Her mother waved her words away as if they dirtied the air around her. “You are not responsible for any discord, Alina. That lies squarely on your father’s shoulders.”
Alina shook her head at her mother’s stubbornness. “And you play no part in this disagreement?”
Georgeta’s eyes narrowed. “Rule number one about your mate: he is completely wrong until you decide he is not.”
“And when do you suddenly decide he is not?”
“When I finally decide to swallow my pride,” she says matter-of-factly.
“That easy huh?” Alina smiled tiredly.
“Nothing about being mated is easy, love; and both of you will make mistakes. Unfortunately, no matter how badly you might want to force your mate to see things your way, you can only be responsible for your own actions. You can only control what you do.” She leaned down and kissed Alina on the head and patted her cheek as she had done when she was young. “He cannot live without you, Alina. Eventually, he will have to answer you.”
She did not know what to say to that. She wanted to believe her mother, but she could not. Her soul continually cried out for its mate, her wolf howled in despair for him to answer her, and still he did not. His silence spoke much louder than her mother, and it told her that he could live without her, that he would live without her.
Romanian Proverb #10
Nu întinde ata cã se rupe.
A bow too tightly strung will break.
“She should have come,” Petre grumbled neither for the first nor the last time. Georgeta kept close to her mate as they joined the rest of the pack in the great hall of the castle to honor the dead Alpha pair. She kept pushing him forward, wanting to get as close to the front as possible. “You are not going to talk to him,” her mate muttered under his breath. “Our village knows not to say anything regarding Alina, and you heard what Ion said as we arrived―they want to protect Alina until any unrest is settled in the pack. They do not want anyone near the castle to know he has a mate.”
“Why does that mean I cannot talk to my Alpha?” she asked innocently. “I simply want to give him my condolences for his loss.”
Petre snorted. “Is that all you wish to give him, mate?”
“Petre, I cannot believe you would doubt my sincerity.”
He stopped and turned to look at her. “Believe me, Georgeta, I do not doubt your sincerity. But I do not think it is the loss of his parents you are speaking of. You are a she-wolf whose pup has been scorned by the man she loves. He will be lucky if there is anything left when you are done chewing on him.”
“I always knew you were a wise male.” She smiled up at him but the anger that had been in her eyes for five days had not abated in the least.
“Try to remember that your daughter loves him,” he urged her as he took her hand and continued to get closer to the front of the room.
“I will not forget, my love. That is the only reason that I am not going to skin him.”
Vasile looked out over the full room. The entire Eastern Romania pack was together―all to honor his dead parents. There were many with tears in their eyes as they remembered the centuries that his mother and father had led the pack. It was obvious that his parents were loved and that they would be missed. He should be mourning them as well. He should be hurting, and he was, but the pain that ruled in his heart was not for the loss of his parents. He had accepted that their time was over. Everyone dies, though it might take death longer to find those of his race. As his eyes roamed restlessly over the faces and the eyes that met his only to drop instantly, he wondered what they thought of him. Did he look sad? Did his face convey the loss that they were all experiencing or was the anger that nearly matched the hurt revealed in his expression? He should care, but all he could think about was her. He told himself he would not look for her, and his wolf had made it clear that he would not tolerate that decision. He had never been at odds for so long with his wolf, and it was leaving him unbalanced and short tempered. He knew that the beast did not understand why the man was so angry. His wolf only understood that their mate was not with them, physically or emotionally, and that was not acceptable. He was not angry with her like the man. He simply wanted her; he wanted to know she was safe, healthy, and with him where she belonged.
His eyes finally landed on Alina’s parents, and his heart sped up as he looked around them, expecting to see her. She was not with them. He felt a growl rumbling up in his chest as he continued to search in the general area of her family because he knew that her father would not let her stray far from them. No matter how hard he searched he could not find her. The idea of her not being there hurt more than seeing her and not being able to go to her. To know that she must have chosen to stay away only made the darkness gain more ground. See how she does not miss you as you do her, it whispered to his soul. Some part of him knew it was a lie, but he was not listening to reason at the moment.
He stood with his top four wolves at the front of the room on a raised platform. To his right, Anghel and his mate stood and, like so many others, grief filled their eyes. He wanted this over. He silently asked his father for forgiveness for his haste as he stepped forward drawing the attention of the crowd. The torches on the walls that lit the large hall flickered, causing shadows to dance across the faces now looking up at him. He took a deep breath and drew on the control that he was so well known for, but which he felt none of inside.
“Thank you, all of you, for coming to honor and to wish your Alpha pair farewell as they travel on to the other side. I had the privilege of being the son of a man who loved, with his whole heart, any who were considered his pack. I was blessed to be born of a woman who would sacrifice for any in need and did so frequently. This pack, all of us, are better because they led, cared, loved, disciplined, sacrificed, and served. They will be missed but not forgotten.” His voiced carried to the very furthest corner of the room, and as it died out he threw back his head and let his wolf out enough to release a mournful howl. The air filled with the howls of the pack as they bid their former Alpha’s farewell.
After the formalities were complete Vasile released the pack to go on the first full pack hunt in many years. He waited as people gradually left the room. Once there were only a few left milling about, he noticed Georgeta and Petre still standing in the same spot they had occupied while he had addressed the crowd. He could see the frustration in Petre’s face and the anger in Georgeta’s and knew a confrontation was unavoidable. He stepped off the platform and walked towards them, his shoulders pulled back and his head held high. He would not act ashamed. He was Alpha and he had only done what his mate had asked of him; how could they be upset with him?
“Alpha.” Petre bared his neck as he addressed him and Georgeta did the same although she did not address him verbally. She did, however, continue to glare at him, being careful not to meet his eyes.
“I appreciate you coming all this way to honor my father and mother,” Vasile told them cordially. The lack of emotion in his voice did not go un-noticed by his mate’s fuming mother.
“Are you not even going to ask about her?” She finally spoke to him.
Vasile’s jaw clenched at the accusation in her voice. “How is Alina?”
“She is unwell. She has not eaten in five days; I can barely get water in her. She has nightmares when she sleeps, if she sleeps. She is a shell of the woman she was only a week ago,” she finished, short of breath from her tirade. Describing his mate’s condition did nothing to calm her down.
“Is it an illness?” he asked again with the monotone voice.
This time, to his surprise, Petre let out a low growl. Vasile did not take his eyes off the bigger threat―the woman who was on the verge of killing him.
“Are you truly that dense or are you just acting like a spoiled brat?” she snapped at him. “You know what the distance, the separation without the bond to connect you, is doing to her. You who are supposed to be her protector. . . .” Her words dripped with accusation
as her sharp gaze bore into him. “What kind of male allows his mate to suffer when he can do something about it?”
“She chose this,” Vasile snarled, his careful control cracking ever so slightly.
“She made a mistake,” Georgetta argued. “She is young no matter how mature she acts. The emotions that come with a true mate are overwhelming to those who are centuries old, and she is a mere sixteen summers. Can you not understand how it might scare her to feel so much so quickly? Did you stop to think that maybe she was worried that you would not be able to do what you must if you were dealing with her pain? We do not agree with her request to put space, as she called it, between you but we understand why she did it. I would think that a man of your character would not be so quick to judge.” She paused and rubbed her face. The evidence of the strain of seeing her daughter in such turmoil was written across her brow. “Have you never made a mistake and hurt someone you cared about?” This time her eyes did meet his, and to his surprise she held his stare though he could tell by the shaking of her body that it took great effort. “If this is how you are going to treat her when she falters, then you do not deserve her.”
Vasile was left standing speechless as he watched the mother of his mate storm from the room. Petre gave him one last look that made it very clear that he agreed with his mate and then turned to follow her.
“Do I want to know what that was about?” Anghel asked from a few feet behind him. Vasile had forgotten the Western Romania Alpha and his mate were still there. He had been too focused on the irate female that had been thoroughly putting him in his place.
“It is not something I want to discuss right now.” He looked over his shoulder at the pair and gave them as convincing a smile as he could. “I need to run with the pack. You are welcome to join us, but I will not be offended if you do not.”
“We should be getting back,” Anghel said though his steady gaze made it clear that he would not let the scene he had just witnessed go. “I will not pretend that I know what is going on. However, because I dearly loved your father and I do not want to see you endure what he did, I will share some advice that you may choose to heed or not. It is not wise to ignore your fate. You have seen firsthand how easily our supposedly long lives can be taken. Why waste any moment away from the one who makes you whole? Do not let pride feed the darkness in you. There is a point of no return. There is a place that even she cannot help.”
Alina pulled the door open to her parent’s cottage to find Sisily standing there. Her face was drawn up into a cautious smile, but when her eyes took in the girl before her it fell away.
“You are getting worse,” she said as she quickly stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.
Alina turned and took one of the two seats in the tiny living room that doubled as a bedroom for her. She closed her eyes as she laid her head back against the chair and let out a deep sigh. “It is my fault; why should I not suffer? Why should he not punish me for hurting him?”
Sisily made a coughing sound. “Are you serious right now? The girl I have known my whole life would never believe such a horrid thing. Your mate should never punish you, Alina. If Vasile is ignoring you because he wants you to hurt, then I hope that you will march up to his castle and flog him with a dead chicken.”
Alina’s lips twitched at her friend’s ridiculous scenario. “I am sure he would find me quite mature if I flogged him with dead fowl.”
“Maturity is over esteemed,” Sisily muttered petulantly.
“I am beginning to believe that all the magnificence of finding your true mate is also overprized. If this is what all the fuss was about, then I want no part.” Alina rubbed her chest trying to push the relentless ache away. For what felt like the hundredth time, she wondered how she would survive if he continued to keep the bond closed. She had foolishly thought that she herself had wanted the bond closed and Vasile had been right in telling her no. Now she faced her fears coming to pass―losing him because she had not been enough.
Weeks past and still she received no answer from her mate. She no longer called out to him during the day. It was only at night when she was still. The darkness wrapped around her reminding her of how very dark life had become―only then did she reach for him. By the time she fell asleep, her pillow was soaked with her tears and her lungs hurt from the gasping in desperation for air that would not satisfy. Her wolf pined for their mate. She refused to hunt, and Alina was afraid to phase for fear that her wolf would not let her return to her human form. All in all she was a complete and utter mess. She had lost weight and her clothes hung loosely off her body. She did not exam herself too closely when she bathed, sickened by the bones that stuck out on her hips, shoulders, and ribs.
It was three months from the day of the ceremony for the dead Alphas that her parents could no longer watch her waste away. She saw the look in her mother’s eyes that she knew all too well. It was the look that meant she was far beyond being fed up. It was the look that declared her will would be done come heaven or hell, and no one would stand in her way.
“If that stubborn, foolish male will not fix this, then I will,” she heard her mother’s tense voice through the darkness of the cottage. “I am going, Petre, and you can support me or not, but I am going. I will no longer stand by and watch her suffer. I am done.” Her mother swept through the cottage jerking the door open and then slammed it closed behind her, leaving a deafening silence behind.
“Father,” Alina called out.
He stepped out from their room, the glow of the candle light behind him outlined his large frame. “Do you need something, love?” he asked in the same gentle voice they had been using on her for months.
“Where is she going?”
He started to answer but she stopped him with her hand. “Do not lie to me, not after all that I have been through. I need the truth.”
He gave a resigned nod before he answered. “A mother feels every ounce of pain that her child feels. With every tear you cry she cries a hundred. With every crack your heart endures, hers shatters repeatedly. There is nothing that she would not do to take your suffering, nothing she would not barter, nothing she would not endure, and nothing she would not reveal even unto her own utter humiliation to remove the anguish you have withstood.”
“Where is she going?” she asked again through gritted teeth.
“To the Fae.”
Two hours later Georgeta stood before the invisible veil that divided their realm from Farie. Though it had been years since she had been here, she still knew where to find the entrance to the realm of the fae. She also knew the risk she was taking coming here. When the last healer had fallen, the Fae had left the human realm, tired of the fighting amongst the other supernaturals. Few Fae were even still seen in the human realm, but their powerful reputation remained, their mystique even growing over the years of absence.
One in particular who had been the ambassador to their pack did not fully agree with leaving the human realm, but she has been outvoted. It was this Fae that Georgeta would be appealing to on behalf of her daughter. Petre did not agree but Alina was getting sicker by the day and she refused to watch her daughter waste away to nothing because a stubborn male would not swallow his pride and take care of his mate. Because Alina was not of age, she was still under their authority. Therefore, Georgeta technically had the right to seek out help on her behalf.
She took a deep breath before she called out loudly to the invisible barrier before her. “Perizada of the Fae, I seek your council.”
Though she came all this way, traveling in her wolf form, carrying her clothes in her mouth and running as hard as she could to get to the veil quickly, she had no guarantee that the Fae would even answer her let alone grant her request. But there was a chance. It was a possibility that Perizada would agree to help, and no matter how small that possibility, Georgeta had to try.
Several minutes past before the Veil began to shimmer. The invisible force situated between two huge trees rippled
like water and out stepped a tall, slender woman with waist length white hair that shimmered as though tiny lights were attached to each silky strand. Her eyes were large and a pale green, her lips ruby red, and her cheeks high with a natural blush. She looked to be around twenty five summers, but the primeval gleam in her eyes told a different story than the young face and youthful glow. She was an ancient being, thousands of years old, and powerful. If any could help Alina, it would be her.
“It has been a long while since I have had the privilege of the company of a she-wolf.” Her voice was sultry and seductive with a slightly musical quality to it. “Georgeta Sala, mate to Petre Sala, mother of Alina Sala, and member of the Eastern Romania pack, I so name you. Why do you seek me out?”
The formal address did not surprise Georgeta. She knew it was the Fae’s way of ensuring that she could not tell a falsehood. Only a fool would try to lie to the Fae, especially to the one standing before her.
“I seek help on my daughter Alina’s behalf. She is sixteen summers and recently found her true mate. He is the new Alpha of our pack.”
Peri sucked in a breath. “Stefan and Daciana have perished?” The emotion that was evident in her voice made it clear that she cared for the Alpha pair.
“A few months ago,” Georgeta answered.
“We will return to that information once you have stated your purpose. Go on.” She motioned for her to continue.
“Vasile is much older than Alina. He is the most dominant male we have seen in a very long time, and Petre felt that they should wait to bond. Vasile agreed to wait two years. He returned to the castle and the pain of their separation was intense. Alina told me that the pain coming from his side of the bond was driving her wolf mad. She was fighting to not leave and go to him against her father’s wishes. So she asked him for space, to help them both better cope with their own pain without having to endure the other’s as well.”