Wolves of War

2

  Zephyra was sunning in front of the main den door just a few days after she had arrived at the dens on top of Mount Lykaion. She had spent this time mourning her old life and making sense of this new one. In her heart, hatred burned. How many knew Aegus' plan? Has anyone tried to stop him? Had no one spoken on her behalf? Why hadn't she been warned? She blamed them all.

Lykaion came back about mid-day. She didn't know or care about where he went during the day. The other wolves treated her with kindness, for which she was grateful, but Zephyra was teetering on the edge of madness. She had gone from princess to a wild animal in the matter of a few minutes, tossed into a world she didn't know existed, in all honesty, a world she thought couldn't exist.

Lykaion stood behind her, watching her stare into the distance. "You need to eat, my dear. We need to discuss your future here. A female of your status should not be without a mate."

Zephyra tensed. She was not ready to discuss being a mate to anyone. She stood and turned on Lykaion with a glare. "And if I am not ready to mate?"

"I will not force you. But our kind live for centuries and you cannot spend the entire time staring into space grieving the humans who did this. What sort of weak royal blood do you have that you do not still crave power?" Lykaion asked, watching the play of emotions on her face.

He had been of status in his human life, that had not changed now. His power seeking had not stopped and when she embraced her role he would show her the art of shapeshifting. But even though he was growing tired of watching her mope, she was a great asset to him as a queen with her royal blood and intelligence.

"How does a wolf go about getting power like this? They would kill us if we went near the village." She replied, standing on all fours and stretching. This would be an amusing answer.

"There is power in other places besides Earth, Zephyra. There are realms and planes you could only dream about that are right under your nose. It is a never ending saga of power struggles and wealth."

Zephyra had not considered that, her ears twitched in curiosity. "Planes? Realms? How do you get to them?"

Lykaion hesitated before speaking. He wasn't sure he could explain it to her without showing her. "I need you to believe, first. I need you to know how very serious this is."

"After this week I would believe anything. What do you require from me?" Zephyra studied his face, as if she expected this to be a trick. As much as she wanted it to be, she knew that this was not a hallucination anymore. But it didn't mean she trusted anyone else, nor did she ever plan to.

"I need nothing, I shall take you on a tour of the Underworld. You know what that is, I assume?" Lykaion slipped into his human form and reclined beside her on one elbow, watching as the sun sank below the horizon.

"I have heard of it. It is a terrible place, why would we go there?" She gave him a hard glare. "Is this some joke?"

"Who told you it was terrible? Have you been there? Because until now you did not believe in any of this. Well, I have been there. The underworld is a collection of cities, as is the afterlife. We will only visit the main one, Hades. It is safer, the rest goes down beneath Hades in a spiral of seven circles, they become more dangerous as you descend. That's what humans carry on about, but few of them make it there. Demons have no time for piddling humans and their supposed transgressions."

Zephyra stared at him in disbelief, "Then what is the point?"

"You are aware, are you not, that there are many pantheons of Gods, aren't you? The Greek gods aren't the only ones. I know they get their power from having worshipers. How else they enjoy these ridiculous humans, I don't know." He chuckled and sat up straighter, watching several of his soldiers returning with a stag across the valley below.