Page 40 of Bonded

I look around for the first time. Tall walls of dirt line a wide pathway; we are standing in the middle of it. Light pours down from flowers across the ceiling, casting deep blue light onto us, and there is a smell to this place. It stinks something awful and metallic. “What is this place?”

“A prison and a home for something older than the Mother herself. It is located in the deepest part of the palace, buried far below the ground, and only an alpha can find it.” I really fucking hope she is lying, or I’m screwed. I’m going to die in this horrid place. “You only learn of it when you become alpha—the Mother goddess shows it to you. I was shown this place when my husband was murdered.” She never once cared about her husband. I can see it in her face…and I’d bet she was happy Elizabeth killed him. “You will meet the Mother goddess’s pet and, unfortunately for you, it will be hungry. I often bring down people who betray the throne for it to eat. Like that cook who talked to you. My guards listen everywhere, Meredith. Even your winged man’s shadows could not hide everything.” She tilts her head. “I believe you might find him screaming around here somewhere.”

As if on cue, a scream echoes through the air, followed by a thud and a roar that rattles the very dirt walls around me. Nope. I want to leave.

“Orion’s going to find me. Blackfire, Reed and Zyran will find me too.” I don’t know if I’m saying that because I desperately need them to find me or if it’s to warn her.

Gaia laughs. “Not if you’re already dead. They can find your bones, in time.” She smiles pleasantly. “It’s been interesting knowing you, Princess Meredith. This year has been more eventful than many in my time. I will enjoy the theatrics I’ll have to put on for being so terribly upset when your brother comes to call and asks where you’ve gone. I will enjoy finally breaking my son and shaping him into what I need. Or killing him.”

The roar echoes again, the thudding getting louder. Closer. “He’s your son! Why? Why hate him so much?”

She pauses in her pacing and stares at me. “Because he is like me…and yet because he is a male, he gets to be free. I never got freedom.”

I step forward. “Gaia, there is still time to change this. Take me back to Orion and fix this. He is the only son you have left, and despite it all, he does love you.”

The roaring is growing closer, but I keep my eyes on Gaia. Everyone can change, find a way to make a better choice. Even her. A coldness spreads across her face, and I know right away that she won’t be helping me leave this place, and Orion is in danger. “I would run, if I were you.”

She disappears into the earth, leaving nothing but a brush of dirt waving across the floor. I finally lift my head and face the noise, the thumping of heavy feet that is swiftly coming my way. Oh, fuck no. I’m still a virgin and I can’t die like this. Tannith would be embarrassed…hell, I would be.

A creature of something horrid faces me. I don’t even know what I would call it. It has huge wings on its sides, but the wings have holes and rips through them. A chain wraps around its neck, the end of it cut, dragging across the floor. It’s covered in scales of a sort, with a long head and sharp, jagged teeth that are bright green and dripping with blood. The rest of it is just as gruesome. It lowers its head, sniffing the air, then lifts its glowing black eyes to look at me. There is a desperation in its eyes, for food I’d bet, and this creature has gone mad.

Oblivion whispers grow into a shout, a female shout that I can’t block out and don’t want to. Even now, as I reach for it, nothing happens. It just echoes around me like someone is standing right there. “RUN!”

For the first time, I listen to oblivion. I turn around and run as fast as I can, knowing that if this creature catches me, I’m dead.

Chapter Twenty-Three

PRINCE ORION OF THE MAIDEN PACK

Idig my hands further into the soil, reaching for her, searching every inch of the court. Elizabeth paces by my side in the prison, and she waits. I messed up fucking everything, and I should have come here and listened to Elizabeth weeks ago. I ignore the pain cracking through my heart—at my father’s betrayal, what a monster he truly was. Every memory with him is now warped into something awful and full of fucking lies. I never saw him for what he was, and people suffered because of that. I should have seen it and known better. My brothers weren’t good people. I always wondered if they got that from my mother, but it turns out they got it from both of them.

I don’t sense Meredith or my mother. It’s like they have both disappeared, which is fucking impossible. Reed and Blackfire are still far out on the river, searching for whoever attacked her earlier today, and it will take too long to get word to them. Not that they can help until I find⁠—

I suddenly sense my mother. She is alone, but it’s a start. I let go of the connection to the earth and rise to my feet. “Elizabeth—I need you. I don’t deserve to ask anything of you, but Meredith…I can’t do this on my own.”

“Anything, brother.” She nods firmly.

I don’t know if it’s for me or Meredith, but I’m thankful. “Run to the river and shout for Blackfire and Reed. Make sure no one finds you, and kill anyone who does. Everyone is a spy for my mother. Tell them what happened here.”

“What about you?” She grabs my arm before I can leave.

“I’m going to face her for once.” I touch her hand. “Not just for Meredith but for you, my little sister, and everything you suffered. I will face her alone.”

“She’s the alpha, and you can’t hurt her!” Elizabeth doesn’t let go of me. “No. You can’t go; she will kill you because you know all of this and you won’t stop.”

“I have to go for Meredith, even if there’s every chance I’m going to die. I have to go for her…I love her. I have done since she gave up a piece of her soul to save the wretched part of mine that she owns.”

She gives a shaky nod. “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day you were in love, brother.” She pulls me into a hug, just the way she used to hug me before this all blew up. “Stay alive until I get back with your friends. Don’t…just don’t die.”

There is no point in telling her I won’t. We both know how Gaia is. Instead, I walk out of the prison. Elizabeth follows behind me. I hear a shout and turn back—seeing the guard Blackfire left to protect Elizabeth. He did a shit job, considering he has been knocked out for the most part. He still has blood pouring down his forehead. I don’t have time for him.

“Wait, I can help you!” he shouts before I walk away. “Or protect Elizabeth. Something.”

“Go back to the prison and start digging for the one below Elizabeth’s. I threw a bat in there called Zyran and strangled him until he passed out. He’s about fifty feet underground, and he could be useful.” I never thought I’d be saying that about Meredith’s guard. Elizabeth gives me one more look before shifting into her brown wolf and running off. The guard leaves, going back to the prison.

I run straight to the throne room and slam the doors open, letting them shut behind me. Of course, my mother is sitting on her throne, tapping her fingers, her head resting on her bent arm, her green ivy crown glistening in her dark hair. Such a pretty place for a queen like her with a rotten heart.

I know all the history of my parents’ meeting. How young she was when she was taken from her mother, how she never recovered from the fact that her mother died a few years later and she never saw her again. I wonder at what point exactly she turned into this bitter monster I’ve always known. I know my birth wasn’t easy. I know I haven’t exactly been the child or the adult she wanted me to be. But she has hated me from the very beginning, and now she wants to take what is mine. The only person in the world I’ve ever claimed as mine. The only person I’ve ever wanted or loved.