Bonds Unbroken - 5. Chapter 5

The next day brought little change to Natham's condition. He was still heavily medicated but had stopped hissing at the staff and let them touch him in order to help him without being sedated. I sat with him for a few hours. He kept waking up when I shifted but after a quick check to make sure I was still there, he would knead my hand caught between his, purring as he drifted back to sleep. His trust and gentleness with me was astounding.

His distress when I had to leave upset me. I had the nurse track down his surgeon so that I could speak to him before I left. The human doctor had worked well with Dr. Pannar but most humans had no idea who I was.

"I want to take Natham home tomorrow."

Prepared for a fight, I crossed my arms over my chest and drew myself up to what would seem to be my full height, a very unimpressive five foot seven inches. I raised one eyebrow and waited for the doctor’s argument to begin.

I stared at the doctor in shock, my arms fallen to my sides. I must have made some noise because he looked up from the tablet he was writing notes on.

"What?" he said, frowning at me.

I smoothed the disgruntled look from my face. Taking a breath and letting it out, I shook my head and smiled ruefully. "I was expecting an argument actually."

"Well, Natham looked really bad when he was brought in, and he lost a lot of blood. Fortunately we have donated Carthera blood from many different clans here and he got a full transfusion of lynx blood overnight. His wounds are beginning to heal rapidly and I think that he will recover more naturally away from an institutional setting. He is most comfortable with you so I think going to your home will be the best for him."

I nodded. "I plan to take care of him personally."

I had laid awake in bed for hours last night thinking. I had decided to have Natham installed in my suite of rooms and had rearranged the furniture that morning before I came to the hospital.

"I understand. Thank you, Doctor." I shook his hand and then left the hospital.

Once home I informed Dr. Pannar of my plans as well as Mishtar. My mother was more difficult as I wasn't sure exactly what to tell her about Natham. I left it where he was a good friend and a victim much as I was but I could tell from look on her face that she knew I had not given her the full story. She was not the same since she lost my father, leaving most of the clan decisions up to me.

That night I slept fitfully as I suffered from my nightmare repeatedly only to wake up and begin again. No pain in this one but fear, loathing, and rage pierced my dreams. Finally I laid there awake as the predawn sun began to lighten the sky. I hugged a pillow to my bare chest; I had never felt as alone as I did lying in my bed that night. I sensed that I shouldn’t be and it was throwing me off.

I rolled over and gazed over at my parent's picture on my nightstand. The night was quiet other than the sound of my voice as I talked to my dad and told him about my hopes and fears. I knew that wherever his essence was soaring he heard my words and would watch over me. The thought brought a measure of comfort. I was finally able to slip away into a restful sleep just before the sun rose over the lip of the cliff to chase away the shadows of the night sky.

It was hard to enter my father’s rooms but it was necessary. My mother wasn’t even able to go in there. While she was out, I raided my father's closet in order to find clothes for Natham. Ordinarily even those would not have fit him, but his emaciated frame was almost as thin as one of us.

When he put them on at the hospital, his ankles and wrists still stuck out of the shirt and pants but his own clothes had been cut off him leaving him with nothing to wear. Though, between the filth already on them and the blood from his wounds, they hadn't been fit for anything but rags anyway. Natham was much more alert today and he watched me as I talked to the doctor and nurses before they released him.

All of a sudden there was a loud squeal of tires from the parking lot and a car that surged toward us. My guards went into action, pushing me roughly back and standing in front of me with their wings flared. They were on high alert with their weapons pointed at the oncoming SUV.

Their wings relaxed slightly when the vehicle passed us and pulled up to the emergency entrance. My guards shifted to the right to stay in front of me but when a man ran around the front of the car to help a very pregnant woman out of the passenger side they pointed their weapons at the ground. They were still cautious though and didn’t put them away as we watched carefully.

Obviously Mishtar expected me to be attacked like my father had been. He didn’t like me going to the hospital and I’d overheard him threaten my guards if anything happened to me. I understood the seriousness of the situation but I just couldn’t focus on it. Since he brought Natham into my office, my focus had been on him.

I let out a sigh of relief and then suddenly became aware of hands on my shoulders and a low hissing in my ear. I could smell the natural warm, spicy scent Natham had and patted him on one hand.

"It's okay, there's no threat," I reassured him. "You need to sit back down before you fall."

The small threatening sound didn't stop though. I turned a little to glance at him without breaking contact, and I could see his eyes were fixed on my guards who were still standing close, almost touching me as they protected me from possible attack. One guard turned and saw Natham's grip on me.

His hand gripping his gun began to lift and he stepped back to get the room he’d need to take a shot. Natham's mouth opened and his white fangs gleamed in the sun as he let out a louder hiss. He pulled me tighter against his body, wrapping one arm around my waist and one up around my chest. I could feel his body vibrating with the force of his need to assert his claim.

Oh yeah, I was sure now. Natham was definitely my mate. A cat and a bird. If the situation wasn’t so tense I would have snorted at the irony.

Mishtar heard the warning in my voice and saw the way my wings flared a bit in anger. He relaxed from his rigid pose in front of my desk and sat down in one of the chairs.

"What I need to know is why exactly I have a territorial lynx threatening my men when they try to protect you. Your ease with him behaving that way says that you know more than you are telling me. I have to be able to protect you!" He pushed a hand through his hair in frustration. "You know that this is far from over."

"Good. They will be prosecuted and since Natham is going to be staying here that just makes it easier if they need him for their trial. Humans and their justice system." I shook my head; their long drawn out system of justice was anathema to Carthera.

Our justice was swift and often brutal but when dealing with what amounted to animals at times, it was necessary.

I had to resist the urge to squirm. "I think that Natham and I are mates." I had put it a bit baldly but after all there was no real way to sugar coat the situation. It was almost unheard of for Carthera to cross-species mate. I had never even heard of a bird and a predator mammal mating.

“Well, it’s more than just a thought. I’m sure we are.”

"Oh gods, that fits.” Mishtar was rubbing his face.

“Fits what?”

“The humans said that the man in charge, Natham's father, drugged him and goaded him into killing your father. From what I understand, a lynx Carthera only matures when he has made a kill for the first time and then they bond with their mate. They bound your father and left him for the slaughter. That night must have been Natham's initiation. I don't understand how it worked on you though, being another species."

"But how did they know about your bond? Who is Natham's father? The local Lynx clan has no knowledge of him, I’m sure of it. None of the humans we captured knew who he was either."

I thought hard, trying to think of the times I had been around Natham before my father's death. All of a sudden that afternoon on the field flashed in my mind as well as the kiss we shared. Even more vivid was the look of fear on Natham's face when he saw the other boy watching us.

"I know!"

"The day before he moved away, Natham and I were um . . . well, we were kissing on the field. Some kids came on the field for phys. ed and one was glaring at us. I didn’t recognize him. The second Natham saw him he took off.

“I didn’t know cross species bonds happened. I knew he was a lynx but I just thought . . . well, I don’t know. But we must have begun the bond that day, and that kid must have known him and his father somehow. Natham never came back to school, and now that I think of it, neither did that guy. That's the only thing that makes sense."

"I know. Look, give me a few days to get him healed up and trusting me before we try to pick his brain. I promise if he says anything you will be the first to know." I wasn't trying to bury my head in the sand, but I felt a need to be with my mate, and the thought of distressing Natham right now went against every protective instinct I had.

My mate. I marveled at the words but under the amazement and feelings of joy was a deep sense of unease. We were different species. Would we be able to truly bond?

"Good idea." Mishtar stood and bowed. I came to my feet and returned the gesture. I barely waited for him to leave the room before I was headed back to my own. I couldn’t help but hurry back to the sleeping cat in my bed. Now that I knew for sure what it was, the bond to my mate was calling me.