The Truth May Not Set Everyone Free

Amillia wakes up in a panic, sweat all over her body and she’s breathing hard. For a moment she doesn’t even remember where she is. Then everything that’s happened hit her all at once, and the aches from the night before all come back.

She goes to get up to go to the bathroom and notices that her leg is plastered up, so, yeah, she’s assuming she really did break a bone, or more, and that whoever is the medic around here happened to have worked on her while she was knocked out. She wonders how long she had been asleep for, but this place doesn’t have any clocks everywhere, which is kinda annoying. Who doesn’t own a clock in this world dude?

Somehow Amillia hadn’t noticed that her arm is also in plaster until she tried to set up in bed. Now she’s really assuming the Dr came and she’s been out for a long time and that they must have given her something really good for pain or something along that affect for her to not have noticed that she’s been all bandaged up, or to wake while they done it. These people got some talent. She likes it! Maybe this is where she should have come to when she had hidden out for seven years, but then again, she didn’t even know this place existed until a few days ago.

This house is quiet, way too quiet to have seven people all staying in it, and Damian and the brothers not too far off. There’s no way she’s laying in here hurt and all that stuff and both Damian and Seth are out and about, something has to be going on. All she wants to know right now is how her sisters and Renee are doing, especially Renee

Walking with her leg plastered is something that Amillia hasn’t ever experienced before, it’s uncomfortable and makes the pain worse. She’s decided that the first chance she gets this crap is coming off of her leg. She refuses to be this vulnerable with the Wyatt’s looking for her.

Amillia walks out of her room and into the living room that’s joined with the kitchen. It takes her a minute to register there’s only one person in the cabin, and that’s Khalil. It’s a weird scene she’s witnessing considering ever since they found Sonja, Khalil hasn’t left her side, and yet, here he is, setting at the island that separates the kitchen from the living room, alone.

“Ummmm, where is everyone?” Amillia asks, breaking the silence of the building and successfully gaining Khalil’s attention to her presence in the room.

“Helping the alpha here with something,” Khalil answers. His answer was short and to the point. He doesn’t seem too interested in having a conversation and he’s looking at Amillia as if she’s some weird specimen that he can’t figure out.

“Why aren’t you out there too?” Amillia asks.

He scoffs before answering, “Because they wanted someone to stay back. Sonja and Renee are still out of it, but Natalia is awake and helping with the others.” He states, not trying to go into more details than necessary.

And here Amillia had thought that the two of them had gotten over their indifferences and could maybe possibly end up being friends at some point. After all, he is Sonja’s mate, it’s just whether or not Sonja will actually accept him. She doesn’t feel the mate bond as he does, so her decision is based solely on her own thoughts and feelings. Maybe that’s what’s bothering Khalil, Sonja’s current state and a hanging rejection.

“Oh,” Is all Amillia still not moving from her spot. “How long has it been?” She asks.

“Not even a full day yet.”

Amillia walks closer to the island and walks around it to the opposite side of where Khalil is setting. She looks at him for a moment considering what in this world is making him act all cold and standoffish as if they haven’t just gone on one hell of an adventure.

“You know Sonja is going to be okay, right?” Amillia says, “We’re not that easy to kill, and who knows what all’s been done to her while she was locked up or whatever

Finally, he looks up at her, cold anger in his eyes. “You know she has a wolf?” Nope, she sure didn’t, and that news made Amillia gasp and the look of surprise appears on her face.

“Ummmm,” Amillia starts to say, but he cuts her off.

“Seth told me what all had happened to her while she had been locked away Amillia,” he tells her. “he said not only was she starved and beat, but they had raped her, she wore nothing but rags, and slept on the cold concrete ground while being chained up. Cole would inject her with something every day, he said he wasn’t sure what it was though.”

Khalil spit all of that out in disgust and taking Amillia back by surprise. She isn’t quite sure why she’s shocked to hear all of this, she knows Cole and what he’s capable of, and can only imagine what he’d allow anyone under him to do to torture someone as well. It’s un-telling what all Sonja has truly been through being captured by those assholes.

“She’ll be okay Khalil, she’ll wake up eventually, we’re special that way. We’re fighters, it’s what we were made for. Our bodies aren’t invincible though, it takes a little bit of time to heal, but it will happen as long as we’re not dead, and she’s not dead.” Amillia states trying to make him feel a little better all while starting to have some questions of her own form in her head.

“What’s the deal between you and Seth anyway?” Khalil asks, “Apparently him and Damian don’t get along, and if he had been on what happened to my mate then Damian won’t be the only one to not like him.”

Oh boy, he sure didn’t waste time in asking the more complicated questions. She had only ever told this to one person before, Damian, and it’s not something that has been discussed in detail. That had all happened at a more confusing time in her life. She is also well aware that it is something that will have to be discussed fully at some point in time, it’s not a topic that can be avoided.

Khalil doesn’t like her silence at his question. It angers him that she’s not more willing to just tell him the truth about the situation when he had just told her everything he knows. Khalil is starting to question his decision to trust her to begin with, once again.

Amillia just takes an exhausted breath; it took more energy walking in here than she expected it to. “Khalil, Seth isn’t from this world, he’s from the same world as Renee,” is what she tells him. That still doesn’t answer his question, and the look on his face is telling Amillia that he’s not amused either.

“Look, it’s a long story how I know him, and I don’t want to get into this just now, not yet anyways. I trust him with my life though I highly doubt that he would do anything to Sonja, in fact hadn’t he been feeding her and doing all he could for her without Cole knowing it while he was there?” Amillia answers.

She does trust Seth. She’ll always trust Seth. No, he couldn’t just let Sonja go free, even if he already knew who she was, it would have been impossible without tipping off the Wyatt family that he had really not been on their side. That would have been a death sentence, and she’s not sure what exactly he had planned, but she knew he wasn’t stupid enough to get himself killed either.

Khalil still doesn’t trust the vagueness of her explanation. She has still not answered the one simple question that he had asked. Maybe he should try a different approach.

“Do you know that he’s the Lycan king? He rules all the werewolves here and is said to be trying to rule and unite all shifters. Apparently, he’s very well known.”

Nope, that’s not something that Amillia had been aware of. When she had first met Seth, he was a leader, but of a very small band of followers. They had been the first people she had run across when she entered into the world that’s known as Mystethikal. She knew then that he was meant for more, and that’s also the time she met one of her great-aunts as well, which shocked the shit out of her. She was nowhere used to being liked by so many of the goddesses.

“No, that’s something I did not know. Khalil, I haven’t been involved in the magical world in seven years. Once I left Mystethikal, I took my kids to Damian and left. I had too, by that time the fates had already cursed us, and we couldn’t be around each other for more than a few minutes, if even that.” Amillia answers.

‘Well, at least she’s being honest about that much,’ Khalil thinks to himself, but he still wants to know how she and Seth know each other, or more like who they are to each other.

“Did you know he’s been working under Cole for the at least the last six years, that’s how he gained the power in this world that he has. Cole helped him to gain the title of Lycan king in this world.” Khalil says, his eyes turning black showing the irritation that his wolf is feeling.

Khalil has known about Seth’s existence for five years, after his visit to their pack to inform Khalil and his father that he’s the king now and all werewolves are to report to him. He was cold and seemed to be distant and emotionless while he demanded that all werewolves be under his command. He killed ruthlessly too, anyone who disagreed with him he killed on the spot. He didn’t give anyone the chance to go against him, and it couldn’t have made Cole any happier. Khalil shares this information with Amillia too.

“Now, tell me he doesn’t seem the type to have put Sonja in the condition that she’s currently in!”

For the first time Amillia faulters on backing up Seth. Her own blood running cold learning that for the last six years that Seth has been working with Cole. After everything that the man has done Seth actually chose his side. Is all of this a trick? Does Cole know where they are now? Is everyone in trouble.

Without thinking anything through Amillia starts to look through the kitchen for something very sharp, and semi long. This cast has got to go. She finds a very sharp serrated butchers’ knife in one of the drawers and cuts the cast off of her leg. The one on her arm doesn’t bother as much, but if she’s going to find Seth and figure out what the hell he’s up too then she’s going to need both of her legs.

Her actions shock Khalil, “What are you doin?!” he asks. They may not be the best of friends, but neither Sonja nor Natalia will forgive him if he is the reason that their sister does something stupid and gets herself hurt.

Amillia ignores him. Her blood is boiling. The more that his words resonate in her head the angrier she becomes with the whole situation.

Her leg surprisingly feels a whole lot better outside of the cast, as if it can breathe. She can tell that it’s already mostly healed, not much longer and it’ll be as if nothing had ever been broken.

Amillia, knife still in hand, goes to walk out the door, leaving Khalil in an awkward predicament. He can either go with Amillia and make sure she’s not going to get herself killed, or he can stay and make sure that no matter what Amillia does or what goes on outside that Sonja and Renee stays safe. He chooses the latter.

All of the shifters watch Amillia with fear and amusement. They have no idea what’s going on, but the look of anger and determination on her face is enough to intrigue them all. They all fall in line behind her, wanting to see whatever show she is about put on, although some of them are secretly watching to make sure she isn’t about to attack another pack member.

It doesn’t take her long to find the leader of these people, along with Seth, Damian, and Natalia. They are outside of the alpha’s cabin talking. Seth had just shook hands with the man when he suddenly feels himself being thrown into the cabin walls with a knife to his throat. He looks down and is surprised to see Amillia standing there, very pissed.

“What’s going on?” He asks, not sure exactly what to say to defuse this situation considering he hasn’t a clue as to what’s caused all of this.

“Cole! You were working with fucking Cole!” Amillia says in a very loud, very shaky voice. The hurt and anger radiated off of her in waves enough to suffocate anyone who dared to get near her.

Now it all makes sense, but how did she figure it out? Who would have told her that he had been working for Cole? This isn’t a good situation and he’s almost certain she’s going to kill him.

“Give me one good reason not to slit your throat here, Lycan King,” she spat the last few words at him as if they were dirt and meaningless. The disgust on her face is more than he can bear.

“Amillia, there’s more to it than that, I can explain everything to you, but not if you kill me!” He says, hoping that maybe she’ll at least consider listening to what he has to say. “Amillia, I swear to you that’s it not what you’re thinking, you should know better than anyone I want Cole dead!”

Now Seth’s own anger is starting to flare up. For four years the two of them had been inseparable, they had gone through so much together and had been forced apart by something beyond their control while they both suffered a great loss as well. Seth did what he had to do to make up for everything that Amillia, and himself, had went through.

The leader, Jarod, clears his throat behind Amillia since she hesitates and has yet to kill Seth.

“Maybe we should all talk about this some place a little more private.” Jarod states. “I, myself, would like to know what’s going on. We’ve avoided the Wyatt’s for many years, and I do not appreciate one of his workers being inside of my territory and endangering all my people.”

Reluctantly, Amillia let him go for the time being, but she never took her eyes filled with sadness and hatred away from him. The alpha of the bears walked the four of them back to the cabin, upon Amillia’s request. If they’re going to have this discussion and get everything out in the open, then they might as well do it there so Khalil can be involved. She’s not willing to have a repeat conversation about everything that needs to be discussed.

Once inside of their own cabin, Jarod turns to Amillia, “What’s going on? You just vouched that everything would be fine the other night and now you’re trying to kill one of your companions?”

Amillia scoffs, “If I wanted to kill him then he’d be dead,” she muttered.

Khalil walks back out of the bedroom where Sonja and Renee still lay sleeping. He had heard the voices and it peeked at his curiosity.

“What’s going on?” He asks as he enters the living room.

No one says a word, but Amillia is glaring daggers at Seth, so it registers in Khalil’s head that she actually took what he said to heart and now she’s pissed off. She must have caused in a scene in front of everyone else, because the alpha of the bears doesn’t look amused any in the slightest.

“Amillia, I’d never actually work for Cole, you should know this, not after what he did to us. Fuck him!” Seth starts speaking as he starts to pace. “I wanted to take over and help the shifters that he had imprisoned, I was slowly liberating them and gaining their trust. The plan was to have the shifters rebel against Cole so that the Wyatt family no longer has a hold on them in this world.”

“Bullshit!” Khalil says, “I watched you kill shifters myself; how can you say that you were trying to unite and protect all of us?”

Everyone in the room turns to look at Seth, waiting for his response. “What you seen was me trying to gain the trust of Cole so I could destroy his shit from inside instead of getting myself killed by the Wyatts!” Seth answers through gritted teeth, now he knows who put the doubt into Amillia’s head. “Cole would have never even thought about trusting me if I hadn’t of proved it to him, and if I died then my plans most definitely wouldn’t have worked. I knew Amillia was in this world somewhere, and I knew she would come back from wherever she had been staying eventually. I had to make sure everything was ready. She’s going to need an army backing her and her sisters because you best believe the Wyatt’s, hell even Carrick, has an army ready to fight them. Are you willing to set back and do nothing and watch your mate die?!”

Seth was so angry he spat the last bit of his speech out at Damian. But no one missed the question that was asked at the end of it, which made Khalil look at Amillia, now he knows why she wouldn’t answer it, this situation is even more fucked up than he ever thought it could be.

Jarod is standing still, watching everyone’s reaction, and trying to keep up and figure out what’s going on. It’s all alluding him though, he hasn’t an idea what any of them are talking about.

“Is that why you didn’t want to tell me what Seth is to you and how you know him?” Khalil asks. Then something else clicks. “That’s how you knew that Sonja wouldn’t feel the mate bond with me as well!”

“Yes, and yes,” Amillia says. “The first isn’t none of your business, and the second I’m not so sure about anymore… If Sonja has a wolf, somehow, as you claim, then maybe she will feel it, who knows,” Amillia shrugs as if it’s not a big deal.

To her, it’s not. Her past and personal life is not any of anyone’s business, and now that she knows there’s more to Sonja than what anyone realized, it’s not a big deal. If she feels a bond with Khalil, then yay! She’ll be the happiest baby sister ever to know that her sister is truly, madly in love with someone who feels the same way about her. If not, then oh well, Khalil better behave himself and not try to force anything is all she knows to tell him.

Finally, after a moment of contemplating, Jarod speaks up. “Wait, so you’re telling me that you, Seth are mated to Amillia Black, the great, great-granddaughter of the mother goddess?”

Damian’s jaw clenches. He doesn’t like the idea of the situation, it’s not one that they had actually talked about. Before, he and Amillia were cursed, they couldn’t have been together no matter how bad they wanted too, but now, everything is different. Now it’s a whole new ball field, one’s that’s very shaky and iffy, the slightest offset of movement can bring the whole thing tumbling down in the worst way possible.

The fates truly are bitches.

A smile came across Jarod’s face, apparently the silence of everyone is what he takes as an answer to his question. Damian is ready to smack that smile of his face. He wasn’t happy when he first found out, but times were different, and he’s really not happy now because everything has changed. This is a new playing field; one no one has trenched on before.

Amillia sighs and just flops down on the couch defeated. “Yes, and no, Jarod,” She says, making everyone look at her. “Apparently I am supposed to be Seth’s mate, but as he knows, I love Damian, and I have for a long time. Damian’s raised my children for me and has been there for me no matter what, but then again, Seth and I have been through hell together and back. It’s something none of us have actually had a chance to set down and talk about considering everything that’s happened.”

There’s silence for a moment, and then Jarod speaks up again, “Maybe it’s something that you guys should work out now. We wouldn’t want this to cause issues between everyone and then an attack happen, and you guys are to busy going at each other to help protect the innocents that live here. Remember, we didn’t ask for this, but have been nice enough to help you.” With that, he leaves the cabin.

No one said a word after Jarod left. Amillia stayed seated on the couch with her arms folded across her chest and her legs crossed staring at a spot on the floor, Seth is standing by the couch looking at her, and Damian is leaning against the kitchen island, his eyes going between the two of them, although, there’s no anger rolling off him, in fact, he seems to be thinking about something.

“You know, Jarod may have a point,” Natalia says, “Maybe you guys should talk and figure out what the crap you’re going to do. I’ve seen some shifters do some nasty things to others over their mates, and I’m not trying to watch the son of the Lord of Darkness fight the very first Lycan shifter.”

At her words, Khalil’s head snaps in her direction. What did she just say?

“Excuse me, what do you mean the son of the Lord of Darkness and very first Lycan shifter? Do you know how old the very first Lycan would be?” Khalil asks.

Natalia smiles at him, “Yup, sure do, a little over a thousands years old in this world, unless, for some reason or another, said shifter moved to a different world, or realm, at one point in time and spent time there, in that case, said Lycan would be about thirty-five years old in this world today.”

“How in the hell could you even know that? A month ago, you were just a human,” Khalil points out.

“Because I’m not a mortal human Khalil, I’m the great granddaughter of the mother goddess. I’m a protector of the worlds. It’s my job to know how this stuff works, although don’t ask me to explain it, because honestly I can’t. I somehow believe the knowledge of whatever was just put in my head one day because I do not remember learning all of this.” Natalia answers.

Amillia laughs a little, “No one just randomly put information in your head silly. It’s who we are, we aren’t bound by the rules of the other realms, although we much abide by them while we’re here. We’re neither here nor there so we know everything about everywhere. It’s not something just someone understands, they have to us, or our creators, to understand.”

She keeps forgetting that Natalia is nowhere near as knowledgeable about their heritage and how all this works as she is. Not only had Amillia spent a majority of time reading, but she’s also lived it as well, so she’s learned. It also helps that she’s actually spoken to a few deities during some of the rougher times, if it hadn’t been for them pulling her back all the time then she would have done fell off the rails and been right in the same position as Leyla is in. Everything would be doomed.

“You do realize that everyone here is right, fuck it, we can’t keep running from the truth right in fucking front of us.” Damian says bringing everyone back to the situation at hand.

Amillia frowns at him, “Does Matthew curse like you these days?” She asks.

“Sure, fucking does, and I tell every fucking time too that you’re going to smack the taste out of his mouth if he doesn’t fucking stop it.” Damian has a smug smile on his face. He’s proud of that boy, for someone who went through hell and almost didn’t see a beginning, Matthew has turned out to be a good person.

“Who is Matthew?” Natalia asks, interested in this new person no one has spoken of before now.

Amillia, Damian, and Seth all three look at her. How could they all have forgotten that Natalia doesn’t even know her own sisters back story.

Amillia takes in a deep breath, here we go. “Matthews my son,” she informs, and she watches as Natalia’s eyes goes between both Damian and Seth. “Nope,” Amillia answers, “Matthew is Wyatt.”

“What the fuck!” Khalil exclaims, “Are you for real saying that you had a child with a fucking Wyatt? And here I thought we just had to worry about what Seth’s up too!” He doesn’t try to hide his anger and deceit that he’s feeling.

Natalia is now standing on the other side of the kitchen island from Damian, who is now standing up straight and glaring at Khalil.

“Don’t disrespect her like that, there’s more things going on than what you can understand. Her child may have Wyatt blood running in his veins, but that’s my son. I raised him and cared for him and made sure he even made it into this world to begin with!” Damian said, his turning into the fire red of the devil himself.

Amillia stands and crosses the room to Damian and takes his hand into hers, forcing him to unclench a fist.

“Calm, we’re not fighting among each other right now, we can’t afford to. Look at things from Khalil’s perspective, although he’s making assumptions, he doesn’t know the whole truth or what has happened, so therefor his assumptions are false.” Amillia says softly to Damian, trying to appeal to his more human side.

“Amillia was young and in an abusive relationship with Erik Wyatt for a while. Damian saved her and helped her give birth and have the baby live, after that, they lived together for a while in this world, then the fates decided to show themselves, that’s when the curse happened, and then Amillia came to my world, Mystethikal, and I met her. She lived with me and helped me in that world for four years, and then we were attacked by the Wyatt’s, and she left, she took her kids to Damian and then went underground for seven years waiting for the time to come to save her sisters.” Seth said giving everyone the cliff notes version.

It's amazing how so much turmoil and drama that had happened could be summed up into a simple explanation as the one that Seth gave.

Before Khalil could ask, or say, anything else, Jackson walks into the cabin. He’s all sweaty and dirty and looks exhausted. Everyone had forgotten about him, so when he walked through the door it took everyone in the room by surprise. He had been helping the pack with fighting and boarder patrols and looking for week points that could be a security breach. He had no idea that returning back to the cabin he’d be walking into a shit show.

“What’s going on here?” He asks, he can feel the tension in the air. It could be cur with a knife at this point in time.

“Nothing brother, Seth was just giving Khalil and Natalia here a little history lesson.” Damian answers, his eyes not burning as bad now. He’s starting to calm down.

Jackson nods his head; he can tell what’s going on with his brother at least. They both react the same way when angered.

“A history lesson about what?” Jackson asks.

“I just told them a little about Amillia’s history, why Matthew’s a Wyatt, how she knows me and Damian, ya know, the short version,” Seth answers.

Jackson laughs at that a little bit, “Yeah, because the long version we’d be setting here until the new world comes or some shit.”

“The details aren’t what matters right now,” Damian states.

“But you said kids,” Natalia speaks up, “As in more than one? Amillia has more than one kid?”

This brought silence back to the room once again, and also feelings of grief, sadness, regret, and anger. This time those feelings aren’t just coming from one or two, they’re actually coming from four of the one’s who know the truth and the whole story.

“Yeah,” Amillia speaks first, “My daughter, Mia. I had her not long after I went to Mystethikal.”

“Is Matthew the reason that the Wyatt’s attacked there?” Natalia asks, genuinely just curious about everything and what’s been going on since she hasn’t been around. “How do you even travel between worlds?”

“It’s not easy, there’s hidden places in each world that will take you to another one. You normally have to be very powerful or have the blood of someone very powerful, mostly gods and demi-gods or something along those lines can get through. And yeah, kind of. Cole didn’t know Matthew existed for sure until he attacked to be honest, he came there just because he knew I was there, and he killed a lot of innocent people. I had to take my kids and run to make sure they stayed safe.” Amillia answers.