Chapter 9
Aimee sat up inside the treetop bowl. The evening breeze played over her bare skin, but she no longer hid her body from the elements. The wind never made her cold, and it couldn’t touch her bright burnished soul.
She cast a sidelong glance at her clothes. She touched the corner of her heavy leather jacket with the shaggy hair still covering the outside. A curious reaction traveled up her arm, and she pulled her hand back.
“You should get back,” Piwaka told her. “They’ll be wondering where you are, and when you deliver the message, they’ll have a long negotiation ahead of them to decide what to do about it.”
She turned away from her clothes and stretched out next to him. “Are you worried they won’t accept the invitation?”
“Not at all,” he replied. “They’ll accept it.”
“What makes you so sure?” she asked.
“They came up here to negotiate with Aquilla,” he replied. “They won’t turn down an opportunity to talk to him, even if the topic isn’t directly related to their peace mission. They’ll start talking about the borders, and that will naturally lead them into talking about other things.”
She folded on arm under her head and gazed up at the sky. “I wish I was as confident as you.”
“I’m only confident because I know Aquilla,” he replied. “There’s no other way to draw him into the negotiation. It’s the only way to get him to trust the other Alphas.”
“What if he never trusts them?” she asked. “What if he balks at the whole discussion? What if he won’t be drawn into discussing peace at all? What if he gets hostile and storms off?”
“I’m sure he will,” Piwaka replied. “I’m sure it will take him a long time to trust anyone here—except me, of course.”
“So how’s he supposed to negotiate peace with people he doesn’t trust?” she asked. “It sounds hopeless.”
He cocked his head. “I can’t really blame him. I don’t trust the others, either.”
Her head whipped around. “You don’t? Then why are you going to such lengths to throw them together with Aquilla?”
He rolled over on his side and faced her. “Do you want to know the truth? I’m doing it for you.”
“Me!” she gasped. “I don’t deserve....”
He closed his eyes. “Don’t even say it.”
“But I....” she began.
“Do you want to know the reason I’m doing this?” He trailed his fingertips over her collarbone and down her chest, between her breasts. “I’m doing it for this.”
Aimee shuddered and her eyes rolled back in her head. His fingers trialed off somewhere between her sternum and her navel, and her eyes popped open. Her voice croaked. “What are you doing to me?”
“Do you think we would have any chance at all together if this negotiation fails?” he asked. “What do you think will happen if Aquilla leaves here without coming to some agreement with the other Alphas? I’ll never see you again.”
“But I thought....” she stammered. “You helped Anna, and that was long before we ever met.”
He lowered his eyes. “That was then. I thought peace was a good idea. Now I know it’s a necessity.”
She hesitated. “I didn’t know....”
He finished her sentence for her. “You didn’t know I felt that way about you? Do you remember what you said to me this morning—about seeing a part of you that wasn’t there? Well, you’ve seen a part of me that wasn’t there, too—at least, it wasn’t there until you saw it.”
Her eyes flew open. “You too? I thought you were so strong and in control.”
“I was,” he replied. “I’ve always been in control. I’ve been in control of the whole Avitras faction for decades, at least as long as Aquilla has been Alpha—probably longer.”
“How can you be in control when someone else is Alpha?” she asked. “If that was true, you would be Alpha instead of him.”
He nodded. “I’ve been Captain of the Guard, and the Captain always has more power than the Alpha. My father was Captain before me, and Aquilla’s father was Alpha before him. My father told me I would take over for him when he retired to the village, and he explained the whole thing. He said I would be the power behind the Alpha, that the Alpha would never make any decision or take any action without my approval, and he was right.”
“And you want to give that up—for me?” she whispered.
“I don’t have to give it up,” he replied. “At least, I won’t give up the power. I couldn’t give it up if I wanted to. The Avitras depend on me to control our faction. Aquilla couldn’t do it without me, or someone to take over for me, and I’ve been doing it so long I’m the best man for the job.”
“So what changed?” she asked. “What did I see that wasn’t there before?”
He rolled onto his back and looked up into the sky. “You saw me, for the first time. No one else has ever seen me before.”
“You?” she asked.
He shot her a smile. “It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I’ve been Captain of the Guard. I’ve been Aquilla’s shadow Alpha since I first learned to fly, but no one has ever seen me for who I really am. I could patrol the borders for years and never feel hunger or pain or loneliness. I never dreamed of a life in the village with a mate and children and friends. I’ve never been a flesh and blood man, who felt heat and cold and sadness and joy—until today. You gave me that. I was living death, and you brought me to life.”
Aimee tucked her head into his chest and closed her eyes. “Me, too. I was never a living woman until you came.”
They lay in their nest for hours until the sun fell behind the treetops. Aimee raised her head first. “I guess I better go.”
She glanced at her clothes again, but she turned away without touching them.
He watched her. “Don’t forget to put your clothes on.”
She stole a look at his face. Then they both laughed. “That would give them a shock if I showed up like this.”
She sat up. Her skin chilled without the sun to warm it. She picked up her pants. “I don’t want to put these on again.”
“They look warm enough,” he remarked.
“They’re warm,” she replied, “but too rough. They remind me of the person I was before. They make me the person I was before.”
“What was that?” he asked.
“A warrior,” she replied.
He nodded and sat up, too. “We have some work to do before we can shed these shells of the past.”
She sighed and slipped the jacket around her shoulders. “When did you say Aquilla wants to meet the other Alphas?”
“Sunrise tomorrow,” he replied. “At the big rock.”
She set her teeth and pulled the pants up her legs. The skins scratched her, and she shuddered. “We’ll be there.”
He stood up next to her. Without a word, he took her in his arms and kissed her. Her feet left the firm surface of the tree bark, and they floated into the air. A moment later, their lips separated, and Aimee’s feet touched the ground.
She stepped down hard on the solid soil under her feet. Not even this felt right anymore. She didn’t belong to the ground anymore. She belonged to the treetops, to the pure air. What would become of her? Who was she? Was she Avitras now, now that she’d mated with an Avitras man in mid-air? No wonder the other women didn’t understand.
How different the ground felt to her now compared to the way her heart used to soar when she ran through the forest with the Lycaon. Maybe her heart only longed for flight, and running was the closest she ever came to it. Now she had another way to fly.
He gave her one last kiss, and his eyes peered into her soul. He didn’t ask what was bothering her. Maybe he already understood. Maybe he felt as strange and out of place on the ground as she did.
“See you tomorrow morning,” she murmured.
He nodded, and she turned away. She walked down the hill without looking back, but her ears stayed tuned to any sound behind her. No rush of air rustled the trees, and no footsteps trod the leafy tangle of underbrush. He hadn’t moved. He stood there and watched her out of sight.
She found Chris and Marissa sitting in the same place in front of the transmogrifier, except this time, they looked satisfied and comfortable. “Did Emily show you how to use that thing?”
Chris nodded. “It’s great. Are you hungry? Where have you been all day.”
She sighed and sat down next to her friends. “I went for a walk up on the mountain, and I ran into Piwaka. He asked me to carry a message to the other Alphas. Aquilla wants to meet with them on the big rock tomorrow morning at sunrise.”
Marissa’s eyes flew open. “What for? So he can ambush us?”
“That’s what I thought at first,” Aimee replied, “but I think the invitation is genuine. There’s some discrepancy with the border up there. We all saw that for ourselves, so it only stands to reason the other borders might not be so well defined, either. That could be what’s causing all the wars.”
Chris snorted. “If we make peace, we won’t have to worry about that.”
“It’s just like Aquilla to come up with some nonsense like that to draw us into a trap,” Marissa muttered.
Chris turned to her. “Honestly, I don’t know how Penelope Ann can stand to live with him.”
Aimee took a deep breath. “Actually, I’m beginning to understand it a little better myself. And even if we can’t trust Aquilla completely, I’m certain we can trust Piwaka.”
Chris frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it,” Aimee replied. “If there are problems with the borders now, a peace agreement won’t solve them. We better get all those the problems straightened out now, when all the Alphas are in the same place, or any peace agreement we come up with won’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.”
Chris and Marissa exchanged glances. “What do you suggest we do?”
“I’m quite certain the other Alphas will jump at the chance to negotiate with Aquilla,” Aimee replied. “That’s the reason we came here, and now he’s inviting us to come and meet with him. The question is whether the meeting will lead to any constructive conclusion or if we’ll all leave here to prepare for another war.”
Marissa shuddered. “Don’t talk like that, Aimee.”
“If we’re going to have any chance at success,” Aimee replied, “we better be prepared for the worst case scenario, and if the Alphas meet Aquilla at the big rock tomorrow morning, the worst case scenario is exactly what we’ll get.”
“There must be a way to prevent that,” Chris told her.
“The only way,” Aimee replied, “is for all of us—all of us women—to use our influence with them beforehand, whatever influence that may be, to sway them in favor of peace.”
“But all our mates already favor peace,” Marissa pointed out.
“They favor peace,” Aimee replied, “but they still mistrust the Avitras. It’s our job to break down that mistrust so the negotiation has a chance to succeed.”