Poison Tree

An understanding

     To say I was nervous would be an understatement. He took me to my room, heading to the library part. He grabbed books and walked me back to the reading nook, gesturing for me to sit down. I sat and took the fluffiest pillow, pulling it into my lap.
     "How much do you know already?" He asked sitting on the desk that had been pushed to the side.
     "About mates or.... wolves?" The word feeling foreign on my tongue. He looked at me, clearly thinking.
     "I guess I should start at the beginning then shouldn't I?" He asked himself.
     "Is this gonna take long?" I asked. He thought it over for a minute before shaking his head. I stood and grabbed the jar of peanut butter and the spoon as well as a blanket, before plopping Back on the couch. Giovoni watched me with amusement, waiting on me to get comfy. I opened the peanut butter jar and gestured for him to continue.
     "Thousands of years ago, a threat stood against man kind. That threat was so powerful that it almost ended the human population for good. The moon goddess, tired of waiting on other gods to come forward, decided to do something about it. She took a man from his village and gifted him with unnatural abilities. She strengthened his hearing so that man could hear threats far away and protect his family. She sharpened his nose, so that man could smell danger and face it prepared. She gave him strength so that he could face anything thrown at him. Upon getting these gifts, this man got greedy. He mis used his powers to make people fear him. The other gods and goddesses laughed at the moon goddess. She wasn't the one to give up easily though. So later on that day, she took the man once more. The man protested, fearing that she was going to take his powers away from him. Instead, she took a strand of her hair, and a strand of the mans, reciting a spell, the follicles burned together, the smoke forming the silhouette of a wolf. The man watched in awe as the goddess breathed life into the shadow. Seconds passed, and it was a fully solid, very real wolf. The goddess then touched the mans forehead. When she did this, the wolf lunges for the man, who jumped. When he awakened, he was In the middle of his village, stark naked. Some had said he'd been cursed. Later on down that rode, they deemed him crazy because he often went on rants of hearing a voice in his head. One day, he had gotten so frustrated of being ignored, he shifted. The villagers looked at him in awe. He looked at them curiously before a village woman gifted him with a mirror. In that mirror, he saw the same wolf that the goddess had conjured. The pieces were starting to fall in place. The goddess gave him the wolf as means to balance him. The man then realized that he now shared his body with the wolf, who's voice was the one bouncing around in his head."
     "Wait, So the voice, so you have one?" I asked nervously. What if he said no? Should I be worried? He smiled at me before nodding, and I let out a breath of relief, dramatically putting my hand to my chest.
     "So you have heard your wolf?" Giovoni asked, shifting on the desk.
     "I just thought that after all life had put me through, I'd finally lost it." I nodded, more to myself. He looked at me, studying my face.
     "You're a great story teller by the way. I'm way more interested than I've ever been with anything else." I said, smiling at him. He gave me an appreciative smile before continuing.
     "The people looked at the man as their savior. He was no longer feared, as his wolf often kept him in check. But not everyone welcomed this man with open arms. When word got out to other villages, they were scared. That fear drove them to anger. They had decided that they would kill the hybrid before it killed them. They stormed the man's village, burning Down huts and bringing destruction with them. The mans village was no more. At this, the man grew furious, but had not shifted. He tried reasoning with the angry people, but his words fell on death ears. One of the villagers had shot the man with a flaming arrow which encased his whole body in flames, the arrow going through his chest. The man howled in pain, before falling to his knees. His wolf grew furious at the actions of the people, forcing himself out to take the injuries instead of the man with whom he shared a body with. The goddess suddenly appeared, the villagers cowering in fear as she shrieked at what the humans had done to her creation. A creation that was supposed to help them. She took the huge wolf in her arms, gracefully walking to a rivers edge. She gently laid the wolf in the stream before allowing her tears to coat the wolf's fur. The man's villagers looked on with grief, all singing songs of grief to the moon. But their songs of sorrow quickly turned into those of victory, for the mans wounds closed and he was back standing. He made the other villagers listen to them, taking on their fear and vanquishing it. Soon the time had come where the man confronted the threat."
     I gasped and made a show of covering my ears, but really? I was so very interested in the story. He chuckled at me, before taking a deep breath before continuing.
     "That threat was vampire. The man at the time had not known what he was against at the time, however his wolf did. The wolf told the man to trust him, and so he did, passing the reigns to the wolf. The two fought viciously, a vampires bite fatal to a wolf and a wolf's bite or scratch proved certain death for the vampire.  The two were matched in speed and strength. The battle was long, both of them tiring each other out, before coming to terms of peace. After the battle, humanity started coming back. The man was forced to watch people interact with each other, but he himself couldn't."
     "Why not?" I asked frowning. "Don't tell me that they regarded him as a threat after he saved their asses!" I angrily scooped the crunchy peanut butter into the spoon, chewing my anger out. I saw a twinkle in Giovoni's eyes as he bit Back a smile.
     "So the man summoned the goddess, listing his complaints. The goddess grabbed the man by the hand and led him through the village.
     "Pick." Was all she said. The man looked around, not knowing who to pick, when he heard commotion. He turned to the commotion and saw a peasant woman begging for food. Recalling how his abilities changed him, he turned to the goddess, who was smiling in satisfaction at the man, having heard what he was thinking. She gifted the woman with the same abilities as the man, and deemed them mates. They went on to be the original wolf couple. Eventually, they started the wolf population, the populations breaking into different packs, honoring the moon goddess and the original wolves." He finished his story, and I sat there lost in thought.
     "So does that mean that we're related?" I asked. Giovoni scrunched his face up in disgust before laughing.
     "No. Nope. No." Was all he said shaking his head. The vibe in the room was calm, both of us drinking in the silence.
     "So can you go in depth on the whole mate thing?" I asked, stifling a yawn.
     "Once a wolf recognizes their mate, it gets harder and harder to be away from them. No two wolves smell alike, and no two marks are the same." He seemed to notice my confused expression because he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.
     "A mark is when I bite your neck and you bite mine in return, sealing fate and showing others that you are spoken for." He said, avoiding my eyes. I blushed as my mind wondered Back to the scene, my stomach turning again. Mates, after recognition, feel their significant other's feelings, but faintly. After the bond is sealed, they can communicate telepathically, and basically feel exactly what the other is feeling. They can even manipulate how the other is feeling." I looked at him in awe, jaw agape. But then a thought crossed my head.
     "Have there ever been incidents when the mates don't want each other?" I asked, watching as his eyes grew wide. I realized that he thought that I was referring to him. I quickly raised my hands.
     "Not That I'm trying to, I'm just trying to get a better understanding." I mumbled a sorry, trying to change subject, but he answered anyways.
     "Rejecting someone the moon goddess picked for you is a very painful process for both ends, but especially on the end that initiated the rejection." He said, voice going dry. "The one who was on the rejected end has a chance with a second chance mate, which is someone who had either been rejected as well, or whose mate is gone. However those on the rejector end suffer forever, a missing piece of their soul gone forever." His eyes held no emotion, and the tension in the room was heavy. 
     "Thanks for helping me get a better understanding." I said, fiddling with my hands, not wanting to look him in the eyes. I tensed as I felt him approach, the body heat emitting from him was pure pleasure. He bent down, planting a kiss on my forehead, sending my stomach into a Frenzy, shivers running up and down my body. His scent made me go dizzy, sighing in content. I watched as he padded out of the room, looking at me once more before leaving the room, shutting the door. I stretched out on the couch, hugging the pillows, my mind reeling with the new information that I was given. But I did know one thing. The pull was getting stronger and stronger.

Much to my horror.