Chapter 30 Thirty
Kieran's POV
My entire world was fracturing.
I had Rhea's hand on me and all the feelings I'd kept buried since Elara died roared right into my face. Not slowly and gently and imperceptibly, but all at once as if a dam had broken.
Love. Grief. Hope. Fear. Rage. Longing.
I think 20 years of repressed emotions were crashing into me at once.
My head ached as I staggered away from Rhea. My chest hurt, like it’d been crushed, and my heart was knocking so hard I thought it would burst.
"Kieran?" Rhea's voice was concerned. "Are you—"
“Don’t,” I said weakly, putting up a hand. "I need... I need a moment."
But there was no time for moments like that. The war was still being fought around us. Damon was threatening them. The rogues were pressing closer.
My carefully built emotional walls were beginning to dissolve into sand.
Rhea I could sense through the bond now, as it started to solidify. Feel her truly, not just the thin surface knowledge but all that lies underneath.
Her passion to save everyone at the expense of herself. Her terror for all of us, each one of her mates. Her burgeoning emotion, unique to each but just as genuine.
It was too much. I had been refused to feel anything for twenty years, and now I felt everything.
Orin took hold of my shoulder. "Brother, I know it's hard. But we need you here. Now."
I forced myself to breathe. Anything to divert my attention from the emotional avalanche that threatened to engulf and suffocate me.
“Here I am,” I said, though my voice trembled.
I stared at Damon on the other side of that barrier. Saw the madness in eyes just like Theron's. Two brothers, one who had died and now returned to burn the world.
"What happened to him?" You know, I need facts to stand on,” I said.
Theron's voice was empty as he replied. "I thought I killed him. Three hundred years ago he contested me for leadership of our pack. We fought for days. I landed what would have been the killing hit during that turn. I watched him fall, I saw the light go out of his eyes.
He shook his head. "I mourned him. Carried that guilt for centuries."
“Apparently not dead enough,” Orin grumbled.
Rhea's barrier flashed again, the flames decreasing in intensity. She could hardly stand, her legs trembling under the strain of so much powerful magic.
And I came to a decision I had never thought possible.
I walked up and put my hand on top of hers, willing my own power through our unfinished connection. My energy poured through me into her as she held the barrier steady.
"What are you doing?" Rhea gasped.
"Helping," I said simply.
The ward deflected it and then grew, drawing upon my own energy. But best of all, I could feel the connection growing between us with each contact.
Feel myself falling for her despite every wall I’d kept. Despite 20 years of telling myself that I would never give a f about anyone again.
I caught glimmers of her thoughts through the bond. Her relief at my help. Her concern for my wellbeing. Her dawning feelings for me, tentative but genuine.
And she saw into me. Saw the scared man behind the icy façade. The one who had watched his first mate die, and chosen never to fall in love again.
“We can’t keep them at bay indefinitely,” I said, trying to fight my way into a strategic frame of mind. "We need a plan."
Theron continued watching his now dead brother. "I have to face him. End this properly."
“That’s just what he’d like,” Cassian chimed, when with Marcus on his arm. "He's baiting you. The instant you go past that wall on your own, his rogues will slaughter you.”
"Then what do you suggest?" Theron snapped.
My brain went over the possibilities, weighing chances and results. That’s what I was good at, that’s what I’d always done. Suppress emotions, focus on logic.
“We have to split their forces,” I said. “Lure them into several battles so they won’t be able to concentrate all their power at any one point.”
I looked at my fellow mates. The four of us, on deck. Each to take his own body. They took their divisions. Coordinated assault from multiple angles.
Orin smiled, ever spoiling for a fight. "I like it. Hit them from all sides. They’re going to have no idea where to defend.”
"It's risky," Cassian said. “If one of us goes down, then the whole operation is finished.”
“It’s the best we can do,” I retorted.
They all glanced at Rhea, who was already having trouble just keeping the barrier up with my energy supplementing hers.
“Do it,” she said, in a thin, resolute voice. “I’ll keep the barrier up as long as I can to buy you both time to get into position.”
We four dispersed, each of us climbing to a different corner of the courtyard. Preparing for a coordinated strike.
I ended up standing next to Theron. The Lycan of legend who had first claimed Rhea, and perpetuated his bond with her.
"For what it's worth," I answered, quietly surprising myself, "Rhea does care about you. Of any of the, I think. You were first. That bond is strongest."
Theron's eyes flicked to me, surprise evident in them. "Why tell me this?"
“Because I know what is to lose someone you love,” I said. “And because if this gets fucked up, if something happens to you, I want you to know that I will keep her safe. We all will."
It wasn't jealousy speaking. It was truth. “The thing is,”
Leonora said, sliding the kinfe on her plate, “I did care for Rhea.” Despite myself, despite my walls and resistance. And how much she had cared for Theron, I could feel through the bond.
Something passed between us. Not friendship, but understanding. A shared purpose.
Rhea's barrier dropped.
The rogues charged with speechless yells.
The four of us acted as one, attacking with merciless, butchering swiftness.
I hacked through the rogue mechs in my sector with surgical precision. Every blow deliberate, not a wasted motion. To my left Orin battled furiously. Cassian's newly woken alpha power roared to right of me. And the ancient Lycan Theron was a force of nature directly in front.
For a moment, it was working. We were driving the rogues back now, combined strength overwhelming them.
Then I saw it.
A pack of rogues diverting, casting a wide circle round towards where Rhea was. She felt weaker and more exhausted, she had to struggle just to remain standing in front of the barrier.
"No!" I shouted, changing direction.
But I was too far away. At least fifty yards and dozens of attackers away from us.
Damon materialized in front of Rhea, his actions brimming with supernatural speed that should never be happening. He seized her throat and lifted her off the ground with one hand.
"Hello, sweetheart," he crooned, his voice a grotesque imitation of Theron's. “Me and you, we’re going to have a lot of fun.”
Rhea's hands flamed silver, but she was too weak. They putted along and died within a minute.
I never ran so fast in my life. The half-bond was shrieking in fury, wanting me to find her, protect her.
I wouldn't lose another mate. I would not stand by as someone I loved died and I was too slow, too weak, too late.
Not again.
But someone else beat me there.
Lilith was on Damon like a specter, hitting him hard. He dropped Rhea, who fell to the ground, gasping.
The two eternities clashed with a force that caused the very air to ripple. Claw to claw, might to might.
I rushed to Rhea finally reaching her and falling to my knees at her side. I tugged her into my embrace, and she just snapped back against me so perfectly.
Not gradually. Not gently. But then, a bit like lightning is when it just hits you and you are completely connected.
The walls all came tumbling down at once.
I looked into her mind, sensed the relief at being safe. Her fear for all of us. Her maintained willingness to soldier on despite being overwhelmed and exhausted.
And she saw into me.
Saw Elara commit suicide and was able to see everytime before he did it in great detail. The moment I’d sensed the mate bond snap. And then the 20 years of mourning. The scared man under the cold exterior that was so goddamn afraid of caring for someone again.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered, and for the first time in two decades, it was really true.
I was an opening one. A wound to the possibility of love, loss, pain.
"Kieran," Rhea said it on a breath, and touched my face with trembling fingers.
That mate mark is now showing on our necks. I felt it sing and burn into world, permanent and flawless.
Three bonds complete now. Only Orin's got fully grown.
Our moment was interrupted by a scream from Lilith.
I glanced up and saw that Damon had her in a vice. His hands were deep inside her stomach, in the exact spot a pregnant woman would be most vulnerable.
“The baby,The-” Lilith inhaled sharply, her hands fluttering to her belly and the Tearogge’s unborn child. "He's killing the baby."
Blood poured from the wound. Too much blood.
Theron screamed, a cry of pure torment that I felt resonate up through Rhea's bond with him. He left his part of the war, charging at Lilith and Damon.
“No,” I replied, too late falling into the trap. "Theron, don't—"
But he was beyond hearing. Beyond reason.
Rogues poured in from every direction the moment Theron joined them. They had been waiting for this moment, holding back.
Damon chuckled as he withdrew his claws from Lilith's belly. She passed out, was unconscious or dead, I didn’t know.
“My brother,” Damon shouted, sounding rapturously malicious. "Always so predictable. So emotional. That’s why I won, even though you believed you’d killed me.”
He nodded toward the rogues who had her surrounded. “I’ve been planning this for 300 years. To gather forces. To watch for the time to be just right.
His gaze zeroed in on Rhea being held in my arms. “And now you’ve provided me with the ultimate weapon. Your mate. The only thing you actually care about.”
Theron was caught, surrounded by rogues on all fronts. Orin and Cassian struggled to reach him, but they were overwhelmed.
“Release me,” Rhea groaned as she tried to push herself up. "I have to help—"
“You’re far too weak,” I said, clutching her in my grasp. "You'll get yourself killed."
"Then what do we do?" Her voice was desperate, anguished.
I felt every one of them through the bonds. Theron's rage and fear. Cassian's determination. Orin's wild battle fury.
And I felt Rhea’s power, not gone but drained. The mixed-genre magic that set her apart.
“We make the last bond,” I said, the response coming to me in an instant. "Orin. If the four bonds are full, at the climax will be your power. The prophecy was you're to bring together four bloodlines.” Maybe that's the key."
"How?" Rhea asked. “Orin’s right in the middle of this fight —”
A roar cut her off. Orin had listened to me somehow over the link the bonds forged between us all.
He was making his way to us, killing rogues left and right.
"Do it!" he shouted. “Do whatever you need to do, right now!”