The Call - The Secrets of Avelina Chronicles Book 4

22. Caspar

Evantha thought about everything Caspar said. Her life would change monumentally if she went with him - when she left with him. Everything would be different. She might never see her mother and father again, her sister or her niece and nephew. She could probably live with that. She had been nothing but a slave, burden and child to them. She was sure no-one would truly miss her once she had gone. Her father had only started doting on her once her gifts with nature were revealed, but that had already been too late. Any chance of good feeling between them had been ruined by the previous years when he had thought her useless and claimed she would never marry.

Well, she would. Caspar would marry her. It wouldn't be for any superficial beauty or special gifts she had but because they were made for each other and loved one another. What was she so scared of?

"I would have to become a wolf to be with you?" She wondered softly. Caspar took her hands in his to comfort her, allowing a warmth to flow through the touch. She had always felt safe with him, loved and adored and very much alive. She could only imagine how wonderful the rest of her life would be by his side.

"When you are of age. Before then, a test must be undertaken. A single bite is administered, from bride to groom, in your words. If you are my true mate, the wound will heal instantly. If not, you will become infected, temporarily. It will not be painful if you are true and my instincts are never wrong. Since first I set eyes on you I knew you were my intended mate." Caspar smiled at how difficult it became to remember to use her terms for things which seemed alien to him despite the two yeas he had spent pretending to be a human.

Bride and groom seemed such strange words to him now that he had started talking about his own people. A giddiness ran through his bones at the thought of taking Evantha as his mate and returning to his clan to see his mother and the Elders. He was so proud of her that all he wanted to do was show her to everyone he knew and let her be adored, but there was much she needed to learn before then.

"I have waited these long years and now understand the council my mother gave me. Some who spend years waiting, searching for their mates, must have the same intolerable years to wait for their mate to age, to catch up to their growing years. Some even for their mate to be born and grow up. I cannot imagine the pain of waiting for such years, as my own has been tolerable yet long. I would have waited a hundred years, Evantha, if my heart knew it would find you. If you wish it, I will never return to my people. We may live in the world, you and I as we are now." Caspar offered her a compromise so she wouldn't have to be frightened or feel that the only way she could be with him was to become a lycan as he was.

He would happily live his life out with her until the end of their days if she wanted to stay a human. He wasn't sure if there was a way to reverse the gifts of his people so he could grow old with her. But he would try to find out if that was what she wanted and how she wanted them to spend their lives.

"No Caspar. I do not wish to age into an old woman while you live all the years of the world. We shall be together and we shall be united as your peoples customs decide. Then we will live there together until the end of our days, in blissful happiness." Evantha was so caught up in the romanticism of everything that Caspar was that she barely thought about the doubts in the back of her mind. They should have screamed at her to slow down and think logically about everything. But how could she when those deep dark eyes stared at her as if boring into her soul?

She leaned into him weakly, holding her hands to his chest as she blushed, knowing that from that moment on, her whole life was going to change for the better. Caspar adored the fact that she was happy now, but he felt a warning rise to the front of his mind as he gently touched his finger to her chin and asked her to look at him.