Hel's Huntsman

12 - What's going on?

Kayson

I watch as Orion shows his mate around the pack. She clings to his arm as he describes the world around them, his voice a soft, soothing balm. Orion introduces Maddie to people and Elora scowls. That isn’t like my aunt at all, and I narrow my eyes when she rolls hers and walks away before Orion can reach her.

What was that about?

I need to check on her before I leave. Hel and I have been here for a week, but now my mate needs to return to Niflhiem. We’re leaving tomorrow, and I’m excited to begin this new journey with my mate. Now that Hel has been marked by my Lycan, the three of us are one.

It wasn’t a hard decision to allow Adder to have his moment with Hel. When I walked away from Hel the day she killed Maddie’s adoptive mother, it wasn’t for the reasons she believed. Adder and I were deep in conversation about our mate. Hel doesn’t have an animal form, so she’s as much Adder’s mate as she is mine.

When he asked to be allowed to mate with Hel, I agreed as long as he used my body. I didn’t think Hel would be comfortable having se.x with a Lycan in his true form. Adder was more than willing to do things my way, and the poor guy even said he wouldn’t touch Hel if I found it uncomfortable.

I laughed and told him he is part of me, and Hel is ours. As long as she agreed, I had no problem with them mating. Hel accepted Adder so easily, and I couldn’t have loved her more. She accepted Adder’s mark after asking if I was okay with it. Of course, I was okay with it and made sure Hel knew that.

As I sit on my tree stump, sculpting a Wolf out of wood with my dagger, I watch Hel laughing with Winter. My sister is staying a little longer because Cree is also. I haven’t spent much time with my siblings since Hel arrived, so the four of us will be going for a walk in the woods later. We’re rarely all in one place these days. We all have mates, and they come first. But we should always make time for one another when we can.

As I carve the eyes of the Wolf, I look up to see Orion making his way over to me. His mate has been here for two days, and no one has met her until today. They weren’t in heat, mating and marking one another. No, Orion said his mate needed time to heal before he brought her to meet the pack, and he didn’t know when they would mate. But he would wait until Maddie was ready. As everyone should when they have a damaged mate.

The day Maddie arrived, Dad demanded that Orion tell him everything that happened in town the day he met Maddie’s adoptive mother. I wasn’t present for their conversation, but Orion hadn’t brought his mate along as Dad requested. That didn’t sit well with the Alpha, let me tell you. However, Mom calmed Dad down, as she always does. My father didn’t mean to sound insensitive, but having Hel and Narfi kill on his land against his rule pissed him off, and he was struggling to calm down.

Today, Orion introduced Maddie to Mom and Dad. Dad instantly liked her as he does with most people. Mom thinks she’s wonderful, as do the rest of the pack who have met her. Only Elora seems to have a problem with it.

I sigh because I really ought to find Elora and find out what the problem is. Elora is usually the first person to welcome new members and mates to the pack.

“Wow, Uncle Kayson.” Rune smiles while looking at the wooden Wolf in my hand.

“That is amazing!” Raidar’s eyes are wide with excitement. I didn’t see them approaching, which isn’t like me. But I was lost in thought.

After finishing the carving, I tuck my dagger into the holster at my hip. I grab the identical one from beside me and hold them out to the boys.

“These are for us?” Rune looks at me with a smile.

“They are. Here, take them.” I nod, and the boys take the carvings while laughing at each other.

“For keeps?”

“For keeps.” I nod at Raidar, who takes his brother’s hand and drags him away. They yell to their mother, holding their carved wolves high so she can see them. Winter shoots me a wink, and I chuckle.

I don’t know when it became a tradition to calve animals and hand them out to the younger children, but I’ve been doing it since I was thirteen.

The first animal I ever carved was a Bear. My cousin Porter, Uncle Tristan’s son with his Bear King mate, saw me sitting in the woods. They were here visiting Mom as she and Tristan are twins. Porter was nine at the time, and he asked what I was doing. I smiled and showed him the Bear carving in my hand. He gasped and asked if I could make him one. I gave the Bear to him, but then his brother Barkley wanted one of his own. It went from there, and I’ve been carving ever since.

Maddie smiles as Orion continues to describe the world around them, painting a vivid picture with his words. She’s taking it all in and loving every minute of it. It’s sad to think Maddie can’t have her eyesight restored. Dad can’t heal her because the wounds are too old. Hel said she couldn’t heal her, and Fenrir wouldn’t even try. Asshole! Narfi and Aether don’t have the ability to help, so Maddie is stuck the way she is.

I chuckle as Orion tells Maddie about the pack’s daily routines, from the early morning runs and training sessions to the evening gatherings around the fire, where stories and songs are shared. He tells her about our traditions, like the annual summer solstice celebration and the winter feast. I heard him telling her earlier about the pack’s history, the battles we had fought, and the allies we have made. He told her about the Luna being the Lycan King’s sister, and Maddie gasped loudly, making everyone laugh. I guess it was shocking for her to hear.

Orion stops in front of me with a massive smile on his face. “And this is Kayson, the Alpha and Luna’s youngest son.”

“Hel’s mate?” Maddie inquires.

“That’s right. Kayson, this is Maddie.”

I stand and wipe my hands on my trousers. “Nice to meet you, Maddie.”

“Wow, your voice is deeper than I imagined.”

I chuckle. That’s not one I’ve heard before.

“How are you finding your new home?”

Maddie’s white eyes sparkle as she smiles. “It’s wonderful. I can smell so many different scents. Not just people, but baked bread, soap, and fresh grass.” She giggles. “I spent so long locked inside that I’m loving the freedom being here brings me.”

I must say, she looks a million times better than she did when she first arrived. Maddie needs to put on some weight, but she’s clean and happy. That’s all that matters.

‘Orion is happy.’ Adder mumbles. ‘It’s nice to see him smiling.’

‘It is.’ I agree because Orion hadn’t been smiling much in recent weeks.

‘There is someone who isn’t smiling.’

I sigh. ‘I know.’

‘I’m worried about Elora.’

‘Me, too, buddy.’

‘Something is wrong. We should find her.’

Adder is right. I can’t leave Elora out there with her misery.

“There’s something I have to do, but it was lovely to meet you, Maddie. Welcome to the pack.”

“Thank you so much.”

I tip my head at Orion while clasping his shoulder. He tips his head in return, and I walk away. I know it was rude to cut our conversation short, but I’ll make it up to them later.

‘Where are you going?’ I smile as I hear Hel inside my head.

‘I’m just going to fine Elora. She’s upset, and I want to check on her.’

‘Okay, handsome. I’ll wait at the cabin for you.’

‘You don’t have to. You can stay with your brothers and my sister until I’m done.’

Hel chuckles. ‘I think I’ve had enough of my brothers for one month. I’ll see you soon!’

I laugh. ‘Okay, baby. I won’t be long.’

I cut the link and search for my aunt. It takes me a while, but I find Elora in the woods. She’s staring at the water in the stream rushing by. Her head is low, and her shoulders are sagged.

I sigh and walk closer. “Hey, you.”

Elora looks at me and smiles slightly. “Hey.”

“What are you doing out here all by yourself?”

Elora playfully rolls her eyes while crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m thirty-two, Kayson. I grew up in these woods and trained just as you did. I can take care of myself.”

“I would never think otherwise.” I step closer. “But that’s not really what I’m asking. Is it?”

Elora sighs. Something is going on, something none of us has picked up on. But looking back, I realize Elora has been like this for a while. Goddess, we’re all inconsiderate jerks! I was too preoccupied with when Hel would finally turn up. Orion had the fact that he’d been rejected on his mind, even if it wasn’t true. But I have no idea what everyone else’s excuse is. We’re all usually so on the ball when someone is going through something they can’t or won’t talk about.

“What’s going on, Elora? What are you hiding from the pack? Why don’t you like Orion’s mate?”

“I never said I didn’t like her, Kayson.”

“You could have fooled me.”

She sighs. “I was jealous, I guess.”

“Of what?”

A tear slips from Elora’s eye. It breaks my heart to see her upset. Elora was always the one to smile, always having fun and keeping everyone’s spirits up. But I have to wonder if we’ve all taken her for granted. We must have if she’s going through something no one has noticed.

“Elora.” I sigh and wrap my arms around her. She sobs into my chest, and my heart breaks even further.

I’ve only ever seen Elora cry once in my life. I was three, and Elora was ten. She’d been visiting her mother’s birth pack, and Elora’s friend there had been killed by rogues along with her parents. Elora was brokenhearted, and I found her sobbing in her room. I remember hugging her and telling her that I loved her. In my childish mind, I thought that would make her happy, and she would stop crying. My mom came and took me away. I didn’t see Elora for a few days afterward, but when she eventually came out of her room, she was smiling again.

For my aunt to be this upset now, something terrible happened. If I find out anyone hurt her, I’ll kill them! I make no exceptions when it comes to my family, and I don’t care what anyone thinks of me for it.

“Please, tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’ve been so stupid, Kayson.”

“Why would you say something like that? What could you have possibly done?”

Elora pulls away from me and roughly wipes her eyes. “I guess I need to tell someone. It’s not like I can hide it forever.” She blows out a long breath. “Remember when Starr took me to Lykos with her a couple of months ago?”

I nod. “What about it?”

“I bumped into someone.” She bites the inside of her cheek.

I close my eyes because I know what’s coming. “You met your mate, and he rejected you. Didn’t he?”

Everyone has the right to reject their mate if that’s what they choose. But it doesn’t make it any easier on the rejected one or their families. They are the ones who have to pick up the pieces of the rejected person’s heart. They are the ones who must help the rejected one fight to keep on living.

“He didn’t reject me, Kayson.”

Okay…

“Then what happened?”

Elora shrugs. “I don’t know. We spent the night together. He was my mate, it wasn’t wrong. But once he got what he wanted, he said he couldn’t be with someone like me.”

“Someone like you?”

“A wildling.” She shrugs again. “I was hurt that he would sleep with me, take something precious from me, and then leave me. But I wasn’t about to beg. If he didn’t want me, then fine. I tried to reject him, but he shifted and jumped out of the window before I could finish the words. I haven’t seen him since.”

Great! That means Elora won’t be able to move on until we find the guy and force him to accept her rejection. She will also feel every time the guy is intimate with another woman. It could take time to find Elora’s mate, and all the while, she’ll suffer not being near him. My dad and hers are going to lose their shi.t! Elora means everything to the two of them, and they won’t handle her being in so much pain.

I take the top of Elora’s arms in my hands. She looks at me with tears in her eyes. “We’ll find him, Elora. Give us his name, and we’ll track him down. You can reject him and move on. We’ll all be here for you, you know that.”

“I’m pregnant, Kayson, and I don’t know what to do. I've been hiding it from everyone, using my power to project the scent of the pregnancy onto the other pregnant she-wolves in the pack. But I can’t do that much longer; it’s taking everything out of me. My dad is going to kill me!”

Well, crap!