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Chapter 8

Bryan woketo a view of his brother's worried face. The boy stood at his bedside, their mother watching from the doorway. Everything ached. He tried his best to sit upright, and his mother hurried forward to help him.

"Are you okay?" Lukas asked. "What happened?"

"Sorry, Lukas. You must've gotten scared to see me in your room like this." They'd come back to the house after the ordeal and Bryan had passed out in the spare bed in Lukas's bedroom—his old bed, his old room.

"I'm not scared. Why are you all beat up?"

"Minister Josef wasn't the man we thought he was," their mother said. She put his hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, Bryan. I wish I'd..." She paused, struggling with what to say. "I'm sorry."

Bryan nodded, not quite ready to forgive her. He slid out of bed and found that he could stand. "I need to go back to the forest, Mother."

She looked like she wanted to protest, but she stopped herself.

"The forest?" Lukas asked, sounding frightened.

He smiled at his brother. "It's a beautiful place."

"It’s scary."

"Have you been there?"

Lukas shook his head.

"I have," Bryan said. "Many times now. It's not scary. The people there are very nice. There are kids like you, and they have the whole place to play in. You'd like it."

"Bryan..." His mother looked uncomfortable.

"The Uridimm aren't our enemy, Mother."

Bryan left the bedroom and went to his parents’ room, where his father was sitting in his usual spot. The weary old man turned his wheelchair around to face him. "I heard about everything," he said. "My boy. This should never have been. None of it."

"I told you, Father. This is exactly how it was supposed to be." Groaning, he took a seat next to his father.

"That bastard. He beat you. If I were... If it weren't for my condition, I would be kicking his ass right now. I would've stopped him."

"I don't need anyone's sympathy. And I don't need anyone's protection." He smiled. "I can take care of myself."

A question nagged on Bryan's mind, but he struggled to ask it. How much had his father known about the Uridimm? Had he known they were peaceful? Had he known how they lived? Then he realized that the answers didn't matter anymore. If he was to be the bridge between the two peoples, he couldn't worry about the past. He only needed to focus on the future.

"Father, if my mates could do something to heal your body, would you do it? Would you trust them?"

"What? Like some kind of Direling magic?"

Bryan couldn't help but chuckle. "They're called Uridimm, Father. And no. I don't really know what it is. They say it's not magic. They say it's the will of Uri, their goddess. It's up to her which requests are granted and which aren't."

"Sounds like magic to me. But if you think they can do something that Healer Fielding can't, I'll try it."

"I don't know if they can. It's possible that you could die."

"Well, it seems like that's the way things are going, no matter what. Right?" His father laughed. "I'll take the risk."

* * *

That afternoon, Bryan returned to the forest. When he entered the logging area the workers tried to stop him, thinking he'd gone crazy with grief over the previous night's events. It wasn't until they showed them a handwritten letter from his father that they let him pass, watching with disbelief as he disappeared into the trees. His Alphas were waiting for him at the village. They brought him into the main sacred den, where Nugai and Munok lit incense and a fire and made offerings to Uri. Gan brought out Bryan's amber necklace and carefully replaced it around his neck.

"You've won your battle. Now you are Uridimm," he said, and he gently touched Bryan's bruised face. "Sit. Let us care for your wounds."