Chapter 65 : Bloodline

Karenina

Then she stood up, signaling that she was done eating, and walked over to him, who also stood up and held out his hand again. Feeling more comfortable, she took it without comment, only the slight beating of her heart showing her reaction to being so close to Xavier again.

She suddenly wondered if she would always be aware of his presence, but she decided to ignore the uneasiness in her mind and focus on the scene around them.

He calmly led her through a variety of plants with a variety of scents assaulting her nose, all pleasant and sweet. They walked along cobblestone paths, past archways, statues, and magnificently designed pools. Karen knew Helga was following a few feet behind them, but most of her attention was on the amazing world around her and the man walking beside her.

"Beautiful," she murmured.

After a few minutes of silence, her curiosity got the better of her. "Hey, Xavier?"

"Hmm?"

"You told me about your great-grandparents and how the house was passed down through the generations. I wonder what your family was like?"

She wanted to know more about the enigma of Xavier, to learn more about his past and to know who and what he was like. Even though she might not fully understand how she ended up in this situation where she was considered Xavier's potential mate, she could not pass up this opportunity to get to know and understand him better. There were too many unknowns about Xavier. If she was really going to go out with him - which she wasn't so sure about - wouldn't it be okay to get to know him?

He was pleased that she wanted to know about his background. He replied. "They were all great warriors, honorable and tough in battle. Our mates are strong to carry on our bloodline."

"That sounds intimidating," she joked.

Not knowing how to respond to her comment, Xavier ignored her and continued. "Our bloodline is known for its ability to produce acid and our immunity to all poisons."

Suddenly she remembered the first time she met Xavier. He had turned into a huge wolf, his saliva dripping into a puddle of acid. Then, months later, another memory of him saving her and her friends from a rogue, walking through his poison gas as if it were nothing.

Xavier Westwood was truly a powerful being.

Then they found another bench and instead of walking past it, he invited Karen to sit next to him, their thighs and shoulders touching. It was impossible for her to ignore his heat, his strength, but his words helped control her mind, for she was too curious to miss a word of what he was saying.

"As with the mates we choose after mating, everything bears the mark of my pack. So do the Four Great Territories, the Bloodmoon Pack, the Skyline Pack, and the Northline Pack."

"You mean the markings on your body?" She asked, looking up and to the side, trying to see the markings.

Nodding his head to meet her obvious curiosity, Xavier turned his eyes to the crescent moon and cross on his tattoo-like wrist. "Yes."

"Then why doesn't Rylan have it? I mean, the few times the wolf blood in him took over, the only markings that appeared were one crescent on each hand, not two like yours." Her eyes lowered slightly to the mentioned markings, her hands unconsciously raised to stroke his fingers along the double markings on his hands, then looked up at him to stroke his left cheek.

******

Xavier

All the time he remained silent, shocked, then afraid that moving would attract her attention, for he was sure she didn't know what she was doing, and he didn't want her to stop. Rarely did she reach out willingly to touch him, even for such an innocent caress. It made him yearn for more, but he had promised not to force her. A promise he regretted more than ever.

For a long time he remained silent. When Karen tried to let go of her hand, he grabbed his own and held it in his lap, refusing to let go as she gently pulled him away. When she began to calm down, Xavier spoke, his thumb caressing her knuckles. He couldn't help it. He had to touch her.

He had marked her as his own, and his wolf was howling for him to make her his true mate, but he knew she was not ready. Xavier might be able to get Karen to agree, but he knew she would regret it afterwards. He couldn't let her reject him.

"Rylan is not strong enough, unable to fully accept the side of his strong power aura even in the moments when he transforms."

******

Karenina

In the meantime, she found it hard to concentrate on his words as Xavier touched her, her mind following the movement of his thumb, but she did hear his words, and she felt sad. It wasn't Rylan's fault if he was weak, but Rylan seemed to be the one who had to suffer for the actions of those closest to him.

If what Xavier had said earlier was true, that he did not care about hybrid pups or even weak purebloods, why did he look down on Rylan so much? Before she could ask, he had already spoken.

"Besides, my pack blood is very strong. No matter which pair we take as mates, the male will be the stronger of the two, and our pups will be the stronger, grayish-black-haired, golden-eyed wolves. So will the four main alphas and other powerful people."

Karen asked in surprise, forgetting to use words she understood. "But what about the mother? What traits or characteristics would mothers pass on to their children if not race and hair and eye color?"

Although Xavier did not fully understand her words, he knew what she meant. "The child will inherit strength and skills from the mother."

She looked down at her lap and thought about how sad this was. If she ended up with Xavier, there would be no more of her in her children when she looked into their eyes. It would be as if she didn't exist when she helped to create new life. It seemed like a cold and heartless process, not unlike a pregnancy between half-humans or even wolves weaker than Xavier.

He could sense that Karen's mood was moody and erratic. Tightening his grip on her hand, he leaned over her slightly in a protective gesture and asked, "What's troubling you, Karenina?"

When she turned her head to look at Xavier, not caring that he was so close, his face so close to hers, her grief was too great. "There will be nothing for me," she whispered.

Then she looked into his beautiful golden eyes, seeing not only his eyes, but also the future child that would be born between them, not seeing herself, only her face reflected there.

Dazed, Xavier let go of her hand to embrace the girl, her grief impossible to ignore. He brought his nose to her temple and closed his eyes to inhale her fresh scent.

"What are you talking about, Karenina?" He asked her, trying to understand her mood but failing. But his instinct to comfort her was strong, an instinct Xavier could not ignore.

"For a half-human like me, it's different," her voice whispered, now slightly disturbed by his closeness. Desperately needing comfort from her dark thoughts, Karen rested her forehead on his chest, inhaling his scent, her hands lifting to rest open palms on his broad chest, feeling his heart pound.

"When half-humans or humans reproduce, their children have fifty-fifty of each other's genes, their DNA. Both parents have dominant and recessive genes they got from their parents and the parents before them, and so on. When they come together to make a baby, those dominant and recessive genes combine in the child's DNA. The father could have blond hair and blue eyes, be tall with an angular face, while the mother has brown hair and eyes, with a short body and round face, but they could produce a child with a combination of their traits, or none at all, and instead traits from older relatives. Even siblings can look similar or be very different. No one is the same. Both parents carry the genes to create a child that is nothing like what you just described. Instead, everything about you will appear in the child we may have, while nothing about me will appear, except my abilities. It's as if the child will not be mine."

******

Xavier

His discomfort grew with every word she spoke. Although Karen used words he did not understand, there was nothing wrong with their meaning. Could it be that the girl would not accept a child from him knowing that there would be little of her in his physical appearance?

Would she reject him because of that knowledge?

But before Xavier could come up with a logical explanation to allay her concerns, even though he saw nothing wrong with any dynamic related to his bloodline, she spoke again.

"If what you say is true, then why does Rylan's fur darken to golden black and his eyes turn golden brown when he turns into a wolf every month, if your father's genes are the dominant factor? He only has weak aura power, right? Then why did he change physically as well?" The thought of Rylan reminded her how close the night of the new moon was, tomorrow night.

Although he did not know if what he was about to reveal would upset Karen even more, he had no choice but to answer truthfully, even though he watched her closely as she sat away from him, away from his embrace. Xavier didn't want to let go, but he didn't want to make an issue of it either, so he lowered his arms.

"Rylan comes from Omega blood, which is weak in power, while my father is Alpha," he said again, "his power aura is weak in the wolf state. Our father's blood was inactive at that time, and he would have taken his mother's blood more strongly."

Again, she wanted to ask about his decision to mate with her, since their children would be mostly weak hybrids, but she didn't have the heart to continue this discussion.

Instead, she stood up and asked him to show her more of his garden.