Chapter 87
“It’s almost like a magnet, some enormous magnet, keeps pulling me to you, and I don’t think it’s unnatural. I think it could be…but, I’m afraid to say it. I don’t even dare to imagine it,” Reyland rasped, speaking faster now.
“I have no wolf, and you, you are connected to a mystical one.”
“But, I’m…I seem to be…” he paused, looking away for the first time. He turned back to Marian and edged forward, toward her.
“I am affected by your blood.”
“Different from how your father’s affects me.”
Marian stood abruptly, pushing her chair back by over six feet. The only reason it did not go further was the wall it slammed against.
“What?” Marian growled, her eyes flashing.
Reyland stared up at her, open-mouthed, as he had been cut off mid-sentence.
He exhaled, his chest slumping, his lips still parted.
His eyes clouded, and he slowly shut his mouth as he watched a red-faced Marian snarl and snap at him, her face morphing between human and wolf.
He watched her, and his heart sank.
He remained silent. He closed his eyes and waited.
“You – drank – my father’s – blood? Reyland?”
He bowed his head, eyes still closed.
Something smashed behind him, but he did not move.
“You drank it?!” she growled, and her voice was two in one.
Reyland squeezed his shut eyes tightly and exhaled shakily.
He felt his heart bleed.
Just as he had when he had seen her in rabid mode. He had not known who it was, but he had felt who it was.
The magnet he had mentioned earlier felt like a metal chain now, a hard, strong connection from his chest to hers.
It was painful.
His closed eyes filled, and tears dripped from his eyes to his chest as his head remained bowed.
Marian snarled again, and her hot breath landed on his neck.
She was beside him now, one hand resting at the head of his chair, the other against her side.
“How could you! How could ANY of you! What right did you have?!” she growled.
Her free hand grabbed Reyland’s chin and raised his face to hers.
Through the red haze, his sorrowful expression broke through her rage.
“Rey –”
Her voice broke off as she stared at his tears, still holding his face up.
“I –” she stammered, and he shook his head slowly, once.
“No one should do that to another person. No one should EVER do that,” he croaked.
“My father said he was willing, but there is no such will,” he continued in a trembling voice.
“It’s not right. What they use it for, is not right. Every wolf has their own strength. Taking it from another source, becoming DEPENDENT on it, is not right.”
“Why win the battle but lose the war? They get stronger, but only for a moment.”
“They get weaker, every time, because that same thing that gives them strength has become a crutch.”
“What's the point of that?”
“Do you know the powers of a fire wolf?” he suddenly asked inquiringly.
Marian wiped his tears, shaking her head as she sat in his lap, keeping his face turned toward her.
“They are not just strong or fast healers, they could control fire itself, create it from nothing,” he whispered.
“Their eyes burned, the air around them as well.”
“They were fighters, war wolves, and many of them could see the future. Mostly because of their deep instincts and their powerful connection to other beings, but it was almost the same as having visions.”
“Do you know how they died off?”
Marian shook her head, running her fingers through his hair as he stared at her, and she studied every movement of his brow, his eyes, his lips.
He inclined his head downward, placing his head against her cheek. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close.
To her neck, he continued to speak.
“They weren’t hunted down, they didn’t just vanish one day. They died, in droves.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist.
“From heartbreak,” he whispered into her neck.
Marian swallowed, holding Reyland tighter.
“Heartbreak, from loss,” he groaned.
“Heartbreak, I feel, from you,” he whispered hoarsely.
Marian tried to pull back from him, but he held her fast, and she was too overwhelmed to realize that she – warrior, alpha wolf – could not move the one who held her against his body.
“That’s what I want to tell you about, Mary.”
“Your heart…is your power…and your weakness.”
“Your ancestors died out because of it.”
“Your kind feels more deeply and more strongly than any other.”
“Their passion, their rage, is more intense than any.”
“Their mates were mostly a balancing force. You don’t have that, Mary. So, you must balance yourself.”
“If you don’t, you could burn out. In the realest sense.”
“Do you see?” he pressed, loosening his grip on her and leaning back to gaze at her.
“You have to protect your balance. Speak to your father, find out how he keeps himself together.”
“He lost his mate and lost his mind, but you, you brought him back. His loss was not complete. I believe that’s what saved him.”
“You don’t have that.”
“So, you need to learn from him, quickly. Your power is growing. Every day. Since the attack, I can feel it rising, like a blazing fire, here,” he said placing a hand between her breasts.
“Don’t let it consume you. Don’t let it overwhelm you.”
“Do you understand?” he asked, his eyes damp.
Marian stared down at him, her eyes wide, her lips parted, her breathing heavy.
“What do you mean, I don’t have a mate?”
Reyland’s brow furrowed.
“You don’t, not yet.”
“Andy,” Marian whispered, “can’t you see it yourself? Or are you refusing to see it?”
“Wha –” he started as Marian pressed her forehead against his and rubbed his nose with hers, an Eskimo kiss.
“You, my prince. You are my mate,” she whispered hoarsely.
He inhaled sharply.
“I –”
“Think about it, since you know how to do that so well, but take yourself out of the equation.” She sat up. “Think, Reyland.”
“Don’t put yourself in it and tell me what you see,” she coaxed, her eyes measuring him as he had done to her not five minutes ago.
“I don’t have a wolf, how can your mate not have a wolf?” he asked disbelievingly.
“You said you feel drawn to me.”
“My love,” she paused, staring at him unflinching.
Reyland gazed at her, his face clouding again in that way she had come to recognize, and dislike deeply.
“Don’t run away from this. I’m here with you,” she coaxed, and her father’s face flashed in her mind, making her smile a little, but she kept her focus on the man before her.
“You say I need to protect my balance, right? Right, my love,” she pressed, cupping his cheek with her palm, her eyes boring into his.
Reyland’s brows knitted, but he nodded, slowly, pursing his lips, as his eyes said otherwise.