30. Ersa

thirty

Ersa

*ELDEN*

I t takes me a while to get through to Calvin. The time difference is one problem, the other one is the line constantly being busy. Once I do, everything goes smoothly.

“Don’t worry,” he reassures me. “That’s a simple task for me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Let’s talk again tomorrow at the same time. I should already have the answers by then.”

It’s weird. He almost sounds excited by the task I gave him. Well, maybe he enjoys riddles and puzzles in general, and digging up another person is not different than a puzzle.

“I will just track your father’s movements,” he explains further. “Your stepmom said he is driving five to seven hours to the south. It’s going to be easy to narrow down the pack in question, and then make a few calls. This is exactly what I am good at.”

“Thank you, Calv,” I say.

“What did you just say?” he asks.

“Thank you?”

“No, I mean the part with my name,” he mutters.

“Oh, I called you Calv,” I explain. “Vincent started with it and it kind of stuck. If you don’t like it, we’ll stop.”

“No, it’s okay,” he says, and to my surprise, he sounds oddly content.

Once I wrapped up my talk with Calvin, I decided to look for Flora and help her. She is buried behind books, so that I barely spot her. “Here you are,” I say, while digging my way through to her.

“This is hopeless,” she mutters. “I don’t even know where to start looking. The name Ersa rings a bell, but I just don’t know where I’ve heard it before.”

“Same for me,” I admit. “I am sure I read it somewhere, but I just can’t remember. This is so frustrating.” I pause, scanning the small library of our pack house. “I swear, I am going to upgrade this library once I am in charge. But for now, let’s head to town and visit the public library. Maybe someone can help us there.”

“Not a bad idea,” she says. “But do you have the time to do that, Elden? I know you are insanely busy.”

“I will have to make the time. This is important.”

Flora doesn’t seem happy about me having to drive her to town and research with her, but neither of us has a better solution. That is until Geneva peaks into the room. “I thought I heard noises,” she chuckles. “Are you looking for something?

“Yes, but, unfortunately, our library is really bad,” I say.

“I agree with that,” she admits. “If you want to improve it, I can help you. I was the one to set up the library of the Council.”

Flora and I look at her, surprised. “Really? That would be fantastic. Thank you, Aunt Geneva.”

“So, what are you looking for?” she asks curiously.

“We are looking for a name,” Flora explains. “It’s hard to explain, and maybe we are completely wrong with our approach.”

“But we believe it’s a mythological name,” I add.

“So, what’s the person you are looking for?”

“Ersa,” Flora says.

It’s only a split second, but I could swear that I see a sudden look of surprise in Geneva’s eyes and a hint of understanding. “Your intuition was right. Ersa is a deity,” she explains before roaming the library shelves. “Let me see. Do you have any books about Greek mythology?”

“Yes.” I hurry to the small shelf that carries said books. “I only recently started to educate myself more on these topics.”

Geneva eyes the books, before taking one of them and skimming through it. “Here you go, sweetheart,” she says, handing it to Flora.

Flora gapes, clearly shocked that Geneva was able to help so quickly. “Thank you, thank you so much!”

“I will leave you to it now,” Geneva says softly.

Once we are alone, we settle down on the floor and read through the page Geneva opened for us. It’s not a long text, just a short paragraph.

Ersa, daughter of the moon and Zeus. Goddess of dew. Said to nourish the plants of the earth.

There are some additional artworks of her and a more detailed description of her heritage, but other than that not much.

“Daughter of the moon,” I recite.

“She is our goddess’ daughter,” Flora says, stunned. “She is the Moon Goddess, Selene’s daughter!”

The wheels in my head start turning. “You are good with plants,” I say more to myself than to Flora. “You have always protected the plants and flowers. Trixie was saved because you protected the ghost orchid.”

“What do you mean?” Flora asks. “Do you think Ersa blessed me in a way?”

“Possibly.”

“But why?”

“Honestly, Flora,” I pause. “I rather think there is some sort of relationship between you and Ersa.”

She stares at me in shock. “Don’t scare me,” she whispers. “That would be insane!”

“Just think about it. Why would she seek you out that often if there wasn’t any connection? All these hints she gives you.”

Flora keeps staring at me. “I need to get my mind off this for a while,” she says. “I need to be able to think properly, and now I can’t because my mind is occupied by what ifs and insane questions.” She looks at me. “Take my mind off it, please.”

I take her hands and pull her closer. Man, I have one hell of an idea of how to get her mind off this, but she wants to wait until she is eighteen so we can mark each other, and I want to respect that. “How about we get out of here?” I offer.

“To our spot?” she beams.

“Exactly.”

We both get up and hurry out of the pack house. Once outside, I shift to my lycan, allowing Regis to take over and enjoy this moment with his mate. As usual, Flora rides on our back, her fingers buried in Regis’ fur while she leans her head onto his huge neck. He loves that and takes an extra detour until we reach the small pond, which we both love so much.

“It’s getting warmer,” Flora says happily while she undresses.

She hates how everyone keeps saying she looks younger than she is, but I don’t know where they are coming from. Maybe it’s less the age and more because she looks otherworldly. She is smaller and more delicate, but she is a woman despite that and she very much looks like one. I love the way her skin shines under the sun, and how her long hair moves over her shoulders and down her back. She turns her head, looking at me through her long eyelashes and smiles at me in the seductive way that only she can.

Goddess, she is amazing! I undress swiftly before grabbing her by her hips and jumping into the water with her, mainly to cool off myself. Flora laughs and splashes water at me. “A warning would be nice the next time,” she grins.

“It was either that or jumping you,” I say. “You were looking too hot.”

“Was I?” she asks, wrapping her legs and arms around me, and pressing her body against mine.

I groan. “You are torturing me.”

“You are the one who is torturing me ,” she claims. “You are just too hot to resist. We will have the biggest party ever when I turn eighteen. I can’t wait!” She pauses. “I wonder if all mates plan their mating like that.”

“I am not sure,” I admit. “I lack any comparison, and Jace and Vince haven’t met their mates yet, so no juicy stories to share. Other than them, I don’t really want to talk to anyone about that kind of stuff.”

“Same. I can talk about almost everything with Grandma, but there are certain things I don’t want to mention,” she chuckles, before letting go of me and dropping back into the water.

We spend the whole afternoon here before we both have to return. Flora needs to handle the last couple of organizational things to wrap up school, and I am set to meet with Vincent for some training. For dinner, I decide to try something new and, with Flora’s support, I actually have dinner with Emilia. Just the three of us. I can see how surprised Emilia is and, although she tries to hide it, she looks happy.

The next day, at the exact same time, Calvin reaches out to me, just like he promised he would. “Please tell me you were successful,” I say.

“Of course I was,” he says. “There is a very small pack in the south called Black Forest Pack. Have you heard about them?”

“Just through my research,” I tell him. “I have studied all packs in the US.”

“I wasn’t aware,” Calvin says, sounding surprised.

“I think it’s important for me as the future alpha to know about the other packs on this continent. I do lack some information for packs abroad, though. Europe isn’t the problem, but Africa and Asia are.”

“I can help with that,” Calvin tells me. “I have memorized all the packs.”

“Seriously! All of them?” I ask, shocked.

“Yes. I was bored a while ago and just learned about them,” he says.

“Alright, I will take you up on that offer, but for now-“

“Right, your father’s mate. So, obviously, I can’t say for sure if she is truly there, but it’s the pack he has visited for many years, even before you were born. There has to be a connection for him there. I have tried to research the pack members, which was difficult due to this being a small pack, but there is one woman who is said to never have found her mate or taken a chosen mate.”

“No way,” I mutter.

“Way too suspicious to be a coincidence, right?” Calvin asks. “She is an omega she-wolf. I don’t know her name, but I think it will be easy to find her.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I will need her name to find her,” I agree. “Anything else you know about her?”

“She hardly leaves the pack,” Calvin says. “But she sometimes helps out in the shelter of the nearby town.”

“Shelter?” I ask, surprised.

“Yeah, not sure why. Maybe she knows someone there.”

“Maybe,” I mutter. But as wolves we like to keep to ourselves. Seeing how this she-wolf mingles with the humans is an indication for me that she feels lost, and that she might be looking for a place to belong. Maybe none of this has anything to do with my father, but I have the sinking feeling it has everything to do with him.