Chapter Seventy-Three: Escape Through the Bathroom Vent

Amira –

“What do you want, Malcolm? Can’t I lie in my daughters’ room? Or are you jealous of what memories I have left of her?” Malcolm bumped my shoulder as he walked past me.

“The guard heard you talking to someone. I am here to make certain you don’t have any other men here. Looks like you were playing with dolls. Aren’t you a little old for that?” Malcolm glared at me with his normal hatred in his eyes.

“Why does it look like the blankets are slightly imprinted on them?” He stared at me with accusation in his eyes.

“That is my butt print, Malcolm. Are you so insecure that a simple butt print on my daughter's quilt makes you think I am having sex with whomever? Believe me, I have kept my mate bond, and I have also kept my promise to you. Now let my mate free!” I yelled at him, knowing we have had this conversation a million times, and he is never going to let either of us free.

Malcolm runs his murderous fingers near my face, tracing my lips. I shiver out of disgust at his touch. I nearly threw up my breakfast that I had eaten this morning. Being angered once again by my reaction towards him, Malcolm slaps my face hard.

“When are you going to release your powers to me, Amira? I am a patient man; I will wait, but I will not wait forever. The clock is ticking on your mate’s life. Tick Tock, Tick Tock.” Malcolm waves his fingers like a pendulum.

“If you kill my mate, you lose powers of mine, he has. Then it will go to the next royal in my family, who is younger than me. So, unless you could find all the royals in this world, that major piece of magic would be lost to you. Do you really want to give that away?” I looked at him with all the hate I could muster.

Turning his back to me, he waved his hands for the guards to follow him, “Thus, yet your mate still lives due to this setback. Now get down to the throne room that I may watch you carefully.” Kicking the wall, I followed Malcolm.

“Remember my queen, every time you disobey me, I will kill another innocent pack member and I know how much you hate that.:” Angrily, I hit Malcolm with my fist, and he punched me back, breaking my nose. My wolf howls inside of me, sad that she cannot protect me from this psychopath.

Ashina –

While crawling through the vents, playing the conversation my mother and I had earlier.

“Ashina, you are marked with a double crown. You are mated? Where is your mate?”

Seeing my mother’s shock at my mark, I felt sorrow and guilt for having left my mate behind. “I left him behind, mother.”

My mother got upset and stared at me with anger and confusion, “Why would you ever leave your mate behind? You realize during the mating process you gave him half of your powers, right? Because this is a double crown, it means that he comes from the same line as you and I do. We are the original werewolves of the moon goddess. This means without him, your powers are greatly reduced and, one without the other, both of you could die. Why, Why? Would you ever do such a thing?”

“Mother, you make it sound like I formally rejected him. I didn’t! I left him because he is a king, and I didn’t want him to abandon his kingdom for me. I needed to rescue my own kingdom and save my people.” I retorted out of frustration. Hurt that she would think so little of me.

“Then why did you let him mark you? If you hadn’t, then maybe the two of you would have been fine.”

Tears started to overwhelm my eyes because of the disappointment in my mother’s tone of voice. I hadn’t seen her since I was six years old, and I thought she was dead. Only for her to be whispery yelling at me right now.

“Mother, you weren’t there to teach me. You and dad sent me to the Dragons kingdom, and I certainly wasn’t going to take their class on mates, which didn’t pertain to me. Rector was young when he saw us to their kingdom and didn’t know much more about mate bonds than I did. He was an orphan if you remember.”

“What? My sister didn’t teach you baby?”

“Mom, auntie died when her mate disappeared. Nana had to work for us to survive. I just had the shadow warriors and Rector. I didn’t have anyone to teach me about being a wolf.”

My mother started crying and took my face into her chest. “Baby, I am so sorry, your father and I let you down. Well, if you can get ahold of your mate, get him here so we can win this battle together as a family. Okay baby?”

My mother wiped my nose like when I was only five years old with a Kleenex. Sniffling I nodded to her.

“Okay, I will try to get Andor here. I am so glad you are alive mommy.”

My tears flowed into her chest while I breathed in the smell of lilacs that I had forgotten since I was six years old. It was my mother's finger that gently brushed away my tears, which fell freely past my cheeks and dripped down on my clothing.

The sound of steel-toed boots headed to my door as my mother, and I stood up. She hurriedly positioned a chair in the bathroom and demonstrated where the vent was located. It took some effort for me to pop the vent off, wriggling through the tight space. The pounding on the door prompted my mother to put the chair back and answer. After barely making it through the vent, Malcolm's boisterous voice echoed off the bathroom walls and filled my room. Trying to stay quiet, I scooted through the vents while shivering in fear.

I tried using my earpiece to connect to Dean but all I got was a fuzzy noise like the radio noise after the last song of the day. Dean must be out of reach; I am hoping he won’t get caught.