“Amun Ra?” Arvyn tried to remember what he’d ever learned about him.
“It’s just Ra,” Wes said, shaking his head. “Amun Ra was a human construct. A merging of different deities in the minds of mortals, who were renamed according to what a pharaoh believed at different times.”
“Ra, as in the Father of all Gods, the sun god, the Egyptian god of creation who birthed the human race through his tears? That Ra?” Kirill sounded incredulous.
“He did that?” Arvyn hadn’t known, but he was just as shocked. “But that means… And I mean… Fuck, I don’t know what I mean. The Fates – what were the Fates thinking? I’m a drifter. I don’t even have a job, let alone much of any formal education. I’m just a freaking wolf shifter.”
“The Fates don’t make mistakes,” Kirill said, increasing the pressure of his hand on Arvyn’s thigh, although he still sounded shocked too. “The Fates obviously see more in you than you believe in yourself, and if they say Ra is meant to be ours, they’d have a reason for it.”
“Ra is a good guy,” Cass said quickly. “Sure, he’s a god, and yes he’s ruled his realm since time began, but he still puts his pants on the same way as everyone else.”
“A lot of the ancient gods have found their mates recently.” Wes cast a quick glance at the kitchen door of the diner, but they were the only ones in the room. “From what one of those mates told me, ancient gods, all gods’ life threads form the permanent framework that support the weave of the tapestry of life. They’re immortal so those threads are never cut. But some of these gods haven’t been worshipped or believed in for thousands of years. Can you imagine living an existence like that? You can’t die, you can’t ask to cease to exist like one god tried to do. As a god, your presence is necessary to support the threads of millions of mortals, yet you’re a forgotten part of history. Can you imagine how lonely that must be for any of them?”
“If Ra was that lonely, then why did he leave when he’d found us?” Arvyn’s head was swimming, it was all so much to take in. He thought he’d hit the lottery, having Kirill as a mate. Now a god had been thrown into the mix and Arvyn wasn’t sure if he should be running or showing his belly.
“I can’t answer that,” Wes said softly. “It may be because he knew you two, or at least Kirill knew about your bond, and he wanted to give you two time together first. I don’t know. But he won’t have gone far.”
“So, how does this work?” Kirill asked. “Have we been given to Ra by the Fates to worship him – to keep his life force going through us being good little servants and worshipping the ground he walks because no one else does anymore? I’m a Prince among my kind, a coven master in my own right. I’ve worked damn hard to reach my position and I have responsibilities I can’t just leave because a god told me to.”
“Surely it can’t be like that.” Arvyn hadn’t even considered that aspect. He didn’t have a coven or a pack, but Arvyn didn’t consider himself any less worthy than other people either.
“It’s not,” Cass snapped. “Geeze guys get with the program. Ra being able to command the sun to stop in the skies, or, I don’t know… cause the earth to rise up and create a whole new island, has got nothing to do with any of this. It’s just his ‘thing’ the same as fangs and flashy red eyes are your thing, and Arvyn changing into a wolf is his. Ra is a guy first and foremost. He likes dressing in jeans and boots. He’s just learned to ride a motorbike and has finally gotten the hang of sending text messages. He has an endless curiosity about people and he always wants to help, even when he’s hampered by the non-interference law. He’s not going to pull you away from your precious coven, or take it away from you, the same as he’s not going to disrespect Arvyn’s alpha status. And if you’re worried about who’s going to be the top in your relationship, given how you are all powerful men in your own right, you do what most of us do with our mates and learn to be versatile and love it. Sex with a mate is better than anything you’ve experienced before no matter what position you’re in.”
“Beautifully said, babe,” Wes said to Cass warmly while Arvyn cast a sideways glance at Kirill. He’d always assumed he would be the one topping in any permanent relationship he had, and from the slight flush on Kirill’s cheeks, it seemed his mate had the same idea. Looks like Ra isn’t the only one who’ll be learning new experiences. Arvyn subtly adjusted his cock.
“Now that we’ve worked out your mate problem, Kirill, I do need to talk to you about your coven, and Yakov in particular,” Wes said.
“Just one more question about Ra?” Arvyn said quickly. “How do we get in touch with him if he doesn’t live around here?” And that’s an understatement. Arvyn had no idea where gods went when they weren’t on earth.
Wes didn’t seem to mind the question. “I can get his phone number for you, or I can get Thor’s mate to summon him for you. Either way, he’s easy to reach. But there’re other things we need to handle here, first. Kirill, how much do you know about Yakov?”
/~/~/~/~/
Kirill had to stop and think, his mind still processing all he’d learned about Ra. The process wasn’t helped by the fact he hadn’t taken blood in at least a month – the two individual drops taken from Arvyn and Ra not counting – and every cell in his body wanted him to sink his fangs into the warm veins he could sense in his beloved.
But Wes and Cass were on a mission. They were trying to help him, and he respected that. Although Yakov was going to be dead in the next twelve hours, so Kirill didn’t see why any information about him was important. “He’s been my second for about a year. My last second, someone who’d been with me for the previous fifty years, moved on to start a coven of his own when he met his beloved, and it was him who recommended Yakov for the job. I saw no reason to refuse the recommendation at the time.”
“Getting tranquilized and being chained in your coven’s basement might be a good reason to change your mind about him,” Arvyn remarked quietly.
“Oh, I have beloved, I already have.” Kirill leaned a little closer to his wolf. “He’s a threat to you – Yakov doesn’t like shifters,” he added to Wes who was watching them intently. “I don’t know why, and it’s not normally a problem, but it is now.”
“That’s not the only problems he’s causing.” Wes opened a file on his phone, checking his notes. “My friends, back in Cloverleah, that’s a pack south of here, they ran a search of the vampire council records for any mentions of Yakov.”
“Vampire records are completely sealed against non-vampire investigations.” Kirill bristled at the thought of his privacy being invaded. Vampires were intensely secretive for good reason. It was vampires that humans were more likely to charge at with pitchforks and wooden stakes if their presence among a population was found out. While a vampire could heal from most wounds, losing his head, or his heart made breathing impossible.
“Not when the call to the council is made from Prince Vadim D’Arcy,” Wes said smugly. “He’s mated to one of the enforcers at Cloverleah.”