Star-crossed Royals

Chapter Eleven

As Jamie’s fingers traced the worn surface of his moon pendant, he tried to think of some way that this story could be about someone else. There had to be another explanation, but he couldn’t think of anything that logically made sense. Only a handful of Lycans in all of history had purple eyes, and his father was the only one who used a two-handed sword. His grandfather, belonging to an older time, had preferred an ax and shield.

Seeing Jamie lost in thought, Akiko looked at Jamie questioningly, “Does any of this sound familiar?”

“I don’t know yet. Just… tell me the rest,” Jamie replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Fine,” she said, frustrated once again, “There isn’t much more.”

“When his sword freed him from the melee, the man stood within a pile of bodies. A river of blood ran before him as if he were some sort of demented white god of death come to visit us. His face began to change, and he grew taller. Obsidian fur spread and covered his body, contrasting his alabaster skin and long red hair.”

Akiko paused a moment, her eyes catching Jamie’s hair as he ran his fingers through it yet again.

“So, they saw a wolf for the first time in its changed form. Things became even more terrifying after that. He howled, which seemed to be a signal because the others changed too. Our warriors changed in response. We seemed to be faster, but any advantage that gave us was swiftly shattered. The total surprise attack and our inability to hurt their leader had us at such a disadvantage; we couldn’t win. Only the guard forces were fighting the wolves; the rest of our people were taken into shelters created by the earth kitsune. It is the only reason some of the kitsune from each clan survived.”

Tears welled in Akiko’s eyes again. Even being told this story throughout her childhood and retelling it herself, these words had never affected her this way. Telling this story to someone presumably at least descended from the monster that took away the loved ones of so many kitsune that she knew and loved made it feel like she was channeling the pain of her people. All she could think of was how Hattori had lost his mate that night and how she’d never seen him smile once in her life. That didn’t even begin to touch the depth of pain she felt for her mother.

Taking a breath, Akiko resumed, “So, once most of our protective force was decimated, the man calmly walked up the hill leading directly to our home that overlooks the small village. My mother and father stood outside horrified at what they were seeing. Neither of them was capable of real violence, so they could do nothing but watch in silence. As the man slowly made his way towards them, the other wolves were finishing off what was left of our resistance. A small, elite guard was left to try to protect my parents. Hattori was much younger then, but he was among them. His mate was too. Ten warriors stood with my parents against what was coming, but they weren’t enough. Hattori’s mate was their leader, so she rushed him first, calling on the rest of them to join her. He stepped forward to meet her as she dropped a ball of darkness on them. A few moments passed with screaming and cutting coming from the absolute darkness she created; then, suddenly, it was gone. He stood there holding her lifeless body by the throat and then threw it away from him like she was nothing but trash. Several wolves caught up to the man and immediately engaged themselves fighting the rest of the royal guard. Hattori saw what was happened to his mate, and he lost all sense of himself. He killed the wolf he was fighting, and it’s said his eyes blazed with black flame as he imbued his sword with fire to match as he rushed toward the man. They say it looked like two demons about to do battle, except Hattori’s flame was extinguished immediately. As he reached the man, he cut from his shoulder into his chest, but the man didn’t move. His eyes were fixed on my parents. Without looking at Hattori, he stopped the sword by grabbing it as if it caused him no pain and backhanded Hattori away with enough force that Hattori crashed through the garden wall and didn’t get back up. He pulled the blade from his body, letting the bloody sword fall to the ground. He quickly leapt to my parents. My father heard the words ‘hold him’ spoken to seemingly no one before two of the orange-eyed wolves appeared, grabbing my father and forcing him to his knees. He tried to shift to defend himself, but it made no difference. He felt a blade at the back of his neck, and he knew he’d be killed immediately if he tried to stand or fight back. My mother threw herself at the man’s feet, begging for my father’s life. She told him she’d do anything for him to leave their home and stop killing her people. He just smiled at her, then reached down and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her into the air. He looked down at my father as she was gasping and struggling to take in a breath and said, ‘Now you will know my pain’ then put his hand through my mother’s pelvis, spraying blood everywhere as it exited the other side of her body. He held it there as her body tried to heal itself around his arm and watched my father’s face as he was horror-stricken by what the man was doing. After several minutes, he let my mother fall to the floor. She lay in a pool of blood as he looked down, spat on her, and then turned to walk away. He was gone as quickly as he’d appeared. The other wolves withdrew, and they weren’t seen in Japan again.”

Akiko hadn’t realized it, but when she started to tell Jamie about her mom, tears were streaming down her face. The realization that she’d become bonded to a wolf took on a new light as she told Jamie the story of their conflict with each other. How could she allow this to go any further?

“That was so long ago. What happened to your mom?” Jamie asked softly.

“She survived, but her healing ability wasn’t strong enough to heal all of the damage he did to her. She’s in a wheelchair and will be for the rest of her life. For decades, they thought she’d never be able to have children. It took a sacrifice to our ancestor Inari and some ceremony that they’ve never explained to have me,” she replied, “It’s almost like he did it on purpose to keep her from having children.”

Jamie was reeling from everything that she’d told him. Not only was he positive that the man in the story was his father, now it sounded like Leif’s family was involved. The Hardradas were the only wolves with orange eyes, and his father had also taken a surprising number of Alphas with him too; they were the ones with red eyes.

“Why would he do this?” Jamie thought to himself.

He couldn’t understand why his father would so mercilessly slaughter so many kitsune and then hide their existence from him. He’d never exactly been a warm, loving father, but Jamie couldn’t picture him as a genocidal maniac. In fact, he often condemned Hitler, almost a bit too enthusiastically. Akiko’s tortured expression cut through to somewhere inside Jamie that he didn’t even know existed. She was suffering, and now so was he.

“I don’t know anything about this Akiko,” Jamie started. “I’ve been prepared since birth to be the Rígh, but this has been completely withheld from our teachings.”

“I believe you, but I don’t know how this is going to work. Kaen and everything I’ve felt since it started has clouded my judgment. Telling you this now, I feel like I’ve made a mistake allowing this to continue.”

“Please don’t judge me for something that someone else did before I was even born,” Jamie pleaded, “Give me time to figure this out. Let me find out what happened on our side and why. I won’t give up on this and us. We deserve to find out if we are worth fighting for before we give up because it’s going to be hard.”

Jamie was angry with his father now. Not only did it sound like he’d killed Akiko’s people and tortured her mother unprovoked, but he’d also never told him about any of this. He shouldn’t be finding out about this from Akiko; he should have found out what happened already from his father. It made him think that it meant there was something he wanted to hide from Jamie. Then, a sudden realization hit Jamie like a bullet.

“You said this was shortly after Pearl Harbor?” he asked.

“Yes, it started only a few months later. Why?”

“I’m just making sure I understand when this happened.”

“Pearl Harbor,” he thought, “could this have something to do with my mom?”