Soul Mate by Roxie Ray
Liv
After a few more days in the institute’s medical ward, Seven released me back to the small cabin with the promise that I wouldn’t lift a finger. It wasn’t really necessary, because for the past few days I’d been home — it hadn’t been long, but I was already starting to think of our cottage that way — Cal had insisted on doing everything for me. If I hadn’t drawn the line at using the restroom, he might have guarded the door to make sure I didn’t fall in.
I’d finally gotten to a point where he didn’t feel the need to hold my elbow like a little old lady crossing the street every time I stood, and I slowly made my way out to the front of our home. At some point, I must have mentioned wishing I had a chair to sit, because Cal had made one magically appear. I wasn’t sure who he asked or what he bargained, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Cupping my coffee mug in both hands, I sat gingerly, careful not to spill anything on my lap. I sipped the coffee slowly; caffeine didn’t have the same effect on wolves as it did humans, but I found something so comforting about it. Maybe it was the smell; it seemed like my father had a pot on every morning when I was a little girl. I took a slow sip and watched as a pair of wolves walked by.
I didn’t recognize them. The pair of men paused only for a moment to take notice of me, and then carried on whatever conversation they had. Cal had told me about the gathering that had occurred about a week ago, about the different alphas that had arrived; that wasn’t even counting the rogues that had answered Danny’s call to action. There were dozens of wolves on the compound now, and Cal was the only one I actually knew. I recognized Erik, having seen him around, but I could hardly call him anything more than an acquaintance.
The wolves wandered off further down the row of cottages and I sighed, tapping my finger against my mug. The past few days I’d been out here, Cal had been looming over my shoulder. His scowl alone could have been sharp enough to wound a man. He wasn’t here right now, but I’m sure the threat written into his growls were still fresh on the other wolves’ ears.
Maybe they heard what you did to Lisa, a niggling corner of my brain whispered traitorously. The older alphas might have met her, when councils had been held in the northeast. When my father hosted one, Lisa had put on a grand affair. I couldn’t have been more than six at the time, sent to bed well before the other shifters showed up, but I could remember her almost frenetic cleaning in the weeks leading up to the event. They might have even liked her, knowing her only as the gracious hostess and Jeff’s loving mate. They had no idea what went on behind closed doors.
My stomach gave a sickening flop. Who knew what Ben told the other alphas about what happened to his mother? Maybe that was why they didn’t want to talk to me.
I didn’t want it to be like that. I couldn’t even say for certain, given that I hadn’t gone out of my way to be social (I was hardly in the position to, since a week ago I hadn’t even been in the land of the living). A plan was slowly starting to form itself in my head when I caught an approaching figure from the corner of my vision. “Maren!” I chirped, mood lifting immediately. “Hi!”
My friend waved and bounced over, perching herself on the arm of my Adirondack chair. “Good morning, sunshine!” she sang back to me, wrapping one arm around my shoulder to pull me into a little hug. “What are your plans this afternoon?”
I snorted and shook my head. “You’re looking at them.”
“Perfect! I’ll stop by after lunch. Seven wants to do some physical therapy with you, but, uh. Your cottage is tiny.” We both chuckled at that. “I’ll bring you over, okay?”
I hummed and nodded. It was a lovely little home, but I was already starting to get tired of staring at the same four walls. Anything to help me get up and moving again on my own was fine by me.
Cal had returnedfrom training to bring me lunch so I wouldn’t have to walk to the main building. It was a sweet sentiment, but he promptly bristled when Maren arrived to escort me to see Seven. First, he didn’t want me to go at all. Then, he argued he ought to be the one seeing me down, not Maren. It was only when my friend threatened to get the medic himself involved that Cal finally relented, but I could still feel him brooding over it through our bond.
“He sure is protective,” Maren huffed, leading us slowly towards the main building and the medical ward. She held the door open for me as we stepped inside.
“Would you expect anything else?”
“I’d kick his ass if he was anything else,” she said with a nod, exchanging a little smile with me. “Dr. Seven? Are you in?”
“It’s just Seven,” the man drawled, appearing from the far corner. His blond hair was looped over his shoulder in a braid. He dusted his hands off as he approached, using a small towel hanging from his belt. “Ah! Liv. You’re looking well,” he hummed, ambling over to the two of us. “Come over here, we’ll have a look at your wound.”
Once seated on the table, I rolled up my shirt so he could inspect my stomach. The injury had slowly been knitting itself back together, looking nowhere near as angry as it had the first day I’d seen it. “It itches like crazy,” I informed him, once he’d had a look and I pulled my shirt back down.
“That’s good. Means it’s healing,” Seven informed me, ambling back to the wall of shelves. “I’ll give you a salve to apply. Should help with that.”
Seven offered me a small jar with a milky mixture. When I unscrewed the top, it smelled strongly of pine. I snorted and screwed it back on quickly. “That’s potent.”
“Use sparingly,” he replied with a smug smile. Mozart jumped up into my lap just then, the little cat purring loudly as he kneaded at my thighs. “You can pet him, it’s fine,” Seven said, noticing my questioning look. “He’s not like most familiars. Friendlier.”
The healer grimaced as he said it, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. I smoothed my hands over the cat’s silky fur, smile growing as he purred at me. “Cal told me you saved my life, Mozzie,” I cooed to him. The cat butted his head against my hand, and I scratched his chin. “Went to get Seven even before Cal knew. What a smart boy you are.” I glanced back at Seven just in time to see his fond smile; the expression quickly mutated into a frown when he realized I saw him. I grinned harder. “Why’s his name Mozart?”
“Is it so hard to believe I appreciate good music?” the healer snapped. “I have class. Somewhere. Probably.” I laughed and he shook his head, scowl only growing. “You aren’t here to interrogate me. Now, make sure you keep eating. Healing’s taking a lot of energy, especially since silver was involved. Make sure you take walks, and come see me every day for your PT. We’ll get you right as rain; there’s no time to spare.”
My smile fell a little. Mozart pressed his face into my hand again, trying to encourage me to resume petting. Seven must have noticed my look and cleared his throat. “Look, Liv, you’re supposed to be the leader, right? Can’t have you laid up. But Prince Malachi keeps me around for a reason, and it isn’t my charming bedside manner.”
That drew a weak chuckle from me. “It’s because you know what you’re doing?” I asked hopefully.
He gave a nod. “Exactly. Now, we have some exercise to do. Maren, we’ll be done in an hour if you want to come back.”
I’d almost forgotten my friend was still there. She jumped, setting down whatever instrument she was fiddling with. “Sure thing!” Maren squeaked, scuttling towards the door.
Seven rolled his eyes and then addressed Mozart. “You, sir, need to leave the patient alone so she can actually get some work done.”
“Mrow!” the cat chirped back, but he did as he was told, hopping down from my lap and trotting towards the window.
“Such sass,” the medic sighed, offering me a hand.
“You can understand him?” I marveled, getting to my feet.
Seven offered me a rare smile. “Something like that.”
Maren cameto collect me an hour later. I was already feeling sore from the exercises Seven had shown me, but he warned I’d probably feel it even more tomorrow morning. That was not something I was looking forward to.
In fact, the only thing I was looking forward to was going back to my cottage and making myself a mocha, but Maren was steering me down the hall of the main building instead. “I just need to grab a few things from the kitchen,” she said.
I paused, looking down the hallway. “Do you mind if I go see the prince?” I asked, recognizing the door to his office. “I need to ask him about something.”
My friend worried her lip from a moment, looking between me and the hallway. After a minute, she shrugged. “Sure thing. Do you want to just catch up with me later?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Maren gave me a small wave and we parted ways. I paused outside the office door, giving a small knock before trying the doorknob. It wasn’t locked, so I poked my head inside. Both Malachi and his sister were inside, heads bowed together in discussion before I interrupted them. My cheeks heated. “Oh, sorry, I can come back…”
“Nonsense!” Malachi said, motioning with one hand. “Come in, Liv, come in.”
I smiled a little and slipped into the room, clicking the door shut behind me. The prince had gotten to his feet, holding his arms out as if to embrace me. He stopped short, but his deep blue eyes were bright. “You are looking much better. Seven works wonders, I always thought.”
Finola stepped around the other side of the desk, taking my hand in hers to give a squeeze. “It is so good to see color in your cheeks again,” she agreed, her touch fleeting. “You had us terribly worried.”
“What can we do for you?” Malachi asked as his sister joined him.
“Well…” I still wasn’t entirely sure how to word this. I folded my arms over my chest, hugging myself a bit as I considered my words carefully. “I’d like to ask a question, if that’s all right.”
“Anything,” the prince said, though I wasn’t sure he really meant anything.
Asking why he didn’t have a wife, for example, seemed like the sort of question that wouldn’t fly. I didn’t let my mind wander. There was one specific query on the tip of my tongue. “I met my mother. Did you know?”
Malachi’s expression fell at once, all the brightness leaving like the sun covered by low-hanging clouds. His weight shifted minutely, and I felt my wolf’s attention sharpen. The fae wanted to run…and she was ready to give chase. I tried to swallow the feeling down; Malachi was a prince — he was most certainly not prey. My wolf growled, not buying into my argument.
Finola sighed softly, wrapping her slender fingers around her brother’s wrist. Where he looked like a caged animal, the princess simply struck me as resigned. “Yes. We knew. We wanted to give you a bit of time to settle in to the institute and into your newfound powers before we shared this…bit of information.”
I blinked, almost unable to believe what I was hearing. My wolf growled again, and the skin on the back of my neck prickled as her hackles lifted. “How could you keep that from me!?” I demanded, almost breathless with the weight of the accusation. “I had no idea! She imprisoned me and was going to marry me off to my cousin!”
If Malachi had seemed distraught before, all emotion had evaporated from his face. He folded his arms behind his back, fixing me with a cool expression. “I have no obligation towards you, Olivia,” he replied. His eyes had almost gone a steely gray in color. “I made you no promises. I offered you safe haven and to teach you to use your powers, and I have done both of those things.”
“No, you haven’t!” I shouted, distantly aware I shouldn’t be losing my temper at a prince. I didn’t care. After physical therapy, I was exhausted. Everything hurt, from my eyelashes to my toenails. The last thing I wanted was for some faerie prince to word-lawyer me. “Storm kidnapped me! From this very building!”
Malachi’s eyes flashed. The tension between us felt as thick as smoke…or was that smoke? Was that me? “Safe and invincible are hardly the same thing,” he bit back.
I was so angry, I started to shake. Smoke had started pouring from my hands, and now that it had started, I didn’t know how to make it stop. I didn’t want to make it stop. I had been through a lot in the past two weeks, and no one had stopped to ask me how I was doing.
Spoiler alert: not great…and Malachi had just tipped me over the edge.
Before I realized what I was doing, the shadows were lashing out like little tendrils, reaching and grabbing at Finola’s ankles. They raced up her like vines up a trellis, anchoring her to the floor. She tried to step away and they clung tighter; alarm finally started to register on her face. The room looked as if it had been plunged into ink and I bared my teeth, almost senseless with my anger. How dare they keep this from me? They had brought me here to help them, help them with the most powerful being I’d ever encountered, but didn’t trust me enough with the most basic information. She was my mother! I deserved to know that!
“Enough!” roared Malachi. Light flashed around us, like he’d pulled a solar flare straight from the earth beneath us. My shadows hissed and withered away, chased back by the prince’s brightness. It felt like I’d been stung by a hundred bees, like each little pinprick of light was a stinger, injecting me with poison and draining me of my energy. The shadows sagged and flinched; Finola was finally able to step away, retreating behind her brother. She pulled up the hem of her dress, checking her legs; there were red welts were she was grabbed, but no blood had been drawn.
I knew I should have been relieved Finola hadn’t been hurt, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I whipped around and stormed out the door, ignoring the sound of my name as the prince called after me. I couldn’t talk to anyone right now — I needed to be alone. The woods called to me, and I was going to go.
