Crossing Paths with the White Wolf

Chapter 1 - Helios

Helios P.o.V.

**Present Day**

“I’m not your enemy, brother!” Selene screamed at me like she does every night.

“I know sister. I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I sobbed at her feet. I looked up at her as I do every night to see her looking down at me.

“You had your chance at redemption. You do not deserve another,” she said coldly, just before she plunged the crystal dagger into my heart.

I woke up in a cold sweat and sighed once I managed to get my heart rate back to normal. I’ve been having the same dream over and over almost every night for the last 8 months. I stood up, there was no getting back to sleep with the sunrise starting to peek over the ocean waves.

I looked up at the fading moon. “Is this just a nightmare, or have I already failed your task, sister?” I asked her. I laughed ruefully. “A little more guidance than ‘Find your redemption’ would have been nice.”

I turned to move away from my bedroom window overlooking the beach and I stopped as I thought I heard howling in the distance. “Alright, I get your point. I’ll keep looking.”

I shook my head as I headed towards the bathroom. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I may be eternal, but I was still susceptible to the dark bags under my eyes from the restless sleeps. I put my hand through my dark brown hair. It was starting to get long, maybe I was due for a haircut. I took in my dark brown eyes and squared chiseled jaw line and copper skin. At my 5’9’’ and the amount of money I had, I had once been called one of Mexico’s most eligible bachelor in a couple of magazines. I had never really thought my looks were all that above average.

I was buttoning my shirt up when I heard my laptop beep. I walked over to the monitor and checked my email to see what had come in. I couldn’t help but smile as I clicked on the video as the sounds of giggling came out of the little speakers.

“Peek a boo,” came out the soft voice belonging to Celeste and little Bellarose and Cory giggled. The sound was contagious and I could hear Markus, who must have been holding the camera, laughing quietly along with Celeste.

I looked back at the body of the email and read.

Hi!

How is the hunt for your mission going? We read that playing peek-a-boo with Cory and Bellarose helps develop their object permanence and they are finding it to be the funniest game in the whole world. I can’t wait for them to start talking so I can know what’s going on in their little heads. It is probably the most fascinating thought process.

We got the package you sent. The little crotchet dolls are lovely! Bellarose sleeps with it every night though her alebrijes(mythical spirit animals) plushy is still her favorite. You really should come visit. I promise, Markus is OK with it. At least consider coming to their birthday party in a few months.

I hope you’re taking good care of yourself and having a little fun. That’s what living is all about Helios.

See you sometime.

Celeste

P.S. I had the same vision last night again, you’re still on the right path.

I sighed and sent a quick response. Promising her I’d make the party and how cute the babies where. I replayed the video for a moment, a torrent of emotions swirling inside me. I felt guilt, knowing how many family members I had taken from Celeste. Regret, at how I had almost denied her the life she currently had when I tried to kill her before her children were born. Gratitude, that she not only had helped me see the truth, but that she had forgiven me and reached out not for help, as I had told her in my letter, but to check up on me.

It had started with a simple 4 sentence email from her. She wanted to say thank you for the gifts I’d dropped off at their pack grounds with a picture of the babies with the toys. Tiny little cherub kids that were just f*****g adorable.

Four months ago, we’d begun corresponding at length when she mentioned having had a vision of me that she was not allowed to talk to me about but to say that Selene was telling her I was on the correct path. Her emails had gone from formal and reserved to friendly and full of kinship. Much to my surprise, I found myself looking forward to her emails and texts. Getting updates on her family and friends almost made me feel like a part of her group. Almost.

I had even started emailing with Markus a bit as we talked about the threats I would discover, though he was still not easy to forgive. Not that I blamed him, I had tried to kill his mate and unborn children after all. I was surprised he was trying, which I think was also Celeste’s doing.

The only downside to having Celeste as a friend was the longing I’d begun to feel. The need to belong to something outside of myself. To have friends, to have a partner, a family. Feelings and needs of a life filled with love and peace. All things I’ve never allowed myself to have or even think about.

I thought about all of this on my way to my temporary office in a dingy downtown building. I had just recently taken over a small import/export company that had shown promise but was terribly mismanaged. I had done this for the last couple of centuries, shipping and exporting was one of those business ventures that persists. The first half of my life, I had been consumed by my need to hunt down my siblings, but while sailing around the world, hunting down the wolf reincarnations of my siblings, I had discovered I quite enjoyed the trade and I was good at it. It was also a trade that easily transferred to many countries. It made it easy for me to transfer corporation names and identities as I needed to not raise suspicions from the humans. Pretend to die, have my company sold to some international start up under a new name etc.

I walked into the tiny office. I would soon be rebranding this entire company from S & Y Textiles to Sol Enterprises and moving it to a bigger building downtown, but before that could happen, a lot of work had to be done. It was keeping me busy while I figured out why Selene had dropped me here. I liked going through the books. I could have paid someone else to do it, but what else did I have to do? Go Clubbing? Online Dating? How many people on tinder were out there looking for a 1,728 year old sun and war god looking to redeem himself after a millennium of killing his siblings and punishing his moon sister for events that were not her fault. No, there was not a place for a man like me in that world.

I continued to work through lunch until someone knocks on my door at 4 pm.

“Helios, we found something.” Gonzalo came into the small office. He was one of the three warriors I had allowed to stay with me.

After they had helped me relocate to San Diego, I had given each of my remaining 22 warriors a substantial amount of money, a business in some part of the world and my eternal thanks for centuries of loyal service after I had explained to them what happened at the Sun and Moon Pyramids last December. All but three had accepted. My warriors were not unkillable, but they hadn’t aged past whatever age they were when they had fought alongside me in that brutal fight eons ago. I never quite found out why, though I imagined it was residual magic from the fight and Selene’s sacrifice. I hoped they all found a way to navigate this world alone. I had always made sure they were educated with the times, all of us having attended university at least once every 50 years in order to make sure we were prepared for anything. I had no doubt that each of them would prosper in whatever business I had gifted them.

Gonzalo, Theo and Sebastian had refused to leave. They were the closest thing I had to a family, to friends and when they insisted, I had not been able to say no, but I couldn’t let them stay as warriors. We were no longer at war with my sister. I had instead made them partners in this new venture as equals, though I doubted they wouldn’t follow me if I asked them to.

“Good or bad?” I asked.

“Well not good, but can’t be sure it’s bad,” he said pointedly. He sat on the other side of the desk and pointed at the computer. “May I?” he asked and when I nodded, he flipped the monitor towards the center of the desk and grabbed my keyboard. After accessing the camera surveillance feeds from the last few months before we took over the business, he came upon what he wanted to show me. I watched the video he was showing me and after the third time he restarted it, I finally noticed what he wanted to show me. There was a time jump in the feed. Someone had erased a chunk of time from the camera feeds. Turned them off or cut the video after.

“Is this the only instance of this?” I asked him.

“No, I have found at least 5 other times in the last year at least from this feed. We’ve still got gate footage, and office footage to go through,” he answered.

“Send me the times and dates and skip the gate footage to only these timings to an hour before and after these timings. Same with the office footage but search as far back as a week before and after these times. I’ll look at the financial records and see if I can find anything. Are we thinking this is like Sidney?” I asked.

“Seems very likely. Should I try to contact some of the warriors that remained in the country if we move forward with this?” he asked.

I shook my head. “They no longer serve me. The four of us should be able to handle this on our own. We have done things with less.”

“As you wish, but they would come Helios. They may not serve you, but they are loyal to you. They would do this for you.”

“Let’s save that for emergencies. If things get too dicey even after we hire a few warriors from one of the security companies we have contracts with,” I said.

“I’ll email the time and dates once I finish going through the entire dock feed. You should get some dinner, I can hear your stomach from here,” he said as he left, my stomach growled very loudly at his words as if reminding me that they required attention.

I sighed and put away all my paperwork and saved my work. I went down to a place half an hour out of my way and picked up some food on the way home. No matter how many countries I went, I always preferred Mexican and I was willing to drive out of the way to get authentic. It was just above all other cuisines as far as I am concerned. I guess in that way, I’m an old man stuck in my ways.