Page 56 of Immortal Burden

“What?”

“A lot of these symptoms are indicative of an interrupted mating claim.” She looked real shocked at the idea. “Did you start a claim on the sorceress?”

“No.”

“So, what I’m sensing in here was just sexual tension?”

“Jesus, Eira, you want all the graphic details, huh? I wanted her, yeah. The wolf went fucking crazy. But I didn’t get the chance to free my dick, let alone fuck her, then make a claiming bite.”

“You believe her to be your mate?”

I didn’t want to get into that, any of it with her. Nobody could know about the messed up shit that’d gone down.

That winged bastard must’ve cast some kind of spell that had soundproofed the room. It was the only explanation for my pack not running to my side when he’d tortured me.

That part had at least been for the best. If they’d been alerted and come running, it would’ve put them in some serious danger. An attack on a pack’s Alpha didn’t go unpunished. All hell would’ve broken loose. I mean, I’d been no match for that psycho, there was no way they would’ve stood a chance.

It was why I had to keep them the hell out of it now too, why I had to keep everybody out of it. Nothing, not even my command, could keep a pack from seeking vengeance against an attack on their Alpha. With that asshole's power, it would’ve meant their certain deaths. The son of a bitch had had me completely at his mercy. He’d actually knocked me out, for fuck's sakes. I’d never suffered a takedown like that. Hell, until him, I’d never lost a battle.

“Hold on,” Eira said, jolting me from my thoughts.

What was it with my mind wandering all over? I was normally rigid, focused, straight down the line. Was it something to do with this odd sickness?

“There’s something else…” She trailed off and jerked back.

“Eira, what?”

The freaked out look there in her eyes sent a shot of adrenaline down my spine. “You have been touched by Immortal magic.”

“The magic? It’s silver, yeah? Its… signature?”

She frowned. “It sounds like you are telling me Cornelius Martel, himself, was here.”

“Eira, answer the question.”

“Relax. I understand you do not want this becoming public knowledge. Your wolves would not react well to such a formidable threat. It would be a call to war. I am bound by the Healer Vow to maintain my patients’ confidentiality.”

“So?” I pressed, getting way more impatient with every second that ticked on by. “It’s his?”

She shook her head. “If Cornelius was here, he wiped any trace. No. This isn’t his anyway… this… all over you.” The look all over her face was pure terror. As she stowed her reader away, I even saw her hands shaking.

“Eira?”

“It is the mark of the Everlasting Fire.”

“What?”

“Hellfire. Cornelius does not possess such darkness. He stands on the side of good, not this… not chaos, destruction, and evil.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” I muttered.

With what he’d done to me, there was no way I’d put him down as being some great good guy. Nah, he had some major darkness in him, for sure.

She studied me real intensely, before I saw her eyes flash with realization. “He knows then. He came to neutralize it.” She gasped. “And he could not.”

What the fuck was she going on about? Magic-wielders and their crazy drama. “Look, there was an attack a few days back. A sinkhole full of some black goo out in the fields. Some of it could’ve got on me. So, stop freaking.”

“This is more than a mere interaction with a magical element. Your body is fighting hard to reject it, which I believe is causing this suffering you’re enduring. But it is losing.”

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