— Alik —

It took me a while to take care of everything and then get back on my feet after.

When I knocked on the door of the Alpha’s home, daylight was already in its decline. The days were shorter now, the darkness came faster every single night. After the winds of yesterday, there was nearly no leaves left in the trees—even though the land of the packhouse had been cleared of most of its leaves—leaving only the one that fell down in the last few hours. I suppose an army of groundskeepers can do that.

The maid guided me upstairs.

I passed by a carpenter who was repairing a door that had been ripped from its doorframe.

What kind of crap is going on here?

I found the Hellhound in his bedroom, sitting on a chair with his laptop on his lap. Elaeya was sleeping under the covers.

He closed the laptop as I came in and gestured at her. He didn’t look like a man simply worried about his girlfriend’s migraine.

“What happened?”

“It kept getting worse, more frequent. I found her yesterday in the shower saying that she was going crazy.”

“In the shower?”

“She said it’s the only thing that truly helps.”

“Huh?” I sat on the bed next to her and waved my hands slowly over her, extending my senses to connect with her aura. It was normal. I found no wounds, no sign of external attacks. “Huh?” I said again.

I put my hands on either side of her head and closed my eyes, reopening them slowly, focussing on magical energy.

I could see the colours of her aura, they were agitated, but she was not dreaming either. I don’t think she’s even sleeping.

“What else has she said?”

He thought about it for a bit. “That there was a buzzing in her head.”

“Did she mention voices?”

“Voices?” he said, his voice was probably the most shaken I’d heard it since I met him. “You think it’s schizophrenia?”

“What? No,” I said, dropping my hands and looking behind my shoulder at him. “Her mind his fine.”

“That’s not what she said.”

“It’s under stress,” I said resuming my assessment. “But it’s not from mental illness, or an external attack, or magic.”

“What is it then?”

I got up and rubbed my hands on my pants. Doing this always gave me the tingles and it was damn annoying. I let my eyes go back to normal before I grew a headache, and grabbed a chair that I dragged next to the bed, in front of his for a better conversation.

“First, I need more information. I need to know the trigger.”

“What trigger?”

“When was the first time, her or you noticed those headaches?”

“A little after the attack.”

“How long after?”

“Maybe a week. Give or take.”

I rubbed my hand over my stubble, trying to find something that would make all the pieces of the puzzle click together.

“Did something else happen around that time?”

“There’s always a million things that happen around here, but I’m not sure anything relevant happened.”

I nodded pensively

“What do you know?” he asked me.

“A lot of minute details that make no sense,” I said. “Yet.”

“Like what?”

“I’m not even sure I can put them all to words yet,” I said. But he probably knew something of importance that he didn’t think was important, and maybe brainstorming would trigger something.

“She’s not sleeping.” It was probably the information I was the surest about.

“Is it a coma then?”

I didn’t have the hearing of a werewolf, so I couldn’t say if his heartbeat went up, but his chest rose and fell more rapidly now. He kept his face an impassive mask, but I didn’t need to look at his aura to know that the idea was disturbing him.

“No. I think she put herself into that state.”

“How and why?”

“You can consider this a bit similar to an extreme meditative state. She pretty much locked herself inside her own mind.”

“But why?” he asked confused.

“Because she fighting something?”

“You said she was not under attack.”

“She isn’t.”

“This doesn’t make sense.”

“I told you it didn’t. I need more information to understand what’s going on.”

He thought in silence.

“What about her mother?” I asked. “Maybe she has knowledge about what is going on?”

“She came in this morning,” he said. “She checked her for a while, then rushed out and I hadn’t had any news from her yet?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t get why she did that or where she is?”

“My guess is that she’s unsure of what is going on and she went to get knowledge.”

“Where?”

“Probably something similar to this,” I said pointing at Elaeya. “She’s probably using her gifts, though she could also be summoning something for interrogations. What do I know?”

“This is linked to her gifts?” he asked me.

I thought about it.

“I don’t know if it’s linked,” I said slowly. “But she’s using it now.”

“What could it be linked to then?”

I shrugged. “Something that most probably happened recently,” I said. “How long have you been with her?”

“A couple of months.”

“So it’s recent. Did you know her before then?”

“No.”

“Lucky you were still single. I thought most Alpha tried to settle as early as possible.”

“Most, but I knew she was out there.”

“What do you mean?”

He rubbed his hand over his face and let his head fall back for a moment, before he looked back at me.

“I began sensing her when I was around thirteen. Given our age difference, that’s probably around the time of her birth. It would be just a slight pull at first, but it grew with years. I started to have dreams about it. I couldn’t say where she was, I wasn’t pulled anywhere, I didn’t know where she was, or what she looked like. I just knew she existed.

It grew more intense with years. It started to affect me. My mood was harder to control. I got more short-tempered. I stopped sleeping full nights. Looking for her slowly became like an obsession. I tried not to let it take over my life, but there were times when it was pretty damn hard. Then I started to have physical symptoms too. Palpitations, difficulties to breathe, it grew with time to heart attacks. The docs said I was most probably suffering through the separation of a mate. Nothing else made sense, but we never found out why it turned out this way with me, or how I could feel her.”

“Did this change when you met her?”

“Yeah. Sleeping was even harder when she was around. She said she made it worse, but it was fine when we slept next to one another. I slept better than I’ve probably done since I learn of her existence.”

“What about the other symptoms?” I asked.

“I haven’t had any since.”

“What did she say about this?”

“That she had no idea how this happened, but that she knew she was the cause. She said I was injured and it went all the way to my soul. That it was so brittle that a rejection could potentially kill me.”

“Do you know the state of this injury now?”

“Yesterday morning she said I was healed.”

Yesterday, soul, injuries, connection, mate, mind, vitteraï, something was missing in this equation.

Wait, mate.

“What is the state of your mate bond?”

“Fully forged.”

“When was she made part of your pack?”

“She hasn’t been yet.”

Huh? “Why?”

“She said something was missing.”

“What?”

“My mother assume it was a marriage to solidify her position as Luna.”

“But she’s not Luna yet?”

“No.”

Damn, something’s still missing.

“When did you forge the bond?” I asked.

“Around a week after the attack.”

BINGO!

He probably saw the change in my expression because he asked, “Do you think that’s it? The bond?” he thought for a second. “So she somehow made me sick, and now I’m somehow making her sick?” his eyes widened. “How fucking twisted is that?”

Something else clicked inside my head.

“What happened to the door?” I pointed in the direction of where I saw the carpenter work earlier.

He shook his hand dismissively. “It’s unimportant.”

“Humour me.”

He frowned. “It just broke when I opened it yesterday.”

“Were you rough?”

“Not even close.”

Aha!

I smiled.

The Hellhound looked strangely at me.

“I think I get the gist of what is going on now.”

“Well, do enlighten me, because I don’t have a freaking clue.”