Chapter 20:

I didn't have much of a choice at the moment as Xavier approached me. While every instinct in me was telling me to run, that he was the enemy. I was trembling, and far too badly hurt to move even an inch in the way of running. He pulled his cloak from his shoulders as he walked towards me, kneeling in front of me to gently wrap the soft, thick fur around my trembling form. He carefully tucked it around me, protecting me from the frigid air, and even as pissed as I was at the moment, it was so warm that I wouldn't have been able to pull away from him even if I had wanted to.

"Will you let me explain?" He asked, but his normally hard tone seemed so unsure as I just looked up at him. How could this have happened? Bane knew he had to of, and somehow he was still able to bond with him... Nova knew and kept it from me this whole time. That one hurt the worst. She knew, she had to have known, considering she wasn't shocked in the slightest when she saw him, and yet she never gave me any warning, nothing. She was my familiar; there weren't supposed to be secrets between us.

'I'm sorry, Ari. I wish I could have, but it wasn't my place to say anything.' She whispered, but it sounded so tortured, like I had been the one to hurt her when it had actually been quite the opposite. 'Please just try to understand, Ari. I didn't do this to hurt you.'

I blocked her from my mind and instead focused in on the Beastial warrior in front of me. He didn't push me or anything; he just simply sat there, patiently waiting for my answer, so I took a breath. Enemy soldier or not, he did just save me from certain death, and considering Nova wasn't going to carry me off this cliff, I didn't have another choice but to hear him out. "You saved me from that place, so I'll hear you out, but I make no promises about anything further," I answered, and he nodded.

"Fair enough," he sat back in the snow in front of me, running a hand through his hair before looking up at me once more. "Everything that Celestia and the Alliance have told you about this war and why it's happening is a lie."

I narrowed my eyes on him, but he just took a breath before looking me square in the eye and continuing. "You saw the people in there. You saw how it's driving them mad, and forcing them to shift into their alter forms. The Beastial Kingdom didn't start this war; Celestia did. They corrupted our king on the day they were supposed to sign a peace treaty. They did something to him that forced his dragon to the surface in a blind rage, instantly voiding the treaty between kingdoms, and therefore restarting the war that we were trying to end. That king came back to the Beastial kingdom after he had gained control, but whatever they had used on him poisoned and killed him. When they buried him in the Fangir forest, whatever they had poisoned him with spread from his body into the land, corrupting everything it touched as it spread like wildfire through the kingdom. I was only ten when we started seeing the effects it had on people. They would be brought to the healers to look at, but they couldn't ever find a cure, and by the time they had started to show symptoms, it was too late anyway." It looked more like he was reliving it as he looked down at the ground. He looked vulnerable for the first time since I'd met him.

"That manic terror that you saw, it's caused by the partial shifts. They're painful enough to drive them mad as it corrupts their brains and bodies. That's what you really saw in that place. When attempting to heal them, it failed, so instead, they tried to lock people up to stop the spread of it, but not even that worked. Those people in those cells used to be innocent farmers, children, and mothers. None of them deserved this. I saw it spread, saw it getting worse. We all did, but there wasn't anything we could do about it. Nothing we tried worked, and no matter what precautions we took, it just kept spreading far faster than we could manage until it finally got to my family. My parents were both loving, caring people. They were true mates that loved each other more than anything else in this world or the next." He swallowed hard before running a hand over his face and taking a deep breath.

"When I was almost fifteen, my father was corrupted. He changed, becoming cruel as he took his pain out on my mother, but she took it, every single time, never once complaining, as it just kept getting worse. It just kept escalating. More and more of the staff and people of the palace were being corrupted, so she sent me away. She gave me a map and a few provisions before telling me to fly to the Celestial border. One of the villages there had just been burnt to the ground, and from there, I found my way into the village's foster system with my name now. That is the full truth, Ari. That's what you saw in that cell, and why I'm not like that. It's why I'm here, trying to find a cure to end their suffering."

I took a breath, looking up at him as I searched those emerald eyes for any flicker of a lie, but found none. Rather, for the first time since I laid eyes on him, he looked wounded, like somehow whatever I said next had the ability to deal a killing blow.

As much as I didn't want to believe it, it made sense. Far more sense than anything else I've ever been told about this war. The big thing, though, it made sense with what I had seen in that cell. The painful cries, that manic laughter, everything just made sense. When we were learning about the war in history, the professor had just told us that the Beastial kingdom attacked them at the treaty signing, then restarted the war, but that hadn't sat well when we started learning about the battles. He had specifically said that the front lines were unorganized. It's why they have to have so many camps dispersed across the line. They had specifically said that the Beastial soldiers attacked seemingly at random, and would be in groups that just didn't make sense, but if what Xavier had just told me was in fact true, and it was actually more of a disease, suddenly the seeming randomness made complete sense. If those groups were just in pain and raging because of it, taking out anyone and anything in their path, then the random attacks made a lot more sense.

"Then why did that group bring me back to that place?" I forced the question from my sore, raspy throat, but I needed to know. It was the one thing that didn't make sense with what he had told me.

"Not everyone got corrupted; some people still kept their minds, and are still attempting to contain the problem. If I had to guess, they scented me on you and detained you. As you saw, I'm not a small dragon, and having a dragon at all, let alone one my size, rampaging through the realm, killing anything in its path, isn't good for anyone involved. There isn't really a way to be able to tell if someone is corrupted or not until they start showing symptoms, so they weren't going to take the chance that you might have been." That made me pause once more, but if he had survived, then it stood to reason that others had too.

I nodded slightly before looking up at him. "It's going to take me a while to wrap my head around all of this, Xavier," I whispered to him and saw something shine in those normally bright eyes as he met my gaze. "But it makes sense, a whole hell of a lot more sense than anything else I've been told about this war." He nodded as he slowly looked me over.

"There's a lot more to it, but that's the main part. I honestly don't even think that Celestia has a cure for it, and it's starting to spread even more. It's moving into Vampiria and Fairy now, turning them as well. The only ones that seem unaffected by it are Celestials." That had my eyes feeling like they were about to bulge right out of my head. They were our allies, but once more, the increased attacks from what they had termed as "rebellious groups" of both varieties suddenly clicked into place.

"That's why they're trying to cover it up and say that it's rebel groups." He just nodded, slowly inching closer to me now as I started shivering harder, completely unable to control it anymore. "What's your real name?"

"Tyrian Xavier Drakonove," he told me as he scooped me up off the cold ground and into his arms. "As much as I would love to sit here and answer all of your questions. You're hurt badly, and freezing, so now that I don't think you're going to try to shove a knife in my back, we're going to get you taken care of, and I promise I'll answer anything you want after that." I barely processed the fact that we were moving as my mind caught on the fact that he was the lost prince of the Beastial kingdom.

"Why tell me all of this when you could have just left me to die in there and avoided all of this without anyone being the wiser? It was the perfect setup. A girl goes missing from a camp that is less than friendly to women. No one would have even questioned you." It probably wasn't the smartest thing to ask at the moment, considering he could still leave me out here to die, but he's already gone this far for me.

"Because I couldn't do that to you." He whispered, letting the simple statement fall from his lips as he made quick work of climbing up Bane's leg.

"Because of Bane?" He shook his head, and I frowned. "Then why?"

"Because I, like my parents, also have a true mate, and there was no possible way I could have left her in a cell to die." He sighed as my eyes felt like they might just pop right out of my pounding head. "Hell, when Nova found me at my post and told me what had happened. I almost didn't make it far enough from the army before I shifted to find you."

I took a deep breath as I looked up at him. This couldn't be right... I mean, how could I, a simple farm girl, be a prince's mate? He had to be wrong... but then again... The way my body simply gravitated towards him, maybe he wasn't wrong.

"But I'm not..." he cut me off before I could even finish my sentence.

"Don't say you're not worth it, because I'll just tell you that you're wrong. I tried, Ari. Hell, I've tried to get you to steer clear of me from the second you walked through those doors, but even then I couldn't just leave you defenseless, and now, now I'm done trying to fight this."

Sure, I was still rather pissed off at the whole situation, but at the same time, if I put myself in his place, I wouldn't be able to say that I could do anything differently. It was like everything had just snapped into place. The reason he seemed so bipolar about things sometimes was all because of this. Because he's been fighting whatever this pull was between us just as much, if not more than I have. Although now, the more I looked back at things with that in mind, the more I saw it. He had been trying to take care of me as best as he could while keeping me at arm's length.

"So that's why you've been so teasing and more relaxed, well, until we got to the camp. Because you finally decided that it wasn't worth trying to shove me away anymore?" I asked, and I couldn't help the slight smile that forced its way onto my lips.

"Not when you just kept coming right back for more. However, on the other hand, you are pretty damn cute when you're telling me exactly where to shove it." That made me grin, and as much as I wanted to be mad about everything, I just couldn't bring myself to be mad at him anymore. Not when I couldn't say that I would have done anything differently in his situation. I still hated that they had kept all of this from me, but at the same time, if I hadn't actually taken this well, he would have had to either kill me or face capital punishment if I let any of this slip. He's literally risking everything in trusting me with this, and from everything I've seen, he wasn't lying to me. No, instead, everything he told me finally felt right, like all the puzzle pieces had finally clicked into place, showing me the real, full picture that I wasn't expecting.

I tucked myself close in against his chest as Bane took off. This time, instead of facing forward like I had gotten used to, he had situated me so that I was facing him, gently cradled against his chest as he held me there. Lying my head on his shoulder, I just leaned into him, curling in as close as I could get as I tried to warm up slightly, but everything was really starting to settle in. My head was pounding as every single inch of my body felt like it was on fire, but I had one last thing I needed to say before I allowed the darkness seeping into the edges of my vision to take over.

I slowly reached up, trailing the fingertips of my good hand over his slightly stubbled jaw, instantly gaining his attention. "Thank you for saving me... for trusting me with all of this," I whispered, loving the soft smile he gave me, showing off those perfect dimples before he leaned down just enough to press a soft, sweet kiss to my forehead.

"I should be the one thanking you, princess. Now, just relax, I've got you, and I'm not letting go, Ari." He whispered back before I fell into that sweet abyss of nothingness.