Ayn's Healing

Chapter 35 - Kari

I am looking at the pieces of my phone scattered next to the wall. I am wondering if I should ask one of the omega ladies to clean it up or if I should do it myself, since it's too embarrassing to share this display of weakness with an unranked pack member.

"You seem to have angered her," Storm sighs.

"Yeah, well she angered me first" I growl back at him, picking up the splitters and throwing them one by one in the bin.

"I must be out of place, I thought I shared a mind with a man of age, but it feels like the one of a pup. You told her you will support her whatever her decision was. I wish you hadn't, but you did." my wolf unnecessarily reminds me. I unfortunately know very well what I told Ayn. But, at the time, I thought supporting her would entail putting two lambdas at her disposal, to thrash their asses as she saw fit for her training purposes. She could heal them afterwards. I did not consider that I was potentially committing to letting her go away from me, in her home world, Goddess knows how often and how long, to meet with a male of her kind.

"Not necessary to rub it in, wolf, really not necessary" I try to push Storm away from my consciousness, so that I have space to mind link Timo and the twins.

When they come to my office I tell them I will be leaving the next morning to the Witches' Plains and I am requesting them to be in charge of the pack. I also mention I had a little phone accident and so I will only be reachable via mind link. Timo looks at the dent in the wall and frowns, probably calculating how much we have left on our device quota.

I sleep alone for the first time in a year and it's the stuff of nightmares. I wake up every hour looking for her warm shape next to me and, when I remember she is some two hundred miles away, I close my eyes again, only to slip into weird anxiety filled dreams. I am actually happy when the alarm rings at five.

As I drive like a regular human towards the ferry terminal, I try to construct a speech that will convey my deepest apologies to my mate, in a manner that allows us afterwards to discuss her training plans like two reasonable adults.

I am so distracted that I slow down before driving off the ferry but I don't fully stop as I should. A fire barrier suddenly appears, almost touching my front spoiler, and a small witch lady waves her hand at my window, lowering it.

„Travel permission and identification."

There is obviously no "Sir" or "please" for shifters on this side of the River, so I shake my head and hand her the green cards I requested and signed by myself last night. She is not impressed by seeing my rank and states irritated:

„There is no travel reason on this document."

„I am sorry, I will fill it in right now." I tell her and reach out for my backpack to get a pen, thinking that the Lake Four office has lowered their security standards, since they should have asked me about my travel reason in the first place. The witch points her raised finger at me:

„Keep your hands on the wheel, shifter"

I do as she says, because I know from Ayn what their kind can do by raising their finger.

„State your travel reason."

„I am going to meet my mate. She traveled here to register for mind power training."

She raises one eyebrow and I see she finds it hard to believe that a Core pack Alpha is mated to a witch.

„Show me her mark."

I slowly take my hands off the wheel, maintaining eye contact with her, and silently thanking my mom who had guilted us into marking each other. As I unbutton my sleeve and reveal the full-moon shaped sign, I am also grateful that my mate has abandoned her initial plan of writing „Property of Ayn" on my forearm.