Shadow

Idonia Torbet

Night passed and morning came. The sunrise warmed our chilled bones as we rode east again for Dunrin. Most of the speaking was done by Rikki as he told me of his mate and how they met. I enjoyed the tale as many Viker don’t share such intimate details. I only knew the story of my mother and father meeting. How they met at a banquet on Bethlianna and fell in love overnight. When the festival was over, he brought her back to Theris to be his Aeralea. Mother told us the story often when she would try to put us to bed after an eventful day.

Rikki’s was more romantic.

Danal had been Rae's Viker for a few years before his whole family traveled to Bethlianna for a banquet in the honor of both Rikki and Danal as the Khanel's Viker. When Disa has walked in, Rikki and her instantly connected across the room. They ate together, danced together, and in the morning when the ship came to take her away, Disa and Rikki fled to the western shores. Disa missed the boat and was forced to stay at the castle. There Rikki and her connected more and more before Aeral Ohlson came to collect his daughter. There Rikki informed the whole royal homestead of his mateship with a proud mark on Disa's neck.

It was a nice story, and Rikki is a good storyteller. One can tell by looking at him that Disa is his pride. At one point in the long-winded tale, I look at Rae and see him smiling at me. It is clear at that moment, he sees me as his pride as well. It brings on my guilt again for what I’ve done. More importantly, guilt for my own heart saying that he is not my pride. While he is my mate and I do care if he lives or dies, I cannot yet be proud of him.

“How much longer to Dunrin, Khanelea?” Danal asks after not saying two words to me since we woke up.

“See those buildings on the horizon?” I point to make it clear where the road is leading. All three men nod before I continue with my directions. “That is Dunrin. We’ll be there by day’s end.”

“Then north to Caesting,” Rae recites my direction back to me. “Then The Last End.”

“Yes,” I say softly, our eyes meet briefly before I turn my attention back to the road. Rae keeps his eyes on me, burning my skin from his gaze. My mate wears his emotions in his eyes and it’s hard for me to look into them knowing I don’t feel it yet.

Yet.

All in all, he is my mate. While the bond is working slower for me, all those natural instincts are there. My beast and I need to protect and care for him. In some way, I do care about him even if I don’t love him yet.

Yet.

Down the road, I notice two more riders. As we approach them, their dirty scent fills the air. I watch them cautiously as we move to pass them.

“Hoy, Heizer, ya see that hair?” one man comments. My eyes dark to Rae and his shining red locks.

“Hoy, boy, where ya get that ’air?”

My party tenses as both men position themselves in front fo us. “Move along,” I tell both of them, turning all their attention to me.

“Look ad’is,” the first man says. “A little lady and three big men to protect her. Bet she’s real fun at night.”

Rae growls at the both of them. His arms tense and knuckles grip his reigns. Before he can jump off his horse and kill both men, I speak again.

“Aye!” I yell at them both. “You know who I am?”

“A perdy lady,” the man named, Heizer purrs at me.

“I’m Idonia Torbet, the daughter of the Aeral and Aeralea of Theris. And these,” I look at Danal and Rikki, gesturing to them with my hands. “Are sworn Viker of the Khannun.”

“Even red ove’ there?”

I look at Rae, who stares back at me. His head makes a small movement, telling me not to reveal his title.

“Yes, he is a Viker too and my mate,” I inform the two riders, who look over all three men beside me. “Unless you want my father to hear about this, I suggest you be on your way.”

“Sorry, Ma'am Torbet. We’ll be gettin’ on our way.”

They move out of the middle of the road and pass us with low heads. I watch them as they pass and then continue on away from us. When I’m sure of their fleeing, I usher my mare forward to start back to Dunrin. It doesn’t take long for my mate and his Viker to follow me. All three still in shock of me taking the charge of the situation.

“That was amazing, Khanelea,” Rikki, like always, speaks first. While Rae speaks often when we are alone, he doesn’t say much to me in the presence of the Viker. Good leaders listen first, this is a skill he has mastered. “Do all of the lycan here respect your name so much?”

“The Torbet family has been the protectors of Theris for generations. The citizens respect our loyalty to the land. Such a prominent family as ours has potential to sit on the Khannun’s Council, but we stay in Theris to defends our land against the shadows,” I explain to all of them.

“And a Torbet will sit on the Council,” Rae says. “As the Khanelea and then as the Khanea.”

“Do you think one of your brothers should have a place?” Danal asks me in his same monotonic voice.

“That would be for the Khannun to decide,” I look at Rae when I say this. As Khannun, he will devise his own Council. The Khanea always sits on the Council, and when her eldest boy is old enough, he joins their side. I will sit on Kahnnun Kol’s Council as a formality. My job will be to sit and listen as it was for so many years at home. This is how Khaneleas learn to be good Khaneas.

“I have decided to take a small Council,” he tells me in a formal tone. “It will be Danal, Rikki, you, and my Uncle Ragnvald.”

“Is this the same uncle who told you the best Viker train their horses?” I ask him, not noticing the looks I was receiving from Danal and Rikki.

“The very same.”

“Why him and not Khannun Kol?”

Rae calmed up, all his muscles tenses and he didn’t reply. His relationship with his uncle is obviously important, but there was something else he didn’t want to speak about. Maybe there is something he can’t speak about. A family secret, like Khannun Dellingr’s journal left only to his family.

“Ragnvald has no pups, no mate either,” Rikki tells me after it’s apparent that Rae isn’t going to tell me. “He took an interest in Rae and I when we were younger. Before we were old enough to be properly trained, Ragnvald would teach us the ways of a Viker.”

I watch Rae as Rikki speaks about his uncle. It was strange how quickly he went from open and telling me about his family to reserved. There is something there, and I hoped to get it out of him before we get back to my homestead.