Chapter 133: Restless Wandering

Cyran POV

The Crimsontails certainly knew how to throw a welcome. They'd prepared a feast outside by the lake, and the smell of roasting meat mingled with the scent of the lake water. Jiro and Garnet smiled, touched by their people's warm response. Proof that the Crimsontails were the best pack in the world. Although Nana Brigid Sinsworth did question Talon and Kelara as if they were subjects in her intelligence gathering. 

Sitting with the couple and their son at one of the tables set up by the lake, she gestured with her goblet. "Let me get this straight. Your parents didn't believe in fated mates, Talon? Where did they think little shifters come from?"

Talon's mouth twisted in a half-smile. "Arranged marriages."

Nana Brigid shook her head, baffled. "Hmph. We have our share of those, but once a fated mate comes along, there's a lot of fur flying and bruised egos and heartache."

Smiling, Talon said, "There was that with my former marriage."

Cyran winced. He couldn't imagine having to reject a mate, and end a marriage. Thank the Goddess Naomi came into his life. "And your former wife, how did she take being married to a Lycan?"

Talon sighed. "I try not to blame her … especially after she wound up in a second marriage to a man who beat her. A flashy merchant and former soldier who never seemed to leave the battlefield behind, especially with my ex-wife and son."

His own past experience being tormented by Hades made Cyran growl at the thought of anyone hurting a woman and child. He never directly hurt any children while consumed by darkness–his one saving grace. He scared them, yes, and took their loved ones from them when they joined Hades' cult. But beating a child and belittling them … his stomach churned.

To abuse an Alpha's pup. Any pup. It was unthinkable. This man, this Edmund Wilhelm, was the lowest of the low. He'd heard that humans considered crimes against children to be the worst. He could get behind that. Maybe humans weren't so different from shifters.

Talon continued. "I should never have let the boy go with her … at the time, I was hurt and confused and angry … influenced by dark forces, too. I thought my failed marriage was my fault. After all, I'd never wanted it. She convinced me that William would be better off with her … and then she kept him from me. Telling me that he was well, but didn't want to see me. Her new husband lied to him, saying I didn't want him because he was bad."

"Please tell me that miserable excuse for a human is dead," he snarled.

With a bitter smile, Talon sipped his wine. "No. Genevieve is still too browbeaten to try and leave him, even though we gave her properties so she would have freedom."

Nana Brigid gave him a steely glare. "And you can't send men to kill him?"

Cyran thought he'd explode laughing. "Nana Brigid!"

Garnet threw up her hands. "What are we going to do with you?"

Nana Brigid huffed. "It's not as if he doesn't deserve it!"

"Absolutely, but if he gets killed, Talon will automatically get blamed," Kelara commented, glancing at William, who was playing with his Cresta cousins, cheerfully oblivious to their conversation. "Even if there's no possible link to Talon–"

Jiro really tried to look stern. "Plotting murder?"

"He hurt a Sinsworth pup and didn't say sorry," Nana Brigid huffed. "Without even the excuse of being under a dark spell." She glanced at Cyran, wisdom in her ancient eyes. "You made up for what you did under the influence of Hades …"

Cyran couldn't speak, his throat closing up. Tulaska appeared at his side, giving Brigid her death stare. "He doesn't need to be reminded about that."

Nana Brigid huffed, but thought twice about talking back to a wise woman, especially Tulaska. "At any rate, someone should hold that human, Wilhelm, accountable for hurting our family."

The tension went out of Cyran like a balloon deflating. "He'll have no end of trouble if he tries to attack this family again. Maybe we should arrange to get Talon's ex-wife away from him. Far away, to shifter territory. His castle is apparently a fortress, but it's a HUMAN one."

Talon mulled that over. "That's not the worst idea. He'd never find her in shifter territory. I happen to know that the royal court in Aquitaine is fed up with him, but he has powerful friends … and he knows their secrets. They'll never turn on him, but they wouldn't mind if he disappeared. Who knows, Genevieve might find her true mate here. I'll send a message to my soldiers to get her to safety and bring her to Crimsontail lands to rejoin our family."

Naomi nodded. "We could use a little bit of a break to keep our hunting skills sharp. We can meet them halfway."

Meanwhile, Cyran's eyes flicked toward a solitary figure walking along the lake shore. Jude Faolan seemed to need some alone time. No wonder. It had been an action-packed month. Also taking in the lake view, Ravyn followed him. Smiling, Cyran let the couple of the moment have privacy.

* * * * *

Jude POV

The lake soothed his senses and his head. Ravyn's presence at his side made the headache disappear. 

"How common are these headaches after going into dark realms?" he asked.

Ravyn answered, her eyes on the lake serpents' coils that splashed and weaved through the water. "Fairly common. It's all that energy. No matter how many times you cleanse, it takes time to truly let it go–and we watched someone die. That's not so easily shaken off."

"It's not even the first time for either of us. We've seen Hades die before. We've seen death before."

Ravyn looped her arm around him as smoothly as the serpents looping around a fish. "But he sacrificed himself for us. That's different."

Jude knelt and dunked his head in the icy water, then straightened up, flinging drops of water as he shook his head. "Ahhhh."

Ravyn burst out laughing. "Feel better?"

"Oh yes." He grinned. "I remember when this lake was just a puddle, comparatively. No serpents. My, how it's grown."

Ravyn blinked. "How can you remember that? You mean you remember reading about it, yes?"

He howled with laughter. "Well, of course! I'm not centuries old! I read that streams from the distant mountains fed the pond over time and it became Murmuring Lake. Some of those streams and rivers have dried up over the centuries due to environmental changes."

Ravyn grinned, running her fingers through his wet hair. "I guess you get so involved in history you think it's happening right now."

"We both do. Fess up. There are probably times you think of events that happened in witch and wizard history and feel like they happened to you, just because it's part of you."

Considering, Ravyn said, "You know … you're right. And think of all those dwarf operas we love."

He privately smirked, thinking about the surprise for their bonding ball he'd managed to arrange courtesy of the Scapolite Dwarf Ambassador Hudora Windmail, a personal friend. "Yes, the events are pulled from dwarf history and legend. Yet dwarf opera fans swear that the fictionalized drama, the sword fights, the dramatic deaths, the love affairs and cursed objects, are all real."

"That's the power of stories," Ravyn said, gazing out at the misty lake. 

They strolled on, singing snatches from dwarf arias, wandering by the lake. 

But Jude kept seeing that smaller lake in his mind. He must be recalling a picture …

But why would a picture feel so real? How would he know that orange mallow bushes fringed the pond centuries ago? He never read that. He never read about the lake dragons …

Lake dragons?

There were lake serpents now. There had been lake dragons, though. 

Suddenly, he felt a wave of dizziness, and the last thing he heard before he blacked out was Ravyn shrieking as he tumbled into the lake.