by L. Rose
“Yes, he did. But I wouldn’t lead blindly. I hardly listened to her….” He froze. “Unless she was queen and I suddenly died, then everything would be in her control.”
“How does Rallis play into this?” Asher asked.
Kiered laughed. “He’s always been more in love with Thera than my brother.”
“He’s been helping them.”
“Who did Thera’s father, Therolidi, have involvement with on the council?” Nate asked.
“Jessica, at least I think that was the name I remembered mentioned.”
Already I’d felt Alex, Nate, and Asher tense.
“She was in charge of our group when we worked for the council in their elite enforcers.”
“You all worked for the council?” Cedrick asked.
Ezra rose his hand. “Not me. I was Paige’s protector and teacher when she was first changed into a ghoul.”
Thorn cleared his throat. “I was from the former ghoul queen’s guards, sent out to meet with Paige after the queen’s powers transferred to Paige.”
“How is it that none of you won’t go running back to the council with all this information about Paige? For all I know, one of you could be helping—”
“Don’t,” I clipped, cutting off Cedrick. “Before you say something you’ll regret, don’t say anything more against Alex, Asher, and Nate. They are bound to me. I know what they’re feeling, I know they’re true, and they want to take down the council with me.”
“There is also the fact we became wanted men by the council as soon as we refused to do as they’d asked,” Asher stated prickly. “I would never go against my mate. Never. Even if it meant ending my own life in the process.”
“Asher,” I whispered, reaching up to take his hand on my shoulder. “None of that talk. No one will be ending lives, because you all know I would follow you just to kick your ass.”
Asher gazed down at me, his eyes softening. “I know, love.”
“Dad would also kick your ass for upsetting us,” Ezra said.
“Dad?” Kiered questioned.
“Who said Asher would end up in Hell?” I demanded. My men were good men. No one got to go to Hell if I had any say in it. They deserved to walk through the pearly white gates and high-five God.
“Love, I have done many things in life that I shouldn’t have. I won’t be seeing upstairs in my death.”
“There’s nothing wrong with Hell,” Ezra huffed.
I patted him absently. “You have only sinned to protect those around you, I’m sure,” I told Asher.
“Love, I’ll be sure to go wherever you go. Nothing nor no one will keep me back.”
I hummed my approval. “Good.” Then I thought. “You only said that to shut me up.”
“Never, love.” Asher bent and kissed my forehead with his upturned lips. The guy was playing me, but I’d let it slide until it came down to the matter where I would fight tooth and nail to get Asher where he belonged. In Heaven.
“You know she won’t drop it. She’ll fight with God if she has to.” Thorn smiled.
Asher chuckled, as did most of my mates, before saying, “Yes, I know.”
“Let’s get back to why you all think Hell is such a bad place. I never suffered.” Ezra glared.
I leaned down and cupped his cheeks. “No one is dismissing Hell, honey. I love you. I love that’s where you come from. I just want what’s best out there for my mates, and I thought Hell might not have been it. However, as long as we’re all together, I don’t care where we end up.” I kissed his nose. “Besides, it won’t be for a long time, and I’m sure if it’s soon and we do end up in Hell, your dad will send us back because we’ll have driven him insane.”
He grinned. “You’re right.”
A throat cleared. I gave Ezra a quick kiss and then sat back, looking to the elves.
Actually, right then, I wanted to take a “holy shit” moment. I was in front of elves. Elves. Real-life pointy-eared, tall, sword-wielding, arrow-fighting elves.
Yes, I knew there were other supernatural creatures. I was one. But it just hit me all of a sudden. I walked through a portal into another realm, a realm full of more different species. Dark and light ones. I’d even read there were trolls, leprechauns, and merpeople there.
If I had more time, I would explore, because it did seem this place went on forever. Their kingdom wasn’t the only city nestled in Airrile, but from what I’d read, I knew it was the biggest.
I’d thought the human world had enough things that went bump in the night, but here was larger, and Cedrick had to deal with it all.
I was in awe of the elf.
I could never ask him to leave such a place for me.
Just like I knew he wouldn’t ask me.
There I went, back to the sour feeling inside me because our choice to accept the bond and one another was taken out of our hands.
Then why was Cedrick chosen for me?
It didn’t make sense.
“Are you saying Ezra is related to Lucifer? As in the devil? Satan?” Kiered asked. Cedrick and he stared down at us, paler than they had been.
“Yes.” I grinned. “But don’t worry, he won’t interfere in anything unless he has to.”
That didn’t seem to reassure them.
“He’s mellowed in age,” Ezra added. “Thanks to my mom.”
“That’s true.” I nodded.
“The devil. You know him?”
I waved a hand around. “It’s a long story of sorts, and right now I know three of my mates who need to eat.”
Nate grunted, and his stomach growled like it was a beast itself.
“Then come. We’ll take the food back into your room and leave you to rest. I have a few people I need to speak with. They’ll join the others in the dungeons, and I’ll contact you when it’s time for questioning.”
I stood from the couch. “Sounds like a plan, and thank you for not arguing with me about going into the dungeons.”
He glanced down at me as we walked out of his room side by side. His body heat warmed me all over, along with his eyes. “I don’t agree, but I’m learning from watching that you would do it no matter what I say.”
Laughter behind us, along with rattling of trays, sounded. I glared over my shoulder and then looked back up at Cedrick. “At least you’re learning.”
“One day I would like to hear the story about Lucifer though.”
Butterflies took off in flight in my stomach. He’d said one day. I shouldn’t have, but I did have hope.
I floated in the darkened sky, looking below to the dirt mound surrounded by woods. I watched and waited for something to happen, as if I expected a situation. And when I saw the dirt shift, little rocks and soil tumbling to the side, I knew what I was waiting for.
I knew it as well as the next breath I needed.
Dirty hands popped through the earth. They clawed out from the ground, digging their way free.
Fear clenched my stomach, despite knowing I shouldn’t be scared.
The scene was surreal.
A head broke free next and tipped back. A growl shuddered through the area. Wild red eyes took in everything. It was a woman. Her light-colored hair was either blonde or white, but filthy from the muck. She pushed at the dirt and then leaped from the hole she’d been buried in. As she landed in a crouch, her eyes frantically darted this way and that. Her head tipped again, her nostrils flaring. She scented her surroundings.
Another growl rumbled from her, tore from her, the sound almost animalistic.
The dress covering her small frame was in tatters.
My stomach tightened when I saw her clutch at her own gut as she slowly stood, as if I could feel the hunger eating away at her.
The wind brushed through the area, her hair and dress swaying in the breeze. Suddenly, she spun right and crouched again. A low, humming rumble echoed out of her mud-caked mouth and into the woods.
Again, fear bombarded me.
The woman looked crazed. H
er body tensed when we heard a branch break close by. Her upper lip pulled back in a snarl, a warning, and I felt mine doing the same.
Into the small clearing stepped a….
….
Wait….
What was happening?
I blinked rapidly and shook my head. This wasn’t right. This was a dream… a dream I hadn’t had in a long time.
What in the fuck was happening?
My body jolted as if shaken by something, and I landed on my hands and knees on the dirt ground. I lifted my head and drew in the scents around me. It didn’t smell like the outdoors. Familiar scents rushed into me, but I couldn’t remember what they were.
Suddenly, I was knocked to the floor. I rolled and then sat up, flicking my hair out of my face. I glanced down and saw I wore the same nightie I had when I’d first crawled out of the ground. When I’d become a ghoul.
That was right… I was a ghoul.
I had strength. I could hear things from afar and yet… I couldn’t hear anything at all.
Nothing was making a sound; it was as if I was deaf. There wasn’t a sound of birds, people, or the wind rustling.
Nothing.
Fucking hell, where was I and what was going on?
I remembered… shit, what did I remember? That I was a ghoul, I dug myself out, but then nothing. Why?
I drew in another whiff. My chest ached like I had something jammed in there. I grabbed it and looked down. There wasn’t anything there, or perhaps I couldn’t see what the problem was. I screamed and dropped to my back, gripping my head at the severe stabbing pressure on my temples.
“Stop, stop, stop,” I yelled.
Then it did.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and sat up. I was smart enough to know what I saw in front of me wasn’t real. I wasn’t actually in the woods at night. I was… after another intake of air, I sensed I was in a room. The air was clear, but stuffy.
Disoriented, I lay back on the ground. Coldness touched my back. It wasn’t from dirt though, maybe concrete or metal.
Another breath in.
God, there were those scents that had me longing.
Were they people or food?
They didn’t smell like food.
Pine, blood, a sweet spice like cinnamon, and—
“Roll” came from a deep, panicked voice through my mind. Only I was too shocked hearing a voice in my head I didn’t listen to its warning and something invisible smashed into my face. My nose cracked, blood gushing from it while I covered my face and yelled from the pain.
Jesus Christ, did a Mack truck hit me?
I sucked in a sharp breath as my nose healed. I lowered my hands and opened my eyes; they felt puffy, so I knew they’d swelled from the hit, whatever it had been.
How was I supposed to fight something invisible?
But that voice… it warned me. It also seemed like I’d heard it before; a part of me was telling me I had. Still, it felt new, but one I wanted to listen to. How was that possible?
Whatever was going on was fucked up.
Fear clutched my beating heart and twisted.
Something about my heart triggered my mind, but when I tried to grab that thought, it fled.
Heart, heart, heart, I chanted over and over.
Beating.
My eyes widened.
Shut the damn front door. My heart hadn’t been beating when I’d crawled out of the ground. Why was it now? Did it mean I was human?
I pounded the ground with my fists in frustration.
“Move,” sounded inside my mind, and that time I didn’t hesitate. I was on my feet and running a couple of steps forward, spinning this way and that.
“What else?” I yelled into the still night sky. I gripped my head and whimpered as something clicked inside it, then disappeared. My heart raced at an onslaught of completeness. I felt as if a part of myself that had been missing was found. It didn’t make sense, yet nothing had since I woke back in my dream.
“Paige, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to complete this mind link, but I had to. You’re safe now. It’s time to wake up.”
“Who are you?”
“What do you mean?” he demanded in a rough, sharp tone, one I sensed alarm in.
“I don’t know you.”
“Paige, I’m Cedrick Nelydriel, elf king to the realm Airrile.”
“Sorry, buddy, it’s not ringing any bells.”
“What about Asher, Nate, Thorn, Alex, and Ezra?”
I had a little tingling of something, but it slipped away. “No. Nothing. What’s going on? Where am I?”
“What surrounds you?”
“The woods where I had been buried after… wait, I don’t know if I should be telling you this.”
Silence, and I didn’t like not hearing his voice. Panic twisted my insides. “Cedrick?” I called, twisting around in the darkened area. “Cedrick?” I yelled.
“I’m here, Paige.”
The voice sounded so close. The sudden warmth at my back had me tensing. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder and then cried out, turning and stumbling away.
His hand grabbed mine before I fell to the ground. “Paige, relax. Please, I’m here to help you.”
His touch and his voice helped me settle. It even spread nerves through my belly. He helped me stand and then slid his hand down my arm, causing me to shiver, to my hand where he held it. I lifted my gaze from our hands to see he was still staring down at them.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
He caught my eyes, and I sucked in some air at how beautiful he was. He smiled. “I already told you. Cedrick Nelydriel, I’m the—”
“Yes, yes. Elf king of such and such.” I shook my head. “Who are you to me?”
His smile upped a notch. It had me wanting to lean into him. His head tilted to the side a little as he studied me.
“God, your hair is absolutely stunning, and those ears, I want to kiss them, touch them—”
He choked.
“Fuck. I said that aloud, didn’t I?”
He shook his head, and it didn’t go unnoticed how the tips of his ears and cheeks were pink. He licked his lips as if they were dry, and said, “No, you said that in your mind. Only, I’m able to hear it now.”
Wait, what? “I’m sorry—what?”
Since we still held each other’s hands, he used his other to reach up and tuck my hair behind my ear. His finger glided down from my temple to my cheek and chin; then he cupped the side of my neck.
“How opposed would he be if I kept his hands always on me?”
His eyes widened.
“Shit.” I closed my eyes and dropped my head, so I didn’t look at him. “Can we stop it?”
“We can learn to stop projecting.”
“You’re not projecting. It’s only me.”
His grin grew even more. “For that I’m grateful or else you would have punched me a few times.”
I laughed and glanced up at him. “Really?” It shouldn’t have, but it had me feeling better.
“Yes.”
“Okay. Good.” I nodded. He chuckled. “Now, can you tell me who you are to me?”
“Your mate.”
“My mate? As in the Australian term, like, on ya cobber, I mean, on ya, mate? Buddy? Pal?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “No. Nothing like that, though I’m not even sure what you first said. What I mean is that you’re my intended wife.” My eyes sprang wide. He quickly added, “A couple who were fated to be with one another forever.” I jerked my head back. He groaned. “I’m not explaining it right. We’re bonded mates… at least mostly bonded. We’re one step closer with the mind link we now have. Meaning we’re touched in some way, but there is only one way for us to complete the bond, and that would be for us to… you see, we would have to… I mean that we’re to….”
I searched his face, his was once again blushing, and then a part of my mind produced an image of us naked on the ground. “If we were to sleep with each other,
we would completely be bonded?”
“Yes.”
“And you want to do this here and now?”
He choked again. “No, no. Christ, woman, you say whatever you think, don’t you?”
I smiled. “Yes. So then you come into this place—”
“Your mind.”
“What?”
“You’re stuck in your mind, Paige. You won’t understand it right now, but someone in my realm locked you in your mind and tried to have you forget your other bonded men.”
I stepped back in shock, my hands covering my belly. “I have more?” I yelled.
He gave a laugh until I glared. He sobered and then nodded. “Yes. Asher, Thorn, Alex, Nate, and Ezra.”
I leaned toward him and whispered, “Am I a slut?”
His lips thinned, and he shook his head. “No,” he said darkly.
“Huh, he doesn’t like me saying that about myself.”
He stepped closer. “No, I don’t. You’re loved, cherished, and important to all of us. We’ve all lived a long life, Paige. Having you as our bonded mate completes us. We feel full, at peace, happy, and even loved. Not all have more than one partner. But when it comes to someone special like yourself, it’s as it’s meant to be. Fate put us all together for a reason. Whatever it is, I’m delighted to be a part of it. Your other men are… they’re great men, and together, we’re whole. A family.”
I didn’t know what to think or understand completely how I felt because there were so many emotions rolling around inside me. My mind spun, and my hands shook. Honestly, how he described the connection we shared sounded amazing, wonderful even. Hell, I wanted it, I did, and I knew my… mates would all be different like myself because no human could understand something like this.
“There’s no jealousy among anyone?”
He blushed again. “No.”
I narrowed my gaze. “You’re leaving something out.”
“It doesn’t matter. You’ll remember everything as soon as you’re out of here.”
I placed my hands on my hips. “Cedrick.”
He ground his teeth together. “As far as I know, they share one another as well.”
“Oh… well, that’s… something I wouldn’t mind seeing.”
Cedrick groaned, rubbing a hand over his face.
“Wait, you said as far as you knew. Why wouldn’t you know if you’re mine also?” I paused at that, not liking he wasn’t involved. “God, it all sounds so weird. I have five, no six, husbands… men. Six. The sex must be outstanding.”