Virgin Sacrifice to the Last Lycan - Chapter 153: Chapter 153

Justin’s POV
Something about just having a plan to reconcile with my mate had settled both me and my lycan considerably. He was curled inside me, sulking a little bit for not having gotten a chance to take his temper out. And every so often, he would shoot off snide comments about Helen at me, focused entirely on her betrayal.
But Russo seemed to have a point. When I fully disagreed with my lycan and refused to give any ground, he seemed to settle down and make do with just letting horrible thoughts rip through my head from time to time. But I can handle those.
I walked in companionable silence with Russo, and the sudden feeling that I should do something for him for all his help washed over me. I turned to look at him.
“Russo?” I asked. “Why exactly did you decide to stay with our pack? I mean, after you stabbed us in the back, and it bit you in the butt. Of all of the packs on the continent, why pick ours?”
“Honestly,” he answered, “I’m not entirely sure. The best way I can describe it is that your mate has some sort of strange draw to her.”
I growled. “I know. She’s constantly sucking in creatures: the vampire, the wizards, you, and the pixies. I don’t get it.”
Russo said, “I don’t get it either. She’s a big part of the reason that I came back here, but I chose to stay because I saw potential.”
That made me pause. “Potential for what?”
“Just potential. You and Helen were starting your own pack. The two of you have some strange magnetism. It’s pretty amazing the way that now that the two of you are together, you seem to be able to override all of the biases that were against you as individuals. Both of you,” he cocked his head thoughtfully, “that might be something you should consider as you continue to mend the fence between you and your mate. On your own, each of you has suffered horribly. But when you’re together, you seem to draw better things towards yourselves.”
“We’ve been betrayed every turn. How can you say we draw good towards ourselves?”
“You’re looking at the wrong part of it,” Russo said. “You managed to combine two packs into your own. You get people to follow you. You have people like me, and the pixies are just drawn to your mate. Those are all good things. And if you haven’t noticed, the bad things that come at you are all focused on splitting you and your luna apart.”
His gaze turned intense. “There must be some bigger reason why the two of you make such a powerful pair and why it’s so important for those who are against you to keep the two of you apart. If you want to win the biggest battle against your enemies, then you need to be a united front with your mate. If their whole goal is to drive a wedge between you, then don’t let them win that war, starting by not allowing them to reach their goals. The stronger you two are together, the harder it will become for them to win.”
My new feelings of overwhelming gratitude scratched at me, and I had no idea how to itch them. Finally, I just growled at him. “What do you want?”
He stepped back, looking a bit shocked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. What do you mean, what do I want?”
I rubbed my hand down my face in frustration. “I mean, you’ve been so helpful, and I want to do something back for you. So, what do you want?”
Russo laughed outright, doubling over. “That’s not how friendship works, Justin. I realize that you’ve been locked in your bedroom alone for most of your life, but friendships are reciprocal.”
“Right,” I said. “That means you’ve done something for me. Now I need to do something for you. What do you want?”
Russo laughed harder. “No. By reciprocal, I mean that we help each other. It isn’t payment. It’s not like I do something nice for you, and you hand me a $20 bill. It’s more like I do something nice for you, and you do something nice for me in return. And it doesn’t have to happen immediately. Simply by letting me stay in your pack when I have no one else of my kind is the kind of reciprocal kindness that you’re supposed to deal back. Those are the type of gestures that are repayment for friendship.”
I huffed. “This that’s confusing,” I said.
“Yes, it can be,” he agreed. “Friendship, love, and interpersonal relationships can be very confusing, even for those of us who grew up with good role models. I would imagine it’s even more so for someone like you who has a father who never showed any shred of kindness.”
I swallowed hard at that thought. Right, he’d never shown me any kindness. Something cold and fearful trickled down my spine. “Maybe Helen had a point.”
“About what?” Russo prodded.
“About the super poison. Why did my father give that to me? Why was he trying to be nice? Oh, he rambled on about common enemies and helping each other against the larger foe, but my father has never mustered camaraderie. In fact, I don’t even know that he used his beta properly. I think he probably did what I usually do, which is give orders.”
I groaned and palmed my forehead. “I’ve made a mess of things with Randy, too, haven’t I?”
Russo ducked his head in agreement. “I can’t say that you haven’t strained that relationship as well,” he agreed. “But I think that’s repairable too. Randy is still quite loyal to you. In fact, I think more than anyone, he knows the good person deep inside you. But I do think you horrified him with your behavior towards your mate lately. I think he’s having a hard time reconciling himself to serving this new you.”
“Why do you say new me?” I asked.
“Because this isn’t the way that you acted toward your mate when you were with us at the wizard’s camp. When you visited us there, you were devoted to her.” He wrinkled his nose. “Actually, it was rather disgusting. You guys have some serious exhibitionist tendencies.”
I growled at him. “It’s simply hard to keep my hands off my mate, or it was.”
Russo shook his head. “No. I think you guys both get off on having other people watch. I think that’s part of the excitement for you.” He shrugged his shoulders, making his wings twitch. “It’s fine. Everybody has their thing. I’m not criticizing you for that. I’m just telling you that I don’t enjoy being the person who gets designated to watch.”
This time I growled a laugh. My lycan raised his head in order to throw out sarcastic comments. “I would think you’d be grateful for a chance to have a little sex in your life.”
Russo scolded me. “Unappreciated, Justin. Just because I am the last of my kind doesn’t mean that I’ve never gotten laid. It just means that I haven’t found a way to replenish my species the way that you and Helen are going to be able to help yours. If they find appropriate mates, then your children will be able to spawn more lycans, and in a few generations, the lycans will be a tribe again. Me? I haven’t found a compatible mate who will allow me to propagate my species. And don’t think I haven’t looked.”
Suddenly brilliant Insight occurred to me. That’s how I was going to repay the fae.