— Alik —

“First thing first, you.”

He quirked a brow at me.

“Vitteraï have this sort of connection to land, far beyond and deeper what most things can. They don’t own any of it in anyways, but their awareness is a link to it. Traditionally, when they get their mates, they make a ceremony with a limited number of potential mates. Once the bond develops later, they both feel it. Or at least, they do if they are both vitteraï as they feel one another through their connection with the land. It’s said that they can be apart and still feel one another’s presence.

But the thing is that this bond,” I pointed at him. “Was not artificially triggered because you’re both werewolves. It came to be naturally, so neither was warned of this. Thus, you could feel her through a connection that goes beyond space and time, but she couldn’t sense you, as you don’t have this connection.

So it triggered your mate bond. Giving you a constant connection to keep triggering it daily, yet going through the separation permanently. Let me ask you something. I heard you became Alpha young, how young was it?”

“I started to take some of the duties around thirteen, but I was made officially Alpha only when I was fifteen.”

I whistled. “That’s young. How come? Your father is still capable, I mean you made him one of your Alphas, right?”

“He got hit by a pretty nasty curse and his health got worse and worse. At some point he nearly bit it. I managed to find ways to gain some time, but it took me years to get rid of that curse. Eventually, he got better and I gave him something to do as he was driving everyone nuts otherwise.” He looked at Elaeya.“It’s all nice and everything to get answers, but shouldn’t we do something about her, if you know what’s going on now?”

“I don’t think I can do something.” I paused and thought furiously.

I dug inside my bag, grabbed a crystal and put in on a leather cord. I then drew a circle on the floor with my erasable marker around me, and muttered a spell. I then went to Elaeya and knotted the improvised necklace around her neck.

“This will take care of it?” he asked me.

“Nope,” I said. “But it will help her. It’s like a seal separating her from the outside world. It will give her an edge in her fight.”

“Why separate her from the outside world? You said she was not under attack.”

“And she isn’t,” I said sitting back down. “I’ll get there.”

He looked strangely at me.

I’m used to this. I’m a wizard, my work is the strange and weird. So obviously, I get that effect on people too.

“So,” I said getting back to my story. “The fact that, one, you were young when this occurred, two, you rose in rank pretty quickly, and three, you’re naturally strong, is what probably save you.”

“What do you mean,” he asked.

“Okay, firstly, a young mind is more malleable. The older we get, the stronger the mind becomes. It’s like if something is trying to force itself inside someone’s mind, it’s harder to do with someone older than younger. At least it’s the rule with everything human or human-ish. The moment something as free will, as what doesn’t, tend to be set in its ways from the get go.

You know how we say old people are stubborn?”

He nodded.

“In part, that’s it. Some of it is age, experience, becoming more jaded, not trusting as easily, you build years of knowledge and exposure to all the ups and downs of life, and this becomes like a shield to protect you. Plus, it goes beyond this, it’s also metaphysical.

By not having this layer of protection, it can reshape you. You know how we say what doesn’t bend breaks. Well, you bent. Kids are freakishly adaptable, and you adapted better than you would have if you’ve been older when this happened. You faced your puberty in that stage. Plus, not only there is your natural predisposition for strength, but the relationship between an Alpha and his pack is beyond just responsibilities. Your pack makes you stronger and vice versa.

That gave you the ammunition to face this challenge. You might have gone insane otherwise, or just died.

But this leads to the next issue. Power.”

I bent down and grabbed a bottle of water from my bag and took a sip.

“Let’s just say that every werewolf has a 100%. It’s like your maximum capacity, power, it’s the magical part of your nature.”

“Magical?” he asked bewildered.

“And you think shifting from human form to wolf form as nothing to do with magic,” I asked him incredulously.

He shrugged.

“Right, so what is one person’s 100% is not necessarily’s the same as another. Genetic is a factor. For example,” I pointed my hand at him moving it up to downwards.

He snorted.

“Also, training, skills, knowledge, experience, health, are all things that can shift forwards or backwards a werewolf’s 100%. Not unlike muscles. Your peak can change with the state of your health or how much you train.”

He nodded.

“Okay, so the theory goes as such. No werewolf can reach his 100% without a mate. There is maybe a 5 to 10% that is inaccessible without it. But once you find your mate, it’s there. Which is one of the reasons why you people are so keen on finding and sticking to your mates. But you can’t be fully what you could be otherwise—if you were to try to reach your full potential—without one. I think if the mate dies it’s on the lower end, but if you’re not united, then it’s on the higher end.

Now, there is a part, the metaphysical part of you, who connects with one another. When werewolf connects with their mate, and especially forges their bonds, there is part of this latent metaphysical potential that goes beyond that original 100% that comes from the interaction with one another. You can sort of see things in videogame terms as a buff. Depending on your mate, this could be between 10 and 20%, and it will be different from one person to another, reacting in ways that are more relevant to that werewolf.

For example, if your metaphysical abilities translate mostly in physical strength, then your mate will most probably inherit something similar or akin to this. That percentage, though, is when your mate is a werewolf only, hybrids can affect less or even more, and in wilder ways too.

But, separation from a mate, as a cost. If part of the bond had been forged, it would have put a limiter on this, but you didn’t, so that cost was little at first, put it grew, and grew, and grew. Most would have kicked the bucket before then, but you lasted abnormally long. So that cost kept growing.”

I took another sip from my bottle.

“There is a training some Polynesian warriors do, where it consists of running for long distance in waist-deep water. The resistance of the sea makes it really hard. It’s nigh impossible to run fast this way, but by putting such a damper on their abilities in their everyday training, when they finally get out of the water, they haul ass.

In a way, you’ve had a damper on your abilities nearly all your life. A damper that has been growing with time, and you had to compensate for it, heavily. But as you grew into it, you never really realised it. But you probably had to train twice as hard to reach the same results you would have been satisfied with otherwise. And impressively still, you managed to become a fearsome werewolf regardless, so kudos to you, by the way.

But you found your mate, you forged the bond, and now you’re healed. All the dampers are now off. Your true abilities are starting to unleash. Not only that, but your mate is a freaking hybrid vitteraï. You could potentially gain from her a lot more than just a 20% buff. How strong your connection is, your level of trust, all of this will determine the level of effect this has on you, and it can grow with time.

So that door. You broke it. You probably didn’t use your muscles more than usual, but the effect is not going to be the same as it was. I would strongly suggest that you don’t play rough house with a kid or anything too fragile, or you might inadvertently break it. Give yourself a few months to a year until you really re-learn how to gage both your strengths and abilities.”

His eyes had gotten rounder and rounder as I talked, but they now snapped to her.

“Don’t worry about her. She’s probably the safest from any accident. Your instincts will probably kick in and stop you from doing anything you shouldn’t as they kinda perceive her as a part of you, in some ways that is not untrue.

It’s like the nerves in your teeth. Your jaw is strong enough to break your teeth by biting too hard. Even without werewolf levels of strength. The nerves are there to make it too painful for you to keep biting until you crush them. You kind of have the same metaphysical mechanism when it comes to her. You’ll have to push beyond that threshold to be able to actively hurt her.”

“Is it true than killing a mate can kill you?”

“Potentially, yes,” I said. “Or at least, cripple you for life. If not physically, then in other ways. Not good ways.”

He nodded.

“And what is happening to you is happening to her now,” I continued. “At least in part. Only the reaction is not the same.”

“The headaches and madness?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “The difference is in her nature versus yours.” I scratched at my shin. “Back in the days when vitteraï became involved with werewolves—actually, that’s what spirit wolf mean, one that has joined a pack—they were generally pure blooded. They would join, some were made Luna—as they could not be made technically female Alpha as they were not werewolves, so they became a sort of spiritual connector in between both worlds.

Now, when they would have children—hybrids—with their Alpha, the child would grow up and not take power for a while, as most werewolves don’t pass titles until they’ve generally beyond their prime. You remember what I said about young minds being more malleable?”

He nodded.

“Well, as you guys have a pretty long lifespan, it would give the child a few decades to build that mental shield. Then, if the child was to take power, the mother would generally take a more spiritual guide type of position. A sort of mix of shaman and spiritual manager for land and entities, and ancestors and the likes. Because the child, now part werewolf, would develop a stronger connection with that specific land, and its people—and doing double duty is a lot harder. So the mother would protect by taking some of that pressure off.

And when that one gets older, he or she takes the same role the mother did for the next in line. Acting as an insulator.

Because here is the thing. Your pack is pretty big, both in people and land. That translates into additional power for you, and your power and strength means a stronger pack and so on.”

“It’s not as snowballing as you made it sound like, but yeah, there is a correlation between the too.”

“Right, and Elaeya is still young. She’s not as protected. And she has magic which can trigger things in all sorts of unpredictable ways for her kind.

And your pack is freakishly big, and she didn’t have a lot of time to get accustomed to the additional input this gives her. This place probably hasn’t interacted with its spiritual counter par in centuries, maybe more. There are entities that needs this. There are probably a lot of things reaching out, and through her link with you, they sense her even more sharply than they usually would.

Things are probably trying to connect with her, some happy to be finally able to talk, others furious of having been ignored for so long. Plus, all that she’s getting from the pack itself. Her brain is being assaulted right now and is being overloaded. That’s what’s happening with her.”

“What will happen then?”

“If things continue as is, if she’s unlucky she’ll either go completely insane or self destruct.”

He cringed.

“If she’s lucky, she’ll learn to forgo all emotion and will discard most of her personality. She’ll mostly be a vessel, not much else.”

He rubbed both of his hands over his face in exasperation and rested his elbows on his knees.

“So I become stronger and she disappears in the process, and die, one way or another?”

“If nothing is done then yes,” I said.

His head perked up. “What can be done?”

“From us, very little. But if her mother is willing to take part of her burden away, then she could function.”

He blinked rapidly, straightening up.

“She would need your accord for this.”

“I give it,” he blurted.

“You don’t know what that means yet.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It kinda does,” I said.

He frowned.

“You would set your pack up for some of the old ways. Some practices that haven’t been done in ages.”

“What does that means?”

“Well, first it means that you open a channel of communication with things that hasn’t connected with mortals in a while. Some will be happy about it, others not. Some might ask for sacrifices once in a while.”

“What?”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be people, it can just be a chicken. You have some farms here, they kill chicken once in a while for meat, so maybe they do it in a certain place and let the blood flow on the ground, a few words are said and that’s it. Blood is a strong currency in the supernatural world. So that makes the entity happy, and you still get to eat the chicken.

They might inform you not to cut a certain tree and get angry if you do, but they can also help out in other ways.”

“So it’s like adding non-werewolf members to this pack that has different needs and can only talk with vitteraï—,”

“Nearly only,” I corrected him.

He nodded. “So some partnership with new creatures and forces that were already there only ignored. So no need for worship or anything like that?”

“You can worship all you want, but faith is a different creature altogether. Different powers and effects. Ancestors worship and animism were strong in the old days, often mixed in with paganism and a few deities here and there. In some aspect, vitteraï will allow you to tap into this, but for any gain there is a price.”

“Like a blood sacrifice, or protecting some trees?”

“Things like that, yes. You don’t need to pray, but more to acknowledge and respect them, and they will do the same in return.”

“And they stop trying to get to Elaeya to do that for them because someone else is officially assigned to this?”

“In a nutshell, yeah.”

“Okay, I can deal with this,” he said. His eyes were shifty, he was calculating what this meant.

“So now we have to track her mother,” I said.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door and a beautiful white hair woman peeked in.

“I think I may be able to help,” she said hesitantly.

“Why, yes you certainly can,” I said to her with a smile.