Hekate’s Bride

“Rune?” I whisper faintly, even if I know there is nothing of him in the man I am staring at. Nothing of this situation makes sense and I can’t put into words how this entity, this being, can be in the body of a man I have known since I was a child.

He takes a step toward me and even if everything in me says to flee, I ignore it and take one forward.

My hair whips around me at the force coming from and around him. I edge one step closer, eyes trained on him as he watches me with mock amusement on his hard beautiful face.

“Why?” I ask, knowing how well he understands my question. The weight of it.

His lips tip into a smile that belongs to Rune and it makes me wonder just how much of Rune he is. He extends an arm for me, pale elegant fingers reaching out. “Come home with me, princess. There is much else you don’t know.”

My fists curl by my side as I suffer the desire of placing my hand in his. “Where is home? The Void?”

“No. I will take back my castle in Lycanthia, and I will rule again, as King and with you as my Queen.”

“You wish to rule over the people you so heartlessly try to murder?!” I grab his waiting hand, emotions overwhelming my thoughts, and I yank him forward, pointing in the direction of the screams and snarls and the smell of blood. “Those are children!”

He wrenches his hand from mine and a bitter laugh slips from him. “They did not consider that before killing my child, and my mate. Why should I care for theirs?”

I still don’t know the full story–his story, but it doesn’t mean shit. I bet half the people running about this field, getting attacked by faces they don’t know and can’t see are just as much in the dark as I am.

They don’t deserve any of this.

Baring my teeth, I snarl. “Stop this, right now, or I’ll put myself out there and I won’t try to stop them when their claws rip out my throat.”

He cocks his head, observing me with those dark eyes. “You wouldn’t, and even if I wanted to, I cannot end it. The curse is a sentient thing. I have long lost control over it.” He pauses, gaze turning contemplative. “You, however, seem to have found a way to make it listen to you.”

My brows furrow in confusion and I yelp when Hekate’s cold hand suddenly bands around my forearm. I hadn’t even seen him move. He whispers into my ear, cool breath tickling my skin, “What do they say about speaking to the darkness, Astrid?”

Though his voice comes off in layers, like rolling thunder, my name on his lips causes delicious shivers to wreck my being. It takes a moment for his words to sink and when they do, I recall that night with Rune, when I had spoken to the Void outside the school’s exit door, having assumed that it had been Hekate.

It had listened.

I bite the inside of my cheek, staring at it and yet nothing in particular. This is stupid, I know, but I say to Hekate, whose head is propped on my shoulder now as he sniffs me in weirdly, “I’m supposed to tell it to go away and it will?”

His perfectly pointed nose nuzzles my neck and my eyelids flutter in time for Sloan’s deep purr as we enjoy the sensation that comes from this small touch. “It is a part of me. If you told me to leave, I would listen.”

That makes absolutely no sense but with his lips so close to my ear, nothing else makes much sense either. “Why are you helping? You did this,” I whisper, voice breathy.

I swallow when I feel his tongue on my neck, and then his sharp canines nip on the soft skin. I should step away from him or listen to my brain that says flee from him, but I can’t move. I am almost certain that he is pulling an aura on me. My mind pushes together like something is fighting to gain control of it and my limbs relax, growing heavier.

His deep timbre vibrates against my flesh as he whispers, “You call it help, I call it an opportunity.”

“I am not going anywhere with you.”

“We’ll see,” he drawls thumb grazing the hem of my top, pushing it higher until I feel his fingertips on my belly. My body jerks tautly and I slam my thighs together, hoping to hide the betraying scent of arousal. “There is not a place under the heavens that you can hide from me. I will have you, Astrid, and you will want me to; beg me to.”

My breathing grows labored when lips of the finest silk move over my neck. I hiss sharply when his claws dig into my waist as he tugs me closer, into him. My back hits his chest and my ass feels him hard against me. He growls hungrily and the sound is my undoing.

“Leave,” I say, shuddering against him as lust tears through me so violently, I almost explode.

The warmth and ache I feel is suddenly snatched from me as he is suddenly taken from me, a deep guttural roar replacing his sexy baritone instead. I whirl, and he is on the ground, gripping hard at his head, whimpering and howling.

I blink at the clear atmosphere and the darkness that seems to dissipate. He-he’s gone.

I would listen. . .

It scares me. Knowing that I have this sort of control over something so powerful. What scares me more is that I do not know what it means for me.

I take a step toward Rune, reaching for him, but I am suddenly shoved aside as lycan sentinels breeze past, calling for each other, making it known that the prince has been found.

His mother rushes past me, her gown and hair disheveled and covered in blood. Ginevra follows closely and I turn away when she kneels beside him and throws her arms around him, sobbing. She doesn’t look any better. Her hair is a bright shade of red and her pretty green gown is in shreds.

I turn around to find dark green eyes narrowed at me. King Fenrir’s eyes trail from me to Rune and back again, and I realize something in the way he watches us both.

He knows.

About Rune. About Hekate. About me. He knows all of it. He closes the distance between us in quick strides and my stomach drops as he looms over me, reminding me of how small and insignificant I am before him. His piercing eyes bear into mine and I struggle to keep my fear hidden as his aura pulls my feet from under me.

“Stay away from him.” His expression is merciless and I hear the unspoken words behind them.

Or else. . .

I keep my expression calm and void of emotions, but I suspect he sees right through my facade. His lips pull down in a frown of disapproval and he says nothing else as he walks away from me.

“Astrid!” I hear my mother call out faintly and I look ahead, seeing her and my father walking side by side, face coated in the blood of the lycans that are scattered about the stadium. A knot loosens in my chest and I release a sharp sigh of relief. They’re okay.

I look around as I walk toward them. The stadium is in shambles, the ground cracked and stands overturned. Wounded students lay scattered about, some groaning in pain, some unconscious, some leaping toward the teachers and medical personnel. The air is thick with the scent of blood and rot.

The field has lost its once vibrant green color. The grass has withered to a sickly brown and further fades into varying shades of grey and black.

I steal a glance backward at Rune and my eyes pull down to the ground on which he sits, staring back at me as I walk away. It is untouched.