Chapter 99

Hannah

“What do you mean Sebastian is harming my wolf?” I snapped, refusing to believe his cruel words. I hated that I couldn’t shift and break out of this room; I needed to somehow get out of here and return home to Sebastian. I needed to know what Henry was talking about, but I didn’t want to hear it from Henry. I needed to hear it from Sebastian.

“He’s using you to help his wolf madness,” Henry said, sitting down beside me. “Your scent for some reason helps calm him. That’s the only reason he’s keeping you around. If it wasn’t for your scent, he would have killed you by now.”

“No,” I breathed, shaking my head at him. “Maybe at the beginning that’s what it was. But it’s different now. He’s different…”

“No, he’s not, Hannah,” Henry growled, startling me. He has never rose his voice like this before and I’m not sure how to react to this new attitude change. Henry sighed and his gaze fell to the ground. “He’s dangerous. You must have known from the beginning how dangerous he was. He married you because a prophecy told him that you are essential to his wolf madness. Why else would he choose to marry you?

I felt hurt by his words. Sebastian had made a deal with Steven to marry his daughter and we all assumed he meant Amy. She was the one he was supposed to marry but she didn’t want to. She feared him and they made me marry him. It was never me he was supposed to marry.

Unless it was.

My scent and saliva help him with his wolf madness and the reasoning is unexplained. Of course, I would never tell Henry any of this. I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction of being right. I needed to speak with Sebastian. He’s the only one who knows the entire truth.

“I want to go home,” I ordered him, my voice hardened. “I need to speak with my husband.”

“Please just listen to me… I need you to trust me…”

“Trust you?” I cut in, raising my brows. “You’ve been lying to me since the moment we met. Why should I believe anything you have to say to me right now, Henry?”

He was quiet for a moment; I knew he was thinking carefully about what to say next.

“Because I remember the moment we first met,” he said.

“In the rose garden?” I asked him, confused.

He shook his head.

“Way before that, when we were kids,” he told me. I rose my eyebrows, keeping my eyes locked on his. I don’t remember meeting him as a kid. I was very confused. “I remember seeing your face after I’ve been shot. I didn’t have the chance to thank you, but you were the one who saved my life…”

“What?” I breathed. “No… I…”

“That little boy you saved when you were only a little girl. I was a teen at the time, but I was shot, and I was bleeding out in the middle of the road. You saved me,” he further explained.

I felt the color draining from my face as the wind got sucked out of me. I remembered; I just couldn’t believe that it was him.

I must have been only 8 years old at the time. My mother allowed me to go to the market in the rogue town we lived in. My brother had fallen ill, and she was worried about leaving him, so she sent me to the market to grab some food. As I went to the market, I found myself roaming close to the border of the kingdom. I knew that I wasn’t allowed to wander into the kingdom without my mother, but I couldn’t help myself. It was like I was being drawn in.

That’s when I saw a young boy in the middle of the road. He was lying on the ground, and he was completely alone. He looked to be a teenager and I knew from his clothing that he belonged to the kingdom. He was fairly close to the border though, so it surprised me to see him without anyone with him. I ran to him on instinct and knelt on the ground beside him.

He was unconscious; he had a bullet in his stomach, and he looked to be losing a lot of blood quickly. I covered his wound with my hands to try and stop the bleeding, but I knew there was no use unless the bullet was completely taken out of him. I searched his clothing for a phone and thankfully came across his cell phone in his pocket.

He must be rich; I remembered thinking to myself. Most kids, even teens, didn’t have their own cell phones. But his looked new and upgraded. Telling from his clothing, he must have come from a nice family.

I instantly called for an ambulance, and they promised to send someone right away once I told them our location. I knew I couldn’t just wait around for them to arrive though; this kid was going to die if I didn’t do anything.

I felt around his wound until my fingers touched the bullet that was wedged inside of him. I used my small fingers to pry my way inside and dig the bullet out. The pain must have been too great for him because it woke him from his unconscious state. Sweat poured from his face instantly he screamed out in pain as I dug my way through his wound to get the bullet out of him.

I met his dark blue eyes and he stared at me for a long while, begging for me to stop.

“I’m only trying to help you,” I assured him; I was hoping I didn’t have a lot of fear in my voice.

He screamed again as I finally got the bullet out of him. I used my small hands to cover his wound and keep him from losing any more blood. The ambulance arrived shortly after. I watched as they took him away. I never got his name and I never saw him again after that.

I used the river to wash the blood off my body before I went into the marketplace and then I returned home.

“That was you?” I breathed as I stared at Henry with disbelief.

“Yes,” he answered. “That was me.”

…

Sebastian’s POV

Sebastian felt much calmer after he finished his ice bath. He drained the tub and put his clothes on before leaving the bathroom. He paused in the hallway when he didn’t sense Hannah nearby. Typically, he would be able to sense her as soon as she was on the palace grounds, but it was like she wasn’t here at all.

She went to see if Henry was okay in the gardens; that was the last he saw or heard from her. Then he went to take an ice bath; he thought she would have returned to their room by now. But when he opened the door, she wasn’t there.

“She isn’t here,” Eric growled. “I can’t get a hold of her. Something is blocking our mindlink.”

Sebastian shut the door to his room and rushed toward the stairs. One of the maids, Valerie was making her way up the stairs and paused when she saw him approaching. She looked nervous but she bowed immediately.

“Good evening, sir,” she said to him, keeping her tone calm.

“Where’s Hannah,” he asked her, his tone harsh.

She frowned.

“I haven’t seen her,” she said. “Why do you ask? Is everything okay?”

“She got a mindlink from that gardener and she went to see if he was okay. That was almost an hour ago and she hasn’t returned yet.”

“You don’t think something happened to her, do you?” Valerie asked gazing up at him worriedly.

Sebastian didn’t bother responding to her. He walked away and toward the back door that led into the gardens. As he reached outside, he could still smell her lingering scent. However, it was a distant scent, so he knew she was no longer there. He roamed around the garden anyway though, hoping to get a stronger scent of her.

It wasn’t like her to just leave like this.

“I can’t link her,” Eric said in a panic. “Something is wrong with our chosen mate.”