Beauty And Her Beast
I nodded, growing curious about his new expression.
"That's not your dad, Lydia. Not biologically at least."
My eyes widened, "How would you know that?"
He was right, Oliver wasn't my actual biological father, but how did he figure that out so easily?
"I didn't smell a biological relation," He answered, tapping the end of his nose twice with his finger.
"Smell? What do you mean sme-"
Wolf, Lydia, he's a wolf.
I discarded the question, hands falling into my lap.
"He's my uncle on my mother's side and he's raised me alone ever since I was a baby. Apparently my mother had me during a period of her life that she couldn't take care of me and handed me off. So I never met either of my biological parents." I explained.
He seemed surprised by how casually I talked about it, but it was something I came to terms with a long time ago.
Plus, Oliver was never anything other than a dad to me, so I never really saw him as anything else.
Sometimes I even forgot that he wasn't my real dad.
"Well, from that I can only come to the conclusion that your biological father was one of us, judging by the fact that it seems your mother's side of the family is human."
'Us' he says.
Okay, whatever, I could roll with that theory for now.
"So then what? Does that make me like half-werewolf or something?"
He shook his head, now turned to fully face me.
"Not really. The Lycanthrope trait is a dominant gene and thus the offspring of a human and lycan end up being full werewolf."
Lycanthrope?
"Okay, sure. let's say hypothetically my biological father was a... Lycan," God I hope I'm using that word right, "and so by that logic, I'm one too, but I feel like that's something I would have figured out by now."
"I've been told its because you've lived here all your life, and that other half of you is laying dormant because of your lack of contact with other... Lycans," His smile grew as he mimicked how I spoke the last word.
I had to stop myself from letting my cheeks puff out and ended up crossing my arms again instead.
"If it's dormant, then how could you know that I even have that part of me?"
"Because that half of you called to me."
"It what now?"
He chuckled at my reaction.
"You say you've never seen a wolf physically until me, but what about ways other than physically?"
"Like what?"
He rolled out his shoulders before closing the rest of the distance between him and the bars separating us.
I'm glad I was sitting down because that pull in my chest was getting stronger.
"Well, as werewolves we only have one place where both of our halves exist within separate bodies, and that's within our dreams. Have you ever experienced anything like that?"
My body went rigid the very second he spoke the word 'dreams'.
"You have," He said, his eyes practically lighting up as he received his answer from my
reaction alone
"I..." My words died off instantly, my palm rising to press against my forehead.
No... this couldn't be real.
Luka, on the other hand, seemed absolutely elated.
"How long have you had them? What does she do?"
She...
I still struggled to find words for a moment.
The answer couldn't be that. Three years of the same dream with the same wolf and that's what it was?!
"Three years," I managed to quietly get out," Ever since I turned eighteen," I paused for a moment, trying to grasp more of an answer through the sudden confusion in my mind, "All she's ever done is just lay there silently with her eyes closed until-"
I gasped, hand going over my mouth as everything started to make sense.
As much as I didn't want to believe it, it made sense.
"She opened her eyes, looked towards the direction that you first found me, and whimpered, didn't she?" He finished for me, his tone now calm.
No fucking way.
I just nodded, hoping he'd continue.
Ever since I started having those dreams, I've been trying to figure out why, what it meant, and after yesterday, why it changed.
And here he was, filling in the blanks as if it were common knowledge.
"That whimper was a call, I heard it so vividly in the back of my mind. I guess I wandered close enough for your wolf half to sense my presence and called out to me. Then I ran as fast as I possibly could to get to you."
I finally processed my heart racing, not because of his presence, but because of the reality, he was throwing at me.
This was so impossibly new to me, yet every questionable word that left his mouth about this managed to fit into a question I've had.
It made sense, and that fact was actually beginning to unnerve me.
I was starting to believe him, and he fact that he could be right was frightening.
I could actually be a werewolf...
"Why you?" I croaked out.
His smile turned to a softer one.
It almost looked sympathetic.
"Like I said, were mates. You and I were connected at birth, so the half of you that knows all of the details of that has been waiting for me. You have been waiting for me, and I've been looking for you for years."
The wolf in my dreams knew, but I still didn't have a single idea of what that meant.
All I knew was that I felt completely strange around him and had to check myself in order to think straight.
And I craved that warmth I felt when I touched him.
I still had so many questions.
"You say were connected... How, Why? What does being mates entail?" I think my voice was coming out desperate again.
His smile fell for just a moment.
"I can explain this to you later. It's a lot to process, and it looks like you still need time to process other things."
Well, at least he's observant.
I nodded silently, trying to fish up a different question.
"Why eighteen? Why did this start when I was eighteen?"
"Eighteen is an important age for us," He began, "It's the age where we can feel the effects of our mate and seek them out, as well the age where our physical aging starts to slow. I guess you only saw her then because the lycan part of you began craving her mate."
"Wait wait wait, your physical aging starts to slow?!"
His eyes danced with amusement.
"After we turn eighteen, seven physical years for humans equals one for us." He expounded.
I took a second to look him over.
He didn't look too much older than me.
"So that would make you...?"
He actually hesitated for a moment.
"By the end of this year, I'll be seventy-one." he eventually answered.
Wow.
I did some quick math in my head.
25... Okay, yeah. He fit the physical description of a 25-year-old.
I guess.
"So I have the dreams, and the... ability to feel whatever the whole mate thing is, but I don't think my age has slowed."
Would I even notice if my age was slowed?
I felt like a 21-year-old...
"I don't think it has either. Nor do you have the eyes of a lycan."
"Eyes?"
He gestured for me to approach him, answering as I did so.
"When shifted into our wolf forms, all of us have golden eyes, but when we're not, our eyes are as variant as regular humans. Though, no matter which form we're in you can always see remnants of the other one."
I remembered thinking the wolf's eyes were strange, with the flecks of light blue floating around them.
As I approached Luka, I could see that it was the exact opposite.
Small flakes of gold, calmly floating amongst the pool of blue.
"I guess its just kind of a way for both sides of us to be present at both times," he concluded.
I continued to look, my eyes betraying what I was trying to do and began looking over his entire face.
I had to admit, he was insanely attractive.
"Y'know, you might not have the eyes of one of us yet, but I can only imagine they'd be absolutely captivating. Gold mixed with that deep dark blue of yours?" He nodded subtly, greatly agreeing with his own thoughts, "Yeah, absolutely stunning."
Heat overtook my face before I had time to react.
Taking a step back, I cleared my throat and attempted to
Luka's POV:
My eyes followed her as she left until she disappeared up the steps.
I'd say that went well.
Or at least better than it could have been.
She actually took the information I gave her a lot better than I was expecting.
And given that my only goal in that whole conversation was to not completely freak her out, I think I did well.
She seemed to believe me, despite how ridiculous what I told her might seem to someone that's never encountered my species.
The fact that she's at least come in contact with her wolf through her dreams was just the boost I needed.
It told me that even if she wasn't conscious of it at all, that she shared the same lycan instincts that I did.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say that subconscious knowledge was helping her understand and accept all of this.
I knew this was new to her, but she never doubted anything that I said to her.
Whether it was the mate bond or that subconscious knowledge, I wasn't sure.
What I was sure about was that I needed to get her to my pack.
The fact that her wolf has been lying dormant all this time admittedly saddened me, both because both sides of me desperately longed to see her, and I couldn't imagine missing such a large part of myself.
I wanted to show her everything that she was.
But at this point, it was up to her.
I had a plan, but it wouldn't work if she doesn't do what I want her to.
I stepped back and glanced at the door of this cage.
She might not have panicked, but she was definitely wary, which is probably why she kept me in here.
She was aware of the mate bond, but she didn't know what it meant.
I'm just hoping it was strong enough within her for me to pull this off.
Shutting my eyes, I listened, hearing her footsteps above me in the dirt followed by the heavier steps of a horse.
Perfect.
I waited for a couple more minutes before the heavy footsteps of the horse started off and faded as she rode into town.
As soon as I could no longer hear her, I opened up the cage door and began setting my plan into motion.
I didn't know how long she planned to be gone, but it was probably enough for me to get done what I needed to before she returned.
I really only needed one of her instincts to kick in for this, whether it was for me, or the need to keep me here for her... father.
Either way, I just simply needed her to chase.
~~~
Lydia's POV:
I think my expression was completely blank.
I had ridden into town, picked something up from Briar, and was now riding back.
My body running on autopilot at this point. I couldn't even tell you what I just spent money on.
All I knew was that I was headed home to cook breakfast for me and the wolfman in my basement.
Luckily Angus knew where home was and was keeping at a nice walking pace back without me having to do too much.
My horse was moderately well mannered for a shire gelding, although right now I think he could tell I'd been on edge all day today.