Once he was out of sight, I tiptoed through my home’s door. My stomach dropped as I was met with the unforgiving faces,twisted with disgust, of not only my father but my older brother as well.
“Where have you been?”my father bellowed.
“Her scent is different,”my brother announced as he sniffed the air with a scowl on his face.
“What?” I whispered, sniffing the air in confusion at his words.
My father's eyes widened as he stormed up to me and gripped my wrist so tightly that I thought it would surely snap in his grasp. I hissed in pain as I looked up into his eyes as my own were overrun with tears of fear.
“Father, I—”I pleaded, but was cut off by the grip of his other hand, latching onto my long auburn curls as he huffed my supposedly new scent into his nostrils.
“What have you done?!” he boomed in my face, the veins in his neck straining.
My mother came running down the stairs at the same moment Callius burst through the front door, and the five of us now stood there, staring at each other in tense, unnerving silence. I swallowed thickly, knowing that chaos was about to ensue.
I thought my kin was going to kill Callius right then and there until my mother and I jumped between them all, arms stretched wide to keep them apart, begging for them to stop.
“You cannot interfere with what the gods have planned for her,”my mother pleaded to her husband.“They have accepted the bond, and if they wish for it to remain, we must allow it. The Valderres may never notice the scent change, for they have only met her once annually since her birth.”
My father struck my mother then, and I screamed at the sight, covering my mouth in pure horror.
“Stop it!” I screamed. “What do you mean? What is going on, Father? Please, just tell me!”
My mother’s eyes met mine, her cheek red and swollen. “You have locked a mating bond in place, Idina. Your scent has changed, mingling with this male’s.” She gestured to Callius, who was huffing through his nostrils, the veins in his neck straining in fury. His lips curled back, looking as if he would lunge at my father if he struck me as he had done to his wife.
My eyes widened in absolute disbelief and terror. A mate?! They were so rare—a phenomenon gifted from the gods to find the other half of your soul. And they had gifted one to me.What should’ve been a beautiful and rare gift had turned into a nightmare before my very eyes. And Callius and I making love had locked this bond of our souls into place.
My father stepped forward, looming over Callius, and gripped him by the collar of his tunic, threatening his life and telling him to stay away from me.
I snarled at his words. “You cannot keep me from him. I love him! I don’t care about some oath you made before I was even breathing. This is what I choose.”
I thought my father would truly strike me then, but then my mate’s hand reached around my waist, tucking me behind him. “I will pledge my life to you and your family. Never again will I set sail away from her if you allow me to stay at her side. I will do anything to remain here, even if that means shattering my heart when she weds the future king.”
I sucked in a sharp breath at his words.
And after a screaming argument between everyone that lasted until dawn, my father accepted Callius’ proposal, stating hecould always use another set of eyes and ears within the castle walls.
Snapping out of the memory, my nails dug into the palms of my hands. Everything had changed after that night—and Callius had been at my side ever since. Protecting me, watching over me and my children, and loving me in secret as I was forced to falsely claim that my undying love was, in fact, not for my mate but for the king of the realm.
As the tormenting memories faded, my grief morphed into the purest and most relentless wrath I had ever known. They offered glimpses of the love we shared behind closed doors and curtains for centuries, serving as a painful reminder of what had always been taken from me—my mate. And now, the other half of what remained of my soul had been ripped away from me indefinitely.
As the realization dawned on me once more, I let out a gasp for air, clutching my chest as I continued to blindly stare into the vanity mirror. I suddenly heaved over and vomited onto the floor of my chambers as my stomach twisted in painful knots.
This couldn’t be real, it simply just couldn’t.How?!How could Callius have met his fate on a quest as simple as searching for those who traitorously fled my city? And our son was with him.Our son.The son who shared my honey-hued stare and Callius’ dark ringlet curls that I hadn’t seen since the day we set sail toward Isla for the final time—when he had been forced to cut it as he was officially knighted into the king’s guard to remain at my side.
I would now have to sit here in this gods-forsaken castle, stewing in the unknown regarding the whereabouts of my children until Adler returned with the news of how my Callius had been killed. For the first time since I was just seventeen years old, I felt utterly hopeless and alone.
A knock sounded on my bedroom chamber door.
“What?” I snapped, tone vicious.
The door creaked open, revealing three castle guards with their hands resting on the pommels of their swords. One of them, Braynon, I believed his name to be, spoke. “My Queen, we heard screaming a few moments ago, and it sounded as if it came from your chamber.”
I quickly swiped away the tears of rage that slipped from me. “And you knock instead of barging through to rescue your queen?”
All three of their faces sank in terror as their eyes bulged. My mind raced as they stood before me. I no longer had Callius to assist with inciting fear among the masses, and the city had been divided ever since my own daughter started a rebellion in Elianna’s name. Whisperings of treason had made their way to my ears in the castle, and that simply wouldn’t do. I had come too fucking far to lose anything more than I already had.
Another went to speak, but I raised my hand and silenced him. “You will gather all that remains of the city guards and soldiers within Isla. No one leaves or enters my city unless it is of those who left to retrieve the traitors. Am I understood?”
