"Mmm," she said, kissing him again. "But it only works for you."
"Good."
Bride pulled back as she realized something. "Wait a minute. You can't ever cheat on me, can you?"
He shook his head. "Without you, I'm a total eunuch. My powers would lessen, too. Once sex is taken away from us, we have no way to recharge our energy.
Eventually we lose all our magic."
"Then how is your father the leader of your pack if he can't wield magic?"
He frowned. "How did you know my father was our leader?"
"I heard the medieval people talking about it."
Vane took a long, deep breath before he explained it to her. "He became the pack's leader before I was bora. The only reason he's still in charge is that he's extremely strong physically as a wolf and he makes deals with the Daimons for magic."
"Daimons?"
"Vampires. Unlike your television and movies, the real vampires don't thrive on human blood, they thrive on human souls. If they take the soul of a Were-Hunter or a psychic human they can then absorb their powers. Daimons who are truly powerful are able to share that power with someone else. My father routinely makes sacrifices to them so that they'll leave his pack alone and siphon off a bit of their magic to him."
"Sacrifices?"
He sighed as if the thought pained him. "He pretends someone has betrayed the pack and singles them out to be left for the Daimons. My brother Fang and I were the last sacrifices he made. I knew he'd send assassins out to kill us once the Daimons didn't return to share power with him."
She couldn't imagine anything worse than that. His father had sacrificed him to die. His mother hated him and would gladly kill him, too.
Her poor wolf. No wonder he had come to her.
"Oh Vane, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. I'm only surprised my father waited so long to set us up. I think the only reason he didn't do it sooner was that for all his faults, he loved my sister, Anya, more than anything, and she loved us. So long as she lived, I don't think he wanted to hurt her by killing us. But the instant she died"
"He came after you?"
He nodded.
She pulled his head to her breasts and held him there, wanting to make it all better, knowing she couldn't. But at least Vane seemed to be at peace with the past and with his parents and their unreasoning hatred of him. His strength amazed her. She didn't know of any other man who could have had his past and his pain and be so compassionate and loving.
"What was it like in your commune?" she asked, wondering what other scars he hid with such dignity.
"I don't know. We live like animals. We stay mostly in wolf form unless we head into the cities for something."
"Like food?"
"Or sex. Sex is much more enjoyable as a human than as a wolf. There's a lot more stimulation, especially for our females."
That was something she didn't want to consider. She didn't like thinking about Vane with anyone else. But at least she didn't have the fear of him cheating on her. There was much to be said for that. Her own sister was currently going through a divorce over that very thing.
"So you pretty much live out your lives as wolves?" she asked.
He nodded. "For the Katagaria it's really easy since the wolf is their base form. It's what they default to whenever they rest or are hurt."
"But you're Arcadian."
She could tell by the way he stiffened that it bothered him. "Yeah. So for me, it was unrelenting torture to maintain a wolf form. One of the reasons I'm so strong magically is that I had to learn to channel my powers so that I could remain a wolf while I was fighting, injured, or sleeping. Things that I should do as a human."
"And the tattoo on your face?"