12 The start of a war

***POV – Zagon

“Bro, those fays didn’t know what hit them,” Luan is hanging onto Blade, both a little bit past tipsy, as they walk a few steps behind Marrok and me. “I don’t know what they were more scared of, your hound ripping them apart, or Blade biting them … ha-ha-ha,” he continues, and I notice the small smile on Marrok’s lips, probably thinking about our day of torture. And Luan is right, we demoralized those two fays into telling us everything they know and then we sent them to a place with their names on. All and all, it was a pretty fruitful 26 hours, hence our rather mellow state of intoxication – we’ve been drinking a few at the pub, celebrating.

Blade spits on the ground, “I’ll never suck on a fay, their blood tastes like shit.” I don’t know anything about the taste of blood, so I’ll just take his word for it. Perhaps it’s nature’s way of discouraging vampires from biting fays since the anticoagulant protein in a vampire’s saliva causes a severe allergic type of reaction in fays where they suffer in humongous pain for days. He takes out a key to unlock the door. It’s late and we don’t want to wake up the females in the house unnecessarily. But even before he can push the key into the hole, the door flies open.

“Where the fuck have you been? We’ve sent you like a zillion messages,” I roll my eyes when I hear the voice of the most annoying ‘cat’ ever. The little blue fly seems more than upset, but luckily, he’s looking at Blade.

Dead tired, I push past them, reminding myself not to give him my phone number – ever! Torturing those hunter fays for hours in an empty factory warehouse took up a lot of energy and I’m running on fumes right now. So, saying I’m eager to fall onto that sofa and drift to sleep to the lovely fragrance of my mate that lingers in this house, is rather an understatement.

“Chill, dude, my battery died,” Blade explains the situation, but my eyes are on the four women sitting threaded in a row on the said sofa; the look on their faces sobering me up in a wink. Something major must be wrong.

“Enigma is missing,” Thalassa jumps up as if she’s been waiting for me, grabbing my arm so hard it’s almost painful.

“What?” All four of us shout out together, synchronized in shock. Is it only me or did the air in the room suddenly evaporate? It’s hard to breathe and my heart is going into cardiac arrest. I press hard on my chest with my hand.

“She’s gone … Chris too,” Puck is right in my face, “The fucker kidnapped her and you assholes take a night on the town. Marvelous, just fucking marvelous! Some mate you are!” I feel the blood rushing through my veins as the anger grows inside me, ready to explode. I should have killed that damn wolf!

“If he rapes her and marks her … “ Puck is flying in front of my face, his voice is low and soft, “I’ll make you regret the day you were born demon …” His little chest is heaving up and down with each fast deep breath. I close my eyes and swallow the dry lump that formed in my throat. I don’t care about his threat … but his words make the monsters in my head scream out loud … mark her … rape her … would he do that? Of course the son-of-a-bitch would! Fuck!

“Where could he take her?” Marrok asks the question I would have in normal circumstances; circumstances where I would regain control in a flash and not be such a mess. But he must sense that, for the first time ever, I’m not myself right now, so he takes over. One perk of our tight-knit little group is that we can communicate without words, we know each other that well.

“I’ve checked, he used the porthole,” Thalassa says, as I struggle desperately trying to get my emotions in check, but failing miserably.

“And I found this,” she holds out a syringe, “on the stairs.”

Marrok sniffs the syringe and then says, “Carfentanil.” That’s a pretty potent drug. So the asshole knocked her out.

Before I know it, a loud growl escapes and my fist shatters the glass door of a nearby cabinet.

“Zagon, calm down,” Luan grabs my hand from where blood is now dripping to the ground. I concentrate on taking deep breaths, slowly feeling how the rage dissipates to transform into hatred. Fear, on the other hand, continues its mighty grip on my heart, crushing it.

Funny thing is, if you asked me a few days ago what I was afraid of, the answer would have been easy - nothing, not even death! But now … now it’s much more complex … I discovered the one thing that scares me the most: losing Enigma.

“What porthole?” Marrok is still more logical thinking than me at this moment, but I’m slowly gaining back control.

“No time to explain, but there’s a porthole in this house,” she comments and I shake Luan’s grip from my almost healed hand, turning around to look at her.

She nods her head quickly, her little face filled with worry.

“They went to the Royal Pack’s castle … and Stephan is already expecting you there,” she says looking at Blade and then starts walking up the stairs, gesturing for us to follow her.

“Why the fuck is there a porthole in this house?” Luan asks from behind me, and that’s a rather good question.

Before my first jump, I researched all I could find about them; how they work and how they are created – I mean, I’m not gonna step into some magical shithole I know nothing about. My feet automatically climb another step.

Anyway, I never did come across anything that mentioned portholes in private dwellings …

Two more steps.

And it’s merely impossible to create your own; you’ll need the magic and blood from a variety of different species and not to mention a luciferin rod.

The last five steps.

So, putting it lightly – there’s not supposed to be a porthole in this house. So how does it exist? Who created it? Why?

We stop in front of a door in the end wall of the hallway at the top.

“Eh, that’s a long story we don’t have time for now … “ she answers.

She’s right; there’s no time for that right now, the most essential thing is to find my little mate. The door opens to a small chamber with the appearance of a broom closet.

Thalassa activates a hidden panel on the wall, and the porthole opens, looking just like the others: a large black hole to enter into, ready to propel you to your destination. Since they all lead to the same place – The Dark Station - the ones on Earth usually don’t have a key panel to type your point of exit. But this one has one.

Thalassa enters some code and the green light blinks almost instantly, signaling that it’s ready for use.

Teleporting is not for the fainthearted, because you go fast, and it feels as if your guts are being yanked out from both your ass and your mouth, simultaneously. However, after a while, you do get a little used to it.

“I’ll go first,” I say already walking into the hole to get swept away. After a few seconds, I am thrown out onto a solid stone floor. I shake my head slightly to get rid of the aftereffects and the intense smell of urine that suddenly burns my sinuses. I quickly scan the room.

Stone walls; bright curtains; a fireplace.

Then I get distracted by the very faint flowery scent that manages to hit my nose through the pee stench. My senses jolt into action. It’s her.

I sniff the air, but then Marrok slams into me from behind, throwing me off balance. I move out of the way, pulling him with me, just in time to prevent Luan and Blade from colliding with us.

“Are we there yet?” A shrill voice yelps from Blade’s shirt pocket and Puck’s little face emerges, his entire body wrapped in tinfoil. I’m surprised his tiny body survived the planet-to-planet teleportation.

He looks around for a second, ripping off the foil before he shoots from the pocket to take a seat on my shoulder.

A man enters the room with big steps as if he’s unaware of our presence, or just unconcerned. “It’s all your fucking fault!” he points his finger at another dude sitting on a vivid yellow couch.

“He’s your beta! I swear, WOLF, if anything happens to her, I’ll kill you both, alpha prince or not!” the first man continues. He’s bulky with silver light hair, just long enough to cover his ears.

“Ah … this is gonna be fun,” Puck whispers unceremoniously in my ear as if sitting on my shoulder is the most natural thing to do. “Harron must be pissed, and he’s already not a huge dog-lover.” His eyes are glued to the scene before us.

“You know them?” I ask surprised. He nods his little blue head up and down without looking at me.

“Harron is Mel’s uncle and guardian, he took the place of her father,” he points his little aqua finger to the silver-headed man. I’ve already established by his smell that he must be an elf. “And that’s Stephan, the alpha prince.” He now points to the huge wolf that’s slowly rising from the sofa. I understand the elves … but where do the wolves fit into the equation?

“Why does it smell like piss?” Luan whispers next to me, but I don’t have an answer for him.

“Maybe they mark the castle that way,” Marrok concludes pulling up his shoulders, “Or they’re just unhygienic … “

I must admit … it’s strange either way.

“Hi, dudes,” Blade gives a step forward, and both men are now viciously staring at him. I can see the elf is on the verge of ripping someone’s head off. Great, we’re on the same page then.

“How could you let this happen?!” he snaps and Blade stops cautiously at this rhetorical question, putting his hands up defensively. Is he scared of the elf? Strange … of what I’ve seen so far he’s not the cowardly type.

Never mind … enough of this shit … we’re wasting time. An image of Chris biting Enigma while raping her flashes through my mind and I feel a bit dizzy. Fuck.

“You’re wasting time with all this bullshit!” I holler at the man, feeling my anxiety rise and my demon eyes meet his cold blue ones.

“And who the fuck are you?” He’s not backing down. I bite my teeth, ready to move forward.

“Zagon!” Logan says, taking my arm to keep me back, “We need to focus on finding Mel and fighting is not going to help us do that. Save it for later.” The elf takes a deep breath. So do I. He’s right, throwing a fit won’t help find Eni, but it might make me feel a little better; drain some of this frustration.

“My warriors are already looking for them,” the wolf moves closer, “and his mate is on her way here now,” the alpha holds out a hand and I take it. “I’m Stephan, and that sour puss elf is Harron.”

“Zagon,” I shake his outstretched hand, “and this is my bros, Marrok and Luan.”

“The Queen said we can trust you,” Stephan says while hiding the porthole, “and I hope she’s right.” I’m not sure which queen he’s talking about, but I also hope she’s right. Trusting people is not one of my strong points.

“Ug, what does my mother know … she’ll trust the devil himself if he smiles nice enough,” the elf sighs rolling his eyes. I’m a little confused right now but filling in the blanks gets obscured on my priority list by finding my mate.

So, instead of chit-chatting about queens and trust, every fiber in my body wants to run around like a mad hound in search of Enigma, BUT I’ve learned over the years that acting impulsively is never a good thing … and Eni needs me at my best. I take another deep breath and focus on controlling my emotions. It takes a little longer than usual … cause usually it’s anger, rage, or even hate I have to control … never before fear … so this is a little new to me. But I manage and start thinking clearly.

I don’t know much about Chris and I’ve never been to this castle, so for now, interrogating the asshole’s mate first would be a wise course of action, but why not just follow his scent? I ask Stephan that.

“Since Chris stays in the castle, his scent is literally everywhere, so it makes it nearly impossible to track him,” Stephan continues, “but I have a few warriors trying to do just that.”

That beta wolf is not as stupid as I thought, he knew by coming here we won’t be able to track him easily.

I watch Harron walking in circles mumbling to himself. A strange thing that.

“Why not follow Enigma’s scent?” I wonder and notice Stephan looking at Harron as if asking for confirmation to answer my question. Harron nods.

“Eh, there’s no trace of her scent yet,” he says and I frown. What the fuck?

“She might not even be here … “ he continues.

Although the aroma is faint, it’s there, I’m sure of it. And I know it’s her - I’ll never forget her scent until I die.

“She’s here, I can smell her.” Stephan pulls up his brows and I’m not sure he believes me.

“Maybe you can because you’re her mate,” Luan blabbers out.

“Mate?” The word rolls from Harron’s lips like poison, both men keyed up paralyzed, staring at each other as if what I’m saying is downright impossible, the one looking more spooked than the other. I tilt my head to the side, wondering if they’re gonna recover.

“I think you broke them,” Puck says from my shoulder and it takes a few snaps from my fingers in front of their dazed faces to get them blinking again.

“Fuck!” Harron shouts out rubbing his hands over his profile and then his icy glare targets me as if I’m a fly on a heap of poop.

“Don’t think your future uncle-in-law likes you much,” damn sprite sniggers in my ear. I roll my eyes, ready to give him a sarcastic comeback when a shrill voice breaks the air.

“I’m telling you I don’t know where he is!” Two wolves are rather roughly dragging a girl in, her eyes frantically looking around. Her stupefied expression glues to my face for a few seconds. They push her forward and she lowers her eyes at the sight of Stephan, her bob mouse-brown hair falling over her tear-streaked face. She’s a little plain looking, but not ugly.

“Alpha, I swear, Chris rejected me, and I haven’t seen him since,” her voice almost a whisper and I feel sorry for the girl. She subconsciously puts her hands over her stomach, and I peak my ears. Yep, there’s a faint heartbeat coming from her tummy. Hell!

“Does he know you’re pregnant?” Her head shoots up and she stares at me with wide shocked eyes.

“Yes.”