Chapter 4 #2
While he wrestled with a tree limb, Cordelia stepped forward and looked at the baby. A cold shiver passed through me. Cordelia was capable of killing me, but she had also shown me a glimpse of compassion.
The time when the dark witch had invaded my dream realm wasn’t our first time meeting. She didn’t randomly access my dream realm, warning off my two mates. The witch knew so much more.
She started muttering some words, and I dashed to her side to see what she was doing.
The moon shone brightly, casting a shadow of Cordelia’s slender figure over the vulnerable baby. The cool wind howled through the broken window, carrying the whispered words in the air.
With a flick of her graceful hand, the dark witch conjured an eerie mist that crept toward the baby, causing my heart to race. The baby’s cries pierced through the night air, but Cordelia paid no attention to her discomfort.
As the mist swirled around the infant, a faint silhouette of a wolf formed within it, made from tiny blue lights. My gasp caught in my throat as the wolf descended into Cordelia’s chest, disappearing inside her body.
Cordelia had stolen my wolf spirit.
She’d left me a defenseless and vulnerable human in the supernatural world. I would have been able to shift during the transformation rituals in the kingdom if it hadn’t been for Cordelia.
This revelation struck me hard, causing my stomach to twist painfully. I’d wanted a wolf spirit, longing to connect to the kingdom community and join the royal pack. To proudly wear the royal pack’s marking on my skin.
I balled my hands into fists but unclenched them as I darted my gaze to my mate. Not only did Torin know my biological mom was a witch, but he also knew that my wolf spirit had been stolen. He’d known all these years while he kept his distance from me and then when we grew closer.
I wanted to be mad at him, but knowing Torin, he must have beaten himself up for not protecting me. I could imagine the shame he carried on his shoulders. I also considered the possibility that my parents asked Torin not to speak of these events for the rest of his life.
What did my parents think would happen? That I’d suddenly become brave and strong enough to seek vengeance on Cordelia. Were they afraid of that? The only thing my parents achieved by keeping yet another secret from me was that I grew up confused about my human heritage.
With sharp talons, Torin ripped through the branches and pounced on Cordelia.
“You can only be mad at the vampire Queen. She commissioned me,” Cordelia said between sending punches and kicks to her opponent.
“Why?” Torin asked and blocked her strikes with ease.
With a swift motion, my mate grabbed Cordelia’s upper arm. His other arm was about to tighten around her neck when the dark witch spoke, causing Torin to halt.
“As a human, the Princess will always be in danger. If she’s close to you, the sweet scent of her blood will be on the tip of your tongue, but you will never be able to taste her or you’ll drink her dry.
” Cordelia let out a small, satisfied laugh.
“Watch her grow human in the dangerous supernatural world. That’s your punishment set by your sire. Not me.”
Victoria’s spies must have reported to her about my arrival.
Somehow, she must have found out that a werewolf Princess was born.
But the dark witch didn’t seem to know the baby was half witch.
And I remembered how surprised Cordelia was when she first visited my dream realm’s engraved trees with witch symbols.
Using Torin’s distracted state, she twisted her arm out of my mate’s grip, freeing herself. Torin’s growl sounded bone-chilling.
I glanced toward my bedroom door. No doubt by now, guards or my parents had heard the commotion.
Cordelia dodged Torin’s strikes and dashed toward the broken window. She leaped out of it, and for a moment I thought she was crazy enough to jump to her death.
Sprinting to the window, I followed Torin. His hands gripped the windowsill as if ready to chase Cordelia. Broken glass lodged deep into his hands, but his focus aimed intently on the dark witch. His palms bled, and more of his blood dropped to the floor.
I followed his gaze. The dark witch stood on a thick branch that lowered her to the ground, carrying her to safety.
Torin’s breathing hitched when he realized he couldn’t catch Cordelia.
He pounded his fist into the frame of the broken window, and more pieces of glass shuddered and stabbed his hands.
Torin gritted his teeth in a ferocious snarl, his narrowed eyes following the disappearing figure of the witch into the dark forest. The enraged howl he unleashed reverberated through the entire kingdom.
The King and the Queen stormed inside the nursery. The images started fading away, but I could see Dad’s angry face and his hard punch to Torin’s face.
Torin stood there taking another punishment—but this one was from the King. The urge to reach out and soothe the pink skin on Torin’s cheek pushed at me. I wanted to speak to him and tell him that I survived living in the kingdom as a human, despite the many close calls.
This revelation would explain why the King no longer trusted Torin with his daughter. My stomach churned, and my heart ached for Torin and my parents. Although Cordelia had slipped past many werewolf guards, Dad wouldn’t forgive Torin easily.
Everything made more sense now—Dad’s grueling training, my primal urge to bite and mark Torin, my desire to be a part of the transformation ritual to attempt shifting into a wolf I didn’t possess, my longing for the crescent royal pack marking.
I didn’t blame anyone but the vampire Queen. Although the dark witch stole my wolf spirit, my parents’ love for me remained strong, and although my human scent tempted the vampire, Torin didn’t hurt me.
The fog descended, and time sped up again, not allowing me to catch my breath. I stood in the middle of a storm of blurry colors while my head spun with thoughts.
With the depths of my soul, I knew Torin was my fated mate—something my heart already knew but was too hurt to admit. The pain of his rejection and the confusion over my human heritage had built a protective shield, a barrier that prevented me from fully acknowledging the truth.
Yet, despite the pain, a love that could not be extinguished lingered in me. I had tried to bury it to convince myself that I could find happiness living among the humans and my destiny could be rewritten.
I yearned to reach out, to confess the depths of my love, but I just stood there silently as the ghost I was in the middle of a vortex of spinning images.
A thought about my chosen mate crossed my mind. Why had Hayden pushed me to choose Torin’s memories when he knew I would see the truth? Why wouldn’t he want me to stay confused about who my fated mate was? Something felt off.
I’d deal with Hayden when I returned to the present.
When the images slowed, I found myself in the forest close to the kingdom.
But the forest, usually alive with vibrant colors and bird melodies, felt muted and eerie. The air thickened with damp earth and the scent of ozone. Swallowing hard, I tilted my head back. Heavy gray clouds blocked the sunlight.
Drawing a deep breath, I turned my gaze back to the forest. Before me, the vampire Queen stood proud with her hands on her hips. Different day, different outfit, same vicious woman.
She had many of her vampire guards surrounding her.
I massaged my temples as soon as I spotted Torin, standing too close for comfort to the woman. She’d caught him again, and the vampire General stood behind my fated mate.
He looked the same as I remembered him from my past—straight eyebrows and long hair, tall and slender. He wore a fishnet sleeveless shirt and black leather pants.
I remembered Dad telling me that Torin had successfully evaded Victoria’s attacks. Dad said she hadn’t caught Torin since Dad released him from the chains. Was Dad wrong?
The vampire Queen leaned in to kiss Torin, but he moved his head to the side. She kissed his cheeks instead.
Goose bumps pricked on my neck.
The vampire General struck Torin in the back.
“Look at me, Alpha,” the vampire Queen said.
Torin averted his gaze, and the vampire General slapped him on the side of his head. The General then grabbed his head and moved it so Torin had nowhere to look but at the woman.
“Your target is Prince Derek,” she said.
No. Bile rose to my throat, and my body started shaking.
I moved closer to the pair and watched Torin’s face.
His eyes moved side to side very rapidly as if he couldn’t focus on anything.
His shoulders slouched, and he hunched over, holding his stomach.
Then he put his hands on his knees and tried to breathe through the pain.
He looked like he was fighting the compulsion of his master, but to no avail. Torin straightened up as much as he could, still in pain.
“Why him?” he asked.
Torin didn’t want to kill my uncle.
The vampire Queen lifted his chin with her long index finger. “The Prince is on his way to Cordelia. If he kills her, the witch will release Princess Breanna’s wolf spirit, and we can’t have that happen, can we? The Princess has to stay human. So you stay away from her.”
Torin shifted immediately into his vampire, his transformation lasting an instant. There was so much hatred in his crimson eyes that I shivered. But then his gaze turned dull, his master’s compulsion overtaking his senses.
“I promise I will stay away from Princess Breanna. We don’t have to kill her uncle,” he said with a shaky voice, his determination leaving him.
The vampire Queen clenched her hands. “Are you defying me, darling?”
She looked him straight in the eye again. I assumed that she unleashed another wave of compulsion over him. Torin’s face turned blank. He completely went under the trance of his master.
“Now leave and come back to me when the mission is complete. Understand?”
Torin nodded and sprinted toward the forest.
On autopilot, my hand extended in the direction where Torin had disappeared.
“No,” I shouted.
I’d endured the excruciating agony of watching Torin suffer but witnessing the next events in Torin’s memories sent a wave of nausea and dread through me. A cold sweat formed on my brows at the thought of watching the next horrific scenes play out.
Torin was on a mission to kill Uncle Derek.