Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
Dad twirled around, crown in hand, eyebrows raised.
“It’s not possible, of course. One mate is chosen. The second is fated,” he said, and suspicion rose behind his eyes.
“How do you choose your mate, then?”
I wanted to jump out of my skin. My fidgety body didn’t stay in one place, so I started pacing the room. Dad watched me intently.
“Usually, werewolves whose fated mates die choose another mate. The process is the same. Intimacy, exchange of blood, and marking. Why are you asking me this?” Dad stepped in my way, blocking me from pacing. “Anna, it’s important. I can tell you’re bothered. What’s going on?”
“I have two mates, Dad, and I don’t understand why or how.”
My dad took a sharp breath. “Well, one of the men linked himself to you and chose you. He must have initiated a partial bond, which would involve…” He massaged his temples. “You would have exchanged blood with him.”
Dad’s intense gaze lowered to my neck. I was sure he searched for a mate mark there. My fingers twitched, and I wanted to feel the delicate skin just to be sure.
I shook my head slightly. “Don’t you think I’ll know if I drank someone’s blood?”
I frowned at him, but then it dawned on me that the mate would have drunk from my blood in return. I shot my hand to the crook of my neck, fingertips feeling for any bumps or scars. Of course I didn’t feel anything over my smooth skin.
The realization hit me hard and swirled in my stomach, twisting it. I couldn’t imagine Hayden or Torin would exchange blood with me without my knowledge. Torin didn’t want to taste my blood, but it didn’t mean he hadn’t in the past. And Hayden would never do this to me without my consent.
But one of them had betrayed me. But who was it, and why?
“Maybe you’re just feeling infatuation or attraction toward one of the men. Maybe it’s nothing…” Dad trailed off, seeming in deep thought.
I realized Dad hadn’t asked me about their names, probably because he’d guessed who the two men were.
“No, Dad, both men are my mates because they can enter my dream realm. I have a mate bond with each man for this to be possible, even if it’s not completed, since I’m not marked.”
Dad let out a low growl from his throat. “A werewolf never chooses a mate without finding out about his or her fated mate first. This is our rule. Otherwise…”
“She’ll end up with two mates as long as the chosen mate’s bond is partial?” I added.
The consummation of the mating process required more than just a physical connection.
It needed an exchange of blood, followed by the act of marking—a deeply intimate ritual that would irrevocably sever any bond with another mate.
The marking was sacred, where mates sank their teeth into each other’s necks, leaving behind a unique mate mark.
I was a bite away from being permanently bound to one of the two men.
My mind swirled with uncertainty.
Dad nodded and averted his eyes. His stance looked awkward, leaning on one leg and holding the crown.
“So…” I sighed, “how do I get rid of one of the bonds?”
Dad blinked repeatedly. “By fully mating and marking with one of the men, Anna.”
“No, what I mean is if there is a way to do so without being marked.”
“Only the death of one of the mates will liberate you from the bond.”
Obviously, this wasn’t an option for me, seeing that I chose my own death over that of Hayden or Torin during our last fight with Cordelia.
Dad’s jaw muscles twitched, and after a moment, he spoke.
“Chosen and fated mates can access one’s dream realm.
” His gaze finally snapped to my face. “A couple of months ago, I was going to suggest that you choose a mate to inherit the throne with a king by your side. I was happy to find out Hayden was your fated mate…but now, you’re telling me that Hayden could be a fated or a chosen mate? ” Dad’s voice shook at the end.
“It seems like it, Dad. Only one is fated.”
“Who are they?”
I swallowed the knot stuck in my dry throat. My mind raced through countless scenarios while I imagined Dad’s response—rejection, anger, disappointment. Would he cast Torin out without giving him a chance?
“So, is there a difference in the bonds?”
“No other bond is as strong as that with your destined mate. But remember this, Anna—a mate bond only draws two people together, and then it’s up to them to develop the relationship, regardless of the type of bond.
You can develop deep feelings, loyalty, love, and gratitude for a chosen or fated mate. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
Was he trying to sell me the idea that regardless of the type of bond, I could have a healthy relationship with any mate?
But I didn’t agree to a chosen mate. It would bother me if I found out Hayden or Torin had violated my consent.
What if I ended up with the one who’d betrayed me?
How did Dad expect me to have a loving relationship with someone who’d violated my consent and partially bonded with me without asking me?
No, one mate was a fake.
I could not imagine a life with either man, constantly questioning if I’d made the right choice, if the one next to me was gifted to me by the Fates, or for some odd reason, he’d bonded himself with me.
I had to uncover the truth.
“Anna, who are the men?” Dad’s voice turned icy. He was running out of patience.
“Hayden and Torin.”
The King’s crown slipped between his strong fingers and fell with a cling on the floor.
“No,” he whispered and just stared at me.
After a moment, Dad rubbed his forehead with his palm.
“Well, there’s only one option, and it’s Hayden, regardless of whether he’s your chosen or fated mate.”
I exhaled loudly. I expected Dad’s reaction, but he sounded like my Alpha and not my dad. He didn’t even consider Torin a possibility.
Dad bent and picked up the crown.
“This”—Dad pointed at his crown—“can’t go on Torin’s head, not because I dislike him.
Because of our people, Anna. One reason is to protect Torin from the wrath of the other Alphas.
Can you imagine what they’d do if they learned that Torin was your mate?
I can even foresee a war within the kingdom.
A divided kingdom is weak. Everyone else will target and taunt him, triggering him to vamp out on us. ”
“Understood,” I said.
We couldn’t have a divided kingdom when we had to fight our enemies.
Sighing, I let my head fall back, took a deep breath, and looked at my dad. He placed the crown back on the shelf and turned to me.
“We’ll have to keep that Torin is your mate a secret. Besides the obvious reason for how dangerous he is for you, I don’t wish this man to be in more trouble,” Dad said.
I nodded. I would never wish for Torin to suffer more than what he had to endure so far. I knew he was a broken man, his trauma running deep into his soul.
“What happened to Torin, Dad?”
“About five years before you were born, I declared war against the vampire Queen. She had crossed every line there was to cross. My goal was never to overtake the vampires but to remove her from her position to allow another Queen or King to emerge. That woman is mad.” Dad shook his head as if he recalled some unpleasant memory.
“I was a young King, just crowned, and I don’t think I was fully prepared for the war. We infiltrated her castle. I entered one of the bedchambers, which I later figured was hers, and found Torin there.”
My heart pounded hard. I walked back to the metal door and leaned on the frame. But I had to hear Dad. Torin wouldn’t tell me.
“Torin was bloody, wounds all over his body, naked.”
I blinked back tears. “No, she didn’t.”
“I knew the woman was mad, but her treatment of Torin was…” Dad swallowed. “She’d abused him physically, mentally, sexually. I dropped my weapon to free Torin from the silver chains, and I couldn’t believe it when he asked me to kill him.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and then reopened them. “Why didn’t you?”
“Even after he flashed crimson eyes to show me she’d turned him, I just couldn’t. Torin was her victim. He didn’t deserve to die because of her.”
I couldn’t hold my tears any longer and let them drop onto my cheeks.
“The vampire Queen had committed the biggest sin in our realm, Anna. She’d turned another supernatural into a vampire.
Vampires could turn willing humans into one of them, although they also violated this rule too often in the last thirty years, but creating hybrids went against our beliefs in the Gods and our traditions. It could change the future.”
Dad walked up to me and faced me. “What she did to him was against his will.”
He nodded toward the bedroom, and we left the safety room. My legs felt as heavy as tanks, unable to move. Dad locked the metal door with his index finger and clicked back the massive secret wooden shelf into its place.
“I wasn’t just wounded during the war, Anna. The vampire Queen stabbed my shoulder when she rushed into her bedchamber to find me helping her play toy escape. Her silver sword stayed in my shoulder long enough to burn the tissue on the inside and leave it damaged for the rest of my life.”
Dad sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed the skin over his injury as if he remembered the stabbing pain. The permanent damage to his flesh was because of Torin. Even after shifting, Dad’s wolf limped. But I never knew Dad had risked so much for Torin.
The vampire Queen must have wanted Torin so much that she’d violated the supernatural rule to keep Torin by her side for eternity. But why exactly Torin?
“She still wants him back, Anna. I don’t know why she’s so obsessed with him. Good thing Torin had done a good job defending himself for the last couple of decades.”
Dad patted the spot next to him, and I walked up to him and sat down.
“But since time is on her side, she’ll catch him at some point, right?” I asked.
“Yes, and she will make him do her bidding. Torin couldn’t have escaped her before I freed him because she ordered him not to.
She is his master. He can be compelled to do what she says.
If she catches him again, Torin will be a weapon in her arms. He’ll kill all of us.
Can you be with a mate who kills your parents or another loved one? ”
I took a deep breath. “I…don’t think so.”
Dad reached for my hand and grasped it. “If we don’t stop the vampire Queen soon before she gets to Torin, she will take over our realm, and the vampire race will rise.
Torin is a ticking bomb that can detonate in the hands of our enemy.
As his mate, you’d be by his side. The vampire Queen can kill you to weaken him.
Or capture you alive to make a deal with Torin. ”
Dad squeezed my hand, worry radiating from his body. His voice shook as he spoke, and the gravity of the situation pressed against my shoulders.
“If you complete your mating with Torin and everyone learns about it, you will die, Anna. And I won’t let this happen.”
I couldn’t argue with Dad.
“Cut all ties with Torin. He’ll understand. Let Hayden mark you after we deal with Cordelia. That’s my advice to you, Anna,” Dad said and smiled. “I love you, honey.”
Dad walked to the dressing room near the door, which I only now noticed stayed open this entire time. I had forgotten to close the door of the bedroom, but no one else should have been on this floor.
Dad opened a drawer and pulled out some wrinkly fabric. “I have something to give you.”