Page 12

Chapter Eleven

Talia

T he door swings open, revealing a bedroom decorated in soft, light colours.

It’s the complete opposite of the prison cell I crawled out of.

If that cell was the endless darkness of a nightmare, this room is like walking into the bright light of a dream.

Drayton places me down gently on my feet, keeping a hand on my lower back to steady me.

My eyes dart from one side of the room to the other, taking in the large, soft bed to the beautiful windows that show the faintest light of the rising sun.

Tears start anew, quickly soaking my face as sobs wrack my body.

I’ve never even had a true bed, let alone a bedroom this exquisite.

It’s the final piece to send me over the edge.

My knees give out amidst the crying, my body dropping onto the soft carpet beneath me.

The noises coming from me are almost embarrassing, but I’m so far past caring.

Voices start up behind me, soft caresses on my back and arms trying to grab my attention.

I can’t respond, though.

I can’t do much of anything.

It’s like all of my emotions are coming out at once and it’s paralysing me.

There’s nothing left of me right now except salty tears and shaking limbs.

“What did you do to her?!” Forrester yells directly behind me, his anger palpable in the air.

“You motherfucker! You must have done something! She’s sobbing like you killed her favourite pet right in front of her.”

“Forrester,” Drayton growls, his voice much calmer than Forrester’s, but not any less angry.

“I suggest you pick your next words very carefully. I didn’t do anything to Talia. She’s just had an extremely rough night. I believe you still know where your room is, so please kindly, fuck right off.”

“He’s right, Forr. We should give her space,” Wes says from farther back.

“Drayton wouldn’t hurt our mate. Talia just needs time to process the fact that she’s free for the first time in her entire life. That’s a lot and she doesn’t need an audience for it.”

There’s pacing steps behind me before Forrester spits out, “Fine, but I’ll only be two doors down. If I have to come back in here because you hurt her, I’ll kick your fucking ass.”

Footsteps stomp out of the room followed by the door softly clicking behind them.

A hand gently rubs up and down my spine, slowly calming down the sobs to hiccups.

Looking over my shoulder, I’m immediately hit with a sense of peacefulness as I stare into Drayton’s blue eyes.

He lifts a hand up, cupping the side of my face with so much tenderness I want to cry all over again.

“Sweet girl,” Dray murmurs, looking at his thumb swipe a stray tear from my cheek.

“What can I do? How can I make this easier for you?”

Shaking my head, I lean further into his hand.

My silence stretches out in front of us, the weight of it sitting heavy on my heart.

I don’t know what to say to that because I don’t know what I need.

Never did I actually think I would get to the escape part of my daydreams.

The idea of freedom, love, a life that I get to choose how to live, is beyond foreign to me.

It’s terrifying, which is crazy because it’s leagues better than what I just left behind.

“I don’t know,” I admit out loud, my voice shaking with every word.

“Not even a week ago I hadn’t said a single word out loud to someone else in almost a decade. Then suddenly there’s a man being thrown in the cell beside me and all I want to do is heal him and get close to him. That moment made my entire future shift in the blink of an eye. Now, I’m free from that hell with five fated mates, but I don’t know how to do any of this. I don’t know how to live or survive out in this world.”

“You don’t need to have all the answers right now,” Drayton whispers, tipping my head back with his hand until I’m looking at him.

“It’s all going to be overwhelming for a while. You just need to take it one step at a time. It’s okay if you make mistakes. It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do. Myself and the others will be here with you, every step of the way. Change is hard, even if it’s going from bad to good.”

“What if I embarrass you all?” I whisper, looking back towards the room.

“What if I can’t work through my past? I don’t know how to talk to anyone, what foods I like, or even most of the modern language used. I can’t even look at a bed without breaking. I’m not good for anyone and I will disappoint you.”

“Talia, no. You can’t embarrass us.” Drayton stands up and moves fully in front of me, his hands stretched out for me to grab.

Reaching up, I place both my hands in his, allowing him to pull me up off the ground.

“We don’t care if you can’t understand a phrase used, or if you cry when you’re overwhelmed. We may be shifters, but we share the emotional range of humans. You get a chance at a life that was stolen from you and we get to watch you experience it all. I, personally, am excited to be by your side as you reclaim who you are. That is something to be celebrated, never ashamed of.”

“I just want to be someone you all can be proud of,” I state, laying one of my biggest insecurities out there.

“I’ve always been told I’m not good enough, strong enough, or doing enough. I don’t want to not be enough.”

“You are enough. Those assholes don’t think they’re good enough and simply projected that on to you. None of them can do what you can do or be who you are. They tore you down so they could dampen your spirit and make you submit to them.” Drayton pulls me against his chest, kissing the top of my head.

“They’re as stupid as they are weak-minded. Submission is about trust, not fear. They tried to break you so they could control you, yet you persevered. You’re strong, Talia. Don’t let their insecurities be yours.”

His words echo in my mind, the truth behind them making me question every day in that prison.

They’re the ones that told me I was weak, that I didn’t deserve the magic I was born with.

The Croisés made me into the feeble, fragile woman by hurting me with their words and experiments.

Reminding me day in and day out that they hold all the power while I only hold the magic that should rightfully be theirs.

Except, despite all they did to me, I still survived and I still withheld my magic from them.

They’re all running for the hills as I settle in with my mates, living with my freedom, and every opportunity that comes with that.

This is my life now and I finally get to choose to not hide who I am or what I can do.

I get to choose to be the strong mythical shifter I was born to be.

“Are you ready to get clean and then get some sleep?” Drayton asks, pulling me out of my own thoughts.

Smiling up at him softly, I nod my head.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

Washing away the remnants of that place sounds perfect.

I have a long way to go still, to break past what I went through.

With my mates by my side, though, I know that I’ll be okay.

Forrester

My eyes flicker to the door over and over again, my hands clenching at my sides.

Her sobs keep replaying in my head, making my wolf and I go crazy with worry.

It’s fucking ridiculous that a woman I don’t even know can have this tight a grip over me already.

The mate bond is so much stronger than I ever anticipated.

Growing up listening to Penn talk about how we would all share a mate used to make me so angry.

I always said there was no way I would share a mate with anyone.

When I found my mate, she would be mine and mine alone.

Joke’s on me, I guess.

There’s a way to reject the mate bond and walk away, but even thinking about it makes me want to throw up.

She’s barely been in my life and already she has me wrapped around her finger.

The thought of leaving her is like a punch straight to the gut.

I can’t stay here, I have to run.

There’s no way I can spend anymore time around her.

It’s been mere hours and this is how I’m acting.

What would days or even a week do to me?

No, it’s time I left again.

This time, not even Penn can bring me back.

My bag sits by the door, ready for me to bolt at any second.

This house and this room have too much history for me.

Dray can redecorate all he wants, but it won’t erase the nightmare that happened here.

Running my hand over my short hair, I blow out a huge breath and squeeze my eyes shut.

Leaving shouldn’t be this fucking hard.

I hate it here and I hate everyone in this goddamn pack.

Walking out of here should be easy.

Instead, it’s feeling more and more impossible by the second.

That teal haired goddess is ruining it all!

Shaking my head to clear thoughts of her, I push myself to grab my bag despite the alarm bells blaring in my head.

My wolf is angry at me, his snarls becoming more deafening by the second.

He just runs on instinct so he can’t understand that this is what needs to happen.

If I stay here and let the bond deepen, I’ll grow to resent her for that.

Staying here isn’t an option.

The nausea and snarls get harder and harder to ignore the further I get from Talia.

No matter how much I tell myself that it’s for the best, I still feel myself getting weaker by the second.

It takes all the composure I have left to keep me from wincing at the intense pain it’s all causing.

“Going somewhere?” Alaric’s voice rings out the moment I step onto the front porch.

“That’s none of your business,” I snap at him, baring my teeth in anger.

“You all knew I wasn’t sticking around, so go fuck yourself.”

“That was before Talia. You don’t get to just walk away now,” Alaric growls, stepping closer to me.

Laughing without humour, I flip him off and keep walking.

Before I can blink, I’m on my back with Alaric standing over me.

His eyes are glowing as his wolf pushes forward.

“You. Are. Not. Leaving.” Each word is clipped out, his rage making his teeth sharpen as he barely holds off a shift.

“You don’t get to hurt her by running off like a fucking coward. You want out of the bond, you do it the right fucking way. I’ll skin you alive if you leave that poor woman hanging with an incomplete mate bond. That’s unbelievably cruel, even for you.”

“Ha! Don’t get me started on cruelty. This pack has enough fucking cruelty, starting with your murdering alpha. I don’t give a shit about you, or h—“ I choke, my voice going silent before I can say her.

Alaric grins victoriously, his long blond hair coming loose as he moves back from me.

He looks unhinged in the rising light.

The viking-looking bastard knows he has me, and it makes me want to claw that smile off his fucking face.

“Time to head back in and get some rest, lover boy. By the time Talia wakes up, you better be ready to stay or to reject the mate bond properly. You slip away while everyone is sleeping, I’ll hunt you down and put your head on a spike as a gift to her.”

“Fucker,” I mutter under my breath.

The fact that he won that altercation is sending shudders of rage through my body.

Instead of heading up to my room, I drop my bag on the porch and strip down to shift.

Letting my wolf have the driver’s seat right now will probably lead to me waking up in front of Talia’s door like a bitch.

Not ideal, but a fuck ton better than attacking Alaric while on packlands.

My wolf is happy Alaric won, which means he needs to take control while I calm down.

Alaric gets to keep smirking at me like the prick he is.

For now, at least.

If I have to spend even more time in this fucking nightmare, it’s only a matter of time before I punch the smirk off.

Stupid fucking wolves in this stupid fucking pack.

Stepping into the goddess light that surrounds the valley, I close my eyes and soak it all in.

The sound of haunted sobs fills my mind again, bright jade eyes so broken and lost.

It seems I would do anything to avoid seeing so much pain on her beautiful face, including the one thing I swore I would never do.

“Forgive me, Father,” I whisper with a sigh.

“Even my promise to you can’t beat the pull of the mate bond.”