Dark Lycan (Carpathian)

You have nothing at all to prove to these people. You look beautiful. You are my lifemate and we’ve chosen to live our lives our way. If they do not like it, it will be no different than we have known our entire lives.

It was the truth. Tatijana’s life had not been one of acceptance. Her father had kept her prisoner, not even allowing her to be in her natural form for most of her years. Those captured and tortured by Xavier didn’t always understand that she was a prisoner just as they were. She’d spent lifetimes outside the norm.

Fen had spent centuries apart from his kind. Had the Lycans known what he was, they would have killed him immediately, without question. He was used to being an outcast, and in truth, it no longer bothered him. He never wanted Tatijana to feel less than what she was—a beautiful miracle.

Mikhail came forward to greet them. He stepped close to Fen, nearly toe-to-toe, a deliberate move that placed him in a vulnerable position. Gregori, who stepped with him, didn’t flinch, but his silver eyes had gone to steel. Mikhail gripped Fen’s forearms tight, in the traditional greeting of one respected warrior to another.

Fen gripped the prince’s arms tightly, surprised at the raw power he felt surging beneath the surface. It was impossible to be so close to the man and not feel the power emanating from him, so great there was no way to contain it.

“Thank you for coming, Fenris Dalka,” Mikhail said. “May your heart stay strong, hunter,” he added in the language of the ancients, a more traditional Carpathian greeting. He turned to Dimitri and repeated the formal welcoming. He took Tatijana’s hands in his. “Thank you for the aid you gave to our warriors, Tatijana. You definitely turned the tide of the battle in our favor.”

He stepped back and paced away from them, his quick energy flowing rather than nervous. When he turned back, his dark eyes seemed to look right through Fen. “You have indeed brought us an interesting problem.”

Fen looked around the great chamber. “You did not call a council of warriors as I expected.”

Mikhail nodded. “I gave this great thought. The only ones among us who actually witnessed the fight between you and the one you call Sange rau are here in this chamber. I thought it was important to know more about what we’re actually dealing with. There are many questions that have come to mind.”

“May I ask why we are having this conversation here in this sacred place rather than the convenience of a house?” Tatijana asked.

Gregori turned his piercing stare on her.

Her chin went up, Tatijana refusing to be intimidated. Fen could have told him her Dragonseeker blood didn’t seem to allow her to be overawed by anyone, not even her own lifemate.

Fen could have told her why. Mikhail Dubrinsky was no one’s fool. He’d thought long and hard over the problem of the Sange rau. He had witnessed up close what a mixed blood was capable of. By now he would have gone over all the pros and cons, just as the Lycan council had so many centuries earlier. Nothing had really changed down through the centuries. The solutions were every bit as bad as the problem itself and Mikhail no doubt had come to that conclusion, just as Fen had.

“She asks a fair question, Gregori,” Mikhail said, his tone mild. “The truth is, Tatijana, I’m disturbed by the abilities of the Sange rau. They present a real threat to not only our species, but to the Lycans and humans as well. One way to put it is that they have the nuclear weapon and we don’t.”

“That’s what Fen said,” Tatijana acknowledged.

“The immediate solution seems obvious,” Mikhail said. “And certainly it was proposed that many of our most skilled hunters become the Sange rau in order to better destroy the ones who have turned vampire.”

Fen tried not to react. He could feel not only the stare of the prince and the others, but also the weight of the warriors long past. Everything in him rebelled against the idea the prince was suggesting. He had known all along that this would be one of the proposals. If every warrior went out and became the Sange rau, their skill as fighters should give them an advantage when fighting those who had turned vampire—but it didn’t work quite like that.

“One does not become Sange rau in one step. The wolf comes to you to protect you. You are not both together and it takes some time before you merge with your wolf. I was living with the Lycan on and off and I think it may have happened faster than normal, but it took time. In that time you’re going to lose a lot more warriors to the other side. They will choose to be vampire much faster with their blood mixed.”