Forgotten (50 page)

“
Trane and Jalla? Who were
they?”

“
It is an ancient tale—one
that took place before the Kindred came to G’nera and tempered the
Beasts of the Wulven males somewhat. Trane was a male who was
deeply in love with a female, Jalla. However, she was in love with
another,” Tante Corii explained. “But their parents decided it was
an advantageous match and decreed they would join Jalla to Trane
whether she wanted to or no.”

“
Weren’t they worried
she’d be killed by his Beast?” Kate asked.

The old woman shook her head.

“
They dismissed her other
love as a passing infatuation. They were certain that by the time
she was joined to Trane she would learn to love him. And so they
were joined.” She sighed. “Soon after that, Trane came to realize
that the love Jalla had for the other male was no passing
fancy—
he
was the
one she ought to have been joined to. Trane went to his parents and
asked to have the joining dissolved but they decreed there was too
much at stake to make such a costly decision and denied his
request.”

“
So what could he do?”
Kate asked, taking a sip of her tea, which had cooled
considerably.

“
Well, Trane was truly in
love with Jalla. And even though she didn’t return that love, he
didn’t want her to be hurt or killed. So he refused to let her try
to tame his Beast because he feared for her. But his parents and
hers caught him in a trap, the next time he went to the Howlund.
They forced the two of them together and, well…his Beast killed
her.” Tante Corii shook her gray head sadly.

“
Oh, no!” Kate put a hand
to her mouth. “That’s so sad! And then he had to live with the
guilt the rest of his life?”

“
Oh no, child, he did not
live with guilt.”

“
He didn’t? Why?” Kate
asked. She could only imagine how horrible it would be to wake up
from some kind of bestial fugue state and realize you’d hurt or
killed the one you loved. Did he…did he kill himself?” she asked,
thinking it was like G’nera’s version of a
Romeo and Juliette
story.

“
In a way. He gave himself
to the
Ei’wani—
the living death,” Tante Corii said.

“
Living death?” Kate shook
her head. “I don’t understand.”

“
It’s when a Wulven male
goes to the wilderness—not just the Howlund, mind you but the
wastes at the edge of
Corith al
Cruthe
—the Desert of Death. There he gives
up his consciousness for good and lets his Beast take over
completely so that he need never think of the horrible thing he has
done again.”

“
Oh, that’s awful!” Kate
exclaimed.

“
Yet some males do
it—usually when they have done some terrible thing or suffered a
loss so great their mind cannot bear it,” Tante Corii said.
“Honestly, I was afraid that Rone might go to the Desert of Death
himself when you went missing. And if he hadn’t found you, he might
have.”

“
Please don’t talk like
that—I can’t stand it,” Kate whispered. “I…I don’t even want
to
think
of such
a thing.”

The look in Tante Corii’s faded blue eyes
softened somewhat. “You really care for him, don’t you child?”

“
I do,” Kate admitted. “Or
I’m
beginning
to.
Since I lost all the memories of how we first met and fell in love,
it’s kind of like we’re starting from scratch. But Rone is so kind
and gentle and patient—I can see why I fell for him the first
time.”

“
And you’re beginning to
fall again.” Tante Corii smiled at her. “I knew you were the right
female for my sister’s son the first moment I laid eyes on you,
Kate. This is a terrible setback the two of you are going through
but I know with the Goddess’s help, you’ll be back together and
stronger than ever soon. And then maybe you’ll have a use for
this.” She tapped the blue leather binding of the
Landii-Katrum
knowingly.

“
May I keep it? To study?”
Kate asked. “I mean, I can tell it’s very old but I promise I’ll be
careful with it.”

“
It’s been passed down in
our family for generations,” the old woman told her. “So it’s
rightfully yours now. Just mind you don’t let Rone see you with
it—he didn’t want you to have it.”

“
Because he’s afraid he’ll
hurt me if I…if I try to tame his Beast,” Kate said. “He said it
was like, uh…well, like
rape.”
Her cheeks burned as she said it but Rone’s aunt
seemed to take her words in stride.

“
Well, it’s a rough
coupling and make no mistake about that,” she said frankly. “But
you don’t go to tame a male’s Beast expecting tender kisses and
gentle love-making. You have to be ready and willing to submit and
understand that when he takes you it won’t be pretty or sweet. It
will be harsh and raw and long and hard. But if you’re ready for
that—if you can take pleasure in submitting to the Beast and just
open yourself to him, well, then it needn’t be a rape.”

“
I see.” Kate’s cheeks
were still burning at the old woman’s frank description but she
thought she could understand. Mating with the Beast would require a
certain mindset—a willingness to open yourself to his savage
lovemaking and submit to his carnal lusts. Which was doubtless why
the book Tante Corii had given her was called The Volume of
Submission
.

“
I’m glad you understand,”
Tante Corii said. “It’s not a pretty thing—but it can be good just
the same. Especially when you wake in your male’s arms and feel the
bond between you and know nothing can ever separate you
again.”

Kate frowned. “But if
everyone else here does that—if all females do when they mate with
a Wulven male—then why is Rone so reluctant to let
me
do it?”

“
Well…” Tante Corii
sighed. “I think he’s afraid he’ll hurt you. Because of you being
so tiny, you know.”

“
Yes, I know that,” Kate
said. “He told me that. But is there some other reason—some
underlying problem that makes him so reluctant to do what every
other male on his planet does?”

“
Ah, you’re very wise.”
Tante Corii nodded. “There is, actually. Rone had a female
relative—I’m not sure what you would call her—the daughter of my
brother.”

“
A cousin, I think,” Kate
said.

“
All right then—a cousin.
Anyway, she was older than Rone but he loved her like an older
sibling. Le’la, she was called.” Tante Corii looked sad. “She’s
gone now—the Blue Fever took her when it swept through our region,
years ago, before we had a cure. But before she died…”

“
Did something happen to
her?” Kate asked gently. “Did she have…trouble when she tried to
tame her male’s Beast?”

“
It was…an especially
rough mating,” Tante Corii said heavily. “The male she loved wasn’t
overly gentle even when he didn’t let his Beast out. And when she
went to tame him, well…he scarred her.”

“
Scarred her?” Kate
frowned. “But I thought a Wulven male was able to heal his mate’s
wounds. Rone, uh, healed some for me.” She thought of the way he
had licked her back and shivered.

“
And so they can—fresh
wounds are easy to heal. As long as they aren’t inflicted by the
male’s Beast during breeding. Those wounds—wounds made with the
teeth or claws—can never be healed and they scar badly.” Tante
Corii sighed. “It’s to do with the Wulven biology, you see—the
Beast
wants
to
mark his partner, so no other male will come near her. And so he
produces special compounds during mating that causes scars form
wherever he wounds her.”

“
And where…where was Le’la
wounded?” Kate asked.

“
From here…to here.” The
old lady drew a line with her finger from her forehead down to her
cheek bone. “He blinded her in her right eye as well. Poor girl—she
never looked the same. And she was so beautiful before.”

“
Oh my God, that’s
awful.”
Kate shivered,
glad that she wasn’t going to the Howlund to try and tame Rone’s
Beast.

“
It’s rare that something
that bad happens,” Tante Corii told her. “Most mating scars are
small and inconspicuous. But seeing his beloved Le’la scarred like
that had quite an effect on Rone—he was only young, you see. And it
wasn’t just her face that got torn up.”

“
It…it wasn’t?” Kate was
almost afraid to ask where else Rone’s beloved cousin had been
wounded.

“
I’m afraid not. As I
said, the one who mated her wasn’t known for his gentleness. And in
Beast form, well…” Tante Corii shook her head. “The healer had to
come and examine her—you know, between her legs? She was that badly
injured.”

“
Uh…” Kate didn’t know
what to say.

“
Anyway, we thought Rone
was out playing but it turned out later that he had been hiding in
the closet, listening to everything that went on. Poor Le’la crying
out in pain and the healer saying how rough she’d had it, how he’d
bruised her inside…” She shook her head. “Rone didn’t admit to me
he’d heard all that for years, you know but when he did, he swore
he would never hurt a female he loved in such a way. And
that’s
why he doesn’t
want you to try and tame his Beast—even though it’s the Wulven way
and the way the Goddess has ordained for us.”

“
How did we manage before
if I couldn’t tame his Beast?” Kate asked.

“
You found a way around it
somehow.” Tante Corii looked disapproving. “But it meant you had an
incomplete bond. And I truly believe that your memories would not
have been so thoroughly and easily wiped if you’d had a full bond
to hold you together. Being incompletely bonded makes you
vulnerable to outside attacks—keeps you from giving yourselves to
each other completely.”

“
I see,” Kate said
uneasily.

“
So you just think about
that and study that copy of the
Landii-Katrum
.” She tapped the book
again. “And if you don’t use it yourself, keep it for your son or
daughter when they come of age. Because I just know you and Rone
are going to start a family soon—probably the very next time he
takes you to the Breeding Chair.”

“
Oh…uh…” Kate could feel
her cheeks getting hot. “I guess so.”

“
I
know
so,” Tante Corii said firmly.
“Now, I know the two of you have had a rough time lately—Rone told
me how you barely escaped from that crazy Fire and Snow
place.”

“
It was called Flame and
Frost,” Kate corrected gently. “But yes, it was weird and we were
lucky to get out when we did.”

“
Exactly. So I’m just
going to show you to your room and let you relax. Would that be all
right?”

“
That would be…” Kate
yawned. “Oh, excuse me! That would be wonderful, actually. I’m
really very tired,” she admitted.

“
Of course you are. So
you’re to have my best guest room right by the flower garden where
you can smell lovely scents all night long.”

Tante Corri led her through the small
cottage to a back room. It was small but it had a soft, low bed
covered in a blanket of little red flowers that Kate loved at once.
In one corner of the room was a door that led out into a garden
filled with so many different types of flowers she was amazed.

“
Oh, these are
gorgeous,”
she
exclaimed, examining the riot of color when the old woman threw
open the door to show her. “And they smell so
good
.” A mixture of aromas, some
delicate and some rich and heady was carried into the small room by
a soft breeze.

“
Ah yes, I love to watch
them grow.” Tante Corii looked at the garden proudly. “Just you
leave the door cracked a bit while you sleep and their scents will
bring you sweet dreams. Don’t worry—it’s perfectly
safe.”

“
Is it? But what about all
the males at the Howlund?” Kate looked towards the forest
uncertainly.

“
Never you mind about
that, child. See these?” Tante Corii walked to the edge of the
little garden and pointed to a border of tall purple flowers that
looked a little bit like lilies. “These are purple gloved
staybacks. A male in his Beast form can’t stand the scent of
them.”

“
Even when the moons, uh,
converge?” Kate shivered and looked up at the two silvery disks in
the sky. As the sunlight faded, they were becoming clearer and
obviously coming closer together. She wondered if all the males at
the Howlund would change at the same time once the moons overlapped
or if they were already mindless Beasts.

Rone’s aunt laughed. “Yes, child, even at
the convergence when all males with Beasts within must turn,
whether they want to or no. The purple gloved staybacks will keep
you safe as long as you stay within the borders of the garden.”

Kate smiled. “I’m staying right here—I
promise. I just want to snuggle down under that gorgeous blanket
and get some sleep. Is it really made of living flowers?”

“
That it is, my child.”
Tante Corii smiled rather sadly. “You admired it the first time you
came to meet me, too. And you wanted me to teach you the technique
to grow your own living blanket.”