Visions Unveiled Ch 07

*Author's Note: First, I would like to thank everyone who has read my work, posted comments, and offered feedback. It's meant so much to me, and I appreciate it all.

Next I want to say that writing this chapter has been particularly demanding for me. Several of these scenes have been locked in my imagination ever since the early workings of this story when it was still only a fragmented concept in my mind. These bits are intrinsic developments, helping me to shape who my characters are and what is motivating them. That being said, I wanted these scenes to be as perfect as I could possibly make them.

Lastly, I feel the need to say that the ending of this chapter has been written and rewritten at least five times. This final version which you will see here is emphatically

not

the original ending for the chapter which I had planned, and more importantly, it's not even the ending I

wanted

. But any writer will tell you, their characters have minds of their own and one of my mine has not behaved herself as I hoped she would. In the end I have given in to her, and the chapter concludes as Faline insists it must. I have conceded as this is her story and not really mine at all.

Thank you again, and I hope you will continue to send your comments and feedback. ~ib*

*****

Later, when he recalled this moment, Shane would only be able to remember that it had happened so fast. One minute he was finalizing a telephone call from Marie, and then an instant later, Faline was in his arms. Her hands were twined around his neck and he could feel her warm breath and tears dampening his shirt where her face was pressed against his chest. Again she was crying, and Shane found himself consoling her, telling her that she would be all right. That he would make it so. In truth, he wasn't certain what had upset her. He was also disheartened to realize, that as of yet, each time he held his mate in his arms it was because she was either unconscious or in abject misery.

The fact that he was surrounded by her intoxicating scent was what hit him next and Shane felt his wolf begin to respond to her as well. All of a sudden, he was acutely aware of not only her arms around him, but his mind now registered the feel of her soft curves pressing against his body. Her hair spilled down her back in silken waves and the ends caressed his arms as he held her. It had been decades since he had felt the press of a female body so intimately against his own, and Shane gasped when he realized the visceral effect she was having on him. He felt the now unfamiliar rush of his body hardening in response to hers, and knew he had to put space between them before he horrified her.

Moving his hands to rest on her shoulders he began to take a step back from her, and felt his wolf begin to protest inside of him. The wolf wanted to pull her closer and was annoyed with the distance Shane was trying to create. The wolf ached to rub his firm length against his mate, to let her know how much he desired her. The wolf wanted to throw her back on the bed and pin her down as he ravished her body long and hard. He felt the need to mark her now with both his scent and his bite. The desire to claim her, to make her his, was all the animal could focus on.

Shane fought to block the vivid images the wolf was broadcasting to him, and concentrated instead on pulling his body slightly back from Faline's. It took a few moments to clear the lustful thoughts from his mind. He took a shuddering breath and was finally able to focus on the fact that Faline was now speaking through her tears. "It's you," she was saying, "You're finally here."

Once he managed to step back from her, Shane raised his hands to her face and lightly brushed her tears away with his thumbs. Being mindful to avoid the scratches she'd suffered when she'd earlier fallen, he gently dried her eyes. "Yes,

m'chroi,

I am here. Why are you crying?" Though the abrupt change in her behavior told him much, Shane desperately needed to hear that she accepted him, that she no was longer afraid of him.

Shane almost ceased breathing as he watched his mate smile through her tears. Her silver eyes were clear and bright, and her loveliness was enough to stop his heart. "Because I have waited so long that I almost didn't think you were real anymore. But now I know you are. Finally, I know."

Her explanation was vague and he fought the confusion her words caused. "I don't understand," he asked her slowly, "

You

have been waiting for

me

?" He placed his hand against her forehead, wondering if perhaps her fever had returned, making her delirious yet again. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt her skin was cool and dry.

She was smiling yet again, "Yes, all my life."

A flood of irony and emotion surged through Shane at once. He knew that feeling well. He'd waited centuries, wondering if there was a mate in this world for him. Once that question was answered, his next decades were spent in mourning and hoping his soul would rejoin hers in their afterlife. And now he learned that she wasn't lost to him after all. They had been given another chance.

Yet he was still puzzled by the way she was speaking. He suddenly thought of Ilsa, and for the first time found himself wondering if his mate shared her mother's gifts. Did Faline also see visions of the world as it was yet to be? Knowing he couldn't ask her so blatantly, he decided on a less direct approach. "Faline, how did you know you were waiting for me?"

Suddenly Faline stepped back from him and began to look around her. She started speaking quickly, and words tumbled from her mouth in an excited stream. She spotted her satchel where it ended up on a chair and opening it quickly, she pulled out a book and began flipping through pages. Absently, she lowered herself to sit on the chair as she found the page she was looking for.

"I know it's you, because, see, it says so right here. Look, it's here. Right here. Exactly. Here. Right here! See, it says,

'Cold you have been and fear you have felt within. When you find Kellen the fear and cold shall end.'

See! I know because it says it right here! I used to think for so long that 'Kellen' was a place, like a town or building I might come across somewhere. It never occurred to me before that it could be someone's name. But now I know, see? Right here!" She was practically shaking, unable to contain the energy she felt at this discovery.

Faline was holding the journal open to him, displaying the page she'd just read. Shane was rooted to the spot, and had been since the moment he watched her pull Gregor's journal out of her bag and turn the pages with a familiarity that made his mind numb. Though she appeared to read to him from the page, she more so recited the words from memory. It was clear she had read the quoted excerpt many times in the past. As he stared down at the page where her fingers rested, Shane saw the lines were written by Gregor's hand, but he knew the words themselves must have been Ilsa's. There was a mysterious rhythm to the words which bespoke of Ilsa's visions.

After several long moments, Shane finally forced his feet to move so that he could take a seat in the chair beside his mate. He looked down at the journal in awe as he read the lines silently to himself again. Gregor's journal, an item Shane never saw the man without, was never found on his body or located in the cottage, and now Shane finally knew why. When he looked up from the book he realized Faline was still watching him with bright, expectant eyes and Shane forced himself to take a steadying breath. "Faline," he began, "This book, where did you get it?"

Shane watched his mate blink several times as her thoughts crossed her face. Her elation was now slightly clouded by a small frown. Then she shrugged her shoulders gracefully, "I didn't get it anywhere. It's mine."

Shane chose his next words carefully because his mate trusted him finally. She had opened up to him enough to share what was obviously a very treasured personal item. He had no wish to break her trust or cause her to doubt her newfound safety with him. "Was it given to you, by a relative perhaps?"

Letting the journal close, Faline pulled it protectively against her chest. "It was with me when they found me. So yes, I imagine it belonged to a relative. They told me it was left with me."

Inside of him, Shane's wolf began to prowl. It didn't like where this conversation was heading. Shane felt his frown deepening. "Who is 'they,' Faline? Who found you? Where?"

His mate didn't even pause, it was such an ingrained part of her history, that she had no reason to think anyone might find it alarming. "The nuns. In the church."

"Nuns?"

Shane blurted, "What nuns? What church?"

This time she was a bit slower to answer. "The nuns at the church when I was a baby. The nuns who sent me to the orphanage."

Shane and the wolf were now both outraged. He jumped from the chair and turned to roar,

"Orphanage!?"

Faline leveled him with a stare. "Are you planning to repeat everything I say?"

For her benefit, Shane suppressed a growl. "I'm sorry. I just had no idea about any of this." Her look of confusion gave him pause and he softened his tone. "Please, tell me again. About the ... nuns."

When Shane began to pace the length of the room, Faline sighed and decided to tell him more. "I was left in a church as a newborn baby, and this book was with me. The nuns found me when they went in for their evening prayers. Of course I couldn't stay at the convent or rectory. I was abandoned, so I was sent to an orphanage." Faline paused when she heard Shane mumble something. "I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't catch that."

Shane turned on his heel and fixed her with a purposeful stare, "I said that you weren't abandoned."

The look on Faline's face told him she disagreed. "Yes, I was. The orphanage records said that the night I was born there was this horrible blizzard that shut down every town in the area. I'm not sure how old you are exactly, or if you were even in the area then, so you probably wouldn't remember the blizzard. But it was freezing cold, the coldest day of the year and there I was, left on the stone floor of a church in only a blanket. I was born premature, and whoever had me, obviously they didn't want me."

Shaking his head, Shane returned to the seat beside his mate and placed his hand against the side of her face. "You're wrong," he said.

Faline shook her head slightly, though she didn't pull away from his touch, "About what?"

Shane took a breath to collect his thoughts, and then looked deeply into his mate's eyes. "About much. First, you are wrong about the blizzard. Though it was years ago I remember it well. It was a storm that I will never forget," he paused to take another deep breath, and when he released it, he went on. "Second, you must never again think that you were abandoned. I promise you, with everything that is in me, that you were

always

wanted."

* * *

It was nearly an hour later when Shane finished speaking. Aside from the fact that she was his mate, most every other detail had come out. Occasionally she would stop to ask him a question, or to clarify something he had said earlier, but for the most part, she listened quietly. The sun had now fully set, and dark shadows cast themselves across the room. Some minutes ago, Faline had crawled into the bed and pressed her face into a pillow. Shane couldn't see her tears, but he could scent them, and he wanted nothing more than to give her comfort. He resumed his place sitting beside her, and switched the bedside lamp on before placing his hand on her shoulder. "Faline," he spoke quietly, "I am so sorry for everything you have lost."

She pulled away from him and sat up, clutching the pillow to the front of her body. "I don't understand," she said, "So much of this doesn't make sense."

He nodded solemnly, "I know. Finding you in the forest has been a shock to me as well."

He watched as thoughts crossed Faline's face, unable to discern what she might be thinking or feeling until she spoke. "The large wolf, it was you."

It wasn't a question, but Shane found himself nodding anyway. "Yes, I apologize for startling you."

She waved off the fact that he was also a wolf almost instantly. It was obvious that werewolves didn't faze her. Shane filed that information away for later as he listened to her ask her next questions, "You really knew my parents?"

Shane nodded again, "Yes."

Faline closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them again, allowing new tears to spill down her face. "And I was really born here? In this room?"

He took a deep breath as he looked around the suite. He remembered that night in an instant, but this time there was less pain. Returning his eyes to his mate he said, "Yes, my

chroi

. You were."

"Yesterday was my birthday," she whispered.

"I know," was his quiet reply. More tears fell, and the sight of each one pierced his heart. Faline appeared to be shivering again, and so Shane pulled the blanket up to her lap.

Her next question was one he had been asking himself over and over since his wolf forced him to acknowledge the truth at the cottage. "How can you be sure that I am that same child?"

He considered his answer carefully before speaking. "At first I didn't know that you were. But I can now recognize your scent. And you share several similarities with your parents. You are left-handed, as was your father. You have your mother's eyes and complexion, you are very obviously her daughter. And this journal," he reached out to where Faline had placed the journal beside her on the bed and tapped the cover, "It belonged to your father."

Faline stared at the journal in awe. "What were their names?"

Shane hesitated for a brief moment as he didn't want to overwhelm her. In the end though, he realized he could deny her nothing. "Ilsa and Gregor. Nielson was their last name."

He watched as Faline digested this information, knowing she was absorbing every detail he mentioned. After a few moments she gave a small smile, "And you think I look like she did?"

Shane nodded instantly, and found himself smiling back at her as he answered the question. "Yes. You are every bit as beautiful as she was. If not more."

At this, Faline was speechless. She was quiet for several long moments and Shane thought he saw something which resembled guilt cross her face. "I need to talk to Sophie," she said suddenly. The trace of a smile had vanished from her face. In a moment's time it was gone, replaced by what Shane recognized as a distraught weariness.

"Right, Sophie," Shane said as he released a breath, "Your family."

"My mother," Faline answered firmly, "Sophie is my mother."

Shane nodded sadly. It hurt to think of anyone other than Ilsa and Gregor raising her, but he had to accept the people who were now in her life. While he had shared the beginning of her life with her over the last several minutes, she had yet to tell him of her last 33 years. He knew that when she did finally open up to him, he must be as calm and accepting as he could be. She deserved no less.

"All right," he said now, "Sophie is your ... mother. She adopted you?"

Faline nodded, "I want to talk to her."

Shane indicated a table located in the sitting area of the suite. "There is a telephone, please feel free to call anyone you wish. I'll get some clean clothes for you so you can take a shower if you want." He gestured towards a closed door in the corner of the room, "The washroom is through that door, and you should find everything you need. I will also bring you something to eat, you must be hungry."

When he moved to stand she reached out and touched his arm with her hand, "This is why you have been so kind to me? Because you knew my parents?"

Shane froze when he felt her hand on his skin, and a small shiver went through is body. He found himself nodding despite himself. "That is part of the reason. There are still things I need to tell you, but now is not the time. I will give you a while to get cleaned up, and you need more rest."

Shane rose to his feet, but she still gripped at his arm. "And my parents?" she asked suddenly.

"Yes?" he prompted.

"The cottage?" Faline asked.

Shane nodded, "The cottage was their home."

Faline lowered her eyes, "And now they are dead?"

He closed his eyes and quickly reopened them, "Yes, they are."

"You're certain?" Faline asked, "I mean, you said you believed that I died after I was born ..." she let her sentence trail off and Shane felt his heart ache. He couldn't allow her to have this hope. It could only hurt her more.

"They have died, Faline. I wish it wasn't so, but they are gone." He leaned down when he scented fresh tears but she turned to hide her face from him against the pillow. He contented himself by comforting her with a gentle touch to her shoulder. "I will return soon," he said. He saw her give the slightest of a nod, and so he straightened again, and reluctantly left her crying into her pillow.

* * *

A short time later, Shane was in the kitchen where he had put together a plate of things he hoped his mate would like to eat. He knew she was still not feeling well, but she needed nourishment to recover fully. Thinking she might also benefit from a hot cup of tea, he filled the kettle with water. He'd just turned on the stove when a feeling of unease went through him. He sighed as his wolf came to attention, recognizing that someone in his pack was feeling distressed. While he was in no way telepathic, he was connected to each member of his pack and as their Alpha he could sense when he was needed.

He thought back to earlier in the day when Erin had expressed her concerns. She and Logan had both said they'd needed to speak with him and he had put it off at the time. He turned off the stove and closed his eyes allowing himself to focus on the pack. He connected with his wolf and reached out to the others, searching for the one who was more than likely subconsciously beckoning him.

Shane picked up on who it was almost instantly. Kevin. With a frown, Shane opened his eyes and slowly stepped from the kitchen. He scanned the house for sounds of life and realized for the first time, his family was no longer in the house. Letting his senses guide him, he slowly wove his way through the downstairs rooms until he came to the sunroom. Though it was dark out he saw some sort of movement on the other side of the French doors which lead to the large yard and opened up to the forest.

Stepping up to the doors, Shane glanced out and saw a small gathering of his pack standing in the back yard. While most were in human form, a few were currently wolves. His Betas. There seemed to be a heated discussion between them, and Shane sighed heavily as he opened the door and stepped out to join them. The moment he appeared all eyes turned to him and a silence befell the group. He met each of their eyes as he approached them, and when his gaze settled on Kevin the distress he'd felt earlier quickly eased to relief. Giving him a slight nod, Shane directed his attention to the others.

"Logan," he began, "What is this about?"

Waving his hand to indicate those surrounding him, Logan began. "Alpha, we have been searching the territory for signs of your cousin."

Shane shook his head instantly, "You will not find him in our forest. I directed him to clear Kellen lands."

Logan shrugged in response, "Yes, but there was cause to be concerned. Tabitha tells us that she overheard him speaking on the phone, telling someone known entry points to our complex."

This brought a frown to Shane's face. "Does she know with whom he was speaking?"