Bound By Legend

CHAPTER NINE: SPIRITWALKER

REVERIE

My senses were on high alert when I entered the Rally of Minds. The knowledge that Leoric was nearby sent an unfamiliar thrill through me. My mind was a mess, yet Kamari lounged comfortably inside like she’d won tickets to some resort.

“What are you doing? We are still very much not in the clear!” I muttered inside.

“Relaxing like I am supposed to. Leoric is a real Alpha.”

“There are so many ways this can go wrong….” I chastised.

Kamari laughed. Actually laughed at me. “You humans should start living like wolves and less like humans.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

The big doors to the conference center opened, the event had already started. There were more packs in attendance than I had anticipated. “Excellent job, Alpha Knox,” I whispered in awe. There were packs that hated each other, even ones that were actively at war–all standing in the same room, just for the Rally of Minds.

Then I smelt it, disgusting citrus and peach mingled together. My gaze cut to the side of the room, Kieran and Delilah engulfed by reporters. It seems their press tour didn’t stop at the hospital.

Kamari didn’t even react, just lounged comfortably in my mind, which was confusing in and of itself.

“Luna Delilah! Luna Delilah!” reporters shouted as they all jumped over themselves to get her attention. Kieran stood firmly beside her, his arm around her waist as if it belonged there–perhaps it did after all.

Seven years of marriage, Kieran and I were never seen in public together unless Grandmother Satori needed us for something as it related to the Board. Even then, we never explained. We never said we were husband and wife despite the truth being public record for anyone that wanted to find it.

The situation was so bizarre to me, it was as if everyone had forgotten Luna Delilah was his brother’s wife. His brother’s fated mate, even. Yet, the two of them paraded around as if they were mated, and he gave her everything he had never afforded me. Kieran’s gaze met mine. He marched over while Delilah answered more questions, her smile a glimpse of triumph.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped, just low enough for the two of us to hear.

I raised a brow. “I was invited.”

“No. I was invited. You were not. I have not called you my Luna.”

I laughed. “I know, you are calling Delilah your Luna. Is your brother’s body even cold?”

“I am not calling her my Luna. The press is calling her that.”

“Oh, and you just… aren’t going to correct them?”

Kieran took a step forward, I took one back. “What are you doing?”

He continued his deliberate, slow, predatory advance. Unable to make a scene, I quietly retreated. My hands raised to keep space between us, my vision clouding with the mate haze.

“This is none of your concern. Go home and stop embarrassing me. We have much to discuss there. Including who touched you,” he growled possessively.

I tilted my head in confusion. “Who touched me?”

Thud. My back hit the alcove he trapped me in. “What are you talking about? No one touched me.” My mind cleared instantly.

“No one touched you? I felt it.”

“Kieran. No one has touched me.”

Kieran’s face clouded my view, mint mixed with liquor and coffee as we breathed the same air for the first time in weeks. He was close enough to kiss me, his ice-cold eyes bore into mine, my body arched towards him naturally. The mate pull was harder to resist by the second. But then, the initial attraction fizzled. Kamari made it obvious she was not interested in his wolf–which enraged not only Kieran, but his wolf, Hanz. I could sense him as he prickled at the corners of my mind, the edges of our frayed bond. Kamari snarled in reply and shut him out instantly.

“You are lucky I haven’t hunted him down and ripped out his throat.”

“Kieran?” Delilah’s voice called from somewhere in the lobby. Kieran pushed off of me and marched towards the voice. “Go home.”

“No, you hypocrite. I told you, I was invited. As a Doctor. Nothing more. Nothing less. Just stay out of my way, and I will stay out of yours,” I snapped. I stepped around him and disappeared into the crowd before Delilah could see me. Kamari and I refused to look back, we wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

I muttered to Kamari through our link. “We can’t afford to be off kilter with them stalking about.”

She laughed again. “I’m not worried. Leoric is here.”

I rolled my eyes. Then suddenly, the air shifted. My mind tingled, and within seconds, my fingers were weaving, the slight pull of something at them. A glitter only I could see in the light, a single gold thread draped around the fingers. Something they hadn’t done in years.

I gasped. “Kamari…”

“Go, NOW.” she shouted inside my mind. “Follow the thread.”

I moved without thinking, a child nearby. Severe anaphylactic shock. Two minutes or less and she dies.

“We need a doctor!” Someone screamed as the little girl at the end of my thread collapsed. Delilah stepped forward and dropped to her knees next to the girl. The paparazzi followed her immediately. Beta Adrian and Alpha Kieran were a few feet away. Adrian tried to stop me.

“Move.” Kamari growled through my body. My authoritative aura from the hospital carried across the space between us, he knew better than to question me.

Then I smelt it, molded into his sinister scent–fear and uncertainty. Adrian stared into my eyes with shock.

“Let her pass.” Kieran whispered in the Solvane mindlink. Adrian stepped aside, Delilah glared as she knelt beside me. I ignored both of them, I felt Kieran’s gaze on me instantly. It’d been years since he’d seen me use my Spiritwalking power.

Delilah refused to move, but I went to work on the girl regardless–grateful to have Delilah as a buffer between me and the cameras–despite how annoying her scent and presence were as she stared cluelessly. The girl’s mother rushed to our side. “Please! Save my baby!”

My fingers splayed across her daughter’s neck. My body vibrated as I mentally connected, my fingers moved along the skin of her throat as my other hand dug into my bag. I could sense the faint mental trauma to her throat, her consciousness fading fast.

“There’s no time! DO IT!” Kamari ordered as she took over. My eyes closed as I felt my wolf’s projection jump from my consciousness into the patient. The sensation of the girl's inner thoughts and panic flooded me, but I grounded myself in reality.

“Help! Someone please!” the girl cried inside.

“It’s okay, I’m here, little wolf.” Kamari released her maternal, calming Luna aura as she traversed the spiritual projection. She transformed into my human form when she found the throat. “This may hurt, but I promise you. Breathe when I tell you and you will survive.”

Like an old friend, my fingers twitched and played the strings of her spirit trauma. As if I had finally revisited an instrument, my fingers wove through the pain, finding the source. I teased apart the tangled knot like I’d done it a million times. My body felt alive as I took in her trauma, sat with it, blessed it and glowed from the inside out. The door of death slammed shut and immediately, my golden light raced across the threads, and the knot burst into pieces.

“Now breathe, child.” Kamari instructed. The girl did as she was told, and Kamari transformed back into her spirit wolf, and jumped back into my awareness and suddenly, we were back in reality.

The little girl gasped and began to breathe again. Her eyes shot open as she jerked to a sitting position.

“Oh Goddess, Elena!” her mother cried, and the two embraced with a sob of relief. Elena looked at me. “You….how did you…”

I smiled warmly at her, ran my fingers through her hair and looked in her eyes. “How are you?”

“I can breathe.”

“Yay! Luna Delilah saved her!” someone called from the crowd.

Delilah sat awkwardly, but I subtly slid her the EpiPen from my bag. “Yes. Thank you, Luna Delilah. You must be exhausted! Go to your adoring fans, I’ll finish the checkup!”

I all but pushed her toward the paparazzi. “You just want all the credit! My sister saved that little girl. This is another one of your cheap tricks to get the Alpha’s attention!” Beta Adrian accused.

Kieran met my gaze. He knew exactly what had happened. Yet again, he didn’t correct anyone and instead took Delilah’s hand. “Yes, let Dr. Dawne check over the patient per the protocol. You’ve already done all the work. You must be exhausted, dear. Don’t forget you were hospitalized yourself earlier today.”

“Yes, my dear Alpha. Thank you Adrian. You are the best brother a girl could ever ask for. Let’s leave Dr. Dawne in peace. I am sure she didn’t mean anything by it. She is a doctor herself, you know, I am sure she is looking after me. Not stealing my credit.”

The paparazzi oohed and ahhed over how selfless Luna Delilah was for helping the little girl despite not being well herself.

“But she didn’t–” Elena started to defend me.

I placed a hand on hers. “It’s alright, Elena. The important thing is, you are alive.”

I ran a few preliminary field tests to make sure she was okay, and then helped her back into her shoes and jacket. All the while her mother, wide-eyed and still shocked, watched me closely.

“You are a very good mother,” she whispered.

I froze. “What did you say?” A chill ran down my spine.

“You are a mother. A good one. I can tell by the way you handled Elena.”

I cleared my throat. Attempted to steady my heart as it raced. “No. I am just a good doctor. I used to run the pediatric ward once a week at the pack hospital. It’s become second nature.”

She smirked. “Well then. Any child would be blessed by the Moon Goddess herself to call you Mother.”

I could feel Kieran’s gaze as he tracked my every movement.

Did he hear anything? Does he suspect anything? Not like this. Please no…