Running With Wolves

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say they fell in love,” Lukas stated. He was beginning to doubt this woman could tell him anything he could not deduct himself.

“You young people,” She chided shaking her head with pursed chapped lips. “no patience.”

His eyes fell and he mumbled an apology like a scolded child...

“Alright,” She began eyeing him with dark eyes. “So clearly you don’t want to hear the whole story as it was right now. Perhaps the abridged version then?”

Lukas’s eyes drifted back the way they had come, back toward the small village where he knew Sage was. He had to get to her, he had to apologize to her and tell her he’d been an idiot.

“Yes, abridged please.”

“Alright then,” Keya looked back over the water. Her posture had straightened some, her eyes slightly remote of emotion. She was detaching herself slowly. It was easier to tell the long story, the words were not as harsh coming from her lips and not as heavy on her brain as the condense version. “the short version is this,” she explained, “it goes without saying that Razvan and Salvia fell in love and that their love was something that could never be. Salvia, in her ignorance put her trust in her parents, went to them begging them for their blessing and their permission to marry.” Her gaze turned to Lukas, “in a sense her father granted part of her wish. He granted her permission to marry.”

“But not Razvan.”

“No, not Razvan.” She said quietly. “Her father and the king of Hungary arranged a marriage between their children.”

Lukas was silent for a moment and he shook his head, “I should have seen that coming.”

Keya made a vague noise of agreement. “Christof loved Salvia and I would wager he would do nearly anything for her—including defying their fathers, the entire kingdom, and their responsibility to their royal heritage.”

“What do you mean?”

“Christof helped Razvan and her flee Romania.” She stated simply. “they were willing to risk everything and so they did. They fled until they could run no longer.” Keya blinked and her eyes fell to the ground, the corners of her lips pulling down into a frown. Quietly she murmured, “Salvia’s father had sent men after the trio. But something happened in Romanian after Salvia and the boys fled—something no one could have expected. An intruder and his comrades had breached the castle and killed the King and Queen.” Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “No one could ever figure out what or how it happened.”

“How could they even get to the crown?”

“It was a lot of men, a lot of Were.” Keya murmured. “I could never figure out what it was that that man had against the Lupei only that he managed to kill nearly the entire family line. He picked up where Salvia’s father had left off--in search of the trio.

They found Razvan three years after the trio had fled. By then Salvia was pregnant with Razvan’s child and terrified of the idea of returning to Romanian to meet the same fate as her parents. When they took Razvan it seems Christof had held Salvia back, hidden her while they took Razvan away.”

Keya paused having fallen silent.

“what happened to him?” Lukas urged.

Her lips pursed into a thin line and ran a hand through her grey streaked hair. “Back in those days they did what they did to all those who were found to go against the crown. Razvan, having left the country with the King’s daughter and refusing to return was enough of an excuse to them. That is not including the traitors own vendetta against Salvia and her family so they, well they…they beheaded him.”

Lukas was quiet for a long while after that. It felt strange to him to imagine, not only that Razvan had in many if not all ways, been him in a past life but also that he had met such a brutal demise.

A sudden anger flared within Lukas, he could feel the hackles of his wolf go up. “Who the hell were they?” He demanded of no one in particular. “Who the hell could managed to get to the King and Queen of Romanian and their daughter in a completely different country? Salvia had not done anything, neither had Razvan for that matter!”

“I don’t know dear,” Keya said quietly, her kind eyes gazing at him with sympathy and patience. “There are journals here, archives of things that have come to pass, and I have looked through them all. None of them have the answers.”

“Isn’t there an archive for the royal families of the Weres?”

“Yes there is,” Keya nodded. “But the king who succeeded him was not the one who killed him.”

Lukas looked away and pursed his lips. This was madness; sure kingdoms rose and fell, royals were poisoned and killed in those times for power plays. But why in the hell did those power plays end up fucking Razvan and Salvia’s life up so badly.

“So you are telling me that the reason Sage and I are like this is over power plays? Because Salvia’s parents were killed, those same killers went after her and ended up with Razvan?”

Keya’s dark eyes studied him for a moment before she shook his head. “No,” She ran a hand over her face before crossing her arms over her chest. “In the Were world it was once thought that the Soulmate Principle was natures way of trying to replace a balance that had been drastically tipped one way or the other. When Salvia’s parents were killed the scale was tipped. The lineage that took over after was crueler and more demanding then Salvia’s father had been. The successor believed in uniting every Were under one pack, a sort of Alpha of them all if you will.

Back then, and to this day, that had never been purpose behind the Romanian royal family. They were more like the humans equivalent to the present day royal family in Great Britain—not dictators like the new king wished to be.”

“But why Razvan and Salvia?”

“Because the love Razvan and Salvia bore one another was unlike other loves. Back then, the type of love they shared was even rarer. It was common practice in those times to place arranged marriages on two people whose bloodlines together could produce stronger offspring--love was not a factor. Soulmates would be challenged beyond everything and their love would be stronger than all others.” She cocked her head to the side and gazed at Lukas, “I’d imagine it would have made Razvan and Salvia perfect candidates.”

“There must have been others,” he argued.

“Oh there were,” Keya nodded in agreement. “Faceless unknown people to us now but yes there were others. But it was Razvan and Salvia who was meant to lead them because their bloodlines were stronger than the other soulmates.”

“Than how come only Sage and I exist now, why are there not others?”

Keya’s face became solemn and her voice grave. “Because Razvan and Salvia’s love for one another became their downfall. The other Soulmates did what they were supposed to do—Razvan and Salvia did not. They forsook their duty and chose each other time after time. They never righted the wrongs they were meant to. So Salvia and Razvan were reincarnated life after life but still the wrongs were not corrected.”

“So you are saying, if Sage and I fix these things, when we die we just…die for good?”

“You get peace.” Keya said evenly.

Lukas licked his lips and eyed her quizzically, “So what is this thing we have to fix?”

“I can’t tell you that nor do I know. Whatever it is, it spans hundreds of years.”

“It’s that king’s bloodline who took over after the Lupei isn’t it? What do we have to do kill them?”

“Don’t you think if it were all that simple Razvan and Salvia would have done it long ago.”

Lukas looked away, boiling with frustration. All he wanted was a chance at normalcy. But really, what the hell was normalcy with Sage?

Then something occurred to him, “Whatever happened to Christof?”

“Christof never returned to Romania, he stayed here. Right here actually, he was the first white man the Sans Arc allowed to live amongst them in White Bear Creek. Christof lived the remainder of his life here raising Razvan and Salvia’s child.”

Lukas felt a momentary sense of thankfulness to Christof. It puzzled him slightly though, Christof had looked after Razvan and Salvia’s child not his and yet—he wondered if the thankfulness he felt could be matched if it had been his own child. “He wasn’t reincarnated?”

“Christof was not a soulmate, just a loyal friend who protected those he loved.” Keya stated. “So no, he was not reincarnated.”

Lukas sat there quietly, absorbing all the information he was being given. His mind was reeling, trying to grapple with it all. It was so much information and yet somehow Lukas felt unsatisfied by it all.

“You look like you have a bitter taste in your mouth.” Keya observed. The breeze picked up and it tousled her auburn and silver hair.

“None of this helps me.” he grumbled discouraged.

“It will help, you just aren’t sure how yet.” Keya explained patiently.

“But why do Salvie and Razvan hate each other?” Lukas questioned in frustration. “The last time our wolves met they tried to kill each other.”

Keya shrugged noncommittally and the gesture irritated Lukas more. “I couldn’t tell you dear. I’m the messenger not a wolf whisperer. What I do know is that that is why Sage is looking through the archives, to see if she could perhaps discover something further about them that could somehow help the two of you know.”

Lukas sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Can I see her now?”

“Of course,” Keya smiled. She turned and began slowly heading back the way they had come.

Lukas followed along beside her quietly, lost in the jumbled information he had just been given. He could only hope that perhaps Sage had found something out, or at the very least could forgive him.