Bond Bruising

**BLANCA**
“You’ve met your mate. Who is he, Blanca? What is his name?”
Tears trail from my eyes when I hear Doc Maize’s question, and because she’s been so gentle in her examination of me, as well as being completely discreet, I don’t know how I am to answer her. I don’t know how I am to lie to a woman who only seeks to help me.
I am laying in Jared’s bed wearing a nightdress that Doc Maize brought for me. It’s a soft white cotton affair that is embroidered with a common floral pattern and just now it is pulled up over my hips leaving my newest injuries on full display.
The very moment Doc Maize spied the bruising, she gasped in fear. Right away she knew what they were and how they had gotten there. And, of course, she wasted no time in telling me *exactly* how serious they were.
They were *bond bruises,* or so she called them. Triggered by the infidelity of an unfaithful mate. Or rather, in my case, an unaccepting one.
*This means that he slept with her tonight.*
*This means that Max kissed Fionna… that he held her… made love to her.*
The pain that comes with that knowledge is infinitely worse than the bruises and the burning in my chest lights a fire that threatens to consume me. The tears just keep coming after that and before I know it I’m hiccuping, unable to make them stop.
“Hush now, Blanca, hush my sweet girl,” she whispers, patting my hand as she once again surveys the *ugly* bruises now surrounding my midsection. “I know this is hard. I understand that. But this type of thing,” she shakes her head and my tears fall harder, “absolutely has to be addressed. If it happens too many more times… and you without a wolf… darling it could *kill* you.”
*Kill me?*
*Did Max know this?*
Wiping at my eyes, I struggle to sit up higher on the bed so that I can look at her properly. “I don’t understand,” I hiss past the pain that still wrenches my insides whenever I move. “Shouldn’t I *be* bonded for such a thing to occur? I have no mark. I've not been accepted by anyone.”
She frowns, stepping closer to seat herself on the edge of the bed and grasp my hand. “I’m going to be honest with you,” she sighs. “Yours *is* the first incident I’ve ever seen attack an unbonded female. Normally, yes, you need to have been marked first, but I *have* read that if a connection is incredibly strong, or if one of the mates in question is extremely powerful, bond bruising *can* occur. And in this case,” she winces as she once again scrutinizes my injuries, “it most certainly has.” As if someone has just flipped a switch in her brain, Doc Maize suddenly goes from sweet and genteel, to angry and feral. Her eyes flash with gold and they spiral with an animalistic urgency when she growls out, “This mate must be rejected immediately. He obviously does not want you and you *must* know who he is, because had you not met him this could not have occurred. So tell me Blanca, what is his name?”
I shake my head sadly. “He refuses to reject me. I begged him to. But he refuses.”
A sneer falls over her lips and she lets loose with a humorless cackle. “Well then *you* must reject him!”
Again I shake my head. “He won’t allow that either.”
She snaps, “I’d like to see him stop you. Give me his name and I will have him fetched for you straightaway. I’m sure the Alpha will be happy to send a few Gammas to retrieve him.”
I grant her a wan smile, wishing I could tell her the truth of my predicament, but knowing that I cannot. “Is there no other way to prevent this?”
She sighs heavily, narrowing her eyes on me. “Seeing as how you are not marked, then perhaps distance might be one way. Clearly your mate must be a member of this pack, as you haven’t exactly had time to travel. So it may be that he is simply a powerful shifter and resides much too close to you. If you were far enough away from him, then you might be safe. Once again, if I knew who he was I could-”
*Knock, knock, knock.*
A soft knock interrupts her words and with it comes a tingling in my chest. I know at once who it is and I almost can’t believe that he is here.
*Jared must have called him.*
Doc Maize leaps up from the bed and pulls the blanket over me, tucking me in before turning toward the door. Opening it just a crack at first, she releases a huge sigh of relief when she sees who is standing there.
“Alpha Max,” Doc Maize says. “Thank goodness. I need to have a word with you in private.”
Max’s deep timbre rumbles through the room. “First I would like to see Blanca.”
Doc Maize bows aside her hopeful eyes settling on me. “You need to give the Alpha his name, Blanca. He is the only one that can help you.”
*You have no idea,* I want to say, but instead I fix my unwavering gaze on Max. He appears disheveled, as if he only just rolled out of bed and my eyes burn with the image that brings me. Of him *holding* that woman, Fionna. Of him sleeping peacefully at her side.
“His name?” Max’s face lights with anger, “Why what happened?”
“You shouldn’t be here,” I whisper. “You should be with your chosen, as you prefer to be.”
Max’s eyebrows snap together and he glares down at me. “I should be wherever I damn well please. Now, tell me what happened to you!”
More tears fill my eyes and all I can manage is a stiff shake of my head as I refuse to answer, blinking away my tears as I meet the doctor’s gaze in the corner.
“Maize?” I hear Max growl. “Tell me what the hell is going on.”
But Maize remains quiet for a beat, a curious look falling over her features as she surveys first Max and then myself. Suspicion clouds her gaze and when she speaks her words come out so slowly it is as if she’s in a trance, “Blanca is a victim of Bond Bruising. An occurrence that is normally brought on by an unfaithful mate, but *can* also be triggered when one’s fated is a powerful shifter, or if the connection between the two is abnormally strong. Miss Blanca has obviously met her mate, but she’s refusing to give him up. I had hoped you might convince her to.”
My gaze flits to Max and he appears so pale that I fear he may pass out. “Give him up?” he questions her, his voice tight.
Doc Maize nods to herself, fixing Max with a pointed stare. “Yes. So that he can be rejected. As he obviously has no plans to accept her. Now does he, Maxwell?”