Prolog
15 years ago
Dina’s POV
“No one can know,” I said looking at my mate. His strong features were as always marred by the semi-permanent scowl on his face, but today there was a hardness to them, that wasn’t always present. His brows were furrowed together and his ocean blue eyes were cold and distant; like he was lost somewhere in his own thoughts.
“I know,” he replied however calmly. Then he looked at me and must have seen the worry in my expression because his instantly softened into the faintest hint of a smile. He brushed his hand against my cheek, kissing my forehead gently, and whispered sweet nonsense into my ear. I didn’t even realize as my tense muscles relaxed and I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
“No one is going to harm our son,” he said, deadly intent in his voice if anyone ever dared to try. I nodded, wanting nothing more than to believe him, but I also knew, that in order for that to happen, sacrifices had to be made.
Somehow I felt it was all my fault. If it wasn’t for me none of this would happen. If I’d just been a normal wolf, my son’s life could be a normal one.
But it wasn’t.
We didn’t know much about Dire Wolves still. As time passed, we were able to tell the difference between ordinary werewolves and my dire wolf. Like the fact that “ordinary” wolves didn’t have a human language – which I thought was ridiculous! But once we mated, Levi’s wolf apparently inherited some of my wolf’s abilities, because they could start to communicate. At first, he thought it was weird – but Levi being Levi, adapted quickly and made it work.
At only 8 years old it was apparent that LJ, our biological child, was the same as me.
Levi turned back to Willa, the witch helping us.
“Can I trust you’ll keep this to yourself?” he asked, but I knew that he was ready to rip her to shreds if she didn’t. But luckily Willa was one of those kinds of people, that offered her loyalties for friendship. And since she didn’t have a coven, Levi and I had offered her a place in our pack. He’d been welcomed from day one and had even found her mate her soon after settling down. I was truly happy for her and grateful to have her…
“Of course, Alpha Stone,” she replied respectfully, bowing her head in submission. Levi thanked her and she stood up, casting a last glance at our sleeping boy. “The spell I put on him will wear off in just a minute,” she said, turning her attention back to us. “He might be a bit sore and perhaps experience some dizziness, but it should pass quickly.”
“Thank you so much for doing this for us,” I said softly, taking her outstretched hand.
“I didn’t do anything,” she shrugged, a disappointed look on her face. “Literally!” She frowned as she was thinking, looking between us and LJ again. “I don’t get it,” she sighed at last as if annoyed with herself and her magic. As if she couldn’t believe that it failed her. “It’s supposed to be a simple binding-spell and it binds everything from daemons to wild cats; it shouldn’t be any different for a wolf.”
“Would you like to take another look at my tattoo?” I offered--- and instantly Levi’s arm was around my waist. He didn’t like showing it off to anyone, even if the entire wolf knew about me being a Dire Wolf. Sure, he’d gotten into one hell of a fight with the Counsel and the King for not giving me up, but when push came to show, Alpha Levi Stone turned out not to be a force to reckon with. I guess what the Counsel and the Kind didn’t count on, was that the entire pack along with several of our allied packs, stood behind his decision.
If they wanted to separate a wolf from his mate, who’s to say what else kind of power they’d want?
The King and the Counsel backed off in the end, but we had to make a deal with them. Which was why, it was important to us, that this magic spell worked, before they knew what had happened…
“I don’t think so,” Willa sighed and shook her head. “I already took my time studying it and considering I’m gay,” she smiled and grinned at Levi “I don’t think your mate would appreciate me seeing you naked again.”
“Got that right,” Levi rumbled, possessively rubbing the small of my back.
“Levi,” I sighed, turning my attention to my mate. “She’s hot, you have a big dick and I’m straight. Guess what’s speaks to me the most?”
I spoke without thinking – nothing new in that. But since having kids I found I really needed a filter…
“Is Dad a big dick?”
Oh shit!
Of course, our 8-year-old son decided that NOW was the right time to wake up!
Levi smirked as the cat that got the crème; his ego probably the size of Kansas right about now. I blushed, hiding my face under his arms, while Willa laughed.
“Don’t be too happy about it, Kid,” she winked at him. “They’re overrated anyway.”
Just then, her two-year-old daughter came into the room with her other mom in toe. And behind them the twins and Luka, not wanting to wait for a second longer. They all jumped onto the sofa all nervously asking if Leviathan was gone. Well, all except for the little girl, who headed straight to her mother.
Willa’s mate, Victoria, of course, apologized, but Willa shut her up with a hefty kiss.
“I was leaving anyway,” she said gently to her mate, before turning her attention to us again. “The tattoo will seem real enough even if it doesn’t have any powers. If you play your cards right, no one will know the difference.”
We both nodded, knowing what she was telling us. We simply had to teach LJ to hide his wolf away from the world. It made me sad, especially when I thought back to the night not so long ago, that LJ suddenly had appeared in our room, waking us up.
“Mom! Dad,” he’d called out to us, shaking me so hard I bumped into Levi and woke him up in the process as well. “Wake up! We want to go out and run.”
“Not now, LJ,” Levi mumbled, as it didn’t register with either one of us, that a child – even a werewolf child – didn’t want to go run in the forest. “Go back to sleep.”
“We’re not LJ anymore,” he replied, pride in his voice. “We’re awake now. We are Leviathan.”
That jolted us both upright in bed. We looked at each other and then our son, who was standing in the middle of the room, but naked.
“Do you like it?” he beamed at us. “We chose it after you, Dad.”
“What?” I had asked confused, my head spinning with too much information in the middle of the night. “Who are we?”
“We are!” he replied, pointing to himself with a childish smugness, that could melt every mother’s heart. “Can we go somewhere to shift? We really want to get out.”
I glance back at Levi, but like me, he’d already see it. LJ had been born with blue eyes; but the boy in front of us had piercing green eyes, that glowed in the dark.
Slowly, Levi got out of bed and bent down in front of him, looking into his eyes.
“We?” he asked, his tone soft and gentle. “Are you LJ’s wolf?”
“No,” he replied instantly shaking his head so his red curls bounced on top of his head. “We are one. LJ and Wolf.” He furrowed his brows, just like his father did when he was thinking hard. “You can call us LJ, but we are Leviathan,” he concluded after a second of silence before he looked back at us with a wide smile on his face. A smile, that quickly died down when he noticed our shocked expressions. “Are you afraid? Have we done something wrong?”
“No! No, baby,” I quickly pulled myself together and slid off the bed, taking a few quick steps towards him. “This is…,” I kneeled in front of him, next to Levi, so I could look up at him instead. His eyes had changed color, but there was no doubt in my heart that the boy looking back at me, was my son. I felt it and my wolf felt it. This was still LJ. He was just… something more now…
“This is just new to us, that’s all,” I said softly in the end, feeling Levi’s hand on my back. I threw him a shirt glance and noticed him smiling. This was our son. This is what he was now and we’d deal with it one day at the time.
“Can we run?”
Levi went with him, in case he needed an alpha command to change back. And holy was my boy gorgeous! His wolf was pure black, like his father, but huge, almost the same size as the alpha running next to him.
Later we found out that the only wolf that rivaled him in size was Landon, but whereas Landon’s wolf was sleek and fine, LJ’s was a deadly combination of pure power and muscles!
“Can LJ come play now?” Luka’s small body came into view. Although almost two years older than LJ, he still had trouble speaking. His voice was deep and strained, from the scars running across his throat that had severely damaged his vocal cords.
I nodded and instantly Luka ran up to the rest, grabbed his arms, and pulled him out. The twins quickly followed although Landon lingered just a little while longer, not willing to part with his precious book just yet.
“Come on, Leviathan!” DJ called out, rushing past the boys and took the lead – as always…
We both sighed.
“Now we just need to get our kids on board with the idea, that they’re not supposed to tell anyone about Leviathan,” Levi sighed, kissing the top of my head, pulling me into his side.
I nodded.
On his 12th birthday, Willa came back and put on a marvelous light show to fool the King, the Counsel, and everyone else that didn’t want a full-blooded Dire Wolf to be loose on the world. His skin was branded with a tattoo similar to mine, but that was just for show.
LJ was a Dire Wolf with no magic holding him back…
