Through the Veil (7 page)

“I am sorry for what you have known,” Jamison stated softly.
“No child of ours shall question a father’s love. Nor shall their mother.”

“What place would allow such treatment?” Taggart asked with
anger in his voice. “Do they not understand the treasure they are given? To
know a woman’s love, to be given the gift of heart and body and then throw it
away? What could possibly make a man do something so callous? What type of man
is that?”

Reggie shook her head. She had often wondered that as well.
“Sometimes people change, physically or maybe intellectually, emotionally, and
it just doesn’t work anymore.”

Taggart swiped his hand through the air in anger. “Excuses
and nothing more. Change is to be expected. We all grow. The key is to be
around to grow together. To watch and share in the journey.”

Reggie nodded. She agreed with him.

“So is there a physical bond that we have formed that makes
us mates for life?” she asked, wanting to get back on track and relieve some of
Taggart’s anger over what occurred on her side of the veil.

“When we bit you, made love to you, our hormones passed into
your bloodstream and began to make changes within your body,” Jamison said.

“How is that possible since I am not from here?” Reggie
asked. “How can you know that I am compatible and able to accept your hormone?”

“Long ago there were shifters who decided that they wanted
more from life than what our valley offered,” Taggart said. “The story says
that they crossed the veil, knowing that they would be unable to return and
embraced the life of those they lived among. The wolf spirit was repressed
until finally it was forgotten and called forth no more.”

“So how is it possible for me?” she asked.

“Women do not make the hormone on their own,” Jamison said.
“Even those few who still are born within the valley do not change until they
are mated and their mates’ hormones are introduced to their systems.”

“Okay.” Reggie did her best to process all of this. She was
mated to two men who were werewolves and lived in a valley hidden from those on
the other side of the veil. They had always existed and many of the people from
her side were descendents. It was a lot to digest. “So how does the queen know
who to call and who not to call?”

“That is a question that only she can answer,” Taggart
replied. “Perhaps someday you will see her and be able to ask her yourself.”

“You don’t see her?” Reggie asked.

“The fae keep mainly to themselves,” Jamison answered. “Our
races do not mix much.”

“So no fae-werewolf matings?” she asked with a laugh.

“It’s forbidden?” Taggart said.

“Why?”

“It just is,” Jamison said. “We have never questioned the
why of it.”

“So how exactly is this going to work?” she asked and she
could feel her heartbeat accelerating. “How will I shift, so to speak?”

“There is nothing to fear,” Jamison said, reaching to take
her hand in his.

Taggart did the same with her other hand. “We will be here
every step of the way. It is a natural process. The body takes over and you’re
just along for the ride.”

“Does it hurt?” she asked softly.

“There is some discomfort as your body shifts, as bone
structure changes,” Jamison answered. “But it is not pain as you are thinking
of pain.”

“Okay,” she said. She was still as scared as hell of what
was going to happen. “How long do I have?”

“Each person is different,” Taggart said. “With the final
mating the change begins. Already you should be able to feel the spirit of your
wolf growing inside.”

Reggie nodded. She did feel it and was a little terrified of
it.

“There is nothing to fear,” Jamison did his best to assure
her. “Your wolf is there to guide and protect you as well. Listen to her voice
within. She will be your friend and comrade.”

“My wolf awaits the arrival of yours,” Taggart said softly.
“He calls to you even now. He longs to race with you, to show you his world and
all it has to offer. He longs to mate with your wolf and claim her as his, just
as I have claimed you as mine.”

“So we wait here until that happens?” she asked.

Both men nodded. “The cabins are here for use by mating
couples to allow them privacy to aid their mate in her first change and run,”
Jamison said.

“And then what?” Reggie asked.

“We will take you back to our home and introduce you to
everyone,” Taggart said.

“Where is that?” she asked. “What is your home like? Do you
live with family?”

“No, we have a home of our own,” Jamison replied. “Once we
reach our maturity at twenty-three years we are given a gift from our family, a
shelter of our own, a home as you call it.”

“Shelter?” she asked. “Like this cabin?”

Taggart laughed. “No, our shelter is much more than this
mere cabin. It is a place to take our mate and some day to rear our children.”

“Ummm,” Reggie blushed. His talk of children brought up
another question for her. “We didn’t use anything.”

“Use?” Jamison asked.

“You feel the need for something more than our bodies?”
Taggart asked.

“No,” she shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. I mean
that when we had sex…”

“Made love,” Taggart corrected her with a fierce look on his
face.

“Made love,” she reworded, “there was nothing between us to
keep your seed from me.”

“Why would we need something to separate us?” Jamison said.
“Our seed is required for you to change.”

Okay, how did she get them to understand what she was
thinking? And wasn’t it a little late to have the conversation about disease
and babies and all that?

“Oh, I see,” Jamison smiled and Reggie was actually happy
that he could read her mind.

“We do not have disease here as in your world,” Taggart
said. “We mate once and only once, for life. None have known the touch of
another.”

“So you were virgins?” she asked, finding it hard to believe
that she had been their first, not as amazing as they were.

“You were no less spectacular,” Jamison whispered. “Yet we
do not question your purity.”

She was blushing again. She had never really questioned that
when she eventually decided to have sex that the guy she chose would be
experienced. It was just a given in her world. But she admitted that it was
amazing knowing that they had waited for her, that she was their first.

“Our only,” Taggart said softly. “Never shall we have
another.”

And that was amazing too. She could tell that they really
meant it. As far as they were concerned they were mated for life and nothing
would ever change that.

“Mating is for life,” Jamison said. “There is no need to
question what is.”

“What about children?” she asked, wondering if even now she
could be pregnant.

“No, you are not with child,” Taggart said. “You cannot
carry before you change.”

“And once I am able to shift into wolf form?” she asked.
“Then I’ll get pregnant?”

“Pregnancy is a choice,” Jamison tried to explain. “We must
all desire a child in order for our seed to take root.”

“So we won’t have children until we all agree?” Reggie
asked. That was certainly different but then why shouldn’t it be?

“Some mated couples never have children,” Taggart said.
“That is why our race has dropped in numbers and fewer and fewer female
children are born.”

“Why fewer females?” she asked.

“Females are rare anyway,” Jamison replied. “A gift from the
goddess to those deserving of the treasure of a female. Not all who choose to
have children are given that gift. And so our numbers grow smaller.”

“How many of you are there?”

“We number only in the hundreds now,” Taggart said. “Once
thousands of us crowded the valley but now, now we are few.”

“And do your parents live close? Do you have family here
still?” she asked.

“A rather large family,” Jamison laughed. “When the time is
right you will meet them all.”

“How large?” she asked.

“Our mother and fathers still live,” Taggart answered. “We
have two younger brothers close to their twenty-third year and we have been
helping to prepare their shelter for them.”

“Then our parents were gifted with not one but two
daughters,” Jamison added. “They both grow each day and soon we will see them
mated.”

“You have sisters? Are they twins as well?” Reggie had never
had siblings. She’d longed for a sister to share things with. Maybe she could
have had a twin. It sounded like everyone here had twins.

“No, not everyone has a twin here,” Taggart said with a
laugh. “But our parents have two sets of twins, us and our brothers. The girls
are a year apart.”

So many siblings to grow up with. It sounded wonderful to
Reggie.

“Our family is yours,” Jamison said.

“They will love and embrace you as we have,” Taggart added.

“I only had my mother,” Reggie admitted softly.

“Yes, we have seen your thoughts and memories of her,”
Jamison said.

“We can ask to speak with the queen about your mother,”
Taggart said. “If you desire we can request that she be allowed to cross.”

“I’m not sure that she would,” Reggie replied.

“You don’t believe that your mother would want to be with
you?” Jamison said.

“My mother is different,” was all the explanation Reggie
could voice but she knew they could see what she was thinking.

“I cannot fathom a woman such as that mothering one as
special as you,” Taggart stated.

“I love her,” Reggie said, not wanting them to doubt that.

“We know that,” Jamison said. “Your love is not what we
question.”

Her mother’s love. It was something Reggie had questioned
often as well. But not anymore. She was moving on, moving forward. She had gone
from a woman of doubt to a woman willing to embrace where she found herself.

“So what do I need to do to prepare for my shift?” Reggie asked.

Chapter Seven

It had gone more easily than she anticipated. The wolf
spirit took over when the time came to change and really, Reggie just felt like
she was along for the ride as Taggart had said. The sounds were scarier than
anything she felt physically when it came to shifting. And by the time it was
all done she was so ramped up with excitement that nothing else mattered.

She ran, feeling the breeze rippling over her fur. It seemed
that all of her senses were stronger, better while in this form. Taggart and
Jamison stayed at her side, never allowing her to be on her own. It was nice to
know that they were there ready to help and support her if needed.

She couldn’t fathom being able to change, to embrace a
different part of self and choosing to walk away. Having seen what was open to
her on this side of the veil, having experienced the love of men such as
Jamison and Taggart, it made no sense to her. What woman would choose not to
stay? Not her, that was for sure.

Shifting back, she walked a ways from the cabin, adjusting
to being back on two legs. Her mates seemed to have no problem with it but
going from all fours to two and vice versa was going to take some getting used
to on her part. She had waved them off when they’d offered to walk with her. She
needed a few moments to herself. A lot had happened in the week she’d been here
and though she had accepted it, she was still adjusting.

“Hello,” a voice called to her and Reggie looked up to see
another woman. She was a few inches shorter than Reggie, with short
golden-brown curls and big blue eyes.

“Hello,” Reggie replied.

“I’m Nikki Mondella,” the woman said and held a hand out to
Reggie.

“Reggie,” she answered and then caught herself with a laugh.
“Reggie Ballard.”

“I’m still getting used to it myself,” Nikki told her.

“You…” Reggie wasn’t sure how to ask what was going through
her head.

“Yeah, I’m from the other side as well,” Nikki nodded.

“The song?” Reggie asked.

Nikki nodded her head. “The most beautiful I’d ever heard. I
just knew that if I could find where it was coming from that I’d be okay.” She
smiled. “I was right.”

“How long have you been here?” Reggie wanted to know.

“About a month,” Nikki said. “We are just getting ready to
leave the cabins and head back to their shelter. I’m about to meet my new
family.”

“Nervous?” Reggie asked.

“Terrified,” Nikki answered with a laugh. “But so excited.
I’ve never really had a family.”

Reggie wondered if that was something that they would all
have in common. “You’ve been in the cabin for a month?”

“Yeah, according to my mates Gunnar and Geran, this is
considered the honeymoon period,” Nikki stated. “Each new triad is given the
time required to complete the bond and allow for her to successfully shift and
embrace her new wolf spirit.”

“So I have more time before I go to meet my mates’ family,”
Reggie said. “I have to admit that I’m a little nervous about that.”

“Did you leave family behind?” Nikki asked softly.

“My mother,” Reggie said. “But honestly we were never really
that close and well, it was thanks to her actions that I am even here to begin
with. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Nikki replied.

“Are you happy here? Do you miss home?” Reggie was curious
if she would experience doubt or homesickness down the road.

“No,” Nikki shook her head and then laughed at the look
Reggie knew was on her face. “I mean that I don’t miss home. I love it here,
love my mates and feel grateful that I was chosen to come here.”

Reggie laughed. “That’s good to hear. I guess that I’m still
adjusting.”

“I think that is part of giving you so long here at the
cabin as well,” Nikki said softly and took her hands. “The good thing for you
is that when it is your turn to join everyone else you’ll already have a friend
there.”