Chapter 29

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"Aaah," Ismena was starting to understand. "That is your present position right?"

He nodded once, leading her through another lane. Out of the corner of his eyes, he can see the surprised glances and jaw-dropping gazes of his people as they stare at the human walking excitedly beside their Alpha King. "As you can already deduce, it is the highest position in Naturiah, led by the strongest of the strongest. It comes with a lot of responsibilities too."

The way she was looking at him in that enthralled, fascinated way forced him to continue. "So, clans kill themselves to be the general leader of all the clans. That was the dominant war. It went on for years and years until other clans either lost the war or they gave up on it because of their innocent blood that has died from the war. It continued until the werewolves and the cougars were remaining. Two strong clans fighting each other for the throne."

He took a deep breath, "Ares and Dogota. Ares was the Alpha leader of the cougar clan then, and Dogota led the werewolf Clan...." he paused, "He was my grandfather."

"Woah. Dogota..." Ismena rolled the name on her lips, "He sounds like a strong man."

"He was. The strongest." The tiniest smile curved his lip to the left side of his cheek at the memories of his grandfather. Unfortunately, he doesn't have much of that. "Ares and Dogota warred each other for years on end until a circumstance forced them to make peace with each other."

"What circumstance?" She kicked a stone in her path, then, winced when it hurt her toe.

"Dogota's oldest son and Ares's oldest daughter showed high mating compatibilities, the first day they met."

"What does that mean?"

He wondered how to explain that, and settled for, "They were destined to be together. Humans call it 'to marry', we call it to 'mate'. But unlike humans, we mate forever." Wolfariane has not been able to understand humans at all when they suddenly leave their other halves in the name of divorce, or when they mistreat their other halves.

"Wait. Does it mean that you don't ever divorce?" She asked incredulously.

He shook his head firmly. "Once a Changeling male claims his female and completes the mating ritual, the feeling NEVER goes away. Instead of going away, they fall harder in love as days go by, and their bond gets stronger and stronger, especially whenever they mate during the full moon."

"Whenever they mate? You mean whenever they have séx during the full moon?"

"Yes. But it's more complicated than just sex." That, is also a topic he does not want to delve into now...or any other time, with her.

"Why the full moon?"

"The full moon is..." He thought of ways to explain it, "...unique for Changelings. Whenever the moon is high and full in the sky, every Changeling is reminded who he is and what his basic instincts are; To mate or to hunt. Mostly the urge is 'to mate.'. it is... an uncontrollable urge."

"Intriguing." She tried to picture him forced to succumb to his basic instincts, having intimacies with some woman like that. 

Nope, she doesn't like the thought at all. So, she shut her mind to it.

"Unmated Changelings choose their full moon partners," he continued, "while mated Changelings turn to each other's arms. Anyway, after Ares and Dogota found out that their children are showing high mating compatibilities, they were forced to make peace. And they did. A peace treaty was signed."

"Ares stepped back for the wolves because it was the reasonable thing to do. The male Changeling to mate with his daughter is the werewolf. So, that was how Werewolves took over the general leadership."

"Woah. I'm glad everyone made peace. So, I guess your parents were the mates right?" 

Again, he nodded his head. "Yes."
 
The love Changelings share is enviable, Ismena thought with a wistful sigh. How I wish I can get such kind of love.

Then, she caught herself. No, no way she will go down that road...not when she will be dying in less than eight weeks.
Which reminded her about the persistent burning in her chest.

She shut her mind to it. "So, where are they now, your parents? Do they still love each other so much?"

"They are dead." He stated.

"Oh," shit, Ismena, your dog. You really had to go and ask that!? "I'm sorry... Do you wanna talk about it?"

His face wore a blank expression. "No." He stated matter-of-factly. Then, he stopped walking all of a sudden. 

The stop was so abrupt, Ismena instantly knew that something was wrong. "What is the matter?" She asked, stopping too.

He felt a wave of dizziness. That is the matter. 
Wolfariane scowled. He can't remember the last time he ever felt such an abrupt wave of dizziness and he knows why. 

He'd lost a lot of blood three days ago after Nalaila exhausted herself on him, and he hasn't healed. In fact, he isn't healing.
He'd been so busy, he hasn't gotten around to calling the healer.

"Are you alright?" She repeated, her brows creased in worry.

He can practically feel the tiredness of his other halves. They need to heal. "I'm fine." He rasped and continued walking. 

As they covered more distance, Ismena admired everything and anything. The excitement lit up her whole face, giving it such a radiant glow that only enhanced her beautiful features. 

Wolfariane caught himself watching her occasionally. It was hard to keep his eyes away, which in turn made him scowl.

"There goes that frown again." She grumbled, then pouted those small sexy lips as they arrived at the lane that leads to the market.

 She got in front of him, faced him, and continued walking, but with her back facing her path. She shook her head with a smile on her face, "You're gonna grow old faster if you continue like this."

"Watch your path." He cautioned in a grumpy voice.

Ismena already slipped before the words came out of his mouth completely. "Ooo...!" She gasped as she tried to find her footing.

He moved before he thought about it. His hands shot out, straight to her waist to steady her and keep her from falling to the ground. 

"Thank you for saving me...again." she grinned up at him.

It went straight to his côck. Shit. 
He let go of her as she burned him, "Watch your path." He repeated curtly.

"Okay, okay, sir." She saluted him before she turned towards her path again. 

She took one step and lost her footing again.

His hands shot out again and grabbed hold of her. "What is wrong with you?"

Ismena was beginning to feel very dizzy. Her chest was pounding. Too hard. It was beginning to hurt. 
Not only that, the food she ate for lunch was rushing up to her throat.

"My chest..." Her breath came in short pants, "I need my...meds."

The wolf howled at her discomfort. The man was confused, "Are you feeling—"

"I think... I'm going to..." The words didn't make it fully out of her mouth before something else did. Her food.

She was vomiting. On him.
Hard retching sounds as everything in her belly made it out of her again.

Dread filled her by the time she was done heaving. The arms that held her were suddenly as stiff as aboard. 
At the same time, she was feeling very lightheaded. 

It was a lightheadedness she embraced eagerly because she isn't ready to face him just yet.

"I think...I'm going to..." She began again, swallowing tightly.

"Don't you dare faint on me—" It was a growl that rumbled from deep inside him.

But before he could get all the words out, Ismena's eyes rolled back into her head and her body went liquid in his arms.

She has lost consciousness.