#43

Blake

I caught her as she slumped. Evander darted forward, cradling her head. His eyes showed genuine fear. “Aurora! Love!” He called to her beckoning her to open her eyes. “Evander!” I yelled getting his attention as I began moving, scooping her up off the bench. His eyes found mine. “You need to stay calm. Let's get her in bed to be comfortable for now. I need to check her vitals. If she starts to burn up, we will need to get her to water. She was feather light as I stood with her and handed her to Evander, who hurried her upstairs. I asked Whinnie to come also as I needed her as my pillar right now. I followed him up as I watched him lay her gently on the bed before removing her boots. His labor-hardened fingers traced the delicate features of her angelic face.

“Mom had always called her ‘angel girl,’” I said walking over to the other side of the bed, observing my Alpha as he devoutly tended to my sister. “She was always so otherworldly to me. I always thought she must be a changeling because there was no way I was cut from the same cloth as her. She's too good. Where I extorted my abilities, she sheltered hers. But whenever this happened, and I was reminded just how mortal she was, it always made me cherish her for the person she was and not all the other amazing things she was capable of.”

I lifted her hand checking her wrist for her pulse. Evander listened caught in his turmoil. Brushing her hair from her face and tucking her into the rumpled bed. I steered my thoughts straight. It was time to educate my Alpha on the condition of his mate. “She can hear you, and depending on your bond, she may be able to feel you, so I need you to be careful of your thoughts because her biggest fear is losing us. If she thinks that will happen, I'm afraid she may let the power swallow her. Right now, she is attempting to contain it, but I will be honest with you. What she is dealing with right now is tenfold from the last time she experienced it with me. Before she went out, she just said water. That’s how she’s been surviving this. So at the first sign of fever, we need to be able to move.” I explained. He nodded. “Is she going to be ok?” He choked out. “I hope so,” I said feeling her forehead. She’s warm but not burning up yet. At the first sign of her heating up, we need to move her to the springs.”

I heard the downstairs door fly open and Whinnie’s panicked voice sounded distressed. “Blake!” The sound of my true name coming from her lips felt right. “Up here!” I called. She quickly made her way up the steps and paused at the foot of the bed. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with her?” she sputtered out. I came around and wrapped her in an embrace. “This is the cost of the power she wields.” I said inhaling her scent and rubbing her back. Soothing myself more than her.

“Evander?” I called pulling him out of his thoughts. “How did you know to come?” I asked. “This morning she lifted the barrier blocking me. I could barely sense her feelings before. Now I can read hers as easily as my own.” I nodded. “She wanted to give up. I needed her to know I meant what I said this morning. Being with her will be my life, whatever comes our way.” He squeezed her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing her fingertips with so much care I realized what a fool I had been for being how I was in the beginning about them. I couldn’t ask for a better man for her. The idea that she could have someone who would treat her with the respect and reverence she deserved was all I could ever ask for. Her fingertips brushed his lips. He stilled before pressing her palm to his jaw. Her thumb moved back and forth over the hairs of his beard.

“That's strange,” I said. “She usually cannot move.” Whinnie chimed in, “Maybe it’s the bond?” “What do you feel Evander?” I asked. “She’s holding on. It feels like she’s clinging to the fact that I’m here. Like it soothes her. I don’t know what’s happening to her besides how she explained it. She said that the power is like a virus and it can’t be contained in the vessel until her body can harbor it, so it's like making antibodies for the power until she can endure its presence.” He glanced up at me. “She sugar-coated it. Now imagine that virus shooting lighting through your veins while you mentally try to contain it within your body.” I informed dryly. Whinnie winced, and Evander scowled while shaking his head.

His anger was palatable. “Find me a solution! There has got to be another way!” he seethed. “If I had a solution, we would already be using it, Evander. I wouldn’t let her suffer like this. Unlike you, I have seen what goes on in her head when this happens since she was just a kid. Trust me, I’m still digging through all the research we did, wondering what we missed!” I snapped. Aurora’s hand was white-knuckled on his wrist. “Standing here telling me that there is no solution isn’t helping her.” he spat. “Maybe if you used that brain of yours the way it was intended, instead of running from it, you would be able to see the solution.” I paced back and forth. His point hit home. I ran away from who I was and it was time I acted like the man my father raised me to be. Another thought hit me the fact that I failed to use the assets of my mind had always been a comeback for her when I found myself in any kind of trouble. Was she sending me a message? Were her feelings able to persuade his subconscious to mimic her comeback? I groaned, frustrated, and made my way downstairs Whinnie in my wake.

I paced pulling forth all the dead data into my mind that we had come up with over the years before I left. We had touched on the soul bond at one point being that it was something that would allow anyone who joined access to her abilities. We had vetoed it for her and anyone else's safety. Not to mention she was still a child and that bond should be the one she chose. Yet guided by The Mother and Evander by the moon goddess, they had chosen each other. Fate had matched them and they seemed to be agreeing. I trusted Evander. I’d just today realized that he made his final decision to make this place, and this pack based on the little girl born 7 years ago to protect her. A girl much like my sister. My mind raced and small things came to me. Delicate ones, the way her face relaxed when they made contact, how she admittedly held his gaze. Her instincts had no problem stepping between us, but he always chose to be at her side, never standing in front of her. They were like magnets, energies that attracted each other. But magnets repelled other energies. Regardless, they would mate if we got her through this. But what if that bond was what she needed to get her through this? The way she could still feel him while she was dealing with the overload. The way she instinctively responded to him through the bond. There was something there. My instincts screamed.

“Blake!” Whinnie finally pulled me from my mind. “What’s going on?” “Is an Alpha and Luna’s bond any different from ours?” I asked. “It’s the same, but more intense. They can project images where we can only project feelings.” She explained. “And how is an Alpha’s link to a pack different from that of a mate?” The Alpha can project to the pack, but it is under his control. His anger or joy, whatever it is, he can choose to share or deny anyone but his mate. Alphas and Lunas usually only use the ability to block when they know the other is in a life-or-death situation or if they need to keep a secret to protect each other. The more solid the bond, the more sturdy the pack”

“Give me a head start?” I asked moving towards the stairs. I wanted to observe some more before I speculated further. Feeling like I was imposing on something intimate was an understatement, and I was. As I silently padded up the stairs, I peered between the banisters. Evander lay curled around her, his fingers interlaced with hers as he whispered, gently tracing the features of her face. “If we have to go tomorrow, I don't care, just come back to me, Love. Since I met you, I don't think I could breathe without you. You are my sunrise and my sunset, my moon and my stars, You are my life now… please don't leave me.” As he cradled their interlaced fingers, he kissed her fingertips again. And I watched as her hand squeezed his. The strain relaxed on her forehead. ‘What is it?’ Whinnie spoke in my mind, coming up next to me. ‘If you hadn’t seen this played out many times in the past, you wouldn’t notice the differences.’ I said. ‘His presence is soothing her, he's easing her pain by just being there,’ I noted as I nodded to how, when he shifted, her body ever so slightly leaned further towards him, as if what remained of her body’s control sought the balm to her agony.

As considerate and as kind and generous as Evander was, I never fathomed how docile and adoring he would be towards his mate. I had seen the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of Evander. But this was pleasantly unexpected. I took a few steps back down before marching up with pointedly loud thuds. So it would announce our arrival. Evander shushed his mushing but didn't move.

I picked up the teacup on the side table looking down into the contents. The herbs dried up and settled on the bottom. “She drank this when?” I asked. “Last night,” he answered irritatedly. “What does it matter?” he said. “Did she say anything about it?” I pressed. “She said her goddess was pushy.” I paused wondering if my thoughts were aligning as they were landing. I walked around Evander, placing my thumbs on her temple, wincing as I came back to my senses. “We are going to need to move soon, she is heating up”

He already had the covers pulled back and was scooping her up into his arms. “It's going to be alright love,” he said tucking her head under his chin. She leaned into him even unconscious breathing in his scent, nuzzling into his chest. Evander turned, heading towards the stairs.
“Let's go,” I said urging us down the stairs. Evander bounded two at a time. “Whinnie, bring some towels and blankets to the springs,” I said, calling up the stairs before chasing after Evander. I didn’t want her running after us in her condition. The task would make her feel useful and slow her down.

We made our way to the springs in record time as the site of a few shocked members at our haste and the state of the woman in Evander's arms. “What now?” He asked panting as we hit the bank of the hot springs. “We need to get her clothes off and get her in the water.” I noticed her hand clinging to his shirt. I prayed to The Mother I was getting this right. He laid her down on the bank pulling her socks off. And moving up to unbutton her jeans shimmying them down. Regardless of the fact she was my sister, I knew better than to get between an Alpha and his mate in such a way. So I left him to the task. I adverted my eyes as he pulled the sweater over her head, making her hand fall from his shirt. It was always in the details.

“Alpha.” He turned to me, kicking his shoes off as he cradled her protectively against his chest. He looked at me as he walked back into the water, holding her possessively to his chest. “I think she's responding to the mate bond. Humor me skin to skin,” I said. He gave me a strange look before he shifted her in his arms, his strength was evident as he cradled her slight form to one shoulder and with one hand loosened his belt, dropping his jeans to the bank. He looped one arm out of his sweater as he walked backward into the water shifting her and pulling it over his head. Her hand fell to his neck as he scooped his other arm under her, stepping back into the water. “Submerge her as best you can. Just keep her head above water,” I said dropping my pants and pulling my shirt over my head. I waded in to check her, Evander letting out a warning growl. That I knew he couldn't help, as I counted her pulse and braced myself at her head. A trickle of blood was coming from her nose, and I worried the large body of water would not be enough as I watched pulses of power shoot out into the water in the form of trails of light. This time the energy of the building power was more spread out, the lightning-like power spreading to her extremities. The tendrils of the bonding souls were lit to a blinding force, a shadowed presence curled around it protectively. The bond would reach out to the tendrils pulling the energy within itself, but the intensity was charging into one side only trickling into the other.

That was when it clicked and I pulled from her mind. I looked down at my sister, her eyes dimly glowing as she stared at me suddenly awake. I realized how much time had elapsed since she collapsed. Finding us ushered into the soft light of the early evening, her consciousness not ignorant of my presence or its conclusion as the steam rose around the growing heat of her body.

Evander's eyes looked from me to her. "Love?" he whispered. "Shh, she cooed, her fingertips dripping with water tracing the curve of his lips. "Evander," I said. He looked up at me without words. "It's the bond. Complete it and you will help her store the power building. You don't she dies." His stunned gaze shifted between us. The pain on her face was unable to be concealed. “Not like this,” he said, his voice distraught. Her face turned to me. "Go!" she forced out pushing me away with a magic-laden shove that was stronger than I thought possible. I backed the rest of the way out of the water. “Evander,” I called. He reluctantly left her jade gaze. “Close the pack link until the stored energy is stable and you are certain you can keep it contained.” He looked at me strangely, still trying to come to terms with the epiphany of the moment, before turning back to her naked form cradled in his arms.

I grabbed Whinnie with me as she dumped the towels on a rock. "Call in all the patrols. I want everyone accounted for in their homes and nobody near the springs, I told her, moving her quickly through the trees." "Why? what's happening?" she asked. “If your brother doesn't mate my sister, she's dead. I don't know what kind of backlash that much energy is going to have. I want to know where everyone is and I don't want anyone interfering."

"Is that safe?" She sputtered. "I don't have all the answers. Whinnie, all we can do right now is to ensure everyone else remains safe. I hate that this is happening like this, but I'm sure they already chose this outcome. They were made for each other. They will endure it" At least I hoped so.

guys next chapter just saying **hot** ... love, LILLY