Lion Conquers All by Krystal Shannan

32

The next morning…

AARAV

Aarav wet a washcloth with cool water from the bathroom sink and hurried to Connie’s side. His mate was sweating, and her skin was on fire. She was acting like his bite was changing her, but it shouldn’t.

His family wasn’t a royal bloodline. Ivann and Shenn had both been forced by Rivian to bite a human woman. Nothing had happened to them, so Rivian had moved on, satisfied that he and his brothers lacked the ability to change humans.

It shouldn’t be possible. But that’s what was happening to her. He knew the signs. He’d watched it happen to several other women they’d looked after in their pod.

If he’d thought for a second his bite would’ve changed her, he never would’ve. Not without her permission.

He bathed her forehead. “Connie, forgive me. This shouldn’t be happening.”

Her teeth chattered. She closed her eyes and her face twisted with pain. “It hurts, Aarav. Everything burns.”

His chest felt like someone had hollowed it out with a spoon. Her pain was his pain and there had to be something he could do to help, but he didn’t know what. He’d betrayed her. The first time they made love. He’d mated and marked her and now she was suffering because of it.

She writhed in the sheets. A long keening cry whined from her throat.

He pulled on some pants and ran to the living room looking for his phone. Not there. He continued into the kitchen. It was there on the counter from when he’d carried it out and started the coffee machine earlier.

He grabbed it and dialed Katherine.

She was the most likely person to know where Dina and Mira were. Probably still at the cabins. Maybe. He hoped they were back in town by now, it was the next day. He and Connie had spent almost twenty-four hours in bed before she’d started feeling sick.

The line rang several times before it picked up.

“Aarav?” Katherine’s voice was slow and groggy. It was early in the morning. He’d probably woken her up.

“Are Dina and Mira with you? I need them. Please. Something’s wrong with Connie. I think she’s turning, but she shouldn’t be. I’m not of royal blood. She’s hurting and crying and burning up.”

“Hang on. We’ll be right over. They are at the MCC. Knox and I will go get them and be right there.” The line went dead before he could say anything else.

He put the phone down, unlocked the front door, and headed back to the bedroom.

Connie was curled into a ball, her arms wrapped around her middle. Her skin shined with a layer of sweat. The sheets were tangled between her legs. Her gaze flew to meet his and her eyes were glittering with the gold of a Reylean.

What had he done?

“The Magick-Benders are coming, shuarra. Katherine and Knox are on their way with them. I don’t—I can’t—please forgive me.” He climbed up onto the bed and pulled her into his lap. He pulled the blanket up and covered her shivering body. The fever switched back and forth so fast between freezing and being overheated. Her body was in shock.

He was in shock.

“Aarav, it hurts.” The words were whimpered against his chest. “It hurts.” Over and over she begged him to help her.

Tears ran down his cheeks. She was taking the change much harder than others he’d witnessed going through it. “Help is coming. I promise.” He rocked her back and forth in his lap as she cried moaned and begged him for help.

Her pain was excruciating. He could feel it through their bond. It was so much.

He pushed hair from her sweat-coated face and neck and then ran his hand over her shoulder, pausing when he got to her mid-back. He knew what her back looked like, but it didn’t feel the same as he remembered. Her scars were thick and ridged on her shoulders and back. They were missing. At least some of them.

He pulled back the blanket he’d wrapped around her.

Sure enough, some were gone. Some were halfway faded. Some were still exactly as they had been.

She lurched in his arms again and cried out. She clung to his arms and her fingernails dug desperately into his skin.

The magick wasn’t only changing her, it looked like it was slowly eating at her scars and erasing them. It was healing her. All of her.

He’d seen bitten people heal from current wounds, but he’d never witnessed the magick affecting old injuries. But most Reyleans didn’t have old injuries. Their magick healed them on a regular basis.

A vehicle arrived outside. Footsteps. The door opened.

“Aarav? Connie?” It was Katherine’s voice.

“Back here.” His voice cracked. He wiped tears from his face, but they continued to fall. He wished he could take her pain, instead of just being aware of how badly she was hurting. “Hurry.”

Footsteps thundered through the house, down the hall, and then people burst into the room. A few of them eyed the suspicious hole in the wall next to Connie’s door, but to their credit, no one said a word about it.

Dina and Mira walked straight to the bed.

“Lay her down and move back.”

He reluctantly did as he was told. Leaving her alone and sobbing and curled into the fetal position nearly made his lion come roaring to the surface.

“Move.” Dina waved her hand again and halfway pushed him toward Knox and Katherine.

Katherine grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the bed. “Hey. They can help her. They saved your brother and he had a freaking bullet hole in his chest.”

“It’s my fault. I did this. My bite shouldn’t have done anything. I don’t understand.” He patted Katherine’s hand where it held onto his arm. She was holding him back. Literally. Pulling.

He took a deep breath and stepped back again until he could lean on the wall. He wasn’t helping anyone by being an emotional mess. Least of all Connie.

“Thank you for coming so quickly.”

“Of course. That’s what family is for, Aarav. We are Tribe.” Knox spoke this time.

The Magick-Benders both had their hands over Connie. Light glowed from their palms, but still his mate continued to cry and writhe.

“What’s wrong with her? I’ve never seen anyone in this much pain during the transition. Rivian changed quite a few women.”

Dyna looked up and met his gaze. Her eyes were bright white and he could almost taste the power in the room it was so thick. “We are rebuilding her body. She has many internal scars in addition to the external ones. Your mate is a survivor, Aarav, but it will take time. More time than usual.”

“We will sedate her so that she can move more comfortably through the transition.” Mira looked up from Connie and put a glowing hand on his mate’s forehead. The thrashing and whining stopped almost immediately. She was still. Calm.

Her heart was steady. Her breathing wasn’t labored. She was asleep.

Dyna motioned him to come forward. “Make her comfortable, Aarav.”

He lifted his mate and arranged her so that Connie’s head was on a pillow and the rest of her body wasn’t sprawled across the bed like she’d been tossed from across the room. Then he tucked the sheet and blanket around her and kissed her lips. She was still warm. And sweaty. But she was at peace now, at least on the outside. He could handle her like this—calm, not writhing in pain. So could his lion, who’d only been seconds away from losing his shit.

“Can you explain why my bite started the transition?”

“I thought you said Rivian had you bite others?” Katherine piped up before one of the magick-benders could answer.

He shook his head. “Both my brothers did, but I was never personally called on to attempt a transition. But neither of my brother Shenn or Ivann cause a transition in either woman. They convinced Rivian there was no point to have us all bite a woman. We are all the same bloodline.”

Dyna walked over to Aarav and raised a hand to his forehead and one to his chest. “May I?”

“Yes.”

“Are you the oldest?”

“No. The youngest of five —Shenn, Ivann, Veer, Raj, then me. Though Raj and I are barely separated by a year.

She touched his head and chest and a warm flutter of energy coursed through him. Her eyes went white again and he had the strangest sensation that she was looking around inside him.

Unnerving as the feeling was, he wanted to know why. He needed to know why. And at the same time, if he carried royal blood in his veins, why didn’t his brothers?

“Your parents, did you know them well?”

“I remember my mother’s face in dreams. My father, I cannot picture any longer. We were taken by Rivian when we were children. Raj and I are much younger than our three older brothers.”

“What if—” Katherine stopped herself.

Aarav wanted to look at her. Her tone sounded like she’d come up with a reason, but Dyna’s energy had locked him into place. He felt heavy and slow. His mind could still think and he could hear. He could speak, but if he tried to move, his body wouldn’t respond.

“I need you to be still a bit longer. Be calm, Aarav.”

After another eternal minute, Dyna lowered her arms and the energy link between them faded.

He stared at the small woman in front of him and waited. She was biting her bottom lip, like she was trying to decide what to say. It couldn’t be that bad?

“Spit it out. I’d rather know than not.”

“You are not who you think you are. You are of a royal bloodline. Both your sire and your mother were royal. Your magick goes back generations upon generations.”

Aarav’s throat fell to his stomach. How? It couldn’t be possible. She had to be wrong.

Except his mate was in transition from his bite. And he hadn’t bitten a human before this, so he didn’t have any proof to fight the magick-bender’s claim. And he respected the magick-benders. He didn’t want to argue with her. But it didn’t make sense.

“But…”

“I wouldn’t know without connecting to each of your brothers, but I would assume that you are not related to Shenn or Ivann. If it is as you say, that they bit a human woman and no transition occurred, then they are not related to you by blood.” Dyna put a hand back on his shoulder. “But blood, Aarav, is not what makes true family or Tribe. Remember that.”

“Do you think they knew?” Both his older brothers had volunteered to be the ones to mark the captive women when Rivian had demanded it. Almost insisted. They’d told the Ka’lagh leader they were the oldest and would be the strongest representative of their family line.

But what if they’d known…

“I think it is likely and I think it’s something you should discuss with them. It is not my place to speculate.” She gestured to the other woman to join her. “Mira. We will go now and leave you to care for Connie. She will sleep for some time.”

He glanced at Connie and his heart squeezed. “How long?”

“Perhaps days.”

“And you’re sure she’ll be okay?” Katherine spoke this time.

Mira nodded. “Oh, yes. The magick is healing her, inside and out. There’s just a lot to do. Your friend was severely injured over the course of many years and it will take some time to put right was what damaged.”

“Thank you.” Aarav knelt at Dyna’s feet and bowed his head. His mate was safe. She’d probably be pissed as hell when she woke up with a beast of her own, but she was his mate and in time she would understand he didn’t mean to take away her choice.

At some point Connie would forgive him.

And he was a very patient man.