Kalinda wasn’t holding on. Trapped on the chair with him unable to get to her, she lashed out again, slamming into an invisible all.
“I want to go home. You can’t choose this for me.”
“You’re a child, but soon you’ll learn. Sleep.”
Romano roared, feeling helpless he couldn’t do anything as he watched Kalinda slump over again when Lennox waived his hand in her direction.
“You piece of shit. You couldn’t wake her last time, and then you do it again? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Romano,” Dominic warned.
Romano was over it. Over them. Over their heavy handedness. Over. All. Of. It. “She doesn’t deserve to be treated like this, and all you’re doing in ensuring she won’t ever choose you. You’re making sure she chooses death because she’d rather do that than take what you’re force feeding down her throat.”
Lennox’s gaze was hard. “Do you think any of us had a choice? Do you think being high-level mages means we can live life any way we see fit? We have responsibilities too, or we could be dangerous. She’s created situations, though small, because she cannot control her magic. You can’t deny that. And there are those who would want to use her against us as well.”
“The Viscount Pride,” Romano guessed. “I wonder how they knew about her in the first place.” Yeah, his tone was sarcastic, but he didn’t give a shit.
“What’s done is done. She turned an entire pride into an orgy, and by the time we came for her, she had two more locked into her magic. Without control, she could cause entire wars or manipulate people without even trying,” Amalia explained.
“Her places as an Ales is at our side, it is what it is,” Yon finished.
“There is nothing to fear by allowing her to come home to her pack and heal until after her First Shift. You do understand she was bitten by a Born Wolf and is, by your definition, a Level-9 mage?”
Thank God Dominic had thought of that, and his words were enough to give the Council pause. Shifters had decided to give sovereignty to the National Council in order to live publicly and have protections against humans who wanted to try to hunt them. It was stupid, but it happened. Instead of all-out war, non-mages—paranormals like vampires and shifters—agreed to follow mage rule if their rites were respected by the Council. For shifters, those were things like mage-bites, shifting phases, and pack-specific needs their animals called for.
A Born Wolf could change mages and non-mages, but typically, non-mage humans didn’t survive the transitions, as was nearly the case for Dominic. But it also meant the change, if completed, could give the surviving wolf extra power in specific regards. Dominic was nearly indestructible, something that helped him within the warrior class.
What Kalinda would be was anyone’s guess.
Lennox gritted his teeth. “Exactly why she needs to stay here so we can monitor her.”
“Can you perform the position of Alpha and call her wolf to heel when it’s trying to rip its way out of her body because its terrified?”
“She will not be a wolf at all when she is given the no-shift formula. None of that matters.”
“And you can’t give it to her without her choice. She isn’t lucid right now, and she has to give her consent to take the potion. You know these laws.”
Romano could see nothing Dominic said was getting through to them. They wanted Kalinda any way they could have her, and it didn’t matter what rules they broke.
“Is this worth breaking ties with the shifter community?” Romano stood tall, his gaze directly on Lennox.
“I could ask the same to you, wolf. Is taking her, against what we’re telling you, worth being excommunicated from Encantado?”
Fuck. Yes. She was his despite how it happened and his fears. He couldn’t turn over his mate. But … he had to think of his people too. The pups who lived safely within measure within the portal cities.
“Look, all we’re asking for is twenty-eight days to work with her and teach her to be a wolf. To be with her at her shifting and see her through. No one is saying anything about her not joining the Council. We understand your warning that for her to say no is a death sentence. But she should choose.”
“Some of us are not given a choice, Dominic. He took the choice away from her when he bit her without her consent,” Amalia countered, looking pointedly at Romano.
Well, hell. She had them there. His wolf howled, wanting his mate but also confused about the emotions coursing through him. A shifter mate wasn’t always about choice when the wolves were involved. Hell, he’d seen his own parents destroyed by what their wolves had chosen for them when they hadn’t followed emotionally. Was he repeating the same mistake they had?
Was something wrong with his blood?
He didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to let them keep her. They could figure out the rest later. But what could he do? They stood against three of some of the most powerful mages in the world. Romano wracked his brain, trying to come up with anything. He was still separated from Kalinda, and she was groggy, going in and out of consciousness. At least she didn’t seem as trapped in the Chaos Realm as before, but he needed to get his hands on her and get them out.
“Her place with the Council … what is it?” Romano was sick to death of being in the dark. “What does it mean for her to be an Ales?”
Amalia turned toward him. “It means she’s the balance of the Trinity and, as such, must be with the Council. It means her bloodline is old enough to command great respect and responsibility to the magekind. She must be under strict guidance and the instruction of the Council and National Council to be safe. The rest is for her to understand.”
