Chapter Four

Some words in this chapter may seem hard to pronounce, included below is a legend to help!

Lyngvi (ling-vee)

Gleipnir (gl-eye-p-neer)

Ivaldi (i-val-dee) much like how it's spelt

~*~

"Alright, mind telling me what the hell happened back there? It was your idea to lead this mission, but you were distracted the moment we entered Raseri territory. What was going through your mind?" Niklas interrogates Kai the moment they return to community house after arriving safely back.

"The girl who helped you, who was she?" Kai asks instead.

"I have no idea; I never even got her name. Why?"

Kai lets out a frustrated breath and paces in front of him.

"There was this scent, it was unfamiliar but sweet, I have never smelt anything like it before not from an enemy none the less. I wanted to figure out where it was coming from, I thought – I thought it might be a sign towards my mate."

Niklas lowers his guard, already having the suspicion that it was due to that.

"You think it might be the girl who helped us," Niklas states.

Kai just nods.

"Don't you think I would have at least carried the same scent? I was near her, I grabbed her hand, I would've had remnants of it."

Kai is already aware of this truth; he just didn't want to admit it out loud. But the thought of Niklas having touched her irritates him for an unknown reason.

"What is it you wanted to discuss with me?" Kai asks, needing a change of subject.

"It's about the girl, though I'm not sure if she is your fated mate, there was something strange about her when she helped us. It didn't seem like she agreed with any of the views and values of the Raseri pack, but she was also willing to use us as scapegoats if needed. She admitted all of this willingly, if not for her, we would've been paralyzed and devoured within minutes."

Willing to help, but also willing to sacrifice.

"What does that tell you about her?" Kai asks, wanting to hear Niklas' thoughts about this. If Kai has the support and evidence of the Beta's son, there is a bigger chance he can come up with an excuse to revisit the Raseri territory and find that girl. Whether she he is mate or not, they owe her their lives, the least he should do is try and thank her.

"That tells me she is a survivor, and there is a chance she has been trying to survive for a long time. We know everything there is to know about the Raseri pack among all the others, and we know how fiercely loyal they are to their values and Alpha, even more so than us. But this girl, she detected us long before we even detected her, and she sought us out to help. She knew exactly what we were doing, too, but she didn't hesitate to betray her pack."

"Wait – what did you just say? She detected us before we detected her?"

Niklas nods slowly, not sure why that is what he picked out of everything he has said, until he stops and thinks about it himself.

'How…how in the world did she detect us so soon before we even had the chance to sniff her out? We didn't get a whiff of her scent until we were mere yards away from her.'

Kai recognizes the look of realization on Niklas' face.

"Get Gunnar and Harbin in here, I want to hear every last detail of what happened with her," Kai demands. Niklas simply nods and rushes off to round up the other guys and haul them back to the Alpha house.

"I know we're all exhausted at the moment, but I need you to try your best to remember the details of what happened when you met with the Raseri pack girl tonight."

Gunnar shakes his head, looking about ready to pass out.

"I'm really not in the right state of mind to think about that," he mumbles, but Harbin quickly pushes in front of him, waving his hand in the air like a teacher's pet in class.

"Kai, I have something really important to tell you! I can tell you exactly what happened that night," he cries. Kai motions him forward and he seats himself down, before being handed a quill and paper.

"Write in short form as you talk about the details of tonight," Kai says.

Harbin nods enthusiastically and wets the quill.

"Where should I start?" he asks, looking to Niklas.

"Start when she approached us in the forest, telling us of the barrier."

"Oh, yes! She was sitting by the stream, we weren't sure why, but we needed to get across it, so we went around her and made sure we were undetected, but she somehow still knew we were there and followed us. Niklas was the first to detect her and threatened her to reveal herself, that was when she told us that she has known we were there all along, I guess so that we would know to trust her," Harbin starts explaining.

Kai shoots a look of daggers towards Niklas at the mention of threatening the girl. Niklas feels the harsh look on his face and is slightly startled to see such a look of anger on Kai's face, unsure where the sudden rage is coming from.

"Continue, Harbin," Kai grits out through clenched teeth.

"Okay, so then she told us about the barrier, telling us we would be paralyzed the moment we passed through it and the whole pack would be alerted that there are intruders. Then, she led us to the place where the barrier is controlled, and Kai! This is the best part, the rumor of the Gioll, it's true!"

Kai stares incredulously at Harbin, wanting to believe this as another one of his antics, but looking at the faces of Niklas and Gunnar, he isn't lying.

"How do you know this? Did you see it yourself?"

Harbin nods with much enthusiasm again, while Niklas and Gunnar simply nod with solemn looks.

"I went into the building with the girl, I saw it for myself. It was a piece of Gioll, the very rock that once chained the great giant beast, Fenrir. The rumor that the Raseri pack some how got their hands on a piece of it is true, and they are harnessing the unknown power inside to create the barrier that protects their entire territory," Niklas explains.

This discovery will shake the entire Wolfmåne pack, it will crush the little hope and spirit the other surrounding packs have, of ever defeating the Raseri pack and ridding them of the realms for good. This is also all the more reason for Kai's father to start allying together with the other packs and work harder towards a plan to wipe out the Raseri pack.

When the Wolfmåne pack finally finds the fated Luna that will lead them to their rightful home in Idavoll and finally leave the Midgard realm forever, they don't want any members of the Raseri pack following suit and entering the Niflheim realm and obtaining their full power.

They have spent centuries trying to do both; find the fated Luna, and kill off the Raseri pack. With this known fact, no wonder it has been futile all these years.

It has always been said that anyone who enters Raseri territory is never said to leave. Now, they know why. Once anyone tries to leave, they are left completely defenseless, every single one of them, and with the immense strength and power the Raseri pack already have, it isn't hard for them to take down easy prey.

Kai looks at the paper and makes sure Harbin has been jotting this down as he's speaking erratically, and thankfully he has.

"Alright, what happened after that? Can all members of the Raseri pack control the Gioll?" Kai asks.

Harbin shakes his head while the others look clueless. He seems to know a lot about this Gioll rock and thinks there is something more to this.

"Harbin, tell me about Gioll. What exactly is it?"

Harbin rolls his eyes. "Of course, you guys wouldn't remember learning about this before, we all had to take the same classes. As you do seem to at least know, Gioll is the name of the rock that was used to chain Fenrir on the Isle of Lyngvi in the lake of Amsvartnir. The rock was destroyed on the day of Ragnarök, the pieces scattering to unknown depths of the realm. How the Raseri pack were able to get a hold of it here in Midgard is beyond me, but not anyone is able to control or harness the power of Gleipnir."

Kai holds up a hand to signal for him to stop and shakes his head in confusion.

"I'm sorry, the power of what? I thought we were talking about the rock, Gioll."

Harbin groans in frustration. "You know, this is only the life and history of our ancestors, how could you seriously not know what I'm talking about? What if you are destined to find our fated Luna? You won't know what the hell you're doing when it comes time to perform the ritual and release the seal from the Bifrost."

Gunnar smacks his younger brother over the head.

"Just explain so we can go to bed."

"The chain, damnit. Gleipnir is the third chain that held Fenrir, because the first two forged by Thor didn't hold, so a third was created by a group of dwarfs known as the Sons of Ivaldi. They forged many powerful and legendary weapons for Odin, only they really have the ability to control the power held within Gleipnir."

Kai sighs. "What is so special about this chain, then? What does it have to do with the girl and what happened tonight?"

"She could control it, the power, I mean. I'm not sure how, Niklas just took her hand and held it against the surface of the rock, and the moment that happened, Gunnar and I were blasted away from the building, I didn't see what happened after, Niklas just told us to start running," Harbin says.

Kai looks to Niklas for more.

"I just had a feeling, it was a struggle for me just to enter the building and push against the invisible force of the unknown power, yet she walked in with ease. I tried using my own spiritual energy to power the rock, but nothing happened, so I took a chance and it worked. But she said she had witnessed the pack guards do it many times."

"There has to be some sort of way they're doing that, there is no way just anyone can use Gioll!" Harbin screams.

"Okay, you've said what you needed to say, we're going to bed." Gunnar comes up behind his brother and clamps a hand over his mouth, dragging him away in a headlock and leaving Niklas and Kai alone once again.

Kai stares down at the handful of papers Harbin scribbled on, determined now more than ever to put the next step of his plan in motion.

"I know that look," Niklas comments. "What are you planning now?"

"I need to speak to my father on this issue, only he can really decide my next step. But thanks to what happened tonight, I'm certain he will agree to what I have to say."

"Which is?" Niklas asks.

Kai just shakes his head. "You'll know if it works, just get some sleep for now and be prepared for another send off soon." With that said, Kai excuses Niklas and gathers all the papers from Harbin to bring to his father, before leaving for the dinning hall where he is sure his father has just finished eating breakfast, the sun having long risen in the sky since Kai's return.

Arriving at the door of war room, Kai signals to the guard standing by the door.

"I'd like to see my father; can you see if he is available?"

The guard nods and knocks once on the door before entering. He comes back out moments later and opens the door for Kai to enter, before leaving and closing it behind him. Kai enters the room, all too familiar with the large round wooden table placed in the center of the room, with two distinctive maps on it: one of Midgard and one of Asgard.

"I suppose a congratulations are in order; you saw the mission through perfectly and didn't suffer any casualties. For your first run, I would say you have done the Alpha name proud," Erik Pendersen speaks with a deep, booming voice that echoes throughout the high ceiling room. Leaning over the table, he doesn't bother to lift his head and greet his son.

"But it isn't enough to get the praise and respect of the pack. A Luna-less Alpha is a useless Alpha! How many times must you be told this?" his father shouts. "While you are out there galivanting around with your friends' playing hero, you are doing nothing more than dragging the Pendersen name down further."

"There have been many Alphas of other packs that have ruled without a Luna, fate has a tricky way of playing-"

Alpha Erik drives his fist into the table, cutting off his son's ramblings.

"Enough about fate! You are a man who cannot even find his own mate, you know nothing of fate. We are not like any other pack, we are the Wolfmåne, the elite beings, direct descendants of our God and Goddess. We are the ones to bring our brethren home, and the Pendersen family has fought for centuries to be on top, a promise to the people that we will achieve our goal – we will find the fated Luna."

This is a lecture Kai has heard all too many times, remembering it like the back of his hand. The family who holds the title of Alpha aren't bestowed the title simply because they worked hard for it, it is a test of blood purity, with their members holding the highest spiritual remnants in their blood, connecting them deeper to Geri and Freki, their God and Goddess.

But regardless of this well-known fact, Kai's father has somehow developed the delusion that their family has always had to fight for their position, and it will be no different for Kai. If he cannot even find a fated mate, their family will be condemned and quickly replaced with another with slightly less blood purity.

They have been in power for too long without producing anything, it will soon be time for a change and Erik Pendersen can sense that, growing more and more anxious with age. Kai is his only son and child, his mate having long passed, he doesn't have the chance at another child unless he were to bite through the pain of moving on from his lost love.

Once a werewolf has met their mate, they can never be close to another person the same, most who lose their mate early on spend the rest of their lives alone without even so much as glancing at another.

"Father, will you please take a look at this, I really believe-"

"Believe what? It can be another excuse for you to trot off for another adventure and skip out on the arranged marital meet I have set-up for you? You've already skipped out on every other one under the pretense of discovering something that can cripple the Raseri pack. I won't hear anymore of your antics, leave." His father quickly waves him off, turning his back to dismiss him.

Kai refuses to take that as the final answer, stomping up to the table and slapping the papers on the table. "Just take a look at what Harbin and the others witness tonight, then come tell me if you still refuse to believe in yet another of my antics."

He turns on his heel and stalks back towards the door and rips it open without hesitation, startling the guard still standing wait outside. He stumbles over himself to quickly bow before reaching around to close the door again.

Erik breaks through the door, swiftly knocking the guard on his feet.

"Kai, wait!" his father calls out.

He stops but doesn't turn around.

"What is written here…how much of it is true?"

"If Harbin and the others are telling the truth, then all of it should be true. I was not there to witness any of it."

His father approaches and turns him around.

"So, you do know of what happened? There really was a piece of Gioll there at their village?"

Kai nods. His father quickly looks around him before dragging his son back into the room and slamming the doors shut. He puts the papers back down on the table and stares at them like they might combust into flames at any second.

"What about this girl? She helped you escape, why?"

Kai sits down and gets comfortable, prepared to retell a rather long story, knowing there will be a lot of questions from his father along the way.

An hour later he gets through explaining everything almost to a tee of what Harbin had said and summed up on paper.

"Harbin really believes this girl might be some sort of key or clue to helping us break the seal on the Bifrost? Because she can control a rock?" his father asks.

Kai chuckles a little. "Not the rock, father, Harbin said something about the third chain that was wrapped around the rock, that is where this mysterious power is coming from. Not just anyone has the ability to control this power supposedly, yet this girl did it with ease. That has to mean something special, and Niklas believes she is not a true member of the Raseri pack."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean another slave from a different pack, most likely she was kidnapped at a young age from her pack during a raid from the Raseri pack and has been raised in the pack, but still doesn't agree with their laws and values. She directly went against her Alpha and revealed sensitive information to us. Thanks to her, we now know about the barrier and a way to destroy it, taking down one of their biggest defenses."

His father can't argue that this is rather useful information, meaning this mission wasn't a complete waste like he previously thought.

"Alright, I suppose you did uncover something very useful to us, I'll give you a reward. What do you want?" his father asks, moving to open his closet where he keeps many relics and artifacts from over the years, most being passed down through the Pendersen family.

"I don't want any physical reward, father, I just have one large favor to ask of you," Kai says, bowing his head.

"Speak, what is it?"

"Please allow me to infiltrate the Raseri pack."