Chapter Thirty-three

Ryo

I'm waiting inside this tent, raring to get on with the first group leaving soon but this is too important to not know about and so I'm watching the strange Fae wolf shifter who is shrugging on his worn but serviceable leather clothes of a soldier back on but noticeably leaving his jerkin undone and showing his matching Mate brand to my own, exposed for all to see.

He glances at me and cocks his head to the side assessing me and I can't help myself and I let my beast take control for the moment to show my dominance and to give the stranger credit here, he doesn't flinch, he just continues his cool assessment of me.

'What are you?' He curiously asks me but I don't answer him and the others enter the tent to stop him from asking any more questions of me.

'So let's get down to business shall we?' Ashton asks as he steps inside the tent with the others and claps his hands together for our attention. 'Everyone in this tent asides from Hunter here, is a Bond Mate of Briar's. This is a highly unusual situation in the first place for any Fae to find their Bond Mate, but for so many to be attached to just one person as the centre to everyone else? Who knows what our Gods are planning here?' Ashton efficiently explains the situation and also asks the last part rhetorically.

'Getting down to business here I repeat, I trust Ryo and Raine with my life and the life of our Mate because they are my closest friends and I think of them as my brothers,' Ashton announces within this small space, 'I even trust Lucas's intentions towards our shared Mate as being nothing but good, but it will take me some time to get to the same level of trust with him that I have built with Raine and Ryo over my entire lifetime,' Ashton reveals what he feels unapologetically to us all and Lucas accepts what Ashton had said with a nod of understanding to him.

I see that Raine has nodded his head in agreement as well to what Ashton has just said and I find that interesting and raise an eyebrow at that development between them all right there but I guess I must concede as well as I have had time to give it some thought thanks to my personal mender championing Lucas's cause to me at some length and I nod my agreement as well for the others to see we are of an accord right here. Lucas noticed my agreement as well to our new attitude toward him and he gives us all a grateful look of hope on his face for us all beginning to accept him.

'What we all don't know now is what are your intentions exactly towards our Mate and last but not least here, what is your name?' Ashton points out to the stranger and he coolly nods his understanding of the meaning here of this interrogation.

'My name is Adrian Lightfoot,' he announces to us, 'and believe me, you are all a complete surprise to me as well,' he says in that voice that sounds like it's unused to speaking for a while. How long has he remained shifted in his other form to track us I wonder as I continue to listen to him speak to us.

'I met my Mate the day she saved me from dying,' he tells us which grabs all of our attention, 'and I also knew at the same time that I couldn't reveal who she was because while I hovered between life and death I had heard those menders talk about what experiments they should do next to see if that would provoke any magical abilities within the small child they kept torturing in my eyes. I could see that to them it was just work and they really didn't care that they were causing harm instead of healing in their bid for research,' he tells us all bitterly in his scratchy voice and continues to speak.

'I just knew back there- then, if I had revealed our connection after what she'd done for me and she hadn't even realised it, it would have sealed her fate amongst those menders who didn't even care if I even lived or died there in their mending wing,' he reveals and now our interest is hooked into his story and want to know what happened next back then to Briar and him.

'My story starts,' this Adrian begins explaining with, 'as my life as a Fae orphan. I had no family to claim me and I was being raised in Winter court's orphanage system where only a life of indentured servitude awaits you or you throw your young life away on a chance in the army to help you climb to a better social position in life,' I nod, it's a familiar enough story that I've heard too many times to count from all sorts of people from all walks of life.

'When I reached the age of eleven I did just that, I chose the chance to train in the army but not many orphans do so because it's basically a death sentence for a young child to train amongst the adults who're stronger and have a better chance of succeeding just because you're weaker,' Adrian says bitterly, remembering his past that we cannot see.

'Believe me when I say I hold no allegiance to the Winter court at all, I only remained in a soldier's capacity all this time to keep tabs on my Mate from a distance. There was nothing I could do for her as it might've compromised her very being,' he explains to us, 'my only resources were to hope and bide my time to find a way to free her some day and you can colour me surprised because during my tour away from the castle and serving at the boundary instead, is when I see that not only has my Mate actually freed herself from her own shackles but is also travelling into danger as well,' Adrian wryly remarks to us.

'Were you the soldier who passed on a warning to Briar back then?' I ask this Adrian with a sinking suspicion about him and he nods yes.

'Yes, I did warn her the best I could, but then after I watched her leave through the border gates, I served my last shift and handed my resignation in and quickly followed to catch up after my Mate and keep an eye on her safety from a distance whilst also watching for the group that was sent to track your travelling party for some reason,' he tells us with a shrug.

'I'd been watching them for a while shadowing you as you travelled but I don't know what reason made them attack you just now though? I saw no message being received or anything,' he informs us and I tilt my head thoughtfully to the side but those answers would have to wait later for when we interrogated the prisoners in a safe location.

'I see,' I say to him, 'thank you for protecting Briar back then in that fight and for protecting my personal mender Hunter as well,' I say in a show of gratitude towards this Adrian, Raine and Ashton also show signs of their gratitude for protecting our Mate Briar as well by bowing their heads. This Adrian inclines his head towards us in a show of acceptance of our joint thanks and crosses his muscular arms across his chest, drawing our attention again to his exposed Mate brand on his muscular torso.

This reminds to prompt him and I say to him, 'Continue to tell us of how you discovered Briar was your Mate,' I ask Adrian and he shifts slightly as his green gold gaze goes unfocused again as he remembers his past.

'I was weak back then, ridiculed everyday for being a useless addition to serve in the army of Winter and on one particular day, when the older and more powerful soldiers were trying to prove their point again with me, they almost succeeded in proving that by almost killing me,' Adrian's fists tighten momentarily in a reflex.

'I should've been killed in the training exercises that day but the adult Fae training with me never bothered to finish me off, instead he just left me to slowly suffer and bleed out in the dirt as one last humiliation for me. Someone though took pity on the young white wolf stained red with blood that day and carried me to the Menders wing,' Adrian recalls for us and we wait to hear more about his story.

'I couldn't even shift back then because of all my injuries and I certainly didn't have the energy to do so either and the menders who were attending to me just presumed I was done for and talked over me not thinking I could still hear them,' Adrian revealed to us. 'What they were saying was truly sickening to me but it also didn't surprise me as I was already experiencing the worst that Winter had to offer for myself,' Adrian tells us and continues his tale.

'The menders laid my small weakened wolf form out on a table top, they didn't even bother to put me on a bed and they did a half hearted job at healing my wounds whilst they talked about what really had their attention- a young girl they'd been told to do anything that was necessary, any experiment or situation they could think of to put her through to make her activate her magic.'

'A child, that I learned about that was much, much younger than me and apparently even more defenceless than my useless self, but still I wished as I laid there slowly dying, with not enough strength to keep my eyes open, that I wished that I could do something for that pitiful child as I heard her screams rent down the hallway to my room,' Adrian says, closing his eyes and his face contorted in pain as he remembers with his fists now clenched to his sides and I felt like I wanted to punch through a wall or something as well now. I saw the others in various states of anger too, now that they were really learning a little bit about Briar's unfortunate past.

Hunter and Lucas look like they're going to be sick, it's probably the first time they've heard that menders like themselves are capable of causing that kind of twisted harm instead of doing good with their gifts as was intended by the Gods.

Adrian oblivious to our inner turmoil continues to speak, 'I was powerless to do anything then, I couldn't even move and the menders left me in a hurry to observe the experiment that was going on and I heard one of them say I be lucky if my own healing would kick in with enough power to get me through the night and that they would check on me tomorrow to see if I still lived or not. I was after all another unimportant orphan in the grand scheme of things,' Adrian says with a small deprecating laugh at his circumstances back then.

'I never knew any of that,' Lucas sounds lost and in agony after hearing about all of that and I reach out to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

'It happened before you were probably old enough to wander around after your Grandfather, mender,' Adrian points out to Lucas, 'if I remember rightly, your Grandfather joined the Winter court years later and I met him when I was a much older and seasoned soldier of the court and I could tell back then that he was a better mender and Fae than most of them all put together,' he tells Lucas, 'I could see that your Grandfather was kind towards my young Mate as well and tried to protect her from them the best he could,' Adrian says and tries to console Lucas the best he could and he gazes back at Adrian.

'You don't look familiar at all,' Lucas says to Adrian and he chuckles lightly at him.

'Well that's hardly surprising as you don't look the same either you know, I was just one more strange face amongst the crowd and you were only grown past my knee when we last met, everyone looks different from the perspective of a child,' he points out to Lucas.

'I remember as I watched you back then getting to hold hands with my little Mate and dragging her off into playing games. I wanted to thank you back then for doing that,' Adrian says wistfully, 'you gave our Mate a semblance of a childhood back then,' he tells Lucas, 'which was more than I could do for her at the time,' he sadly admits, even my own heart clenches in commiseration at hearing all this.

'Going back to that night that you want to know about so badly,' Adrian says after shaking his head to refocus on what I asked him earlier, on how he met Briar, 'the wing had grown dark and quiet, most of the menders having gone for the evening. I was left forgotten about in that room, lying there and slowly dying, when I heard little thumping feet totter quickly across the stone floor to me and at first I couldn't figure out what I was hearing as my ears twitched back and forth feebly but then I saw a chubby child like hand grab a hold of the table I laid on top of and a moment later, a gap toothed child hauls herself up there to get a better look at the 'puppy' she saw brought in earlier,' Adrian gives a small half choked laugh at that image in his head of a young Briar.

'She was clumsily petting me the same way she did back then as she did today,' Adrian remarks to us, smiling fondly and then notices us watching him and he shakes himself and carries on, 'I was of course still covered in my own blood and as soon as her little hand touched my blood, our bond was activated and she started to heal me somehow as well, maybe it was intuitive, I don't know?' He says to us with a shrug, 'But our bond also changed me somehow, it made me stronger and dragged me from death's door that night,' Adrian remarked to us in wonder.

'The menders found me the next day as a changed wolf, not only because the colour of my fur had changed from blonde to greenish gold but because my magic skills had as well,' Adrian says to us, 'I found myself for a short while also being made a subject of interest to be studied as well but eventually I was explained away by the menders as one of those extreme survival techniques that some lucky Fae bodies can do if pushed to the limits of life and death, that it can initiate the body to try and adapt to the circumstances in order to survive and become stronger. No one ever suspected my little guardian near by of saving me and I made sure they never did,' Adrian finishes telling us his story and connection to Briar and we're all silently digesting his story in our own way

But after a moment or two though, I'm sure I can hear a sound coming from outside the tent, a slight catching of breath and I signal to Raine to check it out as he has heard it too. He pulls the tent flap aside and he stares in shock as he sees Briar standing there with Ruby and Mistress Garnet besides her, all looking quite pale as well, but Briar more so than anyone else. I can see that she's trembling slightly, tears silently tracking down her face and then she just bolts away from us before we can say or do anything and Ruby quickly follows after her.

Mistress Garnet holds her hand out to stop us all from giving chase too, 'Give her a moment to gather herself,' she pleads with us, 'this is something the child won't talk about, so don't pressure her,' Mistress Garnet tells us and steps in Raine's and Lucas's way to stop them as they still try to go after Briar, our Mate.

'Well maybe I can help in another way?' Adrian offers aloud and we all look back to him not knowing what he means and we begin to see him strip out of his clothes again without having any modesty. Mistress Garnet looks away when the pants are being pulled down though and Adrian transforms back into his strange mix of a green-gold wolf, shakes his fluffy fur and pads towards the entrance of the tent but before he leaves, he waits for a moment and looks towards me and my clenched fists and sees if I will allow him permission to do what he can.

'Go and see what you can do,' I say grudgingly to him, feeling defeated that I can't solve this problem his way. I'm not the cute and furry type, even Raine might have trouble being accepted in his other form and he's a damn sight cuddlier than myself.

Adrian though in his wolf form, nods his head at me and bounds off out of the tent on his four paws in search of Briar, leaving the rest of us behind and they all look at me for confirmation over something unspoken.

No matter how we look at it, this Adrian protected Briar as well as he could in his own way, just like Lucas and his Grandfather did, who I haven't met yet. If we were in their shoes could we have done any better? Sadly I honestly think not, we probably would've drawn attention to that we should not have and would have put Briar in danger back then but I still can't help feeling furious and also powerless at what our Mate has had to endure to even be here today with us and I release a shuddering breath that I was holding onto.

'I guess we're accepting this new guy as well?' Ashton asks me and I sigh wearily at him.

'Yes,' I say, 'I guess we are.'