Page 1 of Moonlight Bonds (The Nexus #4)
COMMANDER RHODES
“ C ommander Rhodes. I am carrying your future mate, and if you do not do exactly what I tell you, then she will die.”
I turn swiftly, surprised that a Nexus of all things could sneak up on me.
Surprise is an emotion I rarely get to feel anymore—not that I feel much of any emotion.
The air is bitterly cold and damp, but I sense magic woven into it.
Nexus magic. One more breath and my world stops.
I barely process what the Nexus woman is saying as I sense her baby in her round stomach.
Even though she is not born, my world spins and changes when I feel the bond.
It’s a lie that we need a mating ceremony to sense our bonded.
It confirms it, but the soul always knows. I know.
The bond radiates like a pulse right next to my heart, and I thought the old thing stopped beating a long time ago.
This is the most alive I have felt in one hundred years.
I was born to be the commander to the king, trained with my twin from the moment we were weaned from our mother.
We are his weapons, and weapons are not meant to feel.
I almost stumble back in front of an enemy, barely even noticing the cliff edge behind me.
The Nexus woman is young, with long blonde hair and a stern expression.
From the scent of her, I can tell she is mated, and I doubt her mate is far behind.
I reach out with my Vian senses and find a male Nexus in the tree line a few feet away from the woman.
“Address me as one team, or I’ll end him,” I coldly begin. “Nexus are not welcome in this city.”
“Does that mean you are not welcome? You are half Nexus after all,” she counters, and it’s a valid point.
I’m tolerated in the Vian capital city because of my title.
I ignore her jab; it’s meaningless. Her mate steps out of the shadows and smoothly, calmly walks to her side.
“My name is Elly Autumn, and I’d like us to have a conversation that does not involve a fight, Commander Rhodes. ”
“I should begin by asking how you know my title and identity, Nexus?” I drop my eyes to her stomach. “But we do have much more to discuss.” The baby she carries is definitely not her mate’s. It’s a different scent from the male at her side…a familiar scent hovers around Elly.
I know that my king’s plan for years has been to breed his race into the various cities of the Nexus and take them down from the inside.
It is not a job my brother and I have been ordered to do, and neither of us would want to do that.
Breeding is the key to how the war will end.
The king rambles about half-breeds being the key, but lately he’s been twitchy.
Hollis has been watching our king closely in case he’s going to do something rash and unpredictable.
Elly lifts her chin. “I have taken a grave risk coming here, standing in front of you and telling you that the child I’m carrying in my stomach is your mate.
You have killed countless of my kind, and as a commander, you are the Vian king’s soldier, and you are loyal to him.
I am standing here, praying your loyalty is going to shift to your mate. ”
I cock my head to the side. “I could take you and wait for the birth, for all you know of me.” Even as I say it, I know I would not separate my future mate from her family. It would be cruel.
Elly smiles. “We’re the only ones who will protect the child and the only people who can hide her.
” She touches her stomach. “I’m carrying twins, to be exact.
One of them is your mate. The other is everyone’s downfall.
They both are very dangerous and powerful.
Even now, the world is trembling for their creation.
For what they bring back to the world. Can you hear it, Commander? ”
“But why are you talking in riddles?” I demand. My mind flickers to the king for a second, to how strange he has been these last few months. Does he sense what she is speaking of?
“We were visited by a God.” Lies. They are all dead.
“The old Gods—they never let us go, and they’ve always watched us.
When they fell from the skies…this became their world.
They played with it like a toy, and we are their dolls.
They’re playing a dangerous game of the stars’ bidding, and they don’t care who dies within it.
” She ignores the disbelief on my face. “I want my children to live. I’m going to give you one of the twins when they’re born.
” Her voice cracks slightly, like she almost wants to change her mind. “Not your mate. But the other.”
“Why would you give up your child to me? Wouldn’t he or she be far better raised by their mother?” I arch an eyebrow. “Or their Vian father? He might raise the other twin. If you give the twin to me, the king will have him or her.”
There would be no way to hide a powerful, dangerous child from him. The king slips into the minds of so many spies that the child would be found.
“He is gone, but you do know about him, and where he has gone will be needed in the future.” Who is her lover?
“It’s safer if we have no contact going forward.
This is my mate, who knows all the circumstances of what happened, and I wish to tell you everything so that one day you can tell them—my daughters.
” My eyes flick to her stomach. She must be very early in pregnancy. “You must call your brother.”
“Why do I need to do that? He’ll kill you on the spot.” I know he wouldn’t see reason, even if I told him about my mate in her stomach. I have some sense left, but Hollis is far worse than I.
“You’re half Nexus, just like she will be.
” For a moment I see my mother, and her memory rips me apart.
She was a good, kind woman—a Nexus, but a kind woman who deserved the world.
When she died, I gave up wanting any emotions and let myself sink into a numbness that has never let an emotion in.
Not until right now. What would my mother say if she stood at my side right now?
“The Gods are back. You want me to believe that?” I demand. “And that you somehow talked with them about your child’s power and her fate?”
“I can show you,” she claims. “I can show you everything, Commander Rhodes. Then you will see that my children are all that’s going to stand between the end of this world and the remaking of a new one.
If your king ever finds out, and if the leaders—the true leaders—of the Nexus cities find out what she is, what they both are, they’ll kill them.
It’s better we play it this way. I won’t be there at the end, but you will be.
She’ll hate you for what I make you do this day, but it’s the only way to save her. ”
“Then tell me everything when my brother arrives.” I finish the conversation, half not believing a word she is telling me.
I call my brother. He answers immediately because I never call him unless something is wrong. “I need you to come to our mother’s meeting point.”
He doesn’t answer, but I know he will come. I put the phone down and look back at her, at her stomach, at where my mate is. For hundreds of years, I’ve never been blessed with a mate. I’ve always wanted one but never thought a creature created for death would be blessed with one. “He’ll be here.”
“Good. The others haven’t been born yet. Soon. We have time. Where is your prince?” she asks. I frown. Prince Severi? He is nothing but a babe in his mother’s arms. “Crying in his nursery, I would guess. What others?”
“Her mates. You will need each other. I have a long story to tell you about a God that whispered in my ears. A God that’s watching us all.
A God that fears the baby in my stomach.
Both of them.” She walks to the bench, her mate standing close as she sits down on it.
My own mother sat here every single Saturday evening, listening to music with us.
I came here to find her again, to listen to her music and to remember a time when someone loved me.
Now my entire future sits on the same bench.
When my brother arrives, he falls to his knees in front of Elly and prays to the Morrigan in thanksgiving for granting him a mate.
Only then does Elly Autumn show us a story with a power she should not hold, that’s almost too unbelievable to be true.
I feel my heart shatter, knowing that to save her, I’m going to have to threaten every bit of our future relationship.
I’m going to have to lie, kill, and tell myself that it’s worth it in the end because she’s still alive.
My mate hating me seems a small price to pay for her life.