***Trigger Warning- Trauma Recovery, Sexual Assault, Violence, Suicide Attempt, Depression***

/\^^^^/\

"A thrall?" Woods stammered out the question.

Dart blinked at him as he shrank to his mortal, "A thrall is someone who is controlled by our Queen. She will control and restrain your actions if you seek to act against her wishes. It is not something our clan does unless absolutely necessary. We believe all should have free will except when it comes to causing harm. Self-harm will not be tolerated."

Shishi came out and looked at the wolves cowering in a group like prey. He clicked at Dart. 'What happened?'

'Anjael demanded they have children for her, so they may continue their lineage. I believe she hopes to encourage them to live through children, but Ouro told them we were demons, and the pack is ours until they bore children to give to us.' Dart sighed then clicked adding, 'I worry they fear us now.'

'They did witness the Queen's wrath. They should know to fear her, fear leads to respect.' Shishi shifted into his Lion-Dog and jumped into the ember-filled pool as Dart declared aloud, "You sound like a freaking fortune cookie."

The lion-dog sounded like it was laughing and growling at the same time.

Turning, Dart inhaled the scent of fear mixed with smoke and felt the need to sooth them. He hated the illusion they spread about being demons. He was not and never would be such a vile creature. His voice was gentle as he announced, "Do not fear us, we will not harm you."

"Do you swear?" Woods came forward first, it surprised Dartanian because he was the most timid and smallest of the surviving males. He had been kept alive merely for his computer skills

"By which deva would you take my oath?" Dart asked.

"Deva?"

"Devas are what you call gods and goddesses or deities. To us, they are merely another species which shares this world," Dart answered.

"Does your kind not have a god?" Woods asked thoughtfully.

"No, we do not worship any Deva or deity."

"Swear by the Moon." Ridge demanded. "Do you know of Her?"

"I will and I do." Dart bowed his head, remembering as he nodded, revealing, "In the 1500s, the queen and our clan fought with the Conquistadors of Queen Isabelle, and the Vampyri of Patmos under orders from the Augyr Vampyr, in defense of the followers of Coyolxauhqui against the blood burning witches of Huitzilopochtli and his mother Coatlicue. Their Deva or deity was quite mad. Their Moon Deva, Coyolxauhqui which means 'Painted with bells' or 'She who wears bells' was said to have been dismembered by her youngest brother when she led the Centzon Huitznahua or Four Hundred Warriors against he and their mother. So violent was her death that they claimed the bones stuck out of her twitching limbs, then Huitzilopochtli threw her head into the sky where it became the moon we see." He pulled a bottle of wine from the vineyard box which he carried out earlier. The vineyard was still managed by his stepfather's family. He opened it with his talon-like nail, held it up to the moon and declared, "I swear to you by your Moon deva that I will not harm any of you." He took a drink and held it out toward the werewolves.

Trembling, Woods took the bottle first and took a drink then announced, "I agree to serve your clan until our debt can be paid."

Ridge also took a bottle, "I also agree to serve your clan and give you my first child as your queen demands in payment for our debt."

"Ridge, no!" Heather exclaimed, but he put his hand on her shoulder, holding her at arm's length as he took a drink of the best red wine he had ever tasted. She slapped at him trying to knock the bottle away, then stormed into the house.

Her brother looked after her for a moment before looking at the bottle label. "This is amazing. What is it? It seems so... familiar."

"It should," Dart murmured as he took the bottle back, thinking of Nigel who died so long ago and how Ouroboros' Lycani thrall loved it.

"What?" Ridge asked.

"What does it smell and taste like to you?" Dart asked curiously, sitting down.

Ridge looked at him oddly. "The smell of wild berries and pipe tobacco remind me of my grandparents who lived in White Mountain Pack until they went to the Moon. Its taste reminds me of mixed berry cobbler with a toasted almond crisp top and something else."

"Star Anise?" Dart suggested as he took the other bottle back from Woods. "Or Licorice perhaps. You always said it tasted faintly like your favorite candy or you did before you died... It is a Testamatta Sangiovese. The first wine, made by the Etruscans before the rise of the Roma. My foster father's family had a Sangiovese vineyard that I have owned for six centuries. It has some of the oldest vines in Europe." He watched Shishi rolling around in the coals as Ridge and Woods stared at him dumbstruck.

/\^^^^/\

Heather stormed inside; her shoes clapping loudly on the stone floor as she hurried to the large common room serving as a medical ward. Only Tetley and Abel were still patients. The Wicce stood talking to the human nurse over Tetley's bed and Heather wondered how a witch became a Catholic priest, because she thought Catholics hated their kind. The dark and pale demons were by her Alpha's bed. Oddly, the female seemed to be weeping as she held his hands and knelt by his bed.

"Wake him up!" Heather demanded in a hostile pitch.

"We cannot. He is over come with his grief and PTSD," Ouroboros announced his normally passive face hinted at a scowl at her tone.

"You don't know anything about our grief or anything!" Heather spat.

"Was the ceremony not enough?" Ouroboros asked. "What more do you need us to do to help you?"

"I need you to not take our pups. They already took our other pups and killed them; we won't give you more to murder." Heather hissed.

"What exactly do you think we will do with the pups?" Anjael asked as she rose gracefully to her feet.

"I don't know... but I don't trust you. I won't ever trust you. You're demons and I know demons don't do anything for free. My packmates can sell their souls and offspring to you but I won't!" She screeched, "You can't buy me... And... And I won't let you have Ridge or his..."

Ouroboros pinned her against the wall before she realized they moved. The cold, waxed adobe pressed against her back. She could feel the talons against her throat and closed her eyes waiting for him to squeeze and send her to the moon and her family. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes slowly and looking into his snarling gargoyle face. His pupils were slit like a cats, but sideways. He blinked very slowly then growled at her in a deeply demonic voice.

"You will not interfere. What may or may not happen between your brother and I, is none of your concern. Your only concern will be producing an heir in his place if he does not select a suitable female." He retracted his talons leaving only pinpricks holes too small to leak blood. "If you defy my queen, we will consume your soul and you will never be with your mate again. Do you understand, Lycani bitch?"

She shook as she nodded and clitched her throat, then she turned and ran out of the room.

"Consume her soul? Really?" Anjael rubbed her forehead. "Must you always play the demon, Uncle?"

"Her fear and hate are greater than her gratitude will ever be," Ouro shrunk back down to his mortal. "I will not risk my hope." He left.

Justus and Alec looked at Anjael who inhaled and exhaled slowly then revealed, "When my uncle was very young, almost five thousand years ago, he fell in love with a High Priest of Khons, the ancient Coptic Deva of the Moon. He and his lover protected that temple from a large band of raiders at the cost of Khonshu-et's life while the child devotees escaped. They saved the entire city of Lycopolis. He was the only one who died, if you don't count my Uncle's heart. The Deva offered my uncle a boon in exchange for a thousand and a half years of service. The soul of his beloved would return to him every few generations as a child of Wepwawet, the wolf deva. That was before their species were called they Lycani. Ouroboros agree instantly and protected the temple in Lycopolis until it was destroyed after the war between Chaonnophris and Ptolemaios the fourth."

"That was about two hundred years before the birth of the Messiah and the common era began," Justus said as he rubbed his chin. "He thinks Ridge is this wolf spirit."

"We know he is. Khonshu-et's spirit carried a particular scent, the incense of the moon temple of Lycopolis. His last incarnation was Nigel..."

"Bourne?" Justus looked shocked. "But he had a mate and pups."

"And served as my uncle's companion, on the down low, as they say now," Anjael revealed and shrugged. "I am glad times have changed again and that my uncle will no longer have to hide his affections for his male."

She sat down beside Abel to wait for him to wake. She hoped she didn't have to restrain him again.

/\^^^^/\

"Before I died?" Ridge finally managed to ask. "What do you mean? What do you really want from us?"

"We only wish to resurrect your pack, Ethridge. None of us were expecting to find what we did, and the Queen was more than willing to avenge you all... We do not regret rescuing you or the expense of helping you recover from your trauma but overcoming it is a choice each of you must make, despite Queen Anjael's demand for each of you to bear an offspring." He looked at the others. "Would anyone else like a taste or glass?"

"How much is that going to cost us, demon?" Heather hissed as she returned.

"Nothing." Dart appraised her; she looked and smelled both despairingly terrified and raging angry. "It's from my private vineyard and my private stock. Lord Ouroboros hoards his gold coins and gems; I hoard my wines. The grapes' name comes from the term blood of the gods. Consider it a resurrection gift on this night when you burned the hides of your enemies and embraced that you were saved from captivity and certain death to be returned to the land of the living."

About half of the pack shared in the wine, while Dartanian told them nostalgically about growing up in the workshop of his sculptor father Agostino and visiting the wine country. Heather took and entire bottle, and went to sit by herself, fuming and drinking. She didn't want this pain and emptiness; she wanted her dead mate and child, but her brother's and Alpha's oaths had bound her to the demons in their midst.

/\^^^^/\

The Rogue Alpha Todd promised to spare the lives of the mates or sisters of the Lost Mine males who won the fights, so the males battled to the death and killed their packmates. Abel didn't believe him, but he was still responsible for a dozen deaths to save Barley. Then Todd offered a reward, if he beat ten in a row then renounced his claim as alpha, they would be free to flee.

Barley shook her head, screaming at him not to do it. "Abel, no! No!"

"And we leave together?" Abel didn't look at her.

"You may leave together; you have my word as the Alpha."

Abel went through the gate of the cage built around the pool and jumped down. "Send them."

It was bloody and brutal, but he killed them all to save her. Kneeling on the bottom of the pool surrounded by the massacred bodies of his father's warriors, it was time for the last one. He prayed it wasn't Ethridge, knowing the Beta would kill him to save his sister's life.

"Abel?"

He looked up and saw it was his mate at the edge of the pool. Her eyes which had always enchanted him, held nothing but horror. He felt her rapes, he knew what they were doing to her. He didn't care as long as they escaped this horror alive.

"Time to put up or shut up, young alpha. Number ten then you can leave," Todd laughed wickedly. Abel was dazed, and Todd's words didn't make sense, then he shoved her, and she fell.

Abel didn't manage to catch Barley, but he held her in his arms. She clung to him sobbing. Inhaling her scent, his wolf growled at the stench of other males and Todd's on what was his alone.

She looked up as she cupped his face in her hands. "I love you. I forgive you. I'm happy that you'll survive."

Staring at her Abel could not make sense of her words. "I love you too," he responded automatically. He looked up at Todd, "Send in the last one so we can leave."

The answering grin was as pure, malevolent evil as the words, "You're holding number ten."

"You said my mate and I could leave if I overcame ten in a row." Abel argued, he still didn't understand.

"Yes, I said you both could leave, but I never said you would both be alive." Todd's pack of rogues laughed. Some had even stopped their nightly assault on the Lost Mine females to join in the mocking laughter.

Abel shaking his head slowly, he looked back down at her. He hugged her to him tightly, inhaling her scent deeply. "I love you."

"I know. I love you too, but I want you to survive, I want you to love again." Barley wept. "Just do it quickly then go... Never look back. I'm ready." She kissed him, sobbing against his lips.

An unearthly growl tore from his chest as he and his wolf made their decision. Before any realized what happened, Abel made the leap away from his mate and was up the side of the pool and through the open gate before he could be stopped. His warform's claws missed Todd's throat by an inch as they dug deep furrows in his torso, from his clavicle to his hip. Suddenly, Abel was zapped with a cattle prod. He seized the end and ripped it away from the male before bashing it through his skull. Four warforms jumped on him as he tried to get to Todd. His claws hooked the throat of one and tore it out in a spray of warm blood as his teeth bit into another's head.

"Abel! RUN!" Barley's scream pulled at his consciousness. His need to protect her buffering his bloodlust. A hand full of powder was thrown in his face and he coughed violently then yelped painfully, shifting rapidly back into his skin.

Todd laughed as he stood there bleeding from shoulder to hip. His eyes glowed like they were burning, and his scent changed to one of sunburnt roadkill. He held Barley by the throat. "Let's take them to the mine."

Instead of going to the bottom of the ravine where the entrance was, they were dragged to the top. Cuffed and tied to the old pully beam, Todd kicked him off the edge. Hanging and helpless, Abel fought his restraints as Todd's warform sexually assaulted and mauled Barley to death.

"I would have let you take her with you. You could have spared her." Taunting, Todd held her bloodied body out to him. "Now you'll die too."

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!" Abel shouted at him.

Todd threw her body and Abel twisted his neck to watch her fall. She landed with a barely audible thump and lay unmoving. So small, so far down. Suddenly, he felt dizzy from the height and looked up. His silver cuffs were held by a thin rope. The slap of a silver braided whip against his skin made him scream and he swung slightly. Hanging like a pinata, the whip struck him again and again until he no longer cried out or even groaned at the abuse. Barley was dead. Eva was dead. His parents. Most of their pack. By the twentieth lash, he prayed for the rope to break so the Moon's hounds could take him for judgement and punishment because he failed to protect Barley as a mate should, and he failed their pack as the Alpha because he killed so many himself. The lies of a dishonorable Alpha and his own desperate hope ruined him and there was no way back.

Abel woke slowly. The sky through the windows told him it was almost dawn. He couldn't remember how he got there. He only remembered hanging above the mine and Barley's body. Trying to shout from his parched throat at the scavengers below to leave her alone. Every time he looked down the vertigo and fear became worse. His wolf whimpered in his mind and showed him flashes of a beautiful, pale female with wings who carried him to the pack. Killed all the rogues with another, then tended him like a mate by licking his wounds. The evening bonfire came back with startling clarity. He took Todd's skin from Heather and tore it to bits as his wolf, then he looked at the moon, begged Barley to forgive him and tried to jump in the fire. The pale female became a giant creature almost as tall as his warform and its match in strength. She was fearsome and beautiful, and she refused to let him die. He remembered their conversation with terrifying clarity.

"What do you want of me? Why won't you let me die?" He groaned in agony as he laid in her arms.

"Because I can't," Anjael ran her pearly nails through his sweat-soaked hair as she repeated, "You do not get to die until you have another child. You owe me for your pack's rescue. And you can't die until you give me what I want."

"Hello, Abel. You've been out for three days again, how do you feel?" The beautiful female with eyes as pale blue as the north star smiled at him.

"Again?"

"You were in a coma for three days after we found you hanging above the mine ravine. After your... episode... the other night, we sedated you to keep you from harming yourself. It wore off but you have just slept for another three days, like the Messiah in his tomb." She held a glass of water to his lips. "Welcome back to life." She had said that before, he knew she had.

A Catholic Monk, who smelled like a witch, was tending another patient across the room. The reference to being brought back to life triggered a memory from a religious studies class he took as an elective in college to help him understand humans.

"I agree to give you a child to continue my lineage. I want it named after one of my parents."

"Of course, Abel." Anjael promised.

"Don't call me Abel anymore, you brought me back from the dead and won't let me die until I pay my debt to you, demon." He hated the way she said his name, with a tone of familiar affection.

"I'm not a real demon..."

"Aren't you? You look and act like a demon," He accused, " You own me and my pack until we pay you with our pups. Are you going to skin them and eat them?" 

"Don't be ridiculous, Abel."

A name came into his mind as he considered how he never wanted to hear the one Barley had spoken with such tenderness, and later, anguish, again. "I told you, don't call me Abel. Call me Lazarus."

/\^^^^/\

END Part 1
What do you think?

The rest will be coming but more slowly, I have a lot of editing to do to get Blue Butterflies and Some Anemones are Blue published this spring and summer. Thanks for reading. Be Blessed and have a lovely day.