Chapter 190. Meeting Mom I
Maisie
Soren’s hand slid under the slit of the green evening dress I’d chosen and he traced teasing lines along the skin of my thigh. "Old myths say that the Ridge is one of the places where the veil between worlds run thin."
He pointed at the highest point, which was a cliff so high, I knew not even a Lycan could survive the drop if they fell. It was like falling from the sky. "That point to be exact. They called it a gateway to the world of the gods. The humans believed climbing to that exact spot and making a wish could get whatever gods they serve to bestow it upon you."
My eyes got drawn back to that cliff, even as it disappeared in the distance, and for some reason, goosebumps erupted across my skin. "And did they? Get their wishes granted?"
Mercer made a deep sound of amusement in his chest. "It’s just a cliff, wildcat. It doesn’t grant wishes, but it does appear magical and one thing humans tend towards when they don’t understand something is hate on it or place it on a pedestal for worship. They used to worship us Lycans as gods in the beginning. Before they realized we were ’monsters’."
I took my head out of the window, settling back on Quinlan’s lap. His hands snaked around my middle, his mouth running up and down my bare neck in slow kisses, and that coupled with Soren’s hand under my dress nearly distracted me from the topic.
But then, I remembered the books still stuffed in my closet.
"And the beginning? What’s the origin story?"
Jericho and Mercer seemed taken aback by the question, but it was the latter who answered, "It is as it is in the history books. We are as much the children of the Moon Goddess as the wolves are. We were first, before them."
If there were less of them—us—now than there were in the beginning, while the wolves had continued to multiply, would that mean the Lycans might have displeased the Goddess... much like that novel I’d read, and maybe she too had turned her face away from them? Would that make them like a failed prototype?
It wasn’t until Quinlan paused where he’d been kissing my neck and asked, "You’ve been reading historical classics?" that I realized I was thinking out loud.
My cheeks burned. I’d been thinking about the damned book so much, during my nap this afternoon, I dreamt about worlds and gates and creatures that didn’t exist.
It was driving me insane, the curiosity.
"Maybe," I muttered.
Jericho’s hand drummed against the limo’s seat. "Every species evolves with time. For millennia, the full moon was the only time a wolf could shift. They also used to birth their pups in litters, in their wolf forms. They lived in the wilds. Now, they can shift at will. They give birth like humans do. They live in mansions and work behind desks, as opposed to the wild animals they really are. Some even prefer not shifting at all if they don’t have to."
Eyes of glowing amber seared mine. "Sometimes, evolution means becoming more. Other times it means becoming less. Other times, it means becoming something completely different, in the way there used to be dinosaurs and now there are birds."
Jericho didn’t often talk for long stretches of time, but whenever he did, I felt like a child at a table being schooled. It was sometimes aggravating, but it was also hot. Smoking hot. It surely didn’t help that he was dressed in a formal dress shirt, a tie and tailored pants.
He was the hottest teacher ever.
"Our inability to breed like we used to doesn’t necessarily make us cursed," he continued, oblivious to the thoughts I was having that involved wrapping his tie around my fist, pulling him down to his knees in front of me and pressing that sensual mouth of his between my thighs.
"Reproduction in our race has always been slightly more difficult for us, and down the centuries, some of us simply stopped being able to have children at all. Our ancestors called it curses because that was easier than accepting that we were changing. That’s all it is, malyshka."
I nodded, mentally making a note to chuck those books in the fire when I got back to the mansion. It was silly that I was even thinking about it at all.
The car suddenly halted and Richie called out, "We’re here."
When I stared out the window again, I immediately understood that the name ’Exile Queen’, wasn’t just a title.
What stared back at me was a ginormous castle. No. Not a castle.
It was a mountain.
It was a massive fortress that had been carved straight into the face of a mountain, as if someone had taken a pickax and cut through stone over and over again, and hadn’t stopped until a castle had formed from the roughly hewn edges. Towers rose from the rock like they had grown there naturally.
Even from this distance, I felt a stir under my skin that I couldn’t explain. A sudden sickness spread through my stomach and my skin turned cold and tight.
My entire body revolted at the structure, like something was screaming at me not to go in there.
At the front of the castle, guards lined either side of the gates. I recognized some of ours. They must have gone ahead of us. The other side were rogues. And in between them were Kisten, Ryder and Bastian.
And a blonde woman who stood in front of them. She had such intense blue eyes, when our gazes clashed, I felt it like a clang inside my chest.
My heart rate shot up to an unhealthy level and my vision began swimming. Was I having a panic attack? I wondered, forcing deep breaths in.
"May?" I heard Quinlan say behind me, so in tune with my feelings without me needing to speak a word.
Jericho leaned over, gripping my cheeks and forcing my eyes to his. "Breathe, malyshka."
"Fuck it. We’re leaving," Quinlan said. "We can have this meeting some other time. She isn’t okay. I told you it was too soon for them to meet."
They thought I was panicking because of her. Margaret Hunt. The truth was I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel some anxiety towards this meeting, but this was something else. It felt like I had a thousand bugs crawling up my skin.
"No," I managed, croaking like a dying frog, my nails curling into fists as I forced myself to calm. "No. I’m fine. I just need a moment."
Soren’s grip on my thigh tightened and he leaned in. "Are you sure? I don’t care about getting on Margaret’s good side. If you’re not okay with this, we’ll turn around right now and—"
"I’m fine," I said.
We’d been on the road for hours. They were doing this to protect me. I wasn’t about to chicken out because I couldn’t get myself under control. Plus, the words ’you are a disappointment’, kept ringing in my ears.
At the sight of their worried faces, I plastered a reassuring smile on my lips. "Jitters," I joked.
It must have been convincing enough because Soren nodded and got out of the car, walking around to pull the door open for me.
I took his hand and the moment my feet touched the mountain, that feeling returned, ten-fold. It felt like I was back behind the shelf again, standing close to that chalk and circle. Like something was aware deep inside me of the air around me.
I gripped Soren’s arm tightly. "Soren, I don’t... feel so good..."
My legs gave out and the world went black.