I was sitting close to the entrance of the cave when Roland returned. My heart gave a tidy jolt of pleasure when he came into view. I might always be rogue, but now that I’d found my mate, I’d never be alone. Perhaps together we could eventually find my brother.
He kissed my brow, saying my fever was gone, but I had to continue with the pills. They were big and horrible, and he put them inside honey so I could get them down. I’d always been a big baby about taking medicine.
He’d told me he’d chosen a roundabout route to reach me. Not just because he didn’t want people to find me.
“But others, you know.”
I didn’t. Even though I was almost recovered, I couldn’t always figure out what my mate was referring to. He spoke of his herd, and I pictured a group of unicorns performing a service to the community by working or volunteering at hospitals and clinics.
Not around humans.
Oh, right. My beast reminded me they could only assist shifters and ones like me who’d been badly injured.
“I’m not thinking clearly, so who are ‘others’?”
He plonked himself at my side and slung an arm over my shoulder.
“My omega dad had an affair.”
That was rare with fated mates. Even if their relationship soured, the bond didn’t sever, and while they may have been unhappy, they usually didn’t stray. A shifter sleeping with someone not their mate, usually marked their children as different or other.
“My folks weren’t fated. They were arranged, and Dad was unhappy. Father needed a son, and when that didn’t happen, he became abusive. That led my dad to find comfort in someone else’s arms.”
“How do you know? Did your dad disclose the details to you?”
He shrugged and stared out the cave entrance. “It was obvious because of who I was.”
He was talking in riddles, and my bear was tapping at my insides, asking me to explain.
“Both my parents are horse shifters.”
“Oh. Ohhh.” My mate really was an outsider. He had a horn and special abilities that horses didn’t possess.
Just like us.
No, it’s not the same. Though maybe it was similar.
Roland was the only unicorn in a herd of horses. But wouldn’t that be a good thing? I sighed because most people, whether humans or shifters, didn’t like people who were different. They felt safer and more comfortable with their own kind.
Roland tapped his head. “My horn is valuable.”
“Oh, like a rhino’s?”
He giggled. “No, mine isn’t used as an aphrodisiac.”
I thought back to when he’d eased my pain and reduced the fever and infection.
“But the rhino and I do have something in common.” His serious expression prepared me for bad news. Rhinos were wild animals who didn’t like humans, with good reason. They often charged at people. Was Roland wary of non-shifters and did his beast charge at them, trying to ram them with his horn?
“We are both susceptible to poachers.”
There was a sharp intake of breath, and it didn’t come from my mate. Thinking back, I recalled watching a documentary on poaching and cringed at the memory of a rhino whose horn had been hacked off. I grabbed his hand, fearful of who might be searching for him.
In the right hands, his horn could do good, but if a poacher got hold of it, he’d sell it to the highest bidder.
“Does it have to be whole or can it be divided?”
“Even a small piece has healing abilities.”
