18. Kitaro

Chapter 18

Kitaro

A s soon as they arrived at their room, Vanra collapsed onto the bed to take a nap after expending so much energy during practice. Kitaro waited until he was certain Vanra was completely asleep before leaving the bedroom to seek his uncle to talk.

"Is Vanra resting now?" Jaega asked when Kitaro entered the training hall.

"He is." Kitaro once again took notice of the fact that his uncle's once-damaged hand was now healed. He had seen it earlier but hadn't been able to ask about it.

The shifter general paused his practice. "You certainly brought home an interesting stray."

"Did his training go well?" Kitaro hadn't gotten much of an answer out of Vanra before he fell asleep .

"I have never in my life met a human with so much power." Jaega shook his head in disbelief as he put his weapon back on the wall before returning to Kitaro's side. "Let alone a mage who would willingly heal a shifter."

"He is responsible for healing your hand?"

Jaega looked down as he wiggled the fingers on his now healed hand. "Somehow."

"That is astounding!" Kitaro wished he had been there to watch.

The older shifter made a noise of agreement. "It is miraculous, especially given that he is a mere human. Somehow, he restored full mobility back to my hand and healed it of all the physical damage."

"Amazing." Kitaro was in awe of Vanra and his exceptional abilities.

"He truly is. I still cannot summon magic with that hand, but it is a small sacrifice for having my hand work normally after a century."

"Perhaps after a few months of training with you, he will be able to fix that, too," Kitaro said. If anyone could do it, it would be Vanra.

Jaega chuckled. "We shall see. I intend to train with him twice a week to start with and then progress to more days as he increases his strength."

"I will work around the times that work best for you." Kitaro's schedule was far more flexible than his uncle's .

"How often have you been training with him?" Jaega asked.

It didn't surprise Kitaro that his uncle had taken an interest in Vanra after being healed. "We have done a little each day this week as I assess his baseline for proceeding with future lessons in various areas. I did not want to overwhelm him since he is unaccustomed to training."

"Wise. Vanra appears to be a quick study, so I foresee few complications with his training."

"Agreed."

Jaega rubbed his chin with a pensive expression. "Still, I find it hard to believe that Vanra is completely human. They simply do not have the power he possesses."

"I have wondered the same thing, but I cannot sense anything Divine in him." Kitaro was more than familiar with it because of his half sister and her mother. "Nor does there seem to be any traces of shifter in him."

Jaega shrugged. "It is most strange. I cannot detect any indications of mixed heritage, yet I have never met a human whose scent is not only inoffensive but actually pleasing."

The compliment sent a momentary flash of jealousy through Kitaro, who was caught off guard by the feeling. "It is indeed unusual," Kitaro agreed in a neutral tone. His emotional reaction puzzled him .

"And to think we have not experienced his heat yet," Jaega teased with a knowing look.

Kitaro's dragon stirred with agitation at the comment. The unusual rebellion of his normally well-behaved counterpart surprised him. Kitaro hadn't considered that a human might also have a heat, when pheromones were more active than normal and altered a person's scent to tempt a potential mate to bond with them. All shifters experienced it, but most could suppress it if they didn't want to deal with the unwanted attention.

"Do humans even have a heat?" Kitaro asked, although he hated revealing his ignorance on the subject.

"It is a vestigial ability that I do not believe they are aware of," Jaega answered. "They most likely can sense the shift on a primal level. It is part of what draws them to a potential mate on an instinctual feeling."

The thought of Vanra with a mate made Kitaro's dragon pace anxiously inside of him. He tried to settle it without success. Why did thinking of Vanra mated to anyone cause a deep sense of uneasiness within him? It was difficult to ignore the turmoil of his dragon, which found Jaega's observations so objectionable. "Oh."

"You may want to consult with our Enchanters to see if they have anything that could mask Vanra's scent during that time," Jaega counseled .

It was unexpected advice. "Why?"

"Humans cannot suppress their heat like shifters can, so it would be prudent to aid him with that to avoid any unwanted incidents—especially since this household is not used to having a human in their midst experiencing that. Fersen should be able to help you." Fersen was Jaega's new mate, the last remaining unicorn shifter.

Kitaro furrowed his eyebrows. "Will his heat really make that much of a difference?"

"Perhaps not," Jaega conceded with a shrug, "but you should be prepared for it all the same."

Kitaro was not completely ignorant of the change a heat produced in someone's scent, but he had never been moved into a frenzied passion so many seemed to have in response to it.

He had been pursued by a particularly ardent wolf shifter named Nasume, who had tried to sway him unsuccessfully using his heat as temptation. While it was true Nasume had smelled better than normal, Kitaro held no romantic interest in him, regardless of his scent. Because of that experience, he found it hard to believe that he would be so deeply affected by Vanra's heat.

"I will keep it in mind." He was still skeptical that it would come to such a point where such actions would be necessary.

"Good. Since you are here, would you like to spar? "

Knowing that Vanra would probably be asleep for some time, Kitaro agreed. He always welcomed the chance to learn from his experienced uncle.

"Then let's get started," Jaega said with a mischievous look in his orange-rimmed hazel eyes as he drew on his magic for the first attack.