“He’s not dead.” The father promised his son. “I know this.”
“How can you know something like that?” Walter asked, the look of a scared, little boy crossing his face. “There’s no way that you can know.”
“I know. I know that the Coos feel that life is sacred. They won’t kill him when they can make sure that he is raised among his own kind. He’s still a shifter and that makes him an object of respect, someone that deserves to live in their eyes. Ursula would be in much more danger in their hands.”
“Why would they do something like this?” Walter asked, fighting back the tears that threatened to roll down his face.
“They have the impression that they are better than other life. It isn’t right, but there isn’t much that we can do about their attitude.” The wisdom was lost on the young man as Walter tried to pull himself together. Everything felt like it was going wrong, and he didn’t know how to fix it.
“Have you found anything?”
“Nothing, but as soon as I do…” The older man let the promise trail off, he had made it to many times lately and was starting to sound hollow.
“You’ll tell me, I know.” Walter sighed, it felt like he was doing that a little too often lately.
“Go to your mate. She needs you. We will find what we can.”
“I need to help.”
“She needs you. You can help, but you are needed by her side right now. She is alone, the only human and the center of all of this. She needs someone by her side, someone who can help her stay strong and keep hope.”
“I’m not sure that I have hope.”
The tribal leader regarded his son carefully, capturing the younger man’s gaze in order to emphasize his point. “Listen to me.” He paused, carefully considering how he was about to say these words to his son. “This is important. Sometimes it feels like there is no hope, but when you have people that count on you, you have to be able to show them the fact that you have hope. You have to exude hope, and that’s what your mate needs right now. She has lost her son as much as you have, remember that, and she is alone right now, unable to help because she doesn’t know tribal politics.”
“I know, but she tells me to help.”
“She tells you that so that you won’t be able to see her hopeless mood. She needs you. Take her into your arms and remind her that we are a capable people and can solve these problems.” The father nodded and Walter made his way out of the room. He felt like a child having been chastised by his parents for breaking some rule. It was true that the man was new to relationships and mating, but still his father had a way of always making him feel like a small child. Shifting through the natural grove that held the village he saw his cabin. It was close to the city center, a small cabin built for a small family. His father had grown in the house, only to move when he had become the tribal leader. He had saved the house as well, knowing that young families would enjoy the privacy that was coming with the changing of time. Walter stopped at the edge of the porch and regarded the house. He could hear quiet sobs coming from behind the door and realized how embarrassing it was for him to never have heard the extent of her sadness before this point.
The noise didn’t slow, it didn’t stop and seemed to go on for hours as he listened to her broken heart being poured out. It was nearly silent. She was trying to hide her pain and he wondered why. He hadn’t really seen her cry over the boy. “She wants to stay strong for me.” The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He felt the same flow over his cheeks, reddening the sun darkened skin.
“I’ve got to go in there.” He was whispering to himself. He strode to the door, fighting to maintain his focus. His hand started to turn the handle and he could hear the woman sniffle and wipe her face, trying to pull herself together. When he opened to the door he could see her sitting in her chair, looking toward him.
He noticed that this entire incident had seemed to have aged the woman nearly overnight. Ursula looked tired, with dark circles that made her eyes look sunken in. Her cheeks were thinner, the woman had lost weight. He realized that she hadn’t been eating well. “Have you found anything?” There was a desperate hope in her voice.
Walter didn’t want to tell her the news, but he had to say something. He gulped and forced the words out. “Nothing yet, we haven’t gotten anything from them. They don’t want to say anything.”
“Somehow I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.” It was a dry laugh, one that showed the pain in her voice and he cursed himself for not hearing it before.
“Nothing about this has been easy.” He wanted to apologize, to beg for her forgiveness, but he couldn’t find the words.
“Is there anything else we can do?”
“The elders are going to try some other options, but they can’t make any guarantees.” At the very least he owed her the honesty that came with her situation.
“Do they have any idea where they’re keeping him?” Ursula sounded like she was ready to fly into the attack. Walter didn’t answer, instead he walked up to his mate, knowing how hard she was fighting the lonely tears that had been flowing just a few moments before, the time before he had entered the home.
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up from her seat. She didn’t resist his embrace. Ursula nuzzled her face into his chest and he was reminded that the heartbreak that she was feeling was nothing but the infinite pain of a parent that has lost a child and is trapped in a new place with people who never quite accepted her. “I’ll be here.” He promised her.
“I know.” She told him the truth. “I didn’t want to slow down the work. There is so little that I can do.”
“You can do so much more than you think.” He told her this and wondered why he had only just now realized the truth of the words.
She pulled out of his arms and regarded him carefully. “What are you talking about? I’m not a shifter, I’m not a member of the tribes. I’m just a human woman.”
“You got Timothy to talk, didn’t you?” He reminded her of the fact. “None of us were able to do that.”
“I begged him and cried for that answer.” She admitted.
“You made an impassioned plea that made him change his mind.”
“Do you think I need to do that again?” She was practically begging for some way to feel useful, a way to help them bring home her son.
“I don’t know, but I’ll ask my father and see what he thinks.” Walter was already planning something much more drastic in his mind. He needed to do something and he might have figured out what he needed to do. He was thinking about an attack, striking at the people that were hurting him, who had taken his son and nearly destroyed his mate. He felt the rage start to grow, but made himself squash the anger. It would do no good for him to attack them yet, but it may come to that later and he would be a part of the rescue mission. He pulled his focus back to the woman that stood with him, barely away from his arms and pulled her back close to him. “It’s all going to be OK, I promise.” He swore the words with every fiber of his being.
She sniffled, still trying to fight the tears. “All I ever wanted was to be a mother.”
“I know.” He rubbed his hand up and down her back. “I know and I am so sorry that this had to happen to you. You don’t deserve this.”
Her head rose, and he could see the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “No one deserves this.” With those words the tears began to flow. She couldn’t keep it in any longer. He held her while the tears and sobs started to echo through the small home. It was a special place, a little location that was their own.
“It will all be OK” He wasn’t sure that he believed it, but he knew that was what she needed to hear. “We’ll fix this.” He promised, but he didn’t know how to do it. He didn’t know what to say to make it all better so he was forced to use the tired old clichés that everyone used in times like these. He had never found them particularly comforting, and was certain that she had never found them useful either, but he had to say something. He
was sure that her heart was going to explode if she didn’t hear some comfort coming from his lips.
“You don’t know that. You can’t know that.” The accusation was sharp and demanding.
“I do know it.” He promised.
“How could you know that?” She asked the question, suspicion in her voice. “You can’t possibly know that.”
“I don’t know it for sure, but I have a feeling that this is all going to work out.” It was a lie, but it was the one that he was telling himself as well.
“I don’t have that feeling.”
“Listen closely to the universe, it’s talking to us, telling us that everything is going to be alright.” He tried to smile, but it just looked forced.
She was silent for a moment. “I don’t feel anything.” She tried to bring back the hope. “Is there something wrong with me?”
“No, there’s nothing wrong with you.” Walter promised his mate. “You’re just too upset to truly listen. On top of that you’ve never really done it before, so it’s normal. Don’t be afraid.” He realized then exactly how much he sounded like his father, the comforting words that he would tell someone when they were afraid. He wondered how often his father actually believed those words.
“I still don’t feel anything.” She admitted softly, guilt permeating her voice.
“I do, trust me, everything’s going to be alright.” He knew that he was going to lose her if what he was saying turned out to be a lie. He hoped that it really was going to be alright.
“Do you really know that?” She asked again.
Walter held her, but felt the need to fix it flow through him. It was hard for him to comfort her, difficult to let the woman cry without running out to fix whatever was vexing her, but she needed him. His father had been right. His mate had needed him and he had left her to suffer alone just so that he could pretend to be useful. He kissed the top of her head, the her soft hair tickling at his nose. She smelt beautiful, earthy and strong, but the sadness was still there. He was afraid that tainted pain would never leave her.
She clung to him, tightly needing his touch. His warmth seemed to flow through her, giving her a little comfort as the tears began to die out. She sniffled and pulled herself away, reaching for the tissue she had kept in the chair since this entire situation had unfolded. She wiped the snot away from her nose. “Are you feeling any better?” Walter’s face was full of concern.
“A little.”
“I don’t think that we’ll ever be really there until our son gets back.” Walter agreed with her unspoken problem. He didn’t want to feel better. He wanted his son back. He wanted to have his happy little family back together. He looked down at her. “I’m going to get him back. I promise.” This time he meant it with all of his heart. He was going to solve this problem, but first he was going to sit by his mate and allow her to feel the pain that she was feeling. He couldn’t let her go through this alone. He pulled her back into his arms and kissed the top of her head once again.
She enjoyed his touch, feeling closer and closer to him as the moments passed and she had just moved her head up to look at his face in the light when he leaned down to kiss the top of her head once again. He kissed her nose and she couldn’t help but giggle.
“That’s a sound I’ve been dying to hear.” He admitted it even though he didn’t know how much he missed the sound of her laughter until she had found the strength to find the humor in the moment. He leaned in and kissed her lips, pouring all of his confidence, real and pretended, in order to help her through this painful time.
She kissed him back, pressing her body against his and he could feel his body respond to her closeness. He tried to force his body under control, but it seemed to react to her presence all on its own. He knew that she could feel his hardness pressing up against her. She snuggled in closer, taking comfort in his consistent reaction to her touch. Even with all of this going on he found himself unable to resist the feel of her body. It felt good for one thing in the crazy world that she was living in to remain constant, unchanged by the painful circumstances that they had found themselves in.
She slipped her tongue into his mouth, taking comfort in the moment. She ran her hands up and down his back, touching him gently, with little tickling motions that made him want to smile. He dove into the kiss, passion flaming up between them. Part of him felt like this was all wrong, but part of him hoped that he could make her smile with the magical kiss that they were sharing. He pulled away from her and he felt the heady effects of the kiss still lingering.
He ducked his head to kiss her again, the guilt starting to fade as he started to touch her body, she was everything that he wanted, but still a piece of his soul was missing. He searched for it, his hands roaming up and down her back as he devoured her mouth with his hungry lips.
Ursula was starving for his touch. She couldn’t get enough of it. She had suffered in silence for so long that she was hungry for any human comfort. She was falling into the sensation of his touch, embracing the moment that she shared with him and him alone.
He let himself forget the pain that they were feeling as he carried her to the tiny bedroom that they had made their own. He laid her gently on the bed, regarding her body like a goddess. She seemed so strong, yet so weak at the same time. He couldn’t explain it as he slowly removed her clothes, piece by piece, as if he was worshiping the body that lay underneath them.
The act of clothing removal was magnificent, playing into each other’s hands perfectly. She touched him gently, making the most out of every moment that they shared. He climbed over her body, inching his way up to kiss her longingly. The pain had disappeared momentarily and they both knew that they would feel guilty about this moment of pleasure when it was over, but as he poised himself at her entrance he found himself wanting more, so much more. He entered her, taking her gently.
She relished the moment, enjoying the forgetting as much as she loved the actions that he was taking. He performed expertly, bringing her to passions that she had never before experienced. He sighed and groaned above her as she gripped his back, holding on to his strength, hoping that it would carry her long enough to see all of this through.
He was bringing them both to a mutual climax before collapsing next to her on the bed. “I’m sorry.” The grief was back, racking at his conscious.
“I should be sorry.” She corrected him. The tears were breaking the surface once again. He wrapped his arms around her. “We should never have done that.”
“We did it. We needed the time.” He told her, not really knowing how to explain. She looked at him, confused. “We needed the time away from the problems. We cleared our heads.”
“That doesn’t stop me from feeling bad about it.” A single tear glittered on her cheek. The sight of that tiny little drop devastated him.
He wiped the tear away. “I feel bad about it too, but what’s done is done. Hopefully we’re going to get some news soon.”
“I don’t think that it’s going to happen.” She looked broken, defeated by the life that he had brought her into through his own careless actions. “We’re never going to find him, are we? He’s lying in some ditch somewhere. Those bastards killed him for being half human.”
“They wouldn’t do that. He has the sacred blood. He’ll be fine. I promise.” He was lying, but he hoped that it would make her feel a little better about it.
CHAPTER 11
“So what do you think?” Walter looked hopeful. He didn’t know if Ursula was going to go for the plan, but he hoped that she would take the chance. He wanted his son back and he was certain that this was going to be the best option for them. Her hair was still a mess, it didn’t look like she was even interested in brushing it. The toll that this was taking on his mate concerned him and he was curious if her human mind and body could take this kind of stress.
“Do they really think that it’s going to work?” Ursula looked confused. He had been stumbling over his words and she had trouble understa
nding. “Are we sure?”
“Positive.” He tried to force a smile. He wasn’t completely sure about it, but he knew that if he seemed unsure about it she wouldn’t be willing to go along with the most dangerous part. That was the part that he had found himself reticent to admit as of yet.
“OK, go over it for me one more time.” She placed her head in her hands. “What’s our part in all of this?” She had been trying to listen carefully, but her mind wasn’t able to sort through the massive amount of information that had come tumbling from Walter’s mouth. “I’m not sure that I understand. Do they want me to go there and ask for my son back? Haven’t we already tried that?”
He thought about the way his father had brought it up to him. He had been happy that some actions were being taken, but wasn’t sure that he liked the idea. He had sat in that room and listened numbly until they finished outlining the idea. He knew that he was going to be involved, but he had a need to be more involved. “They want us to go beg them to give our son back, but it’s not going to be the same.”
“I can do that.” Ursula wasn’t worried about pride, she was fully willing to do anything that she had to do to get her son back. There was hope in her eyes once again. Something was happening and she was eager to get to work on the plan. “I’ve got no pride. I’ll get down on my knees and beg if I have to. I just want my son back.”
“That’s not all that’s going to happen.” He wasn’t sure how to tell her the rest of the plan. He hadn’t brought it up before because it was such a big risk. It was one that he was willing to take, but he wasn’t sure that Ursula would be comfortable with it. He knew that if something went wrong the captors could easily kill their son. He reached out and touched her hand, enfolding it into his strong fingers. He held it and waited, trying to choose his words carefully. Her hair seemed to flow out around his head and even tangled as it was he found himself unable to remove his eyes from the glorious vision of a woman that had become his mate and the mother to his child.
Ursula couldn’t help but notice how long he was taking to continue with the story that he was trying to convey. She started to feel nervous. “What are you planning to do? What else is going to happen?” She had so many questions, but couldn’t figure
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