She looked down, then frowned. Lifting his hand, she stared at his marked palm.
"You're mated?"
He balled his hand into a fist. "It happened earlier tonight."
Her jaw went slack before she pulled him back into her house. She shut the door, then faced him. "Who?"
"A human."
She cursed in French. "Oh, cher," she breathed. "What are you going to do?"
Vane shrugged. "There's nothing to be done. I'll guard her for the duration, then leave her to her life."
She gave him a puzzled stare. "Why would you damn yourself to so many years with no woman or mate? If you let her go, you may well never mate again."
Vane started to leave, but she pulled him to a stop.
"What should I do, Nicolette?" he asked, using her real name instead of Mama, which most called her. "I'm a living example of why we need to breed within our own species. The last thing I want is to spread my disease to another generation."
She looked appalled by his words. "You are not diseased."
"No? Then what would you call it?"
"You are blessed, as Colt is."
He gaped incredulously at her words. That was one word he would never have applied to himself. "Blessed?"
"Oui," she said sincerely. "Unlike the rest of us, you know what it's like for the other side. You've been both animal and human. I'll never know what it's like to be human. But you do."
"I'm not human."
She shrugged. "Whatever you say, cher. But I know other Arcadians who have mated with humans. If you wish I could have them come talk to you."
"To what purpose? Were they mixed blood like me?"
"Non."
"Then what are they going to tell me? If my mate bears children, will they be human or wolf? Will they change base forms at puberty? How do I explain to a human mate that I don't know what our children will be?"
"But you are Arcadian."
He hated the fact that Nicolette, Acheron, and Colt could see what he'd been able to hide from others. He didn't know how they were able to detect him, but it seriously pissed him off. Even his own father hadn't known he was an Arcadian. Of course it helped that his father barely looked at him.
"Am I Arcadian?" he asked, lowering his voice to an angry whisper. "I don't feel the human side the way Colt does. How can I have been a wolf pup and then convert to human during puberty? How is that even possible?"
She shook her head. "Je ne sais pas, Vane. There is much in this world I don't understand. There are very few mixed bloods, you know that. Most humans who are brought in as mates are sterile. Maybe yours is, too."
That gave him some degree of hope, but he wasn't foolish enough to grasp it.
His life had never been an easy one. Every time he had reached out for something he wanted, he'd been slapped down viciously.
It was hard to be optimistic in a life where optimism had never been rewarded positively.
"It's a chance I can't take," he said quietly, even though a part of him wanted that chance with a desperation that frightened him. "I refuse to screw up her life."
Nicolette stepped back from him. "Very well. That's something that's completely up to you, but if you change your mind"
"I won't."