Chapter 14: Heart to Heart

Mikalya’s P.O.V:
It was afternoon, the day after the event with Aya and Zyane and I was feeling the need to see someone and sort things out with him. I wasn’t complete heartless bitch like some people assumed I was, so I knew when a ‘thank you’ was due. And Rhys definitely deserved a ‘thank you’ from me.
If Rhys hadn’t done what he had yesterday, Aya would have been bound in a relationship that she didn’t desire and Zyane would be dead. There was no other option for whoever forces a mating on a female. It was one of our most absolute rules. Mating bonds were taken seriously. Which was also why my wolf was getting used to being close to Rhys the more time he spent being near me.
It wasn’t right, my heart kept telling me. But my wolf was already feeling the pull of the mating bond. It’s difficult for a wolf to get their mate out of their mind once the mating bond had been sensed by both wolves and I knew that I’d be feeling the pull until the day he dies or until he finds another potential mate and mates with her. Even nature has been cruel with us female shifters. We couldn’t feel another mating bond until our mate died but men could feel multiple mating bonds at the same time. And also, only the male could reject a mate and chose another but we could only stay down and accept the rejection. But rejections were very uncommon in the shifter community and the only mates that had been rejected till now had been humans. I guess I didn’t have a choice. The decision was up to Rhys now and I don’t think he’ll be giving up on the mating bond.
So I searched for him for the whole day, slowly feeling the irritation grow. By nightfall, however, that irritation had turned into worry. These mountains were unfamiliar territory and there were several traps set up by my pack to detect intruders and even kill them. If he unknowingly stumbles upon a deadly trap, the blame would still fall on my pack for trying to kill him.
"Have you seen him?" I questioned Belle directly. There was no beating around the bush with her, she could take one look at me and she’ll know exactly what was wrong.
Belle had been instructing a few of her workers when I had stomped in like a brooding panda bear, demanding an answer even before she could say hello or scold me for not knocking. She sighed, knowing full well who the him was that I was asking/demanding for.
"No child, I haven't. Didn't come for dinner yesterday, wasn't present at lunch either." Belle said, her brows furrowed in concentration, trying to remember when the last time she had seen Rhys was.
I looked pointedly at the other four workers, raising an eyebrow. Everyone shook their heads no, except for one. I turned towards him.
"I think I saw him head towards Jharna last nights. Don't think he returned after that." Kushal, Belle's grandson, answered.
“And why haven’t you informed me about it before?” I asked with a frown. “You know that there are some really dangerous traps set up around here, right? If he falls into one of them and dies, we’ll be risking a war.”
I didn’t know my wolf was in my eyes until Kushal visible cowered away from me. I instantly pulled back my strength. Kushal was a submissive, even though he was born from two dominants, and submissives, no matter how weak, were the heart of the pack. They were to be cared for and protected, not snapped at.
“Look,” I told him after combing my fingers through his dark hair a few times in a soothing motion. “If something like this happens again, come to me immediately. Alright?”
“Alright…” Kushal pressed up against my side for comfort. To think that there was once a time that I had actually believed that I could live without a pack, without the bonds of family…it felt impossible. I own it all to one person, the person who made me realize that I was incomplete without a pack…a person who no longer exists.
Giving Kushal the comfort he needed, I headed out of the main pack house and into the snowy depths of the mountain that has been my home for the past three decades. The walk to the Jharna was relatively short, since I knew all the shortcuts to getting there and since my wolf had been feeling particularly jumpy, I decided to go for a run.
Dodging the rocks that lined the path to Jharna, I hid behind a large boulder as soon as I spotted Rhys, even though I had no reason to do so. He was sitting on top of one of the boulders, staring up at the stars that glittered the night sky. One of the reason why I was so drawn to the Jharna had been the view of the stars in the night sky. They were like tiny beacons of hope.
"Why not come out here so you can have a better look.” I was startled out of my daydream by that husky, rough voice of my mate.
Mate.
Since when did I consider him as my mate? Wasn’t I just thinking about second potential mates and rejections? Without letting my mind wander any further, I came out from the shadows of the boulders and went to stand next to the rock he was sitting on.
"You were here the whole day?" A question whose answer I already knew.
"Since last night," came his gruff reply. He patted the seat next to him and moved a few inches to the side to make way for me.
I looked at him from the corner of my eyes and found him shivering slightly in the cold. He had on at least three to four layers of clothing and was covered head to toe in woolens but I guess it would take time for a desert wolf to get accustomed to this climate. I was once born a desert wolf, but the desert had never been a place for me. I was a wolf of the snow, of winter and one way or the other; I had always found my way back to the snow.
“Thank you.” I told him quietly while looking up at the sky.
“No, you shouldn’t be thanking me.” He shook his head and brought his knees up on the rock so he could fold his arms over them. “It was my fault for not realizing how close Zyane was getting to his wolf. I am his Alpha, I should’ve noticed.”
“It’s not always possible or easy to detect rogues.” I told him. “No one can tell when a wolf will suddenly lose touch with their humanity. But I don’t think that’s what happened in Zyane’s case.”
“It wasn’t?” Rhys blinked back his surprise as he turned towards me. “How can you tell?”
“He’s a male wolf in his prime who has just found his mate,” I explained. “He expected the mating bond to be initiated immediately. But Aya is too young so she doesn’t feel the bond yet. Zyane’s wolf just couldn’t handle to wait any longer. It got frustrated and wanted to initiate the bonding forcefully. It’s not all that uncommon. To be honest, I was surprised you reacted the way you did. Most Alpha’s wouldn’t have cared.”
“The penalty of forcing a mating bond in my pack is death.” Rhys told me, much to my surprise. “No one can force a bond that is supposed to occur naturally. Finding a mate is a blessing, some wander around for centuries without finding their mates.”
I gave a humorless chuckle. “That’s true.” I shook my head. “But I think I should let you know that if Zyane had tried to hurt Aya, I would have killed him.”
“I would have expected nothing less.” The answer was immediate. “Mating bonds are sacred. No one should mess with them.”
No, I didn’t miss the subtle hints he was passing in my direction and I think now was the time we really discussed what the mating bond between us meant.
"You wanted to know about my pack, didn’t you? Why it was created? Why no one knew about it? Why we are living so far out from civilization? Why a female Alpha? Right?" I ticked off all the questions that were bound to be going through Rhys's head.
“Yes.” He spoke quietly.
“Then ask away.” I waved my hand at him. “Ask whatever’s on your mind. I’ve already researched everything I needed to know from your fighters and they were happy to spill the beans. So it’s only fair that you get to know about me and my pack directly from the source.”
"Which pack you belonged to, before you became Alpha?" He asked quietly. “It’s been on my mind since the first time you told me you were the Alpha. I want to know where your roots are…where you came from.”
I sighed. This was going to be difficult.
"Okay then," I ran a hand through my hair, that was down and whipping behind me as the frosty winds hit them hard. But I was used to it. I had lived in these snow covered mountains for ages, these winds were welcoming, and they felt like home.
"In the year 1872, when the British rule in Asia was starting to weaver, a small village existed in the land of white sand, near the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, inhabited by a pack of desert wolves. The village was called Mouri (a spice), and the pack was called BloodPledge," I head Rhys braw in a sharp breath but I didn’t turn towards him. My mind was a thousand miles away, in the same land that I had just spoken about.
A land of desert wolves, of blood and agonizing screams.

Rhys’s P.O.V:
BloodPledge.
I’ve heard several stories about that pack since I was a kid. Stories of torn flesh, blood soaked sand and vicious rapes. Stories that still shook the foundation of every man who heard their tales.
That land had been left barren for ages. No one dared to go near that barren land, still covered in ashes of the people who had died there. Their horrific screams still echoed at night, till this very day. A tragedy that shook the Earth.
How could Mikalya talk about that land like she knew about it? Like she'd been there?
She stayed quiet, letting me absorb all this and started again only after I nudged for her to continue.
"Everyone had heard stories about that land” She said in a haunted voice. “Heard their screams. But no one knew what actually happened that night. No one had lived to tell their tale. No one....except the only white wolf born in that wretched land. A wolf, as white as the desert sands".
My eyes were wide as I stared at the ocean blue eyes of the woman who sat beside me. A woman who was my mate.
A woman...who is the only white wolf to be ever born in Asia.