Roses Wither: Into the Darkness

Rosa

"You have missed two mornings with me." Bunic spoke as I was shown into his sitting room by his guard.

He didn't need a guard, so I watched in amusement as the guard bowed and walked from the room.

"Radu has been with me since my becoming," He nodded to the plate of food at his table, as he sipped from his goblet, "Sit and eat."

"Why did you have food brought up for me if you weren't sure I'd make it?"

"I knew you would eventually come around." He motioned to the food again as I sat at the table, "Now eat."

I dug into the eggs and began to eat, minding my manners as my father had shown me as child.

I was pretty hungry and I realized that the past two days that Chase and I had been wholed up in the bedroom, I hadn't eaten at all.

It amazing that I hadn't realized this until now.

"Because, you drank vampire blood," Bunic spoke low, "It will heal all illness, lethargy and starvation."

When I paused to look up at him, he gave me a dry smile.

"We used it on soldiers during war. We found putting it into their wine helped refuel them." I paused my chewing to look down at my glass of cranberry juice. The same cranberry juice he fed every morning I was here.

"Now you are catching on." He smiled around his glass that I knew wasn't wine.

"You tricked me." I glared at him.

"I helped you find your true identity." His eyebrows rose slightly, "I opened your senses."

"By feeding me blood." I scoffed and pushed the glass away.

"By opening you, you found your bound." He rested his glass on the table and stared at me.

"I had a mate." My eyes glossed over.

"Look where that got you," His face was stiff and stoic, "When I came upon you, you were writhing in pain from the bite, because he cheated on you."

"It doesn't matter now." I held my head high.

"No, because now you are bound to The Guard." He gave a nod at my glass, "Now drink."

"No." I scoffed again, looking at the drink pointedly.

"Can you get into his head?" His head tilted to the side in mocking question, "Like you can mine?"

"No." I bit my answer out.

"There is a reason why." He smiled, slow and sinister.

"Why would that be, Bunic?" I glared at him.

"I have assumed for some time, he is not a full vampire."

I gaped at him. I mean, it could explain the power, but if he wasn't fully vampire, what was he?

Chase

It was quiet in the halls this morning. Matthias was off and probably bother some other poor souls and I was left to myself.

I made my way to the church and sat in pew. I knew fornicating was a sin, and came to pray with every sin I made. This time it was overdue though, due to the fact that I hadn't wanted to leave my quarters at all.

Rosa was so beautiful, so pure and innocent. The way she was raised was different though, and she would never understand why I prayed to God, versus the Goddesses.

Yes, I believed in her strength and ability. Yes, I believed that the Goddesses gave my life a whole new meaning, but God had walked with me in my darkest hours and I could not do anything but repent for my sins these past few days.

"I knew that I would find you here." Nico's voice broke the silence, "Everyone always believed that you were the glorious victor after battles, meeting with a woman and bedding her straightaway, but no. You always came here."

He slid into the pew next to me.

"I have a lot to repent today." I spoke quietly, as a light smile touched my face.

I repented to God for my sins today but, when Rosa was involved, they were glorious sins.

"I always knew you would save my child," He spoke in a near whisper, "From the moment I met you, there was something different about you. You were honest and blatantly told me you had come to kill me. I followed you that night because of your strange honesty."

"I never expected the markings," He sighed and went on, "I have seen you in many wars and many battles. Some even against myself and my own army. You are victorious, fearless and deadly, but more importantly, you are immortal."

I turned to gape at him and he just smiled sadly, then turned back to the head of the church, "I have watched you fall to fatal wounds and bounce back up, only to continue on like it was nothing. I do not know what trickery it is, or what deals you have struck with God, but-."

"I have struck no deals," I told him, "I would never-."

"He has sided with the Goddesses. He has brought you a mate," He turned back to face me, "She awakens you. You feed from her and give her what she needs."

"Only during the exchange, I-."

"I didn't mean that," He cringed, "You feed from Rosa's energy. It is as if you were waiting for my child to wake you from whatever hold the priest put on you."

"Whether it be God or the Goddesses, someone made my daughter for you. They made her as the light to even out your dark. You are a man of war, she is a woman of peace. You were closed off and she was open. You suffered, to be strong for her. I am hopeful that you will save her."

"Save her?"

"You open her to her Goddess. When you are around, she opens freely, but when you are not-"

"She can't be true self." I spoke me the words as I thought.

"Exactly."

Aiden

Fuck!

My mark still burned from two fucking days ago. It even left a charred mark on my chest. What the fuck had she done?

I tried calling her, but her line was fucking dead, like she'd cut her phone off completely.

I could still trace the royal line in wolf's chain of command and she was there, so what the fuck was going on over there?

This situation was deep on my mind as I ascended the steps in my home, going to my old bedroom that was now my mother's room.

When my father passed six months ago, my mother left the Alpha quarters, to give them to me.

She had taken my old room, to my orders, and had just had my sister yesterday while I was out on a mission.

We'd just tracked down another pack of rogues. This one was on the fringe of Marcus's territory, but we diminished them, before they could encroach on the prince.

"Mom?" I knocked on the door and Nitala answered.

"Come in Alpha Aiden," She smiled but it was tight, "Little Brenna has been waiting."

"A girl?" I smiled at my mother, who was sitting in a rocking chair with the baby swaddled in her arms.

"Brenna Lee Walker." My mother smiled back, Her green eyes filled with tears, "Your father would have adored her."

"He would have spoiled her." I snorted.

"As will you, once you see her." Nitala told me.

I moved to my mother and baby Brenna, looking down at the tiny, fragile thing.

She had a head full of black hair. She was asleep, but I was betting that she had our mother's eyes.

"Hold her," My mother smiled up at me as the tears began to fall more consistently now.

"I-uh-" I'd never held a kid before, let alone a new baby.

She put the baby, my little sister, in my arms and began to weep.

"You will take care of her, always." My mother cried and when I looked at her, I saw that she was talking to Nitala.

"Mom?" I looked at my mother, who was so pale.

"Look at her, Aiden," My mother cried, "Look at your baby sister."

Nitala came to my side and opened her blanket, showing me what my mother meant by protecting the baby.

"She has the markings." Nitala spoke softly, "She will be the second guardian."

The markings were so clear on my baby sister's tiny body.

Where the moon eclipses, she will rise as an equal to protect and fight. The Guardians of strength and beauty. Two become one and fight as one.

"Wait! Was there supposed to be two?" I gaped between my mother and Nitala.

"No one knows." Nitala shook her head, "The prophecies are so vague."

"Talk to your Goddess and take it off of her!" I snarled.

"She will be Marcus's equal," My mother spoke through her tears, her head falling back as she cried, "My baby..."

I knew from her feelings of dispair, what this meant for my baby sister. Hell, I knew before I could feel my mother's desperation.

My baby sister would die, along with the entire royal line. She would spend her life being hunted and she would die protecting them, just like my father had.

"It's not fucking happening!" I handed the baby back to my mother as I shouted.

My sister started whaling and my mother rocked her as she cried, "It's the Goddess's will, Aiden. None of us our lives are promised in this war."

"There is no way to change her fate." Nitala spoke in whispers, "She will be strong, powerful and fearless. She will fight by Rosa's side."

"All of this shit comes down to you!" I shouted at our Queen, "All of this shit is your doing! You and my fucking father!"

"Aiden!" My mother shouted now, as she glared at me, "You may be Alpha now, but you saw to it that I am once again Luna of this pack! I will not stand for you degrading our Queen or talking about your father in such a manor! He loved us! They were not fated to be together!"

"But they still fucked and had a kid!" My chest was still on fire, but now I invited the burning pain. It was a reminder of what the royal family, my former mate's family, had done to my own, "An evil fucking kid!"

"Yuma was jealous," My Luna hissed, having calmed my sister, "He was angry and didn't understand why he couldn't have been given power. Things were different in the beginning. I know you've seen it, just as I have. They were a tribe, not shifters. Their feelings were human feelings and emotions."

"Aiden," Queen Nitala walked toward me, slow and predatorial, as her eyes silvered over, "Yuma was a boy when we became. He did not understand why I was drawn to Nico and he wanted me to fight the prophecy. Your father encouraged me to follow it."

"We all do something to hurt the ones we truly love," Her gaze narrowed, "Some do it unknowingly, like your father and I, and some do it on purpose, because they are angry, like you- who purposely hurt my child because you were angry with Taima and me for our secrets."

"That is between Rosa and I."

"You almost killed my daughter," Nitala glared at me, "You are lucky that I am a Queen of peace and do not believe that death is the way, because Nico and Marcus would have killed you instantly."

I looked to my mother. This was our Queen?How was she not the enemy?

"Nitala is not only our Queen, Aiden," My mother looked to the baby in her arms as she began to sob, "She is family. We have raised our children together for a reason. Rosa and Marcus are not only Nitala and Nico's children, they are our's too, just as you are their's. I also, still now, view Yuma as my son. I am just as guilty as any of them for what he has become, but you- you hurt Rosa on purpose. You wanted her to feel the pain."

"I didn't-"

"You knew." When her eyes met mine, they were fully the wolf, "You could have killed her, Aiden. If Nico hadn't been there and known what to do, she would have died. I cannot forgive that, even if you are my blood. She has been a daughter to me, and she will be linked to my blood, through my own daughter. The Goddesses chose Nitala for her love of all beings, and they chose me for your father due to my strength. I am a strong woman, a powerful Luna, and I have a strength enough even now, without your father, to tell you- you will train her in all the ways she needs to fight for her sister. You will train her unbiasedly, because that is how I raised you."