Page 23

T he wandering people of Naturiah knew more than to let the surprises on their faces show as they passed their Alpha King with retch covering a portion of his chest, and a limp woman hanging loosely on his arm.

Their thoughts are; the Alpha King has killed the female and he is going to deposit her body in the forest for the Wild Ones to make a meal out of it. That is the only explanation for why he will be carrying an unconscious female.

Alphose caught up with the Alpha King in front of the gate of his tower and winced inwardly when he saw the situation at hand...and the scowling but resigned face of Wolfariane.

Instead of asking the Alpha King why he was summoned, Alphose only walked ahead of him and opened the gates for him to walk through. He did, with the unconscious woman in his arms.

The gatekeepers and sentinels on-duty bowed their heads to them as they walked towards the entrance of the tower, and walked through it.

In his bedroom, he finally laid the girl on his bed. "Tell Marian to change the sheets after she awakes." He instructed curtly.

Marian is an older wolf omega, in charge of the tower's cleanliness. Alphose nodded his head, "Yes, I will do that." he paused, and added gently. "Can I ask what happened?"

Wolfariane walked towards his wardrobe and began taking off his clothes, "She vomited and fainted. I think it's because she had to run for her life, a few hours ago. Tim chased her."

"Damn. In cougar form? He would have killed her."

"I reprimanded him for that, so he or anybody else wouldn't do it again." He spared her a glance, "The female is in my custody till she is out of here. They don't need to go about chasing her."

Alphose winced inwardly. He refers to her like he doesn't know who she is, but he does know. The knowledge is in his eyes whenever he looks at her.

"Her condition is getting worse, Wolfariane." He let out softly, his eyes watching pitifully as the girl takes short, fast breaths. "I can smell it, the stench of death. I know you can too... Something needs to be done about it. And fast."

Naked from the waist up, Wolfariane began taking off the rest of his clothes. He didn't reprimand Alphose for using his name. Only a few of his Alphas get to use it occasionally whenever they want to get 'personal' with him, and Alphose is one of them.

"She will wake soon. Straighten out everything on your schedule, so you can find time to journey back to New York City to get her meds. She needs her meds. "

"She needs you." He corrected carefully, knowing that he is threading the most dangerous ground, "She is dying. Even the stupid meds are not saving her."

"We will all die one-day." A dark shadow crossed his eyes. He blinked and it was gone. "Eventually."

"She is your mate." Forbidden words spoken softly in the silence of the room, "Not only that, the mating compatibilities between the both of you is very high, she already carries your scent faintly even though you have not had intercourse with her."

Wolfariane knows that too. He said nothing. Instead, he withdrew his towel and wrapped it around himself. "I am not mating a human, not even to save her own life." He stated firmly, "If I am dying, I will not mate a human to save my own life either."

He shook his head, his resolve as solid as granite. "I made it known that I will not mate, even before I knew about her. I have no intentions of mating anybody. Not a changeling. Not a human. I don't want a child either. Ever."

Alphose flinched on the coldness of his voice. For the umpteenth time, he wondered what happened in that cage eighteen years ago?

Before-Capture, the young Alpha King was different. He was like every other changeling out there... longing for a mate. Daydreaming about being a father.

But, a lot changed After-Capture. Everyone knows it wasn't easy for him, especially since he lost his mother a week afterward but no one knows the main details of what happened in that laboratory after those evil beasts in the form of humans focused all their experiments on him.

No one knows the extent of the damages they did, but Alphose can feel it. Big. Ugly. Dark .

He is the closest Alpha to him, so he can feel it whenever his guard is down. Like now.

"You are trying to protect her against yourself." The words tore from him without thinking.

"Protect her, protect Nalaila, protect my people, they are all the same." He glanced out of the window to the light darkness of early night, "She has no idea what she is up against. If she does, she will be happy she is dying."

"What happened to you in that lab, Wolfariane?" He asked, "After other werewolf changelings 'failed', what happened to you?"

As usual, his answer was the same. "I don't want to talk about it."

Alphose can still remember the ones the Alpha King had been able to tell him on the night his mother was buried...

Some nights he'd howled all night long. Raging. Out of control.

Other nights the females scream all night long. The females he was drugged and forced to breed like an animal.

The Changeling females are brought out bleeding and half-dead.

The human females came out dead. Shredded into pieces.

And yet, he did not give those doctors what they want.

A child. His child.

Alphose shot down the horrible memories and tried to concentrate on the present. "But, something has to be done. Apart from her dying state, you need her too. "

"You are not healing, Wolfariane, and I can feel the wolf's agitation from here." Even the man's lust for the female. But, he swallowed those words, knowing that the leader will not appreciate it at the moment, "You need her."

Turning away from the window, the Alpha King faced him, "You can feel the wolf, but can you feel the cougar?"

Alphose...couldn't.

He closed his eyes and allowed his own cougar to reach out…

And still came out with nothing.

"That's weird." His brows knitted in confusion, "No, I can't feel him. That part of you is being... too quiet."

Wolfariane looked him straight in the eyes, "That is because he wants to kill her. My human mate."

"Oh...hell." It dawned on him.

"Yes. That part of me wants to rip her apart so badly, Alphose, I can practically taste it.

I feel the urge...fiercely, whenever I get too close to her.

It is a struggle. What makes it worse is that I want her.

I want her with an intensity that is frightening.

" Anger laced his voice, directed at himself as if he was blaming himself for wanting her.

Automatically, Alphose looked down and winced audibly. Indeed, he is spotting a huge boner for the small beautiful woman lying unconscious on his bed.

The Alpha King is denying himself of the female, but he hungers for her...badly. How long will his resistance last?

Most importantly, will she be able to handle a man like him when he loses the battle and gives in to his basic instincts ?

The Alpha King continued, "If I touch her, it'll be just like those days in the lab, whenever they throw a human female into my cage.

A part of me is drugged and goes right ahead to ravish her to relieve the overriding ache in my body, while another part of me lies in wait.

..," He stated in curt words, his expression blank but his eyes were a blue river of banked fury.

"...waiting for me to lose control in the climax, then the rest is history.

I wake up to blood and bones of the female I took sexual pleasures from. "

He walked past Alphose to the bathroom and stopped at the door. "I have no liking for humans, but no one deserves to die like that. Not even my dying human mate."

With that, he entered the bathroom and closed the door.

An hour later, the healer Alphose called to check on Ismena has left, letting them know that Ismena will be fine for now, but he does not know how long his treatment will last since he has never come across a deadly illness like hers.

The Alpha King had refused treatment. Instead, he sat behind his desk sorting out documents and signing a few of them.

Alphose was about to take his leave, he got to the door and stopped. "If the urge becomes irresistible, you can have intercourse with her without mating her, you know."

His scribbling hand paused. He looked up at the cougar Alpha who was the only person close enough to him to be called a friend.

"Please, let me explain." He rushed on at the scowl on his face, "You both need each other.

I know you want her, and she wants you too.

A male changeling's body cannot go for too long without sexual intimacies from females to keep us sane.

And feeling the wolf's agitation, I know that part of you is not keen on the thought of being with another female. "

"So, you can share intimacies together; your body will be fed, and hers will be fed too. She will live longer then, return to her world healthier when the ring is retrieved. And, you can go on with your life here, the wolf might let go with the hunger satisfied...maybe." He finished.

"The cougar in me—" he began.

"That part of you lures behind waiting for you to reach climax inside a human female to take over control because that is the only time you are vulnerable...less in charge. So, you can try NOT being inside her when you are about to...uhm...to release."

His cheeks went faintly ruby, but he pressed ahead anyway, determined to help the Alpha King if he could be able to. "I don't know for sure, but I think that will do it...if you can be able to resist the strong pull to release inside her body."

Wolfariane kept quiet. For long. For too long.

"I have not cum inside any female in the last eighteen years, Alphose." He revealed finally.

The sentinel's eyes went wide. "Never? Not for once? Not even during the full moon?"

"Not for once. Not even then."

He couldn't hide his surprise. Even during the full moon!? How was he able to control THAT particular urge? It is too overriding. Too demanding. The urges of the full moon. How was he able to control himself all these years?

But then again, with the Alpha King, almost everything is possible. His control is always impeccable, even in front of danger .

No changeling male can do the things he can do. No changeling male has half of the control he does.

It's suddenly starting to make sense. Those roars that tear out of his mouth occasionally during the full moon. He'd thought they were just of pleasure, but they did sound like that of pain too.

Now, he realizes that it's both. That effort it takes to not release inside a female's body during the full moon must be agonizing.

Why does he have to put himself through that? "But... why?" However, even as he asked that he already knows the reason.

He picked up the pen again, flipped the pages of the document in front of him, and scribbled down his signature on it. "A child. I do not want to risk getting any female pregnant."

Of course. Alphose lowered his head, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Placing the document aside, he picked up a new one and flipped through it, "I do not want a child."

But he did. Once upon a time, he wanted a child. He daydreamed about a mate and children too.

Alphose's heart was heavy for him. Humans did way more than any of them knows.

"Go and check for updates on the sentinels we sent to the non-changeling world. Let me know if there's any new development." Wolfariane said, reluctantly.

Alphose knows a dismissal when he hears one. He inclined his head respectfully, made his way to the door, and stopped.

"Think about what I said...please. You are not in the lab anymore.

You do not have to mate her. If she consents to a physical relationship, you can take sexual pleasure from her and it will be a win for the both of you.

Just think about it, alright?" That said, he opened the door and walked through it.

Long after he left, those soft-spoken words remained in the air.

Wolfariane dropped the pen and allowed himself to stare at the woman lying down on his bed. Even now, his body reacted to her.

His life has always been hard because of the past nightmares he has to live with every single day. Painful, because of a sister who lost her sanity because of him...now trapped in her wolf form for eighteen years. Heavy, because of his duties and the safety of his people.

Now, his life has taken an intensely complicated turn.

His missing ring that might have put the life of his people in danger, a dying human mate, and this craving for her that only gets worse every single day.

The mountain lion growled and flexed his claws inside him.