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“No, no, I think amplification would be doable.” Already Ayla was chewing on her lips as she thought. I just wanted to kiss it instead. Better my teeth than hers. “It would certainly help all of our magic users.”
“Plus a whole bunch of cryptids whose abilities are more tied to magic.”
The two slipped into a conversation that pretty much lasted us all the way to Fort Canid territory. We were within maybe a fifteen-minute walk to the place when we were greeted by a line of shifters who'd gotten our mounts ready for us. The horses would've been more useful a couple of hours earlier, but I was glad to rest my feet, even for a short while.
Naturally, there were a lot of questions, and by the time we trotted in through the main gates, we were practically surrounded. While most of the enlisted stayed at a respectful distance, pretty much every officer was moving in closer, asking us questions. Oren was doing his best to keep them away, but he was only one man, and I was sure that after over a week of me being missing, there was only so far we could push the curious back.
I did my best to smile and give generic, hopeful responses without revealing too much information they didn’t need to know. It helped that they didn’t know the details of our covert mission, meaning they didn’t know that Tristian and Irina had both come with us, which in turn meant they had no idea they’d been killed.
It would only be a matter of time before people figured it out, but at least we had till then.
“Come on now, give space,” Oren snapped. “All of you know they’ll be debriefed when it’s appropriate.”
That helped a bit, but then there was actually navigating to the debriefing room. I felt Oren herding me over there, and while I knew it was necessary, I didn’t want to leave Ayla behind.
Looking around, I saw she was talking with the other, older healer at the base. No doubt he was glad that she'd be there to help with potion making and tending to the wounded. The joke was on him, though, because she was definitely going to be fartoo busy making that trifecta of spells she and Darla had spent so much time talking about.
I looked in her direction, wanting to go to her, and for a moment it felt like she was actually going to ignore me, but she didn’t. Instead, she looked in my direction, our gazes locking in that way which made the hair on my arms stand up. She acknowledged me with a nod, then looked away, slipping through the crowd with the healer.
It was better than nothing, but I'd a feeling we were in for another row. The sooner she accepted that no low life curse was going to stop me from loving her, the sooner we could move on with our lives together.
Oren helped clear the crowd with the usual threats, and a few minutes later I was seated in the briefing room. In front of me was a steaming pitcher of coffee, a glass of whiskey, a full meal, and warm, damp cloths. I was incredibly grateful for the measures but couldn’t wondering if Ayla was eating. If she was, was it filling, rich food? Was she taking a nice, hot shower, washing away the filth of our journey?
Then my mind launched into what she'd look like under all that running water, slippery and flushed from the heat. Not exactly conducive to a conversation where I was supposed to talk about our casualties and the loss of Ayla’s entire coven.
At least talking about the men I’d lost was quite sobering, and I was able to get through the rest of the debriefing. I needed to write letters to both Irina and Tristian’s contacts in their personnel files, arrange funerals, and so much more, but unfortunately it would have to wait. The Shrouded Shriek was no doubt on his way, and there was so much to do to make sure there wouldn’t be any more losses like theirs. That didn’t even go into the citizens we'd need to round up and move into the fort, as we most certainly didn’t have time to fortify a town while also setting up the relic.
Those were issues for the next day, however, after I got to check in with my mate and get real sleep in a real bed. I also needed to digest and process things. A lot had happened in very little time, and I’d clearly shoved my feelings out of the way in order to survive. As much as that was convenient in trying times, eventually what went up had to come down.
“Do you need anything else from me today?” I asked as things were winding down.
“No,” Oren answered quickly. “Thank you for all this information. I’ll look over everything and think about a plan for the morning.”
“Perfect. Good work running the place while I was gone,” I said, tilting my head. “We’ll reconvene here tomorrow.”
Soon I was out of my chair and already heading to Ayla’s room. My body was still quite weary, my shifter healing ability having done its best over several days of hard travel, but I didn’t care how exhausted I was, I was going to see my mate and check in with her.
That last look we shared was haunting me in a way. There had been the usual attraction, the appreciation we had for each other, but there had also been something else to it. Something that felt like a goodbye.
It didn’t take me long to reach her door, and for a moment I stalled. I’d become so used to her scent coupling with mine perfectly, screamingmate, protect, adore, that being greeted by the sharp sterility of her quarter’s entrance was jarring. It was only after a tense moment that I remembered Ayla heavily relied on multiple different scent preventing and covering products to keep her shifter identity undercover.
She’d probably go back to that, but once word got out that she was my mate, which was bound to happen eventually, people would figure out the truth. While shifters could marry and havekids with whoever they pleased,fated mateswere a species-specific thing.
Just what we needed: more complications.
While I puzzled over what would be the best way to deal with that, Ayla finally opened the door. I could smell food on her breath, so that was good, but I mostly just picked nuts and dried fruits. Maybe I could convince her to come to my quarters and have a real meal?
“Yes?” she said, and I could have groaned right then and there. Cold Ayla was back, the one whose voice was as frigid as many of my relatives’ hearts.
“Hey, I just wanted to—”
“I’m tired, can we do this tomorrow?”
Yup, she was in full ice mode, without a doubt. I was so incredibly frustrated that she was trying to backtrack after all we’d been through. I knew that a lot of bad things had happened on the journey, but I didn’t believe that they were all Ayla’s fault or that of the curse.
“Uh, sure, I just—”
“Tomorrow,” she said more firmly. “Then we can discuss the protective relic and the best methods to set it up. We’ll need to assemble a team of magic users, naturally. Buttomorrow.”
