Why did his speech sound so final?
Why did it sound like he wouldn’t be a part of the Resistance anymore?
I watched Avalon and Amory closely. I had a bad feeling. I’d had it ever since it was announced that Lucan called off the engagement. It grew into a full-blown panic when Avalon tried to pull away from Amory.
Avalon looked ready to kill someone.
And then Titus burst through the barn doors and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Someone’s coming!”
We had seconds to react.
Seconds.
I’d barely made it to my feet before the entire farm swarmed with Titans. They poured from their numerous vehicles and began attacking on sight.
There was no peaceful negotiation speech or even a warning of what they planned to do. They simply attacked.
And when they attacked, we reacted.
The farm that I had come to know and love, that had become a home when I had no home to speak of, turned into a warzone within minutes.
The Titan Guard was brutal in their pursuit of us. And we were just as angry and determined.
Titus’s words had screamed through our quiet barn with the kind of explosion an actual bomb would have. Everyone moved into action at once.
I took off into a sprint, stretching my legs and Shifting midair.
I landed on the cold, gravel drive on the pads of my paws and tipped my head back to let out a ferocious growl of intent.
Maybe in my Immortal form, I could be a tad meek and mild, but in my true nature, in my tigress form, I was as badass as they got. And I was so ready to rip out some throats.
I met Titan after Titan that intended to capture me and send me back to that prison.
I’d already been there. I had absolutely no intentions of ever going back. They would have to kill me first. Because I had no doubt they would kill me later if they caught me.
My thoughts flashed to Eden. Something must have gone wrong. Something must have gone terribly wrong. She would never allow something like this to happen. And Kiran wouldn’t betray her like this. He loved her. Even though he wasn’t a good person, he was selfish enough to want her to love him back. And if he attacked her friends and family, she never would. No, Kiran had nothing to do with this.
It had to be all Lucan.
I caught sight of the King almost immediately. I was surprised to see him so willing to fight until I saw the prey that he hunted: Amory. The two men found each other immediately and got straight to business. That eased my mind a little.
If he fought Amory, then there was no way we could lose. Amory was the original Immortal. Amory was the true King. We would win.
The Resistance would win.
I was sure of it.
Except as the night dragged on, and more and more of my friends fell, my confidence wavered. Kiran had shown up a while ago and renewed the energy of his Guard.
They dominated now, seeming to have been injected with more certainty and purpose. I fought tirelessly, but the Titan Guard closed in around me.
They surrounded me from every angle and dangled those godawful handcuffs at me. They were taunting me now. They knew they had me.
I snapped my head to the side and let out a deadly snarl. They would not take me back to those prisons to rot.
They would have to kill me first.
I hated the feeling of the cage, of even the Titans as they circled me. The animal instinct inside me rejected every notion of being locked up or trapped with no way to escape. And they would restrict my Magic.
That was the worst. That felt worse than death. Losing my Magic like that… not having access to my life’s blood, to the soul of my soul… I couldn’t go through that again.
I let out another roar and then launched myself at the nearest Titan. I bit at his face and clawed at his chest. He screamed in protest and tried to scramble away while I sunk my teeth into his jugular. Blood spurted into my mouth, but in animal form it was easy to ignore.
The other Titans leapt on my back and tried to grapple some part of me under control. I continued to move and use my sharpened claws to evade them. They reinforced their efforts but so did I.
When the Titan beneath me was subdued, I turned to attack another. I planned to destroy them all. Every last one of them.
And I wouldn’t stop there. I’d go after Lucan next.
And then Kiran if I had to.
“Lilly.” The Titan that faced me now looked anguished. “Lilly, stop.”
I roared at him instead. How dare he show up here. How dare he be a part of this!
“Lilly,” his voice broke. He held out a deadly, life-ending sword and those damned handcuffs.
No. He couldn’t.
I shook my head, unable to speak in this form.
“You have no choice,” he told me. “The Resistance has fallen. You have to come with us.”
I shook my head harder. Never, I thought. I will never go with you.
I hadn’t spoken out loud, but he somehow picked up my meaning. His dark eyes looked impossibly pained and his shoulders slumped as if he had been defeated.
Only, he hadn’t been. His side was winning. They picked us off one by one, decimating our rebellion and ending lives.
And now I was next.
“I have no choice, Lilly.” His accent was thick with the anguish in his tone, but I forced myself not to pay attention. I didn’t believe that he cared. I didn’t believe that he gave a damn, not one single damn that I would have to go back to that place.
I remembered a moment after I’d returned to Kingsley, after Kiran had given me the pardon. Talbott had cornered me in one of the long hallways and touched my arm with his strong hand.
“You’re free now,” he said. “Free to do as you please.”
I flinched at his words because I knew they weren’t true. “I’m just happy to be out of prison,” I deflected.
He took my other bicep with his other hand and pulled me to just a few inches from him. “And you’ll never go back,” he swore. “I won’t ever let you go back.”
But he was a liar.
He wanted me to go back and he was going to be the one that put me there.
Damn him. And damn the sense of betrayal I felt.
I Shifted back to my human form. For the first time in my life, he made me feel embarrassed to be a Shifter.
I had been afraid to reveal my true nature before. I’d been careful to hide who I was my whole life, but out of necessity. Not because I was ashamed of my ability or Magic.
He made me feel this way.
Against my better judgment, I’d come to care about him in a way I couldn’t even admit to myself. I couldn’t stand before him as an animal while he coaxed me to my death, while he encouraged me to give up all my rights, all my Magic.
I was humiliated standing there on all fours. Utterly humiliated.
In my human form, he seemed even more distraught, but I could not let his stupid emotions affect mine. He was part of the end of me. He had helped bring down the Resistance. And yet, whenever I’d seen him over the last few months, he had pursued me with unwavering intensity.
What if I would have said yes to him any of those times before? Or let him kiss me? What if I would have given in at any time?
Would I already be back in prison?
Was his interest in me just a tactic to bring down the Resistance?
Now I was humiliated and heartbroken.
“How could you?” I demanded. “How could you do this?”
“I didn’t!” he shouted at me. “I didn’t know.”
I shook my head again, only this time it was not my animal form, so my red curls bounced around my face and got caught in the tears I hadn’t realized I started shedding.
My voice betrayed me by breaking when I tried to speak again. “I don’t believe you.”
“Lilly,” he pleaded.
Titans stood at my back and a sword jabbed into my side. They wrestled my arms behind my back and latche
d those horrific handcuffs onto my wrists. I knew how this went down, I’d been through it before. But that didn’t mean I had to cooperate.
I struggled and fought all the way back to one of their trucks that was idled ready to haul us all back to Romania. I had no access to any of my Magic and my natural energy had been zapped completely during the battle. I was a prisoner.
Again.
Only this time, I was sure I wouldn’t make it out alive.
How many chances could one girl get? Luck didn’t fortune the brave; it fell to the wealthy and powerful. And on very specific occasions, to Royalty.
I was none of those things. My survival streak would run out eventually. I had no doubt about that.
Talbott followed me to the truck that would carry me away, trying to speak to me but I would not listen to him. I refused to listen to anything else he wanted to say.
“Get your hands off her!” he suddenly barked.
The Titans that had been carrying me dropped me to the ground. I fell in a painful heap on the hard rock and dirt.
Talbott was in my face in the next second, muttering curses at the other Titans and lifting me by the armpits. Once I stood on my feet again, he continued to hold me there, just inches from his chest.
A different kind of pain washed over me, and I wondered what was worse? Losing my Magic? Or this boy I had come to trust and want to know better?
Not that I could do either of those things now.
He betrayed me. I would hate him forever. I would never forgive him for this.
“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he swore to me. The conviction in his tone made my heart squeeze in my chest. I hated that. I hated that he could still get to me.
Why couldn’t I just shut myself off to him? We didn’t even have a relationship. We’d barely had a friendship. I shouldn’t have these feelings. I shouldn’t care about him at all anymore.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you again, Lilly. You have my word.” His hands had slipped to my waist where he clutched me roughly.
Ironically, this was the most-intimate position we’d ever been in. And if you counted the handcuffs, it was also the kinkiest.
“I don’t want your word.” I looked away from him. I had to avoid those eyes. They would crush me if I let myself look in their dark depths. “I don’t want anything from you. Not even your protection.”
“You’ll get it anyway,” he growled at me.
A bitter laugh bubbled out of me. “God, why are you doing this? The joke is over! You don’t have to keep pretending, Talbott. You got what you came for and now I’m going where I belong. Just stop. I’m tired of it.”
“What are you talking about? What joke? What do you mean?”
“This!” I swung my head back to face him and made the mistake of meeting his gaze. Those chocolate eyes looked back at me with a brokenness I felt in my core. His pain flashed across his face with the agony that I felt too. I shouldn’t have looked at him! “This stupid thing between us. I get it. You used me while Kiran used Eden. I get it. But it’s over now. Lucan has what he wants. The Resistance is dismantled. The Monarchy has control over Eden. The Crown Prince is happy. You can stop pretending now.”
“I’m not pretending-”
His explanation was cut off when Eden’s shrill, angered voice screamed through the night. Something unfurled inside me, something dark and ugly. New fear surged in my blood and I fought the handcuffs that restricted my innate abilities.
If they hurt her, I would kill them. Every last one of them.
Starting with Kiran.
Talbott glanced over his shoulder, looking anxious and a little lost. His duty was with Kiran. He felt compelled to return to him. And hearing the way Eden screamed into the night, I was with him in believing Kiran was in danger.
Good.
I hoped she gutted him.
“I have to go.”
I sneered at him. “Good. Go.”
“I will protect you, Lilly Mason. I swear it.”
“I don’t want your help, Talbott Angelo. I don’t want anything to do with you ever again.” I let the truth of my words sink in before I added the finishing touch. “I swear it.”
His face crumbled in front of me. His entire body seemed to sag with the weight of my words. But he couldn’t stick around to say anything more. Duty called and he had no choice but to return to Kiran.
I watched him go while the remaining Guard loaded me into the truck with the others that had been captured. I felt my heart crack apart at his retreat, the larger organ breaking off into smaller, jagged pieces.
I hated him. I hated him for doing this to my friends and loved ones. I hated him for being a part of something so ugly and destructive, something that had ruined my life so completely. I hated him for doing this to me, after he’d promised that he cared about me and forced me to care about him in return.
And that was what I hated the most. I hated that my heart hurt because he wasn’t here. I hated that I felt pain just because he felt pain.
I hated that I cared about him and that even now, even beaten up, handcuffed and thrown in the back of a truck, I still felt more concerned about his suffering than my own.
I would just have to force myself to get over that. And more importantly… him.
Chapter Three
Now
“Nervous?”
I whirled around and threw out my arms immediately. It was a good thing too, because Eden had launched herself at me and I just barely caught her.
Our arms went around each other and we held on tight. We both immediately started crying and I knew my makeup was ruined, but I couldn’t care.
Eden and Kiran must have just arrived because this was the first I’d seen of her and I was supposed to walk down the aisle in a little over an hour. I would probably be late though. I just didn’t want to let my best friend go.
“It’s so good to see you,” I whispered hoarsely against her monstrous hair.
She started crying harder. Her tears soaked my neck and shoulder, her torso shook with the force of her tears. Her bulging belly bumped into me and I started crying harder too.
“Okay, you two, enough of the water works. You have to walk down the aisle in an hour, Lills. You look like hell.” Seraphina’s voice cut through my utter happiness and reminded me that today really did have a purpose.
The aisle. In an hour.
Holy smokes, I was getting married today.
I pulled back and met Eden’s black eyes with raised eyebrows. She laughed at my terrified expression.
“Would you rather not marry him?” she asked quietly.
I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “No,” I swore. “I’m not putting this off for a second longer.”
Eden smiled proudly at me. “You look beautiful.”
“She looks like a natural disaster victim,” Seraphina cut in. “Get away from her. I need to fix this mess.”
Eden and I reluctantly stepped apart. I saw Amelia hanging out in the background so I gave her a wave. She smiled and waved back but then disappeared. Talbott had enlisted her to help decorate the small outdoor space for the ceremony and reception.
Seraphina set right in to fix my ruined makeup and messy hair. My gown had been bought in a boutique somewhere in Milan. My mother had picked it out since Talbott and I flew straight to the Italian vineyard we were using for the whole shindig. As many as our friends and family that could make it on such short notice would join us and celebrate our union with us.
Finally.
We were going to get married under the stars, in the middle of acres and acres of grapevines and with those people that I loved the most next to me. It was intimate and small. It was perfect for us.
Sebastian had actually suggested the vineyard. It was a property that belonged to Talbott’s family. Since Talbott had no immediate family living, a distant cousin had inherited the place and took care of the grounds. Sebastian had known about the place and thought it would be a gre
at place to have a small ceremony. Talbott’s cousin was more than welcoming when Talbott called with the idea.
We’d flown from my parent’s home in central Oregon the day I’d woken up. We spent the last two days relaxing in the splendor of such a beautiful place. Talbott filled me in on all that had happened since I’d been gone and I allowed myself to start believing I was safe.
My body was still healing in most ways. My mind felt tattered and frayed at the edges. I found it almost impossible to sleep because that would only bring nightmares of the horror I’d been through. There were many things about me that were still broken and sick. But Talbott was with me and like usual, whenever everything went to hell around me, he was the one thing I could count on.
The one thing that was always right.
And today felt so right, more than it ever had before.
I reached out and squeezed Eden’s hand. “I’m glad you could make it.”
She started crying again and then waved at her large belly as if that explained everything. “I’m glad I could be here.”
“Don’t cry,” Seraphina barked at me. “Don’t you dare cry.” A few seconds passed. “Oh, damn you, Woman!”
Obviously, I couldn’t help but cry.
“It’s really happening,” I whispered through a shaky voice.
“Finally,” Seraphina groaned and then winked at me.
“I don’t think anything can stop it, Lills.” Eden smiled. “Not even you. Your husband-to-be is pretty determined.”
“He thinks if he marries me, he won’t ever lose me again.” Those words were hard for me to say. Partly because I knew that even if we were married, he couldn’t be with me every second of every day and partly because I didn’t know if my bad luck was over yet. My nerves were still jumpy with the possibility of something evil swooping in and carrying me off. Forever the damsel-in-distress, I was sick and tired of being kidnapped and caged.
“He won’t,” Eden promised. “I’ve seen the look in his eyes. Nothing bad will ever get close to you again.”
I started to argue with her, but Seraphina interrupted. “I had to sign a contract to get back here. In blood. The man is not to be trifled with, Lills. He means business.”