Bonded

Chapter 42

"An Alligra," Imara reached out and placed her hand on top of the pairs clasped hands. "YOU, Little One, make all the milestones of a wolf's life easier... birth, first shift, even death. Alphas like myself and your mate will lead a pack, but an Alligra grows a pack. A pack with an Alligra has more pups, more females survive childbirth, some even go on to have a second child. More of our young make it through their First Shift. You can make all of these things possible."

Rebecca's mind swirled with Imara's words. She remembered helping Greyson through his first shift all those years ago.

Grayson put the needs of the pack to the side for a moment to focus on his mate. "That doesn't explain about the voices? And why hasn't she ever felt safe?"

Imara leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap. "Oh, but she has," She raised an eyebrow at Rebecca. "Little One, when you needed to quiet your mind when you wanted to feel safe, what did you do?"

Rebecca's lower lip trembled, but she squared her shoulders and looked at Greyson in the eyes. "I ran to you.... Greys, you made everything quiet. I don't know how but just being around you made the voices stop, you made me feel safe. You let me rest, even if it was just for a few minutes."

It was Greyson's turn to look confused. How could she have never told him this? How could he not notice? "But I was on the plane? You definitely didn't feel safe then, and I was there."

"The pack mindlink. Those are the voices she hears. She went from hearing the link of the few wolves around her to nearly five hundred voices at once. It would have been completely overwhelming and disorienting. It is meant to call to her. To tell her who she is, to show her where she belongs. It would bring her to a pack, and she would be given the protection of that pack. The moment she stepped foot on pack land, whatever help being near an Alpha like Greyson provided would have been canceled out. In order to feel safe, to feel the safety of being where she belonged, she needed the official protection of the pack. It is also why she was able to get as far as she did without a wolf catching her. Instinctively, every wolf feels protective of her. They wouldn't have wanted to hurt her, even accidentally. Alligras are protected at all costs. They are the future of the pack. Little One, you are our future. You can save us from extinction."

Dr. Tyler cleared her throat to gain the attention of the group. "Not to pile on, but I believe I've found why Rebecca became so sick so fast with Bonded Sickness. It was in a book you bought at the auction."

Greyson glanced at his mate. At the shell shocked look on her face, he decided she was in no shape to question the doctor. "What were you able to find, Doc?"

The brunette shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "To be sure, I'll have to ask some rather personal questions."

"Sure, because none of this could be easy." Greyson sighed. "Ask your questions."

"You were in Norway when you sealed your bond by mating?"

"Yes."

"Were you outside?"

Greyson looked at Rebecca, silently asking for permission to speak of that night in front of others. Reluctantly, she nodded her head. "Yes."

"Under a full moon?"

"Yes."

"Under the Northern Lights?"

"Yes."

Dr. Tyler shifted in her seat once more. "And was your wolf fully present?"

"What?" Greyson snapped at the doctor.

"He was." Rebecca spoke softly.

"He what?" Greyson questioned her.

"Your eyes. They were rimmed with gold. I didn't think about it at the time, I was a bit distracted." Her cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink in embarrassment. "But your eyes flashed gold and then sort dimmed into a mixture of gold and brown."

Not wanting to talk about the particulars, Greyson tried to move the subject along. "Fine, my wolf was present. What could it possibly matter?" His patience with the conversation was wearing thin.

"Just one more question," Dr. Tyler put on her best professional face. "Is it possible that one, or both of you, was a virgin?"

Greyson ground his teeth together so hard Rebecca could hear it. Deciding to save him and their audience from the awkwardness, she answered. "Yes. I was." She had already laid bare her deepest darkest secrets, what was one more.

Dr. Tyler nodded her head once. "I believe that you may have, unintentionally, become Soul Bound." She let the words hang in the air.

Greyson scrubbed his hand over his face in frustration. "And what the hell is that?"

Imara was the one to answer. "It was an old legend. Newly mated pairs would wait to mate for the first time for a full moon under the Northern Lights in order to bind their souls."

"But we are soul mates!" Greyson really wanted some sort of clarity on the situation.

"And you are. But you are also more." Seeing the frustration on the faces of the couple in question, she continued. "Think of it like adding cream to a bowl of berries. That is a mated pair. Combined they are better, but they can be separated. A soul bound pair is adding cream to coffee. They can not be separated."

Greyson growled despite himself. "And what does that mean?"

Dr. Tyler rejoined the conversation. "It means that your souls are now linked. Bonded Sickness will set in faster, and..." She paused and cleared her throat, "and your lifelines will be linked. If one of you dies, the other will die. Rebecca will age at the same rate as you."

Before anyone had time to react to the bombshell, the doors to Imara's office burst open revealing a huge mountain of a man, he was nearly as tall and wide as the door frame. His unkempt hair, long scraggly beard, amber glowing eyes, and his long canines gave him a wild, feral look.

"Where is she?!" He demanded of the group. His predatory eyes scanned the room until he found Rebecca. Feeling his eyes on her, she shot up out of her seat and ran to the opposite corner of the room. She had no idea who the wild man was, or why he wanted her, but she wasn't going to sit on some couch waiting to find out.

"Becca, wait!" Greyson called after her.

Imara was the second to react. "Fenrir! What is the meaning of this!"

The enormous man ignored Imara and lumbered his way over to Rebecca, knocking over furniture along the way. Rebecca cowerded in the corner of the room. Much to her surprise, instead of attacking her, he dropped to his knees before her and bowed his head.

"I pledge my life to yours. I pledge to give my life in defense of yours." He looked up and locked his amber eyes locked with Rebecca's green orbs. "Imara!" He barked her name without taking his concentration off of Rebecca's face. "I wish to take her life!"

Rebecca shook her head wildly back and forth. "No! No! You aren't taking anything!" She rushed around the strange man and headed for the door.

"Rebecca, wait!" Greyson yelled as he lifted the overturned furniture out of his way so he could get to his mate.

The subject of everyone's attention paused in her flight out of the room. "I don't want this. I don't want any of this!" With that, she fled the room.

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