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You feel like you have to be there or you are failing me.  Well, stop it.  I don’t want to be found because of duty, I want to be found because you want to see me.  I’m not in any constant danger and you’re the only one who seems to visit me out of duty, not want.”
    “You really have no idea what you are saying," he grunted.
    "Really, Ian." 
    He faced me.  "I'm a man, Grace."
    "Yes, I noticed," I smiled uneven with sarcasm.
    He sighed, "A man only harbors that duty when he can’t seem to function on a day-to-day basis because he finally found the one reason to be the warrior he was meant to be.  For the girl he loves. It is an honor. That is why, but I can’t erase the reason otherwise.  You will always be in some form of danger, Grace.  It comes with the territory.”
    Others visit me because they are intrigued or want to be in my company. Pike's on the edge of the woods, guarding and well, other reasons too. “You act like you have no choice to be near me.  Like I’m an idol, not the one you love.”  Where was this coming from?  I was completely spilling my guts--all my recent fears.  Every last one of them.
    “ He came to see you tonight because he wanted too.”  He said it aloud.  He’d done it.  Now we could proceed.  But did he want to?
    “Yes!” Yep!  He ignored the topic and headed straight for the most important one.  The one I wanted to avoid.  Great!
    “Did you want him here?”
    “Yes!  He is more honest with me than you.”
    His heart was crumpling into a thousand icicle pieces sharpening and painfully stabbing him over and over, but he didn’t show it.  “I see.”
    “I see!  Ian.  That’s all you have to say.  I’m screaming inside.  I know there is something you’re not telling me.  I know you are hiding something more about him and Kin and this whole prophecy.  It is killing me.  It makes my mind wander down paths that are excruciatingly painful.  Pike is a menace, but gives me something I’ve never had before, he tells me the truth.”
    His face was beet red with anger. The wind picked up whipping his hair angrily across his eyes forcing him to brush it out every so often.
    “The truth.”
    “What keeps Pike hoping you will give up and move away from me?  You're possessive, I get that, but there's more to it.
    “Because I don’t want to lose you,” he yelled at me.  Never done that!  Oh no, no, no, Mr. Hot Protector of my universe. 
    “I know that.  But do you do it because you love me or because you want to win me?” I all but yelled back.
    He couldn’t believe it came from my mouth.  I’d said the words that had been on both our lips for months and I’d just said it aloud.  He probably didn’t know the right thing to say though the truth would be good here.
    “When…in freshmen year at the high school when Kin tried to take you...and Pike was there first, he claimed you for his own against Kin.  I had no way of knowing that day at the waterfall if it was me that claimed you, or Pike because he already had.” 
    He saw the anguish in my eyes with his own showing clearly.  Then the light bulb in my mind went off.   “And Altheon’s not talking.  Then why did Altheon say you claimed me that day at the campfire?”
    “No, I’ve replayed that many times.  He never said my name, or any other.  He simply said that the guardian had named you to his own.  You were claimed, but by who or how many?” 
    “This is mad!  Don’t I get a choice in any of this?  And you were my guardian.  Two men can't claim the same woman.” I threw up my hands.  He didn’t respond but the wind howled letting me know it had incomprehensible answers that would go unanswered tonight. He told me, that's what matters.  “Well, do we need to know, or do I get a choice in who I deem “worthy of my love” to marry?”
    “I don’t know.  I wish I did.”
    “This is—insane.  This is pure drama…and not me.  Why do you give me hope and