Mated & Blooded

Chapter 17

(Nikoli's POV)

My beloved was even more special than I could have imagined. She had such a quirky sense of humor and her mind was sharp and intelligent. She was also much stronger than she or I could have imagined. I'd spent the last several days pushing her out of her comfort zone and testing her physical and mental strength. My beloved truly was an amazing young woman.

Things had been very touch and go in the first hours after she had awoken. Her wolf had taken an immediate dislike of me and saw me as a threat. I tried my best to put both my beloved and her stubborn wolf at ease. After her initial shock started to wear off Kalli seemed to calm down and graciously accept the situation she found herself in. Her wolf on the other hand accepted nothing graciously. It fought Kalli tooth and nail every step of the way.

It wanted nothing to do with me. It was abundantly clear that it did not approve of any physical contact between Kalli and me. It went as far as to make contact nearly impossible. Each and every single time I tried to touch Kalli, her wolf would freak out. Sometimes Kalli would lose control and automatically shift into her wolf form. The damn ornery wolf would stand in attack form with its hair on end, teeth bared growling for hours until Kalli could reign it back in and shift back to human. After the first dozen times of going through this, I finally decided it would be best if I stayed hands off.

Not being able to touch however really isn't an issue for me or Kalli. I really don't mind not being about to touch her. Just being near her is satisfying my every need. As a vampire, being with my beloved isn't so much about the physical as it is about the emotional, mental and spiritual.

As with all beloved pairs, I was painstakingly honest with Kalli. I explained to her about her being my beloved. I took my time laying out all the details and nuances about how we were a different type of pair. I explained how her blood would affect me, and why we couldn't truly be a blooded pair. I also discussed my concerns about her future mental health and even told her how I was experiencing her emotions.

I held nothing back. Kalli's unique physical condition changes everything and nothing. I gave her every detail as I knew it. We discussed every single minute detail. Once I had told her everything I knew, I asked Kalli to explain to me her situation in the pack, and how she came to be different. It was during her telling that I started to put some possible scenarios together.

It was amazing that her mother had managed to survive the death of her true mate that she had already bonded with. I knew in my two hundred and eighty seven years of life, that had never happened before. When I passed that information along to an elder they confirmed that in all of recorded history no she-wolf had survived the death of their blood bonded true mate.

The information amazed and intrigued both myself and my elders. We of course knew that a vampire's blood could alter and enhance a human's life; it however had never occurred to us that it could have a similar influence on a wolf's life. It had previously been thought that our blood would have either no effect on a wolf or a negative effect like their blood has on us. Interestingly of course it had never been tested.

While we vampires would have been happy to utilize wolves as test subjects, we knew it would be morally wrong to force them. Vampires adhere to a very high standard of moral codes. While we are immortal, we have a very high respect for the limitations of the mortal life. It is very precious and we would never extinguish a mortal life lightly.

Medical testing and experiments were kept to a minimum and were performed with great care to not hurt the humans and wolves. Medical testing on wolves was very rare since in general wolves tended not to trust us, and preferred to avoid vampires.

We vampires however loved to watch both humans and wolves alike. While we are solitary creatures we are always looking to expand our minds. Studying humans and wolves can be very amusing. We would often live in their shadows, but keep tabs on them much in the same way as humans watch wild wolves or tigers. In fact, I spent nearly seventy five years watching the BlueRidge pack before they collapsed and disbanded. I knew more of their history than anyone else alive.

Over the past several days, Kalli and I shared several discussions and calls with the elders. We went over and over how Kalli and her mother were altered. We discussed Kalli and I's blooding situation, her mental health concerns, and how I am already experiencing her emotions.

Kalli stayed with me every step of the way. We were beginning to come up with several theories, and even a few ways to test them. At the top of our list is that the blood Kalli's mom was infused with was most likely mine. How the wolf doctor would have obtained my blood or for that matter any vampire blood was a mystery we had yet to solve.

If however it was my blood, that would clarify why I was experiencing Kalli's emotions, and would eliminate our fear of mental health issues for Kalli. See, we vampire often half blooded with our beloved as infants. We would feed the infant our blood to make a one side connection. The adult vampire would then be able to identify with our beloved emotions even before they can communicate.

The second half of the blooding would of course not occur until they were an adult. That theory would explain why I am already able to experiencing Kalli's emotions but she doesn't feel any of mine. That would also mean that her soul already received responses from mine and that she was in no danger of having a mental break down.

We hoped that would prove true once we tested it. Since, Kalli and I had come to the decision that she would need to return to her wolf mate sooner rather than later. It appeared that it was impossible for her wolf to live without its mate for long. Every day she spent away from Lucas it became harder for her to control her wolf. In fact twice, in the past thirty hours I have had to run her back to Northern Star so that she could see with her own eyes that Lucas was okay. It was our theory that returning to Lucas would give her control back of her wolf.

The elders were set to arrive at my home within the next few hours, that theory and several others were on our list to test. I would never let Kalli know how much that decision hurt me. I would be forced to love my beloved from afar. She would have her wolf mate, while I would be left alone. At least, I could feel her happiness that she would share with her wolf mate.

Lucas was important to Kalli, and that meant in some ways he was becoming important to me. Life for and with Kalli was going to be very complicated. I needed to stop focusing on what I was losing and concentrate on what I had just gained. I might not get to love my beloved in the traditional way, but I was blessed to have her in my life, and I would stay close enough to experience life and love through her.

I realized the day was no longer young, and decided it was time to slip away from Kalli long enough to check on my guests. I call them guests, but in fact they are my prisoners. They are the second thing that I haven't been completely honest with Kalli about. I kept it from her because I knew it was in her best interest. I found myself thinking back on how I had gotten myself into this situation as I slipped from the room and headed into the cave below my home. Just like most things in life, it started with the best intentions and then well, like all intentions it went sideways.

Kalli had been out of her mind with worry about her wolf mate and totally inconsolable when she'd first realized she was with me. Nothing I did would calm her. I was afraid she was going to hurt herself if she didn't calm down. Finally in desperation I promised her I would go check on Lucas and make sure that he was safe and that no harm had come to him.

So off I'd gone to Northern Star territory. I looked for Lucas, but instead found Alpha Logan and his Luna in their home. They'd been working on setting up a trap that would most likely kill Lucas when he returned to the house. I could feel my beloveds fear of losing her wolf mate, and I'd done the only thing I could. I dismantled the trap, and grabbed the alpha and the Luna and brought them back with me.

I figured with them gone, Lucas would be safe and my beloved could stop worrying. That's when my intentions went sideways. Once I grabbed them, I didn't know what to do with them. I couldn't let them go, they would go right back to Northern Star and kill Lucas. So now, I was stuck slipping away from my beloved to feed and care for them.

I knew however this couldn't go on forever. Eventually, something more permanent would have to be done. Perhaps once the elders have been consulted, I will have to permanently eliminate the threat to Lucas by ending his parent's life.