Chapter 31 #2
Torin didn’t move from his position. A storm brewed behind his eyes, but he remained quiet.
Hayden closed the distance. “You left me no choice but to tell the truth to the King,” Hayden said as he watched me intently.
“I told him we’re mates and came here to bring you back home.
” My bodyguard shook his head as if he didn’t want to remember something.
“After seeing the dark witch in your dream realm and how injured you were, I had to make a decision, sweetheart. Alpha Torin is doing a poor job of guarding you, so I’m taking over. ”
My blood rushed to my head, and everything in me revolted. I wasn’t ready to tell Dad about having two mates, but now he knew about one of them. The little resemblance of freedom I had gained in the past seven years was about to all be taken away.
Thanks to my mate.
“You told Dad about the dark witch?” I squeaked, and Hayden nodded. I took a sharp breath. “And the attack of the vampire General? How do you even know about this?”
He only shrugged, and I dragged my hands over my face.
“It was my place to talk to Dad about my mates.” My voice came out louder than intended, and I exhaled slowly.
The King now knew of one mate he assumed was my fated mate. Dad’s words came back to me: “Find your fated mate, inherit the throne.”
My throat grew dry, and I sucked in a deep breath.
Torin’s eyes flashed crimson.
“How did you bond with Anna?” Torin’s voice changed to his inhuman one.
His vampire was triggered and ready to tear my other mate apart.
Hayden raised his eyebrows in a “duh” manner. “I’m her fated mate.”
Torin let out a loud growl.
“Don’t you dare, Alpha. I’ve known she was my mate since I was fourteen when I first met her.”
My lungs constricted as if someone knocked all the air out of my chest. My knees became weak, and it was a good thing I sat on a chair.
“How-how’s that possible? If you were fourteen, I must have been only nine… But I first met you when I was about fifteen,” I said with a shaky voice.
A throbbing started behind my eyes as I racked my brain to connect the dots. Hayden was about eighteen when Dad’s men brought him to the kingdom after he had wandered around as a rogue.
Hayden’s smile widened, and a heavy weight settled in my stomach.
“Sweetheart…” He took a step closer as if he wanted to reach out and touch me, but Torin blocked his way. “I was that beaten-up boy you saved in the cave. Your first kiss and your promise to marry me. Your first…everything.”
The last part he said in a low voice, as soft as a lullaby.
On autopilot, I extended my arm, stopping Torin from moving into Hayden’s personal space. The shift in Torin’s stance was evident as he grappled with his thoughts. I dropped my hand in my lap after I was sure Torin wouldn’t pounce on Hayden.
The bruised and cut boy who’d looked like a fallen angel was Hayden? I went utterly still. Torin must have been as shocked as me because he didn’t move, and his gaze darted between Hayden and me.
“But the boy disappeared?” I mumbled.
Slow down your breathing. Think this through. I needed to process his words.
The boy told me his father abused him, but when Hayden appeared later in the kingdom as a young adult, he told my father he was a rogue and grew up in an orphanage. Why didn’t he tell me or Dad about our first encounter in the caves?
Something didn’t add up.
I clenched my hands together. “Wait… If your dad abused you, why did you tell the King you had no parents?”
“I had no parents, sweetheart. An abusive dad didn’t count like one.”
“Where’s your dad now?”
“After you nursed me back to health, I ran away from home, stayed in different orphanages, and was constantly on the run. But I never forgot you, Princess. I knew you were fated to me, and I returned.”
I placed my hand over my chest, my heart pounding against it.
Closing my eyes, I tried to recall my feelings for the boy, but I’d only been nine.
I’d been smitten with him, but I couldn’t have figured out he was my mate at that time.
But it was possible for Hayden, as a young teenager, to have felt the pull between us.
“I told your dad and mom about how we first met, and your parents can’t wait to have you back for the mating ritual,” Hayden said, and two things happened simultaneously.
Torin stepped into Hayden’s face, fangs protruding, and his arm lifted toward Hayden’s neck.
At the last moment, I grabbed Torin’s bicep and squeezed as hard as I could. “Torin, don’t.”
Torin’s red eyes radiated anger and hurt. He misunderstood me. I stopped Torin from hurting Hayden to protect the Alpha. The royal family must have been ecstatic to learn of my fated mate. And if they learned that Alpha Torin punched my fated mate, Torin would be banished.
Hayden had made the situation exceptionally complicated now. Maybe I could have avoided it if I had shared my time equally with my mates. Hayden wanted a chance, too.
“Hayden, I can’t go back to the kingdom yet.”
He raised his eyebrows at me, waiting.
I sighed and released Torin, who dropped his hands to his sides and remained tense and still.
“We’re going to Salem to find an item from the magic map,” I said and explained how I opened the second book.
“Great, I’m coming with you.” Hayden unleashed his charming smile, and I gaped at him.
Had he forgotten Torin tried to kill him a moment ago? And why did he sound so enthusiastic? When Torin first saw the map, he hesitated but still supported me. But Hayden jumped at the opportunity to find out what the map location was all about, making me wary.
Maybe I was just overreacting since the tension in the air had thickened.
“Sweetheart, don’t look at me like that. You need me. I can call your dad and explain I’m going on a trip with you. We’ll take a day or two before returning to the kingdom.”
“Torin is coming with us,” I reminded him.
“I know, but your father doesn’t know that. He also doesn’t know you have a magic map. Unless you want me to tell him, the trip will be canceled.”
I raised my damp palms. “Okay, okay. I got your point.”
The phone call Hayden made to my dad bought us more time. Listening to their conversation, I couldn’t help but notice the trust built between the two men.
I only took the phone to tell Dad and Mom not to make any preparations for a marking ritual without having a conversation with me first. Dad agreed on the condition of postponing Hayden from marking me until my birthday.
After I hung up, my stomach quivered. I massaged my temples. How had things escalated so fast?
As the three of us drove toward the airport, my mind reeled. My restless legs crossed and uncrossed as I fidgeted in the passenger seat. Hayden’s face looked relaxed. Torin had put on his cold mask.
I patted the leather bag with The Book of Banished Souls and the map.
After we neared Los Angeles, the constant stop-and-go in traffic made my stomach churn. I was going to be sick on the plane. Good thing we were taking Torin’s private airplane, and we could leave immediately for Boston.
With itchy fingers, I pulled the book out of my bag and examined it, flipping it back and forth. Then I re-read the riddle: I could save or kill you, but if your enemy gets a hold of me, you are dead for sure.
I read it again and again as more acid rose in my throat. Tears were the solution to the second book’s riddle, and I only solved that riddle after seeing Torin’s bloody tears.
What was something that had the power to save me and kill me? My life force. I took a sharp breath. My head was going to explode.
Blood. My blood could open The Book of Banished Souls.
It had to be.
Although these riddles were convoluted by design, I could at least attempt to open the book with my blood.
From the corner of my eye, I detected Torin’s gaze on me. I averted my eyes and looked out the car window.
I could imagine Torin’s reaction when I told him I would cut myself to open the book. The same way the King would react. He would proclaim a decree to ban any sharp objects from the werewolf kingdom. I scoffed and felt Hayden’s gaze on me, too.
How would my bodyguard react to the news I needed to cut my flesh to drop blood on the witch book? For some reason, I believed Hayden would let me, no questions asked.
I was overanalyzing the issue when I could just ask.
Twisting my body within the confines of the cold seat, I looked at my mates. Torin, a man defined by control, drove with a straight back and a tense grip on the wheel, while Hayden lay sprawled in the back seat as if he had no care in the world.
“I think I figured out how to open the other book. The Book of Banished Souls.”
Two pairs of heated gazes fell on me as if I had sprouted fur on my body.
“The solution is in my veins. My blood opens it.”
I was about to shout at Torin to keep his eyes on the road, when Hayden let out a small laugh.
“It’s truly unbelievable, sweetheart,” he said and smiled. “You’re a magnet for trouble.”
Maybe it took two mates to protect me from all the trouble coming my way.
“Let’s deal with the map first. Then we’ll work on the other book,” Torin said, averting his gaze to the road.
He didn’t say he was against it.
“I’d have to agree with Alpha Torin,” Hayden said. “Our immediate priority lies in Salem.”
I nodded and placed the book back in the bag, but my resolve remained unshaken. I was determined to open the book before Dad learned about it.
The car bounced, jostling me in my seat. That was when it hit me. What horrors would the dark witch unleash if she found out I had another witch book in my bag?
A chill infiltrated my very bones as we ventured deeper toward Salem, where I was sure Cordelia awaited, and my worst fear was about to become reality.