Chapter 12

Kellan and Nora were seated in his study, on opposite sides of his desk. He had tea and pastries brought in, but Nora had no appetite after the visit with Isla.

“There is so much I need to say to you, Nora. So much to teach you. I know you have only been with me a short time, yet I feel I have been negligent in teaching you about our culture, about the nature of wolves. I thought we would have plenty of time for such discussions. And now, I feel pressed to teach you everything—right away—and I don’t know where to begin.”

Kellan scrubbed his face with both hands. Nora could sense he was tired. She could also see the yearning in his eyes when he looked at her.

“I’m sure there is much for me to learn, Kellan. But why don’t we start with the threat to my life. I don’t see how the Burghard culture has anything to do with it.”

Kellan took a sip of his tea, thinking how to best present the information he had about Isla. And about Nora being his mate.

“For a wolf to attempt to take the life of a true mate … it is unheard of outside of immediate threats or challenges for dominance or territory. Even then, it is somewhat archaic. We are much more civilized than we were thirty of forty years ago. Most challenges do not end in death.”

“You think Isla wanted to challenge me?”

Nora would never survive an outright challenge from a wolf, if the wolf wished her dead. Her hands toyed with her dress as her unease rose. She knew Kellan would pick up on her nervousness, and, wanting something more practical to occupy her hands, she poured herself a cup of tea.

“No. I’m saying that it is not in a wolf’s nature to harm a true mate. It risks the life of the other wolf. If we had been blood-mated and you died, it could have killed me. If Isla wanted me for herself, she risked my life by killing you. The motive of jealousy, to the point she would try to keep me for herself, doesn’t fit.”

“Blood-mated? Are we …”

Nora had trouble asking the question. Her hands were so shaky she had to return the tea cup to the saucer or she would surely drop it.

“… are we not mated?” she finally got out.

“We are married. You are my true mate. But we have not blood-mated.”

“I do not understand.”

“Did your father ever speak to you about this? About how a wolf’s mate is tied to his life force?”

“Yes, he said, years ago, that if you imprinted with Eden, then she would be tied to you. That her life span would be longer because of your life force. I assumed, since I was your mate, that this was true for me, as well.”

“It is, but you and I cannot imprint. We don’t need to. We are natural mates.”

“Then why are we not … blood-mated?”

Kellan leaned back in his chair, studying his beautiful wife’s face. He caught the faintest trace of disappointment coming from her.

He welcomed it. Nora was upset he had not blood-mated with her. It gave him hope.

“Because you have only been here for a matter of days. You are in a strange land, married to someone you consider a stranger. I did not want to blood-mate you until I thought you could handle it.”

“Physically? I cannot handle it because it will hurt me?”

“No, Nora. It will not hurt you. I would never do anything that would hurt you. But if I had told you the first time we made love I wanted to bite you hard enough to draw blood, to drink it, and then have you do the same in return, what would you have said?”

Nora remembered feeling like she needed to be bitten that morning. It was a strange thought to have popped into her head. Something in her told her she needed it. But Nora drawing blood from Kellan through a bite? And consuming it? She wasn’t sure she could do it.

“I’m not sure, Kellan.”

“Exactly. You didn’t even know the term for it yet. Then, before I could tell you anything about wolves, you were poisoned.”

“So, after telling me what blood-mating was, then you would have done it?” Nora kept her eyes on the tea in front of her as she spoke.

“No.”

Nora’s posture sagged. Kellan did have some degree of choice in this mating. While he could not choose who his mate was, he could choose to not complete the mating in the manner other wolves did. He was choosing to not complete the mating with Nora.

“I see,” Nora said, doing her best to keep her voice steady. It wasn’t easy.

“No, I don’t think you do, Nora.”

Nora looked up at her husband and his eyes flashed wolf. She was beginning to understand this was what happened whenever he was wrought with emotion.

“Blood-mating gives you access to my thoughts,” he explained.

“Oh,” she said, considering what that would mean. “You don’t want me to know your thoughts? Is that it? Well, that’s understandable, I suppose.”

“I would love for you to know my thoughts, Nora. I’m just not sure I could handle knowing yours.”

Nora’s hands trembled, and she swiftly folded them in her lap, preventing Kellan from seeing the effect his words had on her. She didn’t think she was comfortable with him knowing her thoughts. He already had so much of an advantage because he could scent her emotions.

Knowing what was in her head? Or worse, in her heart? It seemed rather invasive. It required a level of trust they had yet to build.

However, having the ability to know her husband’s mind? She rather liked the idea.

“Nora, you do not have the same emotional attachment to me that I have to you. And that hurts me. I understand it. I promise I understand. But it still hurts me. If you were wolf, you would feel the same as me. You would have this same knowing that I have.”

Nora looked down at her clasped hands. Kellan was in pain. Because of Nora, he was hurting. She felt sorry for him, sorry he did not have a she-wolf for a mate.

While she had doubts of their relationship, she never fathomed being a source of hurt to him. She detested the very idea of it.

She wanted to ask him what he meant by being emotionally attached to her, but she sat mute, too afraid of what the answer might be.

“I accept that you are an elemental. It doesn’t change anything for me. We just need more time together. I thought, well, that someday you would develop feelings for me. And then we would blood-mate. I was only trying to protect myself. I didn’t know if I would survive truly knowing what you felt for me if you did not care for me. Does that make sense?”

Nora nodded. She understood. She didn’t want to wound Kellan. She, too, wanted the marriage to grow into something more than an arrangement. Unfortunately, Nora didn’t know how to make that happen.

“Would Isla have known if we were—if your life was tied to mine?”

“No, not from where she stood. We were covered in each other’s scents, but that can happen anytime two people are intimate. The only way to confirm a blood-mating is to see the markings. If Isla had or, in our case, had not seen bite marks on us both, she could have figured it out. Though, not everyone bites on the neck.”

The atmosphere shifted with his teasing remark. Nora’s eyes grew big and Kellan grinned at her reaction, bringing a reddening to her cheeks. He loved her virtue, rejoiced in being the only one who would ever teach her the more wicked aspects of mating.

“We can discuss the details of biting later,” he declared, feeling the effect the images were having on his groin. There was no sense getting his wolf overly excited for something that could not happen quite yet.

“You deserve to know all we have found out in the past few days. Unless you would prefer I handle this alone?”

“Of course not,” Nora replied. She did not want to be left out.

Kellan smiled. “I didn’t think so.”

Nora relaxed into her chair and finally took a sip of tea. She looked far calmer than she felt.

“So,” she said, “tell me what happened after I lost consciousness.”

Kellan’s smile faded. “Yes, of course.”

He began with the fact he didn’t leave Nora’s side until she woke. He wanted her to know he would never leave her defenseless. Then he told her the happenings of the past few days.

Isla disappeared shortly after Nora had been carried off. Less than ten minutes later, the guards and trackers began sniffing out the root of the poison. They were able to discern it had come from Isla’s pitcher, which she’d left on the ground near another table.

Kellan was notified, and he sent several of his men after Isla. Her trail seemed to disappear mere steps into the forest. But what was more troubling was the fact the trackers picked up the scent of demon.

Demons did not visit Castle Burghard unannounced. Not one had not been here in over a decade, not since the previous demon king had died and his nephew, Marrok, took the throne.

The death was suspicious, since demons were immortal. They could only be killed by the removal of the heart. But wolves did not involve themselves in the affairs of the demons. Kellan simply did his best to keep informed of his neighbors to the south.

Kellan put his best tracker on the demon scent. The tracker told Kellan that Isla’s scent wasn’t gone, it was just overpowered by the demon’s. The demon must have been carrying her. Had she touched anything in the forest, the female’s scent would have been stronger.

When the trackers reached the river, the trail went cold. It took an entire day to pick it up again. It was easier to track the next day because a new, more robust odor was in the air—Isla’s blood.

The wolves tracked Isla and the demon almost all the way to the Temple of Sanctus Femina. In a clearing, less than a half-mile from the border with Sanctus Femina, they found Isla unconscious. The demon was nowhere to be found.

“So, he left her there? To die?” Nora asked, sickened by the demon’s brutality.

“We’re not sure. The border to the Southland wasn’t that far, but we didn’t track beyond our border. The border to the Eastland was even closer.”

“Why would that matter?”

“Because, in the clearing, the tracker picked up a third scent. We believe it belonged to one of the Prajna. I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t confirm. Few wolves know the scent.”

Nora’s jaw dropped. The Prajna vampires were very rarely seen. They stayed close to the coast.

“Do you think they were involved?”

Kellan shrugged. “Anything is possible. But let’s look at the facts.”

Nora leaned forward, putting her elbows on the desk, concentrating.

“One, we know that Isla poured the poisoned water into your goblet. We don’t know if she put it in the pitcher, but she did fill your cup.”

Nora nodded.

“Two, after I carried you off, Isla left. A demon intercepted her and carried her away from the castle. We don’t know if she went willingly. My guess, from her injuries, is that it was not willingly.”

“I agree,” Nora nodded again.

“Three, at some point, Isla was brutalized, but not killed, and her memory was tampered with. The demon left, or was taken, and a vampire was in that clearing. We don’t know if all three were there together, if all three were conspiring, or if the vampire simply stumbled across the demon and Isla.”

“Who is most capable of tampering with memories?” Nora asked.

“The Prajna can perform hypnosis. They could suggest that a person forget something, and it would work.”

“So, the vampire in the clearing did it.”

“Not necessarily. We have been getting reports of demons gaining powers. We already know they can manipulate minds and put other breeds under a compulsion. Perhaps they can manipulate memories, too. I don’t really know.”

“Then Isla must have been under compulsion, Kellan! You said she would have risked your life by killing me. If she wants you for herself, she wouldn’t want you dead, as well.”

“I agree.”

“Then you must release her.”

“No.”

Nora’s face blanked, but Kellan would stay firm on this decision. If there was any chance at all of Isla being freely involved, he would not risk it. He would protect his mate.

“How can you keep her down there? How, Kellan? She is pitiful. Have you no sympathy?”

“I do, Nora. But she has refused any offerings of comfort, even blankets for warmth. Her mind is not normal. Also, she may have willingly been involved with the original plot. Her memory being erased is problematic.”

“Really? Because she remembers the solstice. She wouldn’t lie about her feelings on that day. Did she suddenly decide to be part of an elaborate plan one day later? And, coincidentally, find a demon and vampire at the same time? Don’t you see the flaw in this?”

Kellan sighed. “Yes. I’ve had days to the think about it, to analyze it. Every avenue leads me back to the same place, Nora.”

“And where is that?”

“To you. To keeping you safe. We know nothing of the demon compulsion. Can he still control her? If so, then she is a danger to everyone, even herself, but especially to you. That is the only reason she is chained.”

Nora hadn’t thought of it that way. She didn’t know much about demonic abilities, either. What little she did know came from her visions and from the stories told when the demons left the Sundari Kingdom to trade with the Gwydions.

She should probably tell Kellan about her visions, but none of them were coherent enough to articulate well. The only thing she knew from what she saw was that Evelyn, at some point in her life, would converse with a demon. And dance with him. But that vision was so long ago, it may have very well been a dream.

Confiding this in Kellan would reveal that she did have powers, after all. Nora didn’t consider seeing confusion of the future helpful, but it was a power all the same. As she was considering telling him, they were interrupted by Foley.

“Kellan. The Council is assembled. We need to discuss our next moves.”

“I’ll be there momentarily, Foley.”

“Yes, Sir,” he said and exited the study.

“Do you want to meet with the Council, Nora?”

Nora considered the offer. Did she want to meet with them? No. She needed to reach out to her father and sisters. They would want to hear from her as soon as possible. She would let Kellan decide the next steps while she wrote to her family.

“Not tonight. I am going to write my father and sisters.”

“Very well. Come,” he held out his hand. “I will escort you to our chambers.”

Kellan expected Nora to resist in some manner, but she didn’t. She took his hand, stood, and said, “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For offering to let me in on the meeting. I like knowing you consider me to be something more than a possession to be locked away.”

Nora hadn’t meant it to sound so petulant. Though she tried not to be, she must still have been angry about earlier.

“Nora, you are mine, but I do not own you. There is a difference. Someday you will see it. You are not only my mate and my wife, you are my Queen. I do not wish to be alone in ruling the kingdom.”

Kellan could hear her pulse increase. Her eyes searched his, as his did the same.

“I only wanted to keep you in the chamber because I nearly lost you. Please, try to understand. I beg you.”

Nora pressed her lips together to keep from speaking. She knew sometimes her tongue could be harsh. She did not want to spoil things, not when she held the King’s hand while he begged for understanding.

It wasn’t an apology, exactly, but he was making an effort. She could choose to meet him halfway, or she could continue to punish him.

Kellan seemed a little sad this evening, and, despite being so very upset with him earlier, she did not want to send him into that meeting with any more weight upon his shoulders than was already there. She knew he was worried and he deserved to have a clear head when dealing with the current situation.

She was Queen of Burghard, no matter what was happening in her marriage. It was her duty to support the king as best she could, especially in times of trouble. She couldn’t imagine anything more troublesome than some ruthless killer on the loose in their kingdom. It put everyone at risk, and that was unacceptable.

Kellan couldn’t take the distance any longer. He pulled Nora close and hugged her to his chest. He rested his cheek on top of her head, thankful she wasn’t fighting his embrace.

“I would give my life to protect you, Nora. If you don’t understand anything else, understand that.”

Nora hugged him back. “Okay.”