Heather smiled, “I know of other shifters that have had humans as mates. When Athena found the perfect first mate for Paragon, she made it so a small part of his soul intertwined with hers that allowed her to age like a dragon shifter. I am sure that part has already happened. Otherwise your dragon wouldn’t have known she was your soul mate.” Aldain was glad to know that. It meant he and Tori would have long lives to love one another.
Aldain stayed with his mother the rest of the day. He told her how Tori came into his life. How much he loved her and was just waiting for the day he could tell her what he was and hope she loved him enough that it wouldn’t matter. As the sun was starting to set, Aldain left promising his mother he would bring Tori to meet her as soon as he could.
Chapter Nine
The next morning was the day that Aldain was taking Tori to the clan festivities. She was so excited she was like a little girl at Christmas. She could barely sit still long enough to eat breakfast and she wanted to start getting ready as soon as possible. Before she headed upstairs to get ready Aldain took her aside. “I have something for you. I hope you like it.” He pulled a long black case from his pocket. When Tori opened it she gasped. In the case was a beautiful blue sapphire bracelet. It was the same color as the outfit she bought.
“Oh, my god Aldain this is gorgeous.” She reached up and gave him a kiss. “I can’t wait to see how this looks after I have my outfit on.” She practically ran up the stairs.
Aldain then went to get ready himself. He decided he would wear the Kincaid tartan to the festivities to show respect for the Clan Leader. It didn’t take him long to change. He was done before Tori so he waited for her in the kitchen. He couldn’t imagine it taking so long for her to get ready but then he never had to wait for a woman getting dressed for a party before. He finally heard her coming down the stairs. He was at the bottom waiting for her, as she appeared he lost his breath. Her beauty was all he could think of and how much he wanted to forego the party and take her in his arms, go upstairs and spend the rest of the day and night making love to her. His heart was pounding, his breathing was rapid and a sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead. His dragon was yelling at him to take her, forget the party. It took everything Aldain had to not shift in front of her, take her in his talons and fly off with her to one of the many caves he knew about and make passionate love to her.
As she arrived at the bottom of the stairs Aldain reached out a shaking hand to touch her face. He cleared his throat. “My god Tori! You are beautiful lass. You will put every woman at the party to shame.”
Tori twirled around and put her arms around his waist. “Well thank you. You are no slouch either. I am glad you approve.”
As Tori walked to the door to leave she turned around. Aldain just stood there, his feet glued to the floor. His eyes smoldering with passion. She smiled at the look on his face. “Well are you coming or am I going by myself?”
Aldain gave himself a mental shake. “Over my dead body would I let you go alone. I am right behind you.”
Tori was so excited. She was telling Aldain everything she was going to ask the clan chief. Aldain told her what the clan chief’s name was. She was so excited and she hoped she would be able to remember but if not she would wing it somehow.
They got to the party in plenty of time. There were people everywhere wearing blue tartans or dresses. They were at some beautiful park and in the middle, was a huge tent. Aldain helped Tori out of the car and they both headed straight for the tent. Sitting in the middle of it was the Clan Chief. As Aldain and Tori walked towards him he stood to greet them. “Aldain my friend I am glad you came.” He said as they both hugged each other. As they separated the Clan Chief noticed Tori. “Who is this bonnie lassie Aldain?” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Aldain introduced them. “Tori this is Robert McEwan Clan Chief and Robert this is Tori Robinson.”
Tori looked the Chief in his eyes and said. “I am so happy to meet you. I know I am not a member of your clan but Aldain told me that most of you would be wearing blue so I wanted to blend in as much as possible.”
Robert laughed. “And very lovely you look lass. Please feel free to call me Robert. All my friends do. Aldain is a good friend of mine and if you are with him then I put you in the same category,” Tori smiled up at him.
She charmed him with that smile of hers. “If you find you have time today, I would love to ask you some questions.” Robert told her he would find the time to answer them.
As other people arrived to show their respect for their Clan Chief, Aldain and Tori wandered out from under the tent. There were all kinds of events going on. In one spot, there was a huge pig on a spit being turned. Under a smaller tent there were men playing bag pipes and in some places people were dancing. There were tables and tables of food and drink set out. Tori and Aldain walked over to them as Tori took a plate and put a little of everything on it. She wanted to try as much as she could.
Aldain told her later in the day there would be horse races. Tori was excited to watch the races, she loved to watch the horses. They were so sleek and beautiful as they ran. In the meantime, she was hovering near the bag pipe players. Some of the music they played had a haunting sound to it. A woman grabbed a microphone and started singing some very old Scottish songs. Tori thought they were beautiful. She was entranced with the music and lyrics. She had never heard anything so lovely. When the woman sang ‘Fhear A Bhata’ she cried.
A handkerchief appeared in front of her and she noticed it was being held by Robert. He said, “I know how you feel lass, that song always makes me want to cry myself. I have a few minutes so I thought if Aldain didn’t mind we could go to a quiet spot and you could ask me all those questions you are about to burst with.” Aldain was hard pressed to agree to let Tori out of his sight, but it would have been such an insult to the Clan Chief and he knew she would be in safe hands. He bowed his head to him, kissed Tori and put her hand in the Chiefs. He told her he would be by one of the food tables.
Tori followed Robert to a spot close to a small spring. He sat on a log and invited Tori to sit next to him. “Ok lass; ask away and I will answer what I can.” Tori plied him with questions regarding the history of his clan. After he told her the condensed version about his clan’s history, he also told her that the countries national animal was the Unicorn. Tori didn’t know that but told him she loved Unicorns. She had a Unicorn collection at her home in the States. He told her that it is believed the Unicorn was the natural enemy of the lion. The lion was the symbol the English had adopted. This belief was a tradition going as far back as the ancient Babylonians in 3,500 B.C.
Tori was entranced with all the knowledge he had. They both lost track of time. Soon there was a trumpet sounding that the horse races were soon to start. “Och I let time get away from me. I have enjoyed our time together lassie but I must be there for the horse races. I am the one that has to wave the flag to get them started.”
Tori was sorry their time had to end. Robert reached down to help Tori up. “Oh, please go on ahead of me. I just want to spend a few more minutes here. It is so tranquil. I promise I won’t be here long.”
He frowned. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you here alone. I don’t feel right about not bringing you safely back to Aldain. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
Tori batted her eyes at him. “Look around. There isn’t anyone here but us. Everyone seems to be waiting for the horse racing to start. I promise I won’t be much longer. I’ll be back before anyone misses me.” As usual Tori got her way. Even with his misgivings on leaving her alone, he agreed to let her have her few minutes. He did tell her he was going to tell Aldain where he left her.
Tori looked around the park. It was stunning! The mountains in the background were huge and snowcapped, even though it was the middle of summer. She sighed, she knew she should go meet Dain. She didn’t want to miss the horse races and if she stayed to long she knew he would come looking
for her.
As she stood up she noticed the man she had met in Edinburgh, Alec Russell, walking towards her. She didn’t know what it was about him but he seemed off to her somehow. “Well, well Miss Robinson. How nice to run into you. I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon but I am glad I have. How are you enjoying the party?”
The way he looked at her sent shivers through her. “Hello Mr. Russell. I am enjoying it very much thank you. I was just heading over to join Dain to watch the horse races.”
He grabbed her arm to stop her. “There are still a few minutes before the races start. What’s the hurry? I would like to get to know you better.” He was leering at her.
Tori’s senses heightened. She jerked her arm out of his grasp. “Don’t you ever lay a hand on me without permission Mr. Russell. I don’t appreciate being man handled.” She gave him a withering look and started to walk away. Before she took three steps he had his hand over her mouth and was forcing her into a nearby grove of trees. She fought him with all her strength but he had an iron grip on her.
As he dragged her into the grove she bit him on his hand drawing blood. He let go and punched her, “You bitch. You are going to be sorry you did that.”
He grabbed his scarf he had around his neck and quickly tied it across her mouth before she had a chance to scream. He looked around to make sure no one was coming. When he was sure they were unnoticed he started tearing her shirt off. Tori squirmed and kicked for all she was worth. Her hands were loose and he was surprised at how strong she was. She scratched his face and he grabbed her hands. She managed to squirm enough to allow her to give him a hard kick to his face. She put everything she had into it. It spun him around and he went to the ground. It gave her just enough time to get up and start running.
She tore the scarf off her mouth and started screaming for help. Her mind reverted back to when Tom was beating her. She knew if he caught her he would kill her. She wasn’t paying attention to where she was running she just wanted to get away. She didn’t hear the people yelling at her to stop. She was heading towards the field where the horses were racing. Aldain started running towards her.
She was oblivious to the danger she was running into. Aldain had almost reached her, almost. The only conscious thought going through Tori’s mind was getting somewhere far from Tom, in her mind that is who she was running from. She had to get far away!
Everything happened in slow motion. Tori ran into the middle of the field that the horses were racing on. They were running at full speed. The riders tried to stop them but she was to close. She had run only a few feet in front of them and the last thing she remembered was turning around to see what looked like a herd of horses barreling towards her.
Aldain saw the horses literally trample Tori into the ground. His feet were rooted to the spot. This couldn’t be happening. He was so close to her, but not close enough to pull her out of harm’s way. He stood there as he saw her small bloodied body lying so still. He heard someone screaming from a distance and didn’t realize the screaming was coming from him. He ran and picked up her broken body, holding it close to his own. “Noooo Nooooo Tori please wake up.” He was in so much emotional pain he wasn’t aware that people were trying to get him to release her so they could see if she was even alive. He had a death grip on her.
Finally, they were able to tear him away from her. There just happened to be a doctor on the premises. He heard a very faint irregular heartbeat. He couldn’t believe she was still alive. As people rushed around to try and stabilize her before the ambulance got there Aldain and his dragon were experiencing the most intense emotional pain of their lives.
He fought the men off from trying to hold him back. Instead of him running towards Tori he ran away from her. He just knew she was dead, he was dying himself inside. He got far enough away so he wouldn’t be seen shifting. Not all clans were dragon shifters, Robert’s clan weren’t shifters. Robert was the only one that knew Aldain was a shifter. All the Clan Chiefs knew of the dragon shifters and it was a closely guarded secret among the non-shifters.
He knew of a nearby cave he could go to. He flew there and shifted right away. He fell to his knees! He threw back his head and roared. “Why! Why! Oh, god Tori I can’t live without you.” He put his face in his hands and sobbed. He cried until there were no tears left. The pain in his heart was so intense he contemplated tearing it out of his chest himself. He stayed on his knees for hours. He couldn’t think, all he could do was feel. Suddenly he felt something else, a little spark of life that belonged to someone else. He concentrated on it and hope overwhelmed him. Could it be what his mother had told him about? Could that little spark be telling him that Tori still lived? Could she miraculously still be alive? He felt this separate spark of life in his heart. It wasn’t strong and it was sporadic. But it was there, it just had to be her. He had to know if it was her.
He shifted and went to the nearest hospital where he knew they would have taken her. It was dark so he didn’t have to worry about being seen in his dragon form. He ran into the hospital yelling her name. He was stopped by Robert the Clan Chief.
“Aldain you have got to calm down. You are going to get thrown out of here yelling like that.” Aldain grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Is she alive Robert. By some miracle is she still alive?” Hope showed in Aldain’s eyes as he asked the question.
“Aye lad she is but just barely. The doctor isn’t sure she will last the night. She is very badly hurt. There isn’t a bone in her body that isn’t broken and she has massive internal injuries. They surgically fixed those but she is still very critical. We didn’t know where you had gone but we did get in contact with her sister. She is with her now. I think you might want to go see her too. If for no other reason than to say your good-byes.”
Aldain’s tears started to flow. If it was within his power he would make her live by sheer determination alone. He couldn’t lose her. He found the room she was in and there was Becca holding Tori’s hand with tears streaming down her face. Becca was talking to her like she was having a normal conversation. It was as if Tori would wake up any minute and start talking to her. He stood outside her room and looked at all the machines she was hooked up to; heart monitors, breathing monitors. She had a breathing ventilator breathing for her. It seemed like there wasn’t a part of her body that wasn’t broken or hooked up to something. They even had EEG lines hooked to her head to monitor her brain functions. Thankfully, even though the brain function was minimal, she still had some.
Chapter Ten
Dane was with Becca in Tori’s room. Dane’s face looked so forlorn. He just stood there with a hopeless look, wanting so badly to be able to help, to do something to make it better. All he could do was be there for Becca and her family to give them moral support. He felt so helpless.
Becca looked up to see Aldain standing inside the doorway. She looked at him with wild accusing eyes. “You promised to take care of her. You promised and I trusted you. Now take a good look at what your disregard of her has done. She might not make it through the night because she is so damaged. What was so important Aldain that you just ignored her the way you did? I thought you cared for her.”
Her voice got louder as she started to shout at him, she got close enough to pound on his chest as she continued to heap blame on him. He didn’t try to stop her. Everything she said was true. He didn’t keep Tori safe.
All he could do was stand there and let every biting hurtful remark hit like daggers in his heart. He didn’t deserve any better.
As she stood there pounding on his chest, telling him how everything was his fault a woman’s voice that sounded like a sonic boom said, “ENOUGH!” Becca stopped in mid-sentence and looked at the woman the voice belonged to. She was a small woman in her mid-forties. Becca couldn’t believe such a large voice came out of such a small woman.
Aldain recognized that voice. He slowly turned around and there stood his mother. “Ma don’t” she waved him away.
&n
bsp; She walked up to Becca and grabbed her hands gently. “Becca, I know how hard it is to watch someone you love suffer like your sister is suffering. I also know it is human nature to blame someone for this. But look at Aldain. Really look at him. Do you honestly think if he could have stopped it that he would have allowed your sister to be harmed? I don’t know if he told you but she is his soul mate. He would die to keep her safe. He suffers as much as you.”
Becca did what his mother asked and really looked at him. What she saw was a broken man. A shell of the man she knew, loved and trusted. His eyes were sunken in. They were puffy and red from all the crying he had done. He even looked thinner to her. She looked into his eyes and saw raw pain in them. The same kind of pain she was feeling. She walked over to him and hugged him, “I am so sorry Aldain. I know you would do whatever you could to keep her safe. I guess I just needed someone to blame to help make sense of all this. Please forgive me. I know it isn’t your fault.”
Aldain disagreed. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I let her, you and your entire family down. Even if you can forgive me, I can never forgive myself.”
He was so broken, Becca was afraid he may never be the same again. Aldain’s mother asked Becca if she wouldn’t mind giving her a moment with her son. She promised her if Tori so much as stirred she would call for her straight away.
Tori went to get some coffee so Heather could talk to Aldain alone. When she closed the door, Heather hugged him and kissed him on his forehead. “Is isn’t your fault Aldain. Things happen for a reason. I am not sure exactly why this happened but the Gods have their reasons. You must have faith. I can’t believe you are supposed to lose Tori as soon as you have found her. You need to stay with her, talk to her, let her feel your love. That love will bring her back to you. I just have this feeling she is going to make it. Don’t leave her side. You have to trust me that everything will work out.”
Love of A Dragon (Exalted Dragons Book 1) Page 15
