Chapter 43
A s Xandros leads me to my room, a heaviness settles in the pit of my stomach.
His grip on my arm is firm, and there’s an underlying tension in his touch.
As we approach my room, Javier is waiting already, having beat us here.
We enter the room, and Xandros releases me, his gaze lingering on mine for a moment before he speaks.
“I’ll be back soon,” he says, his voice filled with a mix of exhaustion and concern.
“Javier will stay here to watch over you.”
I nod, my eyes darting to Javier, who stands waiting for a command. The entire time, my mind races with questions, before I can voice them, Xandros is gone, leaving me alone with Javier. I turn to him, my eyes pleading for answers.
“No, don’t look at me like that, Sienna.
Any questions need to wait for Xandros,” he states, moving toward the armchair.
He grabs the remote, flicks on the TV, and makes himself at home like he always does.
I follow and sit across from him in the other chair.
“What did Vin mean about Carina saving me?” I ask, my voice trembling.
Javier sighs, his eyes filled with a mix of sadness; it’s rare that Javier denies me the answers I ask, and this time is no different as he gives in, knowing I will keep pestering him until I have the answers I need.
“Carina refused to hand you over when she turned your mother and father in,” he explains.
“Instead, she gave you to your uncle, pleading with Adina to listen. Carina believed you were just a baby and shouldn’t be blamed for your parents’ mistakes. ”
Confusion sets in, and I struggle to comprehend Carina’s actions. Why would she go to such extremes to save me? What did I mean to her?
“When she returned them to the castle, she had her guards take you back to your uncle. Your mother and father, when they fled, took you thinking King Vin would protect them from their crimes.”
“Why would they think that?” Javier shrugs. “No idea, but when they were returned for punishment, Carina pleaded with Adina to leave you out of it. She copped quite the scolding from her mother and her father for having you sent to your uncle. She disobeyed a direct order.”
Why would she risk punishment for her handmaiden’s child?
Before I can delve deeper into my thoughts, Javier turns the volume up on the TV, providing a distraction. I take the opportunity to retreat to the walk-in closet to retrieve my phone before escaping into the bathroom, taking it with me. I dial Toby’s number, my heart pounding with anticipation.
Toby answers after just one ring. His voice filled with relief. “I was so worried when I didn’t hear from you,” he says.
“I can’t speak long, I am just calling to say we need to push things along.
I need to get out, Toby. The city is going to war, and I’m afraid I’ll be caught in the middle of it,” I tell him, desperation seeping into my voice.
I know no matter what, Xandros is not getting out of this marriage, and I have no intention of watching him be with another woman.
Or get caught in the crossfire if he refuses the marriage.
“Why?”
“King Vin is pushing for the wedding to be next week, I have a feeling something will happen before then. I think he is planning something,” I tell him.
“Fine. We’ll figure it out together, I will speak with Tyra and see if we can find a way out tomorrow for you. We’ll have to hide out until the seekers can get us out,” he assures me.
A knock at the door interrupts our conversation. I quickly end the call, promising to speak again soon. Opening the door, I find Javier standing on the other side. Relief washes over me, knowing it wasn’t Xandros.
“I need to duck down to check the cameras for Xandros. I’ll be back. Don’t answer the door unless it’s me or Xandros. Not even for Queen Adina or King Rehan,” Javier instructs me.
I furrow my brow in confusion. “Why not them?”
“Xandros is paranoid. Just do as I say,” Javier says, his tone grave. “And stay off that phone. Xandros catches you speaking with Toby he’ll have both our heads,” he warns, and I nod. He turns to leave then stops.
“Sienna.” I peer up at him. “Whatever you’re planning with Toby, don’t. You run, and Xandros will hunt you down. That won’t end well for your friend or you,” he warns me.
“Yet you haven’t told him,” I tell him, and his brows furrow. “Because you’re my friend, Xandros is too. He’s my boss. I’m charged with keeping you safe, though sometimes I wonder who I am trying to keep you safe from…”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I know he won’t kill you; I know I can’t do much, though I am not blind to your suffering. I’m not blind to his, either. You think he doesn’t want you, I promise he is doing everything he can to be with you.”
I swallow.
“I know you hate him, royal politics isn’t just some argument between rivals. Lives depend on it, more than just yours and his. His kingdom, everything his family has built here, he’s risking it all for you. It may not seem like it, but he is.”
I nod. After hearing Vin threaten the human populace, I understand the severity of the situation. Javier leaves, and I’m left alone once again, anxiously awaiting his return or Xandros’s. Time seems to stretch endlessly, each passing minute fraught with uncertainty.
Finally, an hour later, the jiggle of keys in the door has me sitting up in bed. The door opens, and Xandros steps into the room. His face is etched with anger, his eyes burning with intensity. He silently wanders around the room before moving to the bathroom and shutting the door.
Around ten minutes later, he steps out of the bathroom, followed by the billowing steam. Without a word, he climbs into bed beside me, and I instinctively keep my back turned to him. The tension in the room is riddled with his burning anger.
Whatever happened, he is not speaking about it or taking it out on me, so I suppose I should be happy about that. My body tenses when I feel his hand grip my hip. He tugs me closer, spooning me tightly. His touch is both possessive and comforting, a tumultuous mix of emotions coursing through me.
My heart races as I feel the heat of his body against mine. My mind is filled with questions, and I can no longer keep them at bay.
“What did Vin mean about the council and your mother?” I whisper, my voice filled with curiosity and apprehension.
Xandros’s grip on me tightens slightly, his voice laced with bitterness.
“My mother’s father was the head council member,” he reveals.
“They believe he died when my father’s kingdom was attacked, and his parents were killed.
What they don’t realize is that he was the attacker, and my mother was merely defending herself and her sister. ”
I take in his words, the weight of the truth settling upon us. It’s a burden we both carry—the dark secrets and hidden truths that threaten to tear us apart.
“But it was self-defense,” I answer, and he presses his lips to my shoulder. “Doesn’t matter. He’s a council member; he has immunity. Also, the council was aware of the conflict between her father and mine.”
“What do you mean?”
“My father challenged her father, threatened to oppose him on the council if he didn’t give my mother to him. They would have assumed my father killed him to take his place.”
“And this Alaric person?” I inquire, my voice soft and filled with curiosity. When he doesn’t answer, I glance at him behind me.
Xandros’s gaze softens, and he presses a gentle kiss to my shoulder, then sighs. “Alaric had just discovered my aunt was his mate,” he explains.
As I absorb his words, I realize the intricate web of fate that binds us all together. Everyone is connected to some of the things my parents did. We are intertwined in a story that goes far beyond our own desires and choices.
“I thought she had no mate?” I ask him.
“She was pregnant, technically, until he marked her they weren’t mates. He couldn’t because she was carrying my sister. Also, my aunt wasn’t of sound mind, so Alaric knew he had to take things slow with her.”
“That’s why your mother hates me so much; your aunt was her surrogate.”
Xandros nods.
“Javier… he,” I stop, wondering if Javier would get in trouble for telling me.
“What did Javier tell you? You can tell me, Sienna; I know you two are friends,” he answers.
“He said you blame yourself because you gave my mother the key. I don’t understand. Wouldn’t you have been a child?”
Xandros laughs. “We are immortal, Sienna. I’m over 200 years old; I was an adult.
My aunt was actually younger than me. Lycans age a lot slower.
When my mother helped her sister escape their father, he retaliated, which cost my mother the ability to have any more children.
She thought she was done with me, but having the ability to have more children taken from her seemed to make her want another child right away.
Her sister felt guilty, so she offered to be a surrogate for her.
It sounds odd, I know, but Lycans aren’t human. We have time, endless amounts of time.”
“Your mother killed her father?”
“Yes, protecting her sister; they were close, and she was the only reason she remained in contact with her father. When she learned he had another child, she stayed close, trying to prevent her from having the same upbringing. They don’t share the same mother, and her father raised them both alone. ”
“He never found his mate?”
“He did. My grandmother was his true mate, and he killed her.”
“Don’t Lycans go crazy without their mates?”
“Males, yes, but only those of royal blood. Her father wasn’t.
He was head of the council. He oversaw the supernatural kingdoms and helped create the laws.
He was a man of power, even above the royal families.
Just because I am king now doesn’t mean I don’t have to answer the council.
The council is basically the twelve kingdoms’ advisors, they’re in-between.
So when treaties are made, alliances, the council is the one that oversees and governs them to try to prevent wars.
They were brought into place after the war—one from each kingdom.
My mother’s bloodline was royal on her mother’s side, her father wasn’t.
When her kingdom was dismantled after she rejected him, he waited for my mother to be born and killed her. ”
“Why was her kingdom dismantled?”
“Because my grandmother rejected him.”
“Why?” I ask.
“He marked her against her will. She was only sixteen when he discovered her; her parents refused him and said to wait until she was of age. My grandfather didn’t like that, so he had her parents killed, he kidnapped her and raped her.
She rejected him, not realizing that once marked, you can’t.
Since she refused to back down to him, he waited for my mother to be born, then killed her.
Unfortunately, she never stood a chance.
He killed her on her seventeenth birthday, the same day mother was born, he slit her throat the moment she gave birth.
” Bile rises in my throat, hearing the tragic tale. His grandmother was killed so young.
“And the council didn’t care he killed his mate, a child, and killed her parents?”
“No, no one was game enough to go against the head of the council. Everyone knew he was corrupt; he always has been.”
“Isn’t the council formed to stop that sort of thing?” I ask; I see no point to a council if they’re all corrupt.
“The council was formed after the wars. Too many humans were killed off. The Lycan kingdoms were blamed, and a lot were at fault. The lack of humans meant a lack of blood source for the vampire kingdoms, which in turn caused more wars, so the council was formed—a member from each of the founding kingdoms, initially—then it became a voting system or passed down when council members retired. Mostly, it’s a corrupt system.
Very few remained neutral within the council; it just became another power play, a way to dictate the kingdoms.” It is all too much for me to comprehend.
Power is the biggest source of evil, along with greed.
Only now am I realizing to what extent power can be abused.