My Peculiar Mates

Chapter 10: Fight for the Fae

    Rheya woke up in a cold sweat. Her body felt freezing, and she couldn’t stop shivering. She opened her eyes to see Lia holding her and carrying her into the pack house. She set her down on the couch in the living room, where the pack doctor was waiting. 

    “I don’t know why this is affecting her so badly,” Lia said.

    “It must be her fae blood,” the doctor replied. “Let’s get her into an ice bath.”

    “B-but I’m s-so cold,” Rheya whimpered, curling up into a ball.

    “That’s just the fever, Sunshine. You’re currently sitting at 104 degrees, you’ll feel much better once we bring the fever down a bit.”

    They brought her upstairs to the bathroom, and some omegas came in with bags of ice. They ran some water and dumped the ice in, then sat her down slowly. She tried to keep from crying at how uncomfortable everything was, her head was pounding and her skin felt like it was crawling with needles or bugs. She sighed contentedly as the water took away some of the itchiness, but it did nothing to help her head. 

    “You have to stay awake for now, okay Sunshine?” 

    “Okay,” she said, trying to force her body to stay reactive. 

    “Angel,” Lia said. “Do we have any resources on fae in general? Neither of us know much about her background, and I’d like to read up on it while waiting.”

    The omega nodded. “Let me go look in the library, but I remember seeing a few in the war section, and the science section.”

    “Perfect,” Lia nodded, dismissing her, before turning back to Rheya and stroking her hair. “Can you tell me exactly what you’re feeling?”

    “Well, I feel like my skin is getting ready to sprout thorns. My hands and feet are aching, I have a major migraine, and everything looks blurry.”

    Lia’s eyebrows creased in concern. “Everything sounded normal up until the eyes. Your vision should be increasing, not decreasing.”

    Rheya shivered. “How much longer do I have to stay in here? It’s freezing.”

    Lia felt her forehead. “I think your temperature has come down a bit, so you can get out. But if the fever comes back, you have to get back in, okay?”

    Rheya nodded, and Lia helped her out of the tub and into a fluffy towel.

    “I’m going to ask you to do something strange, okay?” Lia said. Rheya nodded in response. “I need you to reach out to your wolf in your mind.”

    “I don’t think I know how,” Rheya chewed on her bottom lip. “I’ve only ever talked to her in my dreams, and that was when she formed the connection.”

    “Well now it’s your turn, sweetheart. If you can reach out to her and bring her out of that dream-state, your headache should get better.”

    Rheya closed her eyes. Wolfie, I need you to wake up now. Nothing happened. “It’s not working,” she said.

    “Keep trying,” Lia prodded. “Think about the connection you felt when talking to her. Try and use that as a tether.”

    Rheya nodded and tried again. This time she imagined all the emotions she felt when meeting her wolf for the first time. Excitement, fear, belonging… She felt a cord of emotion snap into place. Her eyes popped open. “I think I found her!”

    Lia grinned. “Perfect, Rhey. Now see if you can talk to her.”

    My wolf, are you there? 

    I’m here, Rheya. The grey wolf with glowing green eyes slowly formed in her mind’s eye.

    I’m so glad! Are you ready to wake up?

    I am. My name is Karina.

    Rheya’s eyes opened, and Lia and the doctor both gasped. “Rhey, your eyes…!”

    She looked in the mirror and backpedaled a bit. Her eyes! They had changed from a hazel brown to a bright, glowing green!

    “What the hell…” She rubbed them and opened them again.

     Karina said.

    What did you do? Rheya asked, slightly worried.

    It wasn’t me, Rheya, she responded. The Moon Goddess gave you your fae eyes. Now tell me what you see.

    Rheya looked around the room, and her vision was crystal clear. She could see every hair on her girlfriend’s head, every eyelash and freckle. But there was something else. All around Lia, she could see little golden dots. And around the doctor, the floating dots were white.

     Rheya asked.

    Each colour represents an emotion. I’m sure you’ll come to know which is which soon enough.

    “You’re so beautiful,” Lia said quietly. She grabbed Rheya’s chin and kissed her passionately. “Those are the coolest eyes I’ve ever seen.”

    “I must write this down,” the doctor said excitedly. “I get to be the first doctor to witness a fae-wolf unison in a very long time, I must take notes!”

    “She said her name is Karina,” Rheya said.

    “Nice to meet you, Karina,” Lia said, to which Rheya responded with a warped version of a wolf purring sound. It surprised them both, and Lia laughed. “Sounds like she likes the attention.”

    “Is it alright if I sit down? My back is starting to ache,” Rheya asked, and Lia quickly picked her up and sat down on the bed. She backed up against the headboard and put Rheya between her legs, massaging her sore muscles. Rheya groaned. “I’m not sure that’s helping.”

    “It will hurt for now, but you’ll feel a lot better if I work out the soreness tonight.” 

    She nodded and stayed quiet, turning her attention back to Karina. When will I get to shift?

    Tonight, Karina responded happily. Tonight is the beginning of my journey with you and your family, and it’s the beginning of your journey with the fae.

    What do you mean? Rheya asked.

    The Moon Goddess has promised us many things if we believe in her power. She will work through us to save faekind.

    Rheya closed her eyes thoughtfully. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to live up to that reputation. 

    “What’s wrong, Sunshine?” Lia asked.

    “What?” Rheya was caught off guard.

    “I can feel you worrying. Now that I’ve marked you, I can feel some of your emotions. You’re anxious.”

    “Oh… Karina just told me something. She said that I will be able to use my powers to save faekind, but that seems like a very big job.”

    “What powers do you think you have?”

    “I only know of one so far,” Rheya answered. “I can see auras around you two, which show your emotion. Yours is a golden colour right now, and Ms. Decante is showing white. I’m pretty sure that one means excitement.”

    “Well all I’m feeling right now is a lot of love for you, Darlin’,” Lia smiled, kissing the top of her head. “Maybe we’ll find out what else you can do soon.”

    “Maybe,” Rheya smiled, leaning back into her girlfriend.

    “And about the fae prophecy,” Lia continued. “I do want to save more fae. They’ve suffered for far too long while we’ve just sat back and watched. I know my pack isn’t the biggest, but we have to start making a stand against the Council’s tyrannic reign. It was never meant to be a unitary ruling.”

    “I’m afraid, babe,” Rheya pouted. “What if we aren’t strong enough? They managed to kill May with just 7 of them.”

    “They managed to get lucky,” Lia’s eyes turned black and her voice was gruff. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself. “May was protecting you when the rest of our pack wasn’t ready to do the same. And now, you can defend yourself; so you won’t need as much protecting and we’ll both be able to fight.”

    “Fight?! I’ve never fought in my life!” Rheya argued. “One time I punched Rico in the arm and I felt so bad I cried.”

    Lia giggled, a sound which made Rheya unable to hide a smile in return. “I will teach you how to defend yourself, but I’ll try not to make you use it. How’s that?” 

    “I guess that’ll have to do,” she sighed. She closed her eyes as Lia kept playing with her hair.

    “Lia?”

    “Yes?”

    “What’s your wolf’s name?”

    “Oh,” Lia looked forlorn for a moment. “I’m sorry, Rheya, I should have introduced you two a long time ago. Her name is Niko, would you like to meet her?”

    “Could I? I would love to,” Rheya grinned and sat up.

    Lia got up and stretched for a minute, to ease the pain of shifting. Then she stripped down and transformed. 

    Rheya had only seen Lia shift in mere seconds before, when it was urgent and she had no choice. This time she went slower, so that the pain was more tolerable. Slowly but surely, fur started growing from her arms and legs. Her face elongated, and her back arched as her ribs and spine rearranged themselves into a different stature. Within about 30 seconds, in Lia’s place sat a familiar beige wolf.

    “Hello Niko,” Rheya said, and watched as Niko’s tail thumped against the floor. Gold and white specks of colour flew around her, and she crouched down so that she could be at eye level. Niko gave her a lick on the cheek and touched her mark with her cool nose. “It’s nice to meet you too, my second mate.” She smiled and hugged the wolf. She spent a few minutes talking to Niko and watching different colours fall from her fluffy coat, then Lia came back.

    “Thank you for letting us meet,” Rheya smiled.

    “Of course,” Lia said. “I should also warn you. Much like how I can control Niko’s body when we’re in combat, sometimes Niko can control my body too. Mostly when I’m too out of sorts to function properly, she makes me get up and eat and stuff.”

    “Interesting. That’s when your eyes turn black, right?” 

    “Yep,” Lia grinned shyly. “That happens a lot, doesn’t it?”

    “A fair amount,” Rheya bumped shoulders with her. “I don’t mind it though.”