Chapter 58
-Ignatius
I was puzzled by Angie’s reaction to our proposal. I thought she would be ecstatic to hear the news, but
instead, she had seemed hesitant and uneasy.
It wasn’t until after Dorothy opened her mind to me and asked for some time alone with Angie that I
began to realize just why my close friend was so hesitant to ept my offer.
I recalled the odd feeling Tor had detected from time to time. I was a sensation of a rival, someone
nob*dy had evere forward or attempted to rival me for her attention.
We had thought it to be someone from the local college who had epted loving her from a distance. It
wasn’t ideal but until someone came forward we realized there wasn’t much we could do about it. It had
never urred to me that I could have been sensing Angie
I didn’t know how to feel about any of it, but Dorothy’s voice in toy head reassured me that she could
handle it. “It’s okay. You trust Angie. We both do. If this is what I suspect it is then you need to let me
handle this. This is between me and Angie and I know you don’t doubt my love for you.”
It was true. In all the time that we had been together, not once had I ever doubted Dorothy’s loyalty to
me. I had never doubted her love.
I let her close the curtain over her mind as she and Angie spoke and instead turned my attention to Rita
who eyed me with a tw inkle in her eye and a smile on her lips “Thor, hmm? Interesting choice there
Ignatius.”
“Shut up, old bird. It was just a suggestion. I didn’t know everyone held such high standards when it
We headed into the mansion and I got busy making the two of us some tea. The sun shone in through
the window and lit up the kitchen in golden hues.
Ritaughed. “My apologies, I’m sure the two of you wille up with a suitable name for such a
unique child.”
Her words rung through my head and something new urred to me. “Do you think the baby will carry
the same abilities as Dorothy?”
If that was the case, there was even more reason to start searching for more shifters like her. There
had to be a way to break. the curse of their powers
Rita nodded gravely, all of her spark suddenly snuffed out. “That is definitely a possibility.”
“Rita.” I dug the toe of my shoe into the ground. “How do you know so much about Dorothy’s abilities,
honestly”
She didn’t answer me and I kicked at a stone on the ground. “Back at the hospital when Dorothy fell
into aa, you told me more about my mate than she knew about herself. You also told me that you
couldn’t exin to me why you knew the things you did. Are you still not able to tell me anything?”
Rita closed her eyes and sighed deeply. “Ignatius. You and Dorothy are having a child now. I suppose
what the two of you have has proven to be pure and true.
She turned to face me, à deep frowns of concentration on her face. “Can you promise me right here
and now that you will stay by her sale and protect her and your child, until your final breath?”
“That’s a very formal way of putting it
an you promise to love and honor your
Tin serious, Ignatius. Think long and hard about this.
is. This is the rest of your life. Can mate until death do you part?”
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10:51 Fri, Jan 26 Ge
They sounded like wedding yows which seemed odd to me but had made up my mind long ago and I
was in no way determined to back down from my vow now. “Of course I would I have loved Dorothy
from the moment Iid ey I would never go back on my promise to protect her.
Rita pulled a small, potent-looking knife from under her shawl and I raised my brow in confusion,
“Rita, what’s going on here?”
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eyes on her.
The old woman extended a hand out to me, beckoning for me to put my hand in hers. “This wow, would
you swear it by blood, Ignatius”
I hesitantly gave her my hand and hissed when she swiped at the skin of my palm in the blink of an
eye. A small red line had been sliced into my hand and beads of blood began to break through the cut
skin.
Rita caught these droplets in a small vial and plugged the top with a little piece of cork.
I wrenched my hand away from her and held it to my chest, inspecting the cut in rm. “What was that
for? What are you up to
She held the small vial of my blood up to the sun. “This is a sacred-blood oath. The moment you say
your vow you will be bound to this tiny vessel. The moment you break this vow the jar will c rack and so
will every bone in your b*dy. For good. Are you still willing to honor your promise?”
I rubbed the cut on my hand that healed up as fast as it had appeared. “Those are some seriously
extreme measures you’re taking there olddy”
Rita shook the tiny jar of blood. The liquid swished within it and my crimson liquid tw inkled in the sun.
“If you want to know the truth I need your oath right now. I need to know you will never turn your back
on Dorothy. Not even in battle, not even in death.”
I didn’t need a second thought or a moment to consider. “I already told you. Of course, I won’t. I will
love Dorothy for the rest of my life. I will protect her with my life. No harm wille to her as long as
I’m around.”
I felt some kind of strange energy ripple through my b*dy as I said these words and Rita nodded her
head before hiding the jar under her shawl once more. “It’s done then. I’ll tell you everything.”
I heard Angie’s car start up outside and peeked out the window to see her speeding away without
bidding us goodbye.
I opened my mind to Dorothy for a moment while I set down two cups of tea on the kitchen counter.
“Everything alright”
Dorothy’s voice in my head was calm and collected. “Yeah. It was what I thought it was. Angie has
been hiding her true feelings
“Why didn’t shee forward sooner?”
“Why would she? She knew there was no changing how things were. It’s just needs time to heal.”
“I suppose that makes sense.”
alright though. I think she’s going to be okay. She
Tor was surprisingly calm inside my chest considering we had just discovered that one of our close
friends has been harboring an infatuation with our mate
But we both understood where Angie wasing from and respected her resolve to keep her feelings
to herself. If Dorothy hadn’t confronted her, she probably would never have said anything at all.
“I’m going to stay out here for a while, Dorothy said. “I need some time to think.”
“Stay out there,” I answered her as Rita opened her mouth to speak. “But keep your mind open. You’re
going to want to hear this
Ritaced her fingers together as she seuled herself deep in thought.
10:51 Fri, Jan 26 G
When she spoke, she sounded far away as
way as if she was recalling another life from some d
distant memory
“You told me that you learned of the Sanitatum bloodline from the healer at an allied pack, correct?
Well, what she told you was true. There was once a powerful bloodline of healers. Whether they were
blessed with their abilities or cursed by it. that’s entirely up to debate.
“Much like magic, their abilities were neither good nor bad but resided somewhere in between. It all
depended on the wielder and how they chose to use it. But the oue was always the same. No
Sanitatum healer lived longer than twenty years. All of the energy flowing in and out of their bodies was
too much to hear.”
Rna looked up at me, her eyes filled with mncholy.
“My sister was one such healer, gifted with the Sanitatum heritage. For some reason we could not
understand, I was never able to use any such abilities. There are exceptions among every powerful
bloodline and I was one of them
“I have no healing abilities and I have been able to live a fairly long lifepared to others of my
bloodline. Our parent’s died young as did their’s before them. Many thought the Sanitatim had died out
for good but they were wrong. We kept our family’s abilities a secret and managed to live peacefully in
a small, friendly pock”
I leaned forwards against the ind countertop. “What pack was this exactly!”
The Seilvanne Pack. Perhaps you have heard of them. After all, they were the pack that was wiped out
when Dorothy was a
What are you saying. Rita! How do you know all of this? What exactly is your rtion to Dorothy?”
Rata smiled sadly. “My sister was Dorothy’s mother. Tim her aunt
This was news to me. I didn’t know what I had expected to leam from the old bird but it wasn’t this.
“Then how did you end up with the Bielke?”
“I was the woman who escaped with Dorothy from the massacre of the Seilvanne Pack. News of my
family’s abilities got out and people sought to take it for themselves by breeding with those gifted with
healing
“My family however was already dead, as was Dorothy’s mother Dorothy was thest healer in the
Seilvanne Pack. They were looking for her. They murdered everyone else.
“You delivered Dorothy to the Khall Pack,” I said as the pieces began to fall into ce. “They couldn’t
allow you to stay, they were recovering from a war with us. So you ended up joining the Bielke instead.”
Rita nodded, taking small sips of her tea that she clutched in her hands like a lifeline. “It wasn’t difficult.
Back then, the Bielke was always eager to wee more soldiers. I have fought many needless wars
for your people.”
1 glowered down at my own cup at thatment. My father had been more than happy to allow new
members into our pack so long as they were ready to throw away their lives for it too.
“It wasn’t all bad,” Rita continued. “I got to raise many children that were not my own. You included.
And when things calmed down and the Bielke allied with the Khall, I was able to learn how Dorothy was
doing.
“I never could have anticipated the union between the two of you. It was almost like fate had brought
her back to me after all those years apart”
“Why did you never tell Dorothy your true identity?”
Rita shrugged her bent shoulders
“How could I? She must have thought I lead abandoned her all those years before. And besides, she
had no idea who I was for could she remember me. Why should I reopen that wound when she has
done so well without me. It has been enough just taking care of her from a distance”
“You’re wrong.” I mmed my cup-down and spiled scalding water over the countertop. “Dorothy has
lived her whole life
10:51 Fri, Jan 26 G =
thinking that she was entirely alone. She needs to know that she has family.”
“But she does have family,” Rita argued. “She has you and now she has a child on the way. What good
does it do to look into the past when the future ahead is so much brighter?”
“Closure. Dorothy needs to know that she was loved, that she wasn’t just cast aside as a casualty of
war.
Rita slumped her shoulders forwards even further.
“It scares me, telling her the truth, I have let her down time and time again. Her mother died by giving
Dorothy what was left of her life.
“Her father died protecting her and me from the attacking packs. I wasn’t even able to stay at her side
while she grew up. In a
I did abandon her. It’s toote to change the past now.”
way
“It’s not toote. Dorothy will understand, I know she will. You did what you could to protect her.”
Rita huddled over her teacup, her voice was h oar se as she spoke, “In a way, I was her mother too.
After her mother died, her father and 1 bonded as second chance mutes. I cared for Dorothy as if she
were my own.
“Mirida, her mother, died young. She didn’t have many years left to her because of her abilities, but
when Dorothy fell ill as a young child she gave the rest of them to her daughter. I was never able to
give her anything as precious as life itself.”
“You gave her something close enough though.”
I put a hand out tofort Rita, stilling her quivering withered hand.
“You gave her a second chance at life. In a way, it was you who led Dorothy to me. And look at her
now, she is the beloved Luna of a strong reformed pack. She would never have gotten that far without
you.”
“He’s right about that.”
Dorothy’s voice startled both of us and we turned to see her standing in the doorway. She smiled with
tears in her eyes. “Sorry, Rita. Ignatius left the curtain to his mind wide open. I couldn’t help but listen in
Rita stepped back and wrapped her shawl around herself tightly like she was trying to hide from
Dorothy’s gaze. “Dorothy. I’m so sorry. I should have told you
“It’s alright,” Dorothy said as she approached her. “You did what you thought was right. And you did
what you had to to survive, we both did.”
As she rounded the kitchen ind Dorothy opened her arms wide and embraced Rita. “I’m honored to
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call you family. Thank you for all of your guidance Rita. You don’t have to hold any more guilt,”
Kita stiffened for a moment before enveloping Dorothy in a hug, her shawl closed around the two of
them like a mother henying a protective wing over her chicks.
Tears rolled from Rita’s tired eyes as she held her long-lost kin
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