Aries

“Stop watching those salsa dance videos and come to train, Miguel,” Antlia said, her sharp voice breaking the stillness of the calm morning.

It had been two days since Varian met Aislynn, and the master was yet to make their way down together. Varian had come down only thrice in the two days and that had been for food. But none of us could ignore the strong mixing of their scents.

“Not salsa dance,” Miguel protested, pausing the video in the laptop he had brought with Varian's money. “I am watching flamingo dance.”

“Is that a type of dance?” Kaina asked as she laced her boots.

Blinking, Nash went ahead and peeked into the screen. His face morphed in horror. “You are watching flamingo dance. Literal flamingos dance.”

“What?” Antlia asked.

Against his protests, Nash turned the screen towards us. The picture of pink flamingo birds dancing was etched on the screen.

Kaina made a choking noise while Rhaze was sniggering in the corner.

Miguel scowled and turned the screen towards him. “I needed to vent out!”

“Vent what exactly?” Rhaze asked, controlling her laugh.

The ex-delta of Winter Pack pouted. “Varian does not have enough money.”

“For?” I asked. From what I saw, Varian's bank balance said he was pretty loaded. Loaded enough to lend some lesser packs or covers or tribes money in case of war or disaster and live happily.

“For investing in an army of llamas,” he said as though that made enough sense.

“An army of llamas?” I choked.

“Dude, you could have told me this earlier,” Antlia said. “I would have given you enough to buy even an army of alpacas.”

“Do it,” his voice came as he climbed down the stairs. “I dare you to do it, princess.”

Antlia shrugged. “Don’t listen to him, Miguel. I shall pay for an army of llamas.”

One was worse. Having the two interact was even worse.

“Why llamas?” Nash asked. “What did the poor creatures do to suffer by you?”

The twinkle in Miguel's eyes dropped for a second. He turned away.

“His mate, Kenna’s favourite skin was a llama,” Aries whispered behind me.

When we heard that, the previous light mood fled. Just in a second, Antlia looked at the floor as though the mosaic pattern was out of the world. Kaina bent down to re-tie her lace while Nash turned the screen towards Miguel and picked the bottle of water.

Rhaze cleared her throat. “Shall we go out to train?”

Kaina immediately got up and left. Antlia and Nash followed my sister out.

Aries looked as though he wanted to tell me something, but he too left after a few seconds.

Miguel focused his gaze on the screen but my ears told me he was not playing the video.

“What is it?” he asked tiredly. “Going to apologize? Say you're sorry?”

I shook my head. “I was about to say, Kenna must have been one amazing female to be mated to you.”

His lips were pressed in a thin line, but I could see then quivering. “She was,” he croaked out.

I recollected Cathara telling how he had lost his mate in a fire that was born from him. How Miguel would never forgive himself.

I took tentative steps towards him. Sitting next to him, I hugged him as best as I could.

This shifter had been ready to defend my honour, defend me when he barely knew me. He comforted me in those dungeons, somehow making sure I had a freaking smile on my face each time my body threatened to fall apart from Heat and Ethan tarnishing the mate bond.

If he could make me see light in those dark days, why can't I help him now?

“She would never want you to cry over her,” I said. “She might have wanted to build an army of llamas, but one of the alpacas is a bit too much.”

He sniffled. “She was an amazing panther. Her coat was the darkest shade of black I had ever seen. When she sees with those gold eyes of hers, By Amaris! She could be ripping my soul apart and I would gladly let her. People thought she had the temper of a gale, but it was not just the temper. She was the storm and the calm. She could turn my world upside down any second and I would thank her for it. She could be just smiling at me and I would worship her.”

I tightened my grip on him. As much as I could hear his love for Kenna in his words, I could feel it in his voice, in his body and the way his muscles tightened in pain.

We sat there for a while. Who knew? That the silence was a good friend and time the best medicine.

Since Varian and Aislynn were not here, Aries stepped in. When he did, my mouth became dry. I was hardly able to hold my ground against Miguel and Varian. The main reason for Moon to send Aries to protect his daughter was that he was one of the commanders of the Moon's army. His reputation and rumours were enough for me to squirm at the thought of him stepping forward to help me.

He paired Kaina with Miguel and Nash with my sister.

“Both of you,” he said, walking away from the beach. “Follow me.”

Shrugging, I followed the last Royal. He delved deeper into the bushes and thickets until we reached a region that bared the earth yet concealed by trees.

Birds chirped and the squirrels hoarded their nuts. Occasionally, a monkey or two jumped from one beach to another.

“Ant,” he called, pointing a boulder. “Meditate.”

She gave him a hard look. “I need to vent out, Aries. Not sit down.”

But the Warrior of Moon was not having any of it. “You will do as I say.”

“No,” she spat out.

“Yes,” he said calmly. “You need to know how to control your emotions, princess. I am not training a thick-headed warrior whose primary job is to fight. I am training the future Queen. The last descendant of Luna.”

She scowled but refused to move.

“You need to be strong in your mind, Ant,” he said quietly. “As a Queen, you can't afford to lose it each time something triggers or angers you. You can't allow your emotions to control you. You must be the master of them.”

Muttering colourful words, she strode towards the said boulder and plopped herself over it. She squatted and closed her eyes.

“Was that necessary?” I asked after a length.

“Yes,” he said, pinning me with his silver iris. “She is passionate, but it is that same passion many would kill her for. Until she meets her mate, she can never truly unlock her full potential. I don't know why Luna made the Royal line like that, but in a way, it is their curse.”

“I think,” I began. “I think that she did so because the power they are made to hold is simply too much for their soul. Only after it is balanced, can they have they have the strength to bear it.”

He nodded. “Apart from that, let’s see what you got.”

I should my head as I turned towards him. “No. I sorely lost to Varian and Miguel.”

He blinked. “So?”

“So?” I cried. “I will lose to you.”

“Afraid of losing?” he asked, a small smile of amusement playing on his lips.

Damn me, if that sight of his smile did not make me feel things it shouldn't.

I chewed my cheeks. “Not losing...”

I tried hard to find the words that suited what I felt, but I failed. My life mainly had facts, values and numbers. I had considered my mistakes and losses as my lesson while I worked in the lab. I rarely had to deal with feelings in West Pack. Now, I was an emotional mess. The logic fled me and all I was left with were my emotions.

“It's your pride as an Alpha, Lyra,” Aries said softly. “I would be surprised if it is anything else.”

I opened my mouth and closed it. I did not have pride fueling my veins in the past. I had curiosity and thirst to learn, to thrive and emerge as the best. I had never once cared about my mistakes, my blunders. If others laughed, it was their problem.

Where was that Lyra who never gave a shit? Where did she bury herself? Did that public humiliation Ethan put me through broke so much of me that I was actually hesitating to learn? Or was it something else?

I raised my head a little higher. “Let's start.”

Giving me a nod, he went and stood in the centre. Following his lead, I stood opposite to him.

He assessed me coolly. Then he swept his gaze over my body and cocked his head to his right. When he finished his visual examination, he looked in my eyes again.

“Begin,” he said, in a voice that I never thought he was capable of using. It was soft like the moon rays, that held back its harshness yet sure as the light it gave.

I could not afford to get distracted by his face that was too beautiful to be on earth, the sharpness of his eyes that made me wonder how I was not falling on my knees and his damned scent. He must have known how much affected I was by his scent.

Miguel had told me that these stars had the ability to hide their scent, their presence, their aura from others and reveal it only when necessary. If that was the case, why the hell was he allowing me to sense him, breath his alluring scent all the damn time? Their scent was their weakness. The stars next never allow anyone to smell them.

“Anytime today,” he commented.

I gritted my teeth as I snapped from my thoughts. Whose fault was it to distract me?

Despite the rage to prove this male wrong, I willed my mind to think.

I suddenly leapt and took advantage of the force the height gave me. But before I could strike, Aries was ready. What could his eyes miss?

He moved a couple of steps back and I landed on the hard ground on my feet. I rose my fist to hit him, but danced away and caught my hand. Before I could comprehend, he had me locked in his embrace.

Growling, I refused to give in that part of me that was in pure bliss. I jerked my head up.

That one second his grip loosened and I weaved my way out of his lock.

My hair whipped and sweat rolled down. I did not exhale the breath I had inhaled when Aries came. I barely had the time to raise my hands to defend myself.

Yet the blow hit my solar plexus and I landed a few feet away. I was too focused on his right arm that I failed to see his other. And by Amaris! The blow hurt. Not allowing those traitorous tears to escape, I got up.

The pain fled and vigour filled me. I was not going to allow this Warrior win.

“You have speed and strength, Lyra,” Aries said, wiping his brow with a towel. “Your moves were good. But you take a lot of time to think. You are afraid to give in your instincts. Something is holding you back. Your planning is good, your speed is good, but the element linking them, not so.”

I panted and gave him a blank stare. “You had me fight you for five hours straight. I have never done so much strenuous work.”

He shrugged. “You’re saying that's your best?”

I rose to my feet. “I never said that! I just said I need a little time to adjust.”

He folded his arms. “Alphas don't get time to adjust. Adaptation should be with them on every breath, just the way stubbornness is. A leader should find a balance between the two. You are lagging that.”

I gasped. “You-”

“I am right, aren't I?” he asked, a smile playing on his lips. “I have seen a lot of Alphas, Lyra. And many were far behind you. Anyone can be an Alpha, you just need to train yourself for that. I see a quality in you. Something that says you might be one of the greatest Alphas out there. You just need to find yourself.”

I lowered my head. “How could you know?”

“When time is a person who sits next to you and have tea with you,” Aries said. “You get to see a lot of secrets it has.”

A slight rustle was heard behind me. The light rise on her heartbeat announced before she could open her mouth.

“So that’s how you know how I steal the cookies Aqua bakes,” Antlia muttered. “Because you are a traitor and you best friends with time.”

Aries looked over my shoulder. “Who told you to come out of your meditation?”

Antlia gasped and strode towards us. “I have been meditating for five hours, Aries. How much more you want to torture me?”

The winds shifted and the life of the forest grew quiet.

“I am not a mere shifter, Antlia,” Aries said quietly. “Nor a mere star. I was one of the thirteen golden commanders of the Moon who was assigned to guard Amaris and Luna. Moon himself holds no power over me. I listen only to cosmos and no one else. You think I would not know what was going on in your mind all this time? You controlled your heart and your scent, masking it to a point where it was the perfect reflection of a meditation. But you could not control your brain's activity and I can sense that.”

I simply gaped at him. Say what?

“I know the calmness of mind when it meditates and the restlessness when a million thoughts run,” Aries continued. “Yours was far from calm.”

Antlia blinked at him before she turned and walked away muttering things which I was sure Aries would advise her on.

When he saw me, he rose an eyebrow. “What is it?”

I shook my head. “If my EEG machine ever fails, I just know where to find the alive version.”

Aries chuckled. “I can't sense everyone’s against your belief. It would cause me a headache if I do that. I can sense everyone's if I wanted to, but to the people I am close with, I don't even need to try. It comes off like second nature.”

“Have you ever sensed mine?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It was way too messy the first time I saw you, yet it had a clear centre. When time passes, I am pretty sure I will be reading your mind without realising it, like an act of breathing.”

My mind froze. What did he mean by that? Was he implying we would get close or he did not trust me yet? Just as the second it froze, it went to chaos.

When I pried myself from those thoughts, I saw him give me a soft smile that somehow seemed to have trapped the soft evening sunlight. His eyes were light as it gazed at me.

Just to get off the warmth that filled my heart, I blurted, “Breathe? What did you breathe in space?”

He blinked and chuckled again. “To appear normal on Earth, we have to mimic a few things.”

I nodded.

“Is there something bothering you?” he asked.

I walked away from the clearing. The steady footsteps behind me announced he was following me. He maintained a distance yet close enough to hear my whisper. How did he know to give me space and tell me he was there for me all at once?

I mulled over my thoughts. Was something bothering me? Yes, it was. Ever since I last spoke with Reece, I tried to locate Andrew and Brent. For some strange reason, I could sense only Brent.

“I…” I trailed off. “I have a bad feeling.”

Aries asked, “About?”

“Two members of my pack are coming here,” I said slowly. “Brent and Andrew. Reece said they angered Ethan and hence they are fleeing for their life. But… I tried to track them and I can feel only Brent.”

Aries hummed. “I am always around. Nothing can slip past me.”

“For some unknown reason, I don't trust them to come here,” I said, pausing my footsteps. “I have known them for twenty years and now I don't trust them to come here.”

“Why so?”

“I don't want to harm Ant in any way,” I sighed. “I… see Ant as a younger sister I never had and now, I don't know why, but I don't want these two near Ant.”

Aries nodded. “That’s Antlia's blood talking. She might not be aware of it, but it is a gift of hers. Luna's protection against people.”

I shook my head. “Not only Ant. Even near Kaina, Rhaze, Miguel or Varian. Why, heck, even near Aislynn or Nash.”

Aries nodded.

“What is wrong with me?” I asked. “How can the Alpha herself not trust her own pack members?”

Aries stopped and touched my forehead with two fingers. “May I?”

My breath hitched. As much as I don't have anything to hide from him, I did not want him to pry inside my mind. My thoughts about him, my idiotic feelings towards him was something I wished to hide from him until the end of time.

“I-” I hesitated.

“I will see only what you allow me to,” he whispered, his voice melting my insides. “I won’t pry into anything else.”

Did I trust him so much or was it the reassurance in his voice that made me nod, I would never know.

The next second, I felt a soft nudge in my mind that had me gasping. My eyelids fluttered closed as he pressed on more.

My thoughts were chaos. The most prominent thing was the warm feeling that was racing through me. A feeling I never wanted him to know.

But he ignored all of it. Brushed it aside, giving me the privacy he promised he would.

Out of it, he picked the day I was humiliated in from if my pack. The harsh words and the kicks that somehow broke me.

If he had poured a bucket of cold water over me, it would have hit me with less impact. This was something I wanted to forget, lock it in the deepest of my mind and never think about it.

Why was he bringing it all back again? I like to compartmentalise my thoughts. Forget some, cherish some. Bury some so that I would never even have the memory of having that thought.

He released my mind and I would have called down gasping if it weren't for his arms that were holding me tight.

“Let me tell you one thing,” he said after my breathing became normal. He released me and walked a few steps away. “If there was one thing I learnt from all these years of mine, is that you should never lock a part of your past behind. Embrace it all. The past made you. Built your piece by piece. How could you think of building a castle if you are missing a few bricks?”

I lowered my head, preventing the tears that were on the verge of falling. “What if I don't want the castle to be perfect? That pack tore me down, Aries! I was a great scientist, hailed by everyone. Even Alpha came to me regarding any problem. I headed that science stream. I found the tech to keep the pack safe. You saw how they repaid me! They treated me worse than a rogue! My own brother kicked me. The same brother who carried me on his shoulder when I was a baby. The brother who is me like his daughter than his sister.”

Aries stood there calmly. Not a single reaction was visible on his face. He folded his arms and stood more comfortably.

“He threatened to kill my mother,” I sobbed, breaking down. “Ethan killed my father for standing for me. He murdered my best friend for speaking up for me. All because like an idiot I asked him to give me a chance. A chance I knew I would never have. He threatened to hurt Rhaze. Took all my life's work.

“Everyone I helped spat at me,” I continued. “They scorned at me. Made me wonder why I should live. How could they place me on the top and push me away? I did my best to help every one of them. They called me their daughter, their sister, their friend. But when Harper came, they called me a liar, a mate stealer. Called me someone who came between the bonds Luna gave. Banished me. What had I done to deserve that?”

I fell to my knees and gasped for air. My heart thrashed against the bony prison of its confinement. For one so in control of herself, I did not know what was coursing through me. Was it rage or hurt? Despair or hopelessness?

I did not know when, but I had begun sobbing but tears were trailing down my face. My body shook and trembled. I could no longer support myself. Before I could crumble, Aries stepped forward and held me.

“Are you happy?” I asked after my sobs died. “Happy that you saw me cry?”

“I am,” he answered. “I am happy that you let it all out. You might feel like shit now, but tomorrow, you might feel better.”

I sniffed. “What would you do? What would you do if it were you?”

His grip on me tightened. “I can never see myself in that position for stars are not blessed with mates. But if I was there, I would not mind going to the dungeons for massacring a pack. I would have given in to rage and killed them all. Down to last. Burn them with fire. Perhaps I might regret it later, but I would have never let them harm you.”

My throat dried. “What do you mean?”

He inhales deeply as though he was inhaling my scent. Like my scent was soothing him like his soothed my soul.

“You went through something no one deserved to go through,” Aries said. “I rarely think Luna is wrong, but if I meet her, we both are going to have a long talk about pairing you with that asshole.”

I laughed. “I bet she has her reasons.”

He snorted. “I will still have a very long conversation.”

Footsteps came closer and a familiar scent hit us.

Before he could see us, Aries calmly removed himself from me and stood a few feet away.

I quickly wiped my face and stood up. I turned so that he would see my back and not my swollen eyes and puffy face.

“Finally, Varian and Aislynn came down,” Nash panted. “Kaina and Rhaze cooked barbeque together and it smells amazing. Wanna come?”

Aries gave him a dry smile. “Who wants to miss barbeque?”

I know I said I might update this weekend, but the train journey was two hours and I had an amazing time writing.

Until next update,

~Quill