AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yet I couldn't imagine going through this new turn of events alone.
Since when had Jaiel become someone I felt like I could rely on? And why was that thought less terrifying than it should be?
Trying not to think about it, I quickly changed clothes, and adjusted Jax's saddlebags.
The two body mages stood just outside the stone building's entrance, whispering softly to each other. Alpha Blackwood looked concerned, and Faera seemed as though she were about to cry.
They must have seen me looking because they quickly got quiet and walked toward us.
"Ahem," Jaiel said from behind me. He stood beside the fleirals, hand held out. "I know you can do it on your own, but just this once, let me help. Please?"
Shaking my head wryly, I grasped it and climbed up.
He swung up into his saddle, then moved toward me.
The heat of his knee warmed mine as we stood there atop our mounts, and the charisma inside me gave a little jolt.
"We'll shift," the alpha said, turning from Faera. "And lead you on your fleirals. Don't try to bolt." He directed his glare at Jaiel. "I promise we're faster."
Jaiel scoffed, and I bit my cheek to keep from smiling.
Seeing him flustered was quickly becoming one of my favorite things.
Chapter 42
Tye
Iran, naked and fully human, for what felt like hours. My legs shook and my lungs burned, but I didn't dare stop.
As the sky brightened with the sunrise, the primitive thing inside me finally curled up and went to sleep, and I could think for myself again.
Exhausted, I slumped onto a wide gray rock at the edge of a babbling stream. Cupping my hands together, I pulled some icy cold water to my mouth, letting it run down my face and chest.
The water chilled my burning body, but it did nothing to cool my emotions.
Fuck. Fuck!
I'd shifted!
And all that nonsense about claiming the witch as mine … I had barely kept that thing — that wolf inside me — from assaulting her!
Forsaken mages. None of this made sense. There was no way I could be a body mage!
I looked down at my arms — arms that had been covered in thick white fur just hours before.
No. The Seekers had tested me. Dozens of times.
And there was no potion in the world that could give me the power to shift — to use body mage powers.
Growling, I stood and turned back toward the compound, ignoring the ache in my legs. Anything to keep the heavy thoughts at bay.
King Crause had always claimed I was one of the many orphans left in the wake of that Forsaken who'd torn through the Capitol twenty years ago. Someone had left me in a basket at the doorstep of an orphanage, like nothing more than the day's produce.
Was that what really happened, though?
Or had my parents tested me, found that I was a mage, and rid themselves of me?
But if so, why hadn't my high affinity shown earlier? And shouldn't the Seekers have easily picked me out? It wasn't as if I knew how to fucking shield myself!
