The White Snake and the Scarred Delta

Chapter 17

Garridan

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While talking with Tezy as my mother took Dušan and Zorica into the house, Andrei, our pack doctor assigned to Giurgiu, mindlinked me suddenly.

“Delta Garro! I heard you were badly hurt but was able to get healed by the snake shifter who’s with you right now,” his preamble.

“Yes? What about her, Andrei?” I asked him. Meanwhile, Tezy looked impatient, though she remained quiet. She glared at me, but she looked actually cute with that expression painted on her face.

“We need her right now, Delta Garro! Alpha Kronid may lose his life anytime now.”

“What did you just say?”

“Just please take her with you to heal Alpha Kronid. There’s no time to explain right now, but it happened just some minutes ago. Our pack members are chasing Ultima Danijel’s allies outside of our border. I’m here in a safer place, but I can’t move him further. He has lost a lot of blood already, and he has lost consciousness. I’m afraid he has not much time left, Delta Garro.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. I cut the mindlink as soon as I assured him that I’d take Tezy with me. It appeared that she wanted to disagree but couldn’t. We then portaled to Giurgiu.

I watched her heal my best friend as soon as we arrived at the forest. But I got worried when she almost collapsed after healing my friend. If I hadn’t noticed her low energy, she would’ve dropped to the leaf-matted ground.

I carried her to the guardhouse, where Andrei directed me. It was a medium-sized log cabin with two stories. I could smell my pack members’ scents that were left behind, a trace of them. It was my first time to be here, although I had been to the pack mansion some couple of miles away from here. This place was just one of those dozens we have built close to the border to guard our territory.

As I laid Tezy down on the bed, I noticed her discomfort. When she told me she preferred a place with cooler temperatures, I could think of nothing else but the bathroom, where she could soak in the tub with cool water. The tap water’s source was a stream from the upper part of the mountain. It was clean and fresh. For sure, it was conducive to the picky deity in my arms.

I was awarded with a sweet smile when she settled in the cool water. Something overwhelming rose from deep within my chest. I then left her at her own devices while I changed the bed cover. It was to prevent myself from getting into the tub with her and do something I might regret later.

And yet, when I came back to check on her, she was already asleep and was slowly sinking. I caught her just in time and drained the water. I debated with myself if I’d leave her there, but she might be stiff and sore when she woke. So, I decided to strip her naked from her wet clothes and wrap her in a clean white towel.

I carried her to the bed to make her comfortable, and so, she could rest better. Before I realized what I had done, I joined her under the cover and embraced her to me. I must admit, it was the most wonderful thing I’d ever felt, ever since I lost Luminita.

“There’s some food in the fridge if you and the snake shifter are hungry,” Andrei informed me telepathically.

“It’s okay. Has Alpha Kronid woken already?”

“No, not yet. He’ll be soon, I’m sure,” Andrei answered. “We’ll just leave you two there for now. I’m sure your best friend will roast you later when he wakes.”

I chuckled somehow. I was truly relieved when Tezy was able to heal him. And for that, I was so grateful. I wondered what I could do for her, so that she would not lose much of her powers when she uses them. I knew something like giving positive energy. I pondered if it would be all right to do it with her.

From what I knew, s****l transmutation could be used and practiced to channel and direct one’s s****l energy into a “higher” purpose. And this higher purpose was to give Tezy more powers. Maybe… just maybe… it could help her regain all her deity powers. She would be back in her original self before she came to our realm.

Knowing that s****l energy was one of the most powerful energies in existence, it could be directed towards achieving certain goals, as well as manifesting dreams, and experiencing deeper states of consciousness. It came back to my mind that Tezy’s sister even mated with their siblings just to achieve what she wanted, their powers.

So, now, I was trying to propose this to Tezy. But would she agree to it?

“Hey, I’m asking you, Garridan. What’s weird, inconvenient, and unnecessary?” she asked me again.

“Marry me, Tezy,” I replied to her, at last.

Her face contorted. “What?”

“The mating ceremony I told you about, let’s do it.”

Her beautiful lips parted. I watched her swallow and blink, letting my words sink into her pretty head.

Her silence seemed to stretch forever. It was perhaps the longest wait I had ever experienced in my life. Luminita did not even think twice when I asked her to marry me, a few days after learning that she was my mate.

I mentally kicked myself. Tezy was with me, not Luminita. Comparing them was uncalled for. It was not right. It was like a great sin that I had committed.

“Tezy,” I uttered her name.

“Why do we have to do that, Garridan?” she whispered breathlessly. Her hands on my bare chest shifted. Despite the robe I had on, I felt naked under her touch.

“I don’t want others to get any ideas of coveting you. You’re mine, Tezy.”

All right, my mother was right. I may have felt hypocritical back then, but this was it. As soon as I wrapped my arms around her, I had no other thoughts but to make this goddess mine, only mine. My s****l attraction to her just grew every moment of the day, and I could no longer deny it to myself. I did not want to pretend any more that I did not want her or even fancy her. And yes, it only took a couple of nights for me to get into this situation with Tezy. I could not hold out much longer.

“Garridan, as you said, that’s unnecessary. Who will covet me, anyway? Do you think I’ll let them do it? I have my own decision to make.”

“What decision is that?”

“Why do you want to marry me, anyway? What has gone to your head?” Her brows met, creating lines in the space between.

“Did you not listen to my reason? I want you to be mine, Tezy.”

“You can’t own someone, Garridan, especially a deity like me. I’m above you mortals.”

I snorted at that. “Right. But you’re the goddess who’s going to serve me as I want. Or have you forgotten?”

“Serve you? No goddess will serve a mere mortal, Garridan!” she protested.

“Sure. I’m challenging you to oppose that.”

She looked at me in disbelief. “What do you mean? Are you going to force me to do what you want then?”

I smiled at her, an arresting one. Her heart skipped a beat, making me grin wider.

“I don’t need to force you, sugar t**s. You’ll do it on your own. I promise, what I’m proposing to you is mutualism. Both of us will gain from it. Or maybe, I should say you’ll gain more from it. I’ll make you more powerful. By marrying me, you might even get your powers back faster than just by absorbing our enemies’ life forces and powers. I know that you don’t feel good whenever you try to cleanse those malicious powers and eliminate them. I know that your body can’t simply take those bad energies well. I can still remember that only pure intents would make you feel better. Aren’t I right? So, what do you think?”

“Marrying you is still not an answer, is it?” She looked at me doubtfully.

“Let’s just say it’s a formal way to announce that you’re mine. That way, no one would dare take you away from me!”

Her throat moved when she swallowed. She still stared at me. “You still need to convince me why I should marry you, Garridan. I don’t find your current one necessary at all. I can always escape and come back to you if someone takes me away from you. Because I have already figured out that it’s only you that I need to be with in this realm.”