Chapter Sixty-one: Similarities

I nearly choke on my own saliva. I look at Lukas who I can see has started a small sweat on his forehead and is looking at me, trying to gauge my reaction.

I move my eyes back to Sara who hasn’t moved an inch. Instead of feeling anger, or jealousy, remembering what Lukas told me about what they tried previously, I feel sympathy for her and so put her out of her misery. “You can look up Sara, we won’t bite.” I chuckle.

Just as she starts to look up, I hear Athena growl in my head. “He tasted our mate before we did and tried to have his babies!” She hisses, which surprises me as she was usually the chill one out of the two of us.

“Yes, and this was before we joined the pack and met Lukas. I’ve forgiven him, so why can’t I forgive the others?”

She huffs and goes back to her sanctuary in my mind. I see Sara looking at me and I offer her a smile. I let go of Lukas’ hand that I forgot I was holding and take a few steps towards her. She seems very timid and shuffles her feet slightly so I stop a few steps away allowing her some space.

I try to see what book it was she had just put back but I can’t quite make out the words. “What was it you were reading?” I ask her, interested in her choice of book.

She looks at me a bit flustered and bends down to pick the book up. “I-I was reading about some of the elements of the earth and what happens when they collide with each other. It’s a book more about Geology.” She starts, slowly coming out of her shell. I show interest and give her a slight nod to carry on. “I’ve found myself rather interested in the science of it all. My favourite, so far, for example is when there is volcanic lava flowing, if you place, say an abundance of water over it, then it turns to something called obsidian. It’s a fascinating type of rock and can sometimes turn into a lovely combination of colours inside a black glass shell.”

I smile at her, enjoying her presence and her love for information, which reminds me of myself. As she continues on, I look at her and can understand why Lukas wanted to try with her. She’s extremely smart, probably getting her knowledge from the books she reads. She’s also very pretty and minimalistic, very much like myself. She seems rather slim though, even for a wolf. She also looks young, younger than myself and I wonder how much younger she is compared.

She pushes her small glasses up her nose and looks at the book she just placed back, then turns her eyes to me, taking me away from my thoughts. “If you don’t mind Luna, I’ll be heading home now. It was nice meeting you.” She says with a friendly expression, eyeing the door we just came through.

“Please, call me Aliana. And you, Sara. Have a nice day!” I say as she walks past me after bowing.

She stops at Lukas’ side, looks up at him, then hurriedly heads out of the doors. I look to Lukas with a raised eyebrow and he tilts his head slightly at me.

“What was that?”

“I was just trying to get to know her. I like her, and I can see why you did also. She does seem very shy though.”

Lukas looks taken aback. “Woah, let’s get one things straight. I didn’t ‘like her’, at least not in the way you’re insinuating. We signed a contract with her, that was it.” He states, and I just roll my eyes before he continues. “You’ve not liked any of my exes, but you like Sara.” He snorts to himself whilst rolling his eyes. “Typical. She’s a book worm like you, but she will never be equal to you my love.”

I give him a sweet smile, knowing that he’s devoted to me and he doesn’t need to prove anything. I do worry about how old she is though.

“How old is she?”

Lukas stumbles a bit before answering me. “Sh-she’s eighteen.”

“Was she eighteen when you both started….?” I ask, not wanting to finish that sentence.

I hear Lukas swallow hard. He looks me in the eyes before answering. “Yes, when we started the deed, she had turned eighteen. However if I am to be bluntly honest, my Father and hers agreed before she turned eighteen that she would try and give me an heir…..she….she didn’t know until after her birthday.”

I sigh, long and hard as what’s in the past has passed. I forgave him but this is teetering on the line of crazy.

“Did you at least give her a choice before you started instead of just going with a decision your Father made?”

He looks at me as if I’ve just slapped his face. “Of course I did! Do you think me some sort of monster? I would never force myself on someone else. She was told about the pact and the implications and she was hesitant but went with it compliantly. After you joined the pack she’s stayed away and has not mentioned any issues or caused any trouble since.” He pauses, clearly wanting to add something. “You’ve just interacted with her, she’s harmless and overall shy. She’s probably happy that she gets a chance to look for her mate.”

“Did she lose her virginity to you?” I ask, and can see him visibly flinch when I do.

“Yes.”

I look at him long and hard and can see he’s uncomfortable. Rightly so, and I can feel Athena agreeing with me. I take a mental breath, as I’ve forgiven him as this was before I joined the pack. Instead of barraging him with more questions, I instead nod my head.

“Ok, I know it’s in the past. Let’s get back to what we were here for. “Come on, let’s go see if we can find anything.” I say a bit snippily, wanting to just get into the books that may offer any information.

He takes my hand and leads me to the restricted area, which he once again opens with a key. Once opened, I take him past the record keeping books that still send nasty shivers down my spine, remembering what was written in them. I instead head to the back where I found the book that detailed each of the children of Eos. There are several other history books here, and so I decide this is where we best start.

“Have you read any of these ones before?”

“I’ve read this one.” Lukas says when picking up a dusty red looking book with the title ‘Tales of the tribes.’

He continues on when I obviously look like I have no idea what he’s on about. “It’s a book that one of the Elders read to the pups every year. It details the very first pack, or well tribe, that once roamed this land. It’s said that the Moon Goddess was gifted a human from the Sun God. She then created a soul to be one with the human, and decided that this soul could take the shape of a wolf. She imbued this soul into the human, and there forth became the first werewolf.”

I wish I had more time to speak with the Moon Goddess and ask about this, as based on this story all werewolves alive today are descendants of this first werewolf. However, I am not, I am a direct child of the Sun God and the Moon Goddess. What does this make me really? I wage a war in my mind trying to decide if I was just another creation before Lukas brings me back to reality.

“Should we have a look at the others? I never found interest in them before and it’s only really the Elders who have maybe read these ones.”

I smile at him, leaving my thoughts for another time. I look to the books and pick up a few and plop them onto Lukas’ unsuspecting arms as he flails about, trying to carry them. I snigger at him trying to balance them out and trying so hard not to drop them.

Before I give him a chance to moan at me, I go back and pick up a few more books and carry them over to the desk.

“Is there a reason why there’s no chair here?” I ask, still seeing no chair since the last time I was here.

“Honestly? I’ve no idea.”

I smile over at him and he places his books on the desk and exits the room. I follow suit and place the books I have down on the desk also and look towards the door where he then comes through with two simple chairs for us to sit on.

He places one just behind me. “My lady.” He says courteously in a posh-like accent. I laugh at his antics and take a seat.

He pulls the other chair up to sit beside me. We’re now both facing the books in front of us and I’m starting to wonder if this was a good idea. I look to Lukas who already looks exhausted just looking at the books.

“Ready?” I ask, and he raises his hand to his mouth and does a fake yawn.

“You wish!”

He rolls his eyes and grabs the first book in front of him, titled ‘Wolves and their coat colours.’ I look to the first book in front of me which is titled ‘The pact of vampires and wolves.’

We both start reading through our book and move onto the next few we picked up which took us a few hours. We continued to put back and pick up new books from the back bookshelf and as time went on, we found we were skimming through a lot of random facts or misinformation that a lot of the past Alphas of Elders either decided to write down or just went crazy and noted into books.

As we get to the end of the books available to us, I pick one up with a strange title that I can’t make out. I plod back over to the desk and place the smallish book on it, taking a seat as I do. I side eye Lukas who looks to be near enough sleeping and so after tutting, I turn to the book in my hands.

I open the page and can understand the words. I flick back to the cover and still don’t understand it, which is confusing as I understand the words within. I flip through several pages which go over the Moon Goddess and why we cherish her and her blessings which is in a similar text to the story Lukas mentioned from the first book we picked out. However deeper in the book I start to read about some of the other Gods and their names. I decide that this is all for another time, until I come across a name I’ve seen before.

Erebus.