41. JulianMaeve
T he computer in the archives screeches so fucking loudly I drop my coffee all over my pants, and I let out a hiss at the feeling of the scalding hot liquid burning into my thighs. I wheel over to the computer to shut off the noise and frown when I see what it says.
There’s a system alert, and when I click on it, it opens up a bigger text box that says “Maeve Quinn has been mentioned in Report 197AX2. Click to see more.”
I eagerly fucking click to see more, all the pain forgotten, as my pegasus and I focus on our mate.
I read through the record, my blood chilling as every new word embeds in my brain. My pegasus is barely restrained, my eyes racing over every word, committing it to memory, my blood chilling.
This is not good.
This is not good at all.
Five weeks ago, Maeve’s stepfather was released from prison after working with the Tribunal to help bring down criminals he was associated with.
The person who signed off on his release? Adrian Graves.
The person who originally recruited him for this task? Adrian Graves .
Once again, the root of so many of my mate’s problems is the uncle I’ve spent my entire life looking up to.
How foolish I was.
I grab my phone from the table, scrolling to call Hadrian.
Maeve needs to know.
She needs to prepare herself.
This man should not be out of prison, and I won’t take the risk of letting him get close to her.
I hear a door close, and I freeze, turning around. I breathe in, scenting a strong mythical creature, and my heart is racing. My pegasus surges forward, merging with me, not pushing to shift.
We’re one, waiting, ready.
“What are you doing?” I ask, rising to my feet as I see the familiar man, the one responsible for my mate’s pain.
A man who looks unhinged, fury in his eyes, as he steps towards me.
“Why were you reading that case file, Jules?” he asks, his voice not even sounding like himself. He sounds manic, obsessed, mentally fucking insane.
“Uncle, what are you doing in here?” I ask, pressing the button on my phone for Hadrian’s contact, praying he’s going to answer and can help our mate.
I don’t care about myself. I’ll be the willing sacrifice as long as my brother can protect our mate.
“Don’t do it, Julian,” Adrian warns, his voice getting deeper. “Don’t say a fucking word.”
“Don’t do what?” I ask, pressing the call button. The dial tone gives me away, but I don’t flinch at the murderous glint in his eyes.
“I just wish you would’ve listened,” he snarls, shifting into his unicorn before ramming into me. Hadrian answers the phone as I’m gutted into the stomach by my uncle’s horn, my head slamming into the wall moments later.
I grunt, groaning in pain, as my stomach burns.
Adrian pulls his head out, letting out an angry neigh, and I slide to the floor just as he shifts back into his human form and grabs my phone from the floor.
“Hey, Hades,” Adrian says so calmly, so cool, as if he hasn’t just speared his fucking nephew. “Oh, no, that was just Jules and I sparring. He’s fine, just a little bruised and battered, you know the score. What’s going on with you?”
He keeps his eyes trained on me, the same manic glint there, despite his calmness when talking to my brother. There’s still the scent of danger in the air, still a strong presence that terrifies me.
I lose consciousness as the pair of them chatter away, my brain only focused on Maeve and the pain she’s going to be under the moment she realises.
I wish I was stronger.
I wish I could’ve helped her.
I wish…
Maeve
“Maevey Baby, can you grab that?” Ari shouts. “It’ll just be Alvie coming to drop things off.”
He’s not been invited to our morning breakfasts, but Alvie has been arriving early every single day to drop off Ari’s courting gift. He’s really stepped his game up now that the herd are trying to be more involved, but I respect the fact that he’s still doing things on Ari’s timeline.
He might be a sullen, moody guy, but he’s polite enough, now that he’s not worried for Ari’s life because she’s interacting with me.
“Fine,” I reply, dragging myself off my nice, lovely armchair to go open the front door. I don’t know why he didn’t just use his key, but I’ll be making it clear that he better start doing it.
I’d rather he let himself in and announce his presence, rather than forcing me to get up off my very comfortable seat to wait on him.
“You’ve got a key, start—” I start, frowning when I wrench the door open and notice there’s nobody actually here. I look up and down the corridor, not seeing anyone, but there’s a weird smell that burns my nostrils.
It’s almost as if something is decaying. I gag, stepping back into the flat, and catch sight of a light pink box on the floor with some weird redness around the bottom. My stomach is rolling, my eyes watering, the scent that vicious, as I look at the present someone has left.
My chromius is hissing violently, anger pulsating through our bond, but I don’t understand why she’s taking such offence to this gift, outside of the horrid smell.
I’m an idiot if I open it, right?
Especially since it’s got my name attached to it, showing this is a gift for me, and realistically, if it’s a gift from one of… well, one of the men who have claimed us as mates… it wouldn’t stink like this.
I drop to my bum, my hands trembling, but I lift the top of the box off, preparing myself mentally for whatever I’m going to find.
But as I see the contents, I realise nothing could have prepared me. I let out a bloodcurdling scream, unable to look away from what’s inside the box.
I can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t even blink.
My chromius is getting more worked up, but as I stare into the package, our bond seems to dull, and she’s just out of my reach.
Lucifer and Alvie race towards me, coming from opposite sides of the corridor, and I hear Ari shouting something from the bathroom.
I can’t move. I can’t explain.
“What the fuck?” Alvie snarls, his tone deep and angry, but it doesn’t cause me to flinch. I don’t think I can.
“Check the area, now,” Lucifer hisses, the venom in his tone not getting the usual response from me. I’m not capable of reacting. “Get Hadrian, Draven, Caspian, Wade, and Atticus looped in now .”
I can’t look away. All I can see is… I gag and scream again, unblinking.
“Understood.” Alvie doesn’t question the orders, but he does crouch down next to me. “Maeve, sweetheart, can you breathe for me? I need you to tell me if Ari is safe?”
“I’m safe,” Ari says, coming out from behind me. “Nobody is here, we’re?—”
She pales, gagging, and I wish I could stand up to help her.
I wish I could move.
But I can’t.
I can’t look away from his pale, green eyes.
“Pretty princess, I need you to tell me if you recognise this man,” Lucifer’s words attempt to cut through the haze.
My eyes are watering, stinging, even. Have I blinked? Am I crying?
I don’t know.
My chromius is a huge presence in my mind, but she’s too far away to actually reach, to actually listen to.
“Maeve, love, I need you to snap out of this,” Lucifer says as Ari continues to gag and dry heave from behind me.
“She’s not responding,” Alvie mutters. “What are you going to do to her?”
“I don’t fucking know,” Lucifer snaps. He dials a number on his phone, the constant dial tone echoing through my mind as I stare at him.
“You’re finally going to give back to our pack, Maeve.”
I flinch as Lucifer waves his hand under my face, but I can’t bring myself to move.
“I get to go first, Maeve. I’ve waited all these years for this.”
Tears drip down my cheeks, the saltiness coating my lips.
“Don’t touch her,” Ari warns, and Lucifer curses but moves back.
“You’re made for this, aren’t you, baby girl?”
I whimper, and it’s like he’s right here in front of me. His voice, his words, his anger.
“Don’t you dare close your legs, you filthy little whore.”
“Atticus is on the way over,” Alvie says. “Caspian and Wade are running perimeter.” His voice drops, but I can still hear him. “But there’s another problem.”
“You’ve been nothing but a problem, Maeve. Luckily for me, I’ve found the best solution.”
“What?” Lucifer’s voice is a dark hiss.
“Julian—your cousin? Hadrian says that something is wrong with him,” Alvie relays.
“You’ve got such a gorgeous cunt, to match your pretty face,” he murmurs, stroking down my cheek.
I shiver, staring into the depths of his eyes. My peripheral takes in the jagged cut on his neck, the way his hair is all shaved off.
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“You will,” Julian’s voice says, and it takes me a second to realise it’s not Julian speaking but Hadrian. “Adrian was acting weird.”
“Weird?” Lucifer asks, still sounding uninterested.
“Julian rang me, and Adrian answered. Said he and Julian were training. I think… I think our uncle has done something to Julian.”
Julian. He’s hurt? Is he hurt? I flinch when my chromius lets out a heartbreaking wail that ricochets through my mind. I don’t know how to reason with her.
I don’t know if it’s worth trying.
“Maevey Baby,” Ari’s soft voice sounds closer. “I’m not going to touch you, love, but I need you to look at me.”
I whine, or maybe my chromius does. Can’t she see that he’s staring at me? He’s got a hold on my soul, he always has.
There’s fear in his eyes.
Is that how I looked at him that night?
Was that the expression I had when he dragged me from my room?
When he tied me up in our living room?
When seventeen of his closest men were standing, delighted, at the scent of my panic?
Is this how I looked when he gagged me and stripped me of my clothes?
Is this how I looked before they took my sight away?
Before he took my innocence from me?
“Put the lid back on,” Hadrian says, and I don’t know when he got here. I thought he was speaking on the phone. “She knows this man, and based on her fear?—”
“It’s probably one of them,” Ari fills in. Lucifer covers the box, and I let out a gasping breath, my eyes moving from the box to meet Hadrian’s.
“Good girl,” Hadrian murmurs, crouching down next to his cousin. “Well done, sweetheart, you did so good there. I am really proud of you.”
I nod, trying to breathe, a gasping breath being ripped from me.
I take another, and another, and before I know it, I’m sobbing.
I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I can’t do anything.
I fall to my side, and my head drops into Ari’s lap. She gasps, but I don’t move.
I can’t. I just lay there and sob and cry and break down.
He’s had such a hold over me for my entire adulthood. He was the one who organised it all.
My stepfather, the man who practically raised me.
And now… he’s dead.
“Who is he, Maeve?” Lucifer’s voice demands. “Which one is he?”
“Wait, there’s a note,” Alvie says, gesturing to the box but not daring to move to get it.
Hadrian grabs it, ripping the envelope open without a care. I continue crying, my heart completely broken.
My pretty little mate,
It’s been far too long, hasn’t it? I’ve been so patient waiting for you to come back to me. But the time for patience is over.
When they stole you from me, Maeve, they thought they could sever our bond. They thought they could keep you hidden, safe from me.
How wrong they were. They will pay.
Oh, how they will suffer for daring to take what’s mine.
You are mine, Maeve. Nobody gets to take you from me.
Do you know what I heard? It unsettled me, disturbed the very core of my soul. He was released.
The one responsible for everything.
For years, I’ve waited to take my revenge, and now, I have finally claimed it.
You remember him, don’t you, Maeve? He was the reason they took you the very first time.
The reason I had to watch, helpless, as those filthy animals touched you, used you, defiled what was meant to be mine alone.
The men I thought were my brothers—they were supposed to honour our bond, and instead, they stole from me.
They all took a turn, and left me for last. Left me to wait.
I could do that. I tried my hardest to be patient.
But then the Tribunal took you. They ruined everything.
I’ve been biding my time, working tirelessly, to get closer to you.
And just as I manage it, they rip you away, again.
Well, now, I’ve at least made some of them pay.
The biggest reward was finding him— our alpha .
He’s gone now. I tracked him down.
I slit his throat, Maeve. I watched the life drain from his eyes just for the way he hurt us.
It was quick—too quick—but it doesn’t matter.
He can never touch you again. No one will ever touch you again, not before me.
You’re my pure, beautiful mate. Only I deserve to claim you, to feel your body tremble beneath mine.
Nobody else.
And now, now, there’s nothing standing in our way. I’ve taken my revenge.
I’ve given you this gift—a life snuffed out for the sake of our love.
It was all for you, Maeve. Every drop of his blood spilled in your name.
When I finally manage to get you back, our first time together might be just as fast, but that’s okay, isn’t it? We’ll have the rest of our lives. Mates forever. Nothing will ever keep us apart again.
Remember, Maeve. I am always with you, watching, waiting. The Phoenix Pride might currently be your prison, but it’s not your home.
We’ll be reunited soon, my little mate. Very soon.
With all the love my soul can offer,
Your Mate
Hadrian curses, Lucifer’s rage is unparalleled, but all I can do is cry and cry.
They’re unhinged. Unable to be calmed.
And I cry some more.
He didn’t kill my stepfather for me.
I’m hyperventilating, unable to breathe properly.
He didn’t try and get revenge for me.
My vision is fading in and out.
He didn’t do this so I could be rid of that evil.
No, he did this because he sees me as his .
My sobs stop, my breathing dangerously fast.
Because he was the only man who didn’t get his turn with me all those years ago.
He’s someone I’ve known my entire life, someone I once thought I could trust.
He didn’t care about me. He never has.
To him, I’ve just always been his property.
The world goes black as my chromius lets out a vicious hiss.
The End