“Tristan,” my dad demands. “Why the hell didn’t you approach the Council?”
I shake my head, looking down. “I thought… I could fix it all, dad,” I admit. “Thought I could protect Gray and Logan, protect you… and protect Sienna. But I failed.”
Looking up, I hold his eye. “The Denied status doesn’t apply. The letter was forged. It needs to be retracted immediately.”
Justice Milo interrupts. “There’s certainly a lot to discuss.” I don’t miss his side-eye at Gray and Lo, the way his lip curls in distaste, and my fists clench at my sides. “I too would question why you did not approach us with this, Tristan.”
“Because you’re Erikkson’s little Council buddy,” Jax interrupts. “Everyone knows it, Justice.”
Milo’s eyes widen a little, and he draws himself up. “I am not so blind to my faults that I do not recognise them. But I will not accept accusations of corruption. The law is the law, and I will follow it.”
He glances around. “Where is Erikkson, so he can respond to these claims?”
I stay where I am. “He’s gone. He was gone before we came in.”
Alicia’s head jerks up as she looks around. “Daddy?”
Jax leans forward, his tone cutting. “Looks like daddy isn’t around to get you out of this one, princess. He left you behind to face the music.”
Alicia keeps looking around frantically. “He’s not – he would never leave me.”
“Well, he did.” I raise my voice over the muttering. “Alicia prevented us from coming today by throwing a gas canister into my car, knocking us out to give her time to get here and offer a forged letter of Denial. I have never signed a letter of Denial, and I never will.”
I turn back to Alicia, my eyes flicking to Sienna’s parents. “During Sienna’s heat, Alicia locked her in a shed in our grounds and threw chemicals over her to disguise her scent. If we hadn’t found her, I don't know what would have happened.”
Gasps ring out, and Ollena Hayward steps forward, her face thunder. “Is this true?” she demands. Alicia huffs, looking away.
“She threatened your daughters,” I say softly to Sienna’s parents. “Both of them.”
I don’t look at Alicia. I’m not giving her a single second more of my time, even as she wails, scrabbling and crawling to my feet. She tugs at my trousers desperately.
“Tristan,” she cries. “You know I only did that for us. All of it, for us.”
I keep my eyes up, refusing to give her even a single second more of my attention. “I do not want you, Alicia. I do not care about you, except to wish you as much pain and suffering as you have heaped on our Soul Bonded.”
Her cries are drowned out by a scream, and everyone turns to Sienna’s mother. She sways in her mate’s arms, and the look on her face, the terror, makes me step forward.
“I swear to you,” I begin, but she holds up a shaking hand. “Soul Bonded. You are… Soul Bonded, to my daughter?Allof you?”
When I nod, the courtyard erupts. Sienna’s father turns gray as he runs a shaking hand over his face. “Oh, Sienna.”
“We’ll find her—,” I begin, but her mother interrupts me.
“You find hernow,” she demands. “You have to leave immediately. If you don’t, it will kill her. She cannotsurvivebeing separated from you!”
The bottom drops out from my stomach.
Health Elio comes to stand next to them, his face grave as I try and comprehend her words.
“What?” Jax demands next to me. “What do you mean?”
Tears start to roll down Sienna’s mothers cheeks. “Soul Bonded cannot be separated. It causes physical pain for the omega, and it grows the longer they’re apart.”
“Not just that,” Elio says softly. “We believe that the distance can be physical, or emotional. Whilst we don’t have many Soul Bonded to study, Sienna’s visit to the Healer’s Center raised my suspicions. Although she denied it at the time, you have just confirmed them, Tristan. Aside from the physical dangers you have mentioned, her body will begin to fail. And she was already significantly weakened by the emotional stress caused during the Bonding Trials.”
My mouth dries as the implications of his words hit me directly in the chest. Every action, every word I’ve spoken to Sienna, every cold shoulder, hits me like a dagger, and I stagger into Jax.
“Soul Bonds need care,” Helena Michaelson whispers, her lips pale. “And as soon as I saw her, I suspected something wasn’t right. She’s already fading, thanks to you and your pack.”
