Moon Phase 13

He stared at her. 'Wait you're marrying him for that?' he opened his mouth to question then stopped. 'Hey she's the Lycan Alpha's daughter. The Alya Lycan. She can do whatever the hell she wishes. It's not my job to *care*' he argued.

He partially wished his wolf could hear this but Lōtaina Rātri was too weakened from the repeated wolfsbane injections to be anything more than dormant. At least not without him channeling energy into the wolf itself.

"Besides, as happy as this should be I don't want you to be open about who your mate is just yet," she remarked.

"Yeah I'm going to stop you right there." He interrupted. "I can't be open about my... Being mated to you. It's not because of status - well actually it is. But not the status you think,"

"I was thinking the same thing. We should keep this a secret. It'll be sorrowful for you to announce you're my mate only to publicly end things to be with the person from my childhood who matters most," she agreed.

He shrugged "It's not as though I haven't dealt with bad public backlash before. But if your decision makes things easier for me, great!" He said in mock enthusiasm.

"How does... Your wolf feel about this?" She asked nervously.

"I consulted my wolf and my brother's wolf and they both said it was a bad idea. That I should settle for the mate I was already given." She leaned against a tree. "Consulting my father or the elders was out of the question,"

"I can understand that.... As for how my wolf feels? I dunno I'll ask him later -" Lucifugus tried to breeze past.

"But I want to ask him myself," she insisted.

He gulped silently and extended his hand. Silently he channeled as much strength to quickly wake up and Lōtaina Rātri seemed to immediately get a rundown of the situation right as they joined hands.

His mind felt oddly calm which made him realize he wasn't actually calm. It was probably due to the mate bond which hadn't actually been completed yet but was probably strong because they were both Alphas.

"So, you are Lucifugus's mate, Alya?"

"Lucifugus and I, and in turn you and Māyā rātri are mates. We don't need to be formal with each other," Alya Orchid Loomington responded.

"Orchid then," Lōtaina Rātri supplied after scanning Lucifugus mind for her name.

"I wanted your opinion on me rejecting my current mate for the person from my childhood... The boy I befriended and came close to," Alya Orchid stated.

"Oh so you too are making your own choice. I respect that. Although Lucifugus has been abandoned before," Lōtaina Rātri commented tiredly.

Māyā rātri seemed to take over and asked in confusion for him to elaborate.

He furrowed his eyebrows and tried not to verbalize how much pain and effort this short conversation was taking.

"Hm? He didn't tell you? Lucifugus has already been rejected once. But I suppose if you have been through something, enduring it again lessens the pain.." his wolf seemed to mentally narrow his eyes.

"D- Don't tell her that!" Lucifugus hissed. He had no idea if she could also hear him or if it was limited to his wolf alone.

"It's not a secret, that girl made her decision before being informed of her mate. That is not our problem or fault," Lōtaina Rātri responded. Lucifugus relented not wanting to waste much more energy.

With the conversation concluding, the energy he'd spent into keeping Lōtaina Rātri active evaporated.

Immediately after the conversation was over he felt Lōtaina Rātri slip right back into dormancy. Like a person going into a drug induced sleep.

He bit the inside of his cheek. 'You can do better than me. I couldn't even handle that five minute conversation. The drugs in my system do their job well I guess. '

He subtly took a few more less than graceful gulps of air. Taking a minute to compose himself.

"Are you okay?" She asked, supporting his weight when he nearly fell over.

"Oh yeah no I'm fine it's nothing. I'm just absolutely in physical hell," Lucifugus replied casually but halfway through the second sentence Bandersnatch seethed, taking control of his body and Lucifugus clamped a hand over his own mouth.

"Pardon?" She asked.

"Nothing! Don't worry about what I just said.

That experience was deep and insightful." He said mustering a curious tone and praying she didn't notice his voice cracked. 'That nearly killed me, every part of my body is in unbearable torment right now' he thought.

"I didn't know our wolves could communicate with each other! Must be something they only teach Lycans!" he said quickly.

"Oh I forgot. Normal werewolves aren't taught something like this. ... I probably broke some age old tradition by showing you especially after I said I don't plan on accepting you as my mate," she said in a crestfallen tone.

He flinched. Emotionally detached from the situation he was fine. But mentally he supposed it stung a little, potentially being rejected twice.

"I do have one question for you. What if you go for this idealistic Prince of yours, this hero with no real name, and he's not your prince anymore? What if he's changed for the worse? Would you stay with someone like that?"

She blinked in silence.

"It's not a question I need answered. I just.. want you to make a choice that you don't come to look back on with regret.

Even if you're intending to reject me, I want nothing more from you than your happiness," he said calmly.

Dion approached as soon as she was gone.

"I sense you're under a lot of mental strain," Dion remarked. His hair was a loose so it was curly from it's time in a braid.

"That took more out of me than I would like to admit," he panted breathlessly as he leaned against the tree for support when she left. He wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Okay go home and prepare to power through this as usual," he said softly. But when he straightened up he felt worse. Silently terrified since his nausea waves had never been this persistent or awful before, he slowly slumped to the ground.

Shuddering he couldn't take it anymore and he threw up.