Heir To The Iron Crown: Dyrith

1 - Fyrst

- Part 3 -

The Present

...

"I'm here butterfly," Valente's familiar voice drifted in my mind and I felt like my legs would give way underneath me.

Now that I knew who my mate was, the bond we shared was no longer limited to feeling. I could hear him, and he could hear me. I was sure he could hear my countless thoughts about him now, his mark on my nape tingling at his beautiful sight.

I couldn't tell how, but he'd grown taller, and he looked much stronger now than he used to before. A short, handsome beard covered half his face. His moist, kind eyes were still the stormy grey as they always were, but they held an emotion I knew my eyes too reciprocated. He'd grown into a fine man these past years; in a word, he looked perfect.

I couldn't say the same for myself with my swollen face and injured thigh, my expression coming off as agony, but none of that seemed to matter anymore. If he was here, it means I would be safe. He kept his promise, and he'd take me from this place.

"Don't give us away Rayne," he said to me through our newly formed mindlink. "We need to find a way to get you out of here. But first let's get through this."

I understood now how Sven could have been so closely connected to Valente. They were from the same pack, which is probably why Valente trusted Sven.

I looked at Bayo, a question rising in my mind.

"He can't hear us. The conversation between mates is always private," Valente said in my mind.

He walked towards his seat as he said those words, showing me I needed to pull myself together now. Surely we couldn't just run away immediately, we had to learn about whatever information these packs held, and then maybe we could think about a more fitting reunion.

I thought about his words.

Mates.

We were mates. All these years I was looking for a mate, trying to get over Valente. But now that he sat in front of me, his thoughts vulnerable for me to hear, showing me he trusted me with every thought in his mind, I realized that I could have never found a better mate than him.

We were mates. We shared a bond closer than anything anyone could share, because he chose me even though he didn't know I was meant for him. He chose me, even though I was already chosen for him.

We were mates. The thought had a sense of happiness blossoming in my heart that I hadn't truly felt in such a long, long time.

Diem helped me walk to a seat next to Bayo, and then left the room. Bayo didn't turn to look at me as I painfully sat. Instead he was eyeing Valente suspiciously, as if he had heard about this man but was seeing him in person for the first time.

Alpha Alfie and his mate Zula were also seated on the table along with two men that I hadn't seen before. I could tell they were the Alpha and Beta of Fala, given by their seating towards the head of the table.

Valente had come alone, and along with Gamma Fraser, it made eight of us on the conference table in that meeting hall.

Valente wasn't looking at me, he seemed highly professional with the way he kept himself, even though he did look at me once every few seconds, his expression of concern surely visible to Bayo beside me. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop looking at him.

"Is everything okay Rayne?" Bayo asked in a whisper from beside me, bringing me out of a daze. His eyes were trained on Valente as if he was studying him, trying to figure him out.