Page 7 of Bonded

“What is it?” I ask. Is it that Zyran thinks I’m a threat to your throne and you can’t be trusted?

“The Crone Pack know of us and where our lands are. They know that we are supernatural in a sense but are not wolves. This means that you can drink blood and it will make you stronger. Many of us don’t drink from anyone but our closest companions. I have two, and you could choose anyone to be yours. Drinking blood will make you immortal. If you’re injured, that’s the only way to heal us.” He looks up at the thrones. “Mother told them a lot about us in a bid for an alliance, and they also know we wanted something in return. I have no interest in making a treaty or alliance with them, but with what is coming—” He stops. “What is coming is a threat to us all. There’s something in this world that we should all be concerned about. Let me show you this first.”

He walks over to the bookcase. I wait until he comes back, opening a book to the middle and unfolding several pages, fanning them out to make a big one. It’s a map and unlike anything I’ve seen before.

“This is where you’ve been.” He points at the land I know as the wolves’ districts and the small Folkland island hovering above it. “And this is us.” His land is so much bigger, stretching from the top to the end of the map. “And these lands once belonged to us too, but we’ve had to abandon them,” he says, pointing at the land to the north of us all, which has a huge cross drawn over it. Sea separates the land from the districts and this land, but not much of it.

There is only one thing I can think to ask. “Why?”

“Wrath beings. One touch from them will render you unable to move, and then they kill you. For sport or for food…either way, it is not a nice ending. They breed almost endlessly too, and the only true way we have found to kill them is to cut them up and use oblivion to destroy the pieces.”

He goes and gets another book, leaving the other with me. I fold the map closed, a shiver going down my spine. After he flips through the pages of the new book, he shows me a drawing. “They look almost human, but different. Their eyes are completely gone, and a venom-like ink drips off their skin wherever they go. That venom will kill you if it gets into a wound or down your throat. They are dead—they can’t communicate, they have no feeling or desire. They just kill, and they are good at it. They started appearing twenty years ago, taking over the land quickly, town after town, before they reached one of our major cities. We lost all of that land around fifteen years ago,” he says, gesturing to an area on the smaller map in this book. “Since then, we’ve been defending what people we have left and making sure they don’t cross the sea to the north.” He points again. “This sea is our only protection. So far, they have not learnt how to swim or travel across it, so we are safe here. But I don’t take that for granted. The sea is just water, and in our world, water can be controlled and manipulated.”

I look at where he’s pointing. There is so little space between us and them. If the Maiden Pack learnt…would they want to destroy everyone here? Reed might not sacrifice an entire city of people, but his parents are the alphas and are known for being brutal. All the alphas are.

“The fact is, oblivion doesn’t work on them very well. It holds them back and can destroy them once they have been cut to pieces, but our powers are almost void when they are near. We have yet to test the powers of the districts. Our mother believed there was a chance the fire wolves could burn them.” He looks at me. “That’s what our parents wanted, and now I’m looking at a way to open a negotiation with them without me leaving my city unguarded. There should always be a royal in Void City. If this city falls…the Wrath win. The world will be gone in a blink.”

“You want me to go back and get them to come here and test their powers against those things?” I look once more at the drawing, a sense of unease trickling down my spine.

Dain shuts the book with a snap. “Our mother went in with a gentle offer of alliance, and the Crone alpha sent wolves to attack her, us, I suspect. I’m not suggesting you ask them, Meredith; I’m asking that we make you strong enough that they need to bargain with you for peace. I will train you myself, gift you a private army, and make sure you are ready within a month. They took your friend, used you, and I’m guessing didn’t treat you well. I’m offering you revenge, with all the power of the people of Oblivion at your side. Go and manipulate them, cause chaos in their courts, and make sure they don’t forget who they fucked over.”

He is offering me everything I want, right there on a royal fucking platter. “They betrayed me.” For a moment, I can’t think past the pain that comes with the thought of what the Crone alpha did to Tannith.

Dain’s hand rests on my shoulder. “Then they betrayed the royals of Oblivion, Meredith. Let me arm you and send you back with teeth sharper than any wolf.”

He could make sure they will never use me again. I’m so damn tired of being used, and it keeps happening. But, I do not know Dain, and Zyran’s warning is echoing in my ears. “What do you want in return?”

Dain smiles. “You’re learning the royal ways quickly. Good. You should always ask what is wanted in return. I want your allegiance to me as your king. Usually when someone is crowned king or queen, all siblings will swear their loyalty to the new ruler so there is no chance of a fight for the throne. I will give you everything I’ve said and my full support and protection, but I want your allegiance to me.”

I think of Tannith, of her dying, as I nod. Never again. I will never be weak enough to be used by those alphas, and I will go back as far more than the weak human they think I am.

He offers me his hand, and I take it, only thinking of Tannith. This is for her, for her memory. The minute our hands clasp, shadows swirl around us, curling and echoing up our arms, whispering in their own quiet, creeping way. “I swear allegiance to you as my king, Dain.”

“Done.” He lets go, and he sighs, something like relief in his eyes.

The relief is short as the throne doors slam open and Zyran storms in, fury marking his features. “What did you do now, love?”

I lift my chin. “Exactly what I wanted to do. You told me to figure out a reason to live, to fight and carry on… I have.” I turn to Dain. “We begin training in the morning, and in one month, I need that promised army because I’m going back to the districts and taking what is mine.”

Chapter Four

PRINCE REED, HEIR OF THE MAIDEN PACK.

The waves here are murky and grey, even as they splash against my boots, yet they bend. I let my power surge into the sea, searching and sweeping the waves for any sign of Meredith, even a hint of her. But like every other day I’ve stood here, there is nothing. No trace to be found. Yet I know, without a doubt, she is not dead. I can feel her, even as far away as we are, like a second heartbeat in my own chest. By the waves and sea, I will find her. I don’t care if she wants me dead; I don’t care what she wants to do to me, only that I get to see her. My little human. If she is even human at all now.

I let my power drop as I continue walking down the port, turning down a path that is hidden by a ship. I stand in the dark shadows and wait. Someone is here. He’s been following me for at least two hours, yet the stranger hasn’t had the nerve to approach me quite yet. My hood falls low across my face, all my features hidden. I just look like another person at the massive port of the Crone Pack, looking for a ship. I prefer it that way. It’s the only way we’re going to get to her, and if my family get to me first? It will be a complication I don’t need.

“Prince Reed Frostridge.”

I turn and face the man who spoke—a Maiden Pack messenger—who hasn’t bothered to fit in with the locals. His dark blue clothes stand out like scales caught in sunlight, as does the glint of the silver charms hanging in his hair, which my people wear for good luck and protection. More of them hang in tassels off his shoulders. He clearly thought he needed many charms for good luck when coming to face me. I’m more surprised my parents sent a messenger rather than one of my brothers. The only reason I can surmise is that they don’t want the Crone alpha aware that I’m in his lands and didn’t go home after the Folkland ended.

The messenger, all blond hair and pretty looks, bows his head, and he offers me a letter in the same movement. “We’ve all been looking for you. Your mother and father have sent messages with a hundred of us to find you. Your parents urgently request that you come back to the Maiden Pack.”

His hand shakes as he holds the note out. I reluctantly take it from him and rip it open. The same words of how proud they are, mixed with a threat of what will happen if I don’t come back. It’s the same as the last five that found me. My father didn’t write this. No. This is all my mother’s idea, even if his name is also on it.

Slowly, I rip it in half, letting the wind carry the pieces straight into the sea. The messenger—I don’t even know his name—looks between me and the sea, gaping like a fish. “My prince⁠—”

He stops talking as water bubbles out of his mouth. I look around, making sure no one’s watching, before I kick him hard in the chest, and he falls straight into the sea. The grey waves swallow him up into nothing in seconds, and I make sure he is dragged far out, to where the sea creatures will make his body disappear. Just like the others. I can’t let them live and go back to my mother, to my family, and tell them where I am. He would have known the risk when he set off to find me, and at the end of the day, only one person can walk away from this meeting. It will always be me, because I have someone to fight for now. A reason to defy my throne, my blood, and my responsibility to the Maiden Pack.