The Latent Sentinel

FATEFUL ENCOUNTER 5

Ella POV:

“Mate...Mate...Mate”

Nyx whispers slowly. I am so shocked. Why did he not tell me? Did he not want me? Am I that unwanted? Was he ashamed of me?

Nyx interjects, “I told him to give you space after he realized we are mates.”

I feel betrayed that my other half would keep such a thing from me. But before I can reprimand her, she continues, “You needed to know that he is a good guy and would help you. You need a reason to trust him. I did what I thought was best for you. I have given you a reason.”

She scolds me like a mother. My lioness has always been headstrong and protective of me. I can’t blame her for looking out for me, but I can’t help feeling betrayed and cheated.

“Please don’t hide anything from me next time, Nyx. I should be able to trust you. This won’t help us. We don’t have anyone else. We can’t lose each other.”

“We have Ethan.” She whispers, but the pain is evident in her voice.

“We need to trust each other; you can’t keep things from me. You already have a lot of things you don’t disclose, so please don’t do this again.”

She sighs but silently agrees with me. I am still partially shifted, so carrying Ethan would be easy. I try to gently move him in my arms, but he whimpers in pain. His silent whimper tears me apart. He is paralyzed, and I don’t think it’s from the injuries. Those wretched wolves must have done something to him. I gently lifted him up and walked back towards the cave. In a moment, we are inside the safety of the cave we share. I put him down on the cot I was using. I want to help but don’t know how.

Nyx comes forward. She is observing Ethan closely, “he has silver and Lillie extract in his system. They used the stuff on him which was meant for us. It would not have worked, but it would still work on Ethan for now at least. Let me remove the poison from his system.” She says that and blocks me out completely. I can’t see or feel anything. I don’t know what she is doing to him. Before I can ask, I am back.

“What did you do, Nyx? Why did you block me?” I asked her but she didn’t respond.

“I just told you we can’t keep secrets from each other,” I added.

“Just wait for some more time, I will tell you when the time is right. We needed our mate to reach our full potential. He is meant to be our guardian. After meeting Ethan, I unlocked a few of my memories that were hidden from me. The ‘gods will’ and ‘divine intervention’ won’t let me tell you. Trust me I have tried. So wait for a few days.” She says everything at once. I don’t know what to feel about anything.

I am more confused than I was before. What does she mean by divine intervention? What is the gods' will? Nothing she said made any sense. Her memories? Does she mean our memories? But I remember everything from our childhood. And who will hide our memories?

I ignore all her nonsense as it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever and get to work. I need to help Ethan, I need to save him. He seems better after whatever Nyx did, but he is still bleeding. He was moving around writhing in pain. I need to restrain him before he hurts himself more. He needs to heal. I force him to stay and restrain his movements. Once he is settled and resting peacefully, I let him sleep and get some water to clean his wounds. He doesn’t have any big injuries, so that’s a relief. I tend to his wounds and make him comfortable. He is asleep, and I have no clue what to do.

After a moment of contemplation, I decided to make him feel warm. I tended to the fire and added more wood to it. We will need more wood for tomorrow, but I can’t go out. What if those horrible people come back? I am lost not knowing what to do. I watch him and decide the best course of action. I dragged Ethan’s bed next to the cot and held his hand as tightly as possible. I am afraid he will disappear if I don’t hold him close. I am worried about him and most of my feelings make sense now. I can hardly close my eyes without worrying about him. I am overwhelmed with everything that happened not so long ago. I must have passed out somewhere in the night as the next thing I know is waking up with tons of anxiety.

When I open my eyes, the cave feels cold and there is very little light around us. I rushed to the fireplace and added more food and kindling to it. Once the fire was roaring, I rushed back to Ethan, waiting for him to wake up. When minutes turned to hours, my anxiety was back with a vengeance. I am afraid and panicking when he doesn’t wake up. I pace the cave floor not knowing what to do. That’s when I realized I haven’t gotten sick ever. And what was that Nyx said yesterday? Silver and Lily wouldn’t have worked on me. But why? But Ethan said I had a fever; I was honestly losing my mind. Why am I even focusing on this now? I have bigger problems? What can I do to wake Ethan up?

Nyx simply interjected, ignoring my mental battle, “Nothing will make us sick or poison us.” Before I could ask her any further questions, I felt movement on the bed. I was afraid to turn around and see, but the warmth of the bed made me rush to him.

“You will make a hole in the cave floor with your pacing,” Ethan mumbles slowly in a low gruff morning voice. He gives me a charming smile showing his pearly white teeth when I look at him in shock and awe. I gave him a tight hug before I could stop myself and cried in his embrace like a lost child finally finding his family.

“Hey, I am alright. Please don’t cry. I am here see, good as new.”

He gives me a small kiss on my forehead before letting go of me. I see his face change before he pushes himself into the corner. He moves away from me as if I burned him. The sparks and electricity from our touch are still fresh on my fingertips. My head is feeling the warmth of his breath and the heat of his kiss. I feel hurt and pain intensify in my heart from his reaction. I am on the verge of crying, and the only thing I can muster to say is a word.

“Why?”

I wanted to ask him so many questions but all I can manage is why. He will surely think I am some intellectually challenged lone shifter. Is it even possible for a supernatural person to be intellectually challenged?

I am lost in my stupid thought process when he says, “Nyx told me to wait. She told me to give her a moment before I could tell you that you, a beautiful and strong feline human, is my mate.” He just understood what I meant to ask without any further explanation. The shocked expression on my face must explain how I felt as he gave me a small smile, before putting his hand forward for me. He looks at me waiting for something. When I don’t say anything, he takes my hand and kisses it gently. He asks for my forgiveness in a voice that is barely above a whisper. I am still at a loss for words, so I just nod.