Chapter 148

Hannah

“Mate?” I repeated, keeping my tone low to not alert Gabe. “I don’t understand…”

“It’s true, Hannah!” Nora breathed. “I don’t understand it either, but Sebastian’s not just our chosen mate. He’s our fated mate. That’s why we always felt so drawn to him. It was meant to be!”

“How did we not know this before?”

“Maybe because his wolf wasn’t whole. The part of his wolf that would recognize us as our mate and vice versa was trapped in the underworld.”

“But Henry…”

“Lied to us,” she said flatly. “He was using that part of Sebastian’s wolf to make us think he was our mate. It was all a lie… it was Xander pulling the strings and…”

Her voice trailed off as Sebastian finished climbing out of the vent. He had a mixture of emotions on his face as he ran toward me. He wrapped me in his arms and held me close to him. The warmth of his body blanketed me, and I nearly melted into him. I could feel our mate bond strengthening with each passing moment; it was like we were officially connected and merged into one.

“Mate…” he whispered against my ears. “You’ve been my fated mate the entire time.”

This only made so much sense; it was obvious now that I thought about it. The moon goddess chose us to be the key to opening each side of the portal and she chose our daughter to be the key to opening both sides of the portal. She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t hand pick up to be together.

Of course, he was my fated mate.

Tears threatened my eyes, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep them at bay this time. I was overwhelmed with emotions, and I couldn’t keep them hidden any longer. He leaned down and gently pressed his lips against mine, sending tingles throughout my entire body. I felt his warm tongue exploring my mouth delicately and curiously. His tongue was anything but slimy, unlike Xander’s. His kiss was welcoming and warm; it made my heart sore. I ran my fingers through his hair, tugging at it gently. I wanted so much more of him, but I knew we didn’t have the time for it.

This wasn’t fair. We finally recognized one another as mates, and I couldn’t take what was mine. He pulled away from me, both of us breathless as he pressed his forehead against mine.

“Another man’s lips were touching what’s mine,” he said in a low and threatening tone.

A smile tugged at my lips as I opened my eyes to peer into his scarlet eyes. He knew Xander had kissed me, and he was anything but happy about it.

“I can explain everything later,” I whispered to him. “But trust me, it wasn’t pleasant.”

“I will kill him with my canines,” he said in return. “I won’t let him live with what he has done.”

I placed both my hands on each side of his face so I could peer into his eyes. I could see his gaze softening the longer I looked at him. I pressed my lips to him again; it took everything I had not to rip his clothes off. I knew he felt the same way; the hunger and lust in his eyes spoke volumes.

“You have 2 more minutes!” I heard Gabe’s voice from across the library. I almost forgot he was waiting for me.

“Almost done,” I shouted back without keeping my eyes off Sebastian.

Sebastian reluctantly pulled away from me, but he kept his hands holding mine and he guided me toward the vent. He wanted me to escape with him. I paused before entering the vent.

“They are going to come looking for me,” I told him.

“Let me worry about that,” he said in return. He slipped into the vent and held out his arms for me to fall into him.

He caught me before I landed. The vent was extremely dark, and I couldn’t see to save my life. He closed the vent, sealing us inside and I felt a gust of AC causing me to shiver.

“Keep going straight ahead,” he said to me. “We’ll end up outside soon enough. I’m right behind you.”

“Please don’t leave me,” I whispered to him. I was afraid to turn my back to crawl away.

He kissed me gently on the lips.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I smiled and turned away, crawling through the filthy, dark, and cramped vent. It felt like we were crawling forever. I thought I would never see the light of day again. Technically, when we were finally out of the vent, I still wasn’t seeing the light of day. The sun was still so low to the land that it burned the sand under our feet and made the air unbearable to breathe in.

The sky was an auburn red, matching the sand that surrounded us. But it was also growing darker with each passing moment, so I knew it was nightfall. I wondered if this land had a moon and if it would soon rise. I knew when we entered the underworld, the sun had set, and the moon was beginning to rise on our land. We only had until midnight before Xander performed the ritual that would give him full control if we stayed any longer.

We couldn’t let that happen.

Sebastian led me through the back gates of the palace; I finally got a glimpse of the palace I was leaving behind. It was huge; it was definitely bigger than Sebastian’s. it was also all black and the aura was deadly. I couldn’t believe I was inside of that; I got a sudden chill just thinking about it.

I was surprised that there weren’t many guards behind the palace at the back gates; they were all mainly in the front. They probably didn’t think anybody would be stupid enough to escape the vampire king’s palace.

It seems that Sebastian had already formed a small hole under a portion of the gate where he crawled through. I looked back at the palace once more knowing that both my mother and Liam were still inside. That meant I was going to need to return there and soon if I wanted to get Liam out of the underworld. But first, we needed to figure out a plan.

As we ran from the palace grounds, we ran through what looked like a forest. Accept all the trees were naked. I wasn’t surprised because no living leaf would be able to survive the heat in the underworld. But there were so many trees with naked branches that towered over our heads. There were also plants I didn’t recognize that kept us hidden as we walked. The forest felt a bit cooler; maybe because the naked branches covered us from the torture of the sun.

“Shouldn’t we shift?” I asked as we continued running hand in hand. This was the first time I spoke since the vents, and I didn’t realize how the air turned my voice raspy. I winced in pain as the dryness of my tongue scratched the back of my throat.

“He’ll be able to sense us if we shift,” he answered. “It’ll be better if we stay as discreet as possible. At least until we can figure out how to get out of here.”

“What do you mean figure it out?” I asked. “We already know how to leave. We just need to get my brother. But you have your wolf. All we need is the scepter and we can get out of here.”

He was quiet.

“Sebastian?” I urged. “We do have the scepter, don’t we?”

“I did,” he finally answered.

“Did?” I asked, stopping in my tracks. “As in…?”

“As in, I don’t anymore.”