by Jorja Kish
Keene sighed and turned to face his Alpha, noticing for the first time the dark circles under his bond mate’s dull, hollow eyes. His heart lurched at the deep emotions that battled inside his lover. There had to be another way. He took the few steps between them and placed his hand over Setti’s heart, hidden by the stark and grave uniform that demanded too much of his lover.
“I know your oath and honour prevent you from stopping this. I need to know why.”
Setti curled his powerful hand over the delicate fingers on his chest and held the warmth to his rapidly beating heart. Fear, an emotion he thought he controlled, thickened in his blood. It gripped tight in his chest until the only thing he could do was switch off his emotions. He made his decision and there was no need to second-guess himself.
“She is not meant for us, Keene. I couldn’t bear the shame of hurting her, taking from her what I need, something both you and Braydok know too well. I won’t do that to her. I won’t taint her any more than I have.”
Unable to look at Keene, Setti shrugged away from his life’s blood and exited the sitting room with determined strides. His heart crumbled when he heard his little mate call out for him to stop. He couldn’t. It wasn’t possible now. What he set in motion, he must follow through. It was the law. Not even he, the last known prince of the Tromere Clan, could change that.
Mackenzie stumbled back in shock.
“No,” she gasped.
Her entire body shook from a wide range of emotions. One moment she washed cold and shivered with disbelief, the next, an inferno of anger roared through her body. In the end, though, hurt stabbed deep. She thought she was welcome here. She thought they cared for her, wanted her to stay with them to complete their inner circle.
Tears gathered in her eyes. Her lips trembling, she stood until she heard Keene loudly sniff as he walked toward the adjoining alcove. Shoving away from the wall, Mackenzie numbly walked back into the bedchamber and sat on the edge of the bed. She had just wiped the tears from her cheeks when Keene stepped into the room and found her sitting stonily on the bed.
Startled, he quickly collected his distraught features and shoved them into a serene mask as he brushed away what moistness was left on his cheeks with efficiency.
“I didn’t realise that you were awake. How did you sleep?” he asked politely, stepping deeper into the chamber, walking to the other side of the huge bed and setting to the task of tidying up the rumpled sheets.
Mackenzie’s shadowed eyes watched Keene’s brisk manner. It hurt seeing him, feeling him act this way toward her. Deep down, she knew it was a defence mechanism. It had to be. Her heart clenched as she fought the urge to weep, but she didn’t have that luxury.
Confused and suddenly filled with indisputable pride, she stood and helped Keene make the bed that they slept in from the past week. At least she thought it was a week.
“I slept fine,” she replied coldly, unable to disguise her tone. Brushing her hand over the smooth sheets, as if committing them to memory, she felt the first pangs of panic cease her limbs.
No, I’m stronger than this. I’m not going to break because I don’t belong. Fuck you, Setti.
Taking a settling breath, she ignored Keene’s sharp inhale.
“He didn’t mean—” Keene began.
“I’m going to take a shower. Place whatever I need to wear for this audience spectacle and leave me alone,” she said in a voice much calmer than she felt. She turned away and walked toward the bathing suite with a dignity she struggled to maintain. All the while, she screamed her denial inside.
“Mackenzie, don’t do this. Don’t react like this and pretend you’re not upset and hurting. We’ll think of something, Braydok and I, we’ll—” He rushed around their bed.
“Keene.” She whirled around and marched toward him with a hard edge to her voice. “Stop, Keene. I heard everything Setti said to you and Braydok. He doesn’t want me.”
“You’re wrong, he does want you. He’s just scared.”
“No, Keene, you know that’s a lie. He hasn’t been sleeping in his own bed for days now. If he wanted me, then he’d be right there beside me with the rest of you. Stop denying the bloody truth. I am not the one from your vision. I am not the woman for this pod.”
Without another word, she backed away, pointing at her beautiful lover, hating the crushed emotions so blatant on his features. She clenched her jaw and steeled her will before she added in a quiet, hard voice, “You know this is true. Deep, deep down, we were all fooling ourselves and too caught up with what happened to me, my body reacting to the conversion. Don’t make this harder for me, Keene. I don’t need a hope and a dream. What I need is a home. Some place where I’ll find peace and be needed by all the men who will share my life. It’s not here, this pod. You, Braydok and Setti aren’t my home.”
Mackenzie turned away and ran to the bathing suite, unable to be in the same room with the lies she just told Keene. Her heart splintered into a million pieces. She slapped the control panel and locked the door, giving her the privacy she desperately needed. Her body shook uncontrollably. She felt lightheaded, but she managed to stumble to the opulent bathing chamber and collapsed to her knees.
The device automatically switched on, scanning her weight and body size before filtering through its data banks and finding her favourite bathing items. The clear glass hissed shut, cocooning her from the rest of the room. She was grateful. Now she could fall apart without anyone hearing her grief.
How did she let this happen?
“I can’t love them, I can’t love them…”
Chapter 25
Mackenzie sat quietly in the receiving room of the domicile she shared with three men. Men who didn’t want her. That wasn’t true. It was one man who didn’t want her. Since he is the alpha of this little group, what he says goes.
Stupid jerk, she thought bitterly, hanging onto her anger rather than succumbing to her heartbreak. She willed her thoughts away from Setti and forced herself to focus on the room she sat in.
It was an elegantly decorated room solely used for waiting. Well, in her case, it was for her waiting for someone to take her from the men who were her life. Sure, she loved waiting in the room, wearing yet another bedsheet, but this time, looking elegant, ethereal and just a tad below the hoochie look, it was that sheer. Thank the good lord it had many layers that gave a hint of modesty to the garment.
“This is unbelievable,” she muttered, adjusting the clipped brooches on her shoulders that were the only things keeping her dress covering her naked body. How ironic that it was an elegantly twisted bedsheet and what the good lord gave her that she wore to this mysterious shindig.
A helpless laugh escaped her tight lips. She could almost hear Shayane’s sarcastic comment about wearing a fancy bed sheet to a party. “Toga party, mum. really?” She had to be losing her mind. Her hands shook, so she laced her fingers together and squeezed tight. Her legs trembled, so she curled her toes in the soft slippers that Keene had placed on the bed for her. However, her heart pounded in her chest, completely exposed to what lay ahead. It was helpless to defend itself.
“Come on, sentinel person, don’t prolong my torture. Get me out of here and let me face my new fate before I throw up all over this actually pretty dress and ruin it.”
She cringed at the thought of facing whatever she had to face in the audience chamber with puke running down her chest.
Right, now that’s a sweet image…not!
A soft chime threaded through her chaotic thoughts. Forcing the inner tirade into silence, she took a deep breath and actually swallowed back a serious gulp. Her spine automatically lengthened, hoping to pull off an elegant pose for the sentinel who came to fetch her.
The door chimed again and made Mackenzie frown.
Am I supposed to get it?
Nibbling her bottom lip, she cursed her stupidity for sending Keene away, even though it would hurt more now to leave him. A third chime had her swearing under her breath as
she leaned forward to stand, when the door silently opened. Startled she yelped and immediately blushed from the sound.
A willowy man dressed impeccably in a royal-blue uniform that accentuated his lighter-blue skin and coiffed navy tresses stood tall and proud. He was polite enough to ignore her mini outburst and inclined his head. His pale-green eyes, almost yellow in their depths, appraised her couture before lowering modestly.
“I am Thoraine. I am to escort you, Mackenzie Chambers, to the Audience Theatre for the evening.” He bowed and raised his arm for her to hold.
Taken aback at the courteous manner and the strangely hypnotic tone, fluid and smooth like the surface of a lake, Mackenzie’s eyes widened a fraction, recognising the man. She had seen him the other day at the Menagerie, stepping out of the water, gloriously naked. The reminder of the tiny scales that covered his body made her blush further. She studied him a bit, wondering why he called her by that name, but the more she studied him, she realised he wasn’t that male. The eyes were the wrong colour. Relief made her smile. Talk about how awkward it would be if he were that man.
“I’d like to say it’s a pleasure, Thoraine, but since I’m pretty clueless about the reason I must attend this little soiree, I must check my enthusiasm.”
The sentinel blinked before a deep laugh escaped his cultured features, regardless of being entirely blue. He inclined his head, motioned for her to hold his sleeve, and genuinely smiled when she lightly touched the heavy, velvety material of his coat.
“I assure you, Mackenzie Chambers, you will enjoy the soiree, as you put it. Tonight is entirely for you and the females we care for. This night you may find many friends you thought lost and reacquaint yourself with them.”
Her hand shot to her mouth, holding off the cry of joy that wanted out so badly that she hummed with energy. For a brief moment, she didn’t feel the pang of hurt that surrounded her heart. In this short moment, she felt hopeful.
“Okay, Thoraine, you sold me on tonight’s activities. I’d pretty much do anything to see a friendly face from home.”
“Shall we?” he inquired politely.
Mackenzie inclined her head as graciously as she could, suddenly feeling like a little girl pretending to be a princess. She mentally shook her head. The Sentinel’s proper manners were rubbing off on her and she didn’t know if she liked it or not.
They slipped out of the room and into the deserted corridor.
* * * *
“You weren’t kidding about tonight being about us ladies, Thoraine,” Mackenzie said as she entered to antechamber and stopped at the threshold.
It was like one of those ballrooms she saw in a movie during the Regency period where everyone dressed in fancy clothes and drank from fluted glasses. The only differences this time were that the women outnumbered the men and they wore the same dress. Her bright eyes scanned the chamber, hoping to find a familiar face when Thoraine led her deeper into the room.
His light touch to her hand forced her to meet his eyes and she absently wondered why his touch didn’t illicit a response from her. He was an incredibly handsome man, but that was it. A slight smile covered his features as he bowed.
“I bid you a fair evening, Mackenzie Chambers. May you choose well.”
Before Mackenzie could ask him what he meant, the elegant Sentinel disappeared from her view, which was a mean feat considering he was well over six foot five.
“Dammit,” she muttered.
“Mackenzie, is that you?” A voice from her past had her swirling around. She gasped and cried out when her eyes found another set mirroring her bright-pink irises.
“Milly? Oh my god, Milly It’s you!” she cried and rushed the petite woman with her arms open.
They clashed in a tangle of limbs and heartfelt sobs as they cried and talking incoherently to each other. Finally taking a much-needed breath to calm down, Mackenzie fiercely hugged her friend again and knew she was going to be okay, even with a broken heart and an uncertain future. She wasn’t alone.
“What happened?” she asked, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
Unable to help herself, Mackenzie gave Milly another hug. She ignored the hushed voices of the surrounding women who stared with shocked and teary faces. She didn’t care about them at this point. Her relief and hope spread through her like wildfire.
“Milly, what happened after I left? Where’s my daughter? Where’s Henry? Who else is here? “She fired question after question, until she had to stop for a breath.
“Oh, Mac, it was horrible. Henry—” Milly helplessly shook her head, bitter tears forming, but she schooled her features and took a deep breath before she continued, “Shayane freaked out and tried to follow you, but we couldn’t let that happen. It was bitter, and the look she gave us still haunts me. What you did was the bravest, stupidest, most idiotic stunt I have ever witnessed, but you gave us a chance to get away.”
Milly clasped Mackenzie’s hand to her chest and gave it a hearty squeeze. “We managed to hide for a few days, maybe closer to a week, at Franklin Miller’s junkyard just outside of the town. Well, until we ran out of food.”
Another voice and a warm hand on Mackenzie’s’ shoulder had her gasping when she recognised Elizabeth Clemens. Deputy Clemens.
“Oh my god, Beth, you’re here, too?”
The statuesque blonde warmly smiled and hugged Mackenzie robustly.
“Yeah, so are Sarah, and the twins, Sherry and Maisey Ferrell.”
Mackenzie twisted her head and scanned the crowd of women, intent on finding the other human women from her town.
“Come on, everyone is over there.” She pointed to a section of the chamber on the left where a shimmering hologram morphed into a tropical waterfall peeking from tangled vines and lush vegetation.
“You didn’t mention Shayane. Where is my daughter?” Mackenzie asked, raising her hand to wave when Sherry and her sister turned at Milly’s voice. She halted and jerked out of Milly’s light hold, slowly turning to meet her friend’s eyes.
“Where is my daughter, Milly?” she asked one more time, a steel edge in her husky voice.
“I don’t know, Mac.” Milly sadly shook her head.
Mackenzie’s hand flew to her mouth. It trembled from the implications.
“She went out with Gypsy Collins to find some more food for us when things got quiet. Those things seemed to have moved off and we thought it was safe for a few of us to scrounge for food. I would have gone, but my arm had serious lacerations and I was afraid the scent of blood would draw them back,” Beth answered. “I’m so sorry, Mac, I should have gone instead of Shayane and Gypsy. I should have insisted, but Shay—”
“Shayane is as stubborn as me,” Mackenzie finished, tears glistening in her eyes. “She’s gone, then.”
“No, there was a firefight. I swear, it still burns in my mind. It was as if reality just went to shit and nothing made sense. I thought I saw it all when that first Infected came after me, but when those things came for us…” Beth shuddered and blanched at the memory. “Those things were evil. I tried to fight them off when they dragged us out of Franklin’s shop. They threw us to the ground and that’s when I caught something from the surrounding husks of the cars.”
Beth gripped Mackenzie’s exposed shoulder in a tight hold, staring deeply into her friend’s eyes that were now her own strange colour. “I saw Shay and Gypsy hiding in the shadows before two giant men covered their mouths and blended back into the shadows without a sound or disturbance. They were different from those who had us. I don’t know how I knew. I just did. Then there was a bright flash of blinding light and nothing but darkness afterward.”
Mackenzie slumped to her knees. If it weren’t for the strong arms of her friends who gathered her close, she would have been on the marbled floor. They guided her to their companions as she cried and laughed, overwhelmed that her daughter had a chance. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the two men were a team sent by the commander of the Solace Dawn.
“Thank you God,” she softly prayed and wiped the happy tears from her cheeks, but a dark thought crossed her happiness.
She turned back to her best friend and grabbed he arms urgently. “What happened to Henry, Milly?”
“I-I don’t know where my boy is, not since the night when Shayane and Gypsy went to get food.”
“What? Oh my god, Milly, why didn’t you say anything to me? Here I am going on and on about Shayane, and—”
Milly cut her off with a harsh tone. “Stop, you didn’t know, and like I said, I don’t know what happened to my son. What Beth said earlier, it was those things that captured us with the strange eyes, completely black with a milky-white iris and a dead, hollow pupil, like sharks’ eyes. They dragged us all out of the house. Henry was with me, but when I woke up in that room”—she shuddered from the memory—“Henry was gone.”
“Oh my god, Milly I’m so sorry. Henry’s alive. You just have to believe that. He’s somewhere safe and alive.”
Milly gently pulled away from Mackenzie’s hold, suddenly tired from the constant ache and worry for her son. Her eyes hardened from the awful truth that she fought, but had to face. Her boy was gone, most likely dead from the Infected or those things that captured them.
“We can’t change what happened to us, Mac, but we can make sure nothing bad happens to us.” Milly tugged Mackenzie’s arm and dragged her toward the rest of their friends, an overly bright smile plastered on her pixie-cute features, hiding her pain from everyone.
Mackenzie’s heart broke for Milly. She wished she could do something for her, but knew only time and someone to talk to would eventually help.
Before long, Mackenzie was in the arms of the women who she knew from Spring Valley and laughed with them as they fired their own questions about what happened to her. She quickly gave them the short version and left out the terror she felt and the more intimate moments spent with the trio of men who had wormed into her heart so quickly and devastated her so deeply.
Mackenzie kept her eyes adverted when she talked about her stay with them until she felt a soft touch on her chin and found Milly’s shadowed eyes stare at her, curious and probing.