Chapter 3
Alaric
My mate!
I trembled as my knees hit the floor near Everly, my chest heaving and my breath sawing in and out.
My hands shook as I curled them into fists.
Thoughts refused to form; for several long, tense minutes, I just knelt there, listening to the sound of my own racing heart, trying to breathe steadily enough to think again.
I never thought I’d meet my mate when she was in a different form.
A form she was unable to change out of. Because of this, I didn’t really know what she looked like yet—but honestly, I didn’t care.
She was mine, and mine alone. Mine and my dragon’s.
Whatever form she took as a human, I would find her beautiful, breathtaking even.
I couldn’t believe she was here. I was stunned. Shocked. Crying, apparently, as I stifled a laugh and a groan at the same time, and swiped the moisture off my face.
I reached to touch her, to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating, but then I pulled my hand back. No. Not while she slept. Not without her permission. She trusted me to be a safe place, and I would honor that. Always.
I could feel my dragon, Elandor, completely reeling inside of me as well.
I couldn’t speak directly to him, as disease had temporarily stolen our telepathic link, our strength, and our ability to shift, but I had a direct line to his emotions, and he was feeling just as overwhelmed as I was right now.
We’d contracted Fatal Missing Mate Syndrome, or FMMS for short, a few years back, and since then, our health had been declining.
We’d been hoping, praying, for a miracle. The only cure for FMMS was to find your mate. We’d searched, back when we had the strength to do so, but even though we’d spent countless years looking, we hadn’t found her.
And to think—all these years she’d been so close.
It almost made me want to weep again, and I knew Elandor felt the same way.
She’d been so close!
We’d waited and searched for over twelve hundred years for her.
The loneliness without her had completely hollowed us out.
There were things that broke you in life.
I thought I’d understood that when I was younger, after I’d lived for a few centuries and had lost friends and family.
But as the years passed, and we still hadn’t found her, I discovered that I’d known nothing about pain.
Some shifters didn’t handle that pain well. They staved off the loneliness through dating or casual relationships, but Elandor and I had vowed to wait for our mate. We hadn’t wanted anyone but her.
So we’d waited.
As the centuries passed, we’d begun to lose hope.
When we contracted FMMS, we’d come here to die.
We’d already set our earthly affairs in order, left our corporations in good hands, and handed over the reigns of our current brainchild, Beleaguered Dragon Adventures, and it’s corporate headquarters in Anchorage Alaska, into the hands of a very trusted friend and associate.
But now our mate was here.
Was she okay? I knew she was hungry and exhausted, that much had been visible, but what if there were things wrong my eyes couldn’t see?
I scanned her raven form, scrutinizing every detail I could see with my naked eyes.
She was a good size for a raven. Her feathers did look dusty and bedraggled, and she definitely needed a few solid meals, but she didn’t appear to have any damage to her raven form.
I was grateful. Alaska had plenty of predators that thought ravens would make a good snack.
For a long moment, I knelt there, breathing, shaking, letting my body and mind process the shock. I focused on slow, calming breaths. As my shock ebbed, I ran my fingers through my hair and tilted my head back, exhausted from the fallout of my emotions.
The good news was that, though Elandor and I had FMMS, we would slowly start to heal now that our mate was in our life. We didn’t even have to be mated to her for that magic to happen. It just happened the more time we spent around her.
Which meant that he and I would be able to speak again soon. Maybe as soon as tomorrow or the next day, depending on how quickly the magic mended us. Shifting and flying, though, would take longer.
FMMS wasn’t something that could be cured in a day. It would take time, but we would get better.
I shifted my gaze back to my mate.
And it was all because of her.
Lost in my thoughts, it took me a moment to realize the fast, thrumming sound, was my mate’s heart beat. How could that be her heart rate? It was so fast!
I counted the beats against my my watch, and gaped when I realized it was well over two hundred beats per minute.
If my heart was beating that fast, I’d call for a life flight.
Elandor remained calm—maybe he had a better sense of bird biology.
I, on the other hand, panicked. I pulled out my phone—thankfully, the internet tower I’d installed in the village gave me reliable service here—and slumped in relief when the page loaded.
Two hundred and twenty beats per minute was in the normal range for a raven.
They could even go up to nearly three hundred beats per minute and be perfectly fine.
Even flying, dragons had slow heartbeats. Most immortals did. So, this news about Everly fascinated me.
I shook my head in wonder, then shakily heaved myself to my feet and went to the kitchen to put together another plate of food for her.
With a heart rate that fast, she probably had a quick metabolism and would need to eat often.
She also had lost weight, I think, on her flight to my cabin, and would need extra calories for the next few days.
It would be good to just keep a plate ready in the fridge at all times for her.
I left the kitchen after washing my hands again, then paused, watching her sleep on the couch pillow. Now that she was here, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I busied myself by straightening up the cabin—anything to keep my hands occupied—before settling into the recliner facing her. It felt a little strange, watching her sleep just to make sure she was still breathing, so I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.
That letter...
Reading between the lines, it sounded like the warlock had made sure the women in the Winters family always found their mates—or at least the right partner.
Not that the magic only did that. It also seemed to help them find their purpose, happiness, even a fulfilling career.
It was like an all-purpose life improvement spell.
I could appreciate that.
But it gave no indication of how long the magic would last, and how long she would be in her raven form. It could be days, but what if it was months or years? I needed someone I trusted to examine the spell. Someone who could actually see the magic woven into her, and decipher it for me.
Seeing no hope for it, I heaved myself out of my recliner again, went into my bedroom, shut the door quietly, and called Shay.
“Well, this is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
I grunted in irritation, and he laughed. “Not that I’m not happy to hear from you! What’s up?”
“I have a woman in my cabin who’s been turned into a raven by a spell passed down through her matriarchal line. The spell’s meant to help, not harm, but I can’t see the magic. I need someone who can. Can you come down and take a look? I’ll cover travel expenses.”
He chuckled. “No need. This is what friends do, Ry. I’ll book a ticket today. Can you have someone meet me at the airport and have a snowmobile waiting in Port Noble?”
“Of course.” I expected that. Getting out here wasn’t easy—especially in the winter. Thankfully, we were fully in spring now, and the weather was easing up a little.
Shay paused. “Are you okay? This is... a lot.”
I collapsed onto my bed, threading my fingers through my hair. I hadn’t even needed to tell him Everly’s connection to me—he’d clearly already guessed I’d never let a random female shifter stay in my home unless she was my mate. “Yeah. I’m... doing okay.”
“That wasn’t convincing.”
My laugh came out rough. “Didn’t expect it to be.”
“I’ll be there soon. Hang in there.”
He hung up and I stared at the floor, my thoughts still spinning.
My mate.
I couldn’t believe she was here!
I pressed trembling hands to my face, took a few more calming breaths, and then stood, ready to head outside to finish chopping wood for the fire.
I had a mate to keep warm.