Chapter 31
Dean sat behind his large oak desk and waited for his father to speak. For the first time in his life, the former king looked defeated.
“I didn’t lie about the death certificate,” he said finally.
Dean laughed humorlessly. “You’re accusing the Human Queen and King of sabotaging my relationship with my mate?” It was a bold accusation that could start the first-ever war between kingdoms.
“No.” His father sat back in his chair and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“When we went to the Human Kingdom, your mother insisted I catch up with the king while Charlotte took her to the archives.” Dean stayed silent, and Henry shook his head.
“I didn’t question her when she told me about your mate’s death. Why would I?”
“Question who?” Dean couldn’t believe what his father implied.
Henry looked weary and aged beyond his years, not in body, but in spirit. His proud shoulders slumped, and his eyes dulled. “Your mother. She came to our room crying and blubbering about your mate’s death. She had the records in her hands.”
“And you think she lied?” Dean clarified. Why would his mother do that?
“I do. Queen Charlotte had no reason to lie about one of her subjects. Hell, she gave the Mountain King permission to retrieve his mate from the human lands.”
“What reason would Mother have?” Dean’s ears rang. He’d been prepared to kill his father, but his mother? His quiet, meek mother, who followed her husband’s every order and turned the other way instead of defending her son?
“I don’t know, but her deception could have ruined us all.” His father’s familiar anger appeared, contorting his face. “She knows the importance of a mate bond. Without it, there was no guarantee your children would have been powerful enough to protect our lands.”
Dean had been prepared to call his father a liar, but he knew the man too well. He’d learned to read him at an early age for self-preservation, and the man’s anger and confusion were genuine.
“I know you hate me,” his father interrupted his thoughts. “I know I was harsh on you, as my father was on me, but it had to be that way. You couldn’t grow up to be weak.”
Dean barked out a sardonic laugh. “Harsh? You had the general beat the shit out of me.” He stood and ripped his shirt off, the buttons flying across the room. “Look at what he did to me.”
His father’s eyes traced over his scars without a hint of regret. “And you are now better than any warrior in all of Eden. We are not only the protectors of our kingdom; we are the protectors of our world. We cannot risk the slightest crack in our strength.”
The chair groaned under Dean when he dropped down and leaned back. What kind of parent looks at the damage they’ve done and feels nothing? “You have until Fawn and I conceive to find another place to live.”
“What?” his father sputtered. “You cannot kick us out of the palace.”
Dean clasped his hands on his desk to keep from snapping his father’s neck. “I would never let a monster like you around my children. You’re lucky I’ve decided to let you live.” Standing, he walked to the door and opened it for his father to leave. “I cannot say the same about your wife.”
His father stared at him as if he were the monster, and Dean held back the urge to laugh in the man’s face. “You have no idea what kind of monster I can be to those who hurt the ones I love.”
“You said children,” Henry said slowly. “Royals only have one heir. Is your mate pregnant with someone else’s child?”
“We plan to adopt more children,” Dean replied, unsure why he told his father anything.
“Your mother will be heartbroken if you do not let her see them,” his father admonished. “She always talks about when you have an heir.”
An heir. That was all his father saw him as, but he would never make his daughter feel like she was a means to an end. “She should have thought about that before she lied about my mate’s death.”
With a last, long look, his father left.
Dean shut the door and sat back down, staring at the wall, a numbness spreading through him.
His mother watched him become a broken shell of himself when he thought Fawn had died.
He’d always known she was a coward, but he never thought she was blatantly cruel.
The question was why?
Dean closed his eyes to connect with Cassandra to find out where Fawn was. “We’re in the maze in the middle of the gardens,” Cassandra greeted him.
“I’ll be there shortly. Let me know if you exit the maze before I’m there.”
“Hurry,” the familiar ordered. “I can’t hear what she’s saying, but I think she misses you.” Dean cut the connection and jogged to go find his girl, grinning like an idiot. He missed her too.
Minutes later, pain struck him in the chest, and his knees nearly buckled. Am I having a heart attack? He focused on his breathing and realized it wasn’t a physical pain. Fawn .
He snapped his eyes shut . “What’s happening? Where’s Fawn? Is she hurt?”
“She’s safe, but she’s upset. I don’t understand why,” Cassandra admitted. “We saw these three, and she started crying.”
Cali and a man Dean had never seen before stood in an embrace, and his mother stood beside them. They were speaking, but Cassandra couldn’t hear them. “I really wish you had ears.”
“Me too.”
Cali and the man turned toward Fawn and Cassandra. They looked upset. Dean’s mother spotted Cassandra and her eyes widened. She said something quickly and stepped out of sight. Cali grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him away from Fawn.
“Get closer,” Dean urged.
Cassandra slithered along the walkway until she circled the couple, and the man tried to jump away. Cali smiled at Cassandra and said something.
“Why is your mother hiding?” his familiar mused.
“I don’t know.” What about seeing those three would upset his mate?
Cassandra turned, but Fawn had vanished . “She must have run.”
Dean cut the connection and sprinted toward the maze.
Dean ran through the gardens with no sign of Fawn.
Whatever they said to her in the maze upset her, and he had a sinking feeling it had to do with him.
The heartbreak he felt from her scared him shitless.
There was no place she could run that he wouldn’t find her, but he hoped she’d talk to him before leaving the palace.
Still, he needed to find her as soon as possible to fix whatever the three of them had broken.
He started toward Tickles’ new enclosure but fear almost doubled him over. What the fuck was happening? A burning pain lanced his chest, and he stumbled. Fawn . He started to run and scream her name but skidded to a stop as the bond faded, much like all those years ago.
Panic cut off his breath, and his vision spotted. Not again. Cassandra interrupted his spiraling thoughts. “You need to get to the Galla estate and bring a healer.”
No, no, no, no. “What the fuck is going on?” Cassandra blocked out her surroundings, and he knew his worst nightmare was coming to fruition. She cut their connection, and he sprinted toward the courtyard.
Dean paused at the gates to instruct a guard to sound the alarm in the palace. Any member of the Galla family was to be imprisoned until further questioning, and every healer in the palace was to report to the Galla estate.
If Fawn died, not even the gods could save the kingdom from his destruction. If she didn’t get to live, no one did.
Dean burst through the Galla’s front entrance, wild and feral with fear.
He took in the foyer: Emi’s dead body covered in bright red veins, Cassandra hovering over a body with Cali on the other side, working diligently.
The serpent moved her massive body out of the way, and his entire world stopped.
His beautiful mate lay on the floor, her skin the color of death, with blood spilling out of her mouth and chest.
Dean hit his knees and reached for her, but Cali elbowed his arm away. “Don’t touch her.”
She didn’t even look up from her work to warn him; she just knocked his hand out of the way and kept working. He’d never felt this helpless as he did watching Fawn’s shallow breaths shudder out of her blood-tinged mouth.
Cali did something, and Fawn’s body jerked. “What’s happening?” he demanded, his words cracking. Dean gently pushed a piece of hair out of Fawn’s face. “You can’t leave me here.”
“Stop speaking about her as if she’s dying,” Cali snapped.
He nodded and swallowed around the knot in his throat. “I love you,” he murmured, hoping Fawn could hear him. “When you’re better, we’ll find Tickles a friend. We’ll find him ten, but first you have to wake up.”
If she didn’t live, neither would he. The gods could give the throne back to his father or bless a new heir, for all he cared, because there wasn’t a day in this life he could survive without her.