Page 36 of Becoming One
Orion immediately heard his Cuddle bug in his mind.“No way. Even if the man knows the potion to heal for the bites I gave him, he is still going to need time for it to take effect.”
“What are you talking about, Cuddle bug?”Orion asked.
A mental sigh went through Orion’s mind and then the fox answered,“I was going to tell you both when we went back to our room, but things got a bit… distracting and then we rushed to Ezra. A Santorini fox has many gifts. You have seen what we can do when we shift, or with our fur. What you don’t know is about our bite. We have three major glands that have liquid secretions. We can call on them when needed. One is a hallucinogen. It will make people see and hear things like if they were in the desert for days with no water. The second has a paralysis effect. It can last for hours, depending on who the person is we inject, and the third is the one I used on the mage. It is poison. Almost like a venomous snake. However, when it comes to the Santorini fox, there isn’t a ready-made potion out there. That means he has to know the cure, find the cure, and then take the cure. He has less than twenty-four hours to do so. Otherwise, nothing will save him.”
“Son of a bitch! Why the hell didn’t I know this and why didn’t you tell me when we were being held prisoner by Fallon all those years?”Nelson asked in anger and disbelief.
His fox didn’t say anything for a few minutes, then softly replied,“Fallon kept me suppressed with those potions remember? So, there was nothing I could do then. And when we saw Fallon that day outside the council building, you didn’t want anything to do with me, Nelson. You refused to listen when I tried to tell you another way that would not use our energy level. You almost killed us both. I had to dig deeper than I ever thought I would to survive what you had done to us. My life was nothing to you. So I hid and left you to your own devices. I’m sorry, Nelson. I should have come forward and tried to help us out of the situation we were in.”
“No, I’m sorry. I should have listened instead of going off halfcocked. All I saw was revenge. All I felt was hate. I just wanted the man dead. I didn’t think about you, me, or Orion. I was wrong,”Nelson replied sadly.
“We all screwed up that day. I should have done whatever I could to get Nelson back into the council building. He was my mate and watching him slowly dying and doing nothing to save him has haunted me ever since,”Orion softly said.
“I say we all screwed up. How about we build our lives from here. I think we have kicked our own asses as well as each other’s for long enough,”Nelson’s fox whispered.
“I’d love that.”Orion replied.
Nelson sniffled, saying,“Me too.”
Orion felt his heart soar. His mates were making up and it was a dream come true. Now if they could just find Nicu before the mage changed him once more, then life would be better than great… it would be all Orion could ever want. Looking at Ezra, Orion said, “Cuddle bug says he fucked up the mage pretty badly today and he should be out of commission for a day or more. That means all we have to do is find Nicu and kill the fucker before he can get to anyone else.”