, everyone is just living...

"ATTRAPE CES PETITS LOUPS!" Delphine yells out and everyone laughs, I look at Nyima.

"What? It's funny!" She shrugs.

"I don't know French." I confess and she laughed.

"I spoke it fine but I hacked Paco! When I mated with this one I tapped into HIS knowledge and I ended up with seven languages! Here, he finished that, come with me. Nopp naa la my love keep playing and don't get in trouble." And she kissed him, he gave her a large smile.

"I promise cariño, but let me know when you're done, I have to send him back. Sorry Kayden, she doesn't care for races..." He says.

"Don't listen to him, I think it's fun, it's just not something that's going to make me squeal. Anyway, you have tapped into her emotions I suppose right?" She asks opening another beer and passing it my way.

"Yeah, I'm trying not to do that." I can't handle it anymore.

"Good, then don't. It doesn't seem to have gotten you very far. If you focus on the Bond on how The Osupa have theirs structured you'll find many cords, like those of The Fates. Each cord has something particular to your mate, memories, knowledge, skills, not just our emotions are at the access to our mate. Try avoiding her emotions and go to her memories. Relax and close your eyes." I do as she tells me I had focused just on her on the NOW, not on her before and if this little visit has served as anything, it's to realize Izz's life didn't begin when she met me and vice versa, yet while I was just wasting mine to trivial shit she was asserting herself among her family and people.

"Are you focused on your mate Bond?" Nyima asked.

"Yes." I answer.

"Do you see the strings attached from you to her?" Her side has a thick mist.

"She has her Block." I say.

"Her Block hasn't stopped you from feeling her, right?" She asks.

"No." And I start seeing the specific strings she said. "I can see them!"

"Stay focused, now I can't tell you which is which, I am new to this Bond too, Paquito could gide you more, but focus on those strings and imagine touching one." I choose the one to the left and suddenly I'm howling with joy racing unicorns with Ayana and Cressy in Avalon! I let go quickly. And open my eyes.

"Now don't tell me what you saw that's for you and her alone, little by little this is how The Osupa have so strong connections to their mates, there are of course things that they keep secret even from each other, but when both are open to each other they use it to help them progress. Paco really figured it out with me, his previous mate was from here and knew their ways. It was a little frustrating in the beginning for me, my pack is a little more reserved, here... Well look at this! We live in the open!" She says we walk outside and more neighbors are around Paco's tablet going for better odds, and she laughs. And we see the patrols catch the racers, yet they're still laughing.

"Man Gerard and Franchesca are getting faster when do you think they'll get an assignment?" What?

"This is training?" I ask. They look a little confused.

"Well EVERYTHING we do is training. The patrols are put in place to keep order yet the faster, stronger, more agile they get it helps them in the field. The racers will spend a night in the dungeon if caught but Delphine is training under Hatuey and others for OPIA tactical. I'm a tattoo artist, I have a shop in Itiba City and here, but I do what I do since I was 11, our LIFE is training Kayden and we train to be the best at what our potential allows us. Now c'mon, I can't wait to wake up a Beta.

He contacted Bayoán and I was sent back, I was tired but I wanted to try out more of the Bond.

I notice the memory string again and go for it... She's just come home from Avalon, she's 14, with a pixie cut and she's trying to work the link, but all the noise is driving her crazy and she's very frustrated so much so that she had vented on herself and cut off her braid and cast it to the fire. She leaves her house in the middle of the night to go to her Temple, she gets a bow and arrows from a hidden place and just starts shooting at a few bosses always hitting her mark.

"The Lady Moira always said that you favoured the Mongolian draw, I see why, it seems you're quite deadly with it child." The Lady Yaya walks her way. She draws and let's go again.

"Loiza it's been a month, I know the transition is difficult especially for us who are linke---" But Izz cuts

"I have no clue as how to communicate with my own mother... NONE! I look at them talking with each other, I KNOW that they are linking things about me! I know how to burn someone from the inside out but I have no idea as to HOW to just TALK with them! Coming back was a mistake!" And she shoots another arrow. And Yaya sits close by on one stairs by one of the many pillars.

"No one will stop you, if you wish to return." Yaya mentions.

"Then I'm a bad investment! If I go back now I still have to come back... Then I'll be an even bigger fucking FREAK! I'm working on it Yaya, it's just taking longer than I expected. Can't I just live HERE?" Yaya goes to her.

"No, you're just 14. You have a home and family who loves you, this is your duty, not your life." Izz goes back to shooting.

"This is bullshit! I can take care of myself. This is my Post, I SHOULD live here." Yaya grabs Izz's arm.

"And do what? A Priestess doesn't isolate herself from the people she was sent to guide! Loiza, I KNOW it's difficult, you've had your mind to yourself all this time but you are what you are and for a wolf there is no life without the pack!" Izz sits on the floor, Yaya sits with her.

"How am I supposed to do this Yaya? I feel empty, can they at least not call me My Lady or bow or fucking kneel to me?! It's humiliating!" Yaya puts her arm around her.

"No young one, you can't change who and what you are, but you can shape it to your will. And you still don't realize WHY they bow and kneel? So few achieve what you have at your age, you have knowledge they will never understand! You want to see yourself as a freak, then GOOD! Maybe then you'll understand that they can never be what YOU ARE and part of the burden we carry is guide them to balance! You will achieve this before you know it like so many other trials you have endured over the years and before you know it you won't know how you lived without it. And I'll have you know that we are not freaks! We are given the power we have to ensure balance. This will be EASY for you, with what you've had to do before, this is a cinch!" Izz didn't feel convinced.

I let go slowly to the string... She felt so useless, so lost, so lonely. And what with Paco said of how everyone perceived her it MUST have been really lonely... I wish I was 14 and sit with her in that large Temple and tell her she was perfect. She was already showing that she was going to be as strong and beautiful as she is now. I search through the strings of the Bond and go for another.

She is older her hair in a scarf and she was with her most beloved sibling Urayoán questioning someone in another language. Ura asks something and the guy they're asking doesn't answer. She takes out a tablet and shows him a video feed of a mountain of kilos of what I imagine is cocaine. I notice that she's not asking anything... she's telling him they have what he sees... I'm understanding it! And I know it's Chechen!

"This is just one girl! We have many more!" She inputs something on the tablet.

"I assume you mean these?" She asks while showing many more images that look like the first. His eyes look at her full of hate while Ura and her give him a big smile.

"I imagine you must feel very powerful right now, look at everything you've accomplished!" She states.

"What do you know? You are just a child! The In Oder Nichts Konzern won't be fooled by this! She links to her brother that their next stop was Munich.

'How are you sure?' He asked.
'Did you hear how his Chechen sounds and how he said In Oder Nichts?' She asked.
'Yeah his Chechen has a German accent.' He responded.
'Yeah, and his German has a Bavarian one. And look at this angle, what do you see in the reflection of that window?' She locked in and showed him.
'Allianz Arena!' Their smiles grew.
'That's where we're find our target, but first...'

"Thank you! You have been very kind with the granted information. I wouldn't like to leave you like that." She puts a small device on the floor that makes a hologram projector of all the vaults with the cocaine. From her mind I know it will destroy itself once it's done. Ura puts his arm around her shoulder and they start heading out and she snaps her fingers and every vault starts to burn while the guy just starts cursing at them.

I learned Chechen, Spanish, German, French and Korean that night alone. As well as understanding her mind more and that even when she is surrounded by people she always feels lonely. It's like she ACTS she's happy so that she's no longer the freak she thinks she is. As Dawn comes I go to the shrine, prepare everything for a summoning. The only name I have to burn is The Great Mother Gaia.