Exile Empire, Exile The Second

Chapter 19 - Sorin

The way we talked was perfection. And the way we walked together down the street was even better. She'd been right, she was lucky. She not only found the hundred dollars earlier and used it to pay at the diner, but she kept finding little tokens of luck and prosperity every time she stopped to look down.

A feather here, an ancient coin there. Once, most recently, a strip of red leather, a sacred object that had come off of some regalia somewhere.

People parted for her, people stared at her beauty, and everybody was attracted to her. I saw the shimmer in their auras as we passed, the semi-conscious realization that they were attracted to Kairos like nothing else, but then it would dissipate as soon as she was out of range.

This had to be survival, if everybody knew how much they wanted her, they'd follow and she'd eventually be buried alive under a mass of desperate people all fighting to get a taste of my beautiful mate.

She was mine, though. All mine. And she was perfect.

Fuck, I sounded like a horny teenaged boy who had dipped his cock in the middle of a jar of glitter so I could jerk off and spurt rainbows when I came. I was sickeningly in love/lust with her and it'd grated on my nerves because it fucked up my perception of reality.

I needed focus to keep her safe.

And us, wolf said inside. Focus so we don't get caught or die. I don't want to die again.

Again? I asked him, but he fell silent. I sensed his discomfort with revealing even that much to me.

My interest was piqued. He'd never made mention of how he'd died or how many times he'd gone through it. We'd never talked about that either. How he'd lived before me. Whose bodies he'd inhabited and what had happened when they'd passed on.

All of it was a mystery, and all of it, like talking to your wolf out loud, was left unspoken in my people. I couldn't remember a single adult ever mentioning the wolf and what they represented or where they'd come from.

Maybe I'd be the first, once everything was settled down. I wanted to know.

"This is reckless," I told Kairos as we followed her color theory. "We could be looking elsewhere, starting with the last place your sister was seen."

"We've already been to the apartment and she wasn't there," she replied, leaning into me as we walked. "We just found that skank, Missy. No need to find her again until we have to."

"Missy might have interrupted us," I replied. Wolf slept so I had Kairos to myself. "She might have deliberately distracted us so we wouldn't find the real scent. The trail we had to follow."

Kairos considered this, frowned and said, "I don't think that's it. It doesn't feel right."

And I had to give it to her, her luck extended to her intuition because following her colors to the bakery was the next step in our journey.

Dealing with another fucking shady asshole magic creature who seemed besotted with my mate, and hell bent on freaking her out.

This one was a walker of sorts, not exactly a skinwalker, but a shifter who could walk into anybody's skin and take over their lives.

I could barely stomach the woman, or creature, the hag who found us in the bakery. Elma, she called herself, because she'd stolen the name as well as the face of the woman. Her apartment too, and the lizard that hated her as much as I.

She didn't know what she'd gotten into when she brought us back to her place. Her filthy little apartment, it stunk of dark magic and suffocated me when I tried to take a breath. Wolf woke up when the door shut behind us and he felt the air fill my lungs.

Kairos was unaffected, she wasn't as aware of the sinister nature of the magic in this place. For this reason alone, I could never leave her on this quest. She was powerful and filled with Empire magic, but she wasn't able to sense the darkness around her. She needed me and my wolf senses to pick up on the danger lurking where she never expected it.

Wolf paced in my chest, growling and whining his disapproval as the hag talked. His ears perked up when the hag suggested Kairos has sex with us in wolf form. This was a point of contention with wolf, and me I supposed. We'd never tried anything like it and I'd always kept him away from any woman I was fucking, but we both had thought about it.

What would sex be like in the moment of shift, when I held the balance and maintain bipedal wolf form? Or what would it be like for wolf to take over and fuck a human in his shape?

We'd thought about it more than a few times alone in the forests of Sweden. I'd thought about it more than a few times when I jerked off, trying to make it through another day alone out there.

Fuck, I'd thought about it. He'd thought about it. We'd both thought about it.

So yes, we reacted badly when the old hag got too close to the point.

I felt him explode in my chest, push and force himself against the flesh of my body and the cage of my ribs. We rose up, towering in height and looming over her as I bellowed for her to not fucking dare speak to Kairos like that again.

God damn, that felt good.

Even that felt fucking good.

Elma staggered back from me, and Kairos looked up with fear and admiration flaring in her eyes.

Proud, wolf thought as he growled at Elma inside my chest. So proud, protect her.

Yes, we will protect her, I thought back. We will keep her safe, always.

Always, he said, sitting back on his haunches, pride flowing through him and me.

Elma fiddled around to recover her composure and she set about making tea as she filled Kairos' ear with stories and information. I watched closely with wolf joining in to see that she didn't add anything strange to our brew. She picked up one small container, one that smelled pungent, like poison. She glanced behind her at Kairos who was chatting amicably, then to me. I locked my eyes on hers, let wolf's presence flare with warning, and she got the message.

She dropped the little clay pot, picked up some store bought pre-made tea bags and used them instead.

Wolf and I watched her the entire time until we left, giving her the macarons in exchange for her information to leave the interaction as a completed transaction. It wasn't wise to leave any claim for a creature like her to hold over you. She'd come after us at some point if we didn't leave something, and I didn't want to kill her if I didn't have to.

Kairos was shaking when we left, she wrapped her hand around my forearm and leaned on me for support.

It was the best feeling in the world, as if I'd finally filled my purpose. Giving her my strength and offering my support.

Something a mate would do, protecting his pack and caring for his family.

Inside of me, wolf was pleased.