Chapter 30: Chapter 30
Elara POV
My heart stops when he places his hand on mine. Braden’s touch is cool, but not unpleasant. It reminds me of the crispness of fall air, the way there is something warm and comforting in the chill.
I take a deep breath and force myself to break eye contact. His gaze is making me feel things and making me want to do things I should not. Things like kissing him, touching him, even ... whoa! Where does that come from?
I take a deep breath to centre myself. I am only reacting like this because my mates rejected me, and I am in desperate need of validation and a little love.
Besides, he is finally telling me about the Great Wars, and I am only overwhelmed by everything I did not know.
Of course, the Council does not want to teach young pups the truth about the Wars - she-wolves were essentially treated like sex slaves. And things are hardly any better now.
“The werewolf Council and the High Elders weren’t just trying to oppress she-wolves,” Braden’s voice brings me back to the present, “they were trying to oppress other supernatural beings, too.”
“So, this is where the witches and vampires come in?” I arch my eyebrow, and Braden removes his hand from mine ... and I miss it instantly.
“Indeed,” he nods. “Once the women started fighting back, the witches and vampires did, too. We tried to take away some of the male shifters’ power and influence. After all, a lot of it was never theirs to take, and it almost worked. But not without loss along the way.”
“What did that mean for the vampires?” I ask sympathetically when a dark cloud settles over Braden’s features. “What did that mean for you?”
“There were some ... uh, concessions from both sides to end the war,” he sighs, raking his fingers through his hair. “I’m not proud of it. But our people were dying, and the war needed to stop, and ...”
“Why are you making excuses? I cut him off, my heart pounding. “What kind of concessions are we talking about here?”
His green eyes dart around, looking anywhere but at me.
“Just tell me, Braden,” I insist. My instincts told me Braden is a good guy, but I could be wrong. But if it turns out he is as terrible as the shifters, who enslaved female wolves before the Great Wars, then at least I will know before we get in too deep.
“I fought alongside the she-wolves when the war started,” he finally replies. “Most of my kind did, but in the end, we all had to throw them under the bus to save our own.”
My heart sinks. I was wrong. I came to Braden for help to escape our horrible mating practices. But it turned out he was partially responsible for them.
“The wolf shifters were too powerful,” he glances back up, and his face twisted with pain. “Some of them were dying, too, but not like the vampires. They killed so many more of us.”
“We can’t mate and reproduce like your kind.” His voice is strained, and I wonder how many people Braden lost in the wars. Had he lost his first love? A child? “Rebuilding our population will take centuries as it is. If the wars had continued, we would’ve been eradicated.”
I wonder vaguely how vampires come to exist in the first place. Legends have it that vampires cannot have children in the traditional sense. Vampires had to be created. They were humans reborn after death. Do they kill humans for fun? Did they save them from dying? The answer feels important, but it is a conversation for another day.
“I don’t understand,” I say, “If shifters were really that powerful, so powerful they could destroy entire populations of supernatural beings, why isn’t that part of our history? I mean, it seems like the type of story the Council will revel in. The story of the fierce shifter wolves who defeated the evil vampires and witches and came out on top as the strongest supernatural beings in our region.”
“Remember when I said both sides had to make concessions?” Braden asks. “Even though our numbers were dwindling, we were still killing shifters. And when things went from bad to worse, the witches threatened to curse them with infertility.”
I gasp, and he nods.
“We were at a stalemate,” his gaze drifts to the sky. “No side could win. And that’s when we came to the agreement. To end the war, the wolves had to erase all evidence of their power so younger generations wouldn’t get any ideas about uprisings again. The wolf shifters agreed to sequester their people, never to insert themselves in the businesses of vampires, witches, or humans again.”
“So, that’s why we have no idea that vampires or witches actually exist,” I sigh.
“Unfortunately,” Braden turns back to me, a sad look in his eyes. “That also meant that the wolves’ mating practices could resume as they wanted them to, unchecked.”
“Bastards,” I mutter under my breath. For years now, she-wolves were mated to wolves and encouraged to produce pups, but the Elders had always made it sound like a privilege; they made it sound like they honoured the women who helped grow the population of our pack.
But now they were pushing the boundaries again, slowly, starting with Kane and Axel. They were bringing back the traditions that started the Great Wars in the first place. But with no outside help from witches and vampires this time, they might actually get away with it.
I look at Braden, so sexy and sure, and wonder again if I can truly trust him. If I can, then he might just be my secret weapon, my key to stopping the Council from making all of us she-wolves their sex slaves again.
But if I got closer to Braden, if I put even more trust in him ... can I keep myself from falling for him?
