Stallion Mage: A Horse Shifter Mpreg Romance (COMPLETE)

Magic... or something more? (18+)

How had he gotten through?  Alvarr was glad that nothing had threatened him, but it was mysterious how the leader had just walked through all the mage's barriers.

Barron nervously twitched his ears.  "See you later, Alvarr," he said, and dashed away, leaving the mage alone with Laren.

"What was he doing here?" the leader growled.  His gray tail whipped from side to side.

"We're friends," Alvarr said.  Maybe it was stretching their relationship, but what business was it of Laren's?  They weren't friends.  I don't know what we are.

"He's the one you healed, isn't he?  During…"

That night.  "Yes, that's right," Alvarr said.  "I healed Nassor as well."

"You also seem friendly with him," the leader said, a challenge in his eyes.

Maybe I should tell him about Thane and Nassor.  But what would he do?  Probably nothing, and Alvarr hardly needed an escort.  His magic would protect him.  Nature's will clearly didn't want to see him harmed.

"Why do you take such an interest?" Alvarr asked with a shake of his mane.  "You never have before," he dared to say.

"A leader has many people to care for," Laren said, but his words lacked conviction.  Instead, he sounded tired.  Defeated.

A shaft of sunlight filtered through the thick trees and struck the leader's neck and back.  His light gray mane and coat were touched by gold, creating an effect of pure beauty, but the set of his shoulders was weary.

He has a lot resting on him, Alvarr thought, reminded of the Elders' words about how young their leader actually was.  But the mage still resented the way Laren had treated him.  It wasn't as though Alvarr himself had no responsibilities. 

"I come here to be alone," the mage said, his words cold as spring rain.  "But Barron followed me to apologize for his bullying.  Why have you come here?"

"The colt has run away," Laren said.

A sudden dizziness struck the mage, then several scenes flashed into Alvarr's mind.  The colt, waking up in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by people and scents he didn't know.  And walls around him, which he'd never seen before.

Then, the colt running for the familiar look of the grasses with a swift, springing gait.  No one around to stop him.  Everyone was out grazing, even the Elders.

"He was scared when he woke up," Alvarr said.  "He left when everyone was foraging."  Then, he gasped, remembering the name he'd privately given.  Doran.  Wanderer.  Had he made this happen by accident?

Laren paced, his great legs wearing the same path in the ground.  "Don't you understand what a loss this is for us?  He could have lived with us, become one of us-"

But Alvarr struck the ground with his foreleg.  I'm not stupid.  "No, he could not have stayed with us," he said.  "The colt was too young, not even three years old.  Who among us could raise him?"

"You," the leader said, gazing at the pond of water.

"Me?"  The mage was astonished.  Oh yes, the colt would come with me as I heal people from injuries, gather herbs in the field, get bullied by Thane and Nassor. 

"My life is no life for a child, Laren," Alvarr said.  "Surely you know this.  He'd bolt as soon as I had to heal someone in the healing tent, or wither romeya, or cleanse a stream, or-"