HAVEN
“So… all of you are werewolves?” my dad asked.
He looked around at Wesley’s parents and Maya, Nolan, and Reid as we all sat in various spots around the living room of Harrison and Emily’s apartment.
“Or lycans,” Reid clarified from the arm of the couch with a nod. “It’s sort of the same, but also not.”
“Helpful,” Nolan scoffed from his armchair. “So very helpful.” “Thank you, I try.”
Nolan just rubbed his temples and caught my eye, and I had to pull my lips into my mouth to stop my laugh from escaping.
“Lycans stand on two feet and look more humanoid,” Harrison explained with a look at Reid. He sat on the loveseat with Emily, his arm slung across the back of the cushions behind her. “Only those with alpha blood are lycans. Werewolves look like gigantic wolves when they shift into their animal form.”
Dad nodded and looked at each of them again. My mom sat next to him on the couch with a thoughtful expression on her face.
“No wonder you boys always ate so much when you visited us,” she mused. “I knew from Scott that boys had exceptional appetites, but you four were always something else!”
Emily chuckled and nodded. “Tell me about it! And I had to feed two of them three meals and snacks every day!”
“And you and Wesley are soulmates?” Dad asked, turning to me, and I nodded. “See Shirley? I knew they were meant to be more than just pen pals!”
“And they were pen pals!” Maya said emphatically, glancing up at Reid from her spot on the floor.
“Oh my Goddess, they were pen pals!” Reid exclaimed, his eyes brightening.
“Shut up.” Nolan laughed, shaking his head. “You two are ridiculous, and Wesley will not find that as funny as you do.”
Reid rolled his eyes and sighed. “Wet blanket,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m hilarious.”
“I just have one more question,” my dad said, putting his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward.
“What’s that?” Harrison asked.
He took a deep breath, then looked Harrison square in the eye. “Can I become a werewolf too?”
Reid, Nolan, and Maya started to laugh, and I smiled and shook my head.
Of course, that would be my dad’s question.
“No,” Harrison said, shaking his head. “Turning others is not one of our abilities.”
“Damn it,” my dad exclaimed. “I was really hoping I could be one too!”
Everyone laughed again, and Nolan said to me, “Well, they took that better than you did.”
“Yes, well, their boyfriend didn’t say ‘Don’t freak out’ and then shift into a ginormous monster in front of them. This way was much better. Take notes,” I said, turning and pointing to Reid, “in case your mate is a human, too.”
“No mate for me,” he said, crossing his arms.
“Really?” I asked, surprised by his declaration. “I thought mates are a really big deal for werewolves?”
“They are. Just not for me.” He shrugged. “I—”
The door to the apartment slammed open, and Wesley stormed in, power and anger rolling off of him in waves. Reid and Nolan both lowered their heads at the aura emanating from Wesley. Even my parents flinched.
His eyes landed on me as soon as he entered, and I stood from my chair, my heart pounding as his emotions all crashed into me at once. He’d told me he’d block them from me while he questioned Lennox, but that wall was down, and I felt each emotion profoundly. Anger, confusion, urgency, and, most of all, relief. Relief that I was still perfectly fine and safe.
“What is it?” I asked as he moved towards me. “What did he say?”
The words were barely out of my mouth when he grabbed me and pulled me into his broad chest, his powerful arms holding me as tight as he could. His head lowered to my ear. “I just needed to remind myself that you’re still safe. That you’re still mine.”
I placed my hands on his chest like I always did when I needed to calm him, and his body relaxed under my touch and around my body. “I’m yours,
Wesley,” I whispered, peering up into his chocolate-brown eyes. “I’ve always been yours.”
I couldn’t deny it. Not with the way my body and my heart always responded to his presence. Not when being with him always felt like coming home.
He nodded and tucked me under his chin, his arms circling around me even more. “Where’s the book?” he asked.
“What book?” Harrison replied.
“The Goddess’s Tales,” Sebastian answered from behind Wes as he entered the apartment. “Where is our copy?”
“In Wesley’s old room,” Emily said. “He left it behind when he moved out. Maddie gave it back to him when he shifted for the first time. But why do you need it?”
Sebastian was already down the hall. I heard a door thrown open and him moving things around, then he was back in the living room only seconds later.
“Here,” he said, handing the book to Wesley. “What story do you think he was referring to?”
Wesley took the book with one hand and sat in the chair I’d vacated, pulling me down with him and into his lap.
I burrowed my face into his chest to hide my burning cheeks from sitting so intimately with him in front of our family and friends. “Wes,” I whispered, gripping his shirt.
“No one cares, Sugar Plum,” he reassured me, lifting my chin with his hand. “This is acceptable to wolves. This is how mates act with each other.” I blew out a breath and nodded, then looked at the book in his hands.
“What’s the big deal about this book?” I asked him.
“This book,” he said, lifting it by one corner and showing the cover to me, “is filled with the stories of our people. Every werewolf family has a copy, and all werewolf children grow up hearing the tales.”
“So… they’re fairy tales like Cinderella? Or myths like Pandora’s Box?” I asked, taking the book and examining it.
It was an old book with a dark green cover, embossed with gold scrolling around the edges and on the binding, with the title “The Goddess’s Tales” right in the center. Despite its age, it was still in wonderful condition, with hardly any deterioration.
Wes thought for a moment, his head doing a half nod, half shake as he answered. “Yes, and no. Yes, because they’ve been around for so long, just like those tales and myths and legends. But no, because these tales are true. Or at least based on some truth.”
“Those other tales all are true too,” Sebastian pointed out. “Humans just don’t realize it.”
I stared at him and then looked around at the others, my disbelief displayed on my face. But all of them nodded, agreeing with Sebastian.
“Okay, we can put a pin in that piece of information too. Just add it to the list with vampires and bears and whatever else we still need to discuss,” I said to Wesley, and his lips twitched with a silent laugh. “But why do you need this book right now?”
“Lennox said…” Wesley paused and sighed. “Look, Haven, you know it doesn’t matter to me. What you are. Not in the least. I don’t care if you’re a human or an alien or whatever. It doesn’t make a difference in how I feel about you. But he implied that you are something more, something special, something to do with this book. And if that is true, then we need to know.”
I swallowed and nodded. “Okay,” I said with a small shrug. “What did he imply? What did he say?”
“He said, ‘At least I know what she is.’ And then, when I tried to get more out of him, he choked up from the alpha command placed on him by his dad. But he was able to remind me about our stories. About how they are all based on a bit of truth.”
“But which story?” Reid asked. “Which story would he be referring to?” “My guess is ‘The First of the Wolves,’” Wesley said. “It fits. A human
who is chosen by a wolf warrior. Even though Haven is my fated mate too, I chose her long before I knew that.”
“Let’s hear it then,” I said, handing him the book.
“Wessy, wead me a stowy!” Seb exclaimed, clapping his hands and mimicking a little girl’s voice, and Wesley’s lips twitched again at his words.
“Wes used to read those to Maddie when she was little,” Reid said in response to my raised brow.
“And she would ask him to do it just like that.” Nolan chuckled.
“What a good big brother,” I said, leaning against Wes’s shoulder. “That’s very cute.”
“I told you earlier, I’m—”
“Not cute. Right. Got it,” I said with a nod, a thumbs up, and a serious face. “Now read the story, Wessy,” I teased.
His eyes sparkled, and he shook his head at me, a small smile teasing his lips. He opened the book to the first story and began to read it out loud so everyone in the room could hear.
His rich baritone voice filled the space as he read, telling us of Karl and his chosen mate Eydís, who was given a wolf companion of her own, and
how they and their feuding clans became the first true werewolves. It was a beautiful tale, one that almost ended in tragedy, and an insightful look at their history. Wesley’s history.
As he spoke, Maddie entered the apartment, coming back from wherever she had been. Her eyes brightened, and she set her bag down gently before she moved to sit next to Maya on the floor, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to her body as she listened to Wesley finish.
The room was quiet as Wesley ended the tale, and I looked around at everyone, taking in their varied and thoughtful expressions. Wesley closed the book, his brow furrowing as he stared at it on his leg.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him.
“I’m not sure,” he answered. “I thought—I thought maybe you were like Eydís. A human, but strong enough to be given a wolf like she was. But nothing in the story indicates how or why that happened to her specifically.” “Well, it’s because Karl chose her, and she chose him, seeing beyond the dispute between their families and putting aside their differences,” I explained, and Harrison chuckled. “But I don’t see how that applies to me.
Or to us.”
“I thought maybe…” Wes cleared his throat, and his cheeks turned pink. “Maybe you were a descendant or something…” he muttered, averting his eyes.
“Wait, why would you think that?” Maddie asked, sitting up straighter.
“Because of what Lennox said when we were… um… talking to him,” Wesley replied.
“You mean torturing him,” she corrected, and Wesley sighed but nodded. “What did he say?”
“He said Haven was special, and she was a gift. And reminded me that all the stories are based on truth.”
Maddie’s eyes widened. “Oh my Goddess, you are a dumbass,” she said, standing and taking the book from Wesley’s hands. “You are looking at the wrong story,” she said as she flipped through the pages and then handed the book back to him with it opened to a story near the end of the book.
The look on Wesley’s face was a mixture of shock, disbelief, hope, and fear, all in equal measure. His skin paled, his eyes widened, and his hands shook as he reached for the book and held it, his fingertips skimming over the page.
“Ria,” he murmured, looking up at Maddie for a second before his eyes moved back to the page.
“Ria,” Maddie agreed, crossing her arms and nodding once.
“Ria?” I asked, my head swiveling between them. “Who is Ria?” “Asteria,” Sebastian breathed.
I whipped my head around towards him, and the look he gave me was unlike any I’d ever seen from him. It was as though he was seeing me for the first time, like I wasn’t the same person he’d grown used to seeing over the last few weeks. He regarded me with awe, and I shifted my weight on Wesley’s lap.
Feeling the eyes of the others on me, I looked around the room to find everyone except my parents giving me similar looks—a mix of surprise, awe, hope, and disbelief.
“Why is everyone looking at me like that?” I asked, turning my eyes back to Wesley.
He still stared at the book, his gaze glued to the page, his fingers still touching that same spot, lost in his own thoughts. He swallowed and shook
himself, bringing his mind back to the present.
“Sorry, I—” He exhaled and looked at me. “Before I tell you why they’re looking at you like that, I want to show you this,” he said, tapping the page. “Because I know you’ll just say it’s impossible, there is no way, or it’s just a story if I tell you what we’re all thinking. But I think you might think differently after seeing this.”
He handed me the book, and I took it from him slowly, my eyes lingering on his for a moment before they moved to the book.
My breath hitched in my chest as I looked at the image at the beginning of the story. A photograph of an old piece of parchment with a hand-drawn image of three concentric circles, stars in the middle of the smallest, and moons drawn in the second. All three of them mimicked an eclipse.
It was an image I was all too familiar with. A symbol I had grown up seeing almost every day because it was stitched into the only belonging I had from my birth family.
The symbol from my blanket.
