Chapter 131
Chapter 131
-Ignatius-
There was no time to react, the vampires had surrounded us in an instant. I reached out to protect my
mate, but my fingers brushed empty air as Alissa pulled Dorothy against her chest.
Dorothy’s cry was cut short when Alissa put a small blade to her neck, stilling her while two vampires
got me in a headlock.
In my weakened state, I was in no position to fight back. And even if I was stronger, Leouldn’t do it.
Alissa held her blade to my mate’s neck in warning, pleading with her eyes and urging me to comply.
I mared as the vampires brought me to my knees, twisting my arms behind my back and clamping
silver shackles around
Dorothy stood stuff against the other she-wolf, calmn and controlled. But I saw terror in her eyes, and
her mind was loud with tumultuous thoughts that propelled outwards into my own
Alissa sermed upset by the ordeal, but her role in the attack could not be denied. The Khall had
betrayed us. They never had any intention of helping the Belke. They had taken us in to hand us over
to Caius. We were a bartering tool to ensure the safety of Jeh’s pack.
Fury burned in my veins as the vampires jeered at us, locking a silver cuff around my mate’s neck. The
large collar weighed her down and she too was forced to her knees in front of me.
Don’t fucking touch her!” Elbowing one of the vampires, I tried to get to my fret, but a sharp jab to the
back of my head. had me downed and reeling in the dirt.
I turned my face to the side, catching Dorothy’s eye as she looked on in horror. Her raging thoughts
mirrored my own. If they had come for the two of us, then they had come for Angie and Fae too. And
our children.
My heart ached painfully at the thought of our kids. Elias was alone with only the healer to protect him.
Amelie we had left in the care of our companions. We might never see either of them again.
Dorothy hissed at the bloodsuckers and kicked out at one of thein when they began to drag her away.
My atte her were quelled by one of the attackers kneeling on my back. Barely healed wounds burst
open under his wei
gave way to adrenaline.
“”Leave her alone!” My voice was a roar, violently training my vocal chords as I struggled beneath the
boot of a sat vamp
Dorothy in turn struggled towards me, reaching out her hands. My mate’s eyes locked onto mine, tears
trailing down h checks. We fought to hold one another, to have one last touch before we lost each other
forever.
Her fingers grazed my face, before she was wrenched away by the collar. I saw her bare legs kicking
up dirt as she struggled to relieve the pressure on her throat.
I got one last glimpse of the woman I loved, her stricken face framed by wild red locks, before
something hard and heavy hit the side of my head and the black chasm of unconsciousness enveloped
me.
-Dorothy-
When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the forest. I stared up at a blank ceiling and waited
for my memory to return. From the throbbing ache in my temple, it was clear that I’d been knocked out
cold with something potent. My limbs were stiff and I shivered violently in my sparse clothing. Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
The last thing I could remember was Ignatius, and the look in his eye before a vampire knocked him
unconscious. My mate had been feral, starling viciously while our attackers dragged me away. I saw
pain in his eyes, and my heart had twisted
when I realized I would have to break my promise
I swore to hom that I’d always be there, that he wouldn’t have to lose anyone else,
Chapter 13t
I swallowed a sob, and noticed that the cold silver collar was still locked around my neck. Groggily, I
examined my surroundings, blinking slowly while my blurry vision became clearer. I recognized this
place. I had been here before.
I was home.
In fact, I was lying on my bed, our bed, in the grand bedroom of our home by the sea. But Ignatius
wasn’t here with me, 1 was alone And my silver collar connected to a chain that was wound and
latched around the headboard.
Groaning as blood rushed back into my aching limbs, I sat upright. The chain jangled as I moved to
inspect the lock that kept me captive on the mattress.
“What is this” Panie began to set in as I tugged on the chain. The links were solid, and unless I
managed to claw the collar off my neck, I couldn’t move further than a five foot radius around the
headboard.
“Oh, you’re awake
I jolted in fright and spun to face the shifter behind me. Plato stood at the door, watching me with the
same expressionless eyes as when we had found him in the playroom
Ashiver ran through me when I looked upon my old friend. Plato was bere in the flesh, but it wasn’t his
soul that resided behind those eves,
It was as if someone had thrown a veil over the true Plato, and neither he nor his wolf could get through
the mesh.
“What’s going on. Plato 1 jerked the chain, raising my voice at the subdued shifter. “Where is Ignatius?
Where are our children?
They will be dealt with in due time, Plato shrugged, but he didn’t move from the doorway. Instead he
kept watching me with those dark, glassy eyes, until my skin crawled and I wrapped my arms around
myself.
I was uncomfortably vulnerable, still draped in only a flimsy shift and underwear. But Plato didn’t seem
to care about that, He looked on like a man devoid of emotion. Like something essential had been
removed from his heart.
I closed my legs tightly anyway. “What do you want?”
“I’ve been sent to prepare you for your meeting with Caius
Canus can go fuck himself. I want to see my mate!
I was in no position to be making demands, but the man’s uncanny coolness was making me
uncomfortable. My wolf bowled to escape the chains.
Plato ignored my request and instead loped to stand before me at the edge of the bed. “Do you know
what truths your mate hid from you!”
1 frost, narrowing my eyes at the unsettling shifter. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But that terrible pain in my chest was back, the twisting in my stomach that told me Ignatius had been
hiding something from me. It would seem Plato knew what it was. I was sure I knew the answer
already, only my heart had been slower to admit it than my head had been
Plato noticed my slight pause, when my breath caught in my chest. He leaned closer. “So you already
suspect it, do you? Why won’t you just admit it then?”
“Because it’s not true.” My throat was dry, and my words came out a whisper.
Plato cocked his head to the side. “Yes it is. You know it is. Ignatius knows what happened to your
pack. He knows what part Elliot played in n. And he laid in from you”
“Stop My eyes pricked with tears, my throat closed up as I begged him to stop. “It’s not true.”
I refused to believe his lies. But the widening chasin in my chest could not be closed again. If Ignatius
led known, and
+h
withheld the truth from me he had to have had a good reason. I wanted to believe that with all that was
left of my shattered
heart.
“Your mate didn’t tell you because he thought you unworthy. It was inevitable that fate would find you
again after all these years. You’re back in the hands of the vampire, where you were always meant to
be, Ignatius knew that the time would come eventually Your mate was too weak to bother fighting for
you any longer.”
“Stop!” I shuffled back on my hands and feet, until my back hit the headboard and the collar around my
neck twisted painfully.
But Plato was relentless, delivering his words with a blank, apathetic expression. “Your mate was weak
for stepping down. He was foolish for believing that some underhanded tactics would be enough to get
his title back. He was unworthy of the Alpha title, just as you were unworthy to be his Luna.”
Plato straightened up and folded his arms.
“Caius is the rightful ruler of the Bielke. The savior of the shifters. His reign is backed by lore and
prophecy, Legend speaks of a dhampir child who will unite the vampires and the shifters and carry us
all to a new age of prosperity. Caius is that very child and his ascension begins nove
Just before he’d finished speaking, two more figures joined Plato at the edge of the bed. I recognized
the dark-haired vampire nude, and the somber, ghostly female from earlier.
“That’s enough, shifter. The woman touched a hand to Plato’s shoulder, and her melancholic eyes met
mine for a moment before she dropped her gaze to the floor. “Cuius will see her now
It was Catus who had cast control over Plato, who had poisoned the minds of the Bielke people. I was
sure of it. I wondered why Plato had been sent to prepare me for our conversation in the first place.
Either he wanted his introduction as the dhampir messiah to precede him, or he had sent Plato to break
me down mentally
first
The cogs turned in my head as I watched a fourth figure enter the room. A broken mind was a
malleable mind.
He had gotten to Plato when the shifter was weakened. He had gotten to the Bielke when they believed
their Alpha abandoned them. He wanted to get to me, when I was crushed by the notion of my mate’s
betrayal.
Strong hands suddenly gripped my shoulders, pressing me into the mattress. I looked up into the
piercing dark eyes of Caius, the dhampir outcast.
He had looked fairly handsome from afar, but up close he looked like a monster. His teeth were a little
too pointed, his angular face warped to demonic proportions. Stringy white hair fell over his shoulders,
fading to a dark black at his roots
He dyed his hair. He wanted to look like Ignatius.
Unlike Ignatius, his eyes were a deep, dirty brown. Ellior’s eyes.
“Hello, little Luna,” his breath stank of blood and bile. “Are you ready to join our crusade?”
I would rather die than side with this monster, this man who had taken everything from me. I would fight
him to my very
last breath.
Cauis roared in fury when I spat at his face. He released me for a second, wiping at his eye and
hissing. His backhand left me winded and woozy on the bed. My cheek stung where his hand had
connected, and the impact of his ring left bruising there.
“It doesn’t matter what you want,” Caius seethed.
He motioned for the vampire woman to step closer. When she hesitated, he roared. “Now, Enmal This
is why I brought you along”
I looked from Caius to Enma, breathing rapidly. When I tried to get up, Canis forced me down again. He
pressed his forearm to my chest, leaning in close to my car while the woman pressed her fingers to my
temple.
58:
Chapter 13)
A burning sensation Tared-in my head, a fire spreading outwards from where the woman’s fingers
touched my skin. I screeched when the burning became too painful to bear, twisting under Caius as he
chuckled in my car.
“Unlike my own ability. Enma’s mind control is permanent. We’re going to wipe your memories clean.
liule Luna. You should be happy, all your problems are about to disappear.”
1 screamed, a piercing wail that went on and on. I fought against the dhampir man, trying in vain to
twist my head away from the woman’s touch. But Caius gripped my face, nails digging into my cheeks
and holding my head in place.
He laughed loudly when tears streamed down my cheeks, mocking my futile struggle. “When you’ve
been reduced to at blank canvas. I’m going to make you my Luna. And you will stand at my side while
execute your mate.”
I fought him, both mentally and physically, raging against the darkness that touched my mind.
I raced through my memories, of Ignatios and our children, of Angie and Far and everyone I had ever
loved. I tucked them into the furthest corners of my mind, burying them deep, hiding them from the all-
consuming shadow that breached my
vision,
But eventually, there was no more fighting, no more struggling. Only a complete and utter darkness that
sucked me down into its black and silent depths.