Chapter 11 #2
In his periphery, Adrien caught Raana dipping her head. “So, where do I fit into this?”
“You’re immortal. Or at least half-immortal, so in theory, your power with the shadows shouldn’t be affected.”
Her features twisted, and she lifted a hand. Darkness gathered in her palm, delicately dancing over her flesh before curling up her wrist. “So, how am I supposed to kill him?”
Adrien watched the movement in slight awe. “He didn’t get that far.”
Raana hummed, then dropped her arm, the shadow becoming smoke and dissipating into the air. “I could never do that. Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”
“I know.”
“Is that all you can say?” she snapped, whipping her head to him before her face dawned with clarity.
Still, desperation shone in her eyes. “I’m sorry.
” She turned away again. “I just—that can’t be why he wants me.
It can’t be because I can’t do it. I won’t.
And knowing he set my life on fire for this… ” A ragged sound escaped her lips.
“Hey.” Adrien chanced closing the distance between them, and this time, the shadows allowed him through, even curling around him. He took that as an invitation and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to his chest—skin to skin.
Raana let everything go, then.
Her body shook as she sobbed, and Adrien could only hold her tighter. Rage roiled in his gut. His father had done this; Helene had done this. Yet another woman in his life whose existence had been fucked up by knowing him.
Adrien did his best to keep his mind from Cora, from what he’d had to do. Otherwise, he’d be right there beside Isla, ripping his father apart.
Despite him holding her, Raana’s skin chilled, and the darkness pressed in. He needed to keep her mortal, especially here. He gently stroked her hair. “I told him you wouldn’t do it. I told him no one would do it.”
And his father’s answer to that had been more comments speared at him in that flat, condescending tone about how he was nowhere near ready to ascend to his destined role.
He’d needed to bite his tongue to keep from barbing; he just hadn’t been broken down enough to embrace the role in the way Cassius had wanted him to.
Callous and cruel. Maybe the way he needed to, but he wasn’t ready to lose himself yet.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Raana murmured, tears dripping onto his chest. “If I can’t serve his purpose, I’m as good as dead. He’ll kill me or tell everyone what I am, and then they’ll kill me—or keep me alive, which might be worse.”
The wavering of her voice had his wolf rising. That innate urge to protect, protect, protect at all costs, pounding through his veins. He slid his hand down to her cheeks, brushing away the wetness. “I won’t let that happen.”
Her eyes locked on his before tracing his features. “You can’t guarantee that.”
He couldn’t, but he’d try. Damnit, he’d try.
But it was going to hurt.
Adrien swallowed, and this time, he let his mind drift to a little over a year ago. “What if—what if I could get you out of here? Out of Morai without my father knowing.”
Raana stiffened against him. “How could you do that?”
“A boat off the coast, in a blind spot provided by the mountains.” He didn’t want to explain all the details just yet. “I’ve done it before for… someone.”
“Who?” Raana asked, then appeared to want to grab the words out of the air.
“Corinne.” Adrien pursed his lips. “She was—”
“Your mate,” Raana finished softly, brows raised in surprise.
Adrien nodded and scowled as what he’d never spoken to anyone—not even Isla, not even Sebastian—rose to the surface. “He was going to kill her.”
The words were like acid on his tongue.
For a moment, he let them hang there, allowing reality to set in.
Raana remained quiet, though she waited for him to continue.
“He didn’t want us breaking the bond because of how it looked to the other packs and the effect it would have on me.
It was a joint decision, but she had to deal with some of the greater consequences.
Banishing her and her mate to rogue lands wasn’t enough of a punishment for—for what she… couldn’t control.”
He needed to believe that last part—that she couldn’t control what she felt for a man she barely knew because Fate had willed it so. But either way, the woman he’d loved for nearly a decade of his life was gone. And after all that, how could he ever think of anyone but his destined mate?
Adrien cleared his throat, guilt gnawing at his stomach as he loosened his hold on Raana.
“A few weeks after she was banished, I suspected he was planning something, so I went into rogue territory and got them out of Morai. I never knew for certain, but a part of me believes she’d be dead right now if I didn’t get her out. Whenever I think about it, I—”
Hate him. Adrien couldn’t finish the treasonous sentence aloud.
Silence fell between them.
“I’m sorry,” Raana eventually said, her icy touch going to his face. Her gaze hardened, and she spoke lowly, “Your father is a horrible man.”
Adrien despised the defensive piece of him that rose. “He’s my father.”
“And for lack of better terms, Helene was my mother.” Her voice broke, and she lowered her hand to his chest, over his heart.
Adrien opened his mouth to protest that this was different, but closed it.
“It’s all an act. They can say they love us, pretend to care, but in the end, we’re just pawns to them. Obligations or ways to maintain power.”
The words and the truth he found in them cut him like knives. “It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t need to love me or care about me. I just need him to approve of me enough that he passes down the title when it’s time.”
Raana furrowed her brows. “I thought you were guaranteed to become Alpha when he dies.”
“He’d find a way to fuck me over. He told me as much after the bond was broken.”
Raana sneered, her eyes blazing, yet her voice remained soft. “If it’s yours, then take it.”
Adrien’s pause of contemplation at that may as well have been another act of treason.
“I could never do that to my mother. And despite all the shit he’s put me through, put the people I love through, it’s all personal.
Our people love him, and so does most of the continent, despite his detractors.
Challenging him sounds simple, but the ramifications…
” He winced, feeling a headache coming on.
He didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
“If you want to leave, I can get you out of here.”
Raana’s jaw clenched. “Won’t you get in trouble? I don’t think that will help with getting his approval.”
“It’s worth it,” Adrien said before quipping, “It will be my final and greatest act of defiance.”
Raana’s mouth quirked to the side in some semblance of a smile. “Then yes.”
Her words were a punch to the gut.
Adrien nodded. “Tomorrow night, then. After we do what we have to at the Wall, we’ll leave once night falls, but we’ll have to be quick.” He placed his hand over hers on his chest, feeling the metal of her iron ring. “Which means you’ll probably have to take this off.”
Fear washed over her face, but it was slowly replaced by determination. “If it means I have a chance at getting away, then it’s worth it. I’ll just have to figure out a way to get my grimoire from the cottage—and the gold, too.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
Raana’s eyes gleamed as she hummed in agreement. And then in a flash of movement, she leaned up and pressed her mouth to his. Though it was gentle, Adrien felt a rush of heat take over his body along with the sinking desire for them to have had a chance.
Raana pulled back enough to murmur, “Thank you.”
Adrien didn’t know how to answer, at a loss for words as he traced each line of her face while he could.
Raana kissed him once more before leaving his grasp. Still not bothering with her shirt, she crawled up the bed to the pillows and pulled back the blankets. Settling beneath them, she gestured beside her. “Do you think you can handle sleeping next to me?”
Adrien grinned, trying to keep his mind from buzzing as he surveyed her half-naked body. “Can you?”
Raana didn’t respond, only shot him an innocent look, biting her lip and shrugging.
Adrien held her darkening stare as he made his way to her, but before he could take his place at her side beneath the covers, she grabbed his face and brought it to hers again. And this kiss was not soft, gentle, or innocent. She murmured over his lips, “If I only have one night left in Morai…”
Adrien got the hint. With a low chuckle, he pressed his body down onto hers. As she wrapped her legs around him, he said, lips skimming her jaw, her cheek, her ear, “Try to keep quiet this time.”
Raana moaned and arched into him as he moved down to her breast, taking her nipple in his mouth. “I make no promises.”
Adrien laughed again and took his time dropping down, down, kissing his way across her stomach until he reached the waistband of her pants. He removed them in one fluid movement, his mouth going dry at the sight of her, bare and gleaming before him.
“Fuck,” he cursed, feeling his cock twitch.
He wanted nothing more than to bury himself inside her, but despite the fact that daybreak was fast approaching, he’d take all the time he could.
He bent down, gripping her thighs and spreading them wide, kissing up her skin until he reached what he’d been dreaming of for months.
Breathing in her heady scent, he flicked his gaze up to hers.
Raana’s breathing was hard, the rise and fall of her chest a taunt. “Please,” she whispered, her fingers twisting in his hair while the cold of shadows cascaded over his back.
Adrien smiled. “Keep quiet,” he reminded her before lowering his mouth.
At the first swipe of his tongue, she screamed.
It wasn’t the first light of morning that woke Adrien. It was a pull. An unnerving, cold, stomach-dropping pull that roused him from a sated sleep.
There was emptiness beside him, the lack of a weight on his chest from where Raana had rested after they’d finally given in to sleep last night.
Adrien peeled open his eyes, glancing around the room that was slowly coloring with the dawn. The silence of the space made his chest tighten.
“Raana?” he called out, shooting upright.
Another tug, cool against his skin. Adrien glanced at his ankle, where darkness pooled and pulled at him. Darkness that seemed to have no master. He surveyed the room again, looking for a note or any indication of where she could’ve gone. But there was nothing.
Something wasn’t right.