Chapte 114
**Damien's POV**
My mate seemed to be shocked and slightly panicked over the thought of being sworn in as a Royal of the Vampires. Her father was the King of All Vampires, so it was only fitting that her birthright be observed. I touched the pendant at my neck and felt my love for Alora well up from within.
This was a gift I would treasure for the rest of our lives. I liked that I wouldn't have to take it off when I transformed, and so did Zane, he was already visualizing himself walking around displaying it proudly on his chest.
Ignoring Zane and his fantasy, I focused on our mate, who was sitting straight and spacing out. No...not spacing, that didn't seem right. Her expression was completely blank now, no longer looking as shocked as it had a second ago.
Darien was trying to tease her about her new status as a royal, when he got no reaction from her, he looked at her in confusion, then worried. "Alora...did you hear what I said?" Darien was asking her. "Alora?"
He looked at me and saw the frown on my face. "Starlight? What is it?" I asked her.
Just as I reached out to shake her shoulder she came to with a gasp, and then looked at me in excitement "I need to go into the Mansions Library." she said.
I was confused as to why, but I believed my mate just had another vision, so I would go along with her, and protect her from harm. "Okay, when do you want to go?"
She didn't even hesitate, there was so much excitement in her expression as she nearly shouted "Now, I want to go now." tugging firmly at my arm and I stood.
She turned around and started to pull me with her hand in mine, then stopped abruptly and looked at my father "Will you and Luna stay here with my mom and dad?" she asked suddenly, sparking more questions within me, but I was going to wait to ask them, I had a feeling most would be answered shortly.
Stephanie looked delighted at being called mom, and her father happy at her acknowledgment of him. It struck me then, that Alora's approval and affection, were something they had feared not having.
They hadn't needed to...but I could see all the reasons why they would worry. They genuinely loved Alora already, I could see it in the purity of their auras. Being the Alpha of Alpha's was more than just brute strength, there were other abilities I had to work at and train.
My mother smiled delightedly at Alora, my father's look was that of a doting father-in-law. "Of course we'll stay here, you kids go off and do whatever it is." he said.
"Thank you." Alora did something I wasn't used to her doing she hugged the Alpha, showing her affection more freely than she had before.
She broke a little more out of the chained-up steel cage her caring nature and loving personality had been shoved into. Forced there with every beating she had taken from 'those people'.
My father was, of course, delighted and proud to have been granted her affection, she then hugged my mom, thanking her too. She turned to her Dad and her new mom. Then she hugged her father, kissing him on the cheek, then turning to Stephanie she said "Mom." before hugging Stephanie and kissing her cheek too.
The King and Queen fairly shone with the happiness Alora's affection brought them. Alora glowing just as brightly in her own happiness, It felt like warm sunshine through the bond, making me happy for her.
I was so deeply in love with this female, and I knew each of my past selves had loved her just as deeply. Our bond was so deep we came back again and again to be with each other, and I knew we would again many, many more times.
She smiled, grabbed my hand again, and then looked at the rest of our group, "Come on you lot, you'll want to see this, Master Brock, Master Sam you too." Issuing her orders, although the words didn't sound like orders, especially in her bright and happy tone, they had the weight of orders to them.
So the others got up and like me, followed a smiling glowing Alora as she led the way down an internal stairway that went inside the stadium seating. Once at the bottom of the stairway, the path split. One way led to public restrooms and the other to the hallway leading out of the massive structure to the next one, the Heartsong Mansion.
Each of the upper and lower floor balconies around the mansion was for a three to five bedroom full sized apartment suite, with communal living rooms and a small kitchenette in each room.
The reason the kitchenettes in the rooms were small, was because wolves liked to gather together in big groups at meal time. There were four large dining areas, set up with large round tables everywhere capable of seating up to fifteen wolves at a time. The kitchens had windows every few feet along a wall that spanned one entire wall in each of the four dining areas, one per wing.
They should look like a cafeteria but for the decor, thick wooden furniture and plush cushioning on the chairs in warm colors. The dark wood floors and the gentle but warm colored paint on the walls, under the pictures and ancient paintings, made them almost intimate. Each dining hall exited onto patio spaces in the courtyard, the tall wide glass doors all along the exterior sides of the Dining Halls letting in light and providing beautiful views.
Alora led us into the massive courtyard in the center of the mansion. On this side of the mansion, all the floors had a wrap-around deck, the top deck being covered by the extended roof of the mansion. There were winding stairways at regular intervals all around, leading from the top deck to the bottom one and then out into the courtyard.
There were winding pathways through all the different gardens that made up the massive courtyard. There were white stone benches spread out sporadically along the paths so you could stop and enjoy the gardens.
The path Alora took us on led to the large Koi pond and the Japanese-style walking bridge that curved up over the pond, the pathway continued a few short steps on the other side, before curving to the right, and we were directly in front of the willow tree.
The path stopped at a wide and long white stone bench, the bench faced the pond, the ground under the bench raised higher than the pond, the willow being at the top of a small incline, it was a perfect spot to watch the Koi.
There were beautiful carvings all over it, a lot of intricate knots, some forming wolves in different stages, running, howling, laying down, standing. There were small Stars and Crescent Moons outlining the intricate knots on both sides.
It was amazing work, and I felt immediately attached to this bench and the artwork. Alora stopped and looked at me when she felt me slowing to a stop in front of the bench. I used her hold on my hand and drew her to my side. Letting go of her hand, I wrapped my arm around her waist.
"This bench..." I said, my voice husky and deep "I feel like it's important to me."
She stilled as she studied the bench, then after a while seemed to melt into my side. "That's because it is special, they made it together, a near century long labor of love," she said softly.
Her warm feelings coming through the bond filled me up with her warmth and love. So this was why this bench was so important to me. Then I noticed Zane. He was sitting there, quietly studying the bench, looking at it fondly, surrounded by a black nebulous like always.
He never showed me his 'space' telling me *"I'll show you someday when the time is right."* I've never understood why my wolf always sounded like an old soul to me...but I was starting to have my suspicions.
*'Zane, what do you know about this bench?'* I asked him.
*'Our Starlight would lay on the ground under this Magic Grandmother Willow tree and watch the Koi for hours, it was her favorite spot'* He said "We didn't want her to have to lay on the ground, so we made her a bench and had a cushion fashioned, to lay on top of it...we made the bench big enough so we could hold her, and share in the peace this place brought her.”* he paused a moment.
*“One day, we decided that the bench looked too plain, and we wanted to make it look special, for her. So for hours a day, while she watched the Koi we would carve the knots into the bench.”* His voice full of remembered emotions.
*“Then one day she started to do her own carvings, surrounding ours, encasing them in her love of us. It took years as we did all this with our claws, one more element to show our love, this became our special place."* his voice was rough with his emotions.
"Have you always been my wolf?" I asked him.
*' I was created the day your soul was conceived into existence, and I have been reincarnated with you every time since, and will continue to be for all eternity."* he told me *"Just as Selena and Xena were created at the moment of her soul's conception....it's why it takes a specific hybrid among the Heartsongs for her to come back to us'* he told me, surprising me.
"Are we always born with her, or have we lived without her?" I asked him.
*' No, we are always born within ten years of each other, and if she were to pass away before we met her, we would die within a few years without our mate'* he told me, there was a grim quality to his tone. "We were meant to come together in your grandfather's time, but a landslide took her life before we could meet, one caused by unnatural means," he told me.
I remembered my grandfather telling me about how his older brother had perished young, and without a mate, he had died at nineteen, of an unknown wasting sickness, a few years after the landslide I knew he must have been talking about. The landslide was still an unsolved mystery in the Pack, it had killed many wolves that day.
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