Forbidden Union: A Paranormal Romance (Harem of The Mindslayer Book 3)

by Willa Hart

  “You’ll be sorry for this,” the Dreg yells. He stands and backs away into the night. I pull my foot off the young fellow on the ground, and Jix releases the third. They both follow their foul leader into the darkness.

  “Come,” Jix says. “We’ve made quite an arrival. I think the only safe place for us now will most definitely be Kaxon’s home.”

  We turn to hustle after Jix. But there before us are the two that fled.

  And they’ve brought friends.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Meela

  “You are ready, my Queen?” Rex’s eyes hold fear. My strong warrior-King is afraid, and not for himself. I pull on the heavy fur-lined jacket that fits tight to my body that Rex had made for me.

  “Yes, my King, as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  He looks deeply into my eyes and swallows. “Meela, are you certain…I would…” He drops his gaze. “I would leave for you, I would—”

  “No.” I shake my head. “You cannot, and I cannot either. Luna gives us each a path, and right now this is mine.”

  Rex’s brows furrow. “I don’t understand how you’ve been asked to do this…it is…it is…too much.”

  Not exactly what I want to hear just before I leave with his Beta.

  “Arianna is the fiercest warrior our pack has ever known. I don’t understand how Luna could possibly think it’s wise to have you, the Unifier, go out into the night and be hunted down.” He shakes his head.

  I press my hand to his jaw and look into Rex’s eyes. “We don’t know the future until it unfolds into the present. This is the path that she’s given me to walk, and I will do as she’s asked. As will you. This is the only way, isn’t it? For you to remain King and for me to be Queen.”

  Rex nods. He pulls me close and his mouth presses to mine. His kiss is fierce and possessive as though he’s trying to chase away every bad thing that could happen to me while I’m in the woods being hunted by Arianna, and I surrender to his kiss. Desire unfurls through me and washes away my fear. If only we had more time so that we might return to his bed for more lovemaking.

  “Come back to me, my Queen,” he says with a ferocity that sounds like a growl.

  I smile and nod. “I’ll see you at dawn.”

  Brianna walks toward us. “King Rex, Queen Meela, the transport is ready.”

  “Thank you.” I press my hand to Rex’s cheek one more time and turn and follow Brianna.

  We bump along the mountain trail in a cart that smells like manure. Usually the pack sends a host of four wolves with the challengers to the drop-off location for the Alpha challenge. They ride in a cart until they arrive, and then are dropped off and shift into their Wolveskin form. In this case, Brianna and I will be taken to our drop-off location, then she will shift, and I will not. We’ve both been blindfolded, and our hands are tied. My best guess as to my hands being tied behind my back is so I don’t try and peek where we are going.

  “How far do we go?” I whisper to Brianna.

  “I’ve never challenged for the female Alpha position, but it’s a far distance. That’s why we leave so early in the day,” Brianna says.

  The cart pulls to a stop. The scent of snow and pine and earth greets my nose. The smell is different than those when I walk outside the Wolveskin lair. Strong arms grab me and pull me to stand. My feet leave the cart and I am hoisted into the air, then my feet hit the ground.

  “Now we walk.” The voice is more mater-of-fact than mean. A firm hand grasps my upper arm to steer me. I can’t see, and my balance is off with my hands still tied behind my back. Many times the hand that clasps my upper arm prevents me from pitching forward or falling backward as we climb and turn and wind our way through the woods.

  “Stop,” the voice says. “Sit here.” The hand guides me to a seated position on the ground. I feel another body slide down behind me.

  “You will both sit back to back until you hear the Wolveskin howl. Then you can take off your blindfolds and begin your return to the lair.”

  A shiver races through my body. For the first time since I confronted Arianna, I am truly afraid. I sit with my back pressed against Brianna’s with nothing to do but let my mind spin to the thought that I am a human, in the woods, being hunted by a female Wolveskin. Yes, I have Brianna with me, but do I have any possibility of surviving? Does Brianna? I am not an asset in any way. I am only a detriment. Truly, if I think about the situation, Brianna has taken on a mission for her King that one could classify as a suicide.

  I focus my mind. The one thing I do have is my gift of mind and it’s a gift that continues to surprise me. There is also this new, unfamiliar feeling from my Wolveskin that continues to stir within me. I see my Wolveskin in my mind; she is a golden color—a color I’ve not yet seen on any other Wolveskin.

  Can you guide me? Do you have any idea where we’re going? My thoughts are directed at my internal Wolveskin that has yet to break free with me shifting. The image I hold of my Wolveskin in my mind smiles at my questions, excited in anticipation of the adventure, all the while I’m nearly certain that I’ve just led Brianna and myself to certain death.

  A Wolveskin howls in the distance. Instantly the back that presses against mine slips away. I know without taking off my blindfold that Brianna has shifted to her Wolveskin form.

  I lift my blindfold from my eyes, and there Brianna stands, awesomely huge. My Wolveskin inside me jumps for joy. Brianna tilts her head and her snout sniffs. Her gaze takes me in, and she steps forward and sniffs me again. I reach up my hand to pet her but then stop myself…never pet a Wolveskin as they are not dogs. She knows, Brianna’s Wolveskin knows, that my wolf is just beneath the surface. I press my fingertips to the mark on my neck from King Rex. Oh if I could change; how I’d like to change now.

  I stand and dust the snow and dirt from my backside. Brianna turns her back to me as an offer. I grasp the fur on her shoulders and swing my leg over her back. Riding Brianna is familiar, and I’m thankful for yesterday when we spent the day going through the woods together. I grasp her fur with both hands and lean forward, pressing my body as close to hers as I can.

  “Thank you, Brianna,” I whisper. I close my eyes and send her a thought of warmth and gratitude, and I hope that she can feel it and understand that I know what she’s given me by being here by my side. Right now, she is my only hope of surviving and returning to the lair.

  She lets out a tiny bark, as though a thank you, and then she is off like a shot into the darkness of the night. We are on our way home to the Wolveskin lair.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Leo

  I pace in front of the window and stare out into the darkness. Beyond, in the distance, I can barely see the Ninaku wall. We’ve not returned to the Dreg Slum since the uprising. We’ve not even sent in troops to try and take back the Slum. I’m conflicted by this decision. I have no desire to harm any Dregs; I was actually thankful that they managed to toss out Vlissimal. But I also don’t love the idea of an entire area of the Kingdom believing that they need not follow the rules of the Kingdom. My spies inform me that Kaxon, head of the Engineers Guild, has managed to keep some semblance of order amongst the Dregs. Not surprised that it is a scientist that could use reason to persuade the Dregs.

  Reminds me of another scientist.

  I close my eyes. I miss my brothers. My Tripsett. Yes, both of them. I’ve ignored Taraz’s mind inquiry every time he sends one. I’m afraid someone in the castle will discover me communicating with either Taraz or Sarkany and try to use that communication against me or my brothers. Especially knowing that there is a hidden Mindslayer in the castle who is helping Uncle.

  “Your brothers have returned.” Uncle’s voice slices through the silence. I turn and Vlissimal stands just on the other side of Mother’s desk. “I need you to find them. Draw them out and bring them to us so that we can try and rehabilitate them.”

  I cross my arms over my chest. “And by ‘rehabilitate,’ you mean…?”

 
; “Kill them both. So that they become a shining example of what not to do…like fall in love with a Dreg.”

  Anger rages through my chest. I place both hands on his desk and lean close to him. “Need I remind you that you were once in love with a Dreg?”

  “While perhaps a Dreg by birth, Wagu exceeded his origins. He was given the talent of an Eliterrati.”

  “Much as you were born with the lack of mind-abilities as are the Dregs,” I say.

  “I’ll not argue these points with you. Either you bring me your brothers, or I’ll have you labeled a traitor and request that The Counsel allow me to mindscrub you so that you too might be an example of what not to do.”

  “And what if the girl that my brothers love is not a Dreg?” I ask. “What if the girl is an Eliterrati?”

  “Impossible,” Vlissimal says, though his gaze contains doubt. I send a mind tendril toward him and am again confronted with a blocked mind. How is he doing this? Block after block. “You found the girl in the Ninaku laundry cleaning fouled sheets. She is no more than a Dreg whore that caused Sarkany’s dick to grow hard.”

  “Not quite,” I say. I glance at the picture of Mother and Fathers that hangs on the wall. “You were present at Mother’s wedding, were you not?”

  “Hmm, yes.” Vlissimal’s eyes follow mine. He gazes at the portrait of Mother, the Queen, sitting in front of her three Kings. Each looking so different than the other. One dark-haired and big and broad much like Sarkany. My other father with light skin, slight and thoughtful with jet-black hair, and my final father white-haired and fair-skinned with almost elfin features. “Should’ve been me, you know, but with men you must be part of a Tripsett to rule.” His cold hard gaze returns to me. “What does your mother’s wedding have anything to do with the Dreg whore?”

  “Not a Dreg. Do you remember Mother’s handmaiden, Esmeere?”

  Vlissimal’s face pales. He becomes completely ashen. Little did I know that by speaking Meela’s mother’s name, I could cause Vlissimal to look as though all life had flowed from his body. If I had, I’ve have spoken her name often.

  “What do you know of the woman who bore that name?” His voice is low and nearly soundless.

  “I know that she was a handmaiden to my mother,” I say. I turn back to Vlissimal. “I also know that she bore a child, in fact she bore more than one child, and that child—”

  “Enough!” Vlissimal bolts to his feet and leans close to me. “You shall never speak of that person or that name again. She was a blood-traitor of the highest order. Do you understand? She was banished from the Kingdom and her entire Eliterrati family erased from the rolls. It was her and her…her…pet’s horrid filthy decision that caused the death of your mother and your fathers. Her unnatural love and her abomination that set into motion the events that lead to the death of your mother, the Queen.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “What I’m saying is that it was that woman who caused the death of your mother and your fathers. Every bad thing that happened to your mother and your fathers—and now you and your brothers—began with that woman. A handmaiden of death,” Vlissimal says.

  I take a deep breath. Was Mother’s handmaiden a part of the Dreg group that assassinated my mother and my fathers? No wonder she was banished. No wonder there is no record of her family name, or of Meela or Huali’s birth, or of their father. “Did she…did she kill Mother?” I finally ask.

  “It was she and her children that caused the death of your parents. So you’re telling me that that whore your brothers have determined is their fated-mate is the daughter of Esmeere ?”

  “I…” I stop. I do not trust Vlissimal. He is a liar. He is a deceiver. There is as much probability that all that he says right now is to save his own skin as it is truthful…how easily he can deceive me since I want so much to believe the worst of this Meela. “I…I don’t know for sure,” I say and lie to Vlissimal. I still hold onto the desire that somehow I can repair the damage that’s been done to my Tripsett. That we shall find our joint fated-mate and be the three Kings with their one Queen just as our Mother and Fathers were, but at this point I am unsure that we can share a future.

  I do know that I need more information as to Sarkany and Taraz and even Meela before I will deliver over to Vlissimal any one of them. Because while I loathe that my two brothers have declared Meela their fated-mate without any consideration from them as to me and what I want, I cannot betray my Tripsett. They are my brothers, my blood tie.

  “Find them,” Vlissimal says. “Find them and bring them to me.”

  He seems to have forgotten how this started, how not too long ago I threatened to expose him as a traitor to The Counsel, and yet here he is ordering me around.

  “Do you think that they will believe you, boy?” Vlissimal asks. “You killed the only proof of what I was doing when you killed Wagu.” He smiles and shakes his head. “So foolish and impetuous is youth. In your desire to prove what you knew to be true, you acted much too hastily. Patience is the way to slay one’s enemies. I mean look at me, I could send an army to get your brothers and find the whore. But I do not do it. Instead, I remain patient in the knowledge that they will come to me. They must. I have everything they want, and they fear for their Kingdom. Their people. They do not see as I do that Dreg, Eliterrati, none of them matter, they are all simply stupid cogs in a wheel of time that must be lead either by love or by force, but lead they shall be. And why not me to do the leading? Why not me to rule and command that any person do as I require? Hmm? Why not? Because of an archaic rule of heredity that requires a Tripsett of men to every female ruler? Hmm. Don’t care. No, I shall rule now, and if you play your cards right upon my death you shall rule later.”

  A chill rushes through my body with Vlissimal’s words. I take a deep breath and block my mind. While I do not know how Uncle now has mind abilities, I also do not know how far of a reach his newfound mind abilities provides. Therefore, I do know that I must keep these thoughts to myself. The thoughts that find me wanting to wrap my hands around Vlissimal’s neck and squeeze his throat until his face turns purple and his tongue squeezes from his mouth.

  Trapped. I am trapped by my own anger and the game that I thought I’d played so well.

  “What choices do you have?” Vlissimal asks. “If you go to your brothers, I shall follow you, and you shall all perish. Or you can go to your brothers, take my forces with you, and I take only them. You also get to convince them that should they renounce their love for the Dreg and let me sever the bind, that I will let them live. Of course they’ll need to abdicate to me, but they shall live none the less.”

  I do not believe him. I do not think that he would ever let us live.

  “You will allow them to go free?” I ask. “Perhaps to the Dark Forest?”

  Uncle waves his hand and smiles at me, that horribly wicked smile that looks as a spider might before eating its lunch. “Go. Leave. Of course, as long as there has been an abdication, they may go. What do I care? You will have the crown that I will control, and upon your death Princess Katya shall be next on the throne when once I die.”

  “Fine,” I say. “I shall call to my Tripsett and get them to meet me. You and your team shall be ready? You shall bring members of The Counsel as well?”

  “Oh yes, but of course. We must have Lady Alana present and ** as well,” Vlissimal says. “They’re great fans of your brothers, so they too can see that Sarkany and Taraz are treated well when they surrender.” He nods at me. “You’ve made a wise and brave decision here today. This decision shall bring peace to our Kingdom. You shall see we’ll find a way to rule together, you and I.”

  I know that Vlissimal’s words are a lie. He will not allow me or my brothers to live; most likely he will not even allow Katya to survive.

  “I will reach out to them tonight. If they’re close then I shall try to meet with them.”

  “Excellent,” Vlissimal says. “Very soon, you shall be the sole King Roya.”
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br />   Chapter Twenty-Three

  Meela

  Wind brushes against my body. I hold onto Brianna for my life. She bolts through the snow. Over rocks, through streams, winding through forests. Never stopping. Never pausing. Her snout turns up toward the wind and catches a scent. I can almost smell what she smells but not quite. Rabbit? Deer? Mountain lion?

  I close my eyes and reach out into the night. Rex’s mind remains open to me; I can feel it, but I do not reach out to him. My eyes are closed. I feel…I sense…another presence, one that is not far from us.

  Brianna pauses. She lifts one front paw, her head tilting from one side to the next, her snout raised to the wind.

  I shiver. The hair on the back of my neck raises and I feel it…a sense of foreboding. This isn’t right. An energy or a presence that is near us…stalking us. I lean forward and whisper, “Brianna—”

  I do not get my warning into the Wolveskin’s ear before I’m hit with a ton of muscle that pulls me off Brianna’s back. I land hard on the frozen earth, and we roll apart.

  She stands four feet from me, lips curled back and teeth bared: Arianna in Wolveskin form.

  I pull back. A searing pain goes through my shoulder. She lowers and prowls forward, a horrible growl coming from her mouth. Not far away, there is growling and barking; two Wolveskins fighting. Brianna fights Arianna’s second. Fighting for her life and for mine. I press back further and Arianna stalks forward low to the ground, hunting me, wanting to kill me, enjoying this moment that will be my death. My nostrils flare. Bile raises in the back of my throat. Fear clutches my gut and I know that I will die.

  I close my eyes, and a low growl starts in my belly and rolls into a rumble that continues up through my body and turns into a roar as loud as a giant summer storm. Thunder and lightning shake through me, the noise roars through my head. An ache hard and sharp in my skull as every tendon in my body stretches and screams with pain. Ripping from my body. I open my eyes and my gaze locks with Arianna.