Chapter 19: Mathew's POV
2195 Words
Orion walked up to the stage. He was growling the whole time. The room was silent.
Jonathan and Audrey made space for him and moved off the stage. I was trying to push through, but he had put up a wall. I could feel all the anger rolling off of him in suffocating waves. Everyone was bowing and their necks were stretched out to him. Even former alpha Gideon and Jonathan had their necks stretched out to him.
Orion looked at Elizabeth and noticed her sweating and struggling to breathe. When he saw her, I felt an ache in my heart. We were both hurting for causing her pain, but Orion couldn't seem to control his anger.
"I am the reason Raphael was able to awaken", Orion finally said.
I thought I'd hear murmurs, but no one said anything. You could hear a needle drop.
"The witches needed the magic of one of the strongest magical creatures to awaken the warlock. That is why the death of the werewolf king and queen, the death of royal magical creatures and other magical creatures did not awaken him. All it did was fuel him for when he was finally awakened."
"My magic awakened Raphael. It is the magic of the first werewolf. If it weren't for me, it would have taken the witches longer to awaken him."
Elizabeth suddenly bolted out of the room. I could hear her gasping for air outside the meeting hall. Orion and I wanted to go to her, but he forced himself to stay.
"I have never heard of a werewolf running and hiding and I am disgusted that these are the wolves that must protect the Moon Godess. Werewolves are the warriors of the magical realm. We are the protectors. If we run, if we turn others away, what do you think will happen?"
He breathed lowly and gave a low growl.
"If you run, Raphael will find you. He will find you and use you to kill the Moon Godess and do treacherous things to the Sun Godess. This has been foretold. It is our duty to stop him. We will not run."
I looked down and noticed that there were gold marks on my right arm. The cycles of the moon appeared on my arm. It looked like a gold tattoo. When I saw the gold marks, I remembered that Orion had marks just like this on his front right paw.
Orion finally let go and I was back in control. The gold tattoo of the 7 cycles of the moon had also disappeared and so was Orion's suffocating aura. When he receded to the back of my mind, everyone raised their heads and looked up at me. They looked scared.
"Elizabeth!" I ran out of the meeting hall. I found her outside and she was still coughing.
I bent down to stroke her back but she shoved my hand away.
"You won't even let me try to help you?"
She stood up and looked at me with her fiery gold eyes. She was about to say something when Mike opened the door and ran to her.
"Liz, are you okay? I'm sorry. I couldn't exactly move while I was in there". He was looking at me with fear in his eyes.
"I'm okay, Mike", she said with a tight smile. "We should head back inside." She and Mike walked back into the meeting hall before I could talk to her.
I could hear Jonathan trying to calm down the crowd. He was barely managing. I walked back inside and everyone instantly went quiet. Jonathan was on the stage.
"Everyone, this meeting is adjourned. We will tell you the way forward soon. In the meantime, we will be increasing our boarder patrols. Please remain calm."
Everyone started walking out of the meeting hallroom. They all bowed their heads when they passed me.
"Mathew, how about we go to my office", Jonathan said as he pulled me aside.
There were six of us in his office. It was me, Elizabeth, Mike, Audrey, Jonathan and former alpha Gideon. Susan and Sebastian would have usually joined us, but Sebastian was at the hospital healing Luciene. Susan decided to go with him.
Elizabeth and Mike were sitting next to one another. It infuriated me, but I was also glad that Elizabeth and I were finally in the same room and she didn't bolt.
Jonathan was sitting in his chair and Audrey was sitting in his lap. Former alpha Gideon was sitting in another chair right beside me.
We were all just staring at each other. Mike finally broke the silence.
"Okay, I'm just going to say it. What the hell are you, man?"
Audrey answered before I could say anything. She was smiling. "He told you, he's the first werewolf."
"What does that mean", former alpha Gideon asked.
"It means no more hiding. It means fighting the witches." Orion might be hiding things from me, but I agreed with him that hiding had to to come to an end.
Jonathan gave a deep sigh. "We really need to figure out how to make everyone immune against those witches."
"So you're the reason the witches succeeded?" Alpha Gideon sounded very accusing.
I looked at him and narrowed my eyes. "I was captured by the witches. It's not like I waltzed into their lair."
He scoffed.
"And you were captured because you were rescuing THAT young lady". He was pointing at Elizabeth. "Somehow, you got lured into a trap because of her."
I gritted my teeth. "What are you implying?"
Elizabeth was biting her lip and looking at former alpha Gideon with a pained expression.
"It seems to me that girl is the reason we're in this mess right now. She's the reason Raphael is awake. She's the reason the Moon Godess herself may die, and we don't even know what she is! Not a single one of us here can recognise her scent."
"Dad, that's enough!", Jonathan slammed his fist against the table.
I was about to say something when Audrey suddenly stood up from Jonathan's lap.
"I think we should all go pay Luciene a visit" She still had a serene smile on her face.
"Uhm baby, Luciene is still in a coma and we're dealing with a very serious issue right now. Maybe we should go another time?", Jonathan asked.
"No, we should all go right now. This is the time."
Audrey dragged Jonathan by the hand before he could say anything else. The rest of us followed them to the hospital.
**
When we got to the hospital, Sebastian and Susan were heading out.
"Visiting hours are over, guys. You'll have to come back tomorrow", Sebastian said as soon as he saw us.
Jonathan stopped to talk to him. "We have to see Luciene. Dr Smith will just have to make an exception"
Sebastian and Susan picked up on everyone's mood and I think they could tell something was going on. They turned back around and walked into the hospital with us.
"Alpha Jonathan, Luna Audrey", Dr Smith said when she saw us. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, Joanne", Audrey said. "We just need to see Luciene real quick."
"Of course, Luna. Visiting hours just ended, but we can make an exception for the alpha and luna."
We entered Luciene's hospital room and all stood around his bed. Elizabeth stood next to Mike. When I came to stand next to her, she tried to move away but I put my hand around her waist and held her in place.
"Please let me go", she whispered to me.
"No. I'm not letting you go." Before she could say or do anything, Audrey's eyes started glowing. She was holding Luciene's hand and he was wincing. Tears started running down her eyes. After a few minutes, she let go of his hand and her eyes returned to their normal colour.
"It's not yet time for Luciene to wake up", Audrey said in a serious tone.
We all sighed.
"I really thought my healing was helping him", Sebastian looked quite defeated.
"It is and he'll need a lot more of it, but it's not yet time for him to wake up."
"Audrey, you can't have brought us here just to tell us he's not ready to wake up yet" Elizabeth said. My hand was still resting on her waist. Her body had relaxed into my arms now and she was even leaning closer to me. Orion and I appreciated the closeness with her.
"What else did you see, Audrey?", Elizabeth asked.
"I saw Mathew. I saw him with the Werewolf Queen."
"What? How? Wait, what precisely did you see?" I don't even know who the werewolf Queen was. Audrey's vision must have been wrong. My hand tightened around Elizabeth's waist. Keeping her close was helping me calm down.
Audrey took a deep breathe. "I saw a ten year old young boy. It was you. You were running away from a burning castle with Queen Elaine. I only saw bits and pieces. In my vision, Queen Elaine was running with you. When she thought she was about to get captured, she put you under a memory spell. The spell wiped all your memories and repressed your wolf. It was supposed to be broken when you found your fated mate."
Everyone was staring at me and Elizabeth.
"Wait, you guys don't think Mathew and I are..?", Elizabeth trailed off.
Jonathan avoided answering her question. "Mathew, when did you first notice you had a wolf?"
"Uhm, I don't know", I said as I scratched the back of my head. "I know it was definitely after I met Elizabeth." Elizabeth was avoiding making eye contact with me, but she was still leaning in my arms.
"I'm not his fated mate!" She tore my hand off her her waist.
We all remained silent. I needed a moment to think about what Audrey just said. My head was spinning.
"Sebastian, you said when magical creatures meet their fated mate, they're struck by a heavenly scent. You said werewolves will hear their wolf tell them someone is their mate", Elizabeth was now standing next to Mike.
"Mathew, has your wolf ever told you I'm your mate? Have you ever smelled a heavenly scent coming from me?" She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
Everyone was looking at me.
"No, but Elizabeth it doesn't mean-
She cut me off.
"That's what I thought! You and I aren't even friends anymore, so we definitely can't be mates."
A low growl left my mouth. I didn't like her saying that at all. "That's not true, Elizabeth." I tried to hold her hand, but Mike stepped infront of me and a growl left his mouth. "Don't touch her!"
"I will kill you, Mike", I said as I grabbed his shirt. "She is mine!"
"No I'm not!", I heard Elizabeth shouting. "I'm not yours, Mathew" She had tears in her eyes.
"You guys need to stop this", Jonathan said as he broke up my fight with Mike.
Audrey gulped. "Look, regardless of who your mate is, Mathew, you are the heir to the Werewolf kingdom."
"No, I'm not. Look, Audrey you said the spell that supposedly wiped away my memories and repressed my wolf, was supposed to be broken when I met my true mate. I have my wolf, but I have no memories of ever seeing the Werewolf Queen. How do you explain that?"
Audrey stood up and held my hand.
"Mathew, I only see what the Moon Godess wants me to see. I don't know why you don't have your memories, and I most certainly don't know who you true mate is" She raised her eyebrow and looked at Elizabeth when she said the last part. "What I do know is that the time has come for you and your wolf to claim your rightful place in our world. That is the only way we're going to defeat Raphael."
Everyone in the room, except Elizabeth, was looking at me.
"It's been 15 years, but I still remember where the seat of the kingdom is. Last I heard, a few rogue wolves and displaced magical creatures are living there. Perhaps if you see the place your memories will return." Alpha Gideon said as he sat down.
I was trying to make sense of all of this.
"Mathew, no wolf can do what you did in that meeting hall. You made two alphas bow their heads to you. And let's not overlook that during training, you demonstrated the strength of at least a few alphas. Oh, and being immune to silver and wolfsbane! There's no doubting that you are the heir to the werewolf kingdom", Jonathan said. He stood up and then pulled Audrey in closer to him.
I gave a deep sigh.
"Okay, I'm not saying I agree with you, but I'll go to the seat of the kingdom and see if anything jogs my memory."
They all smilled.
"Then it's settled. We will go to the seat of the werewolf kingdom first thing tomorrow morning." Jonathan sounded excited while saying this.
- Writer
