Fated To The Alpha
Chapter 243

The manor was vast and surrounded by forest. I briefly felt bad for the mower man who maintained the well-manicured lawns and the gardens. We walked to the tree line to a path that led into the trees. The beaten track was narrow, and I paused at the edge of it. The forest looked dark and gloomy. The energy radiating out of it felt like it pulsed and made goosebumps rise on my arms. Jonah also stopped while Kyan disappeared into the trees, yet a shiver ran up my spine, and I found myself frozen. Something telling me not to go in there, I couldn't explain it. Jonah holds his hand out to me, nodding toward Kyan, who had disappeared entirely. I take his hand, knowing I am probably being silly and had spooked myself. Jonah tugs me at him and drapes his arm across my shoulders before kissing my forehead, but I move, tilting my face up and pecking his lips instead.

"Keep up, if you get lost; I am not gonna spend all night looking for you both," Kyan calls back to us. His voice bounced off the trees making an odd echo. Jonah chuckles before tugging me down the path, The path went forever, and Kyan had slowed his pace a bit, waiting for us to catch up.

"Doesn't this place give you the creeps?" I ask him, The deeper we went, the darker it got, yet Kyan never faltered down a different path like he knew exactly where he was going.

"No, I used to play out here when I was a kid, just don't stray from the path. I did when I was younger and got lost out for two days before dad found me," Kyan tells me, and I step closer to Jonah. I s*w. Who the heck would play in a haunted forest. "What, are you scared, Ella?" Kyan asks, and I glare at him before shaking off Jonah's arm.

"No," I tell him, even though my heart rate would be a d**d giveaway. It beat frantically, and I lost count of the twists and turns, so I knew there was no way to get back if I got lost.

"I would be if I were you," Kyan says, and I raise an eyebrow at him.

"You are just trying to scare me," I tell him, and he shrugs while walking along the path. I watch the muscles of his back move and ripple. This was the most casual I had seen him. He only had on a tank top and jeans looking very unkyan-like.

"Maybe, maybe not. Do you have any idea what you are standing on?" Kyan asked, glancing over his shoulder at me. He smirks, and I had a funny feeling I didn't want to know what was out here. I knew we were going to a gravesite of Kaif's first mate Luna. "It's a witch b****l ground," Jonah whispers.

"Well, I figured we were going to a graveyard,"

"The entire place is a graveyard Ella; look amongst the trees," Kyan says. I look up at Jonah before looking past him.

How had I not noticed before? I thought it odd that amongst the trees were pole logs. Yet I never questioned it, I look in the other direction and I suddenly see the forest in a new light. Thousands of wooden poles were erected amongst the trees and the bases? What I assumed were just weird placed rocks became clearer.

"Are all these gravestones?" I gasp and my feet become rooted to the ground just as strongly at the trees around me. I stared out at the forest, locked in fear. When fingers suddenly jam into the side of my ribs and Kaif's demonic rough voices was behind my ear. "Boo," He growled out at the same time he jammed his fingers in my ribs and I am pretty sure that wasn't sweat I felt as I lurched forward with a blood-curdling scream.

"You idiot," I cried out. Kyan and Jonah were in fits of laughter while I was pretty sure I peed a little.

"I'm not scared," Kyan mocked.

"Don't do that or I will go back, I am creeped out enough without worrying about you scaring me," I snap at him.

Jonah chuckles, "Okay, we won't but it was still funny,"

"To you maybe," I growl at him.

"I vote to go home, just putting it out there," Kora whines, her hackles raised in my head. She was just as spooked by this place.

"So they were all burned to d***h?" I ask Kyan.

"Only the charred ones you can see,"

"The rest?" I ask as we start down the track again.

"You really want to know or is just a morbid curiosity,"

"Both probably," I answer honestly. Not sure if I actually wanted to know.

"You can tell by the gravestones. I'll show you," He says, holding out his hand to me. I stare at it.

"I promise not to scare you again," He smiles. I roll my eyes taking his hand when Jonah nudges me toward him. Kyan led me over to where three stood in a line. The stones had weird symbols on them in what looked like bizarre paint. "See, the symbols are all the same?" I nod. They kind of remind me of zodiac signs.

"These ones were sacrificed and if you come over here," he says, tugging me through some more trees and further from the track. I peek back at Jonah, who remained where he was.

"Why isn't Jonah coming?"

"Because he is a keeper, Kaif's keeper, he can't move from the track until we get to the main b****l ground," Kyan answers simply like that was supposed to make sense to me.

"And this one," He squats down, brushing off the moss attached to the broken headstone. It looked old. The inscription worn, it was nearly completely worn off, yet the color of the symbol remained.

"She was stoned to d***h," Kyan says before standing up and pointing to another, but it was evident by the charred black pole that she was burnt to d**h.

"So humans k****d them?"

"Not all, the sacrifices would have been their coven,"

"Why would they sacrifice their own people?"

"To try and break the curse on Kaif,"

"And the one Celeste's trapped soul," Dominic's voice says in my head. I swallowed, it was weird answering him back with Kyan in front of me. Kyan must have felt my tension because he glanced at me. "What's wrong?" I shake my head.

"Nothing," I lied, but he saw straight through it.

"Then why do you feel guilty?"

"Come, we should get back to Jonah," I tell him, tugging him back the way we came. Jonah I could see ahead, standing there waiting on the track. He hadn't moved from the spot he was in when Kyan pulled me to a stop.

"Tell me," He says, "I can feel something is off since I spoke of Kaif's curse," He says. He was right. I felt terrible that I had a link to his father and could talk to him when he would probably do anything he could to have that chance again.

"I don't want to upset you, Kyan,"I tell him, and his brows pinch together and I noticed his tattoo's rippled oddly, making me blink, thinking something was wrong with my vision.

"Nothing you say will upset me, so say it,"

"This may," I tell him.

"Well, if you are going to make me and Kaif feel guilty, I would feel better knowing what for. You forget I can feel everything, Ella,"

"Fine, If I tell you, you have to tell me something," I ask him.

"What do you want to know,"

"I want to know why we have a bond when you haven't marked me yet?" Kyan sighs and glances at Jonah, who I knew was listening. Jonah shrugs, and Kyan looks back at me. "When you were kids, you fell in the river near your uncle and Aunts. Jonah went in to get you. You were chasing your kite."

"I fell in," Kyan nods.

"Jonah dived in. He was thirteen, he got to you and then he also started drowning. So I shifted, and Kaif pulled you both out. Except when we dragged you onto the bank, you were already d**d."

"I died?" Kyan nods.

"It's how I am linked to both of you, Kaif nearly k**d Jonah, so I tied my life to his making Jonah Kaif's guardian. Every time Kaif hurts Jonah, it weakens Kaif, If Kaif kills Jonah, it will k**l both of us. You were different though," "How am I different,"

"Because you were completely dd, your soul became trapped in the underworld. Kaif used the shadows to pull you back. He used black magic, which bound you to not only him but his magic, I thought that it was how you had my family's magic running through you until I visited the shadows myself and realized not only were you bound to Kaifs, but my father gave you his," Kyan tells me, and I s***w.

"So you have been able to feel me all that time, all that time, and you still didn't want me?" I ask, suddenly angry, tears burned the back of my eyes, and they stung as I fought the urge to cry. How many times was one person expected to handle being rejected. "I have always wanted you, Ella. I just didn't think I could have you," Kyan answers.

"And now?"

"We'll see what happens," Kyan answers, and I hear Jonah curse under his breath. I chew the inside of my lip.

"I answered your question. Now answer mine. Why do you feel guilty," Kyan asks, looking away from me.

"I feel guilty because I can speak to your father, and you can't," I tell him, and his head whips toward me.

"What?" I sigh, wiping a stray tear that decided to betray me and escape.

"Your father, I can speak directly to him. He said when they were also sacrificed to. break the curse on Celeste's trapped soul," I answer. Kyan tilts his head to the side.

"You can talk to my dad?" I nodded my head looking at Jonah.

"Can he hear me?" Kyan asked.

"Always, Kye, I'm always watching, listening, you just need to listen harder," Dominic says to me, and Kyan was studying me.

"He said. Always, Kye, that he is always watching and listening. You just need to listen harder," I tell him. Though hearing Dominic call him Kye made me wonder if that's why he got upset when I said it that time. Yet when I did, to me felt like I had always called him that which made me wonder if I had only he took those memories too. Kyan's lip quivers, and he nods before clearing his throat and walking back to Jonah. I quickly followed him and Kyan walked ahead up the trail.

"I upset him," I tell Jonah.

"And he upset you," Jonah answers, and I nod. "And he is not upset. He just always assumed his fathers was trapped in the shadows, tortured by them," "Why would he think that?"

"Because that's where he is supposed to be, my bloodline doesn't get a happy ending, Ella, we all end up the same, trapped by Kaif's curse to wander the shadows, only allowed to the underworld when Hades calls on us," Kyan answers, he didn't seem bothered by Jonah telling me.

"I'm not mad, I knew you had a connection to my father, but I didn't think you could actually talk to him. I thought it may have been an involuntary urge or flashes of memory he held, not actually him. I was not expecting that to be your answer." Kyan answers. "Are you upset I can talk to him?" Kyan shakes his head.

"No, at least he still has a friend, the shadows are lonely, Ella, hopeless, though I would like to know how it is possible," Kyan tells me when we suddenly come to a clearing with huge giant rocks in a circle. I stop feeling the charged energy ripple around them. I knew this had to be the place he spoke of. Four headstones in perfect condition sat in the middle, making a diamond shape as the edges touched. A shudder runs through me, and I feel Jonah also shudder.

"That's Luna's gravestone?" I ask, and Kyan stops between the two rocks closest and looks back at me.

"And Kaif's," Kyan answers. They were ancient but not damaged like the others, these seemed preserved. Kyan reaches for Jonah's hand.

"Man, you know I hate stepping in there," Jonah whined but grabbed his hand.

"You have my family's magic, Ella. You should be able to pass through," "Pass-through?"

"Witches don't like guardians, well the fact that Jonah is Kaif's guardian, anyway, he can only pass on b****l grounds with my touch," Kyan murmurs the last word. His brows furrow for a second before he suddenly let go and Jonah shrieked and went to grab him, but Kyan stepped out of reach before looking up at the rocks, and he laughs softly. Jonah, however, looked confused as he touched his chest like he was trying to see if he was whole.

"F**k," Kyan huffs, glancing around the weird stones.

"It didn't chew me up and spit me out," Jonah gasps, looking around at the huge a*s rocks.

"Huh?"

"The first time I came here, I walked in there and I woke up two days later with a throbbing headache, blasted me out, and smashed me into," He looks around, and Kyan points to a huge tree that looked like its trunk had a face in it. "That tree," Kyan says. " And I had to carry your heavy a*s all the way home," I take a step back. I was not stepping foot in there if it spits people back out.

"Must be because I have marked you now," Kyan laughs, shaking his head.

"I promise Ella, they will let you in, or it wouldn't have let you stray from the path either," Kyan says while holding out his hand to me just inside.

I hesitantly stepped through, and I felt the draft of energy ripple over me, caress and whisper to me.

"Well, there is one way to say welcome to the family," Kora chimes in.

"What are you talking about now?"

"Well, if we weren't welcome in their cult, it would have booted us like he said," I chuckle at her before taking Kyan's hand. He pulls toward two of the graves. "Celeste and Hades," Kyan whispers.

"Moon Goddess Celeste and Hade's the g*d?" I ask. Looking over my shoulder, he nods.

"When their human bodies died, they were brought here," Kyan tugs me over to the other two, one larger than the other.

"That one is Luna's, Hade's and Celeste's daughter,"

"Wait?..." I was confused, very d**n confused.

"Hade's and Celeste were mates. They had a daughter together and her name was Luna. Luna was Kaif's mate," Kyan explains. "And that's Kaif's grave?" I ask, pointing to the other. Kyan's eyes flicker to Kaif for a second, and he nods.

"So Kaif k****d the Moon goddesses and Hade's daughter?"

"Yes," Kyan explains.

"Luna and Kaif also had a son. Celeste and Hade's are my ancestors," My head was spinning, trying to absorb what he was telling me.

"So your part g*d?" I blurted, and Kyan chuckled.

"Yes, Celeste was a demi-gd. She was the half-sister of Venus, Hades was the g*d of the underworld and still is, but he is also my g*d knows how far back, grandfather." "So you're cursed by Hades. He cursed his own bloodline?" Kyan nods.

"Divorce was frowned upon back then, Hade's human name was Hade's Octavian, and he was Celeste Octavian's husband, aka the Original Moon Goddess,"

"That explains why he hung like one," Kora adds, and I snicker, not needing that mental image when trying to concentrate on what he was telling me.