"Different as in bad?"
He nodded silently.
"Listen, I just burned down my apartment and place of employment this morning. I've kinda gotten thrown into the deep end of this paranormal pool, but as far as movie scenarios go this," she waved her hand around at the serene picture the clearing provided. "This isn't so bad. I mean so far no one has tried to rip out my throat and aliens aren't trying to kill me, so I think I can handle what you're about to lay on me."
When he blinked at her, she realized how her pep talk might have seemed odd. "I suck at this comforting thing, don't I?"
He shook his head. "Actually, what you said helps. Maybe I have to realize that what is happening now far eclipses what happened in the past."
Izzy grimaced. "When you say past, please mean a couple years ago. Because if it's something horrible and traumatic that happened recently, I'm going to feel like an asshole."
"It happened almost five thousand years ago."
"Huh? What did? Like the pyramids being built?"
He chuckled. "No." He took a deep breath. "My family murdered an entire fae house."
"Your whole family? Grandma too?"
"No, both sets of my grandparents were lost in the Great War, but yes, all of the males participated."
Izzy felt so far out of her depth she didn't even know what to say. "I feel like saying 'I'm sorry' would sound trite."
"Trust me, I understand."
"So, did they get caught?"
"Yes, I overheard them planning. I was about to get help when my uncle caught me and threw me in the cellar. It took me all night to break the door down."
"Oh God! How old were you?"
"Ten."
"What happened to them?"
He drew in a shuddering breath. "By the time I reached the queen and she dispatched her royal guards to House Alina, it was too late, they were all dead."
"All of them?"
"All except one. Before going to the queen, I snuck into the Alina nursery to see if their youngest had survived. I found him alive and sleeping. I picked him up and ran as fast as I could." He covered his face with his hands. "I was so scared someone would find me before we got to safety. I wanted my father, but, then it hit me, I was running from my father, he was the monster I was terrified of."
She didn't know about the whole mate thing, but she couldn't hear his story and not comfort him. She scooted closer and wrapped her arms around his neck to hold him. "You saved the baby; I think that is pretty amazing."
He tilted his head, leaning into her embrace. "My parents didn't know I had been going over to House Alina to play with him. Back then there weren't many children in the city. He was one of the closest to me in age. I used to help his mother change him and feed him breakfast. I knew that had I been too late to save him, I would have let my father kill me."
"Don't say that. You were only a child yourself; how could you possibly be responsible for the actions of the adults who were supposed to be teaching and guiding you?"
He looked up at her. "I loved him so much that, had he been murdered by my family, I knew that I would follow him into death so he wouldn't be scared or alone. I promised him when he was born that I would take care of him and that we would be best friends and warriors someday. Dying wouldn't have been me not wanting to live, it would have been me trying to find him."
"Oh Oron," she squeezed his head tight in a fierce hug.
He laughed and pulled her down into his lap holding her close. "There much better."
She glared up at him. "You didn't like my hug?"
"You mean your headlock?"
"Whatever. So, what happened to the baby?" she was completely vested in the story now.