Chapter 17 Seventeen
Rhea's POV
I was at Theron's side on the battlements of the mansion, watching the army gathered below.
There were at least two hundred wolves. Maybe more. They had stationed themselves just outside Theron's frontiers, a visible display of strength.
On the front were the alpha twins. Orin and Kieran. They were different than they had been at the wedding, more dangerous, somehow. Battle ready.
But my gaze was on the woman standing beside them.
Even at this range, she radiated power; I could feel it. It was unlike Theron’s primordial strength, freer in some way. Untamed.
She was beautiful. Dark long hair that touched her waist. Savage gazes that I could nearly sense following Theron even where we were. She was dressed in leather armor and her arms were bare, she had delicately inked tattoos which shimmered slightly in the soft morning light.
This was Lilith. The woman from Theron's memories. His past.
I looked to Theron and saw something on his face that I had never seen before. Genuine shock. His gray eyes were wide, his jaw slack.
"You know her," I said. It wasn't a question.
Theron’s jaw tightened as his control descended over him like a mask. “She was going to be dead.”
The tremulousness in his voice, the raw hurt that ran beneath the words, constricted my chest with an emotion I didn’t want to name.
Jealousy.
"What was she to you?" I asked quietly.
There was a long moment of silence from Theron. "Everything. Once."
The simple acknowledgment was more painful than I had anticipated. I hardly knew this man, had been in his territory a matter of days. I had no business feeling proprietary toward him.
But I did. The mate bond saw to it.
“We have to go down there,” Theron said at last. "Hear what they want."
“You mean hear what they want,” I corrected.
Something that didn’t resemble a smile tugged at his lips. "You're learning."
Contrary to Theron's wishes, I'd demanded to be present during the negotiations. He’d wanted me inside, behind walls, safe.
But I didn’t want to be protected anymore. Tired of being the helpless beauty that all were fighting over.
We met at the border, neutral ground that can still be seen in old stones. Theron accompanied him as well as Marcus and a dozen of his toughest fighters. I saw Cassian amid them, his new alpha power leashed tight.
My friends and I faced the twins, each of us flanked by one or more of their body cows. And between them, Lilith.
Close up, she was even more beautiful. Tall, perhaps only 5’9”, with the beauty of one who’d lived for centuries. Her eyes were amber, a rarity for Lycans. It was on Theron with such greedy focus that I wanted to get between them.
It was Orin who spoke first, and his blue eyes met mine. "Lady Rhea. Your father is angry, and he's going to be angry that you ran away from your wedding. Again."
He sounded amused, and it burned me up. Like this was all some game.
“I wasn’t runaway,” I said coolly. "I made a choice."
It was a decision that broke a legal agreement,” Kieran said added. He was the colder of the two — his face told nothing. But his eyes followed everything I did.
“A contract I never signed.”
“Your permission is not needed in pack law,” Kieran replied. “You were your father’s to haggle over.”
"I'm not property."
"Aren't you?" And it was as rich and melodic as one would expect. “Thank you, Lilith Theeno Heald.” She advanced, moving in an arc around the twins to get nearer. “A woman who will have four husbands and whose coming was foretold to join bloodlines. You’re the best value piece on the board at this point.”
She came to a stop before Theron, paying no mind to anyone else. "Hello, old friend. It's been a long time."
"Three centuries," Theron hissed, an edge to his voice. “We believed you’d been killed in the massacre.”
"I survived." Lilith's smile was sharp. "Barely. The shifters left me to die, but I’m harder to kill than they counted on.”
"Why didn't you find me?" Theron's words were an accusation. “Why let me think you were dead all this time?”
“I’ve been looking for you since I got well. Lilith held out a hand as if she were going to touch his face, but stopped short at the last possible moment. "You disappeared. Went into isolation. I have been after you for decades.”
Standing there, I felt invisible as my gaze fixated on this reunion between two ancient beings with a shared history that I could scarcely comprehend.
The mate bond vibrated in my chest, unhappy and telling me to do something. Say something. Claim what was mine.
But was Theron mine? We didn’t even finish the bond. We’d kissed once, had held each other a few times.
Lilith finally looked my way, and the glare in her eyes was hungry.
"So this is the girl who shattered the reclusive Theron's solitude." She walked around me, and she did it slowly, very slowly: A wolf who looked at its next meal. "The hybrid with four mates. You don't look like much."
I bristled but bit my tongue. Cuts here in the pursuit of a war were not going to benefit anybody.
Appearances are often deceptive,” Cassian called over my shoulder. His voice held warning.
Lilith’s eyes snapped to him and then grew wide. "Another mate. Can you say new to the alpha just un-dormant?" She laughed. "This gets better and better."
She aimed her gaze at Theron once again, assuming the earlier serious look. “The twins have a very interesting proposition for me. They can help me get what I want and I can help them get what they want.”
"And what do you want?" Theron inquired, though I imagined that he already did.
Lilith's smile was dangerous now. Possessive. "You. Us. The way we were meant to be before the curse, before the wars, before everything fell apart.”
The insinuation, in her words, was clear. She wasn’t merely referring to friendship or alliance. She meant a relationship. A bond.
My stomach twisted.
Orin coughed, released the tension. "We're willing to negotiate. Send Rhea back to make our marriage alliance and we will leave quietly... Refuse, and we attack."
“That is not much of a negotiation,” Marcus said.
“It’s the last one you’ll get.” Kieran's voice was flat, final.
Before anyone else could reply, I felt it.
A tug deep in my chest, like I had with Theron and Cassian but not the same. Newer. Rawer.
I glanced at Orin and Kieran, both of whom looked like they wanted to say something but suddenly had lost whatever it was in their voices. They felt it too.
Mate bond, kicking in for the first time.
"No." I crept a step away. "Not them too."
But as I said it, I knew that it was true. The prophecy was real. Four friends to bind the four bloodlines.
Theron, the ancient Lycan. Cassian, the hidden alpha. And now Orin and Kieran, the double alphas of Moonvale.
Kieran’s icy expression faltered for a moment, mimicking shock that flashed across his features. Orin's arrogant expression wavered, replaced by honest perplexity.
Lilith noticed the exchange. Her laugh was sharp, bitter. "Oh, this is perfect. All of your four mates in one spot.”
She turned back to Theron. You really want to share her with three other guys?" You, who didn’t even share your territory with your own populace?
Theron didn't answer. His silence said everything.
"I thought not." Lilith's smile was triumphant. “So here’s what will happen. You'll allow the twin to claim his mate'as is their right through contract.' And in return, they’ll leave you alone. No war. No bloodshed."
“And what are you getting from it?” I asked.
Lilith's amber gaze fastened on me. "I get Theron back. Maybe without you in this picture, he’ll be able to remember who he really is. Who we were together."
That flippancy about my existence, how and why I’ve connected with someone on this planet, well that just made me plain mad.
"I am not leaving," I said, strong.
“You’ve no choice,” Kieran said.
"Everyone has a choice." I glanced at the twins, at Lilith, and at the masses behind them. “And I want to stay with Theron.”
Orin’s face lightened to something warmer. Almost impressed. "Brave words. But you can’t fight armies with bravery.”
The silence was broken by an explosion.
The earth trembled under us. All stopped as flames leaped up into the sky from out on the east border.
Not the South where the twins' army was lined up. The east.
Theodorus ran from the villa, his face ghostly. "My lord! We’re being invaded from the south! It’s not the twins’ Army, it’s something else!”
I watched a banner unfurl in the thickening smoke. Gold and red, with an emblem of a phoenix emerging from flames.
No, I whispered, the term from books about the old wars.
"Shifters!" Lilith spoke, I heard fear in her voice for the first time. "King Thanos has come.”