The Alpha's Blind Fate
Chapter 347: Who Are You, Zelkov?

Chapter 347: Who Are You, Zelkov?

ZINA

The meeting dispersed, leading to the commencement of various preparations. On the outside, nothing was happening as the content of their meeting was to remain top secret until Daemon and Zelkov managed to inflitrate the hold of the Seven Witch Elders.

But on the inside, Zina was feeling the heat very much. And the pressure of keeping her pregnancy secret pressed on her.

Between being told that there was a likelihood of her to miscarry, and the fact that Daemon was about to under a life and death expedition, Zina believed she was very much right to have kept the pregnancy away from him.

It would serve as a distraction, and Daemon didn’t need anymore distraction that he already had. Already, because of her, he had so much on his plate.

So on this end, Zina would hold up the coast. In the face of his abundant trust in her, she couldn’t afford to be found wanting herself. Now more than ever, she needed to be both his Luna and wife in all regards.

And that was how she found herself in the Great Hall with Zelkov who sat across her with his head bowed.

Facing the man himself, Zina didn’t know which question to start with. There were a thousand things she needed to know, so she started with the far simplest.

"Can you tell me who exactly you’re? I mean, who you really are, Zelkov?"

The man raised his head, his mysterious brown eyes glued to hers.

"I am a Hunter," he began, speaking so carefully as though he was afraid he would say the wrong thing, or perhaps he was afraid of offending her, "in the West the role has a different meaning. We track down werewolves much like bounty hunters...." He trailed.

Zina nodded, urging him to continue. She knew he had more to say. They both knew that much.

"However when I was three," he continued, "I was taken away by the Hunters on the order of an Alpha. I later learnt that the Alpha was my father, and that I was from the Screamers Pack."

Zina digested that information as she braced herself to ask her next question. Already, she knew the answer to it. But she needed to hear it from the horses mouth.

"What of your mother?"

"She was a maid to the Luna." He answered without skipping a beat.

Zina felt her heart stutter a bit. She had expected the answer, but the details was another thing.

"Was a maid?" She repeated carefully, "I can’t imagine the Luna accepted your existence well."

No woman, absolutely no woman would allow herself to be scorned like that. No woman could swallow such an insult. Suddenly, Zina was grateful that the man whom she had thought to be her father was not her father in fact.

He sounded like an asshole with a capital ’A’.

Zelkov’s eyes seemed to smother from mild amusement. Like her question instigated a memory of something he found funny. "As opposed to that, I think she was the only one who actually accepted me."

Zina startled at the answer, staring at him. "She did?" She asked slowly.

Was that why Zelkov had been so concerned about her? Did he feel like he owed her mother something?

But she still didn’t have the full story. So she stuffed away her additional questions, concentrating instead on what the man said.

"Yes. Luna Ameneris Screamers was a rare woman. She always believed in the progenity of the Pack, so she was ready to forget her husband’s infidelity and not necessarily forgive him."

Zina nodded slowly, allowing the words to sink in.

Ameneris.

Her mother’s name was truly beautiful.

Now, the woman whom she knew just by a projection that seemed dreamlike on most days now felt more real. Tangible even.

Ameneris Screamers.

Bracing herself, she asked the next most important question. "And how did you and my mother survive the execution of the Pack?"

Zelkov’s expression darkened. "My name is not on the pedigree of the family, so the Luna was able to portal me back to the Hunters. She used the Pack Runes."

"What of my mother?" Zina followed up immediately, noting that was yet the second time she was hearing about the pack runes, "did she escape as well through the pack runes you speak of?"

That was her foolishly clinging to some stupid hope that maybe there was a mixup in the harsh visions she had come to know, but his answer shed light on a harsh reality.

"No, she wasn’t able to escape. In fact, I never knew what happened to her. That was until three years ago."

"Three years? How did you....?"

"Before I was portalled away, the Luna told me about the power of the Runes and how true bloodlines of the screamers pack can use it for wonders. She didn’t have time to say much, but she did tell me of multiple functions it could perform most especially projection of body, sense, and voice...."

Zina swallowed, listening intently.

"I heard her voice one day, your majesty. And in it, she simply mananged to say two words, ’find Zina’."

Zina froze, tears brimming in her eyes. This time, she couldn’t hold onto her dignity as Queen and shamelessly, those tears began to roll down.

"Was that all you could get from her?"

Zelkov bowed his head, his fists clenched on the table. "Already, it seemed she planned the communication for years. That was the extent the projection could work with me."

"But she once projected to me, and it lasted far more than that. Didn’t she manage to say what happened to her? And why she has been unreachable for so long? Did she not tell you why she had to leave me?!"

At the end, Zina was bawling. But it was hot angry tears because if it hadn’t dawned on her before, now she knew that something terrible happened to her mother.

Something so terrible that she couldn’t imagine it. Something inconceivable and evil.

Zelkov stared at her in surprise, "she once projected to you?" He asked.

Zina angrily wiped away her tears. "My life was in danger once. I screamed, and I found myself somewhere."

He squinted, "I think you might have performed Reverse Projection. It wouldn’t have been possible for her to summon you with her strength. Already, I could feel her weakness when she projected to me three years ago."

Zina sniffled. "So you mean I summoned her instead?"

He looked to be in awe, and that was a strange expression on his rather always bland face. "I’m afraid so. What you did... that is impressive. You just have a higher bloodline."

"But my mother is the only connection I’ve to the pack," Zina said, stating yet another harsh truth, "my father is anything but a Screamers."

"True but it doesn’t work like that your majesty. Your mother actually had a better blood claim to the title of the Screamers Pack better than the Alpha of the Pack. Your mother, the Luna, was after all the daughter of the former Alpha despite the fact that she was a skip with regards to the powers of the pack."

Zina processed that information with curiousity and awe. It seemed she had far too much to learn about her origins. And finally, she was having answers.