Night and Neera: A Rejected Mate Story

Chapter 16: They Knew The Gesture

In the aftermath of an intense, life-or-death situation, once everything is over, there is a surreal calm that surrounds you, making you question if you had, in fact, lived through something that extreme where your life hung in the balance. This calm blankets you, maybe to temporarily soften the sharp edges of the experience, giving you some space to catch your breath before you have to face what happened and start processing the event.

It was the morning after we'd killed the magicks, and I was walking toward the lake as the sun rose, reflecting orange and pink on the water. From here, I could see my Howl sitting on the shore, her knees pulled up, arms wrapped around her legs, her head resting on her knees. I hated seeing her in that position, hated that it reminded me of the position she'd been in after I'd Taken her Blood. 

She was clearly in the processing stage after yesterday, but I resisted reaching out through our bond. Not invading her thoughts at the moment so she could have some privacy, some time to herself, seemed like the least I could do for her.

My little Howl had been to hell and back since her birthday, and yesterday alone was mind fuck enough, never mind everything else she'd endured. 

Yesterday had been too close, way too close in timing, in the plan just not working.

Néron and my Neera -- and Aymeric, despite being unconscious -- had shifted immediately at my Alpha Decree. Ifrita and Raevyn, realizing that I'd commanded all wolves in the room in such a way that they had no choice but to obey, had tried to prevent the wolves inside their bodies from coming forward.

As Neera Took my Blood, I watched as the magicks fought the wolves and realized this could easily go the other way, in a direction that was decidedly not in our favor.

Neera and I formed our Bonded Wolf and we waited beside Néron's wolf, vibrating with tension and energy, then we barked another Alpha Decree, hoping that might shift the balance of power, hoping the two wolves would come forward even if just for a second. That was all the time we needed -- and all the time we might have before Ifrita and Raevyn were able to surge forward and suppress them again. 

Not knowing how long the magicks would stay down if the wolves won, we had to be ready to move instantly. 

And we did, the very second the wolves shifted forward -- and bared their necks to us -- we fucking moved, killing them in less than three seconds after they shifted.

We'd finished the war, and had the bodies and throats at our feet to prove it. As soon as we had spit out the grisly mess in our mouths, we shifted back, and I grabbed Neera as she stumbled.

My Howl was a mess, bleeding and bruised, clearly having been beaten by the magicks before I'd arrived. I would have given anything to keep those magicks alive and torture them for months just for what they'd done to my Howl alone. But knowing what those bitches had done to my parents? I only wished I could have prolonged their deaths, visiting on them what they had done to my mother and father...but much more slowly and painfully, drawing it out until they were begging for death, and even then, I'd keep the torture going until all that was left to torture was just a puddle of blood.

"I'm OK. I'm OK," Neera kept repeating as we joined Néron, who was now crouched by Aymeric. My call to shift had been strong enough to call his wolf forward, but he'd become entangled in the chains. Néron and I quickly dealt with those, looking for the wound that had caused all the blood. There were two deep slices on each side of his neck that, though serious, had fortunately missed his arteries.

I'd called on my phone for the pack doctors, who swiftly came and stitched him up, just as he was gaining consciousness.

"I'm sorry, Alpha," he'd said the minute his eyes fluttered open. He was apologizing for not guarding my Howl, for letting her get hurt.