Chapter 1 #2
The unwanted affection I feel towards this female makes rage surge up inside me.
I’ve had enough of Leonora soaking me in magical pheromones, manipulating my emotions.
I don’t care if this wolverine and I are supposed to be fated.
It’s just another form of control. I can’t.
I won’t . Besides, who could possibly want something as broken as me?
“Malik.” My name on her lips yanks me out of my thoughts.
I snarl, half-shifting, letting my angry beast out. My feet stay planted, but I lean back, trying to get her intoxicating scent out of my nose.
“No! I should kill you right now and save both of us the trouble.”
She has the audacity to lick her lips before asking, “The trouble of getting caught or …” Her eyes drop to our entwined fate threads. “The trouble of dealing with this?”
I squeeze her throat until her mouth drops open on a strangled gasp as I grit out, “Both.”
She doesn't struggle. She doesn’t fight back. The enforcer holds my gaze, steady as a mountain stream, even as a blue tinge seeps into her lips.
Damn her!
I loosen my grip, but don’t let her go, and I ignore why I keep my hand gently wrapped around the soft skin of her neck.
She takes a few slow, deep breaths before glancing over my shoulder then flicking her gaze back to my face.
“Decide what you’re going to do with me, Malik.
We don’t have much time.” She reaches into the pocket of her tight black pants, pulling out a moss-green stone.
“The spell masks my presence, even my scent. Not even Leonora detected me in that banquet hall.”
My mat—this shifter was there? For how long? Did she see me dance? Did she like it? I berate myself, Doesn’t matter. Shut up. But my panther chuffs a laugh in my head, and I get the sense he’s already warming up to this female. I can’t have that. But, still, curiosity is built into my bones.
“Why are you here, Enforcer?”
She smiles, and my heart definitely doesn’t skip a beat as she says, “I came to keep a promise.”
That spurs the curiosity within me, and it’s on the tip of my tongue to ask about this ‘promise’, but then the wolverine shifter leans into my soft grip, swallowing against my palm before whispering, “But I stayed for you.”
The yearning that tears through me drives rage through my blood. I just met this woman, and yet I feel this way … No! This isn’t right. I’m fucking sick of it all. Gods, goddesses, fate, all of it be damned.
My voice is harsh as I drop my arm. “I didn’t realize the Council enforcers were so cavalier with their lives.
Seems like a waste. Go. Now. If Leonora finds you here, I will have to kill you, and she will get away with it, because as you said, you will be disavowed, and I’ll be left with yet more blood on my hands. ”
She somehow sees through the bored tone in my voice and the stony expression I’ve long since perfected.
She takes a single step forward and pats my chest once before slipping the green stone back into her pocket.
With a silent grace, she turns towards the door but pauses and looks over her shoulder at me.
“It was nice to meet you, Malik. You dance beautifully, by the way.”
So, she did see.
My beast preens at her compliment, but I do my best to ignore her sweet words and my panther’s reaction to them as she continues, “And not that you asked, but I figure you’ll want a name to call out in your dreams.” I blink at her, mouth agape as she winks. “Amri.”
Her form wavers like a mirage before disappearing along with her scent that scatters and dissipates.
Even with my shifter hearing, I can’t hear her footsteps as the door silently opens just enough for her to slip through.
I hold my breath, waiting for one more quip, a final verbal barb, but it never comes.
I’m left in silence, both hating and relieved that she’s gone.
I drop my head, glaring at the sparkling thread dancing in mid-air, spearing through the closed door to wherever the enforcer went off to.
Amri.
“I don’t want this.”
A skittering sound creeps from overhead, then spreads all around, startling me. My beast goes on high alert, widening my stance, claws at the ready, but there’s nothing and no one in the room with me. Still, a trio of voices whispers through my head.
“As you wish, Sun of Leo, but in the end, you will find We were right.” A single voice punches through, sharp with amusement. “We are always right.”
A freezing breeze prickles against the bare skin of my chest, blowing my long hair back. There for only a second, but as soon as it passes, the gold shimmer of my thread fades then disappears as if it never was .
My panther mewls softly, but I shake off his melancholy. “You didn’t want it either. We’re better off this way. And let’s be honest, so is she.”
I push away my half-shifted state, and my beast shakes his lithe body inside me from head to tail. He prowls for a few moments before settling with a huff of silent agreement.
A soft golden glow fills the room, as if someone turned up the intensity of the firelight before it dims back to normal, and my shoulders automatically tense.
“Here you are, Malik, my pet.” I slowly turn to face my goddess, sliding my expression into the cold indifference I’m now so used to, not even reacting to the splatter of bright blood on her white gown.
Sure, I’m curious as to what happened in that banquet hall, but not enough to ask.
I’m sure Askari or someone else will fill me in eventually.
Or not. It really doesn’t matter. What’s done is done, and I’ll pile the guilt on top of everything else I’m carrying.
She holds out her hand, and I go to her.
I may not have a choice when it comes to Leonora, but at least I won my autonomy from the Fates, and I hold on to that little victory as Leonora slips her small hand into mine.
Her grip exposes her rage, even as her face remains serene.
The bones of my hand snap, but I don’t even wince as Leonora wraps her power around me.
I know what’s coming, but I can’t keep my heartbeat from racing, and Leonora knows … she hears my terror in my galloping pulse. She leans in, lifting my shattered hand, pressing her lips there before raising her eyes to my face.
“You want to tell me how you did it?”
I don’t move. I keep my blank expression firmly in place as if I am wearing my white mask once more. I barely breathe, waiting, waiting …
She smiles as the room begins to melt away. I know where she’s sending me, and I do my best to accept it, but her parting words finally rip a reaction out of me.
“I’ll just have to ask Askari, then.”
My beast roars, and I can’t hold him back.
I shift and swipe my claws at Leonora’s laughing face, missing her by a bare centimeter before I drop into darkness.
The abrasive cold metal floor greets me as I land with a thud inside the cage.
I shift back to my human form, knowing my beast hates this place even more than I do.
I duck my head to keep from banging it. It’s so dark, I can barely see my hand right in front of my face, but I’ve been sent here often enough to know the bars of my square prison are less than two meters away.
I can’t stand up straight, and while I am able to lie down, I can’t stretch out, needing to bend my knees to fit in the confines of the small cage.
I hate this cold, silent place, but right now, all I can think about is Askari.
What is Leonora going to do to him? I’ve tried to shield the beta from her as much as possible, but I also knew we would get caught eventually.
Askari is responsible for … well, basically everything around the palace.
He keeps things running smoothly for our goddess, and he’s very good at his job even though he hates Leonora almost more than I do.
I tried, I really tried to reject his offer of help several months ago, but no matter how many times I pushed him away or down right ignored him, he always found ways to assist me.
And now here we are, forever caught in Leonora’s den.
I’m tempted to slip into Askari’s mind and warn him, but Leonora might feel even that small tickle of magic coming from me. She has me on a tight leash. The magic I’m able to do is limited, but no matter what, when I reach for it, she is usually aware .
So, I talk to myself, shielding my thoughts inside my head. “Oh, Kar, I’m so sorry.”
My panther rubs against me with a sad purr. “He is a good beta. He is strong.”
“We both know decency and strength mean nothing when it comes to Leonora.”
“Our beta will be okay.”
I hear the desperation in his voice, because I share it; the need for it to be true.
“He’s not ours.”
“Yes he is.”
I sigh, sitting and propping my bare back against the frigid bars. “Yeah, he is.”
“It was good to dance again, even if it was for her.”
I smile. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“We will dance again. We will be free … one day.”
I cross my legs, leaning my head against my cage, needing my beast’s optimism more now than ever.
I force a smile for him but then find it morphing into a genuine expression as I say, “Hey, thanks. I know we are two halves of a whole and all that, but seriously, thank you for always being here for me. I would have lost my mind completely if not for you.”
And my gratitude does not fall on deaf ears, because the first time we were thrown into this place, my beast panicked when he realized we were so confined, alone, and in the dark.
Captive. He retreated in my mind until I barely felt him at all, and I certainly didn’t blame him.
I only wished I could do the same. The next time Leonora tossed us in here, my beast was a little less spooked and stayed with me the entire six days until we were let out. And he hasn’t left me again since.
He purrs, wrapping me in his warmth, helping chase away at least some of the chill. “You’re welcome.” He goes silent, but I can feel him thinking, and a few seconds later, he says, “She was really something, huh?”
I don’t have to ask who he’s referring to. I know all too well.
Amri.
I don’t respond, not allowing myself to revel in my victory or lament the severing of the fate bond.
It was for the best. I do wonder … it didn’t hurt like my brothers and I read about.
In fact, I felt … nothing. Maybe because the connection was brand new, there really wasn’t anything to tear apart. Yes. That makes sense.
My beast huffs, but I ignore him, settling as much as I can within my cage.
I close my eyes, but the blank expanse behind my lids is different from the darkness of the room I’m in.
Behind my closed eyes, I see my brothers with their mates.
I see their love for me in their eyes. I see their determination to free me.
I see Kar’s angry expression when I commanded him to use our only key on Rian—he wouldn’t do it without my express alpha-command.
I see his loyalty to me, a loyalty I haven’t earned.
And now I see Amri. I see her smile and her blue eyes.
I see her humor even in the face of extreme danger.
I see her freckles like stars dusting her face.
I snap open my eyes, preferring the empty dark of the room over the visions within my mind. A sigh slumps my shoulders as I wonder how long I’ll be here this time … and what horrors I’ll have to face once Leonora lets me out.