“Your mother left you there? Chained up like an animal?” Zane asked, disbelief in his voice.
“Yes, but it nearly killed her to do that. My mother had applied for a job and had just started that day as a cleaning lady. After wandering around looking for me, she’d finally found my room…and me. I think she hoped I’d changed my mind and would go with her, but seeing her only confused me more. For two weeks, I spent my days convincing myself she wasn’t real and that I was being tested by the Four Gods as to my worthiness to be a High Priest.”
“Did you really believe the Four Gods wouldn’t want your mother to be with you?” asked Zane.
“Yes. I know it sounds crazy now, but that’s because you don’t understand what those two years were like for me,” David said, becoming agitated.
Wrapping his arms around David to settle him down, Zane kissed his mate’s forehead. “Babe, it’s all right,” he crooned. “I love you.”
David felt his mate’s love flowing through him, helping to calm his soul. Just talking about this period in his life was horrible but trying to explain it to Zane was worse than he imagined. Taking several deep breaths, he tried to explain what had been done to him. “After I’d been taken, I was sure my mother would rescue me and I dreamt of her every night. Then, in the morning, I woke up back in my changed world. Why hadn’t she come for me?
“After a while, two months or maybe four, the High Priestess had me brought to her and she showed me a picture of what she said was my mother’s grave, explaining she’d been killed by some bad people. I wassaved, she said, because the Four Gods sent someone to protect me and bring me to her.
“I asked her why they would do that for me, and that’s when she told me the gods had chosen me to be the High Priest on earth. The High Priestess told me I was the savior sent by the Four Gods to bring order into the world and to do that I had to learn how to be a High Priest so I could lead the world and enlighten my followers. She went on and on about how special and lucky I was until I fell asleep in her room. That was the day dreams about my mother stopped. I was a five year old child, all alone in the world…at least that’s what I believed then…and the only person who cared about me was the High Priestess.
“From then on, I did everything that she asked of me, spending hours learning everything about the religion of the Four Gods. The High Priestess had me so twisted by the time I was seven, I truly believed being chained up every night was normal and I never objected. In my mind, it was necessary to prove my worthiness. The only time I didn’t follow orders was when I entered the woods without the keeper by my side. I still can’t understand what drove me to do that.
“Now, I look back at that time in my life and wonder why I accepted everything the High Priestess told me, so much so, that I would reject my mother just a couple of years later. My mother! Who I loved with my whole heart! And in two years, my love was gone…all gone. I was so dumb, believing the High Priestess. You should know this about me…I’m easily taken in by what people tell me.”
“David, look at me. You are not dumb…”
“I was…am…I believedherinstead of trusting my heart.”
“Babe, you were five years old! What did you know about the world? Very little…certainly nothing about knowing that someone would lie to you about the death of your mother! You know what I think you were suffering from?”
“A massive case of dumbness?” asked David, with a wan smile.
“Stop it! Stop putting yourself down! You were only five…five. If there is any blame it belongs to that bitch of a High Priestess.”
Grinning at his mate’s words, David said, “She’d be very angry if she heard you say that.”
“No offense, but fuck her. Did you ever hear of the Stockholm Syndrome?”
“Nooo, I don’t believe so. What is it?”
“It can happen when someone is held hostage and in order to survive, the hostage bonds with his captors. In this case, once the High Priestess provided proof your mother was dead, you turned to her because she offered to keep you safe. And for a five year old, torn from the only home he knew, that was what was most important to you. As you found out two years later, it was a lie but by that time, your bond was firmly in place so when your mother wanted you to come with her, your mind rebelled because that threatened the security you had. I’m not surprised you chose not to go with her.”
“You’re not?” asked David, somewhat surprised.
“No babe, I’m not. Remember you were only seven when your mom found you…a very sheltered and protected seven year old who had already gone through one traumatic incident. What surprises me is that you never said anything to the High Priestess.”
“I know, I know. I never did, not even to any of my keepers.”
“I have a theory about that too.”
“You do? What is it?”
“You think your love for her was gone, but I don’t. It was still there, buried deep in your heart where you were protecting it from the world. It was your love that stopped you from telling anyone about your mother in the woods and then later, when she showed up in your room. You knew the High Priestess would’ve hurt your mother if she’d found out about her.”
David’s chin dropped as he stared at his mate.How does my mate know this? Shaking his head, he said, “Well you’re right about one thing. When I finally ran away to Scotland, she chained my mother up in my place. When she came to visit me in my room one night at the pub, the High Priestess told me my mother was her insurance so I better do exactly what I was told to do.”
Chapter 25
“Whoa! Wait a minute! You mean your mother is a prisoner at the convent? Right now? What kind of fucked up shit is that?” asked Zane.
“I don’t know what happened. We made a plan to escape. My mother left when I did but when I arrived at our meeting place, she never showed up. I waited and waited but when I saw Michael snooping around, I ran.”
“Who’s Michael? Babe, I’m missing a lot. Go back to when your mother showed up in your room. What happened after she left?”
