Chapter Five
Mitch
Swinging his sword, Mitch decapitated the head of the unseelie soldier guarding the portal. Theo was on the other side of that portal and they had to get through! It had taken them another two hours of trekking through the realm to reach the portal where Theo had passed through.
He didn’t know if Theo had taken the portal on his own or forced but with the unseelie army wanting on them Mitch suspected the worse.
Wylder grunted and rolled away from the soldier that had thrown him to the ground.
The human was talented. A true fighter. But wouldn’t win against the unseelie. Eventually Wylder would tire out. Maybe getting Wylder the sword he kept harping about wasn’t a bad idea. With some training, of course.
More soldiers flowed out of the portal as Mitch helped Wylder to his feet. They retreated to join Alek and Dario. With the four of them back-to-back, Mitch wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“They keep coming,” Mitch said.
“Theo is on the other side,” Dario replied. “I can sense he went through.”
“So can I,” Alek said. “But they have unlimited soldiers and we don’t.”
“What if we just let them capture us?” Wylder asked. He bent over, resting his hands on his knees.
“Why would we do that?” Mitch asked, flabbergasted. Yes, this was a fight but Mitch was born to fight. They would find Theo. They were so close to their shifter mate that Mitch could feel it. He would not fail to get to Theo.
Wylder waved a hand toward the portal. “Theo is that way. We go that way. If they want to take us—”
Six soldiers made a formation in front of them.
“I’m not sure they want to capture us,” Dario said.
Mitch agreed. “Then we fight our way to the portal. If you can get through, get through and don’t wait for the rest of us.”
“But won’t us getting separated complicate things?” Wylder questioned as he straightened.
Yeah. That wasn’t ideal. What other choice did they have? Theo was so close. They just need to get to him.
“Pairs,” Alek barked as he dropped into a stance to take on the soldiers. “We stay in pairs. I’ll take Wylder and Mitch and Dario stay together.”
“Got it.” Mitch wiped the blood off his blade onto his pants. “Start making your way toward the portal. Dario and I will try to distract them.”
“Ready?” Alek asked.
Mitch winked at Wylder. “Find our shifter.”
“I am going to spoil him for days after this,” Wylder replied.
“We all will,” Dario promised.
They would. And Mitch was never leaving his little mate alone again. If he had to sleep on the floor of Theo’s dorm, then that was what he would do.
It had been too easy for someone to take Theo from them.
Once Theo was home, there would be so much to do. First was finding a way of preventing this from ever happening again.
“Let’s do this.” Dario rolled his neck from side to side.
Mitch swung the sword over his head then charged forward.
* * * * *
Theo
Plaster crumbled and fell on his head as Theo hit the wall again.
Okay, he needed a new plan. His body was on fire while it still felt like ice was in his veins, but the beating he was taking was probably what was going to kill him.
Rolling over onto his hands and knees, Theo shook his head to clear his vision. He tried to push up but his arms went out from under him.
“Is that all you can take?” Bramley mocked, striding toward him.
Theo tried to scramble away. Nope. Not happening.
Bramley laughed. “And you are who our father wanted to succeed him? You! You are nothing but a weakling.”
Weak. Loser. Theo had heard all the hateful words his entire life.
“I have always been superior,” Bramley claimed. “Me! I was born from pure unseelie royalty. Our father the unseelie king and my mother the leader of the sluagh. They belonged together. As their offspring, I should be the ruler of the unseelie.”
“You are,” Theo reminded him. “Dude, you rule over half the fae realm. I am no threat to you!”
“You are a threat just by existing!” Bramley shouted. “My mother left because of yours! When our father chose a common feline shifter over a powerful sluagh!”
Theo didn’t know what a sluagh was. He finally managed to push himself back to rest against the cracked wall. “I’m sorry about your mom. This doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
Bramley crouched in front of him. Long gone was the attractive human and he was full monster. “Your apology means nothing to me.”
Theo cried out as Bramley grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head back.
“My mother was queen until yours fell through a fae trap and landed at our father’s feet. He was instantly smitten. Your mother knew about mine. She was nothing but a whore.”
Gritting his teeth, Theo wanted to defend the woman who gave birth to him but decided to keep silent. He was getting more information out of Bramley than he would ever learn on his own. Even knowing his father had once been an unseelie king. Surely someone knew something about him.
“But I took care of everything. As soon as your mother announced that she was pregnant, I knew what I had to do,” Bramley said.
“What did you do?” Theo asked.
Bramley tightened his fingers that were still buried in Theo’s hair. “I killed our father, of course.”
Hellcats! This guy was wacko!
“Your mother was brave, though. She escaped back through a portal into the human realm,” Bramley told him. “And hid from me!”
Smart woman. Theo had to give her credit for that. “Good.”
“I had an uproar to handle over my father’s death.” Bramley grinned.
Oh! How had Theo missed those sharp teeth?
“Of course, everyone thinks your mother killed him,” Bramley said. “I started that rumor. Even if I hadn’t come for her, she never would have lived. She had the entire unseelie realm after her. I placed my spies all over your realm until one of them finally found her for me.”
Theo very purposely did not look toward Garrett, Bo, or Aurelia.
Probably not a good idea to remind Bramley that they weren’t alone.
Sure Garrett and Bo were both at the cell bars and had been yelling for Theo.
The little brownie had scampered into the cell, taking protection between the two bigger beings.
Tears ran down the brownie’s face. Theo felt sorry for her.
Aurelia didn’t want to be there any more than Theo did.
“But I finally found her,” Bramley claimed. “Yes, I did. Unfortunately, it was after she’d given birth to you. I would have loved to kill you both at once but that wasn’t in the cards.”
If it was Theo’s destiny to one of the chosen, how would that have worked if he’d been killed? Would Alek, Dario, Wylder, and Mitch have another mate? Theo didn’t like the thought of that at all.
“She escaped my assassins long enough to hide you away. But she didn’t get far. And I put her head on a spike in front of the palace so every creature could see that I avenged my dearly departed father.”
This dude sucked. And Theo was really getting tired of him running his mouth. Theo wanted information but Bramley needed to be taken down a peg or two. Not that Theo was up for that job. He was barely able to breathe as it was.
“But you got away. Hidden from my view. Your unseelie blood bound.” Bramley put their faces only inches apart. “It’s there inside you, you know. Trapped and making you a weakling.”
“I might be weak but at least I’m not an asshole.” Oops!
Bramley yanked Theo up by the roots of his hair as he stood, forcing Theo onto his feet as well. “I wish your mother was here to watch you die. Don’t worry. I plan on taking my time. I want you to feel every moment of your miserable life seep away.”
He threw Theo against the bars.
“Theo!” Garrett’s voice shook with his tears.
Theo lifted his head. “It’s okay.” It wasn’t but Theo didn’t like seeing his friends sad.
“Lies! You lie like your mother did!” Bramley kicked Theo in the ribs. “And after I’m done with you, I will take care of your friends too.”
Theo absorbed the next kick.
“But first I want to see you bleed!” Bramley boomed.
He was lifted off his feet and forced to hover in the air in front of Bramley. Theo just had one more question for his evil brother. Hellcats! Theo had a brother. He’d wanted family his entire life but obviously he’d been lucky not to be raised with Bramley.
“How’d you find me?” Theo questioned.
Bramley paused, gathering his magic. “I knew you would show up one day. The oracle read your future while you were still in your mother’s womb.
Our father had been certain that you were destined for greatness.
The oracle confirmed, although they informed our father that you were destined to be a part of the chosen, not rule the unseelie. ”
“Then why all this?” Theo waved his hands around. “I really was no threat to you! You said it yourself. I was never going to rule.”
“But our father wanted you to!” Bramley yelled.
There was no talking sense in his brother. “I’m chosen. I just want to be with my mates! You dragged me here.”
“Because you are part of the chosen,” Bramley told him. “And that was how I found you. I knew the fates would put you in the path of the Lenkov clan. You needed to be near whoever was this generation’s chosen. I watched them until I heard about a feline shifter in the area.”
Because his mom had been a feline shifter. A woman who had hidden him away from his evil creature.
“I sent the triplets to watch until I could verify it was you.”
Made sense. Theo needed to be around Alek and his family to fulfill his destiny. Which opened him up to being found by his brother. Too bad Theo was going to need therapy to get over this family reunion.
“And now you can join our father in the spirit realm.” Bramley pulled out a dark vial. “I’ll keep your soul close. Don’t you worry about that.”
He didn’t want his brother to have any part of him. All of this was over nothing! Parents that Theo had never met. Did the news about his parents make Theo want to mourn them? Yes. But there wasn’t time for that. There wasn’t time for anything.