Anira Part 2

"How do you do it?"
"What?"
"How do you open and close access to my mind? Can I do it too?"
"Yes, you can. You just need to desire it, Ann. If you allow me to feel you, you open the door to your mind for me. If you don’t want to, then you keep me out."
I try to understand his theory and wish for him to enter my mind, and wow! It really is like opening a door. I feel everything he feels and hear his thoughts.
"What will you do with that head on our table?"
"I'll send it to the leader of the Southern clan, Sbor."
I soon understand everything. Auror shows me how it all happened with Sbor, and I am frightened. Orion’s red eyes terrify me, so I close our mental door.
"I’m sorry if I scared you."
"It’s okay."
We remain silent for a moment, his hands resting on my bare back, my head resting on his chest, listening to the powerful beat of his heart.
Thousands of thoughts rush through my mind. Auror doesn’t seem like someone who should have been condemned. Why did people do this? Everyone respects him, but I remember what Arow said, that it took a long time for him to earn that respect. In the short time I have access to his mind, I always sense a pain in his chest, as if he needs to rid himself of the burden of guilt. Auror doesn’t deserve to live with it.
"You don’t need to be afraid to ask me anything, Ann."
"Wow! I didn’t realize that... sorry."
"You learn to open and close the door. Do you really want to know why I did what I did?"
"You don’t have to if you don’t want to."
"I have no secrets with you."
Then he begins to tell me how everything happened.

***


Auror


Telling Ann the reason for my punishment embarrasses me, but as my mate, it was going to happen sooner or later, so it’s better to be as brief as possible. I open our minds and need her to see through my eyes and feel with the same intensity how it was for me to discover that my destined mate and my best friend decided to betray me, how I was deceived, and how I regret it.
Night had fallen. I was walking home after leaving Clint’s house. We were both excited about our first heat. I would spend it with my mate, and that drove me crazy. I yearned for this connection, for feeling everything with the intensity we were taught we would.
Clint wanted to call Galena, a fertile female who would be in her second heat. She had already accepted him, and everything was set. The surprise was that she wanted him, as Galena usually preferred the males from the East. Olak had come here last winter and isolated himself with her, but Clint was thrilled to have her.
He had said that an experienced female would be much better for him. I didn't question him, as my best friend and future right-hand man was a sensible and responsible male. His mate would be very happy with him when she arrived.
That night I slept and dreamed of her, her long white hair and shy gaze. Cristaly seemed like an angel, and her blue eyes looked like the sky. My body wasn’t reacting to hers yet, but when she turned eighteen, the Moon Goddess would make her mature for me.
As the days passed, the leader training and knowledge of the fertile ones were daily. I was exhausted, so tired that I fell onto the bed like a rock, and that’s when everything happened.
"— Auror! Auror!" — The call from outside my window wakes me up. It’s Galena’s voice.
"— What are you doing here at this hour, Galena?" — I ask as soon as I see her.
"— I saw them. I saw Clint and Cristaly together." — Her look was terrified, and she was still panting.
I sniff the air for lies, but nothing appears; she’s not lying.
"— Tell me what you heard."
"— They were plotting to run away together. They were going to spend the heat in the mountains, at the cabin near the cliffs." — This information was new; Clint had arranged a cabin near the river on the south side of Forty Mile. "— I can’t be without a mate, Auror. I refused Olak’s request, and when I went to talk to Clint, I saw him whispering near his house in a dark recess by the woods. Cristaly’s voice left no doubt about who it was, even though she was wearing the sacred Angelic cloak."
"— This can’t be true."
"— From what I heard, they had mated at Cristaly’s house and were now preparing to leave."
"— Come in and inform the leader. I’ll go after them," — I order, not allowing her to finish speaking.
In the midst of my run, I transform into my animal form, heading toward the cabin by the cliff. The scent of both begins to reach me, nauseating and making me release a monstrous roar. I would turn them over to the leader, but not before beating my traitorous best friend.
My paws dig into the ground, and the hatred is so intense that I drool in fury. The smell of their mingled bodies becomes so strong it feels like burning, and at times I snort the air out, unwilling to feel it.
The run doesn’t take long; Cristaly’s screams echo through the darkness as I attack them from behind, flinging their bodies away when they are hit. Clint falls to the ground, transformed. Fear is in his eyes. He tries to speak, but I don’t allow it. We fight at the edge of the cliff. I am much stronger than he is, yet he knows me well.
The fight is bloody. He tries to stop me, but I am enraged by the scent of sex and the pain of their betrayal. I grew up with him and saw her born; she was destined for me.
"— Damn traitor!"
"— Auror, it’s not what you think. We were—" My claws dig into his neck, not giving him a chance to speak.
"— NO!!!!!!"
Cristaly’s scream distracts me, and Clint tries to escape. Even though he is practically dead, I break his neck. I know he won’t die, but he will be paralyzed for a few seconds, which is all I need to kill the traitor and return to rip off her head.
As I advance toward her, Clint lunges at me. The impact of his attack causes Cristaly’s body to fall from the cliff.
"— Cristaly, no! What are you doing, Auror?"
"— Punishing you for being a traitor."
Still consumed by the scent of mating that envelops everything around me, I jump and attack him, tearing off his head with my hands.
With Clint’s lifeless body at my feet, I seem to snap back to reality, and I don’t understand much. When I remember Galena’s words, I realize I have no prisoners to confess what they did, so I recall they mated at Cristaly’s house and run back to the city like a madman.
At this moment, covered in dirt and blood, I hear the growls and noises of the males from my clan. Galena must have alerted them.
I enter the house, frantic, searching for any trace of their betrayal, and all I find is a house tidy and clean as it always was every time I came here.