Chapter 55
Chase
I
can hear Kiera crying the moment I walk in the door. Leaving Caspian to begin
making plans with his guards, I retreat to my rooms, where I find my mate
sobbing face down on the bed.
Kiera
is still wearing the same ridiculous outfit from the day before, and as much as
my heart hurts to see my mate in pain, I’m also furious that she risked her
life this way. Striding across the room, I settle on the edge of the bed and
rest my hand on the curve of her lower back. My splayed palm covers the breadth
of her slender waist, and the feeling of her soft, warm body beneath my fingers
is comforting after such a stressful ordeal.
“Kiera,
how could you?” I murmur.
She
sobs even harder, whimpering as I slip my hand beneath the hem of her top and
stroke her silky skin. “You don’t have to make me feel worse!” She moans,
“Viviane’s probably being tortured right now and it’s all my fault!”
“Why
did you go to the settlements?” I ask in
resignation.
“We
didn’t know Caspian was looking into the trafficking!” Kiera wails, “We thought
no one else would do it if we didn’t.”
“How
could you think he wouldn’t be?” I struggle to keep the frustration from my
voice. “He loves Viviane more than life
itself.”
“Viviane
was going to go whether I agreed or not.” She repeats. “It wasn’t up to me.”
I
roll the little lynx to face me. “Of course it was Kiera. If you’d come to me,
we could have stopped this.”
She
tries to roll back, but I don’t let her. “I didn’t want to come to you. I
wanted to take care of things for myself.”
“Even
if it meant getting yourself killed?” I demand.
“It
didn’t.” Kiera insists.
“It
might have! If Viviane hadn’t sacrificed herself, they would have killed you!”
I growl.
“So
be it then!” Kiera cries hopelessly.
Taking
hold of her much too roughly, I snarl, “Don’t you ever say that!”
Kiera
quells, bowing to my dominance out of instinct rather than will. “I’m sorry.”
“We’ll
get her back.” I promise.
“How?”
Kiera laments. “Everything has gone so wrong.”
“Caspian
will figure something out.” I promise. “He’s already scouring the territory to
find her. He won’t rest until she’s brought safely home.”
“But
what if he can’t?” She hiccups.
Sighing
heavily I reach for the impossible little feline. “Come here baby.”
“No.”
Kiera grumbles stubbornly, backing away and glaring at me mutinously.
My
wolf growls, but I drop my hands, deciding to test my stubborn mate’s resolve.
“Suit yourself.” I agree, rising to my feet.
The
next thing I know, two small hands have latched onto my arm. “Wait!” Kiera
exclaims with a sniffle. “Don’t go.”
Turning
back and gazing down at her skeptically I say, “Which is it, little lynx? Do
you want my company or not?”
Her
full lower lip quivers, her eyes impossibly wide and still overflowing with
tears. I’ve never seen such a confused and conflicted creature. “I don’t know.”
She finally answers.
Stroking
her long hair out of her face, I bring my palm to rest on her cheek. “Yes you
do, Kiera.”
She
doesn’t want to admit the truth - that much is clear. However she also doesn’t
want to be alone. Sulky beyond belief, she petulantly mutters, “Stay.”
Bending
down to her eye level, I pin her between my crosshairs, hardening myself
against her tears and the adorable pout she’s wearing. “If I stay, it’s going
to be on my terms. I’m going to comfort you however I see fit, and you’re going
to let me.”
For
a moment my mate looks so defiant I’m certain she’ll refuse, but then she
relaxes, melting into submission and lowering her gaze. “Okay.” She nods shyly.
She’s
avoiding looking at me, so I don’t bother to hide my grin. I simply wrap her up
in my arms and pull her into my lap. For the first time since I realized we
were mates, Kiera comes to me willingly, snuggling into my embrace with all the
sweetness her proud personality forbids.
Finally.
Viviane
I
keep thinking about my mother.
By now
everyone will know I’ve been taken. At first I thought mostly of Caspian,
overflowing with guilt for the worry I’m surely putting him through. However
when my mind turned to my poor Mom, who sacrificed everything to help me escape
the pearl farms and build a life in Asterion, fear overpowered all else. She
was already so weak - what if the shock of my capture was too much for her to
stand?
What if she
dies and I’m not there with her? She’s been holding on this long to take care
of me, and just started letting go because she believed I was safe and she
could rest. This will have broken her heart, I’ll never forgive myself if she
passes before I can repair it one final time.
I’m
terrified about what awaits me in the Bloodstone territories. The traffickers
said they aren’t taking me to the pearl farms, instead they’ve talked non stop
about brothels and auctions. I know what it is to be violated and I’m petrified
of experiencing such torture again, but more than anything I just want to get
home for the people I love. I need to figure a way out of this so I can return
to Caspian, Mom and Kiera. I need to make sure I have a future, no matter how
horrible the present may be.
I’ve got to
find a way to escape.
The other
mermaids and I have been packed into the back of a utility van so we can be
transported, and unfortunately the only thing I can see is the view out the
rear window. Our hands are tied and the doors are locked, so I’m forced to
watch the Nightshade territory disappear into the distance as we move further
and further away.
Some of the
other girls are whispering behind me, a few are crying, sending pearls
clattering along the bottom of the uncomfortable vehicle. “Is it true?” One of
the younger mermaids asks softly.
Turning to
face her, I realize she’s speaking to me. “Is what true?” I clarify. Like me,
this girl underwent the Cut, which means she started out a slave like all the
rest of us. Surely she doesn’t need to be told that the horrors our captors
promised us are real.
“That
you're mated to an Alpha.” She murmurs in awe, staring at Caspian’s mark.
“Yes.” I
sigh, “it is.”
The girls
exchange excited glances. “Then he’ll come after you, won’t he? There’s a
chance we can be rescued?”
Unfortunately
for us, the shifters have much better hearing than we do, and there’s no volume
low enough in an enclosed space that could keep our words private from our
captors. The traffickers laugh cruelly, “You little idiots, there’s no Alpha
alive who can challenge Damien.” One remarks, referring to the Bloodstone
alpha. “All that mark means is that your little friend is going to be the prize
at the auction.”
“Why?” I demand, finding my
voice, “won’t they just consider me his sloppy seconds?”
The men laugh again, “No one
cares if you’ve already been rutted. Any mermaid valuable enough to make an
Alpha formally claim them has to be something special.” His eyes rake over me
in a way that makes my skin crawl. “You’re certainly lovely enough for it to
have been a choice, but any shifter worth his salt would realize that you must
have been fated, otherwise he would have simply kept you as a mistress - and
the gods don’t make mistakes when it comes to matching Alphas with their better
halves.”
One of the others grunts in
agreement, “Besides, there is no greater sign of power than dominating an
Alpha, and that is exactly what owning his mate would mean.”
A niggling thought sticks in the
back of my mind. “Why did you say they’d have to challenge Damien?”
“Ah see,” the first man taunts,
“this one even has half a brain.”
“Because little mermaid.” I
wince when I hear the sweet nickname Caspian often uses for me used so harshly,
“that’s whose auction you’re going to headline. And knowing our Alpha, there’s
not a chance he’ll allow anyone else to buy you.”
The first man laughs again.
“Mark my words bottom-feeder, by this time next week you’ll be Damien’s
property, and that mark on your neck won’t mean a gods damned thing.”
In that moment I decide that
waiting for a rescue as the other girls suggested is absolutely not an option. I
have complete faith in Caspian, but if what these monsters are saying is true,
then I can’t afford to waste a single moment. I’m going to have to save myself
this time. I have to find a way to escape, and I have to help as many of my
mermaid sisters get out as well. It’s what my mother would want, and maybe -
just maybe - it’s the reason I landed in this horrible situation in the first
place.
Maybe this doesn’t all have to
be for nothing. I am not a slave any longer, and I refuse to lay down and
accept my fate.
