Chapter 4 – A Knights first Quest

LAMIA

5 Days after Kellen disappeared

I was the strongest wolf in the realm. One of the most skilled battle strategists known! I was strong!

At least I was physically, Mentally?

I exhaled a long slow breath.

Mentally, I wasn’t strong. Not when it came to matters of the heart. I believed in our fate whole heartily and believed in the Moon Goddess’ path for us.

My mother had said to me not that long ago “Your greatest weakness is your love, but it is also your greatest strength.”

We need to find Kellen. I need to find Kellen. I promised him forever. Maybe not the forever we thought we were going to have at one point. Either way, I would always be by his side.

Mathias came into our room with a cold compress, leaned me forward, and pressed it against my back. “How are you doing?” His concern for me was evident in his voice and I could feel his worry through the bond.

“I need to get out there; I need to be with Mike,” I stated with a sigh.

“Abso-fucking-lutely NOT!” Was his reply. “You are in no condition to go anywhere. You will stay here where it is safe.” I heard the command in his voice, but I ignored it, and his steeled gaze glared at me, daring me to argue with him.

I knew he was right, and I knew I had no business traipsing around all over the kingdoms. But I needed to be there with Mike.

Five days ago, I collapsed when I felt like my back was being ripped open. It wasn’t my pain, I was feeling. It was Kellen’s.

Wherever he was, they were torturing him. I couldn’t reach his wolf and I had determined whatever was being done to him, they had suppressed Conri.

Mathias had rushed me to the pack doctor. That’s when we found out that I was carrying triplets and they were all growing at an exceedingly fast rate.

The doctor explained that that was probably the cause of my larger than usual 3-month belly and the pups or cubs or whatever I was carrying were draining me.

Coupled with the stress of Kellen going AWOL and then feeling his pain, I had been put on bed rest.

Of course, Mathias was taking this all a little too seriously and didn’t understand mine and my wolf’s need to find Kellen.

I felt absolutely useless.

I recalled a memory; the night of our eighteenth birthday, after our wolves rejected each other. He came in, right before the party, to give me my present and I gave him his. The watch he never takes off. The inscription on the back of the watch was the reason for the memory.

 'Our bond is as timeless as our friendship and love’. L It read.

 I knew then that I would always love him, that he would always own a piece of me, a piece of my heart.

When I last saw him, it wasn’t just a goodbye, he was letting me go. And I was thankful. I love him, but I am not in love with him.

Kellen had a mate out there somewhere, and I wanted him to find her. Yet selfishly, a part of me would be jealous, just the thought made me shift uneasily, I wouldn’t be his girl anymore.

What kind of a woman did that make me?

I looked down at my rounded belly. I was 3 months pregnant, is what the doctor said, and gave a sarcastic laugh.

A wolf shifter's gestation period is 6 – 7 months, and a bear shifter is anywhere between 7-8 or maybe even 9 months. But who really knew with mine and Mathias' DNA?

So you can imagine our surprise when we visited the pack doctor. The surprise being, that I had three little pups growing inside me. The kicker was, that they were fraternal triplets. Three separate eggs were fertilized. And we had no idea if they would be cubs, pups, humans, or something different.

Mathias had been walking around with his chest puffed out, shoulders back and head held high proudly, since the day we found out.

That was three days ago, two days after Kellen went missing. Those two days I had felt his pain.

“Little Wolf, I need to help Travis with the paperwork…” He looked at me sadly, reluctant to leave me alone. “It should only take a couple of hours,” he said, trying to find his own justification for leaving me.

I gave him a small smile and a slight laugh. “Go… and thank you, King, for taking care of our pack. I know you need to go back to the Clan soon as well.” He was helping Travis and Josiah fill out the paperwork for them to transition to Alpha and Beta, papers that needed to be sent to the council.

He and Xander also needed to return to the Kodiak Kingdom, to the Clan Mansion. Abner Brooks and Tobias had been running things so far, but now Tobias was with Mike trying to get a lead on Kellen’s whereabouts.

“I could always come back home with you” I suggested hopefully.

“Maybe we will see. Abner said Finnegan had woken up and was well enough for questioning. We can talk about this later, when I am done, yeah?” He said, kissing me sweetly before he headed out the door and left me to my thoughts.

I let the cold compress fall from my back, placed it on the nightstand, and then leaned back against my headboard.

I couldn’t go to Mike, but there had to be a way I could help find Kellen?

I sighed and tapped my belly, I couldn’t sit here and do nothing, but there was no way Mathias was letting me go and look for Kellen. We had already had that argument. I lost when Rhett and Travis both took his side. Hunji stayed out of it as usual.

*Hunji, where are you?* I opened a mind-link to him and he wasted no time in responding.

*On the training fields, your majesty.*

*Meet me in your office, and don’t tell anyone where you are going or that you are meeting with me.*

*Yes Ma’am.* He replied and I cut the link, getting up from my bed and scurrying out of the room down to his office.

When Hunji entered his office, he found me sitting at his seat, behind his desk. It was the comfiest chair. His office wasn’t like mine; it consisted of a desk, his chair, two other chairs, and a small table.

His office was decorated very much like himself, simple and to the point, which is what I wanted to get to right now.

He took a seat in a chair opposite me, looking a little out of place and unseated.

“Hunji, I won’t beat about the bush. We all know King has pretty much grounded me.” I laughed a the term I used for Mathias’ controlling behavior.

“Yep, but I have to agree with him. You are in a delicate state, even for a shifter. With the rate you are growing, I wouldn’t be surprised if you gave birth in 2 months.” Hunji tipped his head at my belly, a grin playing at the corner of his lips.

“Don’t even joke about that Hunji!” I grumbled, rolling my eyes at him. “Look, I will get straight to the point. I have a job for you.”

He cocked one of his eyebrows, his dark eyes held curiosity. He was intrigued and shifted to sit more comfortably in the chair. “Go on.” He said.

I sat up straighter, my green eyes meeting his and holding his dark gaze. Hunji was different; no one knew much about his past except that he came from Asiarian and that he was a skilled fighter, quick and composed. The only wolf who has ever been able to knock me off my feet. And for this, I held high regard for him, that and he was loyal to me, my protector. He had stood by my side since the first day I had met him. He and his wolf were the first to pledge their allegiance to me.

“As a Knight of the Queen, I am tasking you with your first quest. Find Kellen in my place. Use whatever means necessary. You will have the full support of our Kingdom as well as the New Moons. I want you to meet up with Mike and want you to bring Kellen home.” There was finality and command in my voice. This was not up for negotiation.

I could trust Hunji with this task and knew he could find my best friend. It wasn’t that I didn’t have confidence in Mike, it was nothing like that at all. Mike was a skilled investigator, but I knew Hunji was one of the best trackers around and Mike needed help. I would never say it out loud, but if Hunji had been allowed to lead the search team for me, I was sure I would have been found sooner.

“Pardon my response, your highness, but what makes you think I can find him when there are already numerous parties searching for him? Or what makes you think I can do any better than Tobias or Mike?”

“Because you see things that aren’t always apparent, it’s like a sixth sense, Hunji’s hunch. Your hunches are always spot on and if anyone can track his whereabouts, it’s you.”

“When would you like me to leave?” He asked, not even batting an eyelash at my request, another reason why I loved him so much, always the wise, calm, and collected wolf, Who would follow me to the pits of the underworld.

“As soon as possible. King has to go back to his Clan. He wants to take Xander so he can run the territory and I am going with them. Supposedly, Finn woke up.”

“And Mathias is letting you travel with him?” He drew the question out, curiously asking but already knowing the answer.

“Well, he hasn’t said yes, yet.” I smiled a cheeky grin and waggled my eyebrows “But he will, I am sure we will take Birdie, so it won’t be so taxing on me. Do you want to come with us, and that way you…”

“NO!” He shot out the word, waving his hands in front of him “Nope, I can leave today, and go by car.”

I laughed loudly at him “What, you don’t want to fly in Birdie?” I joked with him.

His dark eyes narrowed at me and his lips tightened into a thin line. “There is no chance in hell, I am getting into that flying death trap. Shifters don’t fly!” His one hand cut horizontally through the air as if to say his words were final, not up for discussion.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. I was pretty sure that was the same thing I said when I first saw Birdie. I admit though, that it is a much faster way of traveling and wondered why shifters stopped using that mode of transportation over 250 years ago when the shifter wars came about.

It was agreed that Hunji would leave later today, after finishing up some paperwork for the training schedule. Now all I had to do was convince Mathias that he needed to take me with him back to his Kingdom.

A little while later, once I had gone back to our chambers, I sent Ria a mind-link asking her to come up to the room. Grateful that for whatever reason she had the ability to be linked by me, it came about when her brother Rhett, became a Knight. Once he had the ability to mind-link, for whatever reason the same ability was given to Ria. It just took us a little longer to realize it.

I smelt her scent before she had even knocked on the door and called for her to come in.

“Hey what’s up Lam’s?” She said, coming in and closing the door behind her.

Ria and Xander had been taking things slow. Although it was killing Xander on a hormonal level, he was patient with her. Something Ria appreciated. She hadn’t always been receptive to shifters after she was almost taken when I first met her and her brother Rhett.

I could tell she was in love with Xander, her eyes lit up every time he walked into a room, or she would blush at the mention of his name.

“I need to ask, have you made up your mind about whether you will be returning to the Kodiak Kingdom with Xander or not?” I walked back into my closet and took a bag out, putting it on the bed.

“Kind of… Are you going somewhere?” She asked, obviously noticing the bag I had just put on the bed and began stuffing some underwear in it.

“Don’t try and change the subject,” I paused to look at her as she crossed the room and slumped onto the end of my bed.

“I want to…” She let out a big sigh and flopped backward. “But I’m not sure. It’s a really big step, Lamia. We haven’t even… umm… you know… mated.”

I let out a small laugh as her cheeks became flushed with embarrassment. “Do you want to mate with him?” I looked at her and raised a quizzical brow.

“Well, yah. It’s just, I don’t know,” Her blush deepened and spread from her cheeks down to her chest and below the low-cut blouse, she was wearing. “I have never done it… What if I’m no good?” She mumbled shyly.

“Lamia, he has so much experience and I don’t! Don’t laugh at me, what if I… What if I disappoint him?”

“Oh, my goddess girl!” I threw my head back in laughter. “First of all, you don’t have to worry about disappointing him, and second of all, he will worship you. That, I can promise.” I pointed at her.

I sat down beside her and took her hands in mine, her blue-green eyes peered at me, “I need you to come to the Kodiak Kingdom, I have to go with Mathias and speak with Finn. The only way he will let me go is if you and Xander advocate for me.”

She nodded her head, “Basically, if I go and say I want you with me because I am scared the brothers will cave?”

“Exactly my goal,” I said and stood back up to grab more things to pack in my bag. “Ria, a mate bond is hard to look away from, even harder to walk away from. Xander loves you with all his heart. And I know you have fallen for him. Once we get to the Clan Mansion, I am sure everything will fall into place for you.”

“What about Rhett? And what do I know about being a Den Mother?” she huffed.

“A den mother is the same role as a Luna, and you have been filling that role here at MacTire for over 2 years now. I have confidence that you will do just as excellent there and be loved just as much. As for Rhett, he has his own path and that path right now is to serve his Alpha, Travis, as his third in command.”

She stood up and headed for the door. “Right, I’m off to go convince my mate, to convince his brother that you need to come to the Kodiak Kingdom with us. Did I get that right?” she said, turning around before opening the door.

“Thank you, Ria,” she smiled before slipping through the door and out of sight. I definitely owed that girl a favor.