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Letting out a deep breath, I searched my mind. As fascinating as learning more about elementals and illusions were, she was right. I had more pressing issues on my mind. And I was running out of time.
“Will I have another… episode, the estrus, again?” I asked, hesitatingly.
“Yes. At least once a year. Since you are still young, it wouldn’t be unusual to have three, maybe four, a year for the next two years. In lieu of your courses, you will have estrous cycles. I mentioned before the unlikeliness of being with child. Each estrus prepares you for that possibility, but for the future. Once you mature fully, only then will you conceive. There are other factors at play, of course, and some I cannot name because I simply don’t know. Demos may have more knowledge, but your best source is from the Ongahri themselves.”
Just the thought of discussing this with an Ongahri, some stranger, was enough to make me sick to my stomach.
Her face softened in tenderness. “Child, you are going to where you need to be. They will cherish you, welcome you, protect you. You are part of their heritage. They have waited for you for a long, long time.”
I frowned, trying to see them in the light she had shone on them. “But why me?”
“Why not you?” she countered.
“I mean, what about my parents? My grandparents? No one in my family is like that, like I am. How did I become… this?” I motioned to my body, my hair, with a wave of my hand. “Wait. Am I their real daughter?” My mouth dropped open. That had never occurred to me. Was it possible I wasn’t theirs?
Auria chuckled. She sobered once I looked back at her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “sometimes you humans are such fun to watch as you jump and skip from one emotion to another, you especially. You have nothing to worry about on that count. You are your parents’ child.” She smiled reassuringly. “I do not know why you are Omega, any more than I don’t know why I am Elemental. Only the gods know that answer.”
My shoulders dropped in reassurance. I knew I didn’t resemble my parents that much in coloring and such, but I knew in my bones I belonged to them.
“Okay. Back to the estrus.”
“All right,” she said, her eyes bright.
“Will it be as bad as this first one?”
“Bad? As in the muscle-wasting, not eating, almost dying from dehydration?”
I laughed at her tone before getting back to the matter at hand. “No, the… merging, losing myself. Not to mention the horror my state had caused in the Ongahri. Demos wasn’t specific about what happened that night, but for him to have to run away with me to keep me safe…” I didn’t finish the rest. It was another sore spot in my memories.
“With Lysander Trajan you will be claimed, bonded,” she answered. “So no, the rut that was brought on by your heat will not be like that ever again, not with you claimed. But this other thing you said. Merging? Explain.”
I smiled a little. She sounded a bit like Fadon sometimes. Fadon, who I would be seeing again soon. Who’d give me news of Lucinda.
“When I was with Demos,” I said softly, lowering my head, embarrassed and feeling vulnerable, “I felt as if… as if we had merged. I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began. And now, now that’s all over. I feel lost. Alone. It hurts, oh gods does it hurt.”
I felt her arms wrap around me, pulling me close against her chest. She smelled like berries and sunshine. Buttercups and fresh grass. Like spring.
“Oh, my sweet child. Of course it hurts. Your nature is one of passion. Your heart and head know no such thing as separation, so close they are to each other. Remember how I told you not to confuse love with lust? Easier said than done, I know. But you must learn between the two. What you felt with Demos you will feel for your husband. The bond between Alpha and his Omega is stronger than granite. There is more to love than sex.”
I let her hold me, let her rock me as tears I thought I had been done with fell.
“Demos is a good man,” she said. “He is as honorable and noble as any I have met. But your fate is meant for more than just him. Trust me.”
Lifting my head, I nodded, my eyes on the setting sun. I watched as the sky said farewell to its daily master and said hello to the night. Demos had been my sun, and it was time for him to set. Now it was time for me to welcome in the night.
It was time for us to leave. Morning had seen us fed and ready.
“Will I see you again?” I asked Auria as I hugged her goodbye.
“It’s always possible,” she said, kissing my head.
I laughed, reminded of all the times I’d heard that word over the past few days. “I hope so. Thank you for everything.” I kissed her cheek.
Her bright green cat eyes swept over my face. She mumbled something in a language I had never heard, and my ears immediately began to ring. I winced, and her gaze met mine.
“A blessing, child of the morn.” The words were solemnly spoken, otherworldly, and my breath caught.
