Page 3

Chapter

Three

A ZALEA

Rolling over, I press my face into the soft pillow. It feels like I’m nursing a hangover. My head pounds, everything appears too bright, and my brain sluggishly processes the events from earlier that are slowly coming back to me. An odd sensation makes my skin prickle with goosebumps.

‘My Queen, I sense you are awake,’ a stranger’s voice announces inside my head. ‘Don’t be alarmed. My name is Cedric. I am part of the Landeena guard and I was your father’s Beta. I have been waiting for you to wake,’ his calming voice reassures me.

How do I use this mindlink? I wonder with a sigh while trying to figure out how to operate this newfound mindlink.

‘You are using it, My Queen,’ Cedric chuckles.

‘You can hear me?’

‘Yes, and know that your powers have awakened. You should be able to reach all of us, command all of us and find all of us through this link. You’ll get the hang of it.’

‘I remember hearing you even when I passed out. You revoked your pledge to my mate,’ I remind him. The tingling sensation as their tethers linked to me is still fresh in my memory.

‘We were and always will belong to the Landeena Kingdom. Landeena is our home. You are home for your people, My Queen.’

‘And the guards, they all agree?’ I question him, unsure about this new tether.

‘Yes. All 71 of your guards will fight, kill and die for you.’

‘I don’t want anyone dying for me.’

‘But we will and you’ll understand soon enough,’ he assures me patiently.

‘Your powers are awake now; you just need to learn how to use them. So feel free to call on Trey or me or any of us anytime. We are your people, and you are ours. You have no idea how happy I am to know the bloodline lives on, and what a bloodline. I can’t wait to see you at full strength. See what you can do.’

I ponder over his words for a second when the door opens. Liam steps in.

‘My guard is here. I need to go find my mate,’ I say to Cedric as Liam halts, scrutinizing me.

‘Very well, My Queen. We’re posted around the castle. Call on me through here if you need me.’

‘Wait. Umm, how do I call you through here?’

‘Just think of my voice. You’ll figure it out. Trey will show you. Stick close to Trey. Trust no one, My Queen, not until you know for sure they can be trusted. Landeena has many enemies.’

‘So I shouldn’t trust you.’

‘No. But I will earn it. But I assure you, we can be trusted. We didn’t just pledge to you, My Queen.

Your father assures your safety, us guards are personally picked and set aside for you.

We were given no ties, just a command when we pledged.

We didn’t just pledge, we tied our lives to you.

Not only that, but we all thought Trey was mad when he said you survived.

He kept insisting we look for you. We did for years. ’

‘I don’t understand .’

‘He is your sire, and we figured he had it wrong. We even convinced him of it after a few years. Trey insists that you are alive because he is,’ Cedric tells me before cutting the link. My brows furrow in confusion.

“The King is on his way,” Liam tells me, and I nod, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.

“Who are you talking to?” Liam asks curiously, and I startle.

“You knew I was talking to someone?”

“Yes. Your eyes turned white,” he says.

“Cedric,” I answer, and he nods.

“Where is Kyson?” I ask Liam. He bites his lip before sighing.

“He’s organizing the punishment for Ester and Peter.”

“Punishment?”

“Yes. Punishment,” Kyson says behind him, making me jump, having not heard him. I look over at him to see him standing just inside the door.

“Leave us,” Kyson says, strolling over to me and Liam quickly does as he is told. He closes the door behind him.

“You challenge me.”

“You were going to kill him. He’s a boy,” I tell him because I can’t bring myself to say he’s my brother, not yet.

“What punishment did you give him?”

“Not the one I want, but I kept my word. I won’t kill him.”

“And Ester?”

“Alive.”

I let out a breath. I don’t like the woman, but I don’t believe she deserves death for sleeping with my father. Just like I don’t believe Peter deserves death even after everything he did.

“What else?”

“What else?” Kyson echoes, coming to sit beside me on the edge of the bed.

He pulls me across his lap, turning me to face him, so my legs straddle his waist. “We’re finding out some information about your family.

I’m sure that Trey will fill you in more.

And since I’ve commanded him, you’ll have to listen as well.

However, Ester is being quite forthcoming with information. ”

“And you commanded her?” I ask, and he nods.

“Yes, of course. She didn’t resist it, so I know she’s telling the truth, or at least her version of it. But I need to ask.”

“Ask what?”

“Do you remember Marrissa ever shifting?” he questions, his voice filled with a mix of curiosity and concern. My brows crease in thought as I try to recall any such memory, but those memories are like wisps of smoke, grainy and fragmented.

“No, I don’t think so,” I reply, my words trailing off as the past pulls me back into its grip.

That night remains vivid in my mind, etched into my very being.

The night I witnessed them murder her. We had been running for hours, our hearts pounding in our chestswhen they surrounded us.

We had stumbled into another pack’s territory by then, unaware of the danger we were stepping into.

Abbie and I found refuge inside a hollow tree, our small hands clinging to each other tightly.

We tried to remain silent, but the fear coursing through our veins made it nearly impossible.

Through the cracks in the tree trunk, we watched as Marrissa stood before them, defiant in her human form. Even then, she didn’t shift.

My father, Jordan, moved with a blur of speed, his wolf instincts taking over. He fought relentlessly, refusing to yield until Marrissa called out to him. Her words always seemed strange to me, whispered with a mix of desperation and determination.

“It’s the only way to keep her safe,” she said, her voice trembling as she fell to her knees.

Abbie’s parents continued their savage fight against Alpha Dean and his warriors, their wolves torn apart ruthlessly.

The echoes of Abbie’s screams pierced through my ears, blending with Marrissa’s final words.

She glanced towards our hiding spot, her eyes filled with love and sacrifice.

“Don’t fight them. Don’t run,” she pleaded, her voice carrying the weight of a mother’s love. “Remember, mummy loves you.” And with those haunting words, she let them slaughter her as if accepting her fate, her lifeblood staining the earth.

Only moments later, Alpha Dean and his warriors tore the tree trunk apart, their eyes filled with a mix of satisfaction and hunger. We were trapped, vulnerable.

“Azalea?” Kyson’s voice jolts me back to reality, breaking the chains of the past. I blink away the remnants of my memories, shaking off their haunting presence.