Born of Blood

Chapter 27

The wind had settled.

The Sitka Spruce no longer bowed to its force, howling its pain at its rolling spine and bended arms, crying in agony as the wave pushed over their heads and forced them as close to the floor as their trunks would allow. It had gone from thrashing, roaring, enraged and sweeping through the Sendöw territory, digging its claws into the earth and dragging its way over their land in search of a mystery, to solemn. Rolling between the large trunks of the trees, pushing the grass to-and-fro in a sad, slow, movement of its fingers. They carelessly drifted the whispers of the leaves between the trees, and pushed the frigid winter air through the coastal mountains of Alaska. The grey clouds pressed heavy to the earth, their black bottoms weighed down with precipitation showing the storm Sendöw could soon expect. The light raindrops had been persistent the last twelve or so hours, the humid winter atmosphere beginning to create freezing conditions in Alaska that was keeping the pack more and more in their fur and homes.

This coming storm would bring the first true snow to their mountain. They had seen the hard frost from the heavy rain, the hail falling as beating fists to the ground during their frigid nights. Though Ketchikan was known for its rain, the unrelenting heavy rain that persisted all year long, their season of winter snow was a sight to behold. Orion could see the mountain tops across the land beginning to frost white, the glaciers atop the oceans appearing a light blue as their ice hardened, winter had arrived, and brought with it the most peculiar weather. Orion had been alive to see over five hundred years of seasons, and this was the most abnormal he had experienced. The storms, the hail, now the winter frost crawling its way over the grass, it was all happening in a procession that didn't mimic the years, decades, centuries that he had witnessed prior. As he stood in front of the large glass wall of his office, Orion could not help but believe this strange change of season had everything to do with the arrival of his mate.

"What do we know?" He sighed, his gravely voice lightly fogged the cold glass ahead of him and he stared at his faint reflection.

His long hair was piled into a bun on his head, the brown locks thick and curly by nature. His beard he braided that night, binding it with a tie to keep it out of his way. It was getting too long, soon enough he would need to trim it, though he loathed grooming. His black tattoos were the least visible in his reflection, the dark forest of the early morning filling in the voided spaces where his ink would lie in the window. His towering body looked as tense as he felt, and his blue eyes swirled with an unbridled rage of his wolf, still miffed at his own Mate attempting to murder him.

The fresh scars of his Mates bite gleamed over his heavily tattooed shoulder. Her wolf had been formidable for its starving build, her teeth so sharp and fine, he knew she was not a regular shifter. Her claws sliced through his skin like butter, hooking into his muscles as she had clung and fought his large body; the second she tried to attack him, he knew she was not in her right mind. What wolf, so thin and weak, would even think to take his Beast on? He was double- triple- the size of the average werewolf, he was a seasoned Alpha that had accepted many challenges in his life and held the markings as proof. Her human mind had obviously not been in charge during that attack, the woman, Scarlet, was instinctually different than her Bitch. His mate was a spitfire when pushed to her breaking point, he had inadvertently discovered that, but she was so full of fear. So full of terror at the world and the people around her, so full of hurt and sorrow, she would never have been able to attack him in the way that the Wolf had.

"We know she was a Rogue, captured by Malkún and beaten to death." Sabina began first, the five people standing around his office shuffled on their feet nervously, Orion could hear the carpet moving beneath them.