Unwanted Fates~ Book Two

As they walked single file down unfamiliar halls, the sun shot distorted beams through the hazy glass.

Servants passed squeaking and bowing every time their eyes fell on Elias, and Sylvie couldn’t help but roll her eyes at their wide mouths and flushed faces.

Yes, he looked delectable in the tailored maroon suit he changed into, but he was still in her bad books as far as she was concerned. Her body ached from the denied orgasm, and his smirk whenever he saw her scowl proved he knew it too.

“In here,” he said, strolling through a door held by a dark-haired servant. The servant kept his gaze down, but his deep inhale as she passed him made her hair stand on end. She’d had many issues in the past with her blood being coveted, and she imagined these starving Vampires would have no qualms about making her their next and last meal.

Her long-sleeved emerald dress swished around her ankles, the neckline only just covering her mate marks and almost made her trip twice on their walk. Kian’s warm body behind her eased her fears of face-planting into Kerensa’s back, but she rued the fact she couldn’t wear the combat boots like she wanted.

Hayes stood at the head of a fifteen-foot table decorated with more cutlery and dishware than Sylvie had seen in her whole life. She gulped, counting at least five forks, and followed behind Elias, who pulled out her chair between Kian and Rowan, taking a seat at the opposite end to Hayes.

Kerensa took the seat opposite Sylvie and pulled the napkin to her lap. Sylvie copied in slower, calculated moves hoping she didn’t look like an absolute fool.

“Thank you for joining me this evening, ” Hayes started. “Though you could have spread yourselves around the table a bit more. I understand you are Elias’ pets, but I don’t bite.”

Sylvie pressed her lips in an apologetic smile clasping her sweating hands over her lap.

“Oh well,” he said, sipping a dark viscous liquid from a chalice. Then, raising it in cheers, he met her eyes. “Animal blood,” he said through a lazy smile, taking another sip. He kept his gaze on her for an uncomfortable amount of time until Elias sighed.

“What do you want, Hayes?”

“What do I want? You are the one who snuck in here, killed my guards and hasn’t spoken more than two sentences to me. You tell me.”

When silence filled the space, food was brought out and placed in the centre of the table. Piles and piles of delicate fruits, vegetables, fresh loaves of bread and some kind of protein. Kerensa rolled her eyes when no one made a move to eat and heaped her plate.

“Yes, take as much as you’d like,” Hayes nodded to her, lifting his chalice in her direction. Sylvie followed tentatively, taking a small portion and looking at Elias for confirmation.

“Oh, isn’t she well trained? How gorgeous,” Hayes said, leaning back in his chair. “You’re a mutt, aren’t you, little one?”

Sylvie swallowed a chunk of bread and nodded, ignoring the twitch in Kian’s jaw at her side.

“Do you have a name?”

She shook her head.

“Her name is Sylvie,” Elias filled in for her. “She is accustomed to Fae lore and has been instructed never to reveal herself; she did not mean to offend.”

“Ah, yes. Trained very well indeed, then. Well, brother. How is Earth?”

Their conversation quickly turned into convoluted business lingo, and she switched off, focusing on the foreign flavours her palate explored. She wasn’t sure she liked the fruits. They tasted more savoury than the sweetness she was used to.

She reached out to take another small roll when Rowan’s hands brushed hers, reaching for the same thing. He jerked back and glued his eyes to his plate as if on hunger strike while Sylvie shakily took the roll and dropped it on his plate.

Almost expecting him to scold her for doing so, her lips parted when she watched his throat bob as if swallowing a marble, taking the roll, pulling it apart and eating it in small sections. She focused on her food then, warming from his acceptance of her tiny peace offering.

Kerensa dug into everything without discretion while Kian ate slowly, moving it around on his plate more than actually eating. It was then Sylvie realised he was acutely focused on the conversation sailing back and forth across the table.

“-show you the state of our home. Much has changed. I’m afraid we can hardly call it the Silver City since we had to melt all the silver into traps for the turned.” Hayes waved his hand as if it weren’t an important piece of information. “We’ll bring the Fae too. Perhaps their magic will prove useful.”

“We stay together-”

“Nonsense,” Hayes’s tone left no room for argument, and Sylvie felt the sense of the cruelty Elias had described of him. “The mutts are far too delicate. Just look at them, Elias; surely you wouldn’t suggest exposing them to the townsfolk at this hour. Their blood-”

“Alright, enough.” Elias stood, throwing his napkin on the table with a grunt. “You know, you would’ve been an excellent salesman on earth.”

A brief flash of disgust marred his face before he waved for something wordlessly from the servants.

“I am afraid you are the only free spirit in the family who would dare try to assimilate himself into the world of lesser beings.”

“Have you been?” The words slipped out before Sylvie even realised she had spoken aloud.

Hayes’ mouth slowly rose into a half-smile, his eyebrow lifting on the opposite side. “Been where little one?”

Sylvie swallowed, wanting Elias to save her, but he remained silent. “Um- Earth?”

“Fates no. After the Division, my people wouldn’t dare set foot on that soil-”

“But aren’t your people starving? It would make sense if-”

“Sylvie!” Elias barked, more like a master than her mate. She shrunk, turning her gaze to him, tears automatically filling her eyes as his stone-cold stare washed over her.

“My pet often speaks without thinking,” he bit between his lengthening canines.

Hayes stood, downing the last of the liquid in his chalice and held his hand out as the servant returned. He placed the small device that looked like a compass in his palm and fled while Hayes sniffed.

“Well. Not so well trained after all. Perhaps I could discipline her for you?”

A cold fear pooled in her belly as the tears dripped wet pinpricks on her thighs. The danger of her situation finally settled in as footsteps drew closer to the back of her chair.

Wind gusted her hair about her face as Elias blocked Hayes’s path. “Noone touches my pets but me.”

The hidden message in his words was clear, and Sylvie relaxed slightly. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt her, even the King of the Vampires.

“Very well. Let us go. I have much to show you before dusk.” Kian and Kerensa stood, walking to Elias’s side while Sylvie stared in wide-eyed fear. How was he going to protect her if he wasn’t around?

She shifted, attempting to stand, when a rough grip squeezed her bicep, holding her down. The hand with its million tattoos kept her grounded as the others placed their hands atop the small device and blinked out of existence.

Sylvie jumped up then, wrenching her arm painfully from Rowan, heart hammering in her throat. It was just like a portal. They had portalled.

“Don’t worry,” a male voice spoke from the shadows. “It only lets him portal in and around the city. They’ll be back shortly.” Red eyes blinked from the dark, and Sylvie realised it was the same man who held the door for them on the way in. A hungry look appeared on his face as he stepped into the light.

“Back off,” Rowan growled, moving to her side and grabbing her arm again.

“Let go of me,” she hissed. “We need to find them.”

“We aren’t safe here.”

“Let go of my arm, Rowan!”

“Fine.” He released her bicep but dropped down in front of her, wrapping his arms around her thighs and throwing her over his shoulder like a ragdoll.

“You bastard!”

“I don’t care if you hate me,” he grunted, holding her squirming body still. “As long as you’re safe.” With that, he jogged from the room, returning the way they came, past the hungry stares of the Vampire servants. He broke out in a run, jostling Sylvie so much she thought she would vomit. It would serve him right if she puked down his back.

She pushed against his lower back to stare behind him and yelped, seeing the horde of servants stalking them. Their bodies strained against one another and the glass walls, the volume of people slowing them down.

When one Vampire fell, the rest broke through the line and began chasing them. “They’re gonna catch us!”

It baffled Sylvie how these same servants bowed and passed by them only thirty minutes ago without so much as a baring of fangs, and now they looked half fallen to madness. As they neared, though, with blazing red eyes and sallow skin, she realised their bodies were much slimmer and their skin duller than the vampires attempting to kidnap Natalie.

They were starving.

“Hold on,” Rowan grunted, twisting down one last corner and through Elias’ doors, slamming them shut behind him. He threw her onto the bed and spun, thrusting his hands against the door to stop the barrage of bodies, but it never came. Not even the sound of the hungry vampires sounded. It was as if they had all disappeared.

Rowan’s shoulders rose and fell as heavy breaths came from his mouth. He pulled the door open a fraction and humphed, shaking his head. “They’re gone,” he said incredulously.

Sylvie slunk off the bed and stormed over to him. “Good, let’s go back out and find my mates now.”

“No,” Rowan growled, slamming the door shut and spinning her back against it. He caged her in, his heaving chest now pressing into hers.

“Get off.”

“I won’t let you put yourself in danger.”

“You don’t have a choice. I am in charge of what I do, Rowan. Now move, or I’ll- I’ll hurt you.”

He slid his hands down her shoulders, the gentleness of the touch almost disarming, his fingers lacing with hers. She pressed her head against the door and tilted her chin, trying to meet his downcast eyes.

When the silence stretched between them, she sighed and moved to untangle her fingers but found them trapped in Rowan’s vice grip.

“Let me go,” she whispered.

“Everything in me says we shouldn’t be mates.”

His words stilled her movements but jumpstarted her erratic heart.

“My pack needs me, and I keep ignoring what is best for them... because of you.”

“Then don’t. Come with me, and we’ll find them together.”

His forehead pressed against hers, and he tightened his grip on her tingling fingers. Through them, she could feel their slight tremor.

“I cannot see you in danger. My wolf cannot cope. I cannot. It kills me inside. This is killing me.”

“I don’t understand. You hated me. You kidnapped me, let Jace torture me-”

“At first, I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that you were my mate, but I saw no other way to find out than to take you with me, and for that, I am truly sorry.” He swallowed and tensed. “Jace’s treatment of you was all his own doing. I would never have left you in his care if I had thought-”

Sylvie’s eyes pricked with tears as she remembered her time in the cells. That betrayal she could forgive, but there were others that cut her far deeper.

“What about when you disappeared after I shared with you my secret? You abandoned me when I needed you-”

“I couldn’t stop my shift,” he said, pulling their intertwined hands to his chest. “I had to leave to protect you.”

“Protect me?”

“Our half-marking has driven my wolf to the brink of insanity. Since we are not completely mated, my wolf sees Elias and Kian as a threat-”

“Like the day Kian and I saw you by the cells?”

“Yes. Your fear triggered my shift, and I lost control. Please forgive me.”

The truth was, she had already forgiven him for everything, even if her logical brain chastised her endlessly for it. Now she knew the truth, the real reason for his actions; her heart only opened more. She had been so cruel.

“But-”

“Fuck, Sylvie. Can’t you feel how much I want you?” His voice lowered, and his eyes darkened, but he let her go, backing up two steps. She grew cold, panting against the door without his body pressing the length of hers.

She wanted him back. She needed him. Her incomplete marks sang on her chest as she stared at him through her damp lashes.

Without breaking eye contact, she swept her hair around her shoulder, exposing her neck. She was sure he would spot the rapid flutter of her pulse there, but it wasn’t from fear.

“Show me.”