Gods of Old, Part 2: Morrana

Chapter 2: The contract

“Make yourself at home, I’ll be right there!” Vesna shouts from the kitchen when she feels a portal open in her living room. “Do you want some coffee?” The question is followed by a huge  crash and Morrana looks at Marco sideways with an eyebrow raised.

“She is a total klutz in the kitchen.” Marco whispers. “I think I’ll go help her.”

“Sending help, darling! I like my coffee without glass shards!” Morrana shouts and selects a sofa to sit on with a wink to Marco.

Marco carefully opens the kitchen door and peaks inside. He is hard pressed not to laugh as he sees Vesna standing in the corner between the breakfast bar and the dishwasher. There are shards of glass all over the floor and a puddle of liquid that smells like coffee. He takes a broom from behind the door and sweeps the mess together.

“Not a word.” She says through her teeth.

“I’ll just make new coffee.” Marco replies with a mask of seriousness on his face. “Did you have breakfast?”

Vesna only shakes her head sadly and Marco sighs and puts a comforting hand on Vesna’s shoulder. “I’ll bring you something. Go sit with Morrana.”

Morrana just made herself comfortable on the sofa and is looking at the painting on the wall with interest. There is something intriguing on it and she can’t really say what it is that draws her in. The colors on it are bright and not really her thing, but she feels strongly passionate about it. It would look great in the lobby of her hotel. Then she is startled out of her thoughts by a sad looking Vesna.

“Wow! What happened to you? You look like someone died.” Morrana asks.

“That is your domain.” Vesna retorts and sits on the opposite sofa. “Everyone left me! My best friend stole my brother. They’re off to have fun in Mauritius. And Devana went home to Budapest last night.”

“And you look like you're going to cry. What’s really wrong?” Morrana looks at her little sister with narrowed eyes and a lot of reserve. She puts her mask of an ice queen back on. Nothing can harm her if she puts up the walls first. She has the feeling this will hurt somehow. The vibe in the room is all wrong and a premonition of something bad rolls through her mind.

“Nothing.” Vesna whines and smirks.

“You’re acting like a five year old. Get a grip!” Morrana stays hard.

Marco comes to the living room with a tray of coffee cups and a plate with Vesna’s breakfast to find an odd situation. The sisters sitting opposite each other. Morrana is all hard and cold, her blue eyes dull and emotionless and is staring at Vesna down her elegant nose. Vesna on the other side, looks like she will burst into tears at any moment and is stubbornly holding her head up, with her mouth pressed tightly together. He raises an eyebrow and remains silent while setting the coffee down and Vesna’s breakfast in front of her. He holds his own cup as he sits next to Morrana. She slowly moves her hand to his knee and places it gently on him.

“You too? Traitor!” Vesna bursts into tears.

“What did I do?” Marco asks in surprise and sees a slight nod from Morrana as she lifts her hand from his knee. He goes to Vesna to hug her tight and comfort her. “What’s wrong?”

“Veles left me for my best friend.” Vesna sniffs her tears back.

“Yes and they will be back in 14 days. I think I can arrange you a temporary housekeeper. Cousin Moira does temp jobs.” Marco tries to soothe Vesna.

“And he’ll go live with her.” She wails.

“No. I think they will both live here with you. You did see Ilona’s apartment? That place is smaller than this living room.” Marco says.

Morrana inserts: “That shoebox place is smaller than my wardrobe.”

“You think they’ll come here?” Vesna sobs in her sleeve.

“Yes, I can’t imagine Veles living there.” Marco confirms and hands Vesna her coffee. “Come on, drink some. I know you hate cold coffee.”

“Thank you for making me breakfast.” Vesna says as she picks up her toast with jam. “I’m lost in the kitchen. I just realised this morning how much I depend on Veles.”

Marco frowns at that statement, because he can remember occasions when Vesna said she was making dinner. “But you do cook sometimes.”

“Hardly ever. I pick things up on my way home and transfer them on serving plates. And I think Veles knows that.” She confesses.

“You can’t cook?” He asks in wonder.

“No. I even burned my toast.” She says sadly.

“Why did you call me a traitor?” Marco asks now that Vesna has calmed down.

“Because you’re leaving me, too.” Vesna says sadly. “I can see the bond forming between you two. I bet your wolf is howling in your head, because you sit here with me and not there with Morrana.”

“You can see mate bonds?” Morrana is interested in the conversation at last and leans forward a bit.

“Yes. A black and a gold tread intertwined. The connection is weak, but it’s there. I can see it even with your ice walls erected around you.” Vesna smiles sadly. “I bet it will flair up if you let your walls down.”

“What walls?” Marco asks worriedly.

“You don’t see it?” Vesna looks at him. “Think how she was when you two were alone and compare that to how you see her now.”

“She is the same, beautiful, amazing, she shines and calls to me.” Marco smiles at Morrana and changes his position to be closer to her.

“Ohh!” Vesna throws her arms up in despair. “Stop looking at her with those puppy eyes! Tune out your wolf and look with your eyes, not your heart.”

Marco closes his eyes a bit to concentrate and says a silent ‘sorry pal’ to his wolf, before he closes the animal off for a while. He looks at Morrana sitting next to him, exquisitely beautiful, flawless skin, long black hair and icy blue eyes. Rigid and cold, closed off with a perfect poker face that gives away nothing at all. Like she flipped a switch and became a totally different person. A person that looks like her, but has nothing in common with the warm and funny girl he got to know this morning. And a far throw away from the passionate wixen from last night. 

“Morrana?” He whispers in a small voice, careful, almost afraid of his own mate.

She looks him in the eyes, still rigid and unmoving, but her lips start to form a smile that slowly melts her ice. Her eyes sparkle and she lets go of her wall, when she sees the fear in Marco’s eyes. She pulls him in for a hug and whispers in his ear.

“Never fear me, my love. I’ll always let down my walls for you.”

Morrana decides to let Marco in her defences. She does feel love for him, not just because of the mate bond, he is a warm ray of sunshine in her life. He makes her happy and she will do everything she can to keep that feeling. That means she needs to get him free. She tunes in to her steel resolve and is all business like again.

“Vesna?” She asks as she lets Marco go and turns to her sister. “Why kind of contract do you have with Marco?”

“Emm…” Vesna trails off and looks a bit sheepish. “Don’t blast me, please. Marco has a normal employee contract, but that one is not your problem.”

“What kind of contract did my father sign?” Marco asks Vesna with trepidation is his voice and a sudden fear constricting his throat. 

“A blood contract of an alfa promise.” Vesna whispers. “I’ll get it for you. It’s in my safe.”

Vesna leaves them alone for a few minutes and Morrana is starting to get a very bad feeling about this contract. She turns to Marco and hugs him again, she needs the warmth of his body to ward off the ice that wants to form in her heart again.

“Do you know what kind of contract that is?” She asks.

“No. I never heard of such a thing. I used to intern with our pack lawyer when I was still in law school, but he didn’t let me in on all things.” Marco tells her as he wraps an arm around her and pulls her in his side. “You’re cold. Are you ok?”

“I have a bad feeling about this.” she whispers and snuggles closer to him.

“You should.” Vesna tells her as she returns with a scroll and hands it off to Marco. “Here it is. I didn’t actually read it. My Italian is not that good.”

“Did you at least ask about it?” Morrana questions her sister.

“Vito told me I basically own Marco, but he is still a pack member, because otherwise his wolf would go insane. Wolves can’t function on their own, they need a pack bond.”

Marco quietly reads the contract Vesna gave him and his blood runs cold at the words written on the old fashioned paper scroll. He swallows hard and raises his eyes to Vesna. He sees her sad smile and the pity she has for him.

“And I thought he did me a favour when he sent me to you. You kept me busy and sane. I thought of you as my friend.” He whispers sadly.

“I am your friend, Marco. I got to know you and I saw a great man in you. I won’t stand in your way.” Vesna smiles at him. “Just tell me how to break this contract.”

“You can’t.” He says quietly. “He bound me to you for a hundred years. Only death can set me free.”

“Hmm.” Vesna thinks a bit. “Are you sure there’s not a loophole somewhere in there? Besides, you’re in luck. Morrana is the goddess of death.”

“What crazy plan are you concocting in your head?” Morrana asks. “I will not kill Marco, just to bring him back. There are consequences to be paid.”

“Emmm, ladies!” Marco inserts.”I don’t want to die.”

“Marco?” Morrana turns to him. “What exactly is in there? Rules, stipulations, punishments? We need to find a loophole.”

“Well…” He starts to read again.”Basically, she owns me for a hundred years. I can't leave her on my own or I die. She can leave Milano without me for a few days, everything over a week, I die. Lucky me, you never went anywhere alone. I really like this one: If you get tired of me, you can kill me and break the contract.”

“That sounds terrible.” Morrana comments and Vesna only nods her head.

“Yeah. And I’m lucky you didn’t read it. There’s more idiotic and medeval things.” Marco continues to translate. “If I talk back, you can punish me as you see fit. If I offend you in any way, you can beat me. They actually recommend twenty lashes with a barbed whip.

You can treat me like an omega or worse and I am not allowed to say anything.”

“Stop!” Vesna jumps up and starts to pace. “This reads like a slave owners manual. I can do what I want and you have to take it quietly?”

“Yes. Oh, listen to this one.” Marco starts to laugh at the absurdity of the document. “You even have the option to forbid me to shift. Or you could order me to stay in my wolf form and put a collar on and pretend I’m your dog.”

“No.” Vesna is horrified by the idea. “If you stay too long in one form, the other starts to die off and it gets harder to shift back or shift at all.”

“Yeah, that’s a form of punishment that was used in the old days. Sewer a shifter off from his other form. Eventually you die, because you lose half of yourself.” Marco explains the severity of the punishment.

“Hmm, that gives me an idea.” Morrana smiles wickedly. “If this is a slave owners document, can Vesna sell or give you to someone else? Slaves were a commodity of trade, bartered with, given or simply taken.”

“It doesn’t say anything of that nature.” Marco scans the end of the document.

“Who put this thing together?” Vesna asks.

“My father. It’s his handwriting. The document is written in ink, the signature is in blood.” Marco says dryly. 

“Ohh.” Vesna sounds frustrated. “I’ve had it with this. I’ll call Vito and demand that he nullifies this contract.”