The Lost Werewolf King's Mate

Chapter 40: Elizabeth's POV / Sebastian's POV

I lifted my knee and slammed it into Killian's crotch. He rolled off me in pain, but he was also laughing.

"Boundaries Killian! And for the umpteenth time, I'm not your mate so no you're not 'tasting me'."

He was still recovering, but he went on his knees and stood between my legs. He wrapped his arms around my waist and no matter how hard I tried, he wouldn't let go.

"I want to show you my kingdom, Star fire." His eyes were desperately pleading with me.

"The gryphon kingdom is so big that it will take us weeks to see everything any visitor needs to see. I will have our traditional dances , music and stories be performed just for you. Taranis and I will fly you to the peak of every mountain. I will feed you the fruits from Mount Galileo. They are the most delicious fruits you'll ever taste. And most importantly, you can stay here and help gryphons understand their new role in the world. With you by my side, we can usher a new era for the gryphons."

He sounded sincere and the man was looking at me with so much desperation in his eyes that I almost agreed. It would make sense to stay here if the golden path didn't appear again. However, that would send the wrong message to Killian. It would give him hope that something could happen between us.

I held his head in my hands and ran my hands through his red hair.

"Killian", I started, "I cannot stay here. I do not belong here. I do not belong with you. I-

The biggest smile appeared on my face when I saw it. A golden path had appeared right infront of me. But it felt and looked different this time. The path may have looked gold at first, but soon enough it morphed into a path of glorious vicious flames that only I could see.

This has never happened before. I could feel it in my heart that this right here was the path that was going to lead me to a place where I could find answers. I couldn't waste another second.

I shifted with enough force to shake Killian's hands off my waist.

"I need to go" I was looking at the flames that had formed right in this very room. They left a trail that I could even see outside the window. The golden path was now a path of flames.

I hurried out the room and banged on Mike's door.

"Oh my gosh, what is it?" He sounded annoyed and had clearly only woken up a few moments ago.

The moment he saw the look on my face, he knew what it meant. I didn't have to say a thing.

"I'll go get ready. Give me 20 minutes." He shut the door and I heard the shower running in his room.

I went back to my room to get ready and found Killian in there. I had almost forgotten about the red giant. He looked angry and hurt.

"You're not going anywhere, Star Fire." He gave me a look that he's only ever given me when he tried to kill me on Mount Moria.

"You can't make me stay Killian. I have served my purpose here. Now it's time to go."

He slammed the table in the room and it released a thundering noise. "I said no!"

I realised right there and then that I would have to fight my new friend to get out of here.

"Uhm, my King", one of the bald men I saw when I came here was standing by the door that I left open. I could tell from his scent that he's a seer.

Killian growled at the man. "This is not the time, seer. I am talking to my mate."

"My King this is about the girl. I come bearing news from Maru."

"What news?", Killian asked suspiciously.

"The girl must go, my King. We must let her go or we shall be punished."

Killian snarled at the seer. "You're lying. She's mine."

"I wouldn't dare lie to you, my King. The girl must go right now. However", the man continued, "I am told that if you attend the Werewolf king's coronation, you will see her again there."

Both Killian and I gave the seer a confused look.

I would never go to Mathew's coronation, but I wasn't going to tell Killian that. I also knew that the golden path wouldn't lead me there. The path that the flames were forming was going in the complete opposite direction to where the Werewolf kingdom is. This seer was probably just trying to get me out of a sticky situation.

Killian, despite looking like he was going to do everything to stop me from leaving a few seconds ago, embraced me in his arms and held my head against his chest.

"If that's the only way to see you again, then I will attend the coronation, my little Star fire. " He held my face in his hands and planted a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"I'll see you soon, red giant."

Mike and I were getting a car ready to leave. Killian was more than happy to provide us with anything we needed for the journey.

I saw Anha walking up to us with her usual stern face.

"Elizabeth, my orders were to cloack you until we reached the Gryphon kingdom. I've gone beyond that order and cloacked you even while you were here."

I nodded my head. "I know, Anha. I'll always be grateful for your help. I'm guessing you're about to tell me you can't cloack us beyond this point, aren't you?"

She smiled at me. "Your'e a smart girl. Yes, my orders end here. You must be careful on the road, I suspect the warlock is looking for you. Without any protection, he will find you soon."

Mike came to put an arm around my shoulder, which Killian promptly removed.

"Are you sure you have to leave, Star fire? If you stay here with me, I can protect you."

I laughed. "I think I've already proven I can take care of myself."

*********************************************

Sebastian's POV

"My baby. She's gone."

I watched a mother holding her dead daughter in her arms. Both of the girl's legs had been impaled by multiple ice spikes and she bled out before any healer could get to her.

That's what happened to some of the soldiers and civilians who were in the Silver City. They died before the other healers and I could even get to them. The majority of them were drained of their magic and turned into ash before our very own eyes.

I looked down at my hands. They had turned purple and were hideously deformed. The other healers and I tried healing as many people as we possibly could, but the moment we healed someone, they returned to us severely injured a few minutes later. A few healers even died because they had strained their bodies too much.

I saw a tear fall down on the blood soaked and ice-filled ground. It was my own tear. I, Sebastian Belvedere, healer and warrior of the Silver Kingdom had a tear rolling down my cheeck. For the very first time in my life I was crying. It might have just been one tear, but I was crying. I was crying for the hundreds of inklings who died. I was crying for the innocent kids and women who were slaughtered and drained of their magic. My home was gone. I felt empty. I felt like a darkness would swallow me whole.

And yet, I knew things could have been so much worse. The centaurs and witches retreated from the city the second Mike left with Liz. I was just hoping Anha was able to cloack them so that they wouldn't get caught.

A few remaining survivors were guarding the borders of the fallen Silver City, but we all knew that when the centaurs came back we wouldn't stand a chance. We didn't have any defenses left.

Every single one of our machines were down. We couldn't access our food, medicines, our houses, security systems, android warriors or weapons. We couldn't get to these things or use them because access to them was controlled by the kingdom's central AI programme. The building that houses this AI programme, was completely sealed in ice. Even Elizabeth couldn't burn through that ice no matter how hard she tried.

"You should have something to eat" I was handing the 13 year old girl who was guarding the border a sandwich some of us managed to scrape up. Her once hope-filled honey eyes were now dull. Her innocence had been stolen by this war.

She just shook her head. Her eyes were filled with tears. We both knew she wouldn't be able to do anything against the centaurs if they attacked again, but she was the best we could do after the battle.

Help was still arriving from all over the Silver kingdom to come assist the Silver city. However, it was taking them long to get here because the AI programme was down. They had to travel on foot or use cars like the humans do. This increased the travel time significantly since cities in the Silver kingdom are so far apart from each other and require travel by aircraft to make good time.

"Please have something to eat. You're going to need your strength." I pleaded with the girl.

She finally relented and took the sandwich.

"Sebastian, you need to be resting. Your hands won't heal if you keep going like this."

I looked at my purple deformed hands again. I couldn't even feel them anymore at this point. I was just carrying things, not even noticing that I was damaging my hands further.

"How did you survive this, Susan. When the witches attacked the Eastern Inkling Kingdom, how did you survive the pain and loss?

She placed her hand against my cheeck and wiped away the tear that had rolled down my eye.

"It doesn't quite go away, Seb. But we'll get through it together. I promise."

I looked into her tear-filled eyes and kissed the hand that was holding my cheeck.

When the King and Queen of the Eastern Inkling came to seek refuge here after their kingdom was destroyed by the witches, the Northern Inkling turned them away. Since the Great Inkling War, inklings split into four kingdoms - the North, South, West, and East Inkling kingdoms. The hate that these four factions have for each other is probably only matched by how much we hate the witches.

A handful of Northern inklings protested and demanded that Queen Merrida help the inklings from the East who clearly had nowhere to turn to, but she refused and turned them back. The king and queen of the Eastern Inkling kingdom were forced to return to their home and find a way to survive on their way.

When I told Queen Merrida that I was mated to an inkling from the Eastern Inkling kingdom, she refused for her to even enter our kingdom and demanded that I reject her. It was only when I refused and told her I would just go live in the Werewolf kingdom with my mate that she agreed to make an exception for my Susan. The only reason she did this is because I am a healer. Queen Merrida may hate magic, but she still holds healers in high regard and wouldn't do anything that risks losing one.

Susan gently led me by the arm into one of the medical tents. Despite her being here for the past three years and having fought by our side against the centaurs and witches, there were still inklings here who were looking at her with eyes filled with disgust.

"We don't want a dirty Easterner in our tent", one of the other patients spat out.

"Don't start with me today", I shouted at the person. "She saved countless of lives- lives of Northerners!"

The man hissed at me.

"Seb, it's okay. Come one I need to have a look at your hands." Her voice was as gentle as ever. She never said a single bad thing about these people despite how they treated her. And each time I told her we should just go live in the Werewolf kingdom, she insisted that I stay because this is my home.

A lot of people may think my mate is too fiesty and maybe even mean, but they don't know her. They don't know that she had to be mean so that she could stop herself from caring for others. She had experienced losing her family and friends once and for the longest time she thought the only way to not ever feel that way again was not to get close to anyone. Those who have gotten to know her, know she is the sweetest person who will do all she can to keep her loved ones safe.

"Don't let them walk all over you, Susan. You have as much a right as them to be here; to be in the Silver kingdom."

She just smiled at me gently and started cleaning my hands with disinfectant.

"You know I wouldn't let anyone walk over me, Seb. I just have more important things to attend to right now; like trying to save your hands."

I kissed her forehead while she applied some ointment on my hands.

She looked up at me with sad eyes. We both knew that without a healer, my hands were gone and I wouldn't be able to use them again. All the healers were being confronted with this reality.

We suddenly heard commotion outside. People were shouting orders and moving around.

Susan and I quickly got up and stepped outside the tent. We were hoping the centaurs would at least let us bury our people in peace before they came back, but it seems we were wrong.

I ran to where that 13 year old girl was standing post. I may not be able to heal anyone anymore, but I was going to at least try and save that kid.

When we got outside, everyone was looking up in the sky. We couldn't believe our eyes, gryphons were flying to our boarders.

Susan looked at me with panick-filled eyes. She also knew that if the gryphons attacked us, they would wipe us out.

"Why are they here, Seb?" She asked while we ran to the border.

"They may be angry that we sent Liz to them. I didn't think they would be angry enough to attack us."

She tightened her around my arm.

"Don't worry. Maybe we can talk to them." I was trying to calm her, but I was also very worried.