Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
My face is pressed against a soft dark purple cushion-like ground.
Wait—not exactly a floor. I shakily manage to sit up, still tasting that awful bitter floral taste in my mouth from whatever Orion did to me.
That bastard heir kidnapped me and took me to his pack.
These psychotic, possessive wolves are going to drive me insane.
There is a chill to the air as I look around, seeing that everything is purple.
It takes me a minute to clear the fog from my mind to realise what they are—petals.
They stretch up above me, and huge balls of pollen roll softly around in each corner.
The air smells sweet but with a crispness to it, like an autumn leaf almost. I’m in the Mother Pack, and even though it’s a place I’ve always wanted to see, I’m still furious that snarky heir kidnapped me to bring me here.
I try to think back to everything I know about the Mother Pack, and I remember little other than it is mostly covered in trees and tall mountains.
I have to get moving before Orion gets back and hope Zyran is on his way to find me.
I spot a gap in the petals, a small sliver of sunlight streaming through.
I stand up, my legs shaky, and my head spins before walking across the very soft petal floor, around the balls of floating pollen, to the gap.
I push through the petals, struggling to find the entrance, before I fall straight out, flat onto my face on soft orange grass.
I wince and male laughter echoes in my ears.
I tense, knowing exactly who is nearby before I even manage to lift my head and look around.
I ignore him, taking in the Mother court for the first time.
Of course this pack land has to be magical and beautiful, even with an heir like Orion.
Massive trees swallow the sky in every direction, and they are as orange as the grass below.
Sunlight blasts through yellow and orange leaves, so high up they form an almost perfect canopy over the land.
We’re in a field of flowers, flowers that are as tall as a house, with tulip-like petals spread upwards in deep purple colours, and pollen dances through the air like butterflies.
The ground is smothered in orange grass, and the sweet smell fills my senses.
How can somewhere this beautiful produce such a bitter heir?
Finally, I face the wolf, who is leaning against a petal, smirking at me. “Morning.”
“What the hell did you do? Where is Elizabeth?” I snarl at him, storming over. He doesn’t move, that smirk plastered on his pretty face.
“At the palace. I brought you here to rest before I took you there.” He tilts his head. “A thank-you would be nice.”
“You want me to thank you for kidnapping me and throwing my guardian at the alpha who wants her dead?” I shout.
He shrugs for an answer, which makes me wildly angry.
“Why would you do that?” I close the space between us and slam my fist into his chest. He doesn’t move an inch.
In fact, his lips twitch in amusement, as if he likes me hitting him.
What is wrong with him? “You are psychopathic, you know that? You need to go and get Elizabeth! You said she would be safe from you—”
“I don’t have to do fuck all, Princess.” He cocks his head to the side. “Elizabeth is facing her crime, and I did not kill her because of our deal. I might be a bastard, but I held the promise I made you.”
I slam my hands into him one more time. “Your mother is going to kill her!”
He shrugs. “If she is found guilty and untrue by the earth, by the Mother, then yes. You seem to trust her, even when she hasn’t told you what happened, so she will be fine, right?
” When I don’t answer, it’s enough for him.
“See, even you don’t know. The trial of the Mother exists, and she will face it. ”
“I hate you so fucking much, Orion.”
“Come on, I thought we were getting to know each other so well.” He walks around me. “But then, you lied about a lot of things too.”
Shadows leak out of my hands, but before I can use them, vines snap up out of the ground, wrapping my arms tight and pulling them behind my back.
More vines wrap around my body, tightening but not hurting me.
Orion circles me, hunting me like a wolf hunts a sheep.
I’m no sheep. Not anymore. “You were gone a month. Where were you?”
“Were you counting?” I arch an eyebrow. “That’s cute, but I’m not interested in an asshole like you.”
A tic appears in his jaw. “Liar.”
“Am I?” I challenge, even as my heart pounds and sweat trickles down my spine. Even as I can’t even look at him without feeling a tug, something pulling me to him.
He leans into me. “Would you like me to say sweet things like Reed would? He would tell you how much he missed you, how he couldn’t stand a day without smelling your hair, without knowing you were safe. That he is obsessed with you, Meredith.”
“I don’t want what Reed would say. You’re not him, and I’m not interested in him either.” The lie rolls off my tongue.
Orion smirks like he can tell it’s a lie. “Liar. I counted the days we were apart because you are my enemy and everything I want at my side in the same breath. That saying about keeping your enemies close—have you ever heard it?”
“Yes,” I snap, even as I try to understand why he would want me near him. “But I’m not some whimpering human anymore. I never truly was.”
My shadows whisper through the vines, cutting them apart until they fall away around me. “You can no longer just tell me what to do.” I slam my hands into his chest, pushing my shadows into my fists. He moves back a few steps, surprised, the ground rising behind him to stop his fall.
“Want to play, Princess?” He laughs, dark and wicked.
He lunges at me like a wolf, grabbing me and pinning me straight down onto the ground.
My shadows whisper around us, but they don’t hurt him, to my annoyance.
They almost stroke his arms, his chest, his legs, and they stop listening to me.
The whispers echo louder and louder as his body fits against mine.
He holds my hands above my head in a tight grip, my chest brushing his and his pelvis pushing down on mine.
Heat blooms throughout my lower stomach, and Orion growls.
He lowers his head to my ear, his lips brushing the sensitive tip.
Before I can say a word, he bites down on my shoulder. Hard. My scream rips through the air—only for a second before he lifts his mouth. My blood crosses his lips and teeth, and he slowly licks it from his lips. “I win. You taste of darkness and sin. You’re marked as mine.”
I try to throw him off me, but he doesn’t move. “I’m not yours! I will never forgive you for Tannith!”
He grips my chin, forcing me to look at him and somehow still holding onto my hands with just one of his.
“We did not kill her. Creatures like that cannot be turned back, yes, that’s true.
What we told you was true.” He picks me up, and vines push us both into the flower petal until we’re hidden in darkness within it.
I snarl and burst through the vines, begging my shadows to help me, but I still don’t have enough control of them, and they don’t listen.
I eventually manage to cut through enough to get free before he grabs me again, pinning me against the petal walls, his hand wrapped around my throat.
My shoulder throbs as blood pours down it, but it is nothing to how I feel in my chest.
“Creatures like Tannith often live for many years. Yes, there hasn’t been anyone who has ever turned them back.
But it doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been; it just means no one in power cared enough to try.
It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have found a way to bring Tannith back, because we would have—for what you did at the end.
For you.” Tears begin to build in my eyes.
“Don’t think for a second we wouldn’t have.
Blackfire would burn the world for you, Reed would drown it, and I?
I’d reshape the very earth to make sure you didn’t lose her.
” His words are raw and angry. “Something or someone sped her dying up. That was unnatural. She didn’t always smell of death the way she did at the end.
Something changed. I hate to say this, but the goddesses were furious because you are not human.
We all heard them say that you tricked them.
Maybe they did it to punish you.” His eyes hold mine.
“Stop fighting, you stubborn, beautiful creature!”
“Never!” I snarl back, even as his words sink into my chest. Did the goddesses kill her quickly to punish me? Is it all my fault? The guilt of that nearly sends me into madness.
Orion carries on. “If the goddesses did this, they will pay. This dark god of yours—he obviously isn’t on their side.
He wants their weapons, and he wants war.
You’ll make them suffer for what they took from you, and I will help you to succeed.
We shouldn’t be on the same side, but fuck it all.
” His grip eases slightly. “Don’t you dare think for a second we would have just let her die.
Blackfire is obsessed with you, as is Reed, and they would never hurt you. ”
“What about you?” I breathe out. “You swore to kill me for saving Elizabeth. Are we even now that you’ve thrown her to the wolves?”