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Chapter Nineteen

Wes

M y heart is pounding a mile a minute after all of that.

This wasn't what I had planned when I asked Talia to come down here this afternoon. From the moment I saw her at the bottom of the stairs to now, it's all gone so far off rails I don't even know how to get us back on track. When Tal kissed the corner of my mouth, my wolf pushed forward, eager to deepen the affection with our mate.

Now that it's all over, I'm questioning everything. I shouldn't have deepened things without her consent.

I shouldn't have slapped her ass or bit her neck without checking with her about what her limits and comfort levels are. Every single step of the way, I've fucked this up.

"I'm sorry, Talia. That was unacceptable of me," I finally say, closing my eyes against the onslaught of shame. "I should have checked with you that you were okay with things going further. There's no excuses for how I acted. Between pushing you to go further and not locking the computer for safety, I screwed up big time."

"What?" Talia asks, pulling away from me and shaking her head.

"Our heads are in very different places right now. I was thinking about how perfect that was despite all the imperfections of the moment. But it seems you regret it?"

"No—Well, yes and no," I stammer, scrunching my nose as I try to think of the right thing to say.

Talia climbs off my lap, crossing her arms over her chest as vulnerability flashes across her face.

"I don't regret any of what we shared so much as I regret not checking with you before I deepened our intimacy. I regret not locking my computer, causing another male to see you in the throes of pleasure. I regret using physical force when I never asked if it would be okay with you first."

"Physical force? Do you mean slapping my ass while I pleasured myself on your hard, ah, bulge?" Talia pinches the bridge of her nose, her cheeks flushing pink in awkwardness.

"Yes," I answer simply, my hands clenching the edge of the desk as I watch my mate carefully.

"Wes," she sighs my name, her face softening and her arms dropping to her sides. "I don't know much about the rules of consent considering all of you are my first experiences in anything sexual. I do know some though, since my captors weren't big on caring whether I agreed to something they were doing or not. That said, I feel pretty confident saying that consent is given in multiple ways. Words, actions, and reactions. I consented enthusiastically just like you did to what just happened. If I wanted it to stop, I would have said something or pulled away before it progressed. I would hope you would do the same."

Her words sink in, calming my nerves down enough for me to smile. "So, you were okay with all of it? You enjoyed it like I did?"

Talia leans down, kissing my lips softly before whispering, "I did. Trust me that I will always tell you when I am not comfortable with something, just like I trust you to do the same. I know I’m extremely new to relationship stuff, but my magic does give me a bit of guidance when it comes to trusting myself and all of you as my mates. To heal the soul, I need to see the soul, and I feel like that means I can see more into who people are and what their intentions may be. My soul is connected to yours in the most intimate way possible, let that help guide you like it does me.”

“You’re amazing,” I whisper in awe at the magnificent woman in front of me. Every single thing I learn about her enthrals me. I don’t understand what I did to deserve Talia, but I won’t let myself look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I love you, Wes.”

Kissing her once more, I breathe out all of my negative emotions that were suffocating me and smile up at her. "I love you too, Tal. You are the single greatest thing to ever happen to me.”

“I could say the same about all of you,” Talia says with a blinding smile. She straightens up and steps back to give me a bit of space. I did bring her down here for a different reason and it’s not like me to get so far off track.

Looking down at the soaked mark on my shorts, I grimace slightly. “I should go change into some new clothes and then I can show you what I actually brought you down here for."

Talia nods and bites her lip to hold back a giggle. The sheer joy on her face is enough for me to question why I ever thought she wasn’t an enthusiastic participant. It can be so hard to understand when someone is being genuine with their emotions or when they’re faking to make you feel better. Talia isn’t like that, though. She’s true to how she feels and she doesn’t hold it back for anyone’s benefit.

Glancing back at her when I get to the door, I smile as I watch her look over all the books on my shelves behind the desk. Her teal, wavy hair grazes the top of her perfect heart-shaped ass as she looks up at the higher shelves. Hot, erotic images flood my head as I stare at my mate, my cock already getting hard again despite cumming not even ten minutes ago.

The urge to grab a fistful of her hair, arching her back so her head rests on my shoulder as I pound into her tight, wet pussy from behind almost consumes me. The urge is almost too much for me to resist, yet by some feat of unknown strength, I do.

Turning away from Tal is like wading through drying cement. Still, I force myself to walk out of the room and go get changed. I have no idea why I feel like a hormonal teenager who can't keep his cock down when I'm around her. There's so much else going on, yet I can only seem to think with my dick when it comes to Talia.

In my room, I throw my shorts and boxer briefs in the laundry hamper and grab some fresh clothes from my drawer. The image from before plays in my head on repeat, and I slam my fist against the top of my dresser in frustration. If any more blood goes down south, I might just pass out right here and now.

I brought Tal down for a reason! I internally scream at my growing cock. Fucking hell in a handbasket, who the fuck am I?!

Grabbing fresh clothes from my dresser, I pull them on with far more force than necessary.

Once I'm dressed and presentable, I head back to my office to fill Tal in on what I found out. She's leaning on the edge of my desk, flipping through one of the old books I've collected over the years. A smile pulls up one corner of my mouth as I stop to watch her, already completely and dorkily head over heels for her. While staring at her doesn't help the blood rushing to my cock, the innocence of her in this moment makes it far easier to ignore.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I murmur as I make my way over to her. “Are you ready to hear what I found?”

“Yes! It’s been driving me crazy. I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, but I don’t even know what the weight is.”

“That’s fair.” A twinge of sympathy squeezes my chest. I’m not sure how much of what I’m about to tell her is going to ease that burden, if any. “I looked into the Champions of Adessa and reached out to a few other shifter packs to see what I could find to help with the message you received.”

“And?” Talia prompts me when I pause to gauge her attentiveness.

“There’s a few excerpts about Champions of Adessa from ancient texts regarding the Holy War and the Crusaders. As you know, Adessa is the goddess that created shifter-kind, starting with the mythicals. Adessa wasn’t the only divine being, she was actually one of three siblings. Gallia was the other goddess and she created nature and animals. Poliaris is the god that created humans and he is the one the humans now refer to as God with a capital G.”

“So their god is real?” Tal asks, leaning over to look at my notebook with my research notes in it. I wrap an arm around her waist and gently guide her to my lap for comfort.

“He is and he’s about as benevolent as you believe he is,” I respond, rubbing her back gently. “Which is to say, he’s not at all kind or benevolent. That actually brings me to the reason for the start of the Holy War in the first place.”

Talia turns to look at me, her jade eyes full of rapt interest. I smile at her and dive deep into my findings, excited to finally have someone to not only share my interests with, but also my life.

“When the God and Goddess created their humans and shifters, they had to use their own magic to do so. Adessa, not caring much about power, was generous with her creations and imbued them with enough magic to not only shift forms, but to also use magic in other ways, such as healing, telepathy, and more.”

I adjust Talia slightly on my lap and continue on. “Gallia, instead of keeping some of her magic, put every ounce of her magic and soul into her creations. She became one with them and gave up all free thought and life to create the balance of her ecosystem.”

“Wow,” Talia whispers in awe. “So, Gallia no longer exists?”

“She exists only in the cycles of nature and animals. She doesn’t exist any longer in the same sense as Adessa and Poliaris.”

Talia nods, scrunching her brow in thought, but motioning me with her hand to continue on.

“Poliaris didn’t want to give up any of his magic, but he wanted to be worshipped for the power he had. He used just enough of his magic to create humans, but gave them no magic of their own to use.” Shifting my notebook closer, I skim my writing to get the next facts. “Every now and then, when worship of him as the true God would dwindle, he would give one follower a drop more magic so they could convince the other humans he existed and that they must also follow him.”

“Ah, so that’s where they get stories like Jesus and Moses from. He really did the bare minimum for humans, didn’t he?” Talia shakes her head in sympathy.

“He really did. There was a flaw in his plan, however. The shifters that Adessa made were not only stronger than the humans, their love for Adessa and the blessings she gave them actually increased her magic and power. Poliaris despised this because it made her more powerful than him. So, he ordered his followers to kill the shifters for stealing power from him.”

“And that started the Holy War,” Talia correctly states with a sigh.

“It did. The humans refer to the crusaders in their texts, but not to the shifters or the magic that they were attempting to wipe out,” I explain and brush my hair back from my face. “During the Holy War, there were three mythical shifters that were referred to as the Champions of Adessa and their roles were vital in the continuation of shifter-kind.”

“How?”

“They were said to be the beginning, the middle, and the end. The first champion was a Chimera shifter that was a master warrior that could command armies unlike anything anyone has ever seen. She brought all of shifter-kind together and united those who could fight under her to take on the humans in all out war.”

“The second champion was a Unicorn shifter that was a leader in a different way than the warrior. They were kind and understanding, and they led those who could not fight into a secret location and watched over them during the war. The Unicorn shifter is said to be the reason that shifters are no-longer known to humanity, because their powers of telepathy and mind-altering were the strongest ever to exist.”

“The third champion was a Peryton shifter,” I say, pausing at her sharp intake of breath. “She was a healer that could not only heal mental or physical wounds, she could place people in a state of cryosis sleep where they wouldn’t age with time and would gradually heal magical soul wounds as well.”

Talia asks a question that I didn’t even think of when I first heard this legend. “Who did the third champion put into a healing sleep?”

“I don’t know,” I admit, rubbing the scruff on my jaw. “The legends that I’ve found about the Holy War and the Champions are vague, probably due to the influence of the second champion. I have Miles looking into more obscure texts that refer to that time period, but if I had to guess, it’s someone that will change the tides for shifters.”

Talia stands up and paces in front of my desk, twirling her hair as she sorts through all the information I dumped on her. I glance down at my notes, trying to see between the lines for what we’re missing. What exactly does all of this have to do with Talia and the Croises laboratory?

“The man in charge of the Croises called us abominations, but he was also trying to figure out how to separate our magic from our bodies. He said it was to take back the magic for themselves, but what if it’s not for them? What if they’re trying to take it for their god, Poliaris?”

“You think he’s telling them to find a way to steal the magic of shifters?” I ask, drawing up the files on the few named humans we know from their organisations. “That would weaken Adessa, who’s already greatly weakened since the Holy War based on the lack of extra magic new shifters are being born with. If they succeed, shifter-kind will cease to exist all together.”

“Adessa created the Champions for the Holy War, does that mean we’re headed for another war?” Talia asks hesitantly.

“Yeah,” I answer, my heart racing with fear as I look at my beautiful mate. “We need to figure out the rest of this legend and what the full scope of the previous peryton champion’s role was. Judging from what I’ve seen, your role will be the direct opposite of hers. She was the ending in those champions, but you, you’re the beginning.”