A year’s worth of yearning and craving had him ready to explode. His feelings were a tidal wave battering against the dam of denial that he had built inside him. He knew what was likely to happen if he did not consummate his union with her soon. She was his true mate. Being separated from her like this was almost certain to drive him mad. It was a wonder that he had lasted this long.
“Fight,” he growled as a red mist of fury obscured his sight. “We take her back. Now.” His animal side was struggling for control, and it was hard to think.
“Stop it! Do you want to start a war, storm there your way in there and seize your mate by force, only to lose her forever?” Asmund snapped.
That brought Lukan up short and cut through the raging cloud of emotions that threatened to overpower him.
“Of course not,” he said angrily. “What do you mean?”
“Human females are different from Vulfan females. A show of force does not necessarily help to woo them. In fact, it might frighten her off forever, and she might no longer love you,” Asmund said.
Lukan struggled for self-control. “You…you do thinks she loves me, though?” he said. Asmund would know; he had lived with his human for several years now – they already had five children, and they were very much in love.
His brother had been wise to bring him.
“From what you have described to me, and from what I watched on vid replays of the encounter with her at the party tonight, yes, I do,” Asmund said. “That is why she left.”
“Explain,” Lukan said furiously. “If she loved me, why would she leave?”
“Because you made her angry, and she needed time to think and sort through her feelings.”
“If she was angry, why would she not just bite me until I bled?” Lukan protested. “Or knock me over, or head-butt me and break my nose?” After all, he’d have healed within minutes.
Asmund sighed. “That is not the human way. Believe me, I have learned this. Human females do things differently. You should know this, Lukan – your brother said that you have been studying them for the past year, during your time on Earth.”
“You’re right. Myvar-hoolis making it very hard for me to think right now.” Thevar-hoolwas the mating lust that descended on a Vulfan and his true mate at first encounter. Denying thevar-hoolwas to invite madness; that was why Lukan had to take the Leerian pills.
“We know that,” Asmund said. “But you hurt your mate and you must make it right before you can be with her.”
That drew a howl of rage from him, and he lunged at Asmund. Fangor leaped in front of him, and the two brothers stood there growling and snapping at each other until Lukan got control of himself.
“Hurt her? How dare you accuse me of such a thing?”
“Think about your feelings over the last year,” Asmund said. “Think of how much pain it caused you. But you knew why you were denying yourself, or at least you thought you did. It was because you thought that she had several children that she needed to care for, and also that she was an unfaithful mate. Now think about how she felt. If thevar-hoolwas affecting her as well, all she saw for the last year was that the man who was meant to be her mate was rejecting her for no reason at all.”
“Oh no,” Lukan groaned, stumbling back and clenching his fists in anguish.
Asmund continued, relentlessly. “She thought you did not love her or want her. Not only that, but you believed terrible things about her, which she probably found quite insulting and hurtful when she realized you had been thinking about her like that for the past year.”
“Oh, curse the heavens, no,” Lukan ground out, burying his face in his hands. “How can I fix this? I will do anything. What can I do?”
“The answer to that is inside you,” Asmund said. “And you should be the one to come up with that answer, because it must come from your heart.” He and Fangor turned and left the room.
Lukan paced the floor, furiously thinking. All right, he’d been studying human females for the past year.
He had read books. He had watched human “tele-vision” shows. He had scanned their “inter-net”.
He knew the kinds of things a man needed to do when he had accidentally hurt his woman. He needed to tell her that he was sorry, acknowledge what he had done wrong, and promise that he would not do it again. He also needed to make some kind of grand gesture to show her how much he cared about her, and to woo her.
All right. Grand gesture. He had some ideas on that. He pressed the button on his wrist-com. “Roj,” he said. Roj was his Castle Master, in charge of all events held within his castle. “I need you to come here. I must plan a banquet to woo my true mate, and I will need your assistance.”
The door opened quickly. But the man who walked in was not Roj, it was the Commander of the Guard, Kaspar. Kaspar was as tall as Lukan, with thick hair shot through with silver, and he wore their uniform of red and black, with their pack insignia on it.
“Kaspar, I do not need you after all – there will be no war today,” Lukan said.
“Sir, I came to inform you that our scanners have detected the cyborg fleet, on trajectory for Ilyria. There are two Class One Destroyersen route. We have notified the Federation, and are awaiting their response.”
That brought Lukan up short. This was serious news.
