Juniper Santiago - Book 2 of The Santiago Series

Rose watched Draxlon as he tore his room apart, looking for something. She was even more confused by the fact that she could no longer get any kind of read on him. Ever since they’d arrived back in Atlantis and he helped her adjust to the environment, he’d been closed off to her.

Draxlon was clouded by visions that he couldn’t understand, and he wasn’t even entirely sure what it is he was searching for in his room. He just had a feeling that there was something in the room that would somehow help him to make sense of everything going on in his head.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Rose finally asked.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he replied.

She blinked, confused. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean just that. I have this feeling in my chest that won’t go away,” he responded.

“What kind of feeling is it?” she asked.

“A bad one; I can’t explain it Rose,” he said frustratingly.

“Is that why we left the Underworld the way we did?” she questioned.

He sighed, turning to face her. “No, that’s not why we left the castle. We left the castle because something bad is going to happen there.”

“And you made us leave my family behind?” she shouted.

“Rose, they’re going to be fine, but whatever’s about to happen would not have ended well for us. Don’t ask me how I know. Just know that I’m trying to keep you safe and right now, Atlantis is the safest place for you,” he argued.

“How would you know that? You don’t have any powers,” she countered.

“Who told you that I don’t have powers?” he asked, puzzled.

Her eyes widened. “You do?”

“I’m the Prince of the Sea Rose. Of course, I have powers,” he responded.

“What powers do you have?” she questioned.

Before he could reply, the door to his room flew open and a pissed off Akola stormed into the room, already glaring at the young Prince. He didn’t waste time in returning the look, and Rose knew that she had to stay on her toes.

“Where the hell have you been?” Akola questioned Draxlon.

“Since when do you think I answer to you?” he asked.

“I am your Queen!” she spat.

“I’m the Prince, and since I’m a pure blood, I have higher ranking over you since you’re not even the real Queen,” he countered.

She had him in a chokehold faster than Rose could blink. “I should’ve gotten rid of you a long time ago.”

“Is this you admitting that you’re a criminal?” Draxlon played as he barely got the words out.

“One day, you’re going to rue the day you were such a brat to me,” she instead replied, letting go of him.

“And one day, you will rue the day you framed my mother for crimes she didn’t commit and deny her people their rightful Queen. No one wants you here Akola, and the sooner you realize it, the better,” he stated.

“You father wants me here,” she said cockily.

He scoffed. “You’ve poisoned him somehow, so that doesn’t count in the slightest bit.”

“You have no proof that I poisoned him,” she laughed darkly.

“I don’t need proof. The people know their King, and they know that right now, he’s nothing like the man they know. They also know that he changed when you suddenly wormed your way into the castle. No one is stupid enough to think you’re not at fault here,” he clapped back.

Her eyes darkened while Rose watched on. “Careful Draxlon. Accusing the Queen of such horrid things is a crime.”

“You’re no Queen of mine, and again, I trump you in any situation,” he reminded.

“No one is going to listen to some troubled little boy over their Queen,” she said smugly.

He raised an eyebrow, amused as he crossed his arms. “Would you be willing to prove your theory correct?”

Her anger was visible to them as she swam closer to him, backing him against the wall. “Are you threatening me little one? It didn’t work out so well for your mother you know?”

“What did you do to her?” he growled, surprising her when his purple eyes glowed brighter.

“Don’t test my patience and you’ll never find out,” she said before swimming away.

Draxlon was about to follow after her, but Rose stopped him. “Let me go.”

“She’s not worth it Drax. Don’t let her get to you,” Rose argued.

“She did something to my mother! She has to tell me what she did,” he insisted.

“That’s not going to happen. She’s using this to goad you. Don’t let her win,” she pleaded.

He sighed in frustration, letting out a growl to match. “Why doesn’t my father care about my mother anymore? Why can’t he see that this witch has poisoned him against his people?”

“Maybe he’s hurt and he’s never dealt with losing your mom?” she offered.

“I’m hurt too, but you don’t see me making stupid decisions,” he reacted.

She gave him a small smile. “You’re also just the twelve-year-old Prince. When you make stupid decisions, they think you’re acting out.”

“I guess you’re right. I just wish my mom was here,” he mumbled, sitting on his bed. She sat beside him.

“Do you think she’s still alive?” she asked quietly.

“I know she is. I just don’t know where she is, but I can feel it in my gut that she’s still alive. Besides, my dad would be able to tell if she was dead. He just chose to replace her,” he said angrily.

She reached out to hold his hand. “I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to be this angry Drax.”

He was quiet for the longest time, holding her hand too, before he smiled at her. “She would like you.”

“Really?” she asked.

He nodded. “You’re very likeable.”

“Thank you. How come I didn’t pass out this time?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just knew that you wouldn’t though. I had a gut feeling.”

“Like the one that told you that we had to leave the Underworld?” she questioned.

“Yeah, something like that,” he agreed.

“Ok, so what now?” she asked.

“I could show you around?” he offered.

She smiled. “Why not?”

***

“And you’re sure nothing traces back to us?” Khal asked one of his men. The man nodded.

“Go and prepare for the move on the Werewolf Castle,” he then further instructed. The man nodded once more before leaving the room.

“Do your henchmen not speak?” I taunted.

He smirked. “Funny.”

“I thought so too. What’s it like out there?” I asked.

“It went well, even if it was weird to attack my own people,” he said, scowling.

“Stay focused on the bigger picture at hand,” I reminded.

“I know, but how are you ok with this?” he questioned.

I raised an eyebrow. “How am I ok with an idea you came up with?”

“You know what I mean. Attacking the Vampire Kingdom was nothing to me simply because I don’t know anyone there. Your best friend is the Vampire Prince, and now you’re on board with kidnapping the Werewolf Princess, who by the way, is a close friend of yours,” he pointed out.

I shrugged. “Bigger picture.”

“You really have no problem with pissing the closest people to you off? When the time comes, they may not be willing to help,” he argued.

“They will. They’ll hate me, but they’ll realize that helping is the only solution,” I countered.

“And what about June?” he asked.

“What about her?” I frowned.

“Come on Tero. Would she be happy with you doing this?” he elaborated.

“Are you trying to get me to back out or something?” I asked in confusion.

“You’ve told me about her, and you’ve told me about how she helped you overcome the dark part of yourself. I just want to make sure that you’re not risking being that person again, and thus risking having her mad at you when you finally get her back,” he explained.

“She’d understand that I needed to do what needed to be done,” I argued.

He shot me a dry look. “Really?”

“Do you want my help or not?” I frowned.

“Of course, I want your help, but things are different this time round Tero. You’re not only mated, but you’re actually married and most importantly, you’re a father. I want you to be the kind of father your sons that they can look up to,” he countered.

I hadn’t even thought about that. Without June and our sons here, it’s easy for me to lose sight of the important things like being the best for them, even though I strongly believe that being my older self will help with getting them back.

My brother sighed. “I’m just saying, I don’t mind taking on the ugly stuff. I want your help, but I also want you to be happy after all of this and pissing off your mate isn’t the way to go about things.”

“What about Saelone? Is she going to be ok with you taking on the ugly stuff?” I asked.

He shrugged. “She’ll be more accepting of it. She knows that I’m flawed in many aspects, and I’d do anything to get her back. Besides, we don’t have kids yet, so I can afford to still have a terrible image.”

“Your reasoning has always astounded me,” I chuckled.

“It also gets shit done, so just promise me that you’ll keep my words in mind through all of this,” he requested.

“I promise to try my best not to give into the darkness, but if need be, and only if need be, I will. I’m not letting you go through all of this alone either Khal. You’re just as important to me as June is,” I reminded.

“Does she know how stubborn you are?” he teased.

“She’s more or less aware,” I laughed, my mind travelling back to a memory with her involving my said stubbornness.

*FLASHBACK*

“Wait, I don’t understand something here,” she said, looking at one of the papers.

“What don’t you understand?” I asked.

We were sitting in my office, late at night because she couldn’t sleep. With her unable to sleep, I couldn’t sleep too because she was playing with my face. We’d only known each other a couple of days, and it was before the Monte Carlo incident.

“This statement suggests that you have assets in Brazil,” she responded.

“That’s correct,” I confirmed.

“Why would you have assets in Brazil?” she questioned.

“My grandparents live in Brazil, so I’ve acquired those very assets through them,” I explained.

She nodded before resuming with her aimless search through the papers until her face turned into a scowl once more. “What’s this?”

“It’s a paper,” I joked.

“To think there are people out there who are afraid of you. Of course, I know it’s a paper you genius Alpha! I mean what’s on it?” she questioned.

“Words and numbers,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. She flung a stapler at me and I had to really fight to hold in my laugh.

“Why do you have my name on the title deed to this place?” she asked.

“Because it’s yours,” I replied.

She was visibly confused. “How? When?”

“I bought it for you after deciding to make you my Luna,” I explained.

“Sell it,” she frowned.

I smirked. “Not happening baby doll.”

“What do you mean not happening? You can’t do this! I bring nothing to this mating and you go ahead and buy me a house! You have to sell it!” she huffed.

“I don’t have to do anything of the sort. I don’t care that you bring nothing tangible to this mating because heaven knows that just you being here is enough,” I argued.

“Stop being cute and burn this thing before I do,” she threatened.

“I’d like to see you try,” I scoffed.

Something passed in her eyes, like she was withholding something from me, but it passed as quickly as it came. “Mateo Diego Santiago, get rid of this property!”

“Juniper Lee-Ann Evigan, not happening,” I retorted.

“At least remove my name from it. You can keep it for all I care,” she bargained.

“The house is yours baby doll. Deal with it,” I shrugged.

“House? According to these measurements, the building is pretty much considered a mansion Mateo. You can’t do this,” she scolded.

“I can, and I did,” I pointed out.

“Fine! I won’t sign the papers, so it technically doesn’t belong to me,” she said, pretty chuffed wit herself.

I raised an eyebrow, amused. “Except for the fact that the property is yours, signature or not.”

“What? How?” she questioned.

“It just is,” I replied.

I laughed to myself when she screamed out, flinging the paper at me. “Why are you so stubborn?”

“The day you stop being beautiful is the day I’ll stop being stubborn,” I bargained.

She blushed before straddling me. “Why do I want to condemn myself to forever with your stubborn self?”

I wanted to badly to kiss her then, but I didn’t think she’d want me to yet, so I settled for putting my head in the crook of her neck, drowning in her scent before kissing her neck softly. The sound she made alone was enough to make me want to ravish her there and then.

“I don’t know baby doll, but I promise to be stubborn for the rest of my life,” I said.

She smacked my arm, laughing. “You’re supposed to want to be better for me.”

“What could possibly be better than consistency?” I argued.

“Touché Alpha Santiago, touché.”

***

At the time, I didn’t know about her elemental abilities, so I didn’t know that she could’ve technically set the title deed alight in seconds if she wanted to. She just didn’t because she didn’t trust me enough then, even though I’d instantly found myself trusting her.

It didn’t take me long to revaluate my assets once she’d agreed to be my Luna. I wanted her to have something in her name from our mating, and she wasn’t supposed to see those papers that night. I was planning on giving them to her as a wedding present.

But my impatient and snoopy mate just had to ruin my surprise for her.

I missed her, a lot. I especially missed her playful side. She has this ability of cheering up everyone around her, even when you want to kill her. I miss having her around to annoy me, and I especially miss her nonsensical humour.

“We’re going to get her back,” my brother said softly.

I’d even forgotten that he was still there.

“I know,” I murmured.

“I want to ask you something, but you have to promise me that you’re going to remain cool headed about it,” he said.

“What is it?” I asked, already wary of whatever he had to ask.

“Your dad; are you sure he’s dead?” he asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why do you ask?”

“Because there’s word that he isn’t,” he responded.

I don’t even know what it is that I broke as I flung it against the wall.

All I know is that I could feel rage searing through my veins at the thought of my father being alive. I may theoretically be the first werewolf ever created, but my life as Mateo Santiago is one that I hated for the longest time because of that man.

“Start from the beginning,” I demanded.

“I listened to you tell me everything about this life that you’ve lived as Mateo Santiago, and when you mentioned Juniper’s reaction to you telling her about how you buried rogues in space of your parents, it got me thinking since I found that I reacted exactly the same way that she did. Even though you told me the full story, it still didn’t make sense to me, so I sent out a team of my guys to do some digging, and there’s word of a wolf that’s running some sort of criminal circle underground and he’s rumoured to be some pissed off former Alpha,” he explained.

I hadn’t really gotten around to telling June about how my parents died, but I could remember how confused she seemed when I told her the little bit at the hospital. It was almost as though she didn’t believe me.

And my brother had the same look when I told him.

With him however, I told him the full story. He’d listened attentively and he hadn’t asked any questions, though I could understand why now that he was telling me what he was telling me. He’d gone and done his research without my consent.

I could remember the day that my parents died like it happened yesterday.

*FLASHBACK*

“Where is he?” my father roared.

Fifteen-year-old me was outside in a hailstorm, training alone, but I still heard him. From how angry he sounded, I knew that I was in trouble, even though I couldn’t understand why given the fact that I was in the rain, doing exactly what he’d demanded of me.

“He’s outside training,” I heard my sister tell him.

I continued to train, but kept my eye on the door, waiting for him to walk out. “MATEO!”

“Yes papa?” I shouted in the rain.

“Come here,” he demanded.

I ran up to him, damp as I was. “Yes papa?”

“You didn’t go to school today?” he asked.

“I missed school because I was tired papa. I went to bed late from training,” I replied.

He slapped me. “You were supposed to go to school straight from training. Who told you that you could rest?”

“I’m sorry papa. I will do better next time,” I apologized.

“Damn right you will! You will be the best Alpha there is, and I’m not expecting anymore slacking off from you! Who knows? You may even be better than me one day,” he taunted.

I knew I’d be a better Alpha than him any day, but I wouldn’t tell him that.

“I will never be better than you papa. You’re the greatest Alpha of all time,” I lied, but as usual he bought it.

“You’re right about that much. Get inside. We need to go over a strategy plan. We’re going to war,” he instructed.

“War?” I questioned as I followed after him.

My mother would undoubtedly have my head for the mess I was making.

“Yes, war. Dayton seems to be testing my patience, so I’m going to put him in his place,” he informed.

“Papa, is it wise to challenge Dayton?” I questioned.

His eyes darkened. “Are you saying that I can’t take him on?”

Zeus growled lowly at the clear challenge, but as had become the norm, I had to calm him down to avoid getting into it with my own father, even if my wolf was pretty much convinced that we could take him down, much less beat him.

“Never! I’m just asking if attacking him now is wise. The weather hasn’t been all that great. It could work against us,” I argued.

“What do you know about war? In fact, you should just stay behind. You’d be useless anyway!” he spat.

Zeus growled lowly in my head. “Kill him!”

“You know we can’t do that,” I responded.

“We have to kill him for everyone to be free of him,” he insisted.

“We’re not killing him Zeus!” I snapped before shutting him out.

With me being declared useless, I was sent to the borders to keep watch. I was undeniably pissed off, and that seemed to somehow make the weather much worse. It almost seemed like the weather matched my emotions, except that would be ridiculous, much less impossible.

They were gone for hours, and for some reason, no one could find my mother. Eventually one of the pack members at the borders said that they saw her follow after my father. We were all confused by that since my mother would’ve rather hidden than go into any battle.

Hours passed, and we’d heard nothing. By now, it had stopped raining with stormy clouds hanging above us. I had a weird feeling in my chest that I couldn’t describe, nor tell anyone else about.

“Matt!” my best friend shouted.

I turned to face him, confused by his presence. “What?”

“How long have you been standing here?” he asked.

“About twenty hours. Why?” I questioned.

“He made you stand out here for twenty hours?” he asked disbelievingly.

Instead, I ignored his question. “What do you want Orion?”

“I was just coming to check up on you since our parents have been gone for so long. Any idea what’s going on?” he asked.

I shrugged. “My dad’s shut me out of the link.”

“My dad too, which is weird. He never does that and my mom is panicking a little,” he admitted.

“She’s got nothing to worry about,” I lied.

He smiled a little. “You don’t even believe your own words.”

“I’m anxious Ryan. Zeus is unsettled and he’s been feeling like this for a week now, but he’s gotten worse over the last ten hours,” I confessed.

His eyes widened. “Do you think it means anything?”

Before I could reply, the skies darkened further before it felt like my chest was closing up. I didn’t know what was going on, until I found myself unwillingly shifted. Zeus released a feral growl as the Alpha essence took over us.

My best friend’s eyes widened before he too shifted, his wolf submitting to mine. I watched on in confusion as the rest of my pack members came running towards us in their wolf forms. My sister ran all the way to me before she whimpered.

Our father had been killed.

The fact that I was the Alpha made me aware of that much, but I didn’t know about my mother’s condition. I also didn’t know what the hell to do in that moment, but Zeus seemed to have it under control as he Alpha ordered everyone to stay behind.

“Where are we going?” I asked him when we took off.

“I just need you to trust me and not say anything,” he replied before shutting me out.

I chose to do just that. I let him take control and we were gone for days. With Orion as my new Beta, Zeus would check in on the pack through him. They’d already faced two attacks without us and we’d lost some pack members.

Something that pissed Zeus off.

However, he still didn’t go back home. Instead, we kept running for days without me knowing what for. Eventually we came to a stop outside a neutral territory where an attack had just occurred.

We searched through it and found a whole lot of wolves from different packs and what not, but we didn’t find my parents. We recognized some scents from the Litmus Pack, which is what had us guessing that this must’ve been the war my parents had come to fight in.

Except their scents were nowhere here.

“What now?” I asked my wolf.

“Now we go back home and have a funeral for them,” he responded.

“We have no bodies to bury,” I pointed out.

“I know that,” he said

“Do you? Besides, who’s to say my mother’s dead? Maybe she’s alive,” I pointed out.

“If she is, why hasn’t she gone back home?” he questioned.

“Maybe they’ve captured her or something,” I argued.

“Or maybe she’s dead,” he countered.

“Why do you want them to be dead so badly?” I asked him.

“They’re horrible people,” was all he said before shutting me out.

***

We went back home with the body of two rogues we found along the way and I managed to convince everyone that the bodies were too damaged to be recognized, hence the need to keep them wrapped up. I told them that I didn’t want anyone to be traumatized at seeing their Alphas like that, and they all went with it.

We had the funeral and buried the rogues while Zeus and I secretly continued our search for my parents. Aside from my getting the Alpha title, there’s no proof that suggests that my parents are actually dead.

And with what Khal was saying, I was only now beginning to go back to theory.

It would make sense if they were still alive, only because the one thing I held onto as my proof, could’ve very well been my birth right all along. I’ve been an Alpha my whole life so for all I know, that day when they disappeared could be the same day that my Alpha essence returned to me.

Like Khal’s returned to him a couple of months back.

It would also explain why I’ve never found any evidence alluding to the fact that my parents are indeed dead.

However, this trail of thought would definitely lead down a path of many other questions, mainly why they left in the first place, and why they stayed away for so long? What have they been up to and who knows if they’re alive?

“I can just see the gears working overtime in your head. You actually believe that there may be a chance I’m right,” my brother realized.

“I never found closure where my parents are concerned, let alone evidence that proves their deaths,” I commented.

“I knew you were too smart to just let this slide, but how come you haven’t done any digging around for them?” he questioned.

“To be honest, Zeus and I gave up after a while. For the longest time we couldn’t understand it, and we very quickly realized that we could be Alpha and concern ourselves with this at the same time. Our attention span couldn’t survive it, especially since we had so much to work on and defend back home. That’s when we decided to give up the search and just work on bettering the pack,” I explained.

“And you probably ended up forgetting about them,” he said.

I shook my head. “You never forget people who treat you the way they treated me. I just simply chose to stop looking for them and move on with my life. Everyone was visibly happier without them, myself included despite my cold demeanour. It didn’t make sense to then want to have them back.”

“I guess that makes sense. So, what now? Still want to ignore this new information?” he asked.

“We’re definitely going to follow up on it. We can’t have this be a distraction from the bigger plan in any way. By the time everything comes together, all distractions must’ve been dealt with,” I stressed.

He smirked. “It’s good to truly have you back brother.”

“It’s good to be back brother.”