I nodded but then looked over at Maddox. He backed away and took a seat in the chair across the room. The aggression that he wore like a second skin seemed to dissolve at the same moment that he submitted to me. He smiled and just watched me. The bastard was testing me.
“Why?” I asked.
“I’m a dominant male. There’s no way that I’d submit to just anyone as my king and queen.”
“Queen?” I looked over at Alice.
“Seuss is the king of this region. Alpha of our pack. He’s your mate.”
“Mate?” The one-word questions were starting to drive even me crazy.
“Yes,” Alice said. “You’re destined to be together and rule these lands. He’s sick, and the only one that can heal him is you.”
“How am I supposed to heal him?”
“He suffers from a mating curse that gives him pneumonia like symptoms. I can keep him from dying with my healing powers just as I’ve done with you. The curse that he’s under can only be cured by his mate.”
“Who put him under a curse and why?”
“He did it to save you. He had to sacrifice his life to heal yours. That pill that the guy slipped you was to turn off your mating call to Seuss. He would have killed you if you hadn’t gotten away. The antidote requires Seuss to bond to you to heal the effects of the spell draining him of his life force and feeding yours.”
“How do we replenish his?”
“You’ll feed it to him slowly so that you can recuperate what you lose through healing sleep. If you do it too quickly, you’ll heal him but kill yourself.”
“What if I can’t heal him?” I asked.
“Then he dies, and you’ll be challenged for the throne.” Maddox spoke up for the first time since the conversation began. “We can’t let that happen. I’d die first before I let someone take the throne from Seuss.”
Everything about his tone and the words let me know that he could be trusted. Having someone so loyal to him that they’d give their life firmed my decision.
“Just show me what to do.” I said. If Seuss really was my mate I wanted to save him and his position on the throne. It all felt and seemed so surreal, but waking up as a wolf put things into perspective quickly.
“Eat up. You’ll need all of your strength for tomorrow,” Alice encouraged.
I picked up the first piece of meat from the plate symbolizing the initial steps to solving this messed up dilemma.