Chapter 24 - Undeniably His Mate (Maddy & Nico) Novel Free Online by Roxie Ray

I was both scared and intrigued. Nico was one hell of a storyteller if this was how he was starting. I nodded at him to go on.

“There was once a royal line of wolves. Shifters who were part of the longest standing pack in history. The pack dated back hundreds of years and was the largest ever known-over a thousand members, if the legends are to be believed. My pack is considered massive and we’ve only got around sixty members, if that tells you anything. It takes an impressive and powerful will for an alpha to keep that many members in line and on the same page.

“They were all descended from a powerful wolf shifter who’d married a human woman. A human princess. He married into an actual royal family. One of his final descendants continued that tradition and married a widowed queen. Their children, like those before, were born as hybrids. Half-human and half-shifter. Something that was unheard of in other situations. Only this royal family bloodline had this ability.

“The alpha of this clan was legendary. Not because he was a royal or had hybrid heirs. He was strong, but what truly made him and his ancestors legendary were their distinct abilities. Shifters always go through a full change. We totally and completely become the animal we share the body with. These alphas? They could change different parts of their body at will. A human body but the head of a wolf? Upper torso of a wolf, and lower body of a man? A single hand changed to a paw? Changing their teeth to fangs? They could do all that. It was where the original stories of werewolves came from. They were also much stronger and faster than regular shifters.” Nico paused and brushed a hand over his face.

“This final werewolf king was named Edemas Hollander. His pack weas feared not only by humans but other shifters. They were able to harness the power of the moon-again, like the old werewolf legends. It made them stronger than any other living being. On the day and night of the full moon, they were basically unstoppable and at their most powerful. It was this power that helped them reign over all shifters.” Nico sighed and looked at me. “Is this making sense?”

I stared at him, my mouth hanging partially open. I had so many questions, but I needed to hear what he was telling me. We could sort it out afterward. At the moment, I was enthralled by the outlandish story he was weaving. I nodded for him to go on.

“Okay, good. So Edemas had children and they could shift, but this started to fade with each passing year. Especially within the royal line, the shifters chose to mate with humans. Every generation, the werewolf bloodline grew weaker. Even some of Edemas’s own children couldn’t shift. Edemas didn’t like that the lineage was getting diluted, so he took a concubine-a shifter woman-and started mating with her to produce more pureblooded heirs. This caused issues Edemas didn’t foresee. The family of the concubine considered themselves the pureblood line, and Edemas’s legal wife and her children the half-breed line. There was tension, to say the least.

“While this ongoing issue was brewing within the royal family, the other packs feared how rapidly Edemas’s family was growing. The fact that the strength of the bloodline was dissipating had given them some hope that eventually the Hollander pack would vanish from the earth. The new concubine and the full-blood children swept away that hope, and now they knew that Edemas’s line would reign longer than anyone had anticipated. Maybe forever.

“The second issue was that there had been several females born to the concubine who had been born as alphas-something unheard of to this day. Those women were stronger than most male shifters. Edemas saw this happening, and started taking more concubines. It started to get out of hand. Some legends say he had upwards of three dozen children between his wife and concubines. He was trying to have as many children as possible, but that was frowned upon in the royal family. Usually you had children until you had a boy, then a second male child. After that, typically, the king would stop purposely trying to have children. I know it sounds weird, but it’s how things were done back then. Anyway, a contingent of royals informed the alpha that he was not allowed to have any more children-official heirs or concubine bastards.

“This…this is where things get bad. The stories say Edemas flew into a rage. He slaughtered the contingent of family members, some of them his own nieces and nephews. His wife, the queen, was also a victim of his rage. He found her in the castle, and knowing she was the one who had orchestrated the proclamation, tore her throat out with his own wolf teeth. The news was like a nuclear bomb going off. Every human and shifter leader within hundreds of miles heard of the butchery, and they knew neither Edemas nor his lineage could be allowed to live. For more than three years, a resistance faction formed in the shadows, a combining of strength between all the shifter clans who were disloyal to Edemas as alpha and humans who knew they would be subjugated if the Hollander line was allowed to flourish. Also, some of Edemas’s distant family joined the resistance. These were cousins and far-removed relations. None of them were werewolves, but they craved the power and fortune of Edemas. They felt slighted by their lack of station in his court. They were the main leaders of this resistance. A new royal family, basically.”

Nico laced his fingers together and gripped his hands so hard, his knuckles went white. “On the night of the new moon, when Edemas and his children were at their weakest, the resistance attacked. It was bloody and brutal. Not a single descendant were to be left alive. The main party attacked Edemas in his stronghold, but hundreds of others tracked down his family. There…” Nico paused and made a pained face. “There are stories of pregnant concubines having their stomachs cut open, the fetuses inside killed. Children struck down in their beds, babies…” Nico put a hand to his face. I could see the horror in his eyes as he told the story. “Babies were killed in their cribs. The bloodline fully severed. Ended, wholly and completely.” He finally raised his eyes and locked them on mine. “At least, that’s what most shifters thought until this week.”

I looked at him for several long seconds before laughing uncomfortably. “Yeah, but that’s all just a story, right? You have to be joking.”

Nico shook his head. “I wish I was joking.”

“No.” I jumped up and started to pace around the living room. “What are you saying? That story? That’s…like, massive. That type of thing would be in the history books. Everyone would know that story. It sounds like something out of the French Revolution. Come on, Nico.”

“History is written by the winners. Most of the shifters were ashamed of the atrocities they committed that day. It needed to be hidden. Not only because Edemas had been a madman, a fascist, and probably psychotic, but because the only way to stop him was to commit crimes no one wanted remembered.”

I ran my hands through my hair. “How does this connect to me, though?”

Nico’s eyebrows furrowed. “Your DNA test. The only match was for Edemas.”

“But that has to be an error. If his entire bloodline was killed, I can’t possibly be related to him. I can’t.” I was starting to get very scared. What did this all mean?

“Yes, it’s confusing, but it’s what we have to go on. The only thing that makes any sense at all is that someone got away. That a member of his family was able to escape and go into hiding. From there? You follow the family tree branches until they get to you.”

“I still don’t get how a guy who died three-hundred years ago has his DNA on this website. How is that even possible?”

Nico chewed at the inside of his cheek. “I thought about that. I think someone-a shifter family-kept a sample of Edemas’s blood. It had to have been held for centuries. Once these DNA tests became standard, they probably sent it off. If I had to guess? They may be monitoring the sites, waiting for matches.”

“Why, though? That’s what you haven’t answered.”

“I don’t know,” Nico said, his voice barely below a shout. I realized he was as confused as I was. “There’s more to the story.”

“Oh great,” I said, crossing my arms. “What more do I have to look forward to?”

“Edemas was pretty paranoid toward the end. He had a massive fortune. Gold, silver, jewels, everything. Millions and millions of today’s dollars. He had it all hidden, and as far as I know, it was never found. If it was found, it was taken and hoarded by the new royal family. Basically any surviving heir”-he looked at me with a deeper seriousness-“would be entitled to that fortune if it was discovered.”

“So, is this all Javi? Is he some history buff or something? Found out who I was and attacked me?” I asked, not even letting myself think of the mountain of Scrooge McDuck gold he’d mentioned.

“No, I don’t think so. My best guess? For decades, there’s been rumors that the members of the royal family, the ones distantly related to Edemas by marriage, are still alive. I think they’re the ones who kept the blood sample and are trying to find any last descendants and kill them. If I had to guess, they’re in control of Edemas’s profile on that and other DNA test sites.”

Realization started to dawn on me then. If he was right… “I’ve got shifter blood in me?

Nico didn’t answer at first. Instead, he got up and walked across the room and leaned against the wall. He looked deep in thought. “I think so. It would explain your scent. You smell like a cross between a shifter and a human. It’s faint, but there. Something I’ve never experienced before. It’s the only thing that makes any sense whatsoever. It’s very diluted, and I doubt you can shift. At least, I’m ninety-nine percent sure you can’t.” Nico’s head dropped again, severing the eye contact he’d held. “It…uh…also explains my wolf’s reaction to you.”

“What?” I asked dumbly.

“My wolf. From the moment I first saw you, it’s been acting strange.”

“Strange how?”

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