Chapter 12

Kayden's POV:

'What do you mean she passed out?!' Jolene links me telling me that my mate passed out in the tub right after she threw up, clearly she was in worse shape than I thought. I go back to the pack house and run up the stairs to the room I commanded be for Loiza. Just when I am about to open the door both my shoulders are held to stop me. It's Loiza's brothers.

"Jolene linked me and told me that Loiza was passed out in the tub!" They still hold on to me and they look very calm, while I probably look like I'm about to lose my mind!

"Calm down Alpha, do you have a Priestess in this Pack?" Maco asks.

"My mother used to be a High Priestess, but she went out of favor with The Goddess." Why aren't they worried? They just look at each other and Maco nods to their room at Urayoán and he goes in the room.

"Did your mother lose her High Priestess status before you were born or when you were very young?" Why more questions?

"Before I was born, why?" All I know is that I can't feel my mate through the Bond!

"Ok, so you really don't know how this works, Alpha we need you to be calm now, this is not unusual when a Priestess has spent all of her essential Life Energy, and since you are our sister's mate we are going to allow you to see how this works, but you have to cooperate, do you think you can do that Alpha Kayden?" He looks at me with a serious expression.

"I don't understand." What the hell IS WRONG WITH MY MATE! In that moment Urayoán comes out of their room with a small spray bottle.

"We know you don't understand, that's why we wanted to make sure if there was a Priestess in your pack, we wanted to make sure that you did not understand so we could help you. But we can only do it if our sister does not notice you in the room. You have to control yourself, whatever you see and whatever you hear you will not make a sound and you will not react. The spray will mask your scent. Do you think you can do this Alpha? If not we will have to go in ourselves, we don't want to betray our sister but we know that you are her mate and you will have to learn about these things. It's a small price to pay for being mated to a Priestess of the Goddess." I am very confused, but they seem to be putting their necks out to help me understand my mate. So I take a deep breath and count backwards from 10 until I am as relaxed as I can possibly be.

"Yes, I am in control." I say calmly.

"Are you SURE?" Maco says that last part gritting his teeth, as a warning. And I REALLY notice their self control. Here I am a nervous wreck who already growled and their General and they are as cool as cucumbers! I am definitely going to have to up my game...

"I am sure." I reply serenely.

"Remember that you are just an observer, you will keep your distance, you will stay silent and above all you will not touch her! Are we clear?" Urayoán says while holding the bottle ready to spray me with its contents.

"Crystal." I reply. He starts spraying me with the contents of the bottle, and surprisingly I can't even smell myself! Fascinating!

When Ura is satisfied that I have no scent he gestures me to follow him and his brother into his sister's room. We walk over to the bathroom, where I see a distressed Jolene slapping my mate gently trying to wake her up. Her heartbeat is faint but every beat is stronger.

"I don't understand, when I was finally able to put her in the water she said thank you and she closed her eyes, I just thought she fell asleep but when I came in 10 minutes later she was still like that, I started calling her but I had no reaction from her, after another 10 minutes I started to panic and I linked the Alpha!" Jolene is clearly in a lot of distress and I can't blame her, if I did not have the pep talk in the hallway with her brother's I probably would be the same way.

Ura pulls Jolene away from the tub gently telling her it will be alright, he hugs her in an embrace schussing her thanking her for helping his sister.

"It's already been half an hour, the water is starting to clear and the temperature is starting to go down. Jolene can you please get us a towel?" Maco asked the distraught girl. 'Kayden I don't feel Aryn are they going to touch mate?!' Deacon wants out. 'DAMN IT DEACON didn't you listen to mates BROTHERS? We have to endure it, they are teaching us how to help her in the future, don't you see that it looks that this is not the first time they do this? CALM DOWN!' That should shut him up for a bit.

"Ura get the towel ready" Then looking at me. "It's colder here than in the island, her body temperature will drop exponentially the moment I get her out of the tub, Jolene, the reason she told you that the water temperature did not matter was because she graduates it to a specific temperature which helps her secrete the necessary chemical compounds from her mark to heal her body and restore her essential Life Energy. Basically what this means is that every time that she has to spend massive amounts of energy she is forfeiting 10 minutes of her life, so it's actually quite lucky that werewolves get long life spans. If not she probably would not live over the age of 60." I am flabbergasted at this information! Why did my mother never tell me this?

Maco turns back to me. "I'm pretty sure that by now your wolf is anxious because he cannot feel Aryn. When she is in this state her wolf works as a backup battery. She basically goes into hibernation as to not take anymore of Izzy's energy which is why she is not her normal temperature, our species naturally has a higher temperature than humans, obviously this is because of all of the energy that our body already uses because of our metabolism and the ability to shift, that is an ability we have because of our wolf. Now here comes the tricky part, I need Ura to have the towel ready to make sure that her temperature does not drop too low. If her body temperature were to drop too much with her wolf in hibernation it will give hypothermia to the hibernating wolf followed by it's death. If that happens, she will be fully human and no longer a subject of the Goddess. Do you understand now why this is done? Just nod your head if you understand." He asks as he keeps monitoring the water. I just stand there with my mouth open in shock, but I definitely understand what this means, no wolf, no mate. I nod.

"Jolene get the warmest blanket and pajamas you can find for her ASAP." Jolene goes to the closet and looks for what she is told. And I go to the side table of the bed and find a small notebook and pencil. I understand now why they asked me to be quiet, as my mate if she were to hear my voice she more than likely would awaken interrupting the hibernation process before she is fully healed. Which would cause a relapse and risk her wolf. How often has this happened? I write and show it to Ura. He sighs... "Not much, she needs to have used massive amounts of power to get to this, and that is without counting the times that this must have happened when she was in Avalon, the only difference is that in Avalon they have professional caretakers for the Priestesses and since time doesn't really exist in Avalon they sacrifice nothing, it's only when they leave Avalon that the clock starts." Urayoán gives him a questioning look and Maco takes the paper from my hand to his. And he nods looking straight at me. "I was reaching a breakthrough creating a thermal suit for her and Yaya so that they didn't have to expedite so much of their energy, all that research is probably lost already and I'm going to have to start from scratch from memory, all of my research is at the lab." And I can hear the bitterness in his voice as he says it. And I realize that Maco is an engineer, he looks like a Warrior!

Jolene comes out of the closet with everything Maco asked for. "Jolene I know you were excited to help a Priestess of the Goddess and again we thank you for your help, but that is why she had us on standby. Even to SERVE a Priestess you need training, they are strong and powerful and have the backing of the Goddess but if there is a miscalculation on their part or their caretakers, it could mean their death. Did she throw up before she was able to get into the water?" He asks wringing Loiza's hair trying to get as much water out.

"Yes! How did you know?!" She looks at me about to cry.

"Shit! Jolene leave the things on the bed and get her a bowl of that soup and a cup of ginger tea, okay?"

She looks at me glassy-eyed on the verge of tears, and I tell her through the link... 'Go kiddo, we know better now relax, just follow instructions.' And she runs out of the room.

"Okay we're going to need you to give us space now, the water has gone clear and has no more healing properties for her so she has to come out of the water now, Ura are you ready bro?" He looks at his brother.

Ura nods. "Always, hand her over." And Maco picks up my naked mate from the tub and they act in complete synchronization. The moment her body left the water she was immediately engulfed by the towel and she was inside Ura's arms, Maco stands up and hugs the side opposite Ura and she is sandwiched between them, suddenly I can feel both of them raising their body temperature. And suddenly I am surprised that I am completely unfazed by this, I don't feel rage at them, nor anger, on the contrary. I feel gratitude, I can see how much they love each other and what they're willing to do to protect their sister.

As pack creatures we protect our own, but I have never seen this type of devotion. Suddenly Maco nods at Ura while taking Loiza's weight on himself, and Ura goes to get the things Jolene left on the bed while Maco is drying her, when he is satisfied that she is dry enough he picks her up and goes to where Ura is ready with the warm pajama bottoms and Maco deposits her in them while Ura guides her legs to the correct openings and raises the pants to her waist while Maco slowly lifts the towel out of the way. Then like clockwork Ura gets the fluffy pijama shirt unbuttoning it and opens it to receive her, he nods at Maco indicating that he is ready. Maco sits her on Ura's lap as he hugs her and Maco retrieves the towel and dumps it on the floor and reaches into each sleeve taking her hand and pulling it out the sleeve, as Ura is hugging her nothing is exposed and Maco buttons her up. Goes back in the closet to get a new towel and wraps her hair. "Can you link Jolene and ask her to bring a blow dryer to blow dry her hair please? And does that fire place work?" Maco asks. I nod give him a thumbs up and I link Jolene and tell her what we need and I start a fire.

Ura lays her on the bed and leaves the room and Maco goes to the bathroom and gets a glass of water and puts it on the table to her right. Ura walks in with a stone and puts it on the table on the left and I realize that they are surrounding her with the elements. I have never seen something so complicated be done with that kind of synchronisation, and it makes me realize that if I were not here they would not even have to speak, this complicated dance that they do to make sure that their sister lives is something that looks so natural to them. Even though she was naked, I only got a peek, they did it in such a respectful manner towards their sister that even Deacon was calm which helped me be calm. I write on another piece of paper... What about her puking? I show Maco. He sighs.

"That one is on her, when the airplane door opened and she got your scent she started freaking out, she was already feeling her life draining and then all of the sudden she has to deal with having a mate. I wanted her to have a sip of rum to calm her nerves, but she chugged three shots on an empty stomach. When Jolene comes in with the ginger tea and soup you MUST leave, we will try to wake her a bit so that she can eat something so that she doesn't fall asleep on it completely empty stomach. And the tea will help settle her stomach.

"All of this, is the price to be a Priestess of the Goddess, that is why when there is no Alpha, no Beta and no Luna, and The Elders under investigation, the weight of the pack falls upon the Priestesses, that is why General Braka is following HER orders, so now let's do the math, since 4:30 this morning my sister has been battling a volcano alone trying to buy time for the pack to evacuate, she is the daughter of the Beta who died, our mother died, our Alpha, his son, which he was Izzy's milk brother, died and last we heard our pack lost over a thousand wolves and she feels like a failure. Add to that the sudden weight of command being placed upon her shoulders in a moment of crisis, a pending investigation and she's only 19 years old, then add to that getting here only to discover her mate, a mate of a pack who doesn't understand our ways and knowing how most wolves act when they find their mate, and she knowing full well that she does not have the luxury right now to even think upon that because she now leads a pack of over 9,000 wolves, we still don't have the numbers but we're hoping that at least that was close to the number that survived and they survived because of HER. I hope that lets you understand a little more all that she has been through just today. She is the strongest person I know." He says as he gets up from the bed and escorts me out of the room.

Once we are in the hallway... "Now that we can speak freely, do you have any questions?" He asks directly.

And even though that we are out of the room now I am still speechless, I just can't help recreate over and over what I just saw.

"Not at this moment." I confess

"Do you think you're up to this?" He asks with a frown.

"I don't understand what you mean, are you asking me if I'm going to reject my mate?  Because of what? A few inconveniences? Have you ever dated? Have you ever been with a woman? There are always inconveniences. And every single one that I have met has not been worth that inconvenience. Your sister is a Priestess of the Goddess and from what I have witnessed so far, you speak truth when you say that she is the strongest person you know. Sometimes inconvenience depends if it's worth it. So no, I'm not going to reject my mate, she is mine, and if you think that little spectacle is going to scare me away you're gravely mistaken. Do YOU have any questions?" I say that last bit gritting my teeth.

I can see him studying my face find any falsehoods, but he won't find any. Suddenly out of nowhere he smacked the side of my shoulder and says "Good man!" And goes back to the room.