Chapter Forty-Four #2
“He screamed.” My dad snorted. “The guard worked out a yes and no question system and then came to tell me.”
I stalked closer to Theo. “You want to talk to us?” He nodded vigorously. “Well, then. Don’t blame me.” Rowan walked over and grabbed his head. He pulled off the gag, but before Theo could think to bite down, Rowan had already grabbed his bottom and top jaws and held them wide open.
“What are you doing?” My mom looked confused until I pulled out the pliers.
“Ica silver nox dou.” I waited for the spell to take effect.
“You are searching for silver?” One by one, the silver knives and clamps all lit up a pretty shade of blue.
“Yep.” I watched and waited until the tooth I was looking for glowed. “Struss car beni.” Then I grabbed it with the pliers and pulled.
“WAIT!” My dad screamed. “You will crack the tooth.”
I yanked, trusting the cloth wrapped teeth and the whispered spell would keep the tooth unharmed, and ripped it from its socket. I turned around and waved it in Theo’s face. His eyes watched the glowing tooth. “But I didn’t.”
Theo screamed as the blood poured from his mouth.
Rowan let go of his mouth and stepped back.
“Shut up.” I smacked him once. “You are a wolf, for Goddess’ sake.
Act like it.” I shook my head as he whined.
“It’s already healed. Enough.” I backed up to the table and dropped the pliers. “Now talk, or we will just leave.”
He shut up after that. “Why did you go and do that?” He growled.
My father snorted. “Did you think we were just going to trust you not to commit suicide? I mean, your little band of traitors created the false tooth for exactly this scenario.” He stepped up to the chair and grabbed the armrests, leaning over Theo.
“This way, you can talk to your heart’s content, but you can’t end your life to escape.
” My dad pushed back. “Now, listen to your Queen. Talk.”
Theo’s eyes glowered at me. “You are actually mated?” The disbelief in his voice was thick. I just nodded and then pulled my shirt to the side.
“Yep.” I popped the p at the end of the word.
“Goddess blessed and everything.” I let go of my shirt.
“Why? Were you hoping that the King was your mate?” Rowan coughed, covering his laugh.
Theo snapped his head towards him and let out a tiny growl.
Nix snapped at that and surged forward. “You would do well to remember that I will not take the disrespect that my mate has put up with from you.” Theo turned back to me with a sneer.
Nix urged us forward, and with a quick flick of her wrist, she smacked Theo’s face twice.
“Rowan grew up with you. So he allowed you to dictate certain things because he thought he was respecting his elders and his father’s will.
But make no mistake. I do not have the same outlook.
You are traitorous, pathetic little men who sold out their kind and Goddess for money.
” We leaned over him, and I felt a tremble.
“I will have no qualms about torturing you. I will actually relish it.” I grinned as Nix pulled back.
“You wouldn’t.”
I felt my grin widen into a full smile. “I ripped my grandfather’s heart out of his chest, and I crushed it while he watched.” I tilted my head down. “Do you really think I would have any issues pulling your toenails and fingernails off?”
My dad choked. “You did what?”
I winced a little as I turned back to him. “We really haven’t had time to talk about everything that’s happened…but yeah.” I wiped my hands on my jeans as I felt the phantom blood drip from my fingers. “Garith is dead.”
He waved my words off. “I don’t care about him. I want to know how you ripped his heart out of his chest.” My smile came back as I shifted into Nix’s second form. “Holy Goddess, you have a wolfman form?” He whirled toward my mom. “Do you have one?”
I shifted back as I watched her shift. “NO!” Theo screamed. My mother shifted back to her normal form before we all turned to Theo.
“What’s wrong?” Rowan’s words were low and threatening. “Are you mad that there are still Lycans alive? I mean you all tried so hard to wipe us out.” He slid into view. “Don’t worry, we will repopulate.”
Theo screamed again, this time in anger, and I walked over and swatted my mate. “My parents are here.”
My father snorted again. “We are going to be a part of the repopulation.” My mother smacked his shoulder. “What? Obviously, one quarter Lycan is enough to have a Lycan form.”
I nodded. “Yeah…I don’t know what the cutoff is. Sterling is part Lycan, right?”
Rowan nodded. “We shared a great-great-grandfather or something. He had two sons. One mated a Lycan; the other a wolf. His dad, I think, still had a Lycan form, but his brothers and he didn't.”
“Who fucking cares?” Theo rolled his eyes.
“I mean…we do.” I pointed out. But we all settled against the wall across from his chair.
“Well, we are here. Talk.” Theo glowered at us, but his mouth remained shut.
That annoyed me. “Listen. We came here because you told the guard you wanted to talk. So here we are.” I tilted my head.
“You pulled us out of bed. You wanted us here.” I waved my hand, gesturing for him to speak, and still nothing.
I groaned. “Talk, or don’t talk. I don’t care.
We will get the truth one way or the other. ”
Theo’s face tightened. “What do you mean?”
I tsked as I pushed off the wall. I started a slow walk around his chair until I was directly behind him.
“Come now, Alpha Theo.” I leaned over his shoulder.
“We all know what an Alpha will do to protect their pack.” I stood straight as his breathing picked up.
I continued my slow walk back towards the table.
“And we all saw what you and your friends did to that poor woman.” Theo jolted.
“You wouldn’t dare.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Of course I would.” I grabbed the scalpel I had brought. “I mean, if a man can do it…why can’t I?” I turned with a flourish, waving the scalpel in the air. “Tada!” I smiled as the silver scalpel caught the light.
“No!” he screamed.
But I smiled as I walked back slowly. “Don’t worry. I’ll have to go slower. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t want to just kill you…you understand, right?”
Theo thrashed against the bindings, but he was tied too tightly to the chair to move much. “You can’t do this.” He screamed in the small room.
I just rubbed my ear with my free hand as I walked over.
“Sure, I can.” I grabbed the small rolling table from the wall and loaded the tools I wanted.
“I will say that you aren’t the first person I have tortured.
And sure, I could let Rowan or my father do this…
but I mean, it’s the twenty-first century.
Equality and everything.” I smiled as I pushed the rolling table close enough for Theo to see.
His eyes never moved from the tools I had next to him. “Please.” The word was a pleading whisper, betraying the fear and sheer cowardice of the wolf in the chair.
“Come now, Alpha.” I dropped to my knees and unlaced the boots he had on. “I expected more.” I looked at Rowan for two reasons. I needed to see how he was dealing with this side of me. But his face was a calm mask. Worry gnawed at me but I pressed on. “How old is Theo here?”
Rowan turned his hard eyes to mine. “At least four hundred.”
I nodded once before turning back to the man trembling under me.
“I know it’s been at least a hundred years or more since you have been in charge of a pack.
And I know technology and tools have changed a lot in these years, but don’t you worry, I will take the time to introduce you properly to everything.
” My voice was so matter of fact my father chuckled.
“Remind me to never get on your bad side.” He crossed his arms as he stared at Theo.
“Yeah.” My mom blew out a breath. “You are kind of terrifying.”
I laughed as I pulled his boots off one at a time.
“I am an Alpha.” I shrugged. “But more than that.” I pulled off Theo’s socks.
“I am a wolf, and a Lycan. I am someone they hunted down. Killed without mercy. I get to be the last person who gets to stand up for that poor girl on that table.” I felt my forehead burn, and I felt my voice and eyes change.
Nix? I called out. But my wolves were silent.
I opened my mouth, and a voice I recognized slipped past my lips.
“I am the chosen. I am everyone and no one. I am the vessel of the Goddess born unto this world to save all of us.” I looked up, and my white eyes caught my attention in the reflection of the metal leg of the table.
“Please, Goddess.” Theo whispered a silent prayer, and I felt anger that wasn’t mine rage in me.
“Now you pray to me?” I felt my body stand, and somehow a wind picked up in the room, blowing the hair from my face.
“You had years to turn back. To come back to my path. And at every turn, you chose wrong. I am not the God of humans that forgives betrayal. My child did not die for your sins. When you turn from my path, you lose my favor.” The Goddess loomed over Theo.
His eyes were wide, and his breathing was just panting at this point.
“How dare you invoke me when you did everything you could to show me exactly who you are. You are a pathetic, power-hungry male.”
“You’re not the Goddess.” Theo shook his head, refusing to believe what he was seeing.