Page 26 of Moonlight Bonds (The Nexus #4)

Her eyes tighten. “Maybe we need a monster to set this world right. They were wrong to teach you that the most intimate part of our souls should be drowned out. No, it should be celebrated with love.” She lowers her hands from my shoulders.

“Think on it, while I call an emergency council and discuss with them who we can spare to go into Starlight City to help. It would be good to tell them they will have you as their leader, along with your mates.” She walks away, pausing by Annie. “Can we have a word alone, Annie?”

Annie nods, following her into the lift. The room is silent for a long moment. “Do you think she’s right? That we should go to Starlight City and risk our lives?”

“No. She’s wrong. She’s expecting too much of you.” Finnegan immediately disagrees. “You’ve given enough already.”

“Maybe she’s not. My Nexus is the Morrigan.

I could probably take out quite a lot of them.

Maybe. I just, I don’t know. That’s the problem.

I don’t know how far this power stretches or…

” I drift off. “To be honest with you, I’m worried Georgina will be there.

The Vian king must suspect I’ll come to Starlight once I hear the news. ”

Hollis comes up to me, handing me a letter. “It’s from Rhodes. Please don’t rip it up.” He looks into my eyes. “Will you come with me somewhere?”

Finnegan stands, sliding a possessive arm around my waist. “Alone?”

“If you don’t believe I’m no danger to her, you wouldn’t let me in this apartment. It’s Gwen’s choice.” He waits for my answer. I watch Onyx leave in the corner of my eye, heading for the lift.

Touching Finnegan’s hand on my waist, I look at him. “Can you go after Onyx? This must be hard on him. I’m going to see what Hollis wants.”

Finnegan kisses the top of my head before following after Onyx.

Hollis grabs a bag off the side before coming with me, and I leave the letter on the kitchen side.

I’m not ready to read it, not today when so much is already on my mind.

I glance at the bag Hollis comes out with.

“Are we leaving? Because if this is a plan to kidnap me, it’s lame to show me the bag. ”

“No, smartass.” He moves into the lift, and I go with him.

He presses the button for level fourteen. “Isn’t the top floor my aunt’s apartment? I don’t feel like seeing her right now, Hollis, or her personal space.”

“It’s not her apartment; hers is thirteen.” He doesn’t tell me where we are going, though. “I found it yesterday after we came back and after you’d come back to life, and you were sleeping it off.”

“Rhodes told me something.” I clear my throat. “In that trial, he was there.”

“What did he tell you?” he asks, watching me.

“That he had a connection to Crimson. That you had one to Darkness. Is that true?” I ask. They are both twins, and it would make sense.

“Do you believe you were given five mates for no reason? You know the answer, but you’re too scared to say it out loud.” There is no judgment in his tone.

“I was given six,” I gently remind him.

He smirks. “I’m yet to see what Severi brings to the table.”

“More avoidance,” I mutter.

“I learnt it from you,” he counters.

“Who is being a smartass now, then?” I laugh, but that laugh dies when the lift doors open at the fourteenth floor.

It’s a swimming pool. There’s steam dancing off the deep blue water, and light pours in from the wide glass panel windows that shimmer.

He reaches into the bag he brought as we step out, and he pulls out a black bikini and black towel for me. “Have you lost your mind?”

Hollis turns to me. “You can’t have a weakness like this, Gwenieve; it can be used against you.

I want to help you overcome the fear, and I have a plan to distract you and entice you to trust me.

I will tell you the truth, every inch of the fucked-up past I have, and you will walk into the pool.

” He waves at the lift. “It’s a choice. You can leave, and I won’t bring this up for another few years.

” When I don’t move for the lift, the smug bastard grins. “Changing rooms are over there.”

Dammit, I want to know everything, and he is right. Even if the idea of stepping into that pool is horrid, I have to do it. I go and get changed without overthinking it too much. I only have to put my feet in after all. It’s not like I actually have to go swimming.

When I come out, the towel is wrapped around me, and I take it off, leaving it on a chair.

Hollis is already in the pool, and his eyes take me in, the corners darkening.

His hair is wet, dripping over his forehead, and he is shirtless.

Damn. He has a swimmer build, a small waist with toned muscles and a six-pack that has a sharp V that leads into his swim trunks.

He swims up to the steps that drop down into the water.

I stand at the edge and arch an eyebrow.

“Franklin is my son.” The first truth between us—and it’s like a bomb slamming into water.

“I know. I knew from the first moment I saw him because he is the image of you, Hollis.” I take one step into the pool, my heart racing, and I’m not sure if it’s from fear or from the shock of Hollis being open with me.

I don’t look away from his eyes; I keep them locked on me with a silent challenge to look away if he dares.

“My best friend was Rochelle’s mate. His name was Anthony.

I never expected to make a friend in the Nexus city while I was pretending and lying.

I hadn’t had friends before because I didn’t know how to let people in, to feel friendship or happiness.

I was born and created to be a weapon for the king, and he never taught Rhodes or me anything more than that.

A child growing up without love can make anyone a very bitter man.

The only reason I kept going was because of my brother and how protective I felt towards him.

We didn’t bond like normal siblings; we became rivals at the beginning, and then it changed when we were ordered to get into Starlight.

For the first time, we were out from under the king’s thumb, and it was the first taste of freedom we had.

Rhodes and I had a foster family of sorts, a couple who loved animals and cared for the odd people in the city.

They were good people. Rhodes took over the animal sanctuary eventually as you know. ”

Even though I don’t move yet, he continues.

“Rhodes made friends and told me about how it was fun to have friends to converse with, to just be normal with. Anthony was funny and smart, and we became friends almost instantly. I knew of Rochelle, as she was one of the half-Nexus-and-Vian in the city, and we were like a secret network. She couldn’t believe it when her blood linked with a full-blooded Nexus in the city on that mating day.

I was a mess after you rejected us, and the king was angry. It was not part of his plan.”

He looks down and, for a second, he looks like a fallen angel with steam swirling around his chest. “The king beat Rhodes and me senseless. Anthony and Rochelle looked after us both, making sure we would live through it. Rhodes was thankful, but he saw that I had found my friends. I was pretending with Finnegan, Aleksander and Onyx at that point, but I hated lying. Anthony knew what I was, and he didn’t judge me, neither did Rochelle.

For a while, it was just the three of us.

” He gulps once. “But I was lonely and foolish.”

He doesn’t carry on, not until I take one more fateful step down towards him.

I can see he doesn’t want to tell me this.

I need to hear it though. “Rochelle’s older sister came to Starlight City to visit her one weekend, when things were bad for me.

The king was growing increasingly angry, and he had hurt Rhodes for it, leaving him with so many broken bones…

I spent over twenty hours awake and putting them back for him so he would survive.

When it was clear he would live, I met up with Anthony, Rochelle, and her sister, Lacey.

It was one night that I barely remember.

Between the lack of sleep, the whiskey I drank to forget, and the pills she dropped into my drink to cheer me up…

it was all a blur. I don’t want Franklin to ever know this, but it was not what I wanted.

I never once looked at anyone and wanted them, not after I knew you existed. ”

“Hollis…” I breathe. “That’s assault. Not a choice.”

“And it stays between us. Please,” he asks.

“Gods, I would never say a word.” I shake my head. “This stays between us.”

“Another step, mate.” He softly orders me.

I take a step, the warm water moving to my knees.

I’m scared, but his story is everything I needed to hear.

“A few months later, Lacey told me she was pregnant and was planning to come back to give me the child to raise. She didn’t want it.

I did not know what to say. Only that I had to do the responsible thing and take my child.

Anthony and Rhodes talked me through it and promised to be there.

Even though you had rejected us, we were still looking for you, and I felt like I had betrayed you.

” My heart cracks. “And it was fine for a while until she gave birth. She died in childbirth from complications, and Rochelle was left with no other family other than the baby and Anthony. I was just handed a small baby and told to care for him. He didn’t even have a name.

She never thought to give one to him, and Rochelle was in mourning, Anthony with her. So, I named him.”

I feel tears filling my eyes. He must have felt so alone. “Did you know my father’s middle name was Franklin?”