CHAPTER FOUR
Vallis
Fallen Star Territory
The aroma of dirt and rocks filled my head.
Everything smelled wet as if it had rained recently.
The box was as small as ever and a line of dirt had started sprinkling in through a seam between two boards.
The taste of my mate lingered on my lips.
I tried pushing against the lid again. It didn’t budge.
If anything, my muscles had atrophied more since the last time I tried.
My stomach growled. Whatever magic Pami used to keep me alive was waning.
Was she doing it on purpose or was her own strength waning?
Broug would hate her now. He’d hate what his death turned her into.
That night played out in my head again. There was a ‘pop’ on the web and the smell of something burning.
I still didn’t know how I knew but it was Broug.
It had to be, right? It wasn’t like I was a social butterfly who had a ton of close connections.
My relatives were dead. I’d grown up at the Fallen Star Temple like Broug had.
If I had family it was him and Pami. Though, if I were honest, I never liked her much.
She walked around with her nose crinkled and her ears back like everything either smelled bad or offended her.
You couldn’t get a straight answer out of her either.
Ask her about the weather and she’d tell you why it was offensive to ask her that particular question.
The only people who ever liked her as far as I could see was Nashen and Broug.
Her brother and her true-mate. The two people on the whole world who actually were sort of required to like her.
My stomach growled again and I forced my eyes closed.
I needed to sleep. I needed to rest up and get back to Lero.
Lero. My poor Lero. I hoped he believed I’d come back.
I hoped that somehow he knew I wasn’t dead.
I couldn’t do anything for him now. I wasn’t even sure there was an Other World gateway that connected my world to his.
Even if I was there, could I really ask him to risk his life to save me?
He’d do it in a heartbeat but it wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.
“Life isn’t right or fair,” my bear whispered into my thoughts. “Anymore than it’s right that half the world puts their inner beast to sleep until they meet their true-mates. They’ve made themselves weak against everything and against the likes of Pami.”
I dozed off, playing outrageous scenarios in my head where Lero showed up clawing his way through the dirt to get me out.
Maybe bringing in whatever passed for an army in his territory was the only way I was ever going to survive.
Only, then innocent people would die. People who would defend Pami because she was one of us even if she was cruel.
Was I really worth all those innocent lives? I was just one guy after all.
I dreamt of a burger. A thick double meat burger with cheese oozing off its sides. I’d quit dreaming about food what I thought must’ve been months ago but I’d eaten at Lero’s house. That must’ve reawakened my body’s longing for real food.
I woke with a start, banging my head against the boards above me.
A cascade of dirt fell onto my chest through the crack between the boards and I cursed Pami’s name, wishing I could turn over onto my side.
There wasn’t room and it wasn’t time to wake up.
I didn’t have the energy to astral project again.
“Sleep,” my bear whispered into my thoughts.
***
When I woke again I was laying on my back on the grass.
I blinked up at the watery blue evening sky streaking with pinks and oranges.
How long had it been since I looked up at the sky?
A warm-ish breeze ruffled my hair. Someone spoke nearby.
I wasn’t on my home world anymore. I must’ve astral projected in my sleep.
I was only a few feet from Lero’s front porch.
My sleeping self had better aim than I expected.
Stretching, I stood up. None of the bears standing around and chatting with each other glanced in my direction.
Yep. I was still invisible. If I wasn’t in a hurry to reunite with my mate, I might’ve danced around or at least waved my hand in front of a few faces to see how invisible I was.
Instead, I knocked on the front door again. No one answered and it was locked.
“At least no one can get him,” my bear said into my thoughts as I circled the house looking for an open window or something.
I tried the back door to no avail and knocked on it too.
I glanced through the big window in the kitchen to see him face down in a book.
A stack lay scattered nearby. All titles on astral projection.
I tried to walk through the glass, but it’d been blessed by someone and wasn’t letting me through.
I knocked on the window and Lero startled awake.
I hated waking him up but there was no telling how short our time together would be.
“Val---” he started to shout my name but stopped.
Instead, he pushed himself upright and straightened his hair.
A smile that he didn’t let out pulled at the corners of his lips.
He opened his back door slowly and looked around.
One of the neighbors waved to him and he waved back.
The bear shifter padded across his lawn and then the street to speak with him and I slipped into the kitchen.
It almost felt wrong but I opened his fridge and started eating the first thing my fingers found which turned out to be a block of cheddar cheese.
Lero shut the door before his neighbor noticed and I surveyed what else was in the fridge.
I had to ask him about the food situation before I took too much for him.
The Fallen Star had known lean times before.
It wouldn’t be fair to sustain myself while taking food from my mate’s mouth.
What sort of man would I be? I stopped eating the cheese too.
My stomach still growled but despite the full fridge I didn’t know how long the food had to last him.
Maybe I could hunt. I managed to touch him and most solid objects.
Maybe I could manage to chomp down on a deer.
It wouldn’t be fair if the deer couldn’t see me coming but life was rarely fair.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Lero said, opening the back door and stepping inside.
He shut the door and pulled the curtains closed over the window. While folks couldn’t see me they’d be able to see him acting odd. He threw his arms around me and I almost dropped the cheese. I squeezed it in my fist right before it slipped through my fingers.
“I’ve been eating your cheese,” I said, guilt washing over me.
“I don’t care. Eat up! I need you strong enough to survive. I think if I astral project too I can find where you are. Then we can ask for help and…”
“No!” I shook my head. “No. I won’t risk you---”
“But you expect me to risk you?” he asked, pulling a covered dish out of the fridge. “You expect me to keep risking you?”
“I’m risked whether or not you’re involved. I have no choice in the matter!” I tossed my hands up. My heart thudded against my ribs. “You have a choice!”
“We’ve just met!” he set the dish down on the counter.
“Exactly! We’ve just met! There isn’t a reason for you to risk everything!”
Lero took a deep breath. His hands found his hips, and he looked down at the floor as he toed it for a moment.
“I’m trying very hard not to roar and get every bear in the village over here,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“You are my mate,” he continued, still looking at the floor.
“You are the one I chose and the one I continued to choose throughout lifetimes. I grew up around people who talked a lot about the past. Around people who were always saying to take a step back and look at how it all runs together. In both practical and spiritual senses. So, I am. Will we succeed? I don’t know but I do know I wasn’t raised to go down without a fight.
I’m only here because one of my grandfathers was kind to wolves.
That’s why my sire has a wolf too. I’m here by a fluke.
My sire could’ve been dead. So never think you know all the pieces at play and never assume you know how badly or great something will end.
I don’t know any of that but I do know that I’m going to try and since you’re just astral projecting here you can’t stop me. ”
For a moment, rage tore through me. I wanted to roar too but Lero was my mate.
My omega. Somehow we were having our first fight before we even made love for the first time.
Hell, before we ever met in person for the first time.
I swallowed down that roar. Nashen once told me I had a hard time asking for and accepting help because I grew up without anyone who had my back.
Maybe the fucker was right because I was literally buried alive and expected my mate to do nothing.
“I appreciate that you want me to stay safe but safety isn’t guaranteed.
As long as the universe churns out freewill there will be assholes and the rest of us will have to deal with them one way or another,” Lero said when I didn’t say anything.
“I’m going to toss this leftover pot roast in the oven and then I want to have this conversation again.
We need a plan before my parents arrive in a few days.
The snow is already starting in. It’s going to be a long winter if all we do is bicker in secret. ”
There were a million other things I’d rather do in secret with him. I might’ve pulled him into my arms and told him to forget about the food but if I were ever going to come face to face with my omega in corporeal form I had to find a way to keep my strength up.
“Won’t someone notice that you’re astral projecting?” I asked, my last ditched effort to keep him safe.
“It’s not illegal. I mean, Grandpa didn’t even ask why I asked to borrow his books,” he said, sliding the pan into the over.
“Here. I’ll pick them up,” I said, bending down to pick one up.
“Don’t! I have them organized,” Lero said and I froze in place. “I know they look like one big mess but I know where everything is.”