AVA
The last thing I wanted to do the morning after an incredibly uncomfortable dinner was to delve into
my history and that of my predecessors’ history with Michael, but apparently I didn’t have much of a
choice in the matter.
After a breakfast of croissants, fruit, salmon and cheeses, the five of us made our way to Michael’s
office. I stopped in the doorway having noticed the mountain of books on Michael’s desk. They really
had been busy…
“Please, sit, my Queen, my Kings,” Michael gave a small smile as he motioned for us all to sit around
the table.
“What do you have for us, Michael?” I jumped straight into it. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this
forthcoming history lesson… gut feeling said it would be uncomfortable, to put it politely.
“I’ll start from the beginning, my Queen, with the prophecy. We’ve discovered that the prophecy we
all know today isn’t the original version, it changed a few centuries ago. The original prophecy is very
vague about the number of mates that the Alpha Queen is destined to have. In some circles, it’s
believed that the four wolves mentioned are simply a metaphor for different attributes her mate, or
mates, will have.” He paused for a moment, waiting for us to ask any questions. When I motioned for
him to continue, he nodded, taking a deep breath.
“You and Artemis, my Queen, are the fifth iteration of the Alpha Queen. Over the centuries, the Alpha
Queen has had between one and four mates, and no one can be really sure if it’s because something
happened to some of them, or if they just didn’t exist at that time.”
“Ares, my Queen, King Callum, is also a fifth iteration. Ares has always been the first mate to come to
the Alpha Queen.”
“That makes sense,” Callum mused. “Ares is her protector.”
“Indeed, my King,” Michael replied. “Dionysus and Hephaestus are only second interactions, just
having come to the first iteration of the Alpha Queen and now you, my Queen.”
“What about Hermes?” Noah asked.
“Hermes is a third iteration. He came to the second Alpha Queen, and she did successfully mate and
mark both Ares and Hermes. However, Hermes was killed mere days after the mating.”
“So the third and fourth Alpha Queens, did they just have Ares?”
“Yes, my Queen.”
“Why do I have all four? Why is it necessary?”
“That is a tale that our scholars are still confirming, my Queen. They are working to translate the
remaining texts, I am hopeful they will have finished doing so any day now.”
“What else do we know about the earlier iterations?” Oscar asked.
“The first and third Alpha Queens were never able to take the throne. The first iteration was simply
prevented from ascending the throne, and before they all passed away. It is believed to have been
natural causes, but some people do believe the five of them were murdered. The Alpha Queen went
first, and the optimists believe her mates simply couldn’t go on without her. The pessimists, however,
believe she was murdered and her mates were poisoned shortly after.”
“Brutal much,” I murmured under my breath, too quiet for Michael to hear.
“The third iteration was kidnapped, mated and marked against her will before she could complete the
bond with Ares. Unfortunately, that is a fate that has befallen most of the women in your bloodline,
my Queen, especially the Alphas.”
I nodded. That was a fact I was very aware of, especially since I’d been promised to someone before I
was born, and then that same person plus another nut job decided they wanted to force me when I
came into my power anyway. Because of course they did!
“There’s something else you should know about your bloodline, my Queen, and this goes back to the
very beginning. There have been twelve female Alphas in your bloodline, plus the five Alpha Queens.
There have only been two males born, both as twins to one of the female Alphas. It is believed that the
first girl in your bloodline was the firstborn daughter of Selene herself.”
Wait, what?
“Excuse me? I’m apparently descended from the goddess?”
“Yes, my Queen. Distantly, but yes. All girls in the bloodline are believed to carry some of Selene’s
attributes, these are just stronger and more pronounced in the Alpha Queens. Some of the other Alphas
may have had one skill, or simply looked like Selene depending on which genes carried through. The
Alpha Queens have enough genes that can be attributed to Selene that they are sometimes referred to
as being the goddess reincarnated.”
The silence in the room was deafening.
I leaned back in my chair, biting my lip as I let that sink in.
“What about the Kings and their wolves? Where do they come from?”
“Less is written about the Kings, my Queen. We do not know much more than their wolves are
reborn, just like the Alpha Queen’s wolf spirit is.”
This isn’t quite what I expected Michael to have found out.
“What do you think, Artemis?” I asked her.
“I don’t know, Ava. I guess it makes sense? Why else would we be able to talk to Selene?”
I shrugged. “Perhaps. Or, maybe she just needs someone to carry out destiny? Maybe we aren’t
related, and we’re just a means to an end?”
A warm breeze tickled through my hair. I recognised that feeling.
“My daughter, it is true,” Selene’s mystical, ethereal voice came through my mind. “You are truly one
of my daughters, your bloodline is my bloodline.”
“Why didn’t you tell us before?”
“You had to find out when the time was right, Avelina,” she replied.
Helpful.
Selene laughed in my mind. “I’m sorry my messages are sometimes vague, Avelina. I am limited on
how much I can tell you without disrupting the order of the universe and causing problems for the
Fates.”
“The Fates?”
“Yes, my daughter. The Fates ensure the world carries on as it should, that people are in the right
places at the right time, that people die when they are supposed to and live when they should. Not all
future events are set in stone, some can be influenced. The events that can be influenced are easier for
me to discuss with you as the choice is ultimately yours. Events that can’t be changed and have to
happen in a specific way are harder.”
“So the situation with Elijah?”
“Some things were able to be influenced, Avelina, others were not. It was destined that he would mark
you, but the choices you made determined whether or not the mark would be permanent.”
Well, fuck.