Mated To An Enemy

Ashleigh spent the next several hours struggling with the pain in her skull. Caleb stayed beside her, trying desperately to calm and ease her suffering. With a warm washcloth, Caleb could wipe away the blood, relieved to see that the bleeding had not continued.

He held her in his arms as long as he could, but she thrashed, wailed, and pushed him away. After the first hour, he was sick with worry.

Outside the werewolf territories, he couldn’t risk taking her to a hospital. So, he called Bell. She told him that Ashleigh had experienced something similar before and had something to do with a lost memory and the Priestess.

Bell told him to stay by her side and let her ride it out. Taking her on the plane in this condition would likely only worsen things. But they should fly home first thing in the morning rather than waiting for the evening as they had planned.

Caleb got off the phone and sat down beside his wife. He held her hand and watched as the pain continued to wreak havoc on her body. He wiped the sweat from her brow and talked to her, whispering that he was with her.

Every once in a while, she would grip his hand tightly and whimper with tears falling from her eyes.

Caleb didn’t understand why she couldn’t share her pain with him, he tried to reach out to her through their bond, but it was as if she had closed a door between them. All he could do was stand outside, telling her how much he loved her and reassuring her that he was waiting just outside.

After three hours, her cries had tapered off into whimpers and soft sobs. Finally, Caleb was able to climb back into the bed with her and hold her in his arms. He held to her tightly, kissed her head, and poured his warmth into their bond, hoping she would accept it.

Caleb was still holding her long after her sobs and whimpers had turned to slow, deep breaths letting him know she had fallen asleep. He pulled her close and kissed her gently, not wanting to wake her. Finally, he fell asleep, breathing her calming scent.

He woke with the sunlight shining through his closed eyes. He turned and shook his consciousness to full wake. Sitting up on his elbows, he yawned and opened his eyes. He turned to check on her and was shocked to see that he was alone.

Quickly pulling the sheet off himself, he jumped up from the bed and looked around the room.

“Ashleigh!” he called out in a panic.

“I’m here,” she answered quickly, emerging from the bathroom with a fuzzy white robe and towel in her hand. Her hair was wet and hung down around her face and shoulders.

Caleb let out a deep breath.

“Sorry,” she said, “I just wanted to clean myself up a little.”

“It’s ok,” he smiled, “I was just….”

“Worried?” she asked with a smile. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok,” he repeated.

“Since I woke up, I’ve been debating how I was going to navigate a conversation about what exactly happened last night,” Ashleigh said. “But the awkwardness between us right now just lends itself to jumping into it.”

Caleb gave a light chuckle.

“How about this,” he said, grabbing his pants from the end of the bed and slipping them on. “Why don’t you finish drying off and getting dressed, and I will go grab us some breakfast. We can talk while we eat.”

“I’m actually not very hungry,” she said. “I’m assuming we’re heading home this morning instead of tonight?”

Caleb nodded.

“Bell said it would be best to get home, get you checked out,” he replied.

“Makes sense,” she said, moving the towel in her hand to start drying her hair.

“Let me,” he said.

Caleb took the towel from her hand and then led her to sit on the bed. He also sat down, leaning against the pillows, and she moved to sit between his legs.

He grabbed a section of her hair and gently scrunched it in the towel with his fingers.

“So… Bell said this has happened before,” Caleb said quietly, continuing to focus on drying her hair.

“Yes, once… well, twice, but the first time I didn’t have the pain… or the bleeding.”

“What is it exactly?”

“A memory,” she said.

“Seems like a violent one,” he replied.

Ashleigh let out a soft laugh.

“No,” she said. “It’s the conversation I had with the Priestess when she told me about my twin, about you.”

Caleb paused.

“I’m the reason for this?” he asked with concern.

“No,” Ashleigh replied. “There was more to that conversation than I know.”

She sighed and turned to look at him.

“The Priestess apparently told me some important stuff. Something I agreed to and then agreed to have my memory wiped of it ‘until it was time’ or some crap like that,” she said with frustration.

“Do you know what it was?” Caleb asked.

“Not exactly,” she said. “I learned a little more last night, but I wasn’t supposed to. That’s why the pain and the blood… apparently if you try to learn what the Goddess doesn’t want you to… pain, blood, etcetera.”

“The Goddess is involved in this?” Caleb asked with wide eyes.

Ashleigh laughed.

“I’m sorry… I should have started from the beginning.”

“Please do,” he smiled.

Ashleigh proceeded to tell Caleb all she remembered about her time with the Priestess and her first and now the second dream of the missing memory.

“Wow…” he said. “So… we are both descended from the original werewolves. I mean, my family, of course, I always knew. But it felt like more of an abstract concept than a real thing with any kind of significance beyond Summer.”

“Apparently, it's pretty significant. I don’t know why or how exactly, but I guess there are powers involved.”

“That makes sense,” Caleb said.

“It does?” Ashleigh asked, looking at him quizzically.

“You don’t think so?” he asked, giving her an equally surprised look.

“How?”

“Well, us, for starters,” he laughed. “Our bond from the beginning has been different, unique.”

“How would you even know that? You’ve never had another bond, and the bond I had with Granger wasn’t mine, so, of course, it was different,” Ashleigh said.

“I did some research,” Caleb said.

“Oh? Did you?” Ashleigh laughed.

“Yes,” he smiled. “I was curious how we could connect the way we did before we had completed our bond. But, turns out, we shouldn’t have been able to connect that way at all.”

“Really?”

“Have your parents ever been able to do that?” Caleb asked.

“Caleb, I haven’t exactly been curious about whether or not my parents have metaphysical hookups.”

They both laughed.

Caleb stared at her with a soft glow in his eyes.

He reached for her hips and pulled her back against him, so she sat with her back on his chest. Then he stretched his arm across her chest, so his palm rested on her shoulder.

“We are special, Ashleigh,” he whispered into her ear. “What we have is like nothing else in this world.”

Ashleigh closed her eyes and leaned back, resting her head against his shoulder and tilting, so her neck was exposed to him.

He kissed her offered flesh, and his hand trailed down from her shoulder to where the two sides of the robe met and crossed to cover her body. His tongue traced along her throat as his hand slipped inside the robe.

Ashleigh let out a soft moan as he nibbled at her throat, and his fingers traced her firm nipple.

“See… special,” Caleb said with a smile in his voice.

Ashleigh suddenly opened her eyes as the sensation of his mouth, and his hand left her feeling cold and wanting.

She looked up and realized that they still sat apart, and he was smiling at her with mischief in his eyes.

With a low growl from deep within her, she pounced on him, turning their morning flight back into an evening flight.