Rafe, apparently sensing danger, murmured, “I have recently discovered my heritage.”
Thalia straightened. “He’s safe. He’s mine.”
“You don’t know what he’s capable of,” Luca growled. “If you’d seen this bitch, you’d have been dumbfounded too.”
“I have no doubt that I would be, but that isn’t what matters. Rafe is coming into his powers, and we have to learn to temper them.” She swallowed. “I assume that’s why you want to meet with her?” she asked softly. “You wish for her to give you information on your race?”
Rafe nodded. “Yes. I have no other way of learning what I can do. What I can bring to us.”
She pursed her lips, but to her fathers said, “I’m pregnant.”
Luca’s eyes widened. “Pregnant? Already?”
Thalia nodded. “Yes. I don’t know when I’m due. At the least, in six months’ time. I learned in difficult circumstances.”
“What does that mean?”
Theo winced at the notion of her sharing the truth with her fathers. Just because they’d come to accept that Thalia wasn’t how they’d perceived her, didn’t mean Thalia could have faith in them. And their current situation was something Theo hadn’t even felt comfortable sharing with Louis Lyndhoven—and that man kept secrets for the President.
“It means that I have more to learn about my pregnancy. That’s all.” She spoke with a cool tone that had her fathers frowning at her. “As it stands, when I do give birth, we all know that I’ll be Leader.” That had them jolted in response. “Rafe will too. I think it would be best if we understood what his limitations were before then.” She cut Rafe a look. “I agree. I think we should meet this woman.”
“Can you take us there?” Mikkel asked him.
“I can sift the four of us there. Not your parents.” He could if he’d wanted to. He didn’t. “With eight, it would be too much for me to manage.” It wouldn’t be. He just didn’t like them.
Thalia nodded. “We will travel ahead then.” To her fathers, she murmured, “Can you please arrange for us to be able to speak with the prisoner?”
Luca reached for his cellphone. “Of course. If you’re certain you want to do this.”
“Naturally. Rafe must understand his capabilities.” Now, she was brisk, and Theo wasn’t certain why. “And if the woman can help him achieve that, then that’s exactly what we need.”
She seemed to be saying all the right things, but he felt her tension. It seeped from her pores as though she’d been exsanguinated. He just wasn’t sure why.
“Do we go now?” he asked gently.
“I think so,” she replied, then to her fathers, her tone cool, she stated, “Please, inform your guards we’ll be outside the palace. I’d appreciate an escort.”
“An escort? Thalia, it’s your home,” Adam argued.
“It hasn’t been for a long time, father. We all know that. And just because you know the truth doesn’t mean that others do too. How many people have believed that woman and the lies she’s spread about me? How many deeds has she committed that people will know about, and will forever attribute to me?” She cupped her throat—the gesture self-comforting but almost prophesizing that she was in danger. “It’s no wonder no one spoke to me in the palace. They had genuine reason to fear me.”
“I’m sorry, Thalia,” Damien whispered.
“No sorrier than I,” she whispered back, her tone heavy. “Please, just make sure they know I’m with my mates. Maybe that will calm them. If they know you’re still traveling, the guards will be ill at ease. I’ve been shot once already this month. I don’t want to be shot again.”
Luca stiffened at that. “We heard. Our fathers told us.” His lips firmed. “That’s why we’re here. To visit you. We went to Florida and the family informed us you’d come here.”
Her nod came slowly. “I had to deal with these Alphas.”
“You did a good job. I…” Luca broke off. “Where did the sword come from?”
“Theo trained me in it when I was in his homeland.”
“I don’t understand. You wielded that thing like a pro. You could only have been there a few days at the most.”
“Time works differently over there.” She smiled slightly. “There’s a lot you don’t know, fathers. Much I have learned, and much that I can’t share. But I’m safe. I will cause no harm to your people.” Her words were a vow.
Luca murmured, “I know, Thalia. The minute we learned of all she’d done—” He gripped the back of his neck. “She caved in easily once she’d been starved of blood. Rolled over for us like a goddamn puppy. I’m sorry we believed you’d committed all those…”
She held up a hand and gravely said, “If you hadn’t learned the truth, you would forever have believed it was me to blame. Let’s be grateful she’s been stopped.”
Theo gripped her elbow when she stood. Needing to steady her in case she wasn’t strong on her feet, he remained close. He traced his fingers down over her forearm, and gently stroked the back of her wrist.
Her pulse was dull and heavy. It wasn’t racing or beating faster than normal, and he had to admit, her strength surprised him. Even in the face of this revelation, she hadn’t crumbled.
Would she ever?
Could she seriously continue to take as many hits as life threw her way and simply get back up to face even more?
Love for her sang through his veins. Her strength was the most intoxicating part of her. Beauty was something all Fae had. It was appreciated, but it wasn’t cherished. Character, on the other hand, was.
And Thalia had so much of it, she had some to spare.
He slid his hand along her forearm to thread his fingers through hers. She squeezed his, and he saw Damien watch them, his eyes narrowing at their connection.
“Thank you for sharing this with me,” she told her fathers. She stood as straight as a ruler, and more pride flushed through him.
“Of course,” Adam retorted, waving a hand in dismissal. “You think we’re not relieved? Sweet Gods, Thalia, all this time we’ve believed…” He shook his head. “Now, things can improve.”
“Improve how?” she asked, staring at him without an inch of coyness about her. “It’s too late for that.”
“No, it isn’t,” Luca growled. “We have humble pie to eat. And eat it we shall. For years, Thalia, we’ve protected you where we’d have annihilated anyone else who presented such a threat. You might hate us, and you might hate what we’ve done, but we had no choice. We believed you gave us no choice.
“You have four parents who loved you enough to hide you away, to try to protect you. You can sulk now, but you won’t sulk forever. Even when the child’s born, and you officially take over as leaders, remember we’ll still be at the palace for the foreseeable future.”
“Why?” Theo interrupted, surprised by that.
“It is our way. We pass over the reins but we don’t totally separate ourselves from the governing of the pack for at least twenty years.”
Mikkel choked. “Twenty years?”
Damien shrugged. “It helps with stability.” To Thalia, he said, “You know this. And we will make amends. You have our word.”
“I wish your mother could have been here,” Adam bit off, running his hand over his head. “She wished to see you. Wished to apologize herself for the way she said farewell.”
Thalia tensed, then shot a look at Rafe. The expression on their faces didn’t bode well for how that conversation had gone down. She pursed her lips. “There will be time enough to speak on these matters in the future. As you said, twenty years.”
“Twenty years to make up for the last twenty years,” Luca rasped as he straightened, then looking at Theo, he murmured, “Now, where the hell are we? How do we get back to the stadium?”
Before they could say another word, he snapped his fingers and returned them to the arena.
Thalia tensed again. “You returned them there?”
He snorted. “I’d h
ave preferred the polar bear’s cage at the local zoo, but yes. I did.”
She relaxed, and her lips curved as she turned to him. “They hardly deserve that.”
“Don’t they?” He shrugged. “It doesn’t make up for the misery they caused you.”
“You heard them as well as I did. They obviously believed it was me behind those deaths.”
Mikkel stepped forward. “Do you remember missing guards?”
“Yes. I thought they changed the rotation so I couldn’t get close to anyone.” She shrugged. “I always had Omega guards too. Must be because they were frightened of losing Alpha guards. They’d have been harder to explain away.”
Theo hissed. “This Lyken world is tougher than the Fae’s. We’re vindictive and cruel, but when one of us goes missing, we can’t simply cover it up and forget about that person’s existence.”
“We live for a long time,” Rafe told him. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not prone to dying young. There are many unofficial challenges.” His nose curled. “A sudden death could easily be explained away like that.”
Thalia swallowed. “I wonder what other powers this woman has.”
“You took Thalia’s blood the other night, Rafe,” Mikkel pointed out, with none of his hammer-to-the-temple bluntness, just a careful statement.
“I did,” Rafe replied, his tone thick. Whether that was at the admission or the memory, Theo wasn’t certain.
Until he looked deeply into the male’s eyes and saw the pupils had overtaken the irises again. Reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose, he murmured, “The book where we learned of Rafe’s potential heritage was inaccurate, according to my mother. She did reiterate something it said, however. Changelings can change in the truest sense of the word.”
“You believe Rafe might be capable of turning into me now that he’s taken my blood?”
“There has to be a reason why he craves it. I’ve never heard of a creature existing solely on blood before, and as you’re well aware, I’ve been around a long time.”
“If she had a job as a nurse at the palace infirmary then she had a way of accessing the blood of all the members on staff. If she could get to my parents, why not everyone else?”
“I think you’re right, Thalia. I think she slipped between departments for a reason,” Theo admitted. “Rafe is also correct. We should speak with her. We have knowledge that is outside of your fathers’ purview. Plus, I have some nasty suspicions I’d like clarified by someone who has no alternative but to answer me.”
She shivered. “I hate torture. That’s not how I work.”
“It’s not how any of us should work, but when someone has systematically infiltrated the home of the Leaders of the North American Pack? Their governmental seat? There’s a reason for it. And I’ll bet it’s one that goes far above your fathers’ pay grade.”
“What do you mean?” She turned to look up at him, and he reached down to press a kiss to her lips. She was covered in blood and gore, and he hadn’t thought about cleaning her up in her fathers’ presence… why hadn’t he?
Calling on Wind and Water, he swirled it around them both, watching as she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to his chest. As the elements swirled about them, he watched the dirt sweep away like it had never been there. If only a soul could be cleansed as swiftly.
He pressed his spare hand to her lower back and soothed, “All will be well, my dearling.” That was starting to become his mantra.
How often would he have to say it until this was over? How long until it ceased to have any power over her?
“How can it be?”
“It can be because it must.” He pressed a kiss to her crown. “And I simply meant these changelings are new to us. There is a reason they are suddenly coming to our attention.” He turned to look at Rafe. “You might learn things you wish to unlearn.”
“We’d be in the same boat then,” Mikkel grumbled. “Can I unlearn about being a snake?”
“I already told you,” Theo retorted, “no.”
“I googled you,” Thalia murmured, tilting her forehead to study Mikkel. “We need to stop thinking of you as a snake and as a different type of dragon.”
Theo looked at Mikkel—they hadn’t shared his conversation with his mother. Rafe and Thalia were still unaware that Rafe and changelings in general were children of Vulcun.
Why he’d refrained from sharing that, he wasn’t sure.
And, he had a feeling, he was about to find out.
****
Thalia
She’d never been here before.
That shouldn’t have come as a surprise considering the latter half of her life had consisted of her bedchamber, living area, and the outer yard that reached far into the woods that surrounded the property.
But she was surprised nonetheless.
She was also surprised at how good it felt to be back here. Thalia had felt certain she’d feel nothing but dread being back in Oregon, and instead, the minute Theo had sifted them here, out by the front of the property, she’d felt at home.
Why?
Because the minute she’d arrived, the natural wolves had howled their joy at her presence.
Their instant connection made her miss her She-Wolf, but, it also filled her with warmth. She had been missed, after all. Those wonderful natural creatures had felt her absence and had mourned it enough to celebrate her return.
With her hand tucked firmly in Rafe’s and Theo’s, she’d stood in the outer courtyard by the fountains that tinkled merrily. The sound so light and buoyant that it made the heaviness in her stomach churn all the more. She was nervous. Fretting, even.
Understanding why she’d been loathed didn’t make this any easier.
So as she’d waited there, waited for the guards to arrive to guide them where they needed to go, she’d allowed her mates to converse around her. Not wanting to speak, in truth, not wanting to do anything other than curl up in bed between them all.
Before the challenge, she’d needed sex.
Now?
She wanted comfort.
When the guards finally appeared, unease written onto their features, she said nothing as they bowed in greeting. Dipping her head, she caught the glance of the leader—an Alpha Captain who’d knocked heads with her a time or two when he was on her mother’s protective duty.
Ethan Cross narrowed his eyes at her. “We’ve been instructed to take you to the prisoner, ma’am. We’ve also been advised to inform you that she has not been willing to inform us of her true identity,” he’d said, and she’d simply nodded and took a step forward.
Within five minutes, she’d been led down to the administrative block of the palace. Within seven, they were in part of the building she’d never known existed.
The grimness here spoke of a long and murky past… It was easy to forget the building was ancient. Hundreds of years old. Back in a time when keeping prisoners didn’t have to be ethical, and rights were nothing more than whatever the person holding you wanted to do with you.
These were, she realized, dungeons.
In the truest sense of the word.
They weren’t prisons or jails. They were dungeons, and they housed cages.
Hundreds of them.
Her throat felt thick as they strode down the long line of barred walls. To the right of the walkway, was a simple stone wall. To the left, the bars that separated the corridor from the cages.
In the cages?
There was nothing more than a cot and toilet facilities.
This was bleakness itself.
And, she realized, it could have been her home for eleven years.
Instead, she’d been kept in a gilded cage upstairs in her suite.
The restrictions on her freedom, the locked doors that separated her from the rest of the palace and had made her feel like Hannibal Lecter, had been necessary.
The creature they were striding to meet was the reason for the universal loathing that had drowned Thalia throughou
t her adolescence.
Why shouldn’t the woman who had set out to destroy Thalia’s character, set out to ruin the relationship she had with her parents, suffer the consequences of her actions?
But her stomach still churned at what these cages represented.
On the cots in the dungeons, there were huddled beings. Some were empty, some were not. Most of the prisoners were laying down, but a few stood. Using the toilet, which made her cheeks turn pink with discomfort—something that made her mock her sensibilities. But others stood staring out, their eyes dead, their faces void of all expression, as they curled their hands around the bars, and looked at the nothingness of the corridor.
Whether they even registered Thalia and her mates’ presence at all, she wasn’t certain. They looked like the living dead, she thought uneasily.
What made her even more uneasy was the fact that they had to move past the horrendously long line of cages and through a door that had four different locks on it. To get into this corridor, the door had three locks, so why this one needed an extra one, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
She even sucked in a breath as she stepped through the aperture, and was relieved to see it was simply the offices. Expecting to be led to a desk, they weren’t. Now with Rafe’s hand in hers, as the aisle was too narrow for them to walk three-abreast, she headed through another door when the Captain, sneering at her all the way, motioned for her to enter.
What she saw made her want to vomit.
“This isn’t right,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
The woman had ruined her life but… this?
With her arms and legs forced wide apart, the female’s wrists were chained to the wall behind her. She was held aloft, with the wall not touching her back. She was naked. Dirty. And covered in blood.
Thalia’s stomach wasn’t just churning now, it was doing the fucking rumba.
At her words, though, the woman’s head, which had been lolling on her shoulder, rolled down so she was looking straight between her legs, then she looked up.
Thalia barely refrained from taking a step back at the sight of her eyes.
Those soulless pits were close to Rafe’s when he’d been tying her into knots. Though his were a deep chocolate brown, where this creature’s were black, obsidian even, but still… the similarity made her want to throw up even more.
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