Chapter Five
Aries considered himself to be a reasonable man with a vast amount of patience. He had to be as the Beta of his pack, particularly when he was second in command to his hot-headed, Alpha-in-waiting cousin Constantine. His Uncle Paris was a firm and fair Alpha and admired among the members of their community but sometimes he allowed his past to shape his decisions and at times rule a bit stricter than some situations called for. Because of that Aries was the one pack members would come to soothe things over.
Often he found himself acting as the go-between for the pack members and his Uncle and cousin. It was a stressful yet rewarding position because there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his pack. He did everything he could to make sure his pack and his Uncle understood his loyalty to his pack. It was why he never said no when a task was requested of him. He helped to run the extensive Kyriakis shipping conglomerate, handled pack issues and helped with Underground business simply because it was a passion of his Uncle’s.
It seemed like most of his life had revolved around proving his loyalty not that it was ever questioned but he never wanted it to be because of his secret shame. He wondered how things would be different if his parents had lived and his father had remained Beta. Would he be so tied to pack affairs as he was now or would he live an untethered life doing as he pleased? It was something he thought about often, not that he had much to complain about. Because of his family’s vast wealth, he lived comfortably with properties littered around the world and when he wasn’t tending to pack, company or Underground business, he was free to come and go as he pleased, enjoying the fruits of his labor. But in the last several years, those down times have become fewer and far between. First, there had been the increased activity of Underground business when the Grimaldi family, vampire allies of theirs were attacked by an outside force that was not only set on destroying them but changing the face of the immortal world in general. And just when they were able to defeat that foe, an inordinate amount of Hunter activity began to pop up. Which led him here today, stuck with a mate that he’d never wanted and who clearly didn’t want him.
That last part stung a bit but he supposed he was fair. He couldn’t expect her to be on board with an instant mate. It was supposed to be a blessing to find one’s other half but it wasn't always an easy path to finding unity. His own cousin’s had shown him that. Hell, one of the reasons his Uncle was so strict and often single-minded was because of what had occurred between him and his mate. Seeing what his family had gone through didn’t exactly make Aries eager to jump on the bandwagon to happily ever after. But there was something else to it.
He didn’t feel like he deserved it.
With a mate came happiness and peace. He had too much to repent to have one of his own. But now that he’d found his mate and knew what it was like to be inside of her, hold her and taste her, there was no way he intended to let her go. It was his duty to protect her and if that meant taking Gage down himself then that’s what he would have to do.
Aries believed that Nina knew more than she realized and could help them figure out what Gage was up to. She had to be the key. But there was another piece of the missing puzzle. Anisa Nkrumah. She was Paris’s, lost mate. Somehow Nina and Anisa were connected and he intended to get to the bottom of it.
There was something that Nina had said to him that kept playing in the back of his mind. She said something about being trapped in a body that didn’t belong to her but she’d mentioned that a couple of times. It was something else he was trying desperately to recall.
With a deep sigh, Aries figured it would come to him later if it was important enough. In the meantime, he needed to shower and figure out his next step.
Unfortunately, once he was under the string of the hot water, all he could think about was Nina. When he’d first seen her in her pathetic beaten down fur form, there was no way he could predict how beautiful she would be in her human skin. That gorgeous bronze skin and dark eye denoted that her human ancestors were of indigenous descent in North America. The high cheekbones, proud nose, full lips were absolute perfection. And her body was a work of art.
A groan escaped his lips as he thought of how good it had been when he’d fucked her. He’d had hundreds of lovers in his lifetime, human and immortal but none had ever made him feel this visceral need to claim them in the most primitive way. The very fact that she consumed his thoughts when he should have been focused on the more pressing business at hand, underlined just how dangerous this woman was to his equilibrium.
He had every intention of claiming her, but what then? How could he prove to be worthy of her when he was still trying to be worthy of himself? Visions of her lush curves filled his mind. Unable to help himself, he wrapped his soapy hand around his member and slid it along his length, imagining it was Nina’s hand. He hadn’t jerked off since he was a pup. This woman was driving him insane and she wasn’t even in close proximity. She’d been so aggressive earlier and it turned him on. Knowing that she wanted him as much as he wanted her had his entire body throbbing. Though she was a complication he didn’t need, there was no doubt that he was eager to be inside of her again.
Aries rested his head against the shower stall as he worked himself to completion, spilling his seed down the drain. He turned the water to the coldest setting he could stand to get his heated body under control. Once he was cleaned and dressed, he headed to his office with the intention to track down any information he could about All Blacks. The fact that Nina was one of the rarest forms of their kind had to mean something. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Gage had kept her captive all these years. Aries had learned that shifters were expendable to the powerful hunter. He’d wiped out packs of them at a time and yet he’d kept Nina around. It more than likely had to be because of the magical properties that All Blacks possessed but the fact that he’d kept Nina this so called other form…Anisa’s form.
He suddenly remembered what it was she’d told him in the woods. She’d retained the memories of the person whose form she’d held for all these years but he didn’t understand what that meant.
When he made his way to his office he searched through some of the ancient texts that he kept in his private library that detailed the pack's history from the time when records were first kept. There had to be something in their documented history that could give him some kind of clue. When he found the book he was looking for, he skimmed through the pages. He was so engrossed in looking through the book that he didn’t realize he was no longer alone in his home until he caught the scent of another person.
He looked up to see his cousin casually leaning against the wall, arms crossed. While he enjoyed coming to the island most of the time, the downside was having his family come and go in his home as they pleased. Aries raised a brow. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“I just wanted to check in on you to make sure everything is all right.”
“I’m fine. But I’m sure that’s not why you’re really here.”
“You’re right. It’s not. I just came from my father’s house. I saw your… Pet.”
“Her name is Nina,” Aries corrected abruptly.
“Sorry. I guess I’m going to have to get used to calling her that. When she first came, she looked so mangy and battered, kind of a sad creature…she was…”
“Get to the point,” Aries snapped not liking the way Constantine was talking about his mate.
Constantine widened his eyes in apparent surprise. “So it is true.”
“What’s true?”
“She’s your mate, isn’t she? I suspected as much when we first brought her to the island and the way you hovered around Papa’s house. I could also tell from the way you looked at her. Even when she was in the state she was in. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Aries shrugged. “I didn’t think anything would come of it. As you pointed out, she was in an incapacitated state when she arrived. For all I knew, she was unable to shift.”
“You and I both know that’s not how the mate bond works. When Persephone was suffering from Malum, Eric was ready to live the rest of his days in his wolf form for his mate. You mean to tell me that you wouldn’t have done the same.”
“I didn’t know her.”
“But apparently you do now. Your scent was all over her. You are a quick mover.” Constantine joked.
Aries dropped the book he’d been clutching and was across the room in an instant. He grabbed his cousin by the collar and slammed him against the wall. “I’m not going to ask you again to stop speaking so disrespectfully of Nina.”
Constantine’s eyes turned topaz and he bared elongated canines but Aries refused to back down. They stared at each other for several moments before Constantine’s eyes went back to normal. “I don’t understand where this anger is coming from, cousin, but I do get the fact that if someone were to disparage Sarah in any way, I would be equally protective. How about you let me go and we can talk about this.”
Realizing his overreaction, he released Constantine. “Sorry,” he muttered. He walked across the room and picked up his book. “I guess I’m just stressed.
“It has been a harrowing few months so I understand. You’ve barely had any downtime since the Grimaldi situation. That was taken care of and now we’re dealing with Gage. Perhaps you should take it easy a bit.
“How exactly is that possible with all that’s going on? I can’t rest knowing that Nina is somehow involved in all this, not that any of this is her fault but I’m trying to figure out how she centers on Gage’s plans. There had to be a reason he’d kept her around. And there’s these curious comments she keeps making.”
“Like what?”
“When we believed she couldn’t shift, she was asked if she had Malum. Her answer was that she was Malum. What the hell does that even mean?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but what else did she say?”
“Something about retaining someone’s memories. That’s why I need to do some research to see if I can find out more about The All Blacks. The only thing I know about them is that they’re able to take on the form of other shifters. But I’m sure there is more to it.”
“Probably. What about your contact? Dark?”
Dark was an ancient, who’d given them pertinent information about the existent of Seraphim. Getting a meeting with him the first time had been difficult, and a second one was damn near impossible. But a third was most definitely out of the question. “That’s not possible”
Constantine frowned. “Why not?”
“Because the first time I met him on Crete was by chance. He took a risk coming out of his hiding place to help the first time. And then when we found him again outside of Nairobi, he made it quite clear that he didn’t want to be bothered again. We’ve gotten all the information we’re going to get out of him.”
“So why don’t you ask Nina about it? She is an all-black. She could probably tell you everything you need to know.”
Aries shook his head. “It’s not that’s simple.”
“I’m confused, Aries. Here you are in your office, doing research in old books when you can go right to the source. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were scared to talk to her.”
Aries turned his back to his cousin without speaking.
Constantine walked across the room and placed his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “That’s it isn’t it? You’re scared to talk to her.”
Aries shrugged his cousin’s hand off and turned around. “Drop it, Constantine.”
“No. Because this isn’t like you. I’ve never known you to back down from anything or anyone. This woman is your mate so that’s even more of a reason to speak with her. Why is she at our Uncle’s house instead of yours anyway? What’s going on?”
The barrage of questions was more than Aries could take. Something inside of him snap. “Enough!” he roared turning around. He could feel his beast on the inside, fighting to surface.
Though he cousin was never one to back down from a fight, he took a step backward, his eyebrows raised in apparent shock. Seeing his cousin’s confusion calmed Aries down. With a heavy sigh, he went to his desk and took a seat in his chair, sinking into the soft leather interior. “I’m sorry. I guess I’ve been off for these past few days.”
“Obviously. But you can’t bottle everything up and you can’t run away from your problems, whatever they are.” Constantine perched himself on the corner of the desk and faced Aries. “Look, whatever it is that’s bothering you, I hope you know you can talk to me about it. Even when we were pups, you were always the cool, level-headed one who was always bailing me out of one mishap after another. I know one day when my father steps down the pack will be my responsibility but I know I won’t be able to lead without you. Just as my father has found you an invaluable resource when you took over as Beta from your father. Pack affairs wouldn’t run as smoothly without you. You take on more responsibility than you have to without complaint and you put but up with my shit when a less patient person would have beat the shit out of me. But yet when something is bothering you, you suffer in silence. Like now. I don’t like seeing you like this. So please tell me what’s going on because you’re more than a cousin to me, you’re my best friend and my brother.”
It was true that they were raised as brothers growing up and as Aries didn’t have any siblings of his own, Constantine and Persephone were as close to them as one could get. And his Uncle was more of a father to him. But could he share the burden he carried all these years? Would Constantine look at him differently? What about his Uncle?
“Does it have anything to do with your mate?”
Aries placed his elbows on the desk and rested his head in his palms. “Do you remember when the Malum outbreak began? It just started taking over and wiped out half of our pack, my parents and your mother included?”
Constantine nodded. “Yes. We lost great-grandfather Spyros as well.”
“Did you ever wonder how it happened? And how the madness started?”
“I don’t remember much about it besides the fact that those were dark times. We thought by staying on the island we’d all be safe but in actuality, it seemed to spread even quicker because of our containment.”
“Because it was discovered that it was spread through bites. And as the person inflicted with the illness came more feral they were more likely to bite. That’s how so many of the pack members caught it. We realized that the ones who’d been attacked by the feral wolves were the ones who also contracted the disease. You’re the one who figured out it was the bites that did it. You see, even though you were still a teenager, you proved to be valuable to the pack. You saved us.”
“I didn’t.”
“Of course you did. No one thought a simple bite was the reason. In our wolf forms, we bite all the time as a form of play. But this was…something more. Before they went feral their bites were contagious and by the time most of us knew it was too late for some, but you were able to save the rest.”
“I wish you would stop singing my praises. That’s not how it happened.”
“Fine, then tell me how it happened, “Constantine challenged.
“I didn’t discover that the bites caused Malum. I already knew.”
Constantine furrowed his brow in obvious consternation. “What?”
“I’m a traitor.”