Read Dreams of the Forgotten Online
Authors: Lexi Ander
Stan waited patiently for me as I spoke to Jory. I smiled to set him at ease and he'd given me a grimace in return. I thanked Jory and then motioned for Stan to follow me. Ushna stood and glared at the empty kitchen. An expression of relief washed over his face. He strolled over to me and kissed me softly.
I'd given him my most innocent look and, since I don't have an innocent look, it turned into a scowl. "I've no idea what you mean."
I tried to walk past him but he stopped me with another kiss, curling my toes. When he pulled away, I gazed up at him with hazy eyes to see him smirking at me. Busted!
I'd shot a quick glance to the tray to see if he could tell by looking how many were missing. He raised a brow at me.
"Two-ish." I glimpsed at the tray again. They looked really, really good. Marjan's pastries were baked fresh every day and had I said they were extremely tasty?
With the house expanded, Corey had wanted me to move to a bigger office. I refused and kept my old one. If I needed to see that many people at once I used the conference room. My office had good memories, especially the desk. I ran my hands over the gouges in the mahogany surface and smiled to myself. I looked forward to making similar memories after the pups were born.
"Are you okay?" Stan asked. He was miserable, like a kicked puppy. I wanted to comfort him but I stayed seated. I was his alpha first, his friend second when his behavior had threatened safety of the tribe.
Ushna growled, "You would've been fine if you didn't have to deal with…"
"How are you?" I interrupted. "You've been very tense since you moved here. Did you and Gregori talk?"
Stan slouched in his chair, his dark hair hiding his eyes when he glanced down. "We did."
"You need to give me more than that. You issued a challenge to me today. Intentional or not, I have to deal with that."
"Are you sending me away?" Stan paled under his bronze complexion, voice soft. Gods, I wanted to choke him. Where were his strength, his conviction, and his selfesteem?
"No. I'll take you out back and accept your challenge, kick your ass, and then when I'm finished, Ushna will kick your ass for working me up again." Stan's gaze snapped to mine in horror. "Will that suffice for your punishment? Will you stop punishing yourself over something you had no control over? Or do I need to have Corey line up his captains and let them have a turn? When will it be enough to appease your sense of duty?"
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
"Oh? So you didn't find and save Gregori from death? He didn't beg you not to tell? You didn't take him to Atlanta and hide him? The two of you didn't have an affair before college?"
Stan's head fell into his hands, "Please, stop."
"So Gregori lied to me? None of that happened?"
Stan stared, his dark eyes agonized.
I picked up a pen and rolled it casually between my fingers. "You're saying you not only failed to come to Theo's inquisition, but you purposely broke Gregori's heart. You lived a happy life in California where you didn't have to deal with us?"
"Dammit, Tristan! I know I'm a bastard. Look at what I did! You didn't see him after the Magi were finished with him. They dumped him on the side of the road like he was
trash
. There wasn't a place on his body where I could touch him without hurting him. If it hadn't been for his scent, I wouldn't have known who he was."
Stan ran a shaky hand over his watery eyes. "He begged me." His voice rasped, "He begged me not to tell anyone. I didn't know what to do. I should've told someone. I should've challenged and kill Caspian MacCuill but I was scared. I took him to Atlanta like he asked, and I stayed with him. I was so afraid he would die. It would've been my fault because I didn't take him to a doctor. After a couple of weeks, I was so overjoyed he would be okay… I kissed him. It was all wrong, we were all wrong."
"How old were you, Stan?" He didn't want or need my compassion. He was drowning in his own guilt. What he needed was a stern hand, guidance, and someone to remind him of the facts.
Stan wasn't looking at me but scowling down at his feet. "Old enough to know better."
"Stan." I used the voice of command to make him look at me.
He swallowed at the expression on my face. "Eighteen."
I held his gaze and leaned toward him a little. "You were a pup." I paused to let my words sink in. They were both young and inexperienced at the time. Stan needed to be reminded of that. "Gregori worries the sex ruined your friendship. Did it?"
He quickly shook his head, bent forward, and placed his elbows on his knees. "It didn't ruin anything, but made things awkward between us for a while. We talked about it before I left for college. We both knew we weren't right for each other. We were okay."
Ushna's hands settled on my shoulders and squeezed reassuringly. "So what happened? Why did you quit talking to him?"
Stan picked at his fingernail and grimaced. "We were good for a while. I'm not saying it wasn't uncomfortable in the beginning, but we worked past it. Eventually he talked about the people he dated, and I was glad he was getting out again. And then the last year of college, Jory brought Xzavier home. He'd been talking about his friend for a couple of months. Things get fuzzy for a while after that. I remember going to class and taking my tests. Xzavier was always around making food for us and such. I don't know what happened."
"I do."
Stan's head jerked up, even Ushna stilled, staring me. "Due to the nature of the offense, I had Janus send enforcers covertly to the Kislah Tribe and arrested Xzavier Kimball. He was sent to the detention center and interviewed by Jasper Lewis." Jasper was a competent and very thorough interrogator. I would to speak to Janus about offering Jasper a position on the council.
"I've received the report for Xzavier's first round of interviews. The information he's given us is interesting. As he tells it, he was ordered to look after you and Jory. His family is a part of the group of assassins who've been attempting to kill off the royal bloodline. They're striving to prevent a prophecy given to them by their Goddess."
The next part I hated. "There's a fragment of prophecy pointing to a group of Lycans born under a certain moon, in a certain year. The
Servants of the Glorious One
believe these six individuals are prophesied to transform the world, but the cost of that change was their
Glorious One
had to die. Their goal is to keep these Lycans away from each other by creating a rift between them. Gregori is looking into the prophecy they claim to have." Recently Gregori had been working on an obscure prophecy from the Goddess Ki. I could care less about any so called prophecy. If it couldn't come out and tell me
Professor Plum killed Miss Scarlet in the dining room with the candlestick
, then I had no use for it. Too much crap already had my attention. There weren't enough hours in the day for me to give a damn about broken lines of a dead language that only the Gods could read. The Goddess Uttu had been correct when she pointed out the path I followed to this point in my life wasn't without danger or sacrifice, but in the end Ushna had become
mine
. So yeah, I wouldn't change a thing.
But there were others who didn't share my view. "From the interview notes, the assassins believe you, me, Jory, Ushna, and Gregori are this group."
Stan reclined back in the chair. "Wait. You said six. There are only five of us."
I frowned. "We were six at one time, but Brian was murdered."
"No…" he breathed, his eyes squeezing shut.
"There are two factions. One's endeavoring to change the prophecy without permanent harm to others. The other's been doing whatever it takes to wipe out my family line. They believe once the king sits on the throne again chaos will be released, and the world will fall. So their solution is to murder the royal line so there's never a king."
"Brian," Stan whispered to himself, his eyes still squeezed tight. After a moment, he met my gaze, sadness and anger warring in his expression. "What does any of this have to do with what I did?"
"Xzavier's father commanded him to befriend Jory in college, thereby eventually becoming your friend too. His family created a drug that tempered Lycans and made them controllable. Xzavier slipped the two of you something labeled Bliss. He drugged the drinks that first night. It was developed specifically to make you more manageable. With a few suggestions and some implied evidence, the two of you believed you'd slept together." I leaned into Ushna's touch.
"In reality, you were passed out while Xzavier brought in others to perform the binding spell. He stayed to continue to drug you. He fielded the calls from your friends and family, thereby isolating you. With the drug's influence, he made suggestions to keep you content. After a couple of years, he didn't think he needed to continue to drug you but the damage was already done. Bliss eased their verbal suggestions, and along with the type of binding cast, assured you wouldn't voluntarily come home." Stan sat back, shocked.
"He checked in and verified the spell hadn't been tampered with. They noted you continued to stay under their control after so many years had passed, so they weren't watching you as closely when Elder Koller contacted you."
Stan glowered at me. "You know, Tristan, you aren't making me feel any better. You're telling me I was manipulated through drugs, suggestions, and a binding spell. That through a simple suggestion I was made to shrug off my family and friends because I was afraid."
I sighed. Ushna's fingers dug into the tense muscles. "Yes, it's exactly what happened. They influenced your emotions and utilized your fears."
The armrest on Stan's chair groaned. "I wasn't my own man."
He overlooked everything I'd said. A retort that would bite Stan's head off was bubbling up.
Ushna promptly said, "Anyone can be manipulated. You and Jory were young and inexperienced. You didn't know what was happening. You weren't expecting another Lycan to deceive you."
"And in my inattention and naiveté, I hurt one of my best friends," Stan snapped back. "I was afraid of how our relationship changed and Xzavier influenced the situation and made it seem permissible to avoid the situation?"
"You can't control the actions of others. The two of you were victimized…" I said with compassion.
"I refuse to be a victim!" Stan shouted.
"Then quit acting like one!" I was beyond frustrated with him. "What do you want, Stan? What do you want me to do? Do you think you're the only one to make a mistake, to trust the wrong person, to say things that were hurtful? Do you believe you're the only one to be tricked or preyed upon? It is time to get your head out of your ass. You apologize to Gregori, and if you feel the need to make restitution, you find a way without acting like you did this morning."
He didn't speak right away. I hoped it was because he was considering what I'd said.
"What about you, Tristan?" He watched my face closely. "I wasn't there for Theo's inquisition. I watched the security tapes with Jory. All of those years and there aren't any indications you're disappointed in us, in me. How can you not hate me for not being there? What he did to you…"
I rose from the chair and moved around the desk to stand in front of him. He refused to meet my gaze so I grabbed his arm, pulled him to his feet and into my arms, giving him the comfort he sorely needed. Ushna put his arms around both of us, stroking Stan as he clung to me while he struggled with his emotions. Self-recrimination and sorrow came off him in waves.
"I'll tell you what I told Jory. Shit happens, we learn from our mistakes and forge on. My love is not conditional. I need you here with me now, more than I needed you then. You're not going to be any help to me if I'm fighting with you all the time."
I quietly watched from the shadows outside the playroom that was designated for the children. The Goddess Uttu sat on the floor with the children, looking as she always did with a crown of braided black hair topping her head. Her dark skin was a stark contrast to the Caucasian skin of the children she taught.
Over the years, much of our culture and origin had been lost. Per my request, Uttu helped us to regain the truth of our ancestry by teaching Lycan history at the High School in Clearwater two nights a week. All the children of my tribe attended and from what I heard, the class had become popular with the adults as well.
As a favor, she instructed Theo's children on the ranch. Neoma, Dawn, and Justus were all born to different mothers who'd abandoned them with Theo when they found out Theo wouldn't choose them for Alpha Mate. I'd asked Janus to locate the women. I'd hoped with the passage of time they'd reconsider participating in the children's lives. The pups had experienced considerable loss the last couple of months. I wanted them surrounded by love from as many people as possible.
Since they'd been brought to the ranch, Ushna and I had spent as much time with them as we could. The children were unsure what to do with the attention. Dawn, the youngest of the children by six days, was small, fair haired, and gray eyed. Her trust was the easiest to gain. The children still mourned for their father. Dawn tried to make her siblings laugh to keep them from falling too far into their sorrow. With a word and a smile, she'd draw them out until they were laughing along with her.
Neoma was quiet and hardly spoke a word. Her eyes were watchful, took everything in, and examined it. Only with her siblings was she herself. Compared to Dawn's dark blond hair and gray eyes, Neoma's brunette hair and hazel eyes were striking. I wondered if the knowledge she'd grow to be a warrior caused her to be subdued around others.
At birth, Lycans identified those who'd become warriors because they were born with eight toes instead of ten. Only one percent of females were born warriors and they were rumored to be fiercer and more ruthless than their male counterparts. I'd met a female warrior once when I was young. She'd been loud, boisterous, and wickedly fast. She was as tall as the other warriors, her body more muscular than the women or girls I'd known.