ARYCK prowled around his home. Melina’s scent lingered there like a malicious spirit taunting him, reminding him of his furious rush to Lion lands when he’d learned Rebekka was there with Levi. Tormenting him with images of them together now because he’d lacked the courage to go with her, because his pride had prevented him from considering what he was asking her to give up to remain in Were lands.
She was a healer filled with compassion, with the need to help others regardless of species or circumstances. From the very first she’d railed against his attitude when it came to the outcasts.
He’d become more flexible in his thinking. Yet at his core he’d still believed their fate was their own. He’d considered it enough to offer them a chance to come into Were territory and face the ancestors.
But how many of them were as Rebekka claimed, caught between forms without knowledge of the Were culture or the existence of the ancestors? How many would trust those who’d always reviled and excluded them? How many would come on what could easily be a rumor?
There’d been no guarantees of safe escort. No offer of protection or help extended to those who might desire to flee the brothels of the human world.
Aryck rubbed his hand over his bare chest, massaging the ache radiating from his heart as he remembered the trek through the Barrens that would have ended in his death if Rebekka hadn’t come to him. The image of her tear-streaked face was a fist to the gut.
Come with me. At least for a little while, she’d said on a broken voice, and he’d refused, hadn’t even stopped to fully consider her request.
Despite his arguments to his father about the ancestors favoring his taking Rebekka as a mate, he’d turned his back and walked away from her, wrapping his pride around him like another skin.
The bitter taste of self-recrimination and remorse filled his mouth. Was she meant to be his mate only if she chose him over those who desperately needed her? Was she meant to be his lover and the mother of his children only if she turned her back on the outcasts who were her friends? Left her world for his?
Was all the sacrifice to be hers? All the risk?
He’d failed her again, proven himself unworthy not just in protecting her physically, but in the safekeeping of her heart.
Resolve forced all other emotions to recede. The Jaguar, crouched in shame and sorrow deep within Aryck’s psyche, rose, adding its strength of purpose to the man’s, both of them finally fully accepting the risk, the necessity of possible sacrifice that came with tying their life and fate to Rebekka’s.
She was their mate and no other would do. They would challenge the ancestors themselves to have her. They would go to Oakland and beg for her forgiveness, then spend a lifetime proving they were worthy of her trust and love.
Aryck left the cabin, sending a quick mental probe and locating his father at Phaedra’s house. He found Caius sitting on a log there, drawing in the smooth dirt while Phaedra cooked the meal and Koren spoke with Nahuatl a few steps away.
Caius looked up as Aryck approached. His lips trembled despite the straightening of his spine. “I’m going to visit her when I get old enough,” he said. “She’ll see I still know all my letters, and she’ll teach me how to read like she said she would.”
It wasn’t the way Aryck had meant to tell his father. If he’d wanted to avoid doing it face-to-face, he could have done it mind-to-mind instead of coming here. But Caius hurt too, and so Aryck knelt in front of the cub, pausing for a moment to look at the alphabet spread out between them. “I’m leaving for Oakland now. I’ll tell her you’re practicing. It’ll make her happy.”
“Are you going to bring her back?” The cub’s face and voice held a wealth of hope.
“Maybe not right away, but in the future,” Aryck said, ruffling the boy’s hair before standing and facing his father and Nahuatl.
As if his father had been expecting it all along, Koren said, “You’ve made your choice. Go.”