Unexpected Mates ~ Book One

The sound of clicks and rattles sent chills down Sylvie’s spine as the Hybrids stalked the grounds around the portal.

A mushy, crunching sound filled her ears, and she peeked around the bush to see one of the creatures eating her grandfather.

Wincing and pulling back, Sylvie stared at her crouching companions. Kian and Elias shared a look before each leaning forward and planting a kiss on her head while Kerensa rolled her eyes. “Stay hidden,” Elias whispered, his lips tickling her ear.

She nodded and reached for Kian. His brows rose, and he shuffled to her side, placing his ear near her mouth. “I missed you,” she whispered. “Be safe.”

She placed a feathery kiss beside his warming ears and smiled as he pulled away, loving how his jaw twitched and his eyes slowly blinked. They had a lot of catching up to do but for now... Well, Kian would have to tuck it away in the spank bank.

The trio took a collective breath and darted from the hedge cover while Sylvie stared after them. It wasn’t the most thrilling experience hiding behind a bush being useless, but it would have to do.

A cacophony of clicks, shrieks and weapons tearing through flesh echoed in the dim morning light, and each hit made her shudder.

Carefully, she peeked over the bush and watched the deadly dance unfold. For every parry from Kian, there was a counterstrike from Elias. The pair moved in sync as if they had rehearsed the fight for years.

Kerensa hacked and slashed at any hybrids daring to sniff closer to the hedgerows when the ground shook and more beasts piled through the black hole. Sylvie grimaced, watching the people she loved most get swarmed and overrun.

While their movements didn’t slow, nor did they appear to tire, the space for their grappling grew smaller, and her mates stood back to back, slashing at the Hybrids.

Kerensa rounded the growing pile of creatures and threw a purple orb into the portal before running in the opposite direction.

The swirling mass exploded, raining disjointed arms and brain matter across the earth, throwing some creatures away from her mates. How none of them had smelled her yet was baffling, though the gushing mess of half-chewed organs and gallons of pure dryad blood from Trion may have had a hand in it. A guttural groan drew a gasp, and she searched for the owner of it. One of her mates?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she whispered, ducking down and fiddling with the vial in her pocket. She had to lead some of the swarm away. She had to do something.

Kerensa’s back faced her over the hedge, and she reached over to poke her.

“Not a good time, Hart!” she growled, slashing another nearing Hybrid.

“Knife. Give me a knife,” she hissed, ducking down again when four pairs of yellowing eyes shot towards her. A small blade slammed into the dirt beside her foot, and she whispered a quick thanks before pulling it free and crawling away from the maelstrom.

Another heart-wrenching shout echoed in her ears, drawing a whimper from her lips. The marks on her chest began to ache, and before she could think things through, she sliced the knife across her palm, pinky to thumbpad.

She hissed at the burning and instant pool of blood in her cupped hand before standing and running deeper into the hedge maze, an echo of clicks and screeches chasing her retreating form.

“No!”

“Run, Sylvie!”

The mingling of her mate’s voices spurred her forward, and the ache of her marks ebbed. Her half-baked plan was working. Jamming the knife in her pocket, she pulled the flora killer vial out and shook it.

“Wakey, wakey!”

The hedgerows grew taller around her, and her sporadic left and right turns were becoming disorienting.

“Oh shit.”

She ran her dripping hand along the plants and pushed herself towards them. Could she merge with anything other than a tree? The plants’ steady rustle and lack of energy answered her, and she propelled herself onwards. Soon the path opened in a funnel, and she sighed a breath of relief.

The death rattle and clicks from the Hybrids quieted, and the sky brightened overhead. As she reached the end of the funnel shape, two paths veered in opposite directions, and she paused, head swivelling left and right.

Which way?

Just when she thought she was safe from the creatures, a lean, distorted shadow stretched over the path behind her.

“No,” she whispered, looking down each path wildly while cradling her steadily streaming palm.

The softest ‘caw’ called from the right, and she almost burst into tears seeing the dark crow preening itself on the top of the hedge.

Before the Hybrid could spot her, she darted after the bird, who quickly noticed her distress and guided her along. Soon enough, Sylvie was spat out of the maze into a garden framed in every direction with seven-foot hedges. In the centre, a wide willow, with a mop of leaves, swayed easily in the morning air.

The crow glided to the tree and nestled its head into the truck, cawing softly before snuggling down beside it. Something about the scene was immeasurably sad, and a tear slunk from Sylvie’s eye.

“Okay. This could work.”

Darting to the clear space between the hedge maze and willow, she pulled Kerensa’s knife out and cut another slash across the same palm, forming an X. The blade tip, sliced so cleanly, hardly disturbing the first cut already scabbing over.

Again her palm flooded with crimson, and she used her toe to dig a hole in the crumbling earth before pouring her blood into it. She dropped the knife and lifted the vial to her lips, gently pulling the glass stopper free with her teeth.

Spitting to the side, Sylvie filled her lungs with air and screamed.

And screamed.

She paused, coughing into her elbow, watching the top of the hedgerows for any signs of life. Nothing.

“Come on, you stupid fucks! Come here!”

With her last scream, dozens of wiry, grinning faces peered over the maze, their eyes blinking in synchronicity.

Bile rose in her throat as they tilted their head at her, smiles splitting their skeletal faces. They didn’t move, just watched her crouching with their frozen looks of delight. Hunger.

The vial in her hand sloshed between her trembling fingers, and before the mites could escape and eat her, she poured them into the pool of blood in the dirt. They swirled and mingled with the liquid, dancing but not eating. How that worked was beyond her, but it did. She tipped more blood around the hole for good measure before standing shakily on her feet.

The squeals of creatures and steel strikes grew louder, and she shook her nerves away. Her mates would be there soon. She’d be fine. With one last look at the Hybrids inching down the hedgerows, she fled to the willow and wrapped her arms around it. “Let me in, let me in, let me in!”

When nothing happened, she smothered a sob and spun, pressing her back to the rough trunk. It was too late.

She failed.

The creatures skittered across the dirt towards her with a glint in their eyes. A few redirected to the pool of blood and lapped the liquid, their violent screams and contorting bodies revealing the mites doing their work. The others shot straight for the larger prize— the quivering woman covered in her own blood.

The stench of their breaths hit her face first, and her stomach lurched, the thick pang of rotting garbage and sewage burning her eyes. She squeezed them shut and clawed the trunk with her blood-crusted fingers.

“Please let me in!” she begged, turning her face away from the reaching knotted fingers.

As easily as exhaling, Sylvie’s body suddenly melted into the trunk. A sharp slice nicked her arm, but she hardly noticed the sting as the willow sheltered her in its embrace.

“Thank you,” she cried, letting her essence fall deeper into the safety of the tree.

She could only hope more of the Hybrids would fall for the trap she made as her mind moulded with the willow. The warmth of the wood lulled her into a dreamlike state, making the screams and voices outside seem no louder than a rustle in the wind.

She’d just have a nap. She deserved that, at least. Her eyes drifted shut, her breathing slowed, and all was right with the world.

“Milena? My love, are you alright?”

Sylvie blinked at the smiling face of Trion, holding back a scream. “You’re alive?”

“Of course, I’m alive, darling. Come. Let us feast before your labours start.”

Trion took her hand tenderly and pulled her down a brightly lit corridor, passing many rooms full of bustling people.

“Mother?”

Sylvie spun to see a fair-skinned girl, no older than fifteen approaching her with a wide smile. “Is it almost time, Mother?”

“Mother?” Sylvie echoed.

“Lazuli, what did I say about startling your mother like that? You’ll put her into premature labour.”

Lazuli’s face fell, and she looked at her feet. “Forgive me, Father.”

Sylvie looked over at Trion and swallowed, seeing his eyes flash at the child.

“Leave her alone, Trion,” she whispered, pulling Lazuli behind her, causing a flurry of butterflies in her belly. No, not butterflies. She looked down and brought her hands to her swollen belly. Pregnant?

More kicks bruised her ribs, and she grimaced.

“This baby is a strong one,” Trion said with a proud grin, placing his hand over Sylvies. She refrained from jerking back from his tender touch as reality slowly settled in her mind. This was a dream of some sort—a vision.

The scene faded, and Sylvie gripped a bed on all fours panting and wailing as sharp, needling pressure screwed into her abdomen.

“Milena, don’t you think it’s best to lie on your back to birth?”

“No!” Sylvie growled back, her body shaking from the sudden rush of endorphins.

A hand pressed into her, and she screamed back, arching. “Forgive me, lady Milena, but it is footling.”

“Just get it out!”

Again, the scene shifted. Sylvie lay upright, vision fading, a wailing bundle in her arms. The baby’s red face nuzzled towards her, but she couldn’t move.

“What’s happening?” A man shouted.

“Too much blood, Lord.”

“It is a cursed child,” another replied.

A small cleft in the baby’s lip pulled the sweet cupid’s bow towards the nose. “So beautiful. Coralie.” Sylvie’s mouth moved, but the voice was not her own.

As the world spun and her vision dimmed for the last time, she felt her essence meld into an orb of light.

The screams of her bonded one, her babe and grown daughter, drifted away as her familiar scooped her light in its blackened talons, carrying her to the Willow for eternal rest.