Heart Of A Lycan King
Chapter 53

“Why is he here?” Baba growled, his piercing gaze pinned on Mav.

Aiden and Mama sighed, before Mama patted the space beside her while keeping her face firm. “If he wants his brother here, then he stays, Dakarai. Let’s not make this any worse than necessary.”

Surprisingly though, after grunting and grumbling, Baba walked up and sat beside her, the babban riga he wore making him look much bigger and intimidating than he already was.

It’s been two days already since Aiden had awoken. He looked healthy and his strength had returned. This morning, he even went for a run after desperately trying to get me to join, but for some reason, Erin didn’t want to. Ever since Inna Laniya had said she would come over with her sister and share what they’ve found regarding us so far, Erin had been restless. I even discussed it with Doctor Lily when I went for therapy yesterday after Aiden’s run.

I was waiting for the right moment to tell him what I think about what happened though, and I think he also has something to say, because he’d been acting a bit weird around me.

Now, it was already two pm, and Aiden had asked Mama, Baba, and Mav to join the meeting. We were currently sitting in the living room. Aiden and I sitting on a single sofa, our bodies pressed tightly against each other. I could feel the heat of his body seeping through me, and despite my numerous tries, it was impossible to move away from him because every time I tried, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer. At some point, I found Mama looking at us with a small smile tugging at the edge of her lips.

She and Baba sat on the two settee sofa across us, while Mav sat beside us. Inna Laniya and her sister sat by our left.

I shifted my gaze towards Mav, and the curiosity that had been eating at me for the past two days returned. It gnawed at my soul, and all I wanted to do was to ask him who his mate was and why he reacted that way. In a way, I sometimes imagine Mav as me, because if I recall correctly, I had uttered the same words the day I found out Aiden was my second chance mate.

However, it was as though Mav knew I wanted to know who his mate was and all the questions gnawing at me, he refused to visit at all, until today when Aiden had personally called for him. I had asked Aiden who he thinks Mav’s mate was between the three women, but he said he had no idea. Mav’s reaction had been swift. After he uttered those words, he growled angrily, causing the room to reverberate from its fierceness before he pushed from the wall, without sparing anyone a glance and walked away.

The atmosphere in the room instantly changed before Lacie ran after him. At the same time Ivayne and Sherneil, who had seemed to be oblivious of what was going on because she had her headphones on, greeted Aiden and left as well. I hadn’t seen any of the girls after that. But I did know for sure that Tiffany isn’t Mav’s mate, else, I’d have known. She was so eager to meet her mate, and it would be impossible for her to hide it from me if she was his mate. In fact, she and I had been trying so hard to figure out who Mav’s mate was.

“I can just leave. I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable with my presence and…”

“Then you shouldn’t have returned from whatever hole you were in. You ruined everything the moment you set foot into that arena!” Baba hissed, cutting off Mav from speaking.

“Kayi Haquri, Baba. (I’m sorry, Baba). I didn’t return for you but just to see my brother whom I have not seen for years. If that angers you, then I’m sorry, I’ll be leaving soon since he’s now okay,” Mav said tightly.

I didn’t like this one bit. I hated how they all acted and treated Mav everytime they were around. Even Aiden seemed to do that, and for that, I was thankful Mav had kept his distance recently.

“As if that did him any good!” Baba growled, hitting his hand on his lap. “And you couldn’t have chosen a worse time to return now, exactly when your brother had been badly injured and his wolf was going feral! It doesn’t seem like a mere coincidence to…”

“Dakarai!”

“Baba!”

Mama and Aiden yelled at the same time. I could feel Aiden’s body shaking, the way Erin had cowered at the harshness of both Baba and Aiden’s voice.

“Do you always have to do this? How much more do you want him to endure before you are satisfied? And what are his faults in all this when he was only a fruit begotten from what you kept referring to as a mistake?!” Mama yelled. I had never seen her this angry. Never!

“Can we please have a normal day today, Baba?” Aiden asked quietly, but I knew what that meant. He was a raging inferno on the inside. The way his body shook, and the way he stared at Baba told me that. I slowly pulled his right hand and twined our fingers together, but I made sure neither Baba nor Mama saw that. I felt as the tension slowly began to leave his body.

Mav stood up and sighed. “I’m sorry for always ruining things. I’ll just go and…”

“If you dare take a step out then find yourself another mother, Maverick,” Mama snapped, making Mav pause in his tracks.

“Mama…”

“Koma ka zauna! (Get back to your seat!)” Mama commanded, pointing towards the seat Mav had stood up from.

He sighed again, rubbed his face and walked back to his seat. Silence stretched for a moment before Inna Laniya cleared her voice.

“Well, I think we can start what we came here for now then,” she moved to the edge of the sofa, her staff in her right hand while she held a brown leathered boomer in the other.

“What have you found out, Inna?” Aiden asked.

“More like what she found out,” she pointed at the other priestess. Unlike Inna who had black paints all over her face, this one had red paint on her lips, her brows, and her eyes. She had two marks drawn at the edge of her lips. She wore a long red gown with short sleeves that exposed her arms, and the red strings she had tied there. If anything, she looked scarier than Inna and I didn’t even want to begin imagining what her shrine would look like.

“Indaboski, My King, My Queen,” the woman Inna has pointed at, stood up and bowed to Aiden and I, before she turned and repeated the same greeting to Mama and Baba. “My name is Lantana. I had met the King a week ago and had promised him I would go to the border and calm the chaos that rose there, which I did. But that had also enabled me to uncover what had been a mystery to us all,” she began.

I could feel Erin’s nervousness increase with each passing moment, and I didn’t like it.

“What is it?” Aiden asked impatiently.

“First, the Fikoians aren’t really what we thought they were. Yes, they manipulate the powers from other packs, and it is almost impossible to get through to them. It is also true that they only marry within their pack and have never accepted an outsider. However, what was not true, was the fact that they were cursed,” Inna Lantana paused.

“Does that have anything to do with me and my mate?” Aiden asked, and I saw Mama nod.

“It has everything to do with not only her, but you as well, My King,” Inna Laniya chirped in as she stood up. “This book,” she raised the brown leathered book, “is a guide written by a dragon witch on the Fikoians after she had sealed them in the forest, based on the request of their Luna,” she paused, as though waiting for an effect.

“This also explains the burn like scar on your back, and why it always reacts, My King,” Inna Lantana picked up.

“Wait, how does this make any sense?” Mav interrupted. “Aiden got the burn years ago. What does that have to do with the Fikoians, his mate, and my presence here?”

“Everything, My Prince. Please, just let us explain,” Inna Lantana answered.

Mav and Aiden exchanged a quick glance before he sighed and leaned back on his seat.

“The burn scar on your back was the first marking of the Mbems. If you recall the time you got it, both you and your brother were on the border between the Malakari pack and the Fiko forest that day.”

“Only because I insisted we need to go see what was in the forest,” Mav grumbled.

“Well, you do remember how you got burnt, don’t you?” Inna Lantana asked, her eyes pinned on Aiden.

I watched as he swallowed, his fingers clasping around mine even more.

“It was a swift, fast attack,” Mav said quietly. “He and I were arguing on who was going to open the box we found by the border. And I remembered how we both said some hurtful things to each other.”

“I being the short tempered one of us both, was more angry and I kept yelling and screaming. At some point, I began throwing stones at Mav,” Aiden picked up. “Then everything happened so fast. The loud screams, the trees rattling and then the cloaked figures that chased us. Mav and I went separate ways. But soon, we both found ourselves in a clearing and that was when it happened,” Aiden finished.

“I had no time to react when the cloaked figure poured the almost invisible content on Aiden’s back. As soon as it was done, they all vanished. I didn’t know what to do there, and all I could do was watch Aiden cry in pain. After trying aimlessly to link home for help and couldn’t, I dragged him with me and we ended up at the borders between the three realms. That was where we met Karima, Mason, and Bilal, and they helped us. When we came back, Inna said that the burn was a combination of the deadly plants from the mountains in Jaro pack,” Mav said.

Inna Laniya nodded, the same way Mama did.

“It was one of the scariest days of my life,” Mama admitted solemnly.

“That was where I made the mistake. The combination might be of acid, and the plants, but I got it wrong. That was when the Fikoians had chosen you as a representative for the Lycans, My King,” Inna said.

“What?” Aiden asked, confused.

“Apparently, the witch dragon who helped them 300 years ago knew they’d be set free some day, and if they weren’t saved properly, they’d cause havoc and chaos around. The only way to save them is if someone with their b***d, and a Lycan were mated. But she wasn’t sure if that would ever happen easily. So, before she sealed them all in alongside their Luna, who had requested the help, the witch took some b***d from Luna to use it. Since they don’t mate with anyone outside, it would be impossible to mate with anyone, that and the fact that the king had killed most of them and had caused the others to commit suicide.

“The witch dragon fed the first man that had crossed her path that day the b***d, who turned out to be your ancestor,” she finished, finally turning to face me.

‘I knew I didn’t like any of this!’ Erin wailed.

“What do you mean by that? Didn’t you say she is a descendant of the Fikoians?” Aiden asked.

“She is, but not directly. This explains why I couldn’t feel any power within her the first time we met. She does carry their b***d, but none of their powers. This came from her paternal side and her dad, who had also been an only child just like she is,” Inna Lantana interrupted.

My head was beginning to spin with all that I am learning, and I didn’t know if I should be happy or sad.

“And like I told you a few months back, you both are either destined to save them, or finish them off completely. Right now though, the magic holding the souls of the deceased’s, and the remaining people the Luna had hidden in their underground cell before the sealing are desperate to be let out. For years, they have been stuck there, harnessing their powers. The shadows you both see in your dreams are the souls of the deceased that are protecting the forest and the magic that still runs through it,” Inna Laniya explained.

“And the tattoo I have…”

“Is that of the Luna’s. Now I understand why your scar never healed, and why you experience so much pain with it when you get too angry. That was all the Mbems. They set that as a leverage over you. You save them, they save you. Else, that scar will continue to expand till it swallows you up eventually,” Inna replied.

“But I saw them in my dreams when he was sick this time around. I also saw them in the arena during the fight. If they are out to harm us, why help us? I’m certain they had a hand in Aiden’s healing,” I spoke for the first time. I could feel Aiden’s heated gaze on my face, it had been there the moment I had mentioned the arena. But I refused to look at him.

“I saw them too. And the wolf asked that I save them like they saved me,” Aiden mumbled.

“This is why I had performed a three day rite at the entrance of the forest. In the next three weeks, the full moon would appear, and that is the best day to perform the final rite and summon the Luna. Only then, would we truly know what they need,” Inna Lantana said.

The Shadows. The Mbems. The Luna. The Fikoians. All of this made no sense to me. I could hear them continue to talk in the room, but all I could think about was the presence I could feel in my mind now.

‘Do you feel that?’ I asked Erin.

‘Yes. The presence. It is back,’ she replied, her voice frantic.

‘This is the first time I’m feeling a new presence besides yours,’ I admitted. But before I could say more, Erin growled a bit and her eyes flashed dark violet, the same way it did last time at the priestess house.

‘I’m just here to introduce myself. I’ll see you on the full moon, Natasha Maina Gladys.’ Then the violet shade vanished and Erin collapsed.

This time though, I didn’t panic. I knew Erin would be fine.