The Heartborn Mate

by D. Brumbley

  “So what does that mean? You love me but you need your mistress on the side?” Aura was angry but she was also emotional and irrational. She barely made it out of a Council prison alive, and now it felt like no one cared that she was alive anymore. They went to save her and then both Nick and Orlando turned away.

  “Stop it!” He finally shouted at her, and a few lightning bolts actually shot from his fists to scorch the ground on either side of her. “I didn’t ask for this! All I want is our lives to be back the way they were. Back to that day.”

  Aura just cried harder and pulled away from him slowly. “I want that too. I want you, Orlando. I made a choice that almost cost me my life and now cost me my best friend.”

  “Then why are you walking away?”

  “Because you will never look at me like that, you will never want me like that. I will never be able to satisfy you like she can. I’m not a fraction of the wolf that she is.” Aura glanced in Candra’s direction and felt even more defeated.

  He took a step back at those accusations and just stared at her with his completely black eyes. “You are the wolf I fell in love with. Not her.”

  “Tell me what to do, Orlando.” She begged with a whimper as though she had been physically wounded. “I love you.”

  “I don’t know what to do. Or what to tell you to do. I just have to work this out. Get my head on straight.” He explained, but he was just as much at a loss. He knew he couldn’t continue on without Candra, not now. Not after the connection between them. But his emotions weren’t tied to Candra the way they were with Aura.

  Aura looked down at the ground and then back up at him. “I’m not going to do this to you. It’s not fair.” Aura went up to him and she kissed his cheek gently, her tears wetting the side of his face. “I’m not going to make you fight yourself for me.” Everything changed in a flash of literal lightning after Orlando found Candra. It was nothing she could fight, despite what she felt.

  He put a hand to the other side of her face as she kissed him, and held her there with him for a moment. His thoughts were still spinning with everything that had happened, his body humming with power the likes of which he had never known was possible. He knew himself well enough to know that he wasn’t thinking straight, like a wolf on the Fulness pushed to lunacy by the pull of the moon. He had just as much a chance of resisting Candra’s presence as he did of remaining human on the High Night. “I wish I could.”

  Aura wrapped her arms around him and hugged him before she gave him a kiss with much more meaning and passion in it. It was a kiss goodbye, before they ever got started. One night of passion was the pinnacle of their relationship. They had no chance to explore anything more. “What am I going to do without you?”

  Orlando wasn’t ready to give her up. Not by a long shot. So he held her tighter, and wouldn’t let go even after she started to pull away. “I’m sorry. I’ll never be able to say that enough. Even if I live five hundred years like the stories say I might.”

  Her heart was breaking in ways that she didn’t know was really possible, and so she just held onto him until she had to pull away to save what was left of her sanity. As she did, she met his eyes. “I’m the one who’s sorry. If I hadn’t gone out, if I had gotten out, then I could have been with you. I could have, we could have…I’m sorry.” Aura felt the full weight and responsibility for everything falling apart, and she knew she had to pay the price.

  He kissed her again and then finally let her go, though he was leaning on the fencepost leading into the compound as he did. “None of this is your fault.” He couldn’t look at her after the kiss, though. He turned around to walk back toward the trees, already feeling the irresistible pull towards Candra, no matter what his heart tried to say.

  III

  Several days went by in mourning, but after a week, all the recovered bodies received proper burials according to their element. They’d lost a few wounded fighters since the fallout, but nearly all of the injured seemed to be recovering. The compound was a tense and quiet place, every available set of hazel eyes looking to the perimeter for the reprisal they all knew would come.

  After the mourning period came to an end, it was only a few days before the very gates that guarded their home were approached by a Skyborn. The woman approached with confidence, crystalline blue eyes shining in the afternoon sun, but all the guards who watched her wondered what kind of death wish she had. No one came to the gate at first to meet or acknowledge her, but she pushed for someone’s attention. “I am here on behalf of the Council!”

  Still no one answered her for a few minutes, forcing her to repeat herself several times before Nick stepped out at the head of a dozen guards. He still looked ragged by most standards, but the chains and bands that wrapped his body glinted in the sunlight, made of steel and gold. When he spoke, his voice was almost friendly. “Do suicidal impulses run in your family or is it just you, messenger?”

  “Just me.” The woman said without emotion or hesitation. “Will you hear my message?”‘

  “Step inside.” Nick said as he twitched his fingers and the gates flew inward violently to welcome her, leaving a deafening screech in the air. “Stay a while.”

  “Not why I’m here.” She remained standing on the outside of the fenceline, though she wondered if they would allow it. “The Council would like to meet with you.”

  Every guard behind Nick started laughing, but he didn’t, though he did smile. “You bitches never do learn any new tricks, do you?”

  She didn’t respond to his insult and she just continued on. Clearly she was there for a single purpose. “What should I tell them?”

  “You can tell them they can suck my copper-coated cock is what.” Nick stepped forward toward her, completely unafraid of a Skyborn, especially with all his guards nearby, and got within a few steps of her. “If this was any other century, I would send them back your head in an iron cage. If your Council wants to meet with me, they know where to find me.”

  The Skyborn looked him up and down. “Copper, huh?” She really was a little mentally off, even for a Skyborn, but she had been the only one who had volunteered. “I’ll tell them.”

  “How are my dear friends the Council members these past few days?” Nick asked, still with a friendly lift to his voice that was undercut by the screeching of the gates as they swung at his command. “I thought to see them on our last trip to Switzerland, but they all pissed themselves and ran.”

  “They’re healthy and strong. Don’t you worry about them.”

  “I’m not worried. But they should be.” Nick sneered, all manner of violence promised in his tone.

  The Skyborn swooped low into a bow. “I expect that you and…my Council…will see each other soon.”

  “I look forward to it.” He turned around and headed back inside, completely bored with the conversation, and the gates swung themselves locked behind him. He sighed as he got back to his fighters, passing Lea with a look that showed just how tedious he thought the whole thing was. “Well, that didn’t take them long.”

  Lea shook her head, but she was glaring out as the Skyborn left. “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to wait.” He said as he’d been saying for the past few days whenever someone asked him that question. “We’re going to wait, and we’re going to find a few more friends.”

  Lea looked back at the house where his parents stayed, and then back at the disappearing Skyborn. “They’re going to think that we’re incredibly weakened. Under new leadership and with so many dead.” She didn’t say it to be negative, just as a statement of fact. Nick’s father was dying, and it was hard for him to rule more or less alone. Some people were still furious with the way that Nick took over when he didn’t even have a mate, and that he did it for a bitch he didn’t even want anymore.

  He stopped and looked at Lea with a challenge in his eyes that wasn’t truly meant for her, but for everyone else around him. “Are you saying we’re weak, Lea?” He said it with
out moving from where he stood.

  “No.” She said firmly, since she didn’t think they were weak. Instead, she looked around at the people. Lea was never one to back down from a growl, even from her perpetually angry Alpha. “And we never will be as long as we remain united and support you, Alpha.”

  He nodded to her and to the others. “Not to be forgotten. Now, I need nine teams established, messenger crews of seven wolves each on your recommendations by the end of the night. They have a lot of ground to cover and not much time to cover it in.”

  Lea acknowledged his command and went to do as she had been asked. Another captain among his guards would have questioned, asked the purpose of such an order, but never Lea. She had never been contrary when she served his father, when she’d guarded Nick growing up, and Nick was glad to see that she would not be so now.

  As soon as Lea stepped away and everyone started to scatter, Zara felt that she could approach Nick without anyone thinking that she had control over him. “They won’t be expecting you to respond so quickly. It’s very wise on your part to act immediately.”

  “Why are you still here?” He said as dismissively as he could, walking past her without even making eye contact. “You’ve been given leave to go, so why are you still here?”

  She followed him, hands folded, with her eyes on the ground, keeping a few steps behind her. “I want to be here. I want to help.”

  “We’re not your people.” He said bitingly. “Your people are up in Amsterdam in their own little Hellfire Club, last time I heard.”

  “This is the first time I’ve ever had a choice about where I want to be.” Zara’s voice had none of the same bite in it that Nick’s did. “The first time that I’m no one’s servant, no one’s toy. I want your people to be my people. I want to stay.”

  “My people will never be your people.” He stopped and looked over at her closely. “You may stay and do whatever you wish to help those still wounded. Micah and her people tell me you’ve helped a great deal that way in the last few days. But do not stay under the illusion that this will ever be your place. Because it won’t.”

  She took a few steps closer to him, one arm swinging at her side, her other hand tracing the outline of a pendant hanging from a fragile chain around her neck. I love your people already. I love their strength, I love their passion, not to mention their jewelry is divine. She said with a smirk. You can’t get rid of me that easily.

  I told you to stay out of my head. He growled back at her, definitely unhappy about her intrusion.

  Zara took a few steps closer. What if I like it in there?

  He looked her up and down a few times as she approached him, but didn’t back away from her as she did. Why would you like a place you’re not welcome in?

  Everywhere I go, I’m unwelcome. People look at my eyes and consider me an instant enemy. I’ve learned to love even if no one loves me back.

  Love comes easily to someone who can hate just as easily.

  Zara stepped up even closer to Nick, every step both a challenge and invitation. “You, someone who fought his whole life to prove that he was worth it, worth consideration of the Council, worth something, and then you turn around and look at me with the same distaste? The same condescension? You don’t even know me and you judge me. How’s that working out for you?”

  His look didn’t quite soften, but he didn’t look away from her either. “What do you want?”

  “Aren’t you listening?” Her face actually showed a flicker of weakness, of hurt, and worst of all, of loneliness. “I want to stay.”

  “But you’re not telling me why.” He stepped closer to her, his face still just as hard as the steel on his arms. “You’re free, and you’re among the enemies of your former masters. You enjoyed a privileged position among them and yet you say you want to stay and help us, but you haven’t given me a reason.”

  “Yes, I have.” She looked up into his hazel eyes. “I love the people here and I want to be here for them. To help settle disputes. To be a listening ear. Mostly to help you, if you’ll let me.”

  He considered what she said for a moment in silence, then put his arms in his pockets as he looked down at her. “You wish to help me. As you helped the Council. And if you are now willing to betray your oaths to the Council, what assurances could I possibly accept that you will not simply do the same to me?”

  She looked down at the ground between them humbly, tracing the contours of the pendant she wore with one hand before she extended it to him gently. “Will you allow me to show you?”

  He hesitated, but his curiosity won out over caution, and he took her hand, though he was tense all over at the prospect of being so close to a Heartborn and allowing her witchcraft for even a moment.

  She held onto his hand gently and then turned toward the remaining people around them. Her power moved through his body like a serum that made him feel both warm and comfortable without much effort. “Once sworn to an Alpha, my eyes, my ears, my everything becomes theirs. With that oath, they can see if I’m lying for themselves by looking in my mind for what they want.” He could hear the thoughts of so many around him that it was a deafening ocean of random thoughts and feelings.

  He took his hand back and balled it into a fist, just to be rid of the feeling and the noise in his head at the thoughts of others. It was alien and he wanted it gone. “What about your oath to your former masters? What happens to that?”

  “Even if I were to be sent back to them, most of them would want me killed just knowing I helped you here in any way. They trust me as little as you do, even the ones who found me useful.” She nodded to the people around them, many still going about their business at a slower, more thoughtful pace than usual after recent events. “Your people may not trust me, but I’d rather be around people who don’t trust me than people who are wondering every moment of every day how they can take the most advantage of me.”

  He stayed close to her for a long while, trying very hard to keep her from hearing the circles his mind was trapped in. “I’ll consider what you’ve said. In the meantime, help Micah with the wounded. If I need you, I’ll send for you.”

  Zara nodded and then brushed her fingers across the back of his hand before she turned away to go attend to her tasks. I have never lied to you, Nick. And I never will.

  * * * * *

  In the week that followed, the camp turned into more of a war zone than a home. The wall was reinforced to become an iron picket fence rather than one of chain links. The gate became more of a portcullis, and the guard was reinforced as yet more Ironborn and other wolves trickled in to join them. The assault in Switzerland had been smoothed over by the human media, but the wolf community had spread the story of their rebellion like wildfire, and they had people flocking in by the truckload to join them.

  A pickup truck pulled up to the gate and grunted to a stop just before the occupants sitting in the back jumped out, their eyes a varied mix of colors between brown, grey and Skyborn blue. The man that jumped out of the driver’s side had hazel eyes to match most of those already present in the compound, but he had blonde hair and a general disregard for clothing aside from a pair of black jean shorts hanging slightly off his waist. He approached the fence with a grin, looking at Lea, who was in charge of processing new arrivals at the moment.

  “Lea?” He called with a gravelly laugh that seemed inherent in his voice, “Lea, you tasty bitch, is that you all Guarded up and packing heat now?”

  Lea whipped her face around to look at who was talking to her, and her expression softened slightly into a laugh when she looked at him. “Well, if it isn’t Ziem, the mutt who got tossed on his ass for kissing the princess.”

  “An exile well worth the price. And a whole lot more comfortable than I’ll bet the old Alpha meant it to be.” He hugged Lea tightly with a kiss on her cheek for old time’s sake, even though Lea was a good deal older than he was. “I brought friends. Some buddies of mine I made in exile.” He waved his friends forward
to the gate and tossed his truck keys to another guard. Property was held in common there in the compound, for the most part, and Ziem didn’t feel like fighting to keep the truck. “So where is Aura, anyway? I heard about what happened in Geneva, I’m glad she’s alright.”

  She looked around and nodded for a few other guards to take the newcomers’ information and check people out. They didn’t want anything to get inside that shouldn’t be there. “She’d almost be better off in exile.” Lea said without any emotion as she wrote down his name. “Aura’s no princess of ours any longer.”

  Ziem was completely flabbergasted by that, and he was the kind of wolf who showed every emotion he had on his face, magnified a hundred times. “What? But the…the kidnapping, the rescue, dramatic breakout, legends coming alive, what the hell?”

  “She picked the wrong male.” Lea shrugged and then nodded toward the small hut by the fence where Aura had set up her house. “That’s her. Same house and all. Doesn’t really come out much or do anything, since her falling out with the Alpha. So basically, everyone pretty much doesn’t like her.”

  “But…I’m confused. And I just watched the finale of Lost last week, so I want you to appreciate just how big a deal me being confused right now really is.”

  Lea looked back up at him and sighed, since she felt bad about explaining what had happened to her Alpha. It wasn’t pleasant, after all. “They were supposed to get mated, you know that, but then she booked it. He went out looking for two years, found her, but then she picked a Shadowborn who ended up ditching her for a Lightborn slave. I really don’t know why she even stays here, but she is Ironborn, after all. It wouldn’t look good to welcome newcomers and then kick her out for something stupid like that.”

  “She…” Ziem put a hand to his head and rubbed at his eyes a little to clear his head. “Gods of silver and gold, that’s gotta…ouch.” He pointed over at the hut Lea had pointed out. “You said she’s still here? Like now?”

  She nodded. “Hardly ever leaves the place. Not even to see her parents, but even her parents aren’t really interested in seeing her now.”