After Rae Campbell is murdered by her abductor, she wakes in a world that exists parallel to ours- one which diverged in 1761, when a band of Scottish Highlanders joined with the Skin-Walking Kituwah tribe to oust the British from Appalachia.
Rae b...
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Master had been coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs. This man? He's making master look sane. Parallel universes and ancient Scottish legends and mates...
I shake my head, but decide to play along.
Life has taught me not to taunt dangerous men.
"I'm your mate?" I echo, striving to keep the disbelief out of my tone, to keep my expression neutral. I clench my hands into fists to hide their shaking.
He cocks his head to the side- like a dog-, and glances over me with a frown. "You do not feel it?" He asks, and I stare at him.
"What am I supposed to feel?"
He rakes a hand through the tousled black hair that hangs long, over his shoulders. I've never liked long hair on men, but it is not exactly a bad look on him. Although it does go along with the crazy person vibe. The braid with the eagle feather tied to its end does too.
"You do have mates where you are from, do you not?"
I can't help but notice that I haven't heard him use a contraction once. He speaks so formally.
"We have husbands and wives," I reply, and he shakes his head.
"Chosen mates. That is not the same."
I shrug my shoulders. "Well, enlighten me, then."
His jaw ticks, and he sighs. "A mate is..." He pauses, trails off, his brow furrowed, his eyes lost in thought. "I will tell you the legend," he says, finally, and takes a seat on the cot I had been lying in earlier. His massive frame takes up nearly half its length.
When I remain standing, my arms crossed over my chest, he pats the space beside him. I swallow hard, but know better than to disobey a crazy person who is stronger than me. I tentatively sit at the very far edge of the cot, as far away from him as I can manage on the thin mattress.
He looks displeased by my avoidance, but allows me my distance.
"In the old days, when Spirits walked the earth, and Skin-Walkers had not yet taken human form, our beasts looked quite different than they do now. They had eight legs, like a great spider, and two heads, and two tails. We were powerful, then, nearly as powerful as the Great Spirit. We began to talk amongst ourselves, began to wonder why we should follow the instructions of the Great Spirit.
"To punish us for our pride, The Great Spirit cleaved our beasts in half, and cast them into two different, frail, human bodies. We were cursed to wander, half creature and half man, bearing only half of our ancestral power. And so it is that we roam the earth, searching for our mate, who carries the other half of our beast. It is only when we find them that we will be truly whole again."
He glances at me, a brow raised. "Do you see?" He asks, and my mouth drops.
I do not see. The legend he told did very little to explain what he meant about me feeling a mate bond, but did bring up something entirely unexpected.
