Chapter 6

Alanna was beyond nervous. She was feeling attracted to him and her mind was still clouded with her feelings. Although she wasn't fond of the idea, it wasn't like she could help but be enticed by Faolán. Six hundred years ago he was her mate, the one who was supposed to be her ideal partner for life. She was trying to fight it and Faolán realized she didn't seem alright. Initially he thought she was just horny, but apart from the scent of her desire, he could sense something else. It was the same strange scent he'd smelled when he'd first met her, but he was unable to tell what it was exactly.

Even though it was hard for him to have to stop the car and change routes, he didn't want Alanna to be bothered in any way. Because the moment they were intimate, he would mark her forever. Come to think of it, actually it would be better if she were aware of the consequences of sleeping with him before she did it.

"Do you want to go to the hotel or are you not ready for this, yet?" He asked.

Alanna was impressed that he could control himself so well. But then again, he wasn't an eighteen-year-old. Thinking about it, she chuckled inwardly. She was eighteen when it all happened, and now she was pretending to be a twenty-five-year-old woman.

"I… Can you go back to the restaurant? I left my car there." She asked, and he, despite his disappointment, complied with her request.

"Of course, love." He replied without even realizing what he'd called her.

Alanna swallowed hard. This male was amazing. If she didn't know him so well, she would surely fall in love with him. Even when he was Earl (Mormaer—count) Aillard, he'd get deep passionate sighs from all the young girls around, but Alanna had always had eyes only for Adarlan, ever since she'd started noticing boys.

"Thanks." She said.

He did a U-turn and quickly returned and parked in front of the restaurant. Before she got out of the car, Faolán took her hand. She stopped, with the door half-open and one leg partially out of the vehicle.

"I need to talk to you about what happened today. Something really important. I mean it." He said, looking into her blue eyes.

"I need to go. We'll talk later." She said, trying to free her hand from his. He gently pulled her towards himself and kissed her hand.

"I'm not lying when I say I want you, more than just for one night. But you will only understand this if you let me explain why. It's a little more complicated than what you're used to." His voice was husky and seductive. Alanna had to mentally shake herself out of the urge of going back into the car and allowing him to take whatever he wanted from her.

"Good night." She said and got out of the car. He watched her in the rearview mirror, as she got in her car and drove away. He was tempted to follow her, but he didn't. He didn't want to smother her.

'I can't believe she's gone...' Rafe said tearfully.

"What? Did you want me to force her to do it?" Faolán asked, his voice menacing.

'You know that it's not like that. I love her, too. There's something about her that I can't explain... She doesn't have a wolf, but there's something different going on. We've been among humans for ten years now, and she definitely is not a regular one.' Rafe said, reflectively.

"Her scent is perfect, but deep down, it's like I smell… I don't know, I can't explain it. Maybe it's some cosmetic product that she uses..." Faolán mused. He couldn't think of anything else.

Rafe didn't share his thoughts, but he sensed something dangerous involving Alanna lurking around them. She was their mate, there was no doubt about it. She wasn't a wolf, but she wasn't an ordinary human either. He just couldn't quite figure out what was going on. As he thought about it, he immediately remembered Wolfsbane. But that plant was deadly poisonous to humans, so they didn't use it. Then again, severe toxicity was not expected from skin contact, in humans. However, Wolfsbane—Aconitum lycoctonum—, as its name implies, was much more deadly to wolves, even to the touch.

'She might wear some perfume with some tiniest note of aconite.' Rafe said, and Faolán thought about it. It was unusual for humans to use wolfsbane. But if that was really the case, he and Rafe would have a problem.

"If it had been perfume, the substance would have been on her skin and I would have suffered immediate damage. But the smell seems so remote that it's almost imperceptible. As far as I'm concerned, humans don't have the ability to manipulate wolfsbane that way."

'But witches do.' Rafe said.

"Do you think she's a witch?"

'I don't know. She doesn't look like a witch, but she's not normal, either. I know that her being our mate can make us a little blinded to reasoning, but the fact that you are an Alpha makes you less vulnerable to that kind of effect.'

"Now, more than ever, we need to be aware of everything that involve her." Faolán drove to the hotel and went straight to the bathroom to take a good cold shower. He would go to Alanna's company the next day and talk to her. He was running out of time for both the land acquisition and his mate-binding to be fulfilled.

During the night, he had those nightmares about an evil creature again. He felt the evil in the air, as well as the fear and despair of other men. He looked around and saw many on the ground, and then a searing pain started blinding him. The pain was coming from his chest, and when he opened his eyes with a blurred vision, he was on the floor. He knew that there would be that woman who was killing him. He looked up and Alanna's blue eyes were staring at him. He woke up screaming. Not long after that, the room's landline phone rang. The reception was calling to know what was happening.