Chapter 19-Decisions

"What? Why?" Shane asked, surprised.

"It's hard for other people to accept the fact that there's somebody that's just as important as they are to their mate." They look super confused. How can I explain this so that there's no misunderstanding later if they do mark me?

"Okay, for example. Shane if you marked me, then found a girl you wanted to be with. She would have a hard time accepting the fact that I was just as important to you as she was. It would be the same for me or for Adrian. If I found someone I wanted to be with, he would have a hard time accepting the fact that you two would be just as important to me as he was. It's difficult for people to understand the fact that their mate is just as attached to someone else as they are to them. They don't think it's fair that they aren't the single most important thing in their mates' life."

"All right." Adrian said.

"All right, what?" Roe asked, confused.

"I'm okay with it. I think it sounds like a good idea."

"Are you sure? I just told you that you may never have a mate." I don't think he understands what I'm telling him.

"I know. If I was going to have a mate, I would've found her by now." He shrugged. "Getting out of here without any of us getting hurt, and rescuing everyone else here is more important to me than some mystery woman I haven't met yet, and probably will never meet."

"Okay. Just so you know that I'm not hiding anything, I'm not overjoyed with the idea myself. Not that I have anything against either of y'all. I just wanted to...I guess have more time." She shook her head.

"You wanted to be able to pick who you wanted and have the time to completely go over everything with them and make sure it was the right decision. Not just a spur of the moment thing where you didn't really have a choice."

"Exactly." Roe sighed with relief. I'm so glad Adrian understands. I hope Shane will too.

Shane had been silent since Roe revealed why it was so hard to find mates after marking a witch.

"Shane, you okay?" Roe asked him.

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"Okay." Roe said. "I'm going to let the spell drop. Why don't we have some lunch so you can have some time to think about what I've said. Do you have any questions first?"

"Yes, I do have one."

"Sure. What is it?"

"If neither of us find mates, are you going to have kids with us?"

Roe opened and closed her mouth, stunned by the question.

"I don't know about Adrian, but I will need a child to take over my pack eventually."

"Oh, I hadn't really thought about that. I have no problem having a child with you, but the odds of that child being a werewolf are slim. Usually only about a third of our kids are not witches."

"That doesn't help me much, though."

"No, not really." Roe paused. "If we do wind up doing this, I promise you that I'll help you find a mate to the best of my ability."

Shane nodded. "I need to think about it for a little while."

"Okay." Roe said. "I understand."

"Even if you decide not to, I will mark Roe, and we should have enough power to escape." Adrian tried to reassure Shane that he still had a choice in the matter.

Shane just nodded his head, deep in thought.

It will probably work with just Adrian, but it would be so much easier, especially in the long run, with Shane too. But I really do understand that he's thinking about the future of his pack, not just himself. He's acting so responsible. Up until now, I wouldn't have thought he'd actually think past right now. He's seemed like such a hot head so far. Maybe he does have a sense of responsibility. Roe thought. She let the spell drop, then said "Okay, I'm going to make me a sandwich. I know you don't want one, Adrian, do you Shane?"

"What? Oh, no thanks. I'll make myself one in a few minutes."

"All right." Roe said, then walked into her room and started making herself a sandwich.

Adrian soon followed her, carrying a bottle of blood with him.

"Can I talk to you?" He asked.

"Sure."

"Alone?" He pointed to his head.

"Oh, sure." Roe said and dropped her shields again. Then started eating her sandwich.

I didn't say this earlier, but you've got really strong shields. I can't even get your attention with your shields up. Adrian said.

I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was so hard to get my attention.

Adrian smiled at her. It's not a problem. It's just interesting. I haven't met many people that had such strong shields.

Roe smiled back at him. I have practiced some. I didn't want anyone to be able to read me.

I think it worked.

Thanks. I assume that's not what you wanted to talk to me about?

No, it's not. Adrian said. I wanted to talk about Shane.

I kinda figured that's why you wanted to talk this way.

Adrian inclined his head at her. You're a smart woman.

Thank you.

I'm not sure Shane's going to agree to your plan. I know I told him it would be fine if he decided not to mark you, but I'm not sure if I told him the truth or not. I only said that so he could make his mind up without undue pressure, but I wanted to talk to you about it.

Well, really it would work better now and later if he marked me too. But I do think we'd get out of here without him, it would just be easier with him. Especially if we could all three mind link like this. She shrugged. Whatever he decides, we'll deal with it.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't being unrealistic when I told him that.

No, I'm glad you did. If he does decide to mark me, I don't want him feeling like I pushed him into it. That would cause even more problems later.  I'm afraid he'd wind up resenting me for it.

That's entirely possible.

"I'm not sure this is the right way to go with this.  I don't want to tie you to me, if there's another way."  Roe told Adrian out loud.

"I think that you're right. I can try the hypnosis, but if they separate us, we won't get another chance. And who knows what they'll do in order to keep us here."

"I've been meaning to ask you, why can't you break your chains?  I know it's the silver that makes Shane not be able to break them.  But you don't have that issue, do you?"

"It's not the silver, though that doesn't help.  I think there's some kind of spell on them.  Can't you tell?"

"I haven't really looked.  We can see magic, but we learn to turn it off when we're really young. If we don't, we can't do anything or go anywhere without seeing spell residue. It's everywhere." Roe said, then opened up her sight to magic. "You're right. There is a spell on your chains."

"I thought so. I tried breaking them while you were unconscious earlier. Needless to say, it didn't work." He paused then asked, "What does magic look like?"

"They're kind of like an after image of a spell's energy. The closest thing I can think of is the light left behind when you wave a sparkler or glow stick in the air. That light after image is what I see."

"And, they're everywhere?"

"It shows up everywhere a spell has been cast, and what it was cast on. There aren't many places that haven't had a spell cast there." She shook her head and smiled. "Especially around a witch's house."

Adrian smiled back at her. "I can understand why you wouldn't want to see that all the time."

"Yeah, it gets annoying." She paused. "Thankfully, the spell on your chains is the only one I can see right now. I'm going to go look in the other two rooms and see if there's anything in there that's spelled."

"That sounds like a good idea."

Roe walked into Adrian's room and looked around. I don't see anything in here, except the rest of Adrian's chains. Now to look in Shane's room. She walked through the bathroom and into Shane's room. Shane's chains aren't glowing. I guess they assumed he wouldn't be able to break the silver. She saw Shane sitting on his bed. "Are you okay?" She asked him.

"What?" He said, jerking his head up, startled. "Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just thinking, you know?"

"Yeah, I've been doing a lot of that myself recently."

He nodded then went back to looking at his hands.

I guess he's not done thinking. I don't see anything glowing in here. She walked back into her room where Adrian was waiting.

"Well?" He asked.

Her only reply was to tap her temple.

Yes? He asked, initiating their mental conversation.

Nothing is spelled in here, except your chains. That will make escaping so much easier. She answered. I don't want to take a chance on them hearing us talk about it anymore. We've already said too much out loud, especially this close to the door.

Are the guards human or supernatural?

The ones I've seen, I assume are human. I'm positive Parker is, he doesn't seem to know much about vampires or werewolves. Savage and Boudreau, I'm not sure about. Though, if they are Marsden doesn't know about it.

What makes you unsure about Savage and Boudreau?

Neither of them acted surprised about anything regarding you two, and Savage growls a lot for a human. He really, really doesn't like me. I wonder if he can sense that I'm a witch.

He can sense you're a witch! Adrian mentally exclaimed.

No, I don't think he knows what I am. I just think he's so antagonistic towards me because he subconsciously feels that there's something off about me. I think he's reacting to my powers, but doesn't know why he's feeling the way he is.

That makes sense. Some supernaturals, as well as some humans can sense witches.

Exactly. Roe agreed. I think that's what it is with Savage, because the other two sometimes look at him like he's acting weird.

Okay. We'll have to watch him.

Yes, we will. She paused then continued. Boudreau, on the other hand...I'm not sure what it is, but there's something about him that seems...off, I guess.

Off, how?

Just different. He's always watching what's going on and almost never talks. When he does, both Parker and Savage listen to him. I can't quite put my finger on it. If they were wolves, Boudreau would be their Alpha, and Savage would be the hot headed Beta. She chuckled at the thought.

Did you get enough to eat?

Yeah, I'm good. How about you? Do you need another bottle of blood?

I think I'm good for right now. I don't want to run out, considering how few bottles they brought last time you asked.

Yeah, Roe replied wryly. That could get to be a problem, but I don't want to be here long enough to find out.

Me, either.

"Hey, guys. What're y'all doing?" Shane asked, coming into the room.

Adrian and Roe both jumped. "Oh my goddess, Shane." Roe exclaimed. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Looks like I scared you both. What were you two doing, that I could sneak up on both of you?"

Roe and Adrian looked at each other. "We were just talking." Roe replied.

"No you weren't." Shane said, suspiciously.

"Let's go into Adrian's room." Roe said very quietly, then flicked her eyes at the door pointedly. "I'll explain when we're not so close to the door."

Shane opened and closed his mouth then narrowed his eyes at her and said, "This had better be a good explanation."

She nodded, then led the way into the other room. As soon as they all had cleared the doorway, Roe re-cast the ward on the room, allowing them to talk freely. "All right, this room is warded again."

"Why did you have to ward it again, I thought wards were permanent spells?" Adrian asked, ignoring the look of increasing rage on Shane's face.

"They can be, but you usually tie them to the building if you're making them permanent. I don't want to make it permanent, because it takes a lot more power to make it permanent than it does to hold it for a few minutes. I also don't want to give them anything they can use after we leave."

"Okay." Adrian said.

Shane finally snapped. "Tell me what's going on." He snarled.

"At the motel, Adrian and I discovered that we both have enough psychic power to communicate with each other telepathically, as long as we both drop our shields. So, like I told you before, we were talking."

"Uh huh. What were you talking about?"

"The guards. I can't tell if Boudreau and Savage are human or not." Roe replied.

"Savage? Not human? Why would you think that?" Shane asked confused.

"She thinks Savage growls too much, and that he may act like he does towards her because he can unconsciously tell that she's not human." Adrian answered him.

"Apparently you two have discussed this."

"Yes, that's what we were talking about when you startled us." Adrian reiterated.

Shane nodded, then asked, "What about the other guard?"

"Boudreau?" Roe asked.

"Yes."

"There's something I can't quite figure out that's just odd about him somehow." She shook her head. "I can't explain it. If you see him, pay attention to him and to Savage. Savage is extremely suspicious of me."

Shane nodded his head. "I will. I haven't heard anything about Savage that would make me think he's anything other than human, but I don't know for sure."

"Okay." Roe said. Looking at Shane, she thought Was he coming into the room with us for a reason, or just to be back with us? Did he want to ask something, or tell us something? I don't think I should ask him, it would be weird if he wasn't.

"I was coming in to talk to you two." He paused, then looked Roe straight in the eyes. "I've made a decision about your plan."