Not answering right away, I try to understand what has her so shaken. Letting out a heavy sigh, I run my hand through my hair, gripping the ends. “Right before I woke up, I stood in front of her as myself, and I really thought she was there with me. I lost all my senses. I lost myself. All I knew I wanted in that moment was her, Mom. I knew that if given the chance, I’d do anything to make her mine. It was as if…” Struggling for the right word, my mother is the one to give it to me.
“Mates.” she whispers as more tears fall. “It was as if she was your mate?”
My mother very rarely spoke of my father, always brushing it off by saying that when the time was right, she’d tell me everything I wanted and needed to know. But the one word she always used in the rare times she did speak of him was ‘mate’. I never thought much about it, as she never went into detail of what she meant, but hearing the word now…it feels fucking right. Something inside me thrashes around suddenly, hitting me hard, and I hunch over gripping my knees as I gasp for breath.
“Karzan!” my mother gasps laying her hand on my back. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Taking a couple seconds to make sure the feeling has passed, I straighten. With my hand against my chest, I shake my head. “I don’t know what’s happening to me.”
Doing what she’s always done to grab my attention, my mother reaches up and grips my cheeks in both her hands. Her eyes, still wet with tears stare back at me with an intense understanding. “It’s time, Karzan.”
“Time for what?” I ask, perplexed.
“It’s time for me to tell you about your father…”
Before she continues, I cut her off with a lift of my hand. My acute hearing picks up something moving below.
Realizing that something’s amiss, my mother tenses, going on alert. Knowing we’re safely hidden by the thickened branches of the trees, I put my finger to my lips and silently move to jump to a lower branch, but my mother holds me back.
“Karzan!” she whispers, latching onto my arm. “What are you doing?”
The sound grows closer, and I take a deep breath and inhale trying to scent who is here. The smell of wild animal causes my spine to stiffen. What is a beast doing this far out? Taking her hand, I hold it in both of mine. “Get to safety, Mom,” I order. “Tell the elders there is a beast near.” my tone leaves no room for argument.
“Hunters?” she asks trying to mask her panic.
“I’m not sure. He smells old, and wild.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find out what it’s doing here.” I answer, getting ready to leap.
“Gods dammit, Karzan, be safe.”
Not replying, I jump from the branch. Gripping a hanging vine, I swing around to one of the lower branches until I can see the beast. Staying out of sight, I track him as he battles his way through the thickest part of the jungle.
Dressed in a dark green hooded cape, I can tell the beast is attempting to blend into its surroundings. Leaning forward, I try to see its face, but the sound of a twig beneath my feet snapping nearly blows my cover. I dip down just as the beasts spins around, a long deadly sword in hand ready for a fight.
“I know you’re there.” the beasts says, his voice strong, yet tired. “I can smell you…”
Tensing, I stay as still as possible, watching as he moves closer to where I am. This isn’t the first time a beast has stumbled past our village. Normally it’s the king’s hunters passing through searching for humans. But never has it been a lone beast like this one. Lifting its nose to the sky, it inhales deeply, and jerking his head in my direction, he drops his sword and whips his hood off revealing an older beast. One who must have lived a long life before being frozen in time.
“It’s you, isn’t it? Half man, half beast.”
Ice shoots through my veins at his accurate assumption. What does he mean, ‘it’s me?’
“Tantor?” At my mother’s voice, I jerk my head towards the hidden entrance in our tree, the beast doing the same. My heart pounds louder than thunder as she pushes through the thick bushes. Slowly standing, I ball my fists up ready to defend my mother. “Is that really you?” she asks, her voice shaking.
“Your Majesty,” the beast whispers, bowing at the waist before going down on one knee.
The pounding in my ear ceases abruptly. Stretching to my full height, I glance between the beast and my mother in utter confusion.
Your Majesty?
What the fuck is going on?
The moment my mother sees me, her shoulders slump as she releases a breath she seems to have been holding in for years. A second later, she lifts her chin and her spine straightens with an authority I’ve never seen, as if a weight has suddenly lifted from her shoulders.
Giving her attention back to the beast before her, she makes a move to step closer to him and that’s when I step out of the confused haze I’m in. A defensive growl rips from my throat, the sound terrifying and menacing, a sound I’ve never made before, but it does the job.
Drawing up short, my mother places her hand to her heart just as startled as the beast who cowards closer to the ground. Marching towards the two, I stand with my back to my mother. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Karzan, this is Tantor.” Taking a deep breath, she explains further. “He is advisor to the throne…”
Hearing his title, my body grows larger; taller. My skin itches feeling much too tight. That familiar movement inside me vibrates with an energy fit for a warrior. “What did he mean by your majesty?” I ask, my voice relaying my concern.
In the back of my mind, I again wonder what the hell is happening. But it’s an afterthought to what all is unfolding in front of me.
Placing her hand on my back, my mother’s touch cools my heated skin. “Karzan, your father was King.”
The beast before me disappears as my vision blurs. The meaning of her words taking me a minute to fully understand.
Slowly, I turn and face my mother, the world falling away as I meet the eyes of the woman who raised me, who taught me to love myself, who taught me to love others…but now, all I see is a stranger.
At the hurt I’m sure is evident in my eyes, she shakes her head, stepping towards me. “Karzan, I was just about to tell you everything.”
“This is what I had to wait to find out?” I demand, my voice thick with hurt and anger. “That my father was not just any beast, but King of the Beasts?” Suddenly more of the pieces come together, the small parts of history becoming a bigger picture.
“He was King Klayton, wasn’t he?” I ask, my mother flinching against the name. “The king killed by Kircheck; the man who has been slaughtering our people, the man who keeps us hidden in a fucking tree!” The sensation I felt in my dream before I transformed into the wolf hits me hard. My vision changes, the colors dulling and the sharpness defining. Squeezing my eyes shut, I take a deep breath. When I reopen them, my eyesight goes back to normal.
“Fascinating.” The beast behind me murmurs, reminding me that he’s there. Spinning back around, I stand as a guard. “He nearly shifted…I haven’t seen anyone come that close since the curse was put in place,” he states, staring at me in awe.