Chapter 21: A Wolfy Ride Through History

[Karla's POV:]

Finding our mate was going to be a lot more difficult than we had initially thought. If it was as simple as following his trail, he would already be here.

We could split up, cover more ground, but then the risk of going wild would increase. I want a full pack by the end of this not a smaller one.

So we made a simple plan. Check everywhere. Starting with popular locations like Camp Jupiter and New York. Waiting for someone to find spare drachma to IM them was wasting enough time as is. As for New York, no one has a sense of smell like we do, if the demigods think they've fully searched it they can think again.

If not those places.. then I don't know. Could very well be on the other side of the continent. But first. Camp Jupiter, there's a wolf goddess there that owns me a bone.

Leaving the hunt behind wasn't as a big a deal as you'd think. We mainly stay as a choice given benefits so long as we do. Should we leave with the intention not to return, our minds and strengths would become identical to that of normal wolves. No more empowering silver glow, no more sentient thinking and no more super strength.. Did I mention the silver glow? I love the silver glow.

Camp Jupiter was the best bet, Plus we could alert Lady Lupa and in turn she could tell the camp to begin their own search for our mate. Lupa was like a mother to us wolves, something closer than a goddess we worship. She was strict, yes, but she couldn't turn down a pup in need if she tried me included. She'd help us I'm sure, it made her the best place to start. She was the closest I ever had to a mother.

"Do you think she'll know where he is?" asked Anya. I remember when she joined us, so against being in a pack thanks to the torment Lycaon had put her through, even challenged me for the alpha position, lost very fast though. That was not long after I had formed the pack with the triplets. They were normal wolves before joining the pack unlike me and anya who had been born to this mythical world and so they had the strongest ties to their instincts out of us all.

That said even Anya would lose her sentience without an alpha and she's from a line of strong werewolves. Had we not found her when we did, she would've been no different than the triplets before meeting us. We needed Damian.

Camp Jupiter was no skip in the park away. We'd have to run for at least half a month at full speed, Damian could probably do it in a week with that speed of his. But who said we had to run the entire way? Humans invented something for that. Metal boxes on wheels. All we had to do was find one of the bigger ones with an open back to jump on and let the thing do the work for us. Lucky for us, New York had a lot of those things. The hard part was finding one heading the right way. Anya was perfect for this having lived with werewolves for a while she understood human language well and could read, she called them 'trucks', we were looking for one that was heading to California. Whilst trying to stay out of sight in the various alley ways. I always hated the cities, massive concrete habitats that gave no room for vegetation to grow,

Dam.. Ummmm what now?. No animals to hunt, only mortal humans and ignorant demigods stayed here. We came across a scaffolding company that was packing up their gear.

"OI Jer', Watch where you put that it's a long journey to relocate all this shit" Anya translated for me, they were relocating. Had to find out where to, Anya began looking around for anything that could suggest.

"I found paper!" called out lotus, the twins may have been older than Anya, but they were far less mentally mature having gained their intelligence unlike us. The paper in question was located under a cup of some hot black liquid. Anya investigated it, knocking the weird stuff on the stone floor.

"Great job lotus! This is their schedule" oh seems it was helpful then.

"It says here they are bound for Fresno" dam (I can hear Damian laughing from here) we need California.. Is that California? Wolves don't usually have a need for map navigation with the natural compass in our heads leading us where we desire.

"A member of Lycaon's pack came from here, I think it's in California we should take it" oh thank Lupa, I was getting ready to just rip some random human's jugular and give driving a shot if humans do it how hard could it really be? Still leaving it to them was.. Easier, yeah easier. Now all that was left was to hide among the metal poles, we were wolves of Artemis. We could hide in plain sight if we had to.

"Alright that's everything, I'll see you at the new office" he slammed his door shut and the meta- truck made a sound similar to the 'cars' on the 'road' only deeper and we started moving. At first I was confident we could run faster than this heap of junk could move, but a few minutes later we emerged onto a massive road and picked up speed. A lot of speed. So fast the wind threatened to rip us off this thing. At this rate we'd be there in two days rather than 2 or so weeks. I had to admit, humans had some good metal boxes, I mean cars.. Trucks... whatever.

"Karla? Could you tell the story of the wolf king again?" Ah the wolf king, A story Lupa told me as a pup as a bedtime story. He was the first wolf to walk the lands, Long before Lycaon was turned to one, It was a story wiped from the mortal books and the godly archives an act only a unanimous vote from all could accomplish.

"Sure why not?" and I began to tell the story. Long ago, Just as Gaea was born, a single living being came to be, A wolf said to be the first Pet of Gaea and master of her wild lands. He was her closest ally second only to Uranus before he turned upon his wife and kids, He helped mould the earth to the shape it is today, smoothing the stones and jagginering the rocks. Smoothing the lakes and enraging the seas that would come to be. The gods may have created the planet, but it was the wolf king that made it the lush planet it is.

As time passed, he felt his owner's sadness seep at her husband's hatred, it unlocked feelings of his own for the deity. Throwing caution to the wind he confessed his love to the one whom he shared his life with and against all odds had them reciprocated. Within the year they were with children, a litter of 7. This however angered the now ex-husband of Gaea who swiftly had the 7 killed in a cruel massacre and cursed the wolf to never hear Gaea words again nor feel her touch nor presence. Heartbroken and filled with newfound hatred He attacked the Primordial god devouring all but that which made him male later to be thrown to the seas by cronos, Uranus's son. I paused for that sweet dramatic affect.

His anger was not quenched though, and the taste of the divine flesh was all too much for him. He became crazed in hunger for more going after many others that were lost to time with no records to remember them by. His hunger was indiscriminant and cruel, not even the children were safe from being hunted and devoured alive. His power grew with every deity he ate soon even chaos themself could only just fend him off. He single handedly almost destroyed existence before it had even truly begun for mortals. That is... until his power finally destroyed the wretched curse placed upon him and once again did he hear the voice of Gaea.

She was not angry at him for she felt the turmoil in his soul, years passed, but her soothing words could do nothing to quench his insatiable hunger and anger. It was decided the wolf must be put down for the safety of them all. She could not bare to just kill her once lover in cold blood, so instead placed him in the confines of her sister's domain as the very first constellation, now known as lupus as know one knows what his true name was supposed to be.

She wanted him to be remembered for the good he had bestowed upon the world, but the Primordials wanted nothing of sort, they had him portrayed a villain, beridding all information, but his constellation in the night sky. A new story was fabricated in his wake, one not relating at all to the Primordials themselves, one filled only with only his misdeeds as the mad dog. But that wasn't the end of his legacy, for the true story was passed on to the first mortal wolf, lycaon. It grew his pride and skewed his perception against the Gods causing him to grow into the evil tyrant we all know him as. The true king of the wolves would feel shame in having his memory passed on through him having that evil tyrant be his legacy would crush his soul sane or not.

I stopped there, realising I had become a little too angry by the story ending having been at odds with Lycaon for quite some time during my travels in lupa's pack. I could tell Anya, Lycaon's daughter, felt the same as did the rest. No one likes Lycaon.

[Somewhere:]

[Someone's POV:]

"We haven't seen Percy in quite some time.. What has that boy been up to?" Spoke my husband as he cradled our daughter.. It had been almost 6 years since we had last seen him. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.. or angry.

"Yes, we haven't. I'm sure he is alive and well else the gods would have told us something by now. Poseidon especially. I'd kick his godly ass otherwise" he chuckled at the thought, plus Persephone would tell me.

"We did take THAT trip back then, remember? With the burglar?" trying to indicate the 'holiday' we had taken 5 years back while hiding the truth of it from our daughter. In truth it wasn't a holiday at all. Had it been one we'd have told and even invited Percy to it. No, I had to attend to my own duties, one that'd create a scandal if it were ever to reach God's ears. I swear being in two places at once is such a hassle. It was also the period we were burgled, my amazing husband seemed to have forgotten to lock our door like we don't live in the middle of NY.

"Dear eat up your cereal, school don't want to be late for school" my little angel started scoffing her blue cereal, something I insisted we do. What's better than cereal? Blue cereal and I'm sure Percy would agree.

"Mum, when will we go back to the sparkly Gardens? You promised we could" that was the 3rd time today she'd asked about the 'Sparkly Gardens' we'd gone on 'holiday'.

"Soon Hun, soon. It's very expensive to go" that was a lie, I could go for free. After all, it was my garden. That said I'd grown to enjoy life in the city and enjoyed the new freedom I had from the ancient laws. I wasn't about to go back anytime soon.

"Well I'm off to school mum! Bye love you!" She really was my special little girl all my children were.

"Love you too, have a good day. And remember to stay away from Brad! I don't like that mean boy" Brad was her bully at school, but I was sure he had a crush on her. All the more reason to keep him away.

"Ok mum bye!" And ran off to school. They grow up so fast.. All my children do.

"So, you're off to 'Work' now?" he said using his fingers as air quotations. I stifled a chuckle since I knew he meant no harm by it.

"Yes, the Autumn harvest Is due now. Zeus will be wanting to know how that goes, to think I once had a thing for the guy makes me gag…" it's true I was almost his sister's wife once upon a time.. Thank Mother I chose against it, cheating bastard.. I loved my life in the mortal world. Someday my secret will be revealed and I'll have to say goodbye to this life of mine..

"Before you go, I saw Annabeth the other day, she was running around probably another one of their quests. She looked a little panicked" ah Annabeth, Percy's Girlfriend, I adore her but sometimes she can be… a little too stuck in her ways for my liking. Athena's pride always did piss me off sometimes, but if Percy liked her, so did I.

"Hmm if you see her, ask her how Percy is, and tell them to visit already!" he gave a court nod, i put on my coat and went to leave. Opening the door to.. Children? And one's a cyclops? The older one spoke.

"Ummm ar...are you Sally Jackson mum of Percy Jackson?" I just stood there still confused. "We're your grandchildren"