Fated | The Heir of the She-Wolf

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

[Eleanor]

Austin and I arrived at the Triad settlement before dawn on the next morning after an exhausting four-hour drive.

When he parked in front of a small hotel and stepped out of the car, I followed him, my legs feeling numb. I looked around but could not make much of the surroundings as it was still dark.

“Get some sleep, it will be a long day.”, Austin said and gave me a kiss on the cheek while we were standing in front of the entrance doors of the three-floor building that was going to be our home for the next two days at least.

“Wait, you are not coming with me?”, I asked him, desperate to find a bed as I was barely standing up.

“I will go check on the injured first, I was told there were two when I spoke to the King.”

“Oh, okay. See you later.”, I said, giving Austin a kiss on the cheek in return. I turned around, a tiny smile on the corner of my lips, and entered the hotel alone.

“Good morning, I’m here to check in. A double room, please.”, I said to the receptionist – a girl not older than eighteen.

“We are all booked as we have many visitors due to the attack. I’m sorry, but we will have a room available earliest by noon.”, the girl said with an apologetic look on her face.

I frowned, feeling both frustrated and extremely exhausted.

“Are you sure? Can you please check again? I would take anything that has a bed, even if it is in the basement.”, I pleaded.

“I’m sorry, madam, but if you come back around one, I will make sure we have a clean room ready for you.”

“What’s going on?”, a voice raised behind me, giving me shivers.

The girl from the reception moved her eyes to the person behind me and her whole posture changed, showing clearly how nervous she got. I turned to see Valerio behind me, looking tired but handsome as hell in a casual shirt and jeans with messy hair falling all over his forehead.

“Nothing, everything is fine.”, I told Valerio and turned back around to face the girl. “I will come back around one.”, I said to her smiling although I felt like crying on the inside.

I walked out of the hotel and saw Austin’s car gone. Holding my small luggage bag with one hand and trying to find my phone in my purse with the other, I shivered and for a second I thought I was going to pass out. You know this feeling of your stomach tightening and hurting, and nausea drifting to your throat when you are severely under slept? That is what I was feeling in this very moment. The chilly wind was turning colder by the second, sending shivers of ice through my body and lifting my hair in the air and around my face.

“Come on, where are you?!”, I groaned, still searching for my phone.

“You can come and get some sleep in my room.”, I heard Valerio behind me. I turned to see him on the entrance door, looking at me.

“I’m fine, I can wait till noon. I just have to call Austin and ask him to come get me.”, I replied in the most stubborn way possible while my teeth were cracking.

“I made it sound like a suggestion but I meant it like an order. Come in.”, Valerio’s voices pierced the wind and he came behind me, grabbing me by the arm and turning me around.

“Fine.”, I replied angrily, still not forgiven him for the way he treated me when I left the Tower a month ago.

I followed him back into the hotel and past the reception where the girl was staring at us. Valerio headed for the stairs and I followed wondering which floor he was on and if I could make it all the way there. Two flights of stairs later, I stopped and leaned on the wall feeling sick to my stomach. I closed my eyes and heard Valerio stopping and coming back to me.

“Are you okay?”, he asked me. I opened my eyes and saw just how close he was to me, worry drawn on his beautiful face.

“I’m fine, just tired.”, I snapped but my voice was weak.

“You seem to be saying “fine” a lot, and you seem not fine but ill. Come, I will pick you up.”

Before I could respond in denial Valerio wrapped his hands around me – one under my knees and the other around my shoulders, lifting me like in the air and placing me in front of his upper body like I was nothing but a feather.

“I’ll return for your bags when I get you to the room.”, he said, probably reading my thoughts as I looked down to my bags which were lying on the stairs.

“Okay.”, I said feeling defeated and weak, so weak I started wondering if the sickness was just due to the fact I hadn’t slept at all.

Valerio started walking the stairs to the last floor while carrying me in his arms and I could not help but feel his scent – masculine, sexy and just… him. Forest, ocean, fire – I remembered the scent of his blood when I first felt it during the Truth spell.

I looked at his face and tried not to stare but it was hard being this close to him and not allowing myself to realize just how attracted I was to him. If I could just reach up and touch his face, his cheekbone, stroke his messy dark hair between my fingers…

My thoughts (or fantasies?) were interrupted when Valerio reached the door to his suite and opened it while still holding me in his arms. The door sprung open and he walked in, placing me gently on the corner of the bed.

“I will be back in a second.”, he said and literally a second later he was back in front of me with my bags in hands.

“Wait… how did you do that?”, I asked confused wondering if I was that ill that I had started hallucinating.

“You can do it too, if you feed regularly on blood and practice your speed. Have you done that since you are in the Tower?”, Valerio said in a steady voice.

“N-no. I refuse to feed on humans, I just cannot imagine myself doing that.”

It was all true – I had not had a drop of blood ever since Valerio fed me to save my life and even this one occurrence I did not remember because I was unconscious. And I could not allow myself to cause pain or trauma to a human, the thought sickened me even more.

“You know that you don’t necessarily have to feed on human blood, right?”, Valerio mocked me, sarcasm in his voice. “You should know that, it is in the books I sent for you.”

“Austin sent me the books.”, I hissed back not appreciating the ridiculing tone.

“And who do you think gave him the order?”

While we were talking Valerio was pacing between the bedroom and the bathroom and was now standing in front of me with a glass of water and a wet towel.

“As I was saying, if you had actually read them, you would know two things. One, human blood is essential for the survival of a pure Ferus, yes. But they are under strict orders from me to FHE.”

“FHE?”, I asked, embarrassed that I had indeed not yet opened a single book from the pile laying on the coffee table in my room. After trainings, I either spent the evening with Vanessa (trying not to bash her brother in front of her, of course), with Austin, or sleeping.

“Feed, Heal, Erase. Feri are only allowed to… take what they absolutely need. Feeding on children, pregnant women and elder people is absolutely forbidden for them.”, Valerio was talking while I was taking a sip of water. “Put this on your forehead, you are burning up.”, he handed me the towel and I obeyed.

“And what is number two?”

“We, and by we I mean Triads, can survive without feeding. Do you know why that is?”

I thought for a second despite the distraction which were his eyes locked with mine while he was kneeling in front of me and checking my temperature by placing his hand on my forehead. The feeling of his skin was pushing the exhaustion far, far away and I swear I could feel my heart racing and hear my pulse in my ears.

“Because we have our Magus and Lupus sides to give us strength?”

“Yes. But something interesting and extremely rare can happen if a Triad is struggling to connect with his wolf and does not feed either. Then, neither his Lupus nor Feri sides are strong enough to support the Triad’s existence.”

Valerio stood up, making me send a silent plead to please stay close to me. Hopefully, he was not actually able to read minds as I was doing everything in my power to not show just how much I was enjoying his presence, especially after a month of pretending I don’t see him anytime we were in the same room.

“A Triad can then fall ill and shorten his chances of making it to their twenty-third birthday.”

I saw Valerio open a tiny cabinet just by the mini fridge and something sparkled in his hands. He turned and came back to me, holding a knife.