"Daniel will look after you,"
Anaedra said even as she started to fade out of view.
"Unless,
of course, you've changed your mind about becoming a bear shifter.
The
bear clans don't just let anyone join them. The trials aren't easy."
"Whatever it takes," Alex said
with a nod.
"You may regret that," Anaedra
said, a sarcastic grin decorating her face. "But if you do survive, I will
be expecting a very nice thank you."
Survive? Panic swirled through Kyle, but he
immediately felt Alex's need for him to stay calm. He swallowed the angry
questions that sat on the tip of his tongue.
"Thanks, Anaedra," Alex said
evenly, reaching out an unsteady hand to draw the woman into their hug. Despite
being nearly see-through, Alex was able to grip her hand as if she was
completely solid. "Tyler's right. You need to drop by more often."
"So I can give you gifts?" she
asked mockingly.
"No, sweetheart," Alex said in
that same kind tone he'd used on the
kitsune
the day
they'd met, "because your family cares for you and wants you around."
The momentary vulnerability that flashed
across her face left Kyle's hands shaking for a whole different reason. Anaedra
had been a thorn in their sides for centuries, but Kyle had never once
considered how lonely the goddess might be. They had no idea where she went or
what she did in the times when she wasn't with them, but it seemed that Alex
and Tyler had seen something the rest of them had missed.
"He's right, Anaedra," Kyle said,
nearly bending in half to press a kiss to the woman's cheek. "You need to
come home more often."
The woman nodded, blinked back emotional
tears, and finally stepped away.
It was clear that she was uncomfortable, so
it wasn't very surprising to see the smirk return to her face. "Daniel
will guide you through the trials. Find your own way home."
This time she blinked out of existence
rather than by her usual slow fade. Kyle was beginning to think the whole
fading thing was for show rather than necessity, but since he still had no idea
where they were, he set his curiosity aside for now.
"Any clue who Daniel is?" Alex
asked as they stood back-to-back and surveyed the area around them.
Kyle caught a scent that had his claws
forming. "I'm hoping it's that guy," he said uneasily as a huge—way
larger than normal and almost as large as Kyle—grizzly bear stepped into the
small clearing. Before he could start to worry that the bear wasn't a shifter,
the grizzly stood up on its back legs and slowly changed into human form.
Hopefully that was Daniel.
Chapter Thirteen
Kyle held his exhausted mate close.
He barely remembered the days of pain he and
his siblings had gone through when they'd been made paranormal by Anaedra, but
in his memory it certainly seemed less difficult than what Alex had just
endured. Three days. They'd been here three long, pain-filled, exhausting days
and nights, and his mate had suffered through everything they'd thrown at him.
"Is it done?" Kyle asked the men
who'd just delivered his mate back to him. None of them answered or even looked
his way. He was shaking violently with the rage that coursed through him. Every
single minute waiting had made him angrier, made him regret ever wanting his
mate to do this. He'd been forbidden to interfere, but after three days of
physical and mental trials that were supposedly to test Alex's worthiness to
become a bear shifter, Kyle was ready to call the whole thing off.
Alex was the most worthy person he knew, but
Kyle didn't want the man to die while trying to become a shifter. Fuck, it
didn't matter if his mate was human. And he didn't give a flying fuck if that
meant they only had limited years together. He didn't want his mate to go
through anymore. He loved the man and would rather spend quality years together
with his human in his arms than risk losing him for something as incalculable
as "more" years together.
Even if Alex had been a bear shifter—hell,
even if he'd been an Alateeka or a Lupinville werewolf—he wouldn't have
survived a .38 to the heart at point-blank range. Being a shifter didn't
guarantee a longer life for either or them.
"Hey," Alex said tiredly, lifting
a hand up to touch the tear that slid down Kyle's cheek unchecked.
"No more, babe. I love you and respect
you and want you to make your own choices, but I can't lose you. Not over this.
Please, no more."
"I'm okay," Alex said in a voice
so hoarse and weak that made it clear that he really wasn't. "I'm not
injured, just really tired."
Kyle wanted to ask what all the fucking
scrapes and bruises were from if they weren't from injuries, but he held his
temper in check and pulled his mate closer. The man groaned in agony.
"Damn it, Anaedra," Kyle growled
into the night air. "You could have warned me!"
"Why?" the goddess asked, without
actually showing herself. "So you could make the decision for him?"
"Anaedra, please stop this," Kyle
said, his voice failing as his mate fell asleep in his arms. "He's worthy.
You know he is. He always has been."
"And what about you?
Are you worthy of Alex? Would you do for him what he's doing for
you?"
"I would do anything for him. You know
that."
"Prove it."
"Prove it how?" Kyle asked
savagely. Whatever it took, he'd do it. "Please just stop this, Anaedra.
I'll do anything you want, anything to help him, to protect him."
"Even if that means he'll never be a
shifter?"
"Damn it, Anaedra. This is what he
wants. He knew right from the beginning that I didn't want him to go through
any 'trials' but he agreed to do it because he wants to be a bear shifter. He's
a cop, and a protector, and a compassionate man who wants to help people. He
was already a hero long before either of us met him. He shouldn't have to go
through any of this."
Fuck, he couldn't see Anaedra, so he wasn't
even sure the woman was still listening.
He eased his lover onto the only peace of
furniture—a lumpy double bed—in the small cabin Daniel had given them to use,
and then started to check over the multitude of new scrapes and bruises. His
lover was a mess. "Trials" was such a benign-sounding word for what
seemed more like torture than tests designed to measure physical and mental
strength. At midnight every night since they'd been here, a couple of grizzly
bear shifters had arrived and escorted Alex to parts unknown, only to dump him
back at the small cabin late the next evening.
Every night
Alex was returned to him more battered, more bruised, more exhausted than the
night before.
Alex wasn't weak physically, mentally,
or
emotionally, yet there was only so
much the human body could take.
But Kyle couldn't interfere. This had been
Alex's choice right from the start. Stepping in and stopping things now would
not please his lover, no matter how well intentioned Kyle's actions were.
Ignoring the tears sliding down his face, he
tried to clean up his mate as best he could with the resources he had. The last
thing Alex needed was to also be fighting an infection.
"So you're not going to beg me?"
Anaedra asked as she suddenly appeared at Alex's feet. "Your mate doesn't
look like he'd make it through another trial. You may as well call this all off
before you lose him completely."
"No," Kyle said even as his heart
clenched painfully. "This is what he wants. He said he's not
injured." And despite the bruises and scratches that, thankfully, seemed
to be true. "And he's the strongest man I know. I won't stand in the way
of what he wants."
The smile on Anaedra's face was so fucking
annoying it was a miracle he didn't let fly with words one should never yell at
a goddess.
"Congratulations, Kyle. You passed the
trial."
"I passed?" he asked
incredulously. "
I
passed? Are
you fucking kidding me? You put Alex through hell but it was me you were
evaluating? Are you
fucking
kidding
me?"
The clumsy touch of his lover's fingers
against his thigh brought his attention back to Alex, so he didn't even see
when Anaedra left the room. He was just glad the woman was gone.
"
Ky
,"
Alex said tiredly, "please…don't…yell."
"Sorry, babe," Kyle said, easing
himself onto the bed beside his exhausted mate. "Get some sleep. We're
going home tomorrow."
"I failed?" Alex asked, coming
fully awake despite his exhaustion.
"No, babe.
You passed. We can go home when you've had some sleep."
"Thank god for that," Alex said
with a soft chuckle. "If I've learned anything in the past three days,
it's that I would have sucked at being a Navy SEAL. Can you believe they go
through training like this nearly every day of their lives?"
His words were slurring and it was clear
that the brief adrenaline rush was wearing off, so Kyle got as close as he
could without putting pressure against Alex's bruises and scrapes, and then
tried not to worry that he'd yelled at Anaedra
before
she'd told him how to make Kyle a bear shifter.
~*~
Alex woke in their bed at home. At first
disorientated—surely he hadn't slept through the whole trip back—he glanced
around the room until his gaze landed on a goddess who seemed rather upset.
"Anaedra?"
Alex asked, carefully moving away from Kyle and resisting the urge
to groan when every muscle screamed in protest. "Are you okay,
sweetheart?"
Anaedra raised one eyebrow in haughty
distain.
"I'm not your sweetheart," she
said in a very annoyed tone, "and your mate is lucky I brought you both
home instead of frying his ass."
It took a few moments for him to realize why
the woman was upset.
"He was yelling at you?" Alex had
vague memories of Kyle's raised voice, but he'd been too out of it at the time
to really understand the words he'd been hearing.
Anaedra glared at Kyle instead of answering.
Thankfully Alex's mate was still asleep. Judging by the dark circles under his
eyes, he'd likely been as exhausted as Alex had been.
"When he wakes up I'm sure he'll
apologize." Anaedra didn't look convinced but she did nod in
acknowledgment.
She glanced away when Alex tried to interpret
the expression on her face.
"It wasn't about my shoes,"
Anaedra said in a voice almost too quiet for Alex to hear.
"Yeah, I kind of figured that was the
case," Alex said, hoping the woman would open up a little. It seemed
pretty obvious that she needed to talk.
"I just needed him to understand."
"Understand what, Anaedra?"
"What it feels like…to watch someone
you love go into danger again and again."
"Because it's what you do?" Alex
asked quietly.
Anaedra jolted guiltily. "I've watched
them all get injured over the centuries. In shifted form they're unstoppable
and immortal, but there was a trade off, the price I had to pay. They're
stronger than humans in human form, but in human form they
can
die." She glanced up at him then and gave him a watery smile.
"I wanted someone to protect my paranormals. I never expected to develop a
mother's love for the humans I chose as my champions."
Alex reached for Anaedra's hand, squeezing
it gently when she clung to him but still refused to look at him.
"What really happened fifteen years ago
with Kyle?"
"He's the most reckless of them."
She turned her gaze to the man still sleeping on the bed. "He stepped into
the middle of a dispute that wasn't even paranormal in nature. A human shot him
three times in the chest as a thank you." She blinked rapidly as if she
was trying to hold back tears. "The
Alateekas
are their own field medics and well versed in first aid techniques, so they
were able to keep him alive long enough for his enhanced healing to kick
in." Anaedra glanced at Alex and grimaced as if she couldn't really
believe she was telling Alex this. "When he finally woke…" She closed
her eyes as if reliving that moment, then shuddered delicately and shrugged her
slender shoulders. "Let's just say he was less than happy to see me."
"You know he sucks when it comes to
talking about his feelings."
"I know," she said softly,
"and he's not the only one."
Alex didn't know if she was referring to
herself or others in the Alateeka family. "You need to spend more time
with them," Alex suggested. He wasn't certain but he got the impression
that she'd not spoken to Kyle in fifteen years in an attempt to distance
herself from caring for the man. Clearly it hadn't worked.
For a moment Alex was sure he'd made some
sort of progress, but then, almost as if she was donning a costume, Anaedra's
demeanor changed. She smirked at Alex, looked him up and down as if she'd never
seen him before, and then shook Kyle awake.
"You're mates, you ungrateful ass. You
just have to bite him," she said with a roll of her eyes "while he's
filled with your seed." She disappeared even before Kyle was fully
conscious.
"What the hell?" Kyle asked
tiredly before snapping to fully awake when he realized that Alex wasn't in the
bed. Alex moved quickly when he sensed his mate's fear for him.
"I'm here," he said as he climbed
back under the covers. He couldn't stifle the pain-filled groan when he used
muscles that didn't want using.
"You okay?" Kyle asked as he very
carefully eased Alex back into his embrace.
"Better than expected."
Kyle held him for a few more minutes before
he seemed to register their surroundings. "When did we get home?"
"I think Anaedra transported us."
"And what was her parting shot?"
Kyle asked. "I wasn't awake enough to really understand her words."
"She said all you have to do is bite me
during sex."
"To make you a bear
shifter?"
"I believe so."
"You have got to be shitting me,"
Kyle said, his anger growing until Alex groaned at the pain caused by Kyle's
shoulder muscles tightening underneath his head. "Fuck, sorry, babe."
"I'm okay," Alex said, even as he
ground his teeth from the pain, "but I do find myself wondering if making
me a bear shifter right now will heal my bruises. I'll recover from them
quickly enough as a human, but we've already been gone for three days and I
would like to get back to work and check in with Tyler to see if they know
anything more about the kid."
Alex blushed when he felt his mate's
admiration. He'd never really examined his reasons for wanting to help
people,
he just knew that it made him happy, so Kyle's
genuine respect for him was a little overwhelming.
Thanks to their mate bond Kyle already knew
why he was blushing, but it was the pure love aimed his way that made him truly
happy.
"I love you, Kyle," Alex said out
loud
and
in his mind. The link they
shared was amazing but there were just some things that needed to be spoken.
"I love you too, babe," Kyle said,
touching his fingers to Alex's lips. "I can be gentle."
Alex grinned simply because he knew Kyle would
try. He didn't like their chances of success though. Every time they made love
the sensations and emotions between them just grew hotter. Despite his aches
and pains, he knew this time would be no different.