Unraveled

London:

I ran a hand through my hair, "I just don't know what the hell those elders were thinking when they started this nightmare."

He scoffed, "spineless, stupid, dumb, and ambitious. Those men were just power hungry."

True. Very true.

"It kind of makes me wonder just how much ancient shit they've gathered. The book of damned was sealed away in Luna's temple and required pure blood to be offered in return for the book to answer to you. Who the hell has a direct connection to Luna–minus you? Did they sacrifice?"

Things were escalating quickly, and a lot of things were not making sense anymore. With the discovery I made, I realized things had eaten much deeper than I could have ever imagined.

"Elders are meant to protect, goddamnit. And not ruin the peace we shared. Even if wolf hunters were taking out wolves, there's nothing a little confrontation with the human leaders won't solve. I knew they were all shit; I never knew they'd be so darn stupid." I groaned, heaving in frustration.

"Do you want to know why they want to kill you?" Fuyu's question was out of the blue.

"Why? Because they want my throne?" I rolled my eyes at him.

Fuyu raised his head, looking me dead in the eye. His red eyes glowed with dark embers. "Look into my eyes; tell me what you see."

It felt like he was hypnotizing me with the red eating deep into my head. Mist covered me as I saw flashes of a temple in ruins and a large beast repelling a big black wolf. The wolf morphed into a man who had black hair covering his face, and just when I was about to look deeper, it stopped. I was pulled back to reality.

"What the fuck was that, Fuyu?"

He sighed, "By my connection to Luna, I share in her feelings and power. What you saw is what is stirring within her. Something very bad is going on, and Luna is trying to tell me about it. She's trying to feed me information, but every time I look deeper…" He paused, exhaling a shaky breath. "... I-I don't understand how it affects me. It makes me feel like I'm losing myself. She wants us to fight, but at the same time, she doesn't want us going up against it–"

He cut himself off with a heavy sigh. Seeing Fuyu look so bothered and confused was terrifying because he was the strongest creature I knew. The white conqueror, and if that was fear and hesitation that I perceived from him, then things were really about to get extremely dark and stormy.

"I'm stubborn, and I fight because I know I'm supposed to. I wasn't created to be friendly; I was created to keep fighting. I'm a killing machine for a reason... both of us actually." He moved away from me.

"While you were unconscious, I've been patrolling the woods, trying to source out any more clues and at the same time keeping an eye on Mathias. He's been having nightmares; someone has been trying to communicate with him, but his soul is fighting off the growing darkness. A connection to the darkness that has been awakened by someone has been established forcefully with him."

I furrowed my brows and gunned him with serious eyes. "You mean that–"

"Yes. The man who approached the council is no ordinary creature. He was a man cursed to remain a vile beast by Gaia, Tiresias, Luna, and other gods. He was sealed in an ancient temple, and someone has purposefully awakened him. He knows a generation tied to Luna has been kept…" He paused, knitting his brows before raising those red eyes to stare at me like he had just pieced together something serious and dangerous: "This is really fucked up, London, because he doesn't want you; he wants me."

I paused, straightening my position to have a better look at his heavy-breathing self. "What are you talking about, Fuyu?"

"The wolf whisperer, Salvatore, said he was hired to kill me, although he never stood a chance anyway—but he wasn't trying to kill me. He was trying to kill your consciousness. It was you he was trying to kill. Salvatore and the others might have hired him, but judging from how skilled he was in establishing that type of link without a third party, he was probably approached by the mystery man and offered a better deal."

"Third person?"

"London, there are certain requirements needed when trying to make a wolf submit."

"Rituals. You've said it before."

"Yes. Now when trying to force a wolf to submit, remember what I told you about the link if the submission fails?"

I remembered very clearly. I nodded, and he hummed.

"For most whisperers to keep their lives, they usually force a connection that involves a third party, so when it fails, since the connection needs to take something, it takes the third party. It's an old practice in which whisperers used their slaves."

I chuckled, overwhelmed by the depth of what I was hearing. "So why didn't he?"

"He probably isn't very into the old arts."

Something struck me in that instant: "Or the mystery man was standing somewhere observing us. He probably was watching how you'd react and was noting it down."

"Now you've caught on." Fuyu said, glad that I now understood his worry.

"Fuyu… What's the ritual to make you submit? Since things are this serious, I should know, or don't you think so?"

Fuyu licked his paw. "What do you think it is?" He arched a brow at me.

What did I think, huh? "Candles and shit?"

He rolled his eyes at me, "it's easy, London; just create a connection with me on a full moon, offer me meat, and ask me nicely."

Wait, he was bluffing, right? "You're joking?"

He sneered, "Do I look like I'm joking?"

I face-palmed myself, "that's the ritual? You, the hot-headed Fuyu? That's it? No blood, no weird circles, and no incantation?

"Sadly, the only blood would be from whatever was killed to offer to me. If I accept their offering, I will submit."

I could not believe my ears right now.

"So what's the plan? We have the book of the damned that he wants, and it won't be long before he comes after us.."

"Indeed. The book contains all the information on wolves. Their genetic structure, every species, and what can affect it. What could make or mar... what could empower, and what could destroy? It shows our relationship to magic and everything you can think of. If he's trying to make enhanced wolf species', don't you think he needs it?"

"I know, Fuyu. I'm asking what we can do to stop that."

He leaned back to scrutinize me. "We need to gather heightened defenses. Va'dneuver, Killian, Mendez, Reece, and Cans—every single person who has sworn submission to you needs to be made available to me. They're going to have to be trained to levels they've never seen before, and I'm not only talking about physical training; I'm talking most importantly about mental training."

I understand very well, "he'd try to get in their heads."

"Exactly. We also need to build their resistance to a few of the flowers that we know of, like Orkan and Josper, while the both of us try to hunt down the asshole."

"Reece hasn't reported back yet. He should be back anytime soon." I sniffled.

"Also, we need a gifted healer, seer, and wolf whisperer, and I know just where to find one." Fuyu said.