Chapter 15
To Call Up an Army
Istared in dumb silence as the Premier claimed Sage as his own, as his mate.
But… it didn’t make sense. She was mine.
My mate.
The feeling, the recognition, the connection—it all hit me like a bolt of lightning once her full, fresh, unblocked perfume had finally been released.
So how could she also be his?
Sage managed to turn towards me slightly, tears streaming down her cheeks. She mouthed “I’m sorry” before Victor took another strong pull of blood and she closed her eyes, gasping in pain-laced desire.
Desire for him? How?
I was her mate.
Garrick grabbed me by the arm before I could move, clearing his throat and doing his best to ignore the burn as fire ignited under my skin. “I don’t mean to interrupt, your, uh, reunion, but sir, we need you to release Ronan from the contract.”
Victor unhooked his teeth from Sage and she crumbled into him, her eyes glazed over and the color gone from her cheeks. She had given it all to the vampire, who was looking better by the second.
“The deal is fulfilled, your soul I return,” he rasped, licking drops of her blood from his lips.
The light from the contract in his elven assistant’s hands faded, and a plume of smoke left the paper and returned to me.
I gasped, and before I could say a word, Garrick was tossing the medicine on the couch and dragging me out the door. “We’ll expect the reward transferred by the end of the night!”
With the door closed and locked, he shoved me back into the elevator and grabbed me by one of my horns, growling in my face. “Get it to-fucking-gether!”
I couldn’t breathe, I could barely string any words into a coherent sentence, and just mumbled to myself.
“What was that?”
“…mate…”
“Yeah, I guess she was his mate. Maybe you were right about her not being a thief, but we still needed to fulfill the contract.” He let go of me and took a step back, leaning against the wall. “Weird that she would run away, though. I thought mates couldn’t stand to be apart.”
“No,” I whispered, feeling like my soul was still ripped in two, that one half still remained in that apartment. “She’s my mate.”
His face contorted in confusion. “What the hell do you mean? People can’t have two mates.”
I looked up, trying to put the pieces together.
“I’ve been obsessed with her scent ever since I made this deal, Garrick.
It… it all makes sense now. Victor met her at a party five years ago, kidnapped her, erased her past, killed everyone close to her, and kept her locked up all this time so no one would know his weakness. But…”
The elevator stopped.
“But she’s my mate. She knows, I saw it in her face…”
Garrick tried to coax me out once the doors opened, but I was frozen in place, the gravity of what I’d done keeping me in place.
I’d delivered my gods-blessed mate into the hands of a monster.
He helped me out front, taking the keys and driving my car away from the building.
I barely registered what we were doing or where I was, and when my mind finally clocked back in, I was standing at a bar and had the thin stem of a martini glass in my fingers.
Garrick nudged me, encouraging me to drink. “Appletini, right?”
I nodded blankly, but didn’t move.
I’ve just delivered my gods-blessed mate into the hands of a monster.
Garrick sighed and threw back a shot of whiskey, asking for another. “Actually, you know what? Just leave the whole bottle for me, thanks.”
He then led us to a table in the back. “Ronan,” he started.
“I understand you’re feeling guilty about Sage.
It’s… it’s not right that Victor used the system to get her back.
I certainly didn’t get into this business to return victims to their abusers, but what else could we do?
The deal was made, your life was on the line, and she went willingly. ”
He took another shot and then poured himself a third glass. “And she’s his mate.”
“No!” I bellowed, pounding my fist on the table and snapping out of my stupor. “She can’t be his, she’s mine!”
“Shut. It,” he whispered through gritted teeth. “We’re still in Noctis, you know?”
I grabbed my horns in frustration and growled. What had I done?
I’ve just delivered my gods-blessed mate into the hands of a monster.
And I hadn’t fought for her at all.
“We need to go back,” I said, trying to get up. “I can’t leave her there, he’s going to hurt her…”
“Sit!” Garrick barked. Alpha werewolf barks were particularly powerful, since they tended to form packs and needed the extra dominance. I followed his command wordlessly, but his control over me wouldn’t last for long. “You’re talking nonsense here. She can’t have two mates. It’s not possible.”
I finally grabbed my drink, downing the thing in one go, relishing the burn in my throat. “Do you think I’m making this up?”
“I mean, I don’t think you’re lying about how you feel, but…”
“Have you ever seen me react to a woman like this before?”
He sighed, taking another shot. “No.”
“Then what else could this be? They say you know, without a shadow of a doubt, when you recognize your mate. I recognized her. And she…”
Please fuck me, Ronan. Before I have to go back to him. I… I just want to know what it feels like.
I cursed as the realization hit me. “She might be his mate, but he’s not hers.”
She’d wanted to know what it felt like to sleep with your mate, because she’d never had before.
Garrick stared at me, his mind working around my words. “That doesn’t make any sense. Mate bonds are between two people, that’s it. Ordained by the gods themselves to bring different Magiks together, not to pit us against each other in some fucked up, cosmic love triangle.”
I grabbed the bottle in front of him and chugged, Garrick’s eyes wide in surprise. Once I finally felt it threaten to come back up, I stopped, gasping for air and wiping my lips.
“I don’t know,” I replied, my voice wet and raspy. “But it doesn’t stop the fact that she and I are mates, and he’s convinced himself she’s his. I have to get her back.”
Garrick sighed, putting a hand on my arm. “How? You got some secret army you’ve never told me about?” he asked with a pained laugh.
…he’s the Premier of Noctis. He’s too powerful. It will be impossible without an army…
Well…
I took out my phone, my hands shaking, scrolling through my contacts list.
Garrick leaned over, his brow furrowing as I stopped at Kenzo Oniguro.
“Wait… the Kenzo Oniguro?” he asked. I could hear the tremble in his voice. “How the hell do you know him?”
I didn’t answer the question.
Kenzo was the head of the Oniguro family, one of the three crime syndicates that ruled over Ignareth.
I’d wanted to erase his number for years, but something told me to keep it. In case he might one day repent for what he’d done to me, might one day see the error of his ways.
Instead, I was crawling right back to him. Just like he said I would.
But Sage was worth the price of my dignity.
Garrick stared at me in horror as my thumb hovered over the call button. “Wait, Ronan… think about this. You don’t want to be indebted to the Oniguros. Trust me, nothing good ever comes from working with them.”
I snorted. Did he think I wasn’t already perfectly aware of that?
I tapped the name, bringing the phone to my ear, each ring making my heart beat faster and faster. Garrick stared at me, confusion and worry etched in his hairy features.
The phone clicked.
“Well, well, well.”
The sound of his deep voice, even after all this time, still made me want to cower in fear. “Ten years of silence, and now you call me out of the blue, close to midnight. Something tells me you’re in trouble.”
I let out a long exhale. “Hi, Dad.”