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His chin lifted slightly. “You were supposed to be mine.”
My stomach churned, taking his words one way, but Johnathon continued before I could verbally react.
“Your mother was my fated mate,” he said hauntingly. “She was my life, and when she’d told me she was pregnant, I was the happiest man in the world.”
Except I wasn’t his. I was Mathis’s child.
“But my Rosy wasn’t far enough along for me to be the father.” His eyes darkened as he stared at me with malice. “I’d been gone for a couple of months, working further south per Mathis’s demands. Rosy hadn’t told me she was feeling the signs of the heat. I didn’t get home in time, and another decided it was his job to help ease her through the pain.”
Maybe my mother hadn’t been hiding me from Mathis. Maybe she was hiding me from this psychopath. The look in his eyes was feral, and his voice grew deeper as he spoke.
“I wanted her to get rid of you.” He laughed darkly. “Of course, she wouldn’t, so I had to get rid of her. No mate of mine would disrespect me like she had. But then she disappeared. It wasn’t until I met Hazel here that I scented my Rosy.” He sighed, inhaling the air around us. “Her sweet aroma is one I’ll never forget. Only it wasn’t her. It was you.”
The sneer he was sending my way had my grip tightening on Sammy. The boy was making me proud as hell of him for staying so quiet and calm while this madman rattled on way more than I’d expected.
“So, I began to dig,” he continued. “I figured out who your father was. I tried to end him for ruining my life, but that didn’t quite go as planned. Once Mathis was out of the picture, I knew I needed you to be as well. It was the only way for me to get my Rosy back.”
Fated mate or not, I hoped my mother wouldn’t have been stupid enough to ever go back to this man.
“You think killing her daughter is the way to a woman’s heart?” I asked.
His chest rumbled. “I think—"
Hazel gagged and cut him off. “Enough with this bullshit. I’ve heard enough, and I didn’t agree to help you to hear about your pitiful life. I want my spot as queen as promised, so let’s end this.”
Queen? Did she expect to lead Fire and Fluorite, or maybe Earth and Emerald somehow? I didn’t know, but she was right about one thing. It was time for this nightmare to be over.
Johnathon turned and grabbed Hazel by the throat. “You’ll get what was promised as soon as you locate my Rosy and remind her that being with her fated mate is the only thing she should concern herself with any longer.”
The witch slammed her hand down on his arm, forcefully removing his hold from her. “And I need the blood of her child to do that, so let me do my damn job.”
So, that was what I was to them. A means to an end. Well, too bad for them. I had no intentions of playing along.
Johnathon said something, but I missed it. Then, Hazel pointed at me. Or at least I’d thought she did. “That’s Ryder’s pup. I want him to use as leverage to get the last faction in line, then we kill her as planned.”
The more the pieces began to fit together, the more I realized our guesses had been close, yet so far from the truth about this whole fucked-up situation. Though, that didn’t matter now.
“You’re not going to touch the boy,” I said, taking a step back. “And you’re definitely not going to kill me.”
Hazel chuckled. “Is that so?” Before she’d even finished speaking, she sent an orb of dark energy toward us.
I dropped to the ground and rolled on top of Sammy, squishing the hell out of him, but it was the only way to shield him.
The magic scorched my shoulder, and I let out a string of obscenities while trying to get up before she could hit me again.
Sammy didn’t keep his hold on me this time, so I had to lift him from the ground before picking my daggers back up, then nudged him behind me with my hip as soon as I was steady on my feet again.
I caught more movement in the trees. Fuck, whoever that was had better be friendly, and they needed to hurry the hell up.
“You’re fast, but that will only keep you alive for so long,” Johnathon taunted.
Didn’t I fucking know it.
My shoulder was burning as if the muscles there were being disintegrated by whatever that bitch had hit me with. Still, I gritted my teeth and hoped my hyped-up healing energy would do its thing quickly.
A twig snapped behind us, and I decided it was time to hope fate was done being a fickle bitch, because I really needed this to go my way.
I briefly gave Hazel and Johnathon my back and pushed Sammy away from me with my booted foot. “Run for the trees. Now.”
