The Heartborn Mate

by D. Brumbley

  Zara finally looked up into his dark blue eyes and she cried harder. “I’m sorry, Coren. I didn’t know that I could feel this way…I…it’s so different with him. He’s not ashamed of me.”

  “Nor am I.” He said as if he had expected her to admit what she was admitting. He could hear her thoughts just as well as she could hear his, after all. “You didn’t hear me. I said we can go home. Together. When this business with the Ironborn and their friends is finished, I want you with me when we go back to Geneva. I want you sitting behind me in your rightful place in the Council chamber, not standing at the door a hundred strangers away from me. I want you with me.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him through her tears as she hugged him tightly. He was saying all the things she wanted to hear, all the things she hoped for as his mate. Not Alina?

  He actually laughed in the middle of the kiss. Alina may be decent in bed and a highly effective co-ruler on the Council, but she has about as much real heart as a puddle of dog piss.

  Zara kissed him several more times, since she couldn’t be happier to hear that. Her nature enjoyed feeling multiple connections, but she liked having a strong one with her mate. They’re going to march together on each of your homes. I tried to get them to march on Geneva, but they wouldn’t. There are others on the Council giving out information.

  You mean besides Teresa and Ivy?

  She nodded and then sighed. The Skyborn Alpha knows too much. She said she has connections. It has to be Isela. Or someone close to her.

  I’ll look into it. Thank you for telling me. There was a time when they had taken such communication for granted, but they’d been apart for too long to do that at the moment. But they won’t get the chance to march. It’s going to take them at least another two days to get themselves organized, and they’ll all be dead far sooner than that.

  Your guards still think I’m a traitor. I could be dead too.

  My guards won’t be the ones doing the killing. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe. Just try and keep your distance from Nick when it happens.

  Zara trembled again and then hugged him even tighter. “Say it again.”

  He kissed her deeply, the water sliding up around her body to wrap her up in a hug more completely than he himself could. “I want you beside me.” The water ran through her hair and down her back, making her forget the scars she still had there. “I love you.”

  She moaned softly and buried her soaking face into the side of his neck where she kissed his skin several times before she lifted her head and whispered in his ear. “And I love you, Coren.”

  XI

  After the events of the meeting, Candra and Orlando decided to run and hunt for a few hours as wolves to relieve the stress of the afternoon’s events. By the time they were satisfied with their hunt, they went back to their small house only to hear the noises of a large compound of wolves gone wild back through the gates. Candra knew it was because of the plans for the days ahead, but it scared her more than it excited her.

  She went inside their house before Orlando and grabbed a bucket, then ran out to the well in the dying light to get some water before she came back in and started washing up. She still wasn’t used to being seen naked in her human form, even if it was something that was common among wolves, and she was too frightened to go down to the river. Even if Orlando was with her, because of what had happened to Lea and Zara at the hands of Council fighters, she didn’t dare. They were the same Council fighters that guarded her once upon a time, but she had slowly realized she had never known them at all.

  She had been quiet all the way through their hunt, as well as a little more deadly and savage than he was accustomed to from her, and he couldn’t help but feel proud at the sight of her doing so well taking down their meal, which she had done more or less by herself. He had a wrap for himself and one of her favorite dresses, a thick and rather coarse brown which, for some reason, she really loved even though it was nothing like the things she’d once worn as a prisoner.

  “Here, you missed a bit.” He took a rag from her and started cleaning the back of her legs, himself still completely filthy. It was a common enough ritual after hunting, but not exactly one that they had shared terribly often.

  Candra didn’t say anything for a while as he helped her, but she let out a heavy sigh. “We can’t survive against them. There’s no way.”

  “Huh.” He said simply, and didn’t respond for a while afterwards. “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence there, sweetheart.”

  She sighed again and turned around to look at him. “There are so many of them. They have ties with everyone that you could possibly think of. And…that Heartborn…I saw her before. All the time. She could be leading us to our death, for all we know.”

  “On that, we agree. But if Nick has any brains, he’ll leave her at home when it’s time to get busy fighting. Heartborn are worthless in a scrap.”

  “I don’t know how to fight. All it would take is one bullet to the heart and I’m dead.” Candra countered, since she flinched and winced at even an argument.

  “That would mean someone would have to get a look at you, which I’m going to make sure doesn’t happen.” He finished with her leg and stood up with the same rag to get the dirt and mud off his arms. “You and I stay behind the vanguard and wait for them to draw out the Forestborn. Then you and I…do some thundering. The second anybody’s within sight of you, they’ll be twitching too bad to pull the trigger. Or anything else, for that matter.”

  Candra grabbed another rag and dipped it into the water to soak it so that she could help him too. “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I’ve been doing this for a while.” He said with a comforting smile. “You keep forgetting that.”

  “I’m just so scared, Orlando.” She whimpered as she continued wiping gently at his arm, looking down as she did so. “We’ve only had a few months together and I don’t want to lose you.”

  “We’re going to have longer than these few months.” He put a mostly-clean hand to her chin and kissed her for the first time that day as humans. “I won’t say don’t be scared. Scared means you still have a healthy appreciation of the situation.” He kissed her again. “I’m scared too. But I’ll keep you safe.”

  She kissed him several times before she pressed her forehead to his. “I can’t survive without you. I just can’t.”

  He dropped the rag and rubbed noses with her once. “I know you grew up reading life through books, hon, but you don’t have to worry about that particular plot twist. I don’t think you could get rid of me at this point even if you wanted to.”

  It was comforting to hear his confidence, so she smiled and kissed him a few more times. “Good. Because I certainly don’t want you going anywhere.” She slid down his body to get the rag he had dropped, then she moved slowly upwards and dropped it in the water before she finished off the movement with a kiss. “I want you right here.”

  He looked around the bathroom they stood in, close quarters as it was, and looked back down at her. “Well, it is the one room in the house we haven’t tried yet.”

  Candra growled softly against his lips as she ran her fingers up and down his back. “You know, it’s a good thing that we only have to worry about Fulnesses. Otherwise we’d really be in trouble. I’m surprised we’re not.”

  “So am I, honestly.” He grabbed the wrap he was going to wear and used it instead to dry her off, not meeting her eyes as he spoke. “There was a time when I didn’t think I would even be able to be with anyone.” He looked up at her with a grin. “Obviously that changed.” Orlando went back to drying her off slowly. “But I still might not be capable of having children. It’s not like there’s any others like me that I can just call up and ask.”

  “Why do you think that you aren’t capable? I never read anything about that.”

  He leaned back against the wall away from her, looking slightly condescending, but it was a look that was more and more rare fr
om him in recent days. “Everything you read about me before we met was about how my kind steals people’s souls, destroys continents with a single howl, or how we’re - you and I - destined to be together for life. I doubt the legends were particularly specific about my reproductive capacity.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him as she held him against the wall. “I don’t like that look. Listen, if you’re not sure, then I guess we’ll just have to keep trying.” She never thought she would ever be with anyone either, so if he wanted to have pups with her now, she was fine with that. She was extremely young, too young to survive if she was any other kind of wolf, but being a Lightborn made it easy for her and nearly impossible to kill when it came to power.

  He laughed a little and kissed her as she held him against the wall. “I guess we’ll have to. Though by next Fulness, we should be on the road somewhere. We’ll have to find a place somewhere that’s well-grounded and won’t short out half the country.” They’d caused a number of electrical disturbances with their times together over the last few months, which had, of course, just added to their legend.

  Candra giggled and pressed herself into his body to distract him as she slid down again, but then she came up with the bucket of water and dumped it on his head with a loud laugh that made every light in the house flash for just an instant.

  He flinched, and the lights in the room flickered and one bulb exploded at his surprise, but he was still laughing as he shorted out the rest of the house. “Okay, I thought we agreed we were gonna play fair now!”

  She couldn’t exactly hide very well, even in darkness, because she glowed, but that didn’t stop her from touching him scandalously before she ran out of the bathroom.

  He ran after her quickly, but he shifted as he did so since he ran faster that way, and he was clean now, so he wouldn’t mess up the house. Anyone else being chased by a wolf through their own home might’ve been afraid, but her laughter pinpointed her even if he hadn’t been able to see her in the dark.

  He got to the hallway where she’d gone to hide and crouched down, ready to pounce, his dark eyes almost lost in the pure black fur of his face.

  She shifted as well so that she could run quickly, since he always found her in the end. We need a bigger house. I don’t like losing. She tried to sneak into a different corner without him noticing.

  Bigger house would just mean you have farther to run. Wouldn’t do you any good. He jumped up onto a table near where she was hiding and kicked it off to the side to land within paw’s length of her, growling playfully. I’ll always find you.

  Candra barked in surprise and she tried to jump over him so that she could get away. Yeah, but you still have to catch me!

  He didn’t quite grab her as she sailed over him, and he set off to chase her through the rest of the house, but he stopped just as she did, when there was a knock at the door. Instantly the playful mood in the house shifted a hundred and eighty degrees, and Orlando shifted to human form as he looked at the door.

  She didn’t shift since she wanted to keep playing once he’d sent away whoever was there to see them. It couldn’t be something that important, not when everyone else was celebrating. Candra just found a new place to hide as she waited, but this time she was tucked away so not even her glow could be seen.

  He grabbed a wrap from his room and went up to their front door, electrifying it a little before he opened it as a warning to whoever was outside, but then he opened the top portion of it just barely. “Who is it?”

  “It’s me, Orlando.” Nick’s voice answered. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  “No, don’t worry, you are.” Orlando opened the door the rest of the way for him, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed afterwards. “Anything I can do for you?”

  “I won’t take much of your time, but the party is dying down in there.” He nodded toward the fence and didn’t step the rest of the way into the house. “I wanted to ask if the two of you would be comfortable taking a walk tonight. Let everyone see you.”

  “I don’t sign autographs, Nick.”

  “And I’m not handing you a pen, Orlando.” He shot back with a barely-patient tone to his voice.

  “Everybody saw us earlier at Court.”

  “Everybody saw you at a distance, yes. But it would help raise everyone’s confidence if they saw the two of you a little more often, now that we’ve confirmed to the other Alphas that you’re not just a bluff we’ve been keeping up for months.”

  Once Candra heard it was Nick’s voice, she let out a sigh and came out of her hiding place, only to shift and to grab a blanket that she wrapped around herself. She approached slowly and stood behind Orlando to more or less hide herself behind him. “We want the opportunity to be alone before we throw ourselves into this mess too, you know.” She said with a sigh, but she didn’t sound angry. She sounded a little defeated, since she figured that Orlando would agree eventually.

  Nick was all Alpha, and it was strange for Orlando to see him as he was being at the moment. Candra had known him almost entirely that way, but Orlando could see the difference in Nick’s eyes as she actually gave him attitude. She had never lived under an Alpha, and she’d been living with Orlando for the last four months. It was inevitable that she would pick up on at least some of his undying snark. “You’ve changed quite a bit since we met a few months ago, Candra.” Nick wasn’t smiling or condemning, though, he was just stating a fact.

  “I know. I think it’s a good thing.” She grinned and reached out to place her hand in the middle of Orlando’s back, scratching his skin lightly as they stood there.

  “I agree.” Nick said quietly and looked back at Orlando.

  Orlando sighed and reached behind himself to take Candra’s hand. “We’ll be out later on when it suits us. We won’t be leaving for a few days anyway. We’ll make an appearance if you think it would help.”

  Candra nodded as she looked at Nick. “Maybe in a few hours?”

  The look that passed between Nick and Orlando wasn’t exactly friendly, and never would be, both of them knew. “Whenever.” Nick said as he backed up, a lot of things going back and forth between him and Orlando in the look he gave the Shadowborn as he stepped away. As he walked off, Lea and William stepped up to walk behind him, guarding their Alpha as always.

  Orlando watched him go for a long few moments without closing the door. “Poor Nick.”

  Candra was confused by that statement, and she looked back over at Orlando with an eyebrow raised. “Why? What’s wrong with him?”

  “He’s got Zara wrapped around him every waking hour of the day, and most sleeping ones, but he’s still the loneliest man in this whole army.” He shook his head and glanced over at Aura’s house a few hundred meters away on the other side of the fence. “And most of it’s not even his fault.” He swung the door shut afterwards, though, and sighed as he locked the half-dozen bolts that were in place on it to keep them safe. “Sorry about that.”

  Candra sighed and kissed his lips lightly. “It’s not like he didn’t have a chance to be with Aura if he really wanted her.” Candra wasn’t quick to absolve Nick of his own fault in the scheme of things.

  “Oh I’m well aware of that.” He returned the kiss and pulled her in against him tightly. “Make sure I never get like that? Please?”

  “Are you lonely? Even with me around?”

  “No, I mean…cold like that.” He nodded back through the door as if Nick was still on the other side of it. “Don’t let me take myself too seriously. It’s a pretty bad habit I’m prone to.”

  Candra kissed him once more and she pulled off her blanket and tossed it over his head before she took off running. “Okay, I won’t!”

  When he threw off the blanket again, he was grinning, and he shifted so fast he left the wrap around his waist in a tangle as it fell to the floor where he’d stood.

  * * * * *

  Nick had, it turned out, been mistaken when he said the party was dying down. In fact,
it seemed the party had only taken a brief nap, since by the time Orlando and Candra had gotten themselves properly dressed and headed into the compound later that night, a great many people were out and about in the makeshift streets. There were hundreds of families sitting and lounging in groups everywhere, lovers sitting with each other in intimate conversation between houses, children sitting at their parents’ feet and listening to their reassurances as they talked about what was coming. Groups of men were everywhere having contests of strength or power, some of them with intricately detailed trials of skill with stone or roots, or just raw muscle. An Earthborn arm-wrestling match had a tendency to turn into a small earthquake, and Orlando and Candra walked past a good number of such events.

  People always quieted when they noticed the two of them walking through the streets, and so after walking through a few crowds with tense, awkward silence, she leaned in and whispered to him. “Do you think that we should give them a show or something? You know, so that they have stories to pass on?”

  He snorted at the suggestion, which made a few people flinch away from him, but he just kept laughing and didn’t show any surprise at the reaction. “What kind of show?”

  “I don’t know.” She looked around for a moment and then she went to grab a bracelet that had been dropped in the middle of one of the roads in the compound. The stuff was easy to come by in that place, so she knew that most people wouldn’t miss a tiny bracelet like the one she was holding. She warmed her hand enough so that the metal became pliable, and then she snapped the bracelet into two pieces. She then put them together as two separate rings, one of which she held out for him to wear.

  Most of the Ironborn winced, since she had done such a rough job with the metal, but it would suffice. “I’ll wear one, you wear the other, and then we can throw some jolts back and forth. That’s a show, right?” She could tolerate Orlando’s electrical stunts better than almost anyone, other than an Ironborn, of course, because she was holding a lot of heat herself in her light.