Chapter Fifteen: Awoken

NORCUNIS

The sun was high in the sky when the craving struck. A sensation I hadn’t felt in a millennia, like a memory, or a dream so close I could taste it. My teeth elongated as every human pulse in the room seemed to become the only thing I could focus on. 

The boardroom lights twisted with the sunlight through the floor-to-ceiling glass walls and blinded me with overwhelming light. The tempered glass had been turned off for as long as I could remember, unable to affect my skin in my current state–until that moment. 

Within moments, it felt like my skin was on fire. “This meeting is adjourned.” I snapped and all but slithered from the chamber to my private office with a slam of the soundproof mahogany doors. I collapsed and crawled to the back of the room; my body pulsed with hunger and need until I finally found my phone on the oversized desk. 

The call connected before it even rang, and I ground out, “Blood, I need…” 

“Right away, sir!” I had no idea how much time passed before Craig was putting blood up to my lips. “Your Majesty?”

The surroundings faded in and out, my vision blurred and sharpened. Before I could reply, a voice I hadn’t heard in what felt like a lifetime sounded in my mind. 

“Norcunis Medonis…”

There was no word in any language to explain the depth of the emotion that overwhelmed my senses. For a being such as me, to be cut off from an entire piece of me for so long, and have it suddenly return? Words escaped me as I felt my inner beast sift through all the memories of what had happened during our separation.  

“You’ve become stronger since we last convened. Fought and overcome all the mockery, all the devastation. You’ve become…a source of comfort and peace for the lost? Climbed to the top of every chart that matters in this new unfamiliar world?” 

“Kune…” I whispered and placed a hand over my heart. 

“Your Majesty?” Craig exclaimed and placed a hand on my back. “Your beast has returned?”

My gaze cut to his. “Kune has awoken…” 

 “That’s great news!” Craig stuttered, and I could sense his heart as it thundered in his chest. My surroundings hyper-focused. Every sound was louder in my ears, every texture, finite, every color saturated, every breath, no matter how subtle, sounded like an explosion. 

Aside from my other half awakening, the most important thing to me in that moment was the aura of loyalty and faith around Craig as it blossomed beautifully. “Craig,” I whispered as I took in the power of his devotion to his service to me. 

Auras and bonds were something I’d always been able to see, with or without Kune. But with Kune? That power had increased a hundredfold. I could see each thread of our connection. It rippled and moved as it vibrated with his emotions of concern-tinged excitement.  

“Y-yes?” 

“Thank you. For everything. For always being by my side. Your loyalty knows no bounds.” 

Craig’s eyes teared up at the edges. “Your Majesty. In hundreds of years, my bum leg turned me from the highest of respected warriors to a dunce. Then I met you, and you were the first person to treat me like a human being despite my wolfen blood and failed capabilities. I’ll follow you to the depths of hell and back. Kune helped me bring my family back together. The two of you reunited? I never thought…” 

I smiled. “Don’t tell anyone. I have a fierce reputation to uphold.” 

“Oh, that doesn't mean you aren't a terrifying asshole. Two things can be true at once, Sir.” 

Kune laughed inside of me, and the feeling filled me with joy from the inside out. “Touche.” 

Craig helped me to my feet after another round of blood. “This is a cause for celebration! I will notify the elders and everyone at once!”

Kune’s hackles raised inside of me for a moment as he slowly took control of my body to speak through me. “Craig. That won’t be necessary. We need to keep this between us for now. The moment for my reveal will come later. Things are happening I can’t see; something forced the disconnect between the two of us, and I intend to figure out who, what, and why. He has been mocked for not shifting for long enough, and all the while has built his strength to overpower anyone without me–impressive. I will subdue my aura as if I am still asleep but give Norcunis access to my power.”

Craig’s emotions overflowed as he heard Kune’s voice for the first time since he first arrived at my side. He bowed deeply. “Yes, My Lord Kune. Your people anxiously await your return. So many have never been privy to your blessing. The day they finally set their gaze upon you will be the brightest for them. Thank you for speaking with me.”   

Kune nodded and then faded back into the depths of my mind as he spoke to me. “We can communicate again, and now that we have been reconnected, you will need blood; however, since I will be masking myself, we will only need it once a month. That enables you to exist as you have been. To take it one step further, we will need to make contact with an Earth Witch if we can find one. They can make some sort of medicine to delay the blood need longer.”

“Unless we find our mate, of course,” I replied aloud, forgetting I could’ve said it via our mental link.   

“Your Majesty? I am not privy to the other half of the conversation….” Craig said awkwardly. 

Kune and I laughed. “Apologies, Craig. Kune was informing me that I will need blood once a month now that we are reconnected unless we find an Earth Witch…”

“Or your mate…” He replied. 

I nodded. 

Kune whispered in my mind. “Now, this has been a lot. I need rest. But, as I promised Craig. Let me help you… I am sorry you’ve been left to deal with all of this alone.” 

I felt my body fill with strength I hadn’t felt in years as my body and all its weary began to regenerate everything that hadn’t fully healed. 

I replied via our mindlink. “It made me stronger. I am just glad you are here now.”  

I felt Kune’s smile as he replied. “Even in hibernation… I was never far. Otherwise you’d have already turned to dust with aging. Now, go find us some honeysuckle moon bread. I’m famished.” 

My brow furrowed. “Honeysuckle moon bread? I had a dream about that…” 

Kune’s large, nearly imperceptible black dragon form stretched and yawned in my mind as he smirked. “I know.”

I raised a brow and took in the mental picture. “What are you hiding?” I asked him. 

He rolled over on his belly and stretched out his wings as if he’d been confined in a box this entire time. The silver moons and stars markings splattered across his scales glittered in our mental sanctuary. “So many things…”