Her body ached. Pain invaded her every sense as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Taking in her surroundings she gathered that she was in Caden’s territory. The room was the same one she had used to clean herself after she had her meltdown. A sigh left her as she pushed away the blanket and got out of the bed. Thankfully her legs were steady beneath her.
Darkness loomed outside of the window and images of the weird dream filled her thoughts.
Grabbing a robe that had been placed on the end of the bed, she carefully put it on before she made her way out of the room and downstairs.
Soft voices came from the main room, but she didn’t heed them. Stepping out on the porch the cold air took her in its embrace. A weird sense of familiarity came over her as she saw the male hanging in the stone cell again. It had felt the same way, yet she knew it hadn’t been her that had felt the cold in that cell.
Slowly she lowered herself to sit on the porch steps. Making herself hiss as the wounds on her back, shoulder, throat and abdomen ripped a bit at the movement.
Looking around her she could tell the packs had moved here. The fires lit the decaying homes that now housed the pack members of Ben, Caden and her own.
Things have become more fucked up than she could have imagined. She had never expected Rafe to actually make them attack her and try to keep her prisoner. Fool. She would never let anyone take her captive again and she will make sure he will pay for what he tried to do. She will make sure to make them all pay. Especially Augo.
The wolf rose a bit inside of her as rage started to fill her every being, making her sit up straighter and hiss once more as she was reminded of her wounds.
A sigh left her as she looked down at her hands. Even more scars will now mar her body, but the one responsible will never recover from his wounds. Wounds that weren’t inflicted by any of them but by the Margyge.
The three words still ran through her head, but she had no idea what they meant with it. Yes she was a princess, but she wasn’t a queen, and by the way they had reacted when she threw Stef into the water, she had the feeling that help meant that they were there to help her. But why would they?
Malik told her of their nature. They only look out for themselves and they kill whomever comes into their waters. Yet, they hadn’t killed her or Caden. Only Stef.
A shiver ran down her spine due to the cold. Making a small groan come from her as the shiver was felt in her wounds.
Whatever the Margyge were planning, she knew she needed to find out. Which meant to go back to the lake and try to talk to them. How she was going to do that was another riddle though. The words they spoke to her were only spoken inside of her head. They never used their voice. She didn’t even know if they had one. Yet, she had to try. Rafe showed that he was done playing nice and she was going to need all the help she could get, even if it came from creatures everyone feared.
What was going to happen now?
There were so many questions left unanswered, and yet everything became more fucked up by the minute. Rafe was their enemy now, he always had been, but now he will do anything to make sure that he gets her back. He had proven that already when he foolishly tried to take her by force. They only won because of the Margyge and she feared what would happen if they invaded the territory. Rafe was the Regent. Borders don’t hold him back in his own country and if he decides to initiate a full blown attack, they might not be as lucky as they were at the lake. She knew that Caden would do anything to protect his pack and his territory, but staying here might not be the best solution right now. But then again, where would they go but here?
The world was divided in two and both sides wanted her head.
Whatever Freya had seen with her birth, it must have been a cruel joke. Why would the Norse gods do everything in their power to make sure she was born when they knew that she was going to be nothing more than hunted, tortured and used over and over. She may be the heir of her father, but with this war she doesn’t know what her role is. Is she truly nothing more than a vessel for the power that resides inside of her, waiting to be used by those above her?
There has to be more. Why was she the one who was going to decide how this war ends?
What was her true role in all of this?
She didn’t know and it frustrated her even more.
An ache started to form in her head. Too many unanswered questions dwell in her mind. If she didn’t find answers to, at least, one of them soon, she’s sure her head is going to explode. Rubbing her head, she let it hang as a sigh left her.
A breeze made her loose hair dance in the wind. Catching her eye as the image of the male with the auburn hair, hair like hers, appeared in her mind’s eye again.
Maybe she actually already had an answer, but it was only a half-answer.
His thoughts filled her head once more, like they had been her own and his name woke up a feeling inside of her she couldn’t quite place.
Kveldulf.
The name of the son of the youngest sister. A prince of the Ulfhednar and her uncle.
It couldn’t be real.
Caden had told her that Ulf had disappeared at the hands of Lycaon. Meaning that no one knew what had happened to him. But she had never met him, she hadn’t even known about him, so how could she suddenly dream about him and hear his thoughts?
It couldn’t be real and yet everything inside of her told her that it had been. Which makes everything way worse as she remembered what his thoughts were telling her. Dread filled her. How was this possible?
Things were becoming a clusterfuck and she needed to have a grasp on the here and now, but she couldn’t shake the dream. A dream of her uncle chained up somewhere by Lycaon. A dream that had, partly, told her the reason for the war she had been looking for.
Why did this suddenly happen?
What changed?
And more importantly, what the fuck does it mean that she learns about this now?
“What happened to Ulf?” She asked without looking at him.
His scent had filled her nose before her thoughts could drown her in questions and unknown answers. Why his scent was so strong and noticeable to her was beyond her, but she didn’t care about it right now. She only cared about what she had seen and what it could mean.
“No one knows.” Caden said as he walked down the steps and leaned against the rail as he looked at her. “We only know that he was taken by Lycaon. We don’t even know if he is alive.”
Before she could stop herself she whispered the two words that she was absolutely sure of. “He is.” He is alive. How or what the dream was she didn’t know, but she was sure that he was alive and that she had seen him.
Caden pushed himself off the rail as he stood straighter. “What do you mean?”
“He is alive.” She whispered again as she looked at her hands. “Barely, but his heart still beats.” Caden walked towards her, before he bended towards her. He pinched her chin between his thumb and index finger as he tilted her head to meet his gaze. “How do you know, Liv?”
“I saw him.” She whispered as tears started to gather in her eyes. “I don’t know how or why, but I did. It doesn’t make sense, but I know it was real and that he’s alive.”
Caden’s eyebrows furrowed as he held her gaze. “What did you see?” He asked as he released her chin and stood back up straight, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I saw him.” She spoke as she looked at her hands again. “Lycaon locked him up in some stone cell. His hands are chained above his head, forcing him to remain standing. His hair was the same as mine, but so long it reached his knees, like he hadn’t had a trim in many years. He’s so thin you could see his bones through his skin. If it hadn’t been for his breath and beating heart, you would think he was dead.” She spoke as she described what she had seen in the cell.
Caden didn’t say anything, before he marched back up the porch steps and went back into the house. Leaving her stunned.
Liv got up as quickly as she could, making herself whimper before she followed Caden back into the house and to the main room where Doc, Ben, Malik, Fare and Rev were standing around the table which now held a map of a landscape. It was the territory.
“What are you doing out of bed?” Doc immediately asked as he walked towards her as soon as she entered the room.
“She has seen Kveldulf.” Caden spoke before she could say anything. All heads snapped to Caden the moment the words left his mouth.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Ben asked as he leaned with his hands on the table, before he looked at her. “How!?” The alarm on all of their faces make her gulp.
“Sit.” Doc ordered her as he gently took her arm and guided her to the same chair she had fallen asleep on the day before. With the help of Doc she slowly sat down in the chair, making her hiss again. Malik and Fare were immediately at her side. The former laid a hand on her good shoulder as a sign of support. She gave him a grateful smile before she met Ben’s gaze.
“I don’t know how.” Ben stood straight as he crossed his arms over his chest as well. “All I know is that I did and that it was real. Please don’t ask me how I know that, because I can’t answer that either, all I know is that I do.”
“Ulf hasn’t been seen for many years.” Rev spoke up. “He disappeared at the hands of Lycaon before even Rafe was born.”
His mother, his father, aunt, uncle, cousin and any who may have been born after he was taken.
Cousin. He only had thought about one. He doesn’t know about Rafe- or her. He doesn’t know that the ones he feels through the family bond is the two of them.
An ache ran through her heart for the male she doesn’t even know. He knows he’s not the only one left, but he has been alone for too many years, feeling all those he loved die as the family bond was ripped away from him. All thanks to Lycaon.
“Liv,” She was pulled out of her thoughts as she looked at Doc who crouched down in front of her. “Please tell us what you saw, everything you saw.”
Liv told them the same thing she had told Caden earlier, but added the parts that still freaked her out. “I- I could hear him as well.” The others in the room had taken seats or leaned against walls scattered around the room as they listened to her. “What do you mean?” Fare asked as he pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against.
“He didn’t speak to me, but I could hear him. I could hear his thoughts.”
Doc immediately got up from his chair with big eyes, before he fell on his knees in front of her.
“What are you-“
“Min dróttning.” Doc spoke as he placed a hand on his heart. “You, min dróttning, are able to connect with our prince on a level beyond your consciousness. It’s called the Bloodcall. The sister and their true mates, and Kveldulf and Leif have been the only ones who could use it and only on each other. It’s a power that resides in the royal bloodline and for it to be awakened now means the shift of power has begun.” She looked at him with parted lips and shock clear on her face.
My princess.
My queen.
That’s what he called her.
Liv was too stunned to speak. She just couldn’t, because she had been called that before. A long, long time ago. Back when she was still living in Greenland.
“What are you up too, dróttning?” Liv looked up at her mother as she sat down next to her and looked at the beautiful white stones and delicate rope in Liv’s tiny hands. “It’s a surprise.” Liv said as she quickly closed her hands to stop her mom from seeing the necklace she was trying to make for her. Her mother chuckled before she kissed Liv’s head and got up from the ground. “I can’t wait to wear it.” She said before she left.
The word woke up more memories than one. Her mother had always called her that, until she suddenly didn’t anymore. She had just stopped using that word at some point and she had never heard it again.
Back then she had known what the word meant, but never thought too much of it. Now she barely knew her own language anymore, yet this word never left her vocabulary. Hearing it was like a slap to the face.
Her mother hadn’t kept her in the dark. Not entirely. She had to have known that calling her princess was a risk and yet she did it anyway.
“What did you hear?” Ben’s question pulled her out of her thoughts, making her close her mouth and blink the tears that had gathered in her eyes away. She dropped her head as she looked at her hands. “What did his thoughts tell you?” Ben pushed.
“Ben.” Caden’s voice was a warning. Could he have noticed where her thoughts went?
It remained quiet for a while before she was sure that her voice wasn’t going to give up on her.
“He always thought that Lycaon would use him to finish the war. He believes he is the reason why it started in the first place.” She spoke softer than she had wanted too. But between the pain and her emotions, she couldn’t do more.
“Why does he believe that?” Malik asked calmly.
“I don’t know. He- his thoughts- didn’t say. He only believes that the suffering he’s enduring is deserved for all the deaths he has caused.” She answered without looking at any of them. Her mother’s face kept running through her head. The careless smile she had sent a bolt of lightning through her heart.
“Lycaon hasn’t gone to him in years. He doesn’t know what is going on and that I exist. He doesn’t know why Lycaon hasn’t used him yet, but he knows he is connected to the reason why Lycaon has left him alone. To me.” She forced herself to continue to think about Ulf instead of her mother. But instead of his broken body in a stone cell her fathers face appeared in her vision, making her flinch. She couldn’t take this right now. Not caring about the pain she got up from the chair and almost doubled over in pain. Breathing through her teeth she stepped away from Fare who was reaching for her.
“I’m fine.” She said before she walked out of the room, leaving everyone behind as she went to the room she woke up in and closed the door behind her before the tears she had been fighting broke free and her legs gave out. Turning her into a sobbing mess on the floor.
Everything she had buried came to the surface.
The pain of loosing her parents, everything she endured, the pain of loosing Dawn and worst of all the happy memories of her home which caused her almost more pain.
Doc broke her with one word she had thought she would never hear again.
So, she cried, until she couldn’t anymore.
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