Chapter 34
· King Soren ·
The crunch of leaves makes my eyes open to the trees above. Aubrey stirs beside me, but doesn’t wake at the intruder. Then I feel the mindlink open. “It’s just me,” comes my brother’s voice. Twisting slightly, I turn my head to look for him only to see him set some clothes on a nearby log.
“She out?” he asks through the mindlink. I glance down at her, her breaths even against my chest. My fingers stroke through her hair gently, and she wriggles closer.
“For now.”
“Guards are antsy, with you two being out in the open.”
I sigh, knowing this forest isn’t the easiest place to guard, but also not wanting to wake her.
“There is something else,” Damian adds, as I sit up, pulling Aubrey into my arms as I do.
My fresh mark on her neck seems to have calmed her significantly because she is all soft skin, her tail gone, her ears no longer poking out the top of her head.
“What is it?” I ask him, letting my calling roll over her so I can carry her back home without waking her.
“Bianca’s mother called, she wants her daughter back.”
“How does she know we have her?” I demand. We ordered Bianca not to use the mindlink to contact Rhett or her pack. There is no way she would know.
“No, clue. Mother mindlinked to let me know. Somehow word got back to her parents.”
I growl knowing someone from within my staff must have leaked information.
“I screened the staff thoroughly,” Damian states, seeming to know where my mind went.
“Well, not good enough obviously. This better not have gotten back to the council,” I growl angrily.
“It hasn’t, we would have heard about it by now. Besides, Dad has already rounded up the staff and commanded them that no calls are to go in or out by anyone, and that the mindlink is now prohibited to your orders only.” I shake my head, wondering who the snitch is, but reluctantly get up.
“Did he question them?”
Damian nods quickly. “Yes and under command, it wasn’t anyone inside the castle.”
“So that leaves the guard,” I mutter and Damian looks away. Tucking Aubrey closer, Damian moves to take her from me so I can change but I growl. He backs up with his hands in the air.
“Fine, walk home naked.” he states and I start trudging through the forest. Damian grabs the clothes and follows closely, keeping his eyes ahead. “I sent for her parents.”
“Good, how far out are they?”
“Chopper should land in about twenty minutes, that is why I came to get you, besides you being out in the open and vulnerable.”
“I would hardly call myself vulnerable.” I retort quickly.
“You are when it comes to your mate.” I glance down at her in my arms knowing he is right.
The castle lights come into view as Damian and I make the trek back to the castle.
I would run but I would risk waking her by having to drop my calling.
In the distance I can hear the chopper and it doesn’t take long before its blinking lights show in the distance.
Reaching the castle’s long circular driveway, my father is waiting out front with a blanket, holding it up like a shield, he drapes it over Aubrey in my arms and I bundle her up.
“Where is Mom?” I ask him, stepping inside the castle.
“With Max, he was complaining about Marge having to look after him, so she went to settle him.” The sounds outside grow louder and there’s shouting in the distance with the blades of the helicopter.
I glance at Damian. “Bring her parents to the dungeons,” I tell him. He nods and quickly disappears back outside as I head for the stairs passing Marge as I do.
The old woman sighs heavily. “That boy runs rings around me. My King, thank goodness your mother arrived; he wouldn’t stop jumping on the bed.”
I chuckle. “Go get some rest, I’m surprised you’re even awake.”
“I wasn’t until I heard the commotion of your mother rounding the staff up. I came over and offered to watch Max while your parents sorted whatever was going on.”
“I will catch up with you later.” I tell her and she smiles looking rather frazzled like she always does after leaving Max. The boy could wear out my strongest guards. Heck, he runs rings around me.
I head for our room, and the moment I step inside, I relax.
Our room is filled with our scents, Aubrey is filthy from our run but I haven’t got time to clean her up right now, and doing so will wake her.
Instead, I gently place her on the bed. Moving to the closet I find some clothes, and pull them on before wandering back into the bedroom.
Aubrey squirms on the bed rolling onto my side and burying her face in my pillow, her bond seeking me out.
I hesitate for a moment, worried about leaving her alone.
The door creaks open. “We’re ready for you in the dungeons.” Damian tells me, casting a nervous glance at the bed.
“Mom?”
“Still getting Max down; he’s refusing to go to bed.”
I curse under my breath. The sound of keys jingling and scrape of steel on steel.
Damian holds out a set of handcuffs. “Not ideal, but in case she wakes.” he offers and I groan, not liking it but knowing I don’t really have a choice.
I am pretty sure Aubrey would be more horrified at my father babysitting her while she is naked than waking up in handcuffs. Hopefully, she doesn’t wake, but with how strong the call of our bond is, I know she probably will.
Accepting the handcuffs, I go to her, handcuffing one wrist to the headboard before leaning down and kissing her temple. She wriggles but doesn’t wake. Turning back to Damian, he nods and steps out. I quickly follow.
“Why do you want her parents in the dungeon?”
“Why did you bring them here?” I ask in return.
“To question them about how they found out.”
“Same reason, but I had an idea when you mentioned them.”
Damian and I move through the corridors and down the stairs to the back end of the castle where the garages are kept.
Once inside the garage, Damian and I move to the far corner of it and into the small room at the back.
The garage doors are open and Damian yells for the guard standing nearby to shut it.
He nods, rushing to do as he says and I shove open the door, to find the trap door open inside.
Voices echo from within its depth, a woman’s voice I do not recognize and the voice of another—a man demanding to speak with his daughter.
I follow the voices down the steps, each step lights up as I take it until I reach the bottom.
Down here the air is cold, never seeing the sun, and the tunnels vast leading all under the castle and some stretching as far as the forest edge.
My father’s voice reaches my ears as he tells them they will see her when I allow it.
They go to argue back with him but I let my aura ripple out violently and the entire basement falls quiet.
So quiet I can hear the drip of a pipe somewhere.
Navigating the tunnels in the basement, I come to the large opening that houses the dungeons.
A woman with a striking resemblance to Bianca stands rigid, her tear filled eyes locking onto me when I enter.
Despite wearing her silky nightie, she looks made up besides the mascara spilling down her cheeks. The man, however, is barefoot, in just his boxer shorts.
Damian strolls in behind me, moving toward the huge steel door where prisoners are kept. He punches in the code while my father yawns.
“Am I needed, son? Or can I take my leave now? Some of us need our beauty sleep,” he asks and I nod for him to go. Bianca’s parents watch me quietly, though their fear can be easily smelt emanating from the pores.
“Names?” I demand and they all but fall over themselves to answer.
“Amanda,” the woman blurts and the man stammers. “Joshua, Your Highness.”
I press my lips in a line.
“Who called you to let you know we had Bianca?”
The huge, heavy door groans as Damian opens it.
“No clue, we just received a call on the answering machine stating someone had my daughter. She was with her mate? Where is he?” Amanda demands.
“Alpha Rhett, no clue. We were hoping your daughter knew but she doesn’t. Although, I’m hoping you’ll change that.” I tell them.
The door opens fully and I hear Bianca’s panicked shriek.
“Mom, Dad!” she screams for them and her parents jolt hearing her voice.
They instantly turn to see her rush toward the bars of her cell only to be thrown backward when the volts of electricity hit her as she clutches the bar.
Bianca flies back into the wall and her mother screams, rushing through the vault door to her daughter, only she is careful not to touch the bars.
“My baby, my baby!” she wails, staring in at Bianca who groans. She sits up dazedly, clutching her head, her muscles twitching from the volts of electricity coursing through her.
“You put her in a cell, she didn’t betray you. Your fiancée did. You can’t blame our daughter for her misdeeds,” Joshua states.
“As King I can punish her for breathing my air if I deem fit. Now, I will ask you again, who notified you of us having your daughter.”
“We told you we aren’t sure. We woke to the phone but didn’t reach it in time. The person left a voice message saying he had her,” her mother answers but her eyes remain on her daughter.
“And yet you called here?” I ask curiously.
“No, we dialed the number back, and one of your staff answered.” I glance at Damian who is listening intently.
“I demanded to speak with whoever was in charge, they hung up on me. I kept calling and eventually someone answered and I told them about the call; they once again hung up,” she growls in annoyance.
“The call came from the castle?” I ask.
“I’ll mindlink Dad to find out which landline,” Damian states.
His eyes glaze over. So much for Dad’s beauty sleep; no one in this castle will be sleeping until I figure out who is behind this.
“I had no idea who I was even speaking with at first. They sounded muffled, like they were trying to change their voice. After I was hung up on so rudely by one of your staff, we tried to call the council. Of course no one was there at this hour, and next thing I know our door is being kicked in and guards swarm the place commanding us to remain quiet and not use the mindlink,” she continues to explain.
Relief floods me at Damian’s quick thinking, not that I expected anything less from him.
“Now our daughter, we’ve come quietly, we’ve told nobody. I just want her returned,” her mother pleads.
“And her mate, so I can kick his ass for dragging her into whatever this mess is,” her father adds.
“You don’t know what Rhett and your daughter did?” I ask. Her father looks at me confused but her mother glances away unable to meet my gaze so I turn my command on her. “You know!”
She ducks her head. “Bianca said Rhett was getting rid of her and that she was a wanted fugitive. I had no idea until I saw the news who she truly was to you. I’m sorry for her involvement,” her mother quickly apologizes.
Yet why do I get the feeling Bianca gets her cunningness from her mother.
The woman is lying through her teeth, I can tell.
“Please don’t hurt them,” comes Bianca’s pathetic whine behind me. I glance at her over my shoulder. “Please, they did nothing wrong, just let them go.”
“I will as soon as you find out where Rhett is.”
“I told you I have no clue, he left. He didn’t tell me where he was going.”
I chuckle. “Yes, you did say that.” That’s been her story since being brought here—that she has no clue where he is, and until now I’ve had no leverage against her.
My movement is a blur when I grab her mother.
The woman shrieks loudly and her father protests but Damian is quick to knock him out the moment he moves toward me.
Hauling Bianca’s mother closer to the bars, I hold her by her hair.
Bianca pales, her mother’s face barely a couple centimeters off the bars of her cell.
I let her go, her mother crumbles at my feet.
“Now you’re going to call Rhett, tell him you’ve managed to escape and want to meet up with him.” I warn her, she shakes her head, hands clutching her mouth.
“Or your mother will kiss those bars until you do. And if that isn’t enough incentive…” I turn to where Damian is standing over her father. Damian bends down letting his claws slip free while his other hand grabs a fistful of the man’s hair.
“So which is it?” I ask her but Bianca shakes her head, stunned into silence.
“Bianca, just do it.”
“It’ll never work, he will know I’m lying and wonder why I’m not using the mindlink,” Bianca urges.
“It will work, make it convincing. Tell him whatever you need to tell him, but I need his location.”
Once again she shakes her head, her eyes brimming with tears. Glancing down at her mother, she sobs.
“Just tell him, Bianca!” her mother urges, unable to get up from the ground under the weight of my aura.
“I can’t, even if Rhett did believe me, what do you think the king will do when he finds him?” she sobs and I growl angrily, her mother peers up at me, her tear-filled eyes full of fear.
“Kiss the bars.” I order her and Bianca shrieks, rushing closer only to scream when her mother does as I commanded, her entire body jolts, her hands flail, touching the bars and her muscles lock as she hits harder then, is flung backward.
I step out of the way letting the woman hit the far wall.
Damian whistles as she slams to the ground.
I give her a few moments, her body twitching on the ground while Bianca screams for her mother.
Eventually, she manages to sit upright, her immaculate appearance no more.
Her hair sticks up at odd angles, her face is blotchy and the scent of burned hair reaches my nose.
Lifting a hand, I point to the floor at my feet. “Come here!” I order and the woman whimpers, but obeys the command.
Turning back to Bianca, she is ghostly pale as her mother struggles to crawl to me.
“So what’s next, Bianca? Should I make her kiss the bars again or would you prefer I let Damian slit your father’s throat?
” I ask her and her eyes move to Damian.
Her mother whimpers but glares at her daughter, pleading with her to tell me what I want to hear.
When Bianca doesn’t answer right away I turn to Damian. “Kill him.”
Damian who smiles wickedly. “As you wish.”
“Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll do it, just don’t kill him.”