Page 41 of Bonded

I knew quickly as a child to stop wanting things. To want something was to have something that could hurt you, destroy you, rip you to pieces. Making a friendship with Elizabeth—risking looking after her—was probably the bravest thing I’ve ever done in this court, in front of my mother. I only did that because Elizabeth reminded me of myself as a child. Always hiding in corners, wishing no one could see me. Elizabeth was the same, and she needed someone—someone to be her friend, to be there for her. So I was. I took every beating that came because of it, and I never gave Elizabeth the chance to explain about our father. I should have done.

Meredith is not going to pay the price for my recklessness. “There you are.” Gaia sits up straighter.

“Where is she?” I demand, storming across the room.

She smiles at me like she didn’t take Meredith. “You love her.”

“Where. Is. She?” I snarl.

“Love is very dangerous for people like us. Royals should not fall in love. Our duty is to the throne, to continuing the royal line, and to protecting our people. She is a danger, and she always will be. It is best that you accept that.” Gaia tuts, as if this is a fact and not something she just wishes for.

“I won’t accept anything other than Meredith at my side. Now, mother, tell me where you put her,” I demand. The walls shake with the ground, and I lose control of my temper. I’ve worked very fucking hard to be in control of my power at all times after my brother’s death and all those people. Years of control, but I can feel it slipping now, and I won’t contain what is going to happen if she doesn’t begin to talk.

“Come with me.” She steps off the throne and walks away. I track her, wondering what her game is. There is no way she will take me to Meredith that easily. She moves through one of the many side doors leading out of the throne room. Reluctantly, I follow, hoping she’s leading me to Meredith. Killing her is no good if I can’t find where Meredith is, and right now I can’t sense her at all. How is it possible not to sense her? I have a bit of her soul, and yet I cannot feel where she is. Something is blocking the connection, and it shouldn’t be possible.

I follow Gaia straight across the empty clearing into the ballroom, and she opens the doors. I walk in after her, letting the doors slam shut behind us. She stops in the middle of the room and looks right up.

The twin swords of the Mother goddess.

“The goddesses and their Champion. The reason we do any of this. These lands were given to us by the three goddesses, and we are nothing but their servants—except for her.” Gaia lowers her gaze to me. “The Mother has whispered to me that Meredith betrayed us. That she lied and was not human at all. Now she’s facing a trial designed by the Mother herself, to make sure she is worthy.”

Fear spreads through my chest. The Mother has been speaking to Gaia—or she’s delusional. Either one is extremely dangerous for my woman. “Then let me fight beside her. Tell me where she is.”

“You’re the heir. Why would I do that?” She comes over and touches my cheek. There is no comfort in her touch. Not anymore. I remember wishing she would hug me, tell me she loved me, or offer me any kind of affection. She never did. “Did I ever tell you that you have my mother’s eyes? It’s the only reason I never smothered you in your sleep as a baby.” She lowers her hand. “I should have done. The very earth screamed at me of your wrongness when you were born. Other people might have loved a baby like you. But not me. Letting you live cost me my sons.” I am her son too, but it doesn’t matter. I have never mattered to her, and I have accepted it. “And then you grew up into a child who liked to destroy everything. A teenager who was wild and untamed. An adult who is no better.”

“Maybe your lack of love is exactly what shaped me into those things. Maybe a mother’s love would have shaped me into something completely different.” I hold her gaze. “I want the throne. I want to be alpha now. Your time is up, Gaia, and I’m tired of facing your hate for what happened to my brothers. They were older than me and cruel. Their cruelty is what caused their deaths, and we all know it. They would have become just like father…and the only son who wouldn’t is me. You still didn’t see me.”

Her eyes flash with her wolf. “They were nothing like him and everything like me. You are the broken one!” She steps back. “You won’t be walking away from this either, Orion.” The superficial smile she gives me is one I am used to. “You forget that I am your alpha. You cannot lay a finger on me, but I can kill you. I won’t, if you do as I ask and forget her. You can have a good life, marry who I say and have children we can shape into the next heirs. You were never meant for the throne of a court of earth and light. Never.”

Thorns erupt out of the ground, slamming into me—a hundred at once. I scream as pain tears through me and blood pours across the floor. I collapse back. Gaia walks around me in circles, looking up at the glowing swords in the sphere above. “It will be a shame to kill you. I doubt I will ever have another child, but it seems I will have to find someone to be my heir, someone I can control, and that has never been you, Orion.” She watches me with cold eyes as I bleed out on her floor. “You’re full of secrets and lies.”

I scream as the thorns embed deeper into my skin. I try to fight back, but I can’t. My magic pauses, recognising her as alpha, and won’t touch her.

“Let my brother go.”

Elizabeth’s voice echoes across the ballroom, and fear pounds into my chest. She came back for me. My mother is going to kill her. “L-leave!” I roar at her, but she shakes her head. Elizabeth walks in, standing in front of the doors as they click shut behind her. Her chest heaves with fast breaths as she stares across at us. Her eyes meet mine for a second, and I lift mine up to show her where to look. Elizabeth was a curious child, and I took her here once, taught her about the histories of the many things hanging above. She knows exactly what the swords are, and I fucking hope she figures out a way to get to them. She has basic earth magic, enough to send vines to break it.

Elizabeth looks up at the sphere.

“Your father left information about the powers inherited through his experiments. Your wolf may be strong, but we both know you lack the power to stop me.”

Vines crawl towards Elizabeth as she runs my way. Desperately, I thrash against my binding to get to her as the vines slam into her waist, pulling her down on the floor. She screams as they constrict around her body, and my mother begins to slowly kill my sister. “STOP!”

Gaia ignores me, looking down at Elizabeth. “It’s good that you came back. It will break him to see you die…to lose both his murderous sister and his once human whore.”

I roar as Elizabeth’s eyes meet mine and they glow. Earth power explodes into the air, green strings appearing around the room and all of them heading right towards Elizabeth. She gasps, something in her eyes changing. She reaches up, her hands stretched high, and the sphere holding the swords smashes. The swords lash out of the air, swirling through it, the hilts slamming into Elizabeth’s grasp. The green glow climbs up her arms, around her entire body, leaving her glowing like the Mother goddess herself. Gaia shakes her head, stepping back. “You can’t be—you can’t be one of the three! Impossible!”

Elizabeth looks down at them. “They called me back.” She lifts her head. “It’s time for a new alpha.”

“No!” Gaia screams, taking several steps back, shaking her head.

Elizabeth moves towards her. Vines lash out of the ground, but they bounce off Elizabeth and sink back into the ground. She walks forward with the swords as the ground shakes and rattles.

Gaia turns to run away, but I lift my hand with every bit of strength I have left, making a solid wall of earth rip up in the middle of the throne room, stopping her. She shakes her head desperately as she runs into it and turns around. She looks at me for help. “Son—son, stay with me. Stop her. Don’t let her kill your mother too.”

“I’ve never had a mother.” I look at Elizabeth and nod once. Elizabeth walks straight across the room, swinging the swords in the way I taught her to fight, and beheads the alpha in one clean movement. The magic transfer is almost instantaneous. The earth magic of being the new alpha floods my system. My wounds instantly heal as I connect with the very earth around me, and I feel everything from the flowers to the animals on my land and the very core of the earth. I am the earth now, and it is I.

“Orion.” Elizabeth runs to my side, putting the swords down as the weight of the crown my father once wore settles into my hair and more magic settles into my soul, along with the weight of being alpha. This was always my fate and always my pack. “Are you okay?”