Chapter 8 8
RONAN'S POV
I transformed as soon as I hit the treeline, bones snapping and re-forming in that darkness I knew so well, with all it’s accompanying pain. My wolf practically leapt from within me, seizing power as four strong legs ran out and poured me into the Lyra where, through the ancient oaks and past shimmering streams that snaked through my domain.
My wolf needed this. Needed to run, needed to think without all the garbage humans attached with reason. But even so, I couldn’t shake what had happened at breakfast. The projection, that voice, the way Aria had seemed so frightened I could have torn the world apart to save her.
My wolf, he growled from the depths of our mind. Our mate. Our Luna.
But she wasn’t only mine and that was my issue from the second I’d set eyes on her. The connection, the instant knowledge of my mate was meant to be pure. Singular. In Lycan world, you mated for life. One person the moon made for you.
It was instinctually wrong; I didn’t want to share her with three other kings. Each glance Draven gave her from those calculating eyes, each touch Kael tried with his feigned gentleness had my wolf wanting blood. To get in their faces, fight them, prove that I was man enough to keep her safe by myself.
I exerted myself into a full out trot on scorched muscles. The woods rushed by me, as familiar and reassuring in its untamedness. This was my domain, at home and here I was powerful.
But even dominance didn’t contain the solution to this problem.
Bits of memory flashed through my head as I fled. Her hands soft in my fur, soft and unafraid. Her laughter, as we ran hand in hand through moon dappled woods. The way she’d gazed at me with absolute trust, as if nothing else in the world existed..
My wolf kept arguing she’d been ours first, we were the strongest bond. But I suspected the truth was more complicated. And the four of us, she'd loved all in that other life, and it had ruined everything.
At last I slowed to a stop near a cliff, breathing hard and looking out over my lands. The moon is full to bursting in the sky. I threw back my head and howled, injecting all of my anger into the noise. Almost immediately, returning calls erupted from my pack, all over the country.
I changed into human shape and returned to the great hall. I got there, and Garrick was waiting for me. My beta was solid as a mountain, covered in scars from all the battles, grey through his dark hair.
“Alpha,” he said and fell in step beside me. "The pack felt your call. What troubles you?"
” “Everything,” I mumbled, snatching some pants off of one of the hooks and tugging them on. "Where's Isla?"
"In the healer's quarters. I'll send for her."
I collapsed in a heap into my chair near the fire, and took the mug of mead that Garrick offered. The alcohol had burned its way down and done nothing to take away the restless energy pulsing in me.
Isla showed up minutes later, her copper hair braided back, her green eyes sharp with worry. It was my little sister who always knew me better than anybody.
“You look like a corpse,” she said flatly, sitting down on a bench across from me. "Let me guess. Mate problems?"
"The Fifth King met us," I said. "Interrupted breakfast with a projection. Said he's coming for Aria, called her his.”
Garrick's expression darkened. “The old stories say he was the first king, the one who reigned before the four realms were split apart.”
“I’m no stranger to those stories,” I mumbled. “But they were just that, I thought.”
Isla shook her head slowly. "No. The Fifth King was real. He was cast out in the void for attempting to defy the Godhead. If he is coming back now, it’s because the barriers between dimensions are more porous than we previously believed.” If he comes back, it might be the end of everything.”
“How do we go up against something like that?” I demanded.
"We can't," Isla said simply. "At least not alone. You’d have to have all four kings together.”
There was silence now, except for the crackling of the fire. I gazed into the fire, finding Aria's face within the dancing light.
“It’s the mate bond getting to you,” Isla murmured. "I can see it in your eyes. You're more volatile, more protective."
“She’s my mate,” I murmured, the words coming in a near growl.
“She’s not just your mate,” Garrick cut in gently. She's Claimed to all four of you. So I have to ask, Ronan. You really think you can just 'have' her? Or do you mean to take her by compulsion?”
The question felt like a physical blow. I wanted to say, I'd never make Aria do anything. But the wolf in me murmured darker truths. It wished to seize her, own her, brand her in every way possible so its kind would have no choice except to withdraw.
“I have no idea,” I confessed at last. "I don't have an answer."
Isla put her hand across and held out mine. "Then you need to find one. Because if you give in to your wolf on that…” You’ll lose her. You will ruin her life, and she’ll resent you for robbing her of a choice.”
I knew she was right. But knowing and controlling the beast in my chest were very different things.
“I need to patrol the purlieus!” I blurted out, jumping up.
I exited the great hall and summoned as soon as I was outdoors. I circled the boundary of my property, examining the markers of my territory. Everything seemed normal at first. But the farther into the forest I made my way, something shifted.
A new smell struck me, so off that my wolf wanted to immediately recoil from it. It was as old, corrupt and dead as death itself, so combined the feelings of nothing and missing.
I tracked the odor to some trees by a little opening. I backed away when I saw that, needing my hands for examination.
Long, four parallel lines were dug into the bark, coordinates that no lycan would fit inside. The wood was charred around the present marks, and still smoking slightly. I gently tapped one and yanked my hand back. It was ice cold to the touch despite the cigarette smoke.
There was a roar in the distance that rose and fell, giving a clear signal. More of my pack had struck something. I turned and ran to where it had come from, three warriors surrounded another tree. Further claw marks, these ones deeper still.
Scattered in among the rest of the territory, we would find dozens of similar marks for the next hour. All new, all wrong, and all indicating there was something strong hunting in my territory.
At last, near the very spot where the forest ended and rockier hills began further north, I found it -- the message. It had been chiseled into a huge rock, the letters going deep and scorching black.
“She belonged to me before she was yours. I will reclaim my bride."
I read the words, and fury rose in my chest. It was a shot across the bow, a stake of Aria's claim from something that thought itself stronger than we.
I felt something else strike before I reacted.
Terror. Pure, raw fear that was not my own.
The mate bond blazed into being. It tugged fiercely at me, jerking me in one direction so sharply I even tripped. And I was sensing her through that connection.”
Aria. She felt the bond screaming at her that she was in mortal danger.
But she was no longer at the Night Palace. The bond yanked her elsewhere, a crack between places that were not supposed to be.
Someone had taken her.
Suddenly, my wolf went ballistic, I threw back my head and let loose a guttural roar of anger and fear. My warriors shifted and howled around me.
"Alpha?" one of them called.
“They took her,” I hissed, already racing back toward the hall. "Get every tracker we have."
I didn't wait for confirmation. The bond tugged at me, indicating something impossible. But I'd follow it anyway. I would pull it through the veil, if I had to.
Aria was out there, alone and scared, and I was going to go get her.