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Natalie
Lucian was waiting outside my house when Rehema and I got there. He was sitting on the steps, his elbows on his thighs, his hands dangling between his legs.
Rehema released my hand. “Do you want me to stay? Are you sure you’re okay?”
I nodded as I looked between her and Lucian. I knew he wouldn't talk to me with Rehema present.
“I’m fine,” I told her. “I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
“I’ll come by in the evening," she replied, looking down at the bloodstains on her shirt. "Tonight was a little too much for me. I've never experienced anything like that. I'm a demigoddess, and still, I cowered in fear when I could have helped."
“You helped. You healed those who needed it. You healed me.”
She pulled me in for a hug, and I sighed as we held each other for a time. “You scared me.”
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I was just trying to help.”
“I know.” She stepped back and quickly scrolled through the options on her bracelet for teleportation. “But that's who you are, I suppose. Later.”
“Later," I replied, and she teleported, leaving me to face the full force of Lucian's anger.
Taking a deep breath, I turned to him, and he sat up, his shoulders squaring as the moon’s light overhead illuminated his face.
Neither of us spoke for several minutes as we stared at each other. Finally, he broke the silence. “You were careless.”
“Lucian, I . . .”
He held his hand up to silence me as he stood up. "I know you were trying to help, and you did. You did well, in fact. But you're new to this realm, Natalie. There is so much you still don't know. You were so lucky that florkin was young. Otherwise you would’ve completely crumbled under the weight of its mind.”
He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Mind-linking with animals isn’t the same as doing it with wolves and other supernatural creatures. It's not straightforward telepathy. It's a form of it. That’s why you don’t casually hear thoughts and instead have to create a connection with someone.” He sighed. “Rumir, Brian, and I could have killed it easily if we’d used our full powers, but florkins are few, so they are left alive to help keep the Vernims’s population low.”
He descended the steps and stopped before me. “Those are the creatures that appeared first. They can be a nuisance if left to overbreed.” He reached out and held my chin. “We were trying not to kill it. Something was wrong with it. But that also meant that we didn’t know what you were getting into when you jumped into its mind like that.”
My shoulders dropped. Lucian was speaking softly, calmly, yet I felt even worse than I did before.
“I hurt you, too, Natalie, because you got in my way. But I could have killed you.” His hand fell to his side. “I could have killed you.”
He turned away, his fingers pressing into his temples as he walked away from me. For a moment, I'd forgotten that I wasn't invincible here. No one was. Our existence in this realm was long, but death was a definite possibility.
I had been blinded by my ego. I'd told myself the situation was the same as it had been on the Earth, and I had a role to play. But this wasn’t Earth.
“I don’t agree with the way Rumir spoke to you, but he wasn't wrong about you being reckless."
“I understand," I replied when he turned to face me. "I-I felt like me, the person I was back on Earth during the war. The truth is, the adrenaline I'd been feeling, the rush to act, to fight, I liked it. That had become the norm for me during the war, and it changed me."
I walked over to the steps and sat down. "Ever since I arrived here, I've had no purpose, none. And tonight I saw an opportunity to do something meaningful, to use my powers to do something good.”
I had chosen not to join a pack, so I couldn’t really complain about not being useful. But I had my own reasons for wanting to not join a pack. There was nothing wrong with wanting independence, something I never truly had on Earth.
“I miss Earth,” I finally admitted. “I miss my home and my family. I miss everything, even the fighting. Sometimes I love being here, especially now that I've met you and Rumir, regardless of the issues we're having. But a part of me just wants to go home."
Lucian sat down beside me, and I leaned over to rest my head on his shoulder. "I know. It's always hard at first for a new soul in this realm. It can be lonely. But I promise you, it gets better."
“I wanted to help the two of you tonight because I want to be a mate who can fight by your sides.”
He placed his hand over my shoulder and pulled me closer. “You did. You were brave. Foolish, but brave,” he added with a soft chuckle, and I smiled. "You have nothing to prove, Natalie, not to me, and—not to Rumir. Focus on finding your footing.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that last part about Rumir wasn’t true. He sees a delicate wolf who can’t do shit for herself.”
