HIS MATCH

14.

Adjusting.

River.

"Ah there you are."  Beta Granger mutters as I open the door to the alpha's office. "Good afternoon beta, alpha Khan." I greeted the two men who regarded me with carefree smiles. "Hello River, have you seen Julian at all this past week, I know he's been with the patrol and everything in my office is perfectly organized and done with everyday but I can't seem to catch him." The alpha explains and I'm sure a blush creeps up my neck. "Uh, yeah, he's been living at ours, adjusting to his newfound strength, Riley is helping him, plus he won't leave, we uh—." I couldn't really say it, Julian if he wasn't training or doing his alpha duties, he was in bed with me, making me feel things I'd never felt before, we've been exploring bodies and sensitive parts.

"Oh—ohh." Alpha Khan finally realizes when I'm sure he spots my mate mark. "Sorry I asked." He muttered making all of us chuckle. "I brought you a little something." I spoke snapping my fingers enlarging the box of assorted cookies I'd brought for the two men. "Tell me you have that, lemon twist surprise in there." Beta Granger asserts and I nod, he grabbed the box before the alpha could making him glare at him but the man didn't even flinch, he was just like Kirk when it came to their sweet tooth. "Oh, it's so good, River, I love your baking, I should hire you as my personal chef." The beta mumbles in between bites and moans. "Hey give me that, and leave my son in law alone." Alpha Khan argues making my heart skip a beat when he refers to me as son in law, he finds no fault in it and winks my way, he had just made my day a bit brighter.

After the two devoured a box of forty by five assorted biscuits and cookies, chugged down by orange juice, they finally weren't making jokes, well I hoped. "Remember that time when you had that cold, no one would go near you the whole week." Alpha Khan states looking at his beta. "Don't remind me." The other large man groans. "It was as if he was the plague, we actually had to put him in a onesie, then wrap him in several blankets just to break the fever, if only the onesie wasn't enchanted to make his grown ass act like a baby." The alpha surmised as we both burst out laughing at the expense of beta Granger who grumbled that he would never live that week down. "A whole week of baby gibberish." Khan added amusing me even more.

"Fine, you've had your laugh, can we get to why we called River here." The beta finally stated as the laughter died down. "Alright, come with us." Alpha Khan responded as he stood up and led me and the beta out of his office, we passed the pack house, the large pack infirmary, when I was done with my plans  it wouldn't be an infirmary, it would be a large medical centre, already I was gathering the necessary paperwork and certified medical staff among the lycans and soon renovations plus extensions would start. "Why are we at the morgue?" I asked the alpha who led the way inside to a wing where I'm sure the freezers were, there weren't a lot of bodies there, lycans respected their dead with the utmost honour, so they were buried in a secret garden, I'd only heard rumors, I've never seen it myself, it's enchanted by nature itself because lycan hearts, claws and venom can be used by witches for not so great practices, so they make sure to hide them.

"I brought you here to see this, when the tribunal was attacked, Riley and your mate found three bodies dead by the pack territory boarder, two were burned at the spot because Riley thought they could be pathogen carriers, the other one he said should be taken here to be analyzed, dissected and magically analyzed." The alpha explained as I felt my brother close by, I walked inside the room where the body was and there he was, having fun poking and proding a dead wolf. "Little brother, how are you?" He greeted me like a ray of sunshine, as if he were high but I knew better, Riley aside from architecture and design, his fascination was also with wolf and other mystic creature biology, he was qualified for the job among his several PhDs, like myself.

"Seeing you smiling over a dead body isn't comforting honey,  and anyway why are you trying to preserve his heart?" I questioned surprising the two other large men in the room. "Root of essence, his whole body was drained of mana, metaphysical soul energy, blood and his fangs were well, gone, check out the symbol." Riley replied pointing to the wolf's forehead. "We thought you might know what it meant." Beta Granger exclaimed as I moved to the wolf's forehead. "The Nikari clan of vampires use symbols to hide their torture of other mystic creatures, even the drain of blood, but this one isn't linked to them." I explained surprising all three men in the room. "Are you sure, I did research on the Nikari and it seemed to point to them." The alpha argued but I shook my head in refusal.

"Revele ectus macto." I whispered the spell, as in one hand runic symbols appeared, the other I placed on the forehead of the wolf. "He's checking if it is linked to the Nikari." I heard Riley explain to the two lycans as they watched, my spell couldn't find it and besides. "The Nikari who actually used symbols, if you had gone deeper into your symbols, you'd know they are all extinct, they were killed by our ancestors." I finally stated the fact and it seemed to deflate the alpha and beta. Granger's phone rang and he made his way out, after excusing himself. "So what do you think this is?" Alpha Khan asked and that's what I wanted to find out. "Revele ectus magicae." I cast the spell again and as it took effect I was hurled into a vision through the residue of magic left on the symbol.

"Please, please don't kill me!" The wolf begged as a man stood over him, I didn't recognize him, but his magic had a darkness I had felt before, was this He. "Is the master ready?" I heard a woman question in the memory. "No, he needs more soul energy, drain the wolf." She was given an order and that's when it made sense why he had no soul energy, whoever He was, was feeding through soul energy, that's something I could find out. "When you're done throw him to the — they like a good meal." I couldn't hear what they said as the wolf was screaming for mercy, his soul being drained of energy. "We must get ready to move." The darkened voice exclaimed again as I suddenly thrown back out of the vision.

"River— River, you're bleeding what happened?" Alpha Khan demanded as Riley helped me back onto my feet. "Shanoue ak magktu: Take this bitch." I hissed back grabbing the fate strings, two of them, one was for the dead wolf undeparted and the other the darkned magic.

Plunged into the vision forcefully I began burning through the magic holding the wolf's soul, memories began flashing before my eyes, his life. "Thank you for freeing us." I heard the voice behind me and I turned briskly to face the wolf who had been killed. "You're welcome." I replied as he nodded back. "They won't stop until they get what they want, they killed half my pack and forced the other to fight for them, they are amassing power I didn't know for what, I still don't, but I'm sure you'll know when they come, they like grand entrances and deceit, watch out for that too." He stated as his soul slowly began fading away. "Can you tell me who He is?!" I yelled and he shook his head in refusal just as he completely vanished.

I finally came out of the vision without being hurled out, a bright flash of my magic blew around the room as the wolf departed with a howl. At least he was free and we knew just a little bit about who He could be. "River, are you okay, your eyes." Alpha Khan pointed out as I sighed and shut my eyes to let go of the part of me that had surfaced. "Here." Riley offered a chair, I flopped down on it right then. "You won't believe what I just saw." I giddily told him and he scoffed. "You reckless little doughnut." He teased placing a kiss on my forehead. "You worried me there kid, are you good?" The alpha asked and I nodded in reassurance. "Rescicuto magna." I mumbled a small spell letting them see what I had just seen and my conversation with the wolf, this time we had somewhat a way.

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Saint_Jay.