276- Marked by Fire and Blood
POV Elowen Grimwald:
My mate did not let me say a single word.
He took me to an old chamber, without electricity, yet meticulously clean and furnished. The guards remained outside, and the sconces on the smooth stone bathroom walls were the only lights burning.
Aldren filled a bronze bathtub with hot water, brought by the sentinels, and bathed me with devotion, as if I were made of fragile matter and he feared I might shatter. I felt sorry for him when he used cold water to wash himself, leaving all the warmth for me.
Mated as we were, I could feel both the pain and the relief in his chest at the same time. It had been torturous for me to be away from him and in danger, but I could only imagine what had been going through his mind after everything.
How painful was it for someone who thrived on control to lose it all at once?
I drifted into thought, remembering that my wolf had rushed our transformation and that my cell had seemed to be locked by some kind of enchantment. I had never witnessed anything even remotely similar.
Was I truly a witch?
Aldren sensed my anxiety and growled in dissatisfaction as he wrapped us in soft towels.
“Let me take care of you.” He embraced me from behind, scenting my neck.
“I will.”
He guided me back to the bedroom. A canopy bed of reddish wood with blue blankets stood at the center. Beside it were tall, wide windows of dark glass, a large thick rug, and a chest made of the same wood as the bed.
When I noticed the unlit sconces, an instinct stirred within me. The urge to follow it overtook my thoughts.
I only had to do what felt necessary. Following my intuition, I stepped away from him and walked to the wall, touching the candle in the sconce.
It lit.
No…
The candle ignited at my touch!
I gasped, startled, and slowly turned toward Aldren, fearing he would reproach me.
Instead of a look of reprimand—or even fear—I received one entirely different, filled with serenity and understanding.
“That doesn’t scare you…? Aren’t you afraid of me?” He shook his head, approaching and pulling my body against his. “Am I… am I a witch?” I stammered, my voice thick with the threat of fresh tears.
“Listen. I suspected there was something different—your abilities even before the full shift, the ravens, that necklace, the control over fire. I ignored all that shit completely. And do you know why?”
I shook my head, trying to hold back tears. His deep green irises were flecked with luminous white.
“Why, Aldren? Why did you ignore it?” I murmured.
“It was the first time the man and the beast desired the same female. With Samsara, my animal side seemed dormant inside me. Dead. Do you know what happened when I saw you in that cage for the first time?”
“No. Tell me…”
“While my human side saw you as a damned spy, the brutal and cruel beast felt empathy. That time—and every other time I was harsh, Elowen—my beast opposed me. Without exception. My cursed mistake was not realizing sooner, disbelieving that my mate could truly exist.”
“And what if… some magic deceived your beast?” I needed certainty. Only then would my heart have a chance to beat peacefully again.
“A man can be deceived, Elowen, but a beast cannot. It can be restrained by the humanity it inhabits, but never fooled.”
“It would be so much easier if they could talk…” Then I remembered the episode when my creature had taken control of my body. “ALDREN!” I shouted, making his eyelids widen in surprise.
“What is it?”
“Do you remember when I destroyed the cage?” He nodded, focused on me. “I told you it wasn’t me—it was my creature—but there’s something I forgot to mention. She took complete control! Everything we said, it was her! I was… kind of trapped in my own consciousness.”
He raised his brows, surprised.
“And did it happen only that once?” he asked, frowning.
“Yes, I think so… she told me that if I surrendered to death again, she would return.”
He looked away for a few brief seconds, thinking.
“That’s why, when I came back, it felt like someone else was speaking to me, fuck…” He exhaled deeply. “In 350 years, I’ve never seen that happen—only heard stories I thought were nothing but legends.”
“How can I be a witch, Aldren? How? My mother and father were hybrid wolves.”
“Actually…” he said, swallowing nervously, as if he knew something I did not.
“Aldren?”
“According to Korlina, you are the daughter of a hybrid she-wolf and a warlock.”
I brought a hand to my mouth, shocked.
“Oh my God… I thought my mother was faithful. She boasted about it, Aldren—about never having betrayed our father.”
The image of the warlock who used to visit my home flooded my thoughts. My hair was coal-black, just like his.
“Your mother either lied or may have been a victim of abuse. When my guards were ordered by the elders to bring you here, Nerin went after the witch Korlina and forced her to tell everything she knew.”
My chest, heavy with agony, eased slightly at the mention of the friend I needed to confess I loved. I loved Nerin.
“Korlina used magic to discover my past?” I asked, confused, and he shook his head.
“According to her, she only followed her ancestors’ orders to lure you here. The necklace—she was the one who left it near my laboratory.”
I closed my eyes, distressed, resting my forehead against his chest.
“I can’t believe this… I’m so needy that I believed we had some kind of friendship. How stupid I am,” I murmured, biting my lips in an attempt to hold back my tears.
“Look at me,” he ordered. As if his words were a commandment, I lifted my head and opened my eyes, letting the tears fall as I faced him. “Don’t blame yourself for any of this shit. You didn’t choose to be drawn here, and you didn’t choose to have your magic activated.”
I blinked several times in confusion.
“Magic activated…?”
“Yes. According to Korlina, a near-death experience triggered your magic. It may have been during the fight with Teneris.”
So it hadn’t been the witch who transformed me?
The pieces were falling into place in my mind, and the weight of realization settled on my shoulders. I wrapped my arms around Aldren and held him with the strength of my desperation.
“I just wanted to be normal… a normal she-wolf…” I confessed against his skin, breaking down into tears once more.
“I don’t care what you are, Elowen, as long as you are. As long as you’re alive.”
I don’t know how long I cried in his arms, but he carried me to the bed and licked me, healing every inch of my skin that bore even the slightest scratch, like the protective male he was.
Reclining against the padded headboard, I was covered with the thick quilt that smelled of antiquity. My wolf had the gift of stripping away every trace of sadness and fear from me.
“Now that I have my fangs, I can mark you whenever I want…”
He narrowed his eyes at mine.
“I’ll let you mark me.”