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Chapter 7
Finn sat at the edge of Violet's bed and twisted the sheets in his tightly fisted hands. It had been two days since she had been shot. She should have woken up by now, especially since she had healed within hours of being shot. Once he had removed the bullet her skin had patched itself back together right before his eyes.
"Please wake up Violet," he whispered fiercely. There was no response, of course. It was killing him, not knowing what she was or what to do for her. Desperation made him grab her shoulders and shake her lightly, then more forcefully when she didn't respond.
Finally Violet made a small noise and slowly opened her brown eyes. She looked up at Finn and frowned, "What happened?"
"You were shot, so I brought you back here. It's been two days," he replied, examining her face for any new details he might have missed before.
"What is wrong with you?" Violet asked, shifting uncomfortably on the bed. The man in front of her was staring intently at her, as if trying to unlock all of her secrets.
Finn shook his head in disappointment and gave her an irritated look. "I can't figure it out," he said harshly.
"Can't figure what out?"
"What you are."
Violet visibly flinched, but composed a mask on her face that revealed nothing but mild curiosity. "What do you mean? I'm a female human just like the other women."
"Don't lie to me," he said with drawn brows, "I can tell you're something else, I just can't tell what. Usually I have no problem classifying creatures, but with you, something is muddled and hidden from me."
Violet grinned playfully, "Don't be silly."
Finn growled and tugged on the bed sheet angrily, "This isn't a game Violet! I don't know what you are and while you were sick I was so damn worried that I needed to be doing something special for you, but I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do!" She looked at him with wide blue eyes and bit on her bottom lip with a small fang.
"Why are your eyes blue?" he asked roughly after calming himself down. It was rare that Finn lost his temper, but something about this woman evoked a crazy amount of emotion in him.
"I...I can't tell you," she whispered after a moment. She turned her head away from him and started tracing patterns on the bed.
Finn reached out and softly turned her head to face him again. "Why not? Are you afraid that we're going to reject you once we find out what you are?"
Violet shook her head, "I can't tell you. If I do...well, the consequences aren't something I want to deal with. You can try and guess though." She smiled shyly at him, once again revealing her small fangs.
"May I?" he asked, reaching out a hand. She nodded and allowed him to tuck her hair behind her left ear. He gasped softly when he saw that they were delicately pointed at the tip. "Are you some kind of fae?" he murmured, more to himself than to her.
Pulling back he carefully observed her features again. Her eyes were pointed upwards at the temple ends and seemed to change colors with her emotions. She had pointed ears and small fangs. "You can't be a fairy, you don't have wings. I would have felt them when I carried you here. And you aren't a nymph: you have pointed ears." Finn gave another frustrated sigh while Violet still smiled at him.
She took the opportunity to scrutinize Finn's features. He had shockingly pale hair that fell in disarray on his head. His eyes were violet colored and framed by thick white lashes. Sharp cheekbones and a sharp nose gave him an aristocratic look offset by the dimple in his left cheek and kissable lips.
"Are you a pixie?" he asked intently, searching her face for any signs of acknowledgement. Violet gave a wide smile, but made no effort to confirm his question. "You are a pixie! But I thought pixies had wings."
"Only royalty does. And even then you wouldn't be able to tell if they were a pixie. Wings are hidden by slits in the back," she answered.
Finn gave a tight smile, in no way relieved now that he knew what she was. He still had many questions and concerns for her. "Now that I know what you are, can you answer any questions I have?"
"I'll try," she responded cryptically. He intrigued her, this werepanther with more curiosity than anyone she had met, but she wouldn't reveal all of her secrets. Some things just weren't meant to be shared with strangers.
"Why do your eyes change color and why do you have fangs?"
Violet chuckled and blinked slowly, her eyes were now a soft green color. "Our eyes change with our emotion. Blue for sadness or fear, green for joy, red for anger, brown for physical pain and silver for emotionless. I have fangs because all pixies do. I'm not exactly sure why, another defense if we need it I suppose."
He nodded understandingly, already forming the next question in his mind. "I'm curious about wings. In order to be royalty you have to have wings?"
Finn watched as Violet's eyes changed from green to a purple color: a mixture of anger and sadness, "If you don't have wings, you aren't royalty," she responded bitterly. "Anything out of the ordinary they consider abnormal and evil. It's the way of life."
"Evil? But I thought pixies like being evil. At least that's what I've always learned."
"You have to understand, that's our nature, to be evil. We don't consider it evil or wrong. However, we do believe that something different is evil. Pixie's like their systems and if you don't fit in anywhere, you simply don't belong."
"You speak as if you've experienced this first-hand," Finn said calmly.
Violet laughed humorously, "If that was another veiled question at my past, I'm not answering it. However, I will let you know that I ran away because I needed something different, needed to feel like I belonged. That's when I found Noelle. I enrolled in high school and met her and her friends there. They made me feel welcome and a part of something."
She gave a half smile and looked curiously at Finn, "Enough about me though, what's your story?"
Scowling Finn visibly drew away from her, "What do you mean? I'm a werepanther. There's not much more to know."
"I hardly believe that. There has to be a reason why you're so cold and distant from everyone and everything. Something happened to you to make you this way. What was it?"
Finn stared in shock at the woman before him. She was incredibly intuitive; she had him figured out in a matter of minutes. He never shared with anyone the reasons behind his actions. He figured Raine and others knew most of his story, but he didn't like to talk about it.
Violet watched the conflicting emotions flit across his face before she sighed and gave him a simpler question. "If you don't want to talk about it, will you tell me why you're an all-white panther? That doesn't seem normal."
He grabbed the question like it was a lifeline, grateful for the subject change. "I'm an albino panther. White panthers are rare but not abnormal. I'm the same as any albino human: white hair, pale skin, and violet eyes. Nothing too special about me."
"Oh. I see." There was an awkward silence as Violet tried to think of something else to ask Finn, but all she wanted to know was his story. Finn waited in desperation for Violet to ask him another simple, non-personal question, but there was heavy silence between them.
"Hunters killed my mate," he whispered harshly, after a moment of silence. "It happened about a year ago. Kara was out hunting with her sister, when Hunters ambushed them. They had no chance." He gave an angry growl, recalling that day. He had been so angry and torn up inside. "I should have been there to protect her, should have known that something was going to happen."
"How could you have known?" Violet asked soothingly.
"She was my mate! It was my duty to protect her, instead I got her killed!" he said impatiently. "It's my fault."
Violet grabbed his arm tightly and tugged, trying to get his attention. "It was not your fault. You did not kill her, nor did you have any reason to know that Hunters would be out that day. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you can move on. Would Kara want you moping about like this?"
Finn laughed bitterly, the ironic thing was that Kara wouldn't give a shit how Finn acted. Even when they were mated, she didn't care about him at all. Sure they had a bond deeper than anything on the surface, but she resented him for her lack of freedom and reminded him every day. It ate at him that he couldn't make her happy, but he had been determined to make the best of it. Kara flaunted her boy toys in front of him and provoked him to anger daily. But Finn was not a man to back down from his duties. As Kara's mate it was his duty to protect and provide for her. Regardless of what she did or said.
"Did you love her?" Violet asked.
"I thought I did. At least at first, I did. But once I realized her true nature, I just put up with her."
She frowned, tilting her head slightly, "Then why are you so cold and distant? If her death wasn't that big of a loss to you, I don't understand."
Finn sighed wearily, "I was ashamed that I couldn't protect her. But what ashamed me the most was that I felt relief that she was no longer alive. What kind of person feels relief that their mate is dead?"
"Someone who had a mate like yours. She sounds like a horrible person, and you deserve much better. Do you realize that by distancing yourself from everything you're doing exactly what she would want? Her ultimate goal was to make you unhappy and that's exactly what you are now." Violet paused before driving the proverbial knife even deeper, "Even dead she still has power over your actions."
He growled and pushed off the bed angrily, refusing to look at her. Her words rang with truth, but they weren't something he wanted to hear. It was easier pretending to feel no emotion. No one asked questions or cared then.
"Finn?" Cautiously she tried to sit up in bed, but her muscles were sore from being in bed for two days. "Can you help me stand up please? I need to walk around and stretch my muscles." He was at her side a second later, lifting her carefully out of the bed and supporting her when she tried to stand.
Her small curvy waist fit perfectly in his hands. Finn smiled when he saw that she barely came to his shoulder. "Why couldn't you tell me you are a pixie?" he asked with a grin.
"I would have shrunk a couple of feet. It takes a terribly long time to grow back up too. Such a bother, and not worth it at all." Violet smiled shyly when Finn's grin grew into a full-fledged smile as he imagined what she would look like.
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" he replied good-naturedly, leading her out the door and into the hallway for a walk.