Because I’m his favored weapon this falls into my lap. He may have kept me from the Eternal Night Forest, but gave me a gilded cage in return.
“I hear a wedding is in order.”
My heart skips but I remain emotionless. The Woodland Fae look to me, sensing the topic is going to change into something dramatic. Fenrir is practically foaming at the mouth to learn a bit of gossip.
“There was always going to be one.” I don’t bother to hide it. I made the announcement in order to draw attention away from Zelos’ grand plan.
But, secretly, I made the claim to tie her to me, one final way.
I’ll have her soul, her body, and her heart. Any way possible.
“Yes. The bond.” My father rolls his eyes. He’s never had a bond, never been in love.
As a child, I thought my father grew to love my mother, a political wedding that solidified twopowerful houses. But that was a child’s dream. My father hated my mother; he’s never loved anyone, including his children.
My father only cares for power and how to gain more of it. It’s almost depressing.
“What shall we do about that?” His cutting eyes scan me, and I resist the urge to attack, my beast ready to break free. “We’ll need a Mage and they’re in short supply.” Mainly, because my father wiped most of them out. He’s never been a Gods-fearing man. “We can’t afford a distraction now, my heir. The officials are here, Griffin amasses troops in the south. A wedding is the least of what we need.”
“On contrary, brother,” my uncle interjects, “it might be exactly what we need.”
“Explain.”
“The longer a bond goes without being unified, the deeper the base instincts come out. As Kaden is not just a Dark Fae, but cursed with the soul of a beast, he is more likely to succumb to those urges.”
My father snaps his gaze to me, a flicker of unease in his amber eyes. I enjoy seeing his discomfort.
“Will he… regress?”
ForBel’s sake, I’m right here.
“I won’t regress,” I bite out, jaw tense. My body stills, coldness seeping into my limbs. Regress, like I’ll return to a mindless beast he locked in the dungeon all those years ago.
That was a horrid time. I was lost to deranged thoughts and feelings, unable to speak as I mentally warred with the curse, physically manifested into a beast. It was my burden to bear, but it took all my strength and all my concentration just to live.
Chained in that dark cell, I was left to rot until I could contain it. I never want to repeat that, to have my body and mind not my own, pushed into the depths no one can reach.
Uncle’s hand falls to my shoulder, calming my anxiety. “We don’t know for certain. Kaden is strong, stronger than any otherfirstborn who has carried this curse. He will prevail but a bonding is rare. We don’t know how everything will react to it.”
Zelos regards me, not as a father to a son or a king to a subject. But as a master to a pet.
“Marriage,” Zelos drawls, rolling his eyes. “Howtedious.”
“But necessary.” Oslo gestures to the grounds. “A traditional bonding, not a political marriage.”
I’ve been reading on them after returning to the Shadowlands. It’s a private affair, evoking the Gods, asking for their blessings, and in our case, the exchanging of blood. I’ve already had hers—the sweetest berry in the height of summer—but by giving her my blood, we’ll seal the bond.
She’ll forever be a part of me and I, her.
Cold amber eyes fasten on to me. “Can you control yourself until it happens?”
I’d be insulted if I wasn’t feeling the effects of this bond. The rage, the uncontrollable tendencies to take, the searing pain from my mate not being fully mine? It’s all mounting and a tendril of fear wraps around my heart. Fear that Iamregressing.
I don’t show that, though. “Of course,” I agree, crossing my legs.
“Fine,” my father sighs, disappointed.
By bonding myself to Max, completely, he can’t have her. Not the way he wanted.
