---------

I stared at the guys in front of me. My forehead wrinkled in concentration as I pressed my fingers to my temple.

“You know, no matter how hard you try to project your thought to us, it won’t work,” Kevin chuckled and I sighed in defeat and pouted at my chocolate cupcake.

I was in the meeting room with Ashton, Kevin and the other guys getting caught up to speed about Origens and everything else I didn't know about.

“I still don’t get how you guys are able to do it. It’s so cool!”

“You won’t be able to do it just because you and Ashton are soulmates,” Beau reminded me. “He has to mark you first.”

Ashton ran his thumb across my neck in thought and then withdrew his hand with a slight frown.

“It’s just one of the many benefits that come with a rank,” Beau continued. “I’m guessing you already know about those.”

“Kinda.” I shrugged. “Some things are still a bit vague.”

“We’ll explain everything then. Basically, we have special abilities which include enhanced speed and strength, enhanced healing, heightened senses and telepathy.”

“Enhanced healing too? As if the telepathy wasn’t enough. You guys sound OP at this point.”

“I wouldn’t say OP,” Jackson mused. “There are some of us who even have unique abilities.”

“Unique abilities aside from telepathy? What are those?”

“Well, they are abilities that aren’t common. They’re very rare and only those who are from an Alpha or Beta bloodline can develop them.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Do any of you have a unique ability?”

“As I said, it’s rare. Only one of us has one.”

Everyone turned to Kristof.

“That’s incredible,” I cooed. “What’s your ability?”

In a second, the cupcake in my hand flew across the room and landed in Kristof’s. He grinned at the surprise printed on my face.

“No way! Telekinesis?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “It’s nothing too flashy.”

“It’s amazing!”

“It does have limitations,” he said, twirling the cupcake in the air before sending it back to me. “I can only move things whose weight I would normally be able to pick up. To move anything heavier than that is really hard and needs a lot of training. And I can’t move people or things I can’t see.”

I nodded, making a note of that. It was like a whole new world hearing about the things they could do. Never in a million years would I imagine that telepathy and telekinesis were possible. It felt like something straight out of a sci-fi book.

“We train a lot,” Jun grinned, punching the air. “That’s my favorite part. I get to fight strong people.”

Of course Jun would be excited about that. He seemed thrilled at the thought of facing off against strong opponents.

“But the royal guards are a thing. Why do you guys have to train?”

“The royal guards protect Crysauralia. We need to be able to have each other’s backs, especially Ashton’s. We weren’t just chosen to be decorative pieces by his side you know,” Kevin explained. “It’s a tradition to issue duels in some kingdoms. A challenge can come unexpectedly so we have to be prepared at all times. We do training to improve our senses and our speed. Kris still has to train to master his ability.”

“Woah,” I breathed. “And here I thought it was just soulmates and mind reading.”

“You know about soulmates already, don’t you?” Raúl mentioned.

I nodded slowly. He’d told me about it before.

“We can find our soulmate any time after our senses activate or awaken. We usually experience more feelings than regular humans. After meeting our soulmate, we get jealous and overprotective during the first two weeks. Being apart from our soulmate for too long also makes us restless.”

“Somebody didn’t tell me about that part,” I smirked at Ashton, who glared at Raúl, probably yelling at him telepathically to shut up.

“Your abilities are amazing” I sighed. “It’s a wonder everyone’s able to keep them hidden so well. How did these abilities come to be? Like was it evolution or a mutation? Did someone get bitten by a radioactive spider?”

There was a terse silence.

“It started with the Origins,” Ashton murmured.

“The Origins?” I echoed. “What’s that?”

“Not what. Who. They were the first to have these abilities.”

“Whoa, cool. So you’re all like descendants of these Origins?”

“Yeah. Which is why we’re called Origens. It basically means Origin generations.” He mulled this over, thinking of the best way to explain it.

“We are descendants, yes, but their powers were far greater than anything we have now. They could beat us like a drum.”

“They’re that strong?”

He nodded. All the guys were quiet. Even Jackson had taken a temporary break from his paperwork.

“They were. Every one of them had a unique ability and those abilities were very powerful. Some could even control the elements. They lived in secret until thousands of years ago when they revealed themselves to the common people. At first, everyone was terrified of them, but the Origins didn’t want to cause fear. They only wanted peace.

“They used their powers to help the common people and after a time, they were accepted by them. They lived together with them; some ruled as leaders, others worked as healers and teachers. They had children with the common people and that created the ranks you see today. The Origins also had a common ability; they lived far longer than the common people. They could remain youthful for centuries before they started to age and they were very beautiful. Some legends say they could live for thousands of years, some say they were immortal.

“But soon people began envying their powers. The children born between two Origins were much stronger than those born between Origins and humans. Their power was just too great and although they’d agreed to live peacefully, the common people plotted to destroy them. They tricked and captured them with the same weapons the Origins had taught them to make and imprisoned them for centuries, conducting experiments on them until they finally figured out a way to kill them. After a millennia of that, the Origins were no more.

“Some descendants of the Origins were allowed to live, although most of them were massacred. The survivors went into hiding. All traces of them were removed from History books and talking or writing about them would ensure death.

“After all, history is written by the victors. Now, the common people have no idea that the Origins existed and that we are their descendants and still carry their powers. That is why mating with the common people isn’t allowed in some kingdoms. The less people know about us, the better.”

“What if the Origins weren’t all wiped out though?” I asked softly. “What if a few of them survived the massacre?”

“That’s not possible,” he sighed. “That was thousands of years ago. We’d know if any Origins were still around. And even if they were, the Origen Association would track them down and try to get rid of them.”

“What?” I gasped. “Why? You’re all related to them though.”

“It would be too dangerous.” He frowned. “They’re far too strong. A single Origin could take down all of us here without breaking a sweat. Imagine if there were more. The balance of things would be disrupted, especially if they were after revenge.”

We were silent as Ashton wrapped up the history of the Origins. It was a devastating tale that made me feel sorry for the Origins who suffered at the covetous hands of power hungry people.

Jackson went back to his paperwork. The sporadic sound of pen scribbling on paper filled the otherwise quiet room.

-----------------------------------------------------------

!