Taming Her Beastly Mate
Chapter 67

“Rhea, it is nice to see you again. It’s been a long time. I’ve been enjoying my quiet time… Of course Selene doesn’t know the meaning of being hands off and she has dragged my brother into her escapades.” Kali stared at Rhea and waved her hand to the side. “Anyways I was dragged here for a reason. You want to know what you should do about the sprite inside of the guardian.”

“Yes, please…” Rhea looked at the priestess. The last time she met her was during a much different time in her life. Back when she was the same age as her daughter is now. Kali still had ivory skin and black hair but back then she had black eyes instead of her current dark green. But seeing her now almost felt like she was that young woman again.

Rhea glanced around the frozen room. The walls were layered with ice and the ground was like a fluffy snow carpet. Then just across from Kali were two other women sitting on frozen thrones that Rhea had never met before.

“The sprite inside of Micah was poisoned by demon b***d. It was a sprite that belonged to the Unblessed.” Kali watched as Rhea’s lips parted and Levi rubbed her side pulling her closer. “It volunteered to become a catalyst of sorts. Of course, then they didn’t know that the werebear would become a guardian. They wanted him because… because they knew what she did.” Kali clicked her tongue and looked at the woman sitting quietly next to Shiva. The woman had warm brown hair, she was tall, slender, and had golden eyes. Though Kali had no clue how she managed to sit upright with the bouncing boulders she was blessed with.

“You should have taken responsibility for him until he was older. Instead, you played your game and vanished. You left the child to fend for himself, Gaia.” Kali sneered at the goddess who glared back at her indignantly. What she did was more hands on than what it should have been. Selene and Kali had spent so much time trying to restore balance. And now the trickling effects of a tilt were starting to begin again.

“Kali get over yourself. Is Selene the only one allowed to aid her children? I saw potential in him. I helped him. I blessed him! I left him with his parents. I had no clue they would be killed. I’m not Selene. I don’t see the future. I am too busy to watch over one cub.” Gaia folded her hands over top of the other as she looked over at Levi.

Kali began snickering loudly. She raised her hand up to cover her mouth as she shook her head. “Try lying to someone else. Because I already know what you were really up to.” She could read the goddess easily. This wasn’t about potential. It was about guilt.

Gaia’s eyes narrowed into slits as she glared at Kali. “You don’t know anything.” She hissed as Kali turned to face her fully. And the tension between the two women was being felt by all in the room.

“Oh… but I do.” Kali stopped laughing and narrowed her eyes at Gaia. “I’m not saying what you did was wrong… but that you should have been watching the cub after what you did. You should be watching him now. His powers matured many years ago. It is only a matter of time before he realizes what he can do and unleashes it.” She stopped for a moment and her lips parted. “You regretted it. You are afraid of what you did…” Her green eyes bore into Gaia. She wanted her to admit it. That what she did to Micah was because of her own guilt.

“No…” Gaia’s voice was barely a whisper. “I regret what I wasn’t able to do.”

Kali’s eyes softened and her lips pulled down. Shiva reached over and patted Gaia’s back offering her support.

“Can someone explain to me? I think we are the only two who don’t know what happened.” Levi looked over at Shiva who nodded her head.

“I’ll take over from here. I’ve been quiet long enough. I know this is difficult for you.” Shiva patted Gaia once more before she stood up and walked closer to Levi and Rhea.

“Talia, the primordial, had a child…” Shiva started quietly.

“Talia?” Rhea asked quietly quirking up her eyebrows in confusion.

“An original beast. She is as old as the earth.” Levi answered her quietly.

Shiva nodded her head. “The demons wanted Talia to use as a pawn in the war. The beast fought back but against Mephisto… she lost. Talia was killed and her young child was severely injured. Left for dead in the woods. Gaia came upon the child and tried to nurse him back to health. A primordial child is rare. And this one came from the beast under Gaia’s care. As one of her children Gaia took the child in but he didn’t make it. After just a few weeks the young child died. It had lost the will to live after the death of his mother. Gaia carried the lifeless child to a final resting place and that is when she ran into a small family of werebears. The couple had a younger toddler with them that was unwell. He was suffering from a heart condition and growing weaker by the day.”

“Gaia took the heart out of the lifeless child and blessed it. Then she gave that heart to the toddler… Micah. Of course not long after that was the demon war. Both of the werebears were killed and Micah was taken by the dark elves. The dark elves were part of the Unblessed. They knew what Gaia had done and they wanted him on their side. So, they placed a contaminated sprite inside of his body. In hopes that the darkness would take over and they would gain a powerful ally. But they never could have guessed Micah would be the next guardian. And with the princess’ light the sprite has been held at bay.”

“Rhea, it is nice to see you again. It’s been a long time. I’ve been enjoying my quiet time… Of course Selene doesn’t know the meaning of being hands off and she has dragged my brother into her escapades.” Kali stared at Rhea and waved her hand to the side. “Anyways I was dragged here for a reason. You want to know what you should do about the sprite inside of the guardian.”

Shiva looked at Rhea and tilted her head to the side. “You probably are not sure what all of this means? And why Micah is very special. Even on a terrifying level.”

Brian shifted Ryker over to Micah who took the unconscious man in his arms. “Let me start with this. Ryker belongs to me. He is no longer part of the Thunder. He swore upon his flame to serve me. I have taken him as my right hand man. His life belongs to me. You understand what that means to take what belongs to the dragon prince?” His voice dropped to a low growl as they lowered their heads in reverence. Taking from the dragon royals was a death sentence. Dragons were already possessive creatures. And no one took from a royal dragon ever… and lived. “I understand the purpose of your group. However, I disagree with the secretive nature of it. The king should be aware of your existence. You want to be able to act independently from the kingdom and do your job by any means necessary. But you are not invisible and shouldn’t be treated as such. Your lives should be honored. And your burials should be recognized.”

Brian shifted Ryker over to Micah who took the unconscious man in his arms. “Let me start with this. Ryker belongs to me. He is no longer part of the Thunder. He swore upon his flame to serve me. I have taken him as my right hand man. His life belongs to me. You understand what that means to take what belongs to the dragon prince?” His voice dropped to a low growl as they lowered their heads in reverence. Taking from the dragon royals was a death sentence. Dragons were already possessive creatures. And no one took from a royal dragon ever… and lived. “I understand the purpose of your group. However, I disagree with the secretive nature of it. The king should be aware of your existence. You want to be able to act independently from the kingdom and do your job by any means necessary. But you are not invisible and shouldn’t be treated as such. Your lives should be honored. And your burials should be recognized.”

“What was that device you had on his neck?” Micah asked with a low growl noticing the slight red irritation on Ryker’s throat.

“It was keeping him sedated. This has never happened before, and we were trying to figure out how to move forward. Ryker has a memory full of secrets. And with him having a mate he was fighting staying with us. We needed him to be… quiet while we analyzed the situation.” Wendy shrugged unapologetically as she looked over at Ryker. “He is a very skilled warrior. And honestly, having him by your side… you couldn’t have picked a better dragon.” Wendy inwardly sighed. She didn’t want to hand Ryker over but there wasn’t anything she could do. If Ryker swore upon his flame to serve the prince there wasn’t a thing anyone could do. That was a binding agreement. And this meant he belonged to the dragon prince. In all senses… Ryker was his.

Brian smiled and nodded his head. “Now on that… we agree completely.”

“How were you able to replace us? We had the whole area enchanted.” Wendy asked.

“Well, you didn’t make it easy on us.” Jasper snorted. “Anyone else would have given up on the trail. But we weren’t about to give up on Ryker. He is part of the family now. Besides we were running out of time with the shadow that is approaching.” Jasper was curious if they would have information about this.

Wendy nodded and frowned slightly. “Our spies have reported a hidden army. We are not sure about all of the creatures, but we are certain there are several Unblessed fairies in the cloaked army.”

“Are you sure?” Alexis said in mild alarm. Unblessed fairy’s heading towards Elysium? They would be able to enter. This would be something they needed to be prepared for.

“Yes, we are certain. But there are other creatures there as well. We don’t know the purpose and we are just keeping an eye on them. They weren’t moving towards the dragon kingdom so they were just being observed. We have a scout keeping an eye on the shadow.”

“Thank you, Wendy. In the future maybe we can set up a better arrangement?” Brian watched as Wendy shook her head.

“It’s best that we remain a secret. We can work better this way.” Wendy watched as Brian’s lips curled down.

“You are protecting my kingdom. We can keep your organization secret, but we will honor your warriors. I’ll reach out to you again another time and we can discuss this in greater detail.” Brian looked up at Alexis. “Let’s head to Elysium. We need to warn them about the threat.”

Levi, better head back to Elysium. There is an army of Unblessed fairies heading towards Elysium. Aken reached out to Levi already knowing Alexis wanted her parents to know about this. Unblessed fairies were easy enough to deal with for Aken and Levi. The problem was what else was cloaked in that army.

We will meet you back there. We have information too. Levi’s voice echoed into his mind.

“Are we flying or teleporting? Just wondering because Ryker is DRAGon his feet.” Micah snickered and looked at the quiet room. “What? Come on that’s funny.” He looked over at Jasper who was chuckling quietly. “Thank you, Jasper. At least someone else here has a sense of humor.”

Alexis smiled but her mind and thoughts were spinning. The Unblessed were still fairies. Were they really wanting to rage war with Elysium? She wondered if they could come to an agreement between them. She was still their princess, and she didn’t want to kill them. And why were they with the nycrops? What was Erebus planning now? She glanced up at Aken who had his brows furrowed as he read her thoughts.

Erebus. It was always coming back to Erebus. A problem that they needed to deal with. The sooner… the better.