Chapter 174
Since she had gotten her hands on him in the morning of the thirtieth, except for the times he passed out that same morning, she had kept him in a meld until the afternoon when the Lightmoon Alpha had barged in, and the Gamma had passed out again.
He had been unconscious for three hours, and not much longer after he woke, he had been pulled out to go with her and her leaders to meet the Bloodrayne party.
Since then, both of them had been awake.
The difference between them was that Tryan had ways to rest both body and mind, even without sleep. Such were her gifts as a Whitehall lead spellcaster and one with the level of psychological control she possessed.
The Gamma was running on fumes and didn’t even know it.
But Tryan knew it.
The Lightmoon pack doctor had sensed it, too.
He turned away from Tryan and nodded at Jackson.
Then, he stared at Reyland for a moment.
“Young one,” Byron stated quietly from the doorway, “everyone has fought for you. Fight for them in return,” Byron said softly, not a whisper, just a low tone.
With that, the old doctor left the room.
Jackson approached the sleeping prince.
“Young one,” he droned. No other words left his lips.
Tryan stood quietly, watching the Gamma watch his ward.
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Reyland lay still.
He refused to move.
Very slowly, he had come to feel the space around him, the scents, the temperature. It was still dark.
He could hear the breathing from the person beside him, on his right, and he could feel the pull of his other half, from a wall away, but he did not move.
He sensed the silent one at the corner and sidestepped her.
His consciousness moved out and down the pack hospital.
He found the wolves who had cut into his body; he could sense his blood on their hands.
He kept moving, feeling with his mind.
He left the hospital and headed to the Alpha Mansion.
There, the first person Reyland searched out was the she-wolf who had scolded him.
Luna Diane was asleep, her head on his father’s chest, tears on her soft cheeks, even as she breathed the soft breaths of the sleeping.
He stared at her.
Reyland was ‘seeing’ and feeling as if he had walked out of his body, which, technically, he had.
After gazing at her for a moment, his eyes moved to his father.
Alpha Dax’s eyes were open.
Both he and his Luna were naked.
A thin sheet covered their bodies.
Dax’s eyes were locked with Reyland’s.
The young prince knew his father could not see him, but he held his gaze anyway. He saw the tiredness, the weariness in his father’s face.
Alone as he was, lying in the dark, Alpha Dax had no need to pretend.
Reyland saw the fear, the doubt, the anger, the nervousness, in his father’s demeanor.
The Alpha was adrift, and no one was there to help him.
The weight of the world was on his shoulders, and no ear or shoulder could share his burdens.
Reyland left his parents and went to his other family. His father’s other wife and his other brothers.
All were asleep, all were weary.
His Luna had not exaggerated.
The prince left the Mansion and went further away.
To the one place he wanted to be.
On his way, he felt a pull and changed direction slightly, heading to his home.
Inside, upstairs, there was movement.
But no one was supposed to be in his house.
Reyland, his consciousness, his spirit, whatever he was at the moment, floated in, following the pull.
Upstairs in his bedroom, was someone he had no wish to look upon.
Dorien.
The young heir was staring at Reyland’s empty bed. Standing in silence in the dark.
Reyland stared at Dorien for a moment, then moved around him, gazing steadily at his younger brother – the person who had tried to kill him.
Suddenly, Dorien spoke.
His voice was low; he had cloaked himself, hiding from others, so his voice was even lower.
But Reyland was not on the scale of other shifters.
He heard his brother clearly.
“I have wronged you. I have no words. From this day, I, Dorien Aldon, renounce my claim as heir to Lightmoon. I have shamed my Alpha, I have shamed my Luna, and I have shamed my pack. From this day, I am no longer of Lightmoon.”
Dorien turned, his brown eyes landed directly on Reyland.
“Brother,” Dorien rasped, “don’t forgive me, but do forget me. Forget this shameful one.”
He bowed lightly and walked around Reyland’s presence.
Reyland stared after his younger brother.
As he stared, he felt Kintel paw at him, and he understood. His racing mind calming.
He glided out of the room and went to his initial destination, his lake.
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At the lake, Reyland circled the water twice, ‘walking’ around the water’s edge.
It was still dark, but dawn was close. He could feel it. Sense it.
Reyland stared up at the night sky. The moon was high and round and almost looked like glass.
He inhaled and dropped into the water.
Moments later, he drifted to the surface and walked out. Taking actual steps.
His ‘body’ was wet, dripping with the lake ‘water’.
It was a strange sensation, like a lucid dream.
As he got out of the lake, he took deep breaths in the quiet of the woods.
Then, he heard a small rustle.
He spun around, trying to locate the source of the sound.
Somehow, his mind flashed back to the first time he had come to his lake, after his first lakeside encounter with Marian.
He had come to his lake to clear his mind after his father had broken Marian’s body.
He had heard a sound back then. The moon that day had also been unusually bright.
Wasn’t that…two nights ago?
Two nights!
He mused.
He had heard a sound, sensed a presence, yet the three guards, hiding themselves around his lake, protecting him, had not moved, had not been alerted by the presence.
Suddenly, he understood it.
The rustle sounded again, closer this time, and Reyland faced the direction of the noise.
As he stared, a brightness started to glow from within the trees.
More rustling, then, without warning, the largest wolf Reyland had ever seen stepped out of the darkness.
I was a light grey, almost white fur, with a white underbelly. The wolf had bright blue eyes.
Reyland gasped and fell to his knees.
The wolf eyed him, then approached slowly, large paw after large paw.