Deprived (Daughter of an Alpha Book 2)

by Kaitlyn Taylor

  Chapter Eight

  Kota

  “Are we going to talk about what happened?” Nathan asked as we both climbed into bed, covering our bodies with the sheets and blankets, pushing the extra pillows to the ground.

  “Talk about what?” I asked, knowing he wanted to discuss the one thing I had been trying to forget since we were up at that alter.

  “Are you really going to act like I didn’t see what you saw when we were bound?” he questioned sternly although I could tell by the lack of creases on his forehead that he was not upset with me. I had come to notice that when he gets mad three thick creases form on his forehead and his eyebrows grow closer together as he glares at whatever made him angry.

  “It’s not a big deal, Nate,” I assured him. “I can’t explain why you saw it, but we don’t need to worry about it.”

  “You had a prophecy the very same second that our blood touched and somehow I saw it, too,” he reminded me. “You’re telling me that’s not a big deal?”

  “I don’t have any answers for you, Nate,” I sighed deeply as I threw my head back into the middle of pillow hoping the conversation would end when he saw my frustration.

  “Fair enough,” he said still sitting up against the headboard looking down at me as he spoke. “Can we at least talk about what we saw? Why haven’t you told the others about it?”

  “I don’t want them to think that I’m telling them what to do with their lives,” I admitted.

  “But it’s the only way to stop Malachi,” he argued. “If you keep this from them and people get hurt the five of you aren’t going to be able to forgive yourselves.”

  “It’s not my place,” I mumbled.

  “Yes, it is,” he responded. “You’re the prophet. It is your job to relay what you see.”

  “Not if it’s going to force their hand,” I snapped. “They’re my best friends, Nate. They need to make their own choices. If I tell them what we saw, that choice gets taken away from them.”

  “I love and respect how much you care about them,” he started to say. “But this is bigger than all of us. Medova is in jeopardy here. If you don’t tell them and they don’t do what they need to do, we won’t be strong enough to defeat Malachi. We need the power of all four original families from each species.”

  “I know what you’re saying,” I told him. “But I just can’t do it.”

  “Then I will,” he decided as he scooted from his seated position, placing his back on the mattress and his head on the pillow.

  “No, you will not,” I demanded. “You’re not the prophet. I am.”

  “You’re not doing your job as the prophet,” he countered.

  “I just got hired!” I shouted. “I’m still new at this whole thing.”

  “Maybe you should sleep on it,” he suggested. “It’s been a long day and even longer night and we have to be up in a couple of hours to go search the forest.”

  “What if Malachi has been hiding up on the mountain peak?” I questioned, ignoring everything he just said.

  “Why do I even bother saying anything?” he rolled his eyes.

  “I don’t know,” I said as I sat up. “You should work on that.”

  “Why do you think Malachi is hiding up in the mountains?” he asked giving me a taste of my own medicine. I guess he could ignore me just as much as I could ignore him.

  “Remember how the fire pit was set up and the it was hot? I didn’t really think much of it until after my aunt freaked out on Nico downstairs but what if it were him hiding up there on the peak? He could’ve hidden anywhere on that mountain and still hear what we were saying. He would’ve heard us talking about going to the tavern and he could easily portal down to the front gates and spell the guard to act the way he did. He knew it would draw the Alphas out of the castle.”

  “Is this because you’re sleep deprived?” he looked up at me from where he lay. His right arm was now behind his head while his left hand rested on his chest. He did not have a shirt on, which made it hard to think when I looked at him.

  “I’m being serious, Nate,” I groaned as I fell back onto the mattress next to him. I adjusted my body so that I was facing him, and he did the same. “Is it possible for Malachi to get down off the mountain before us and spell the guards?”

  “With his strength, yes, it’s more than possible,” he said confidently. “The question is why would he do that? What was he going to gain by drawing the Alphas out?”

  “He snuck in and spelled my aunt causing emotional distress,” I guessed. “What better way to take down the Alpha families than to break them slowly?”

  “It sounds really crazy, Kota,” he told me before leaning into me and planting the softest kiss on my lips, keeping me calm as he basically called me insane. “But it makes sense. It’s a half ass plan but if anyone was going to do it, it would be Malachi.”

  “The sun’s coming up,” I pointed out as I saw the light peak through the closed curtains.

  “You get distracted so easily,” he laughed as he rolled closer to me, wrapping his large, muscular arm around my body, pulling me closer to him. “You know I love you, right?”

  “Yes,” I smiled. “Not as much as I love you though.”

  “Oh, it’s a competition now, is it?” he continued to chuckle as he planted kiss after kiss along my neck.

  “If it was, I’d be winning,” I breathed deeply as a shiver shot through my body, making me crave more of him.

  “We really should get some sleep,” he whined as he rolled off of me onto his side of the bed. The whole mattress lifted off the frame as his body plopped back into his sleeping position.

  “You’re seriously going to tease me like that and then just go to sleep?” I questioned, my voice higher than I had anticipated. That one little shiver did wonders, and I wanted so much more. Going to sleep was not an option right now. I rolled myself over this time and climbed onto his stomach, straddling him as he watched. He suddenly had no interest in sleeping, meeting me halfway as I bent down to kiss him. He moved slowly to get his pants off as I traced his body with my fingertips. I wore a nightgown tonight instead of my normal night clothes on purpose, wearing nothing underneath it. I felt him against me as my body moved into position. I sat down on him, feeling him fill the empty space. At first, I rocked my body slowly, letting myself get adjusted to his size, but then he picked up the pace and my own pleasure increased until finally, my entire body shattered. It was so much better than that little shiver I felt earlier. We both stopped, catching our breath before he gripped my waist and threw me onto my back while he was still inside me.

  His thrusts were slow as he placed his lips all over my chest. His arms wrapped around my legs forcing them towards my head as he leaned his body weight on me. Somehow, he was able to link his fingers with mine as he did this, and once more he picked up the pace, this time staring into my eyes without blinking. My body was teasing me, building up to the pleasure I was longing for. I heard him grunt although I did not pay any attention to it because once more my body felt like it was exploding.

  I could sleep now. I got what I wanted and was satisfied enough to close my eyes and drift off until someone came and woke me. Nathan was right about what he said earlier. We had to search the forest when we woke up, I just hoped the Alphas had the sense to wait until the afternoon to leave. We would not be much help to them if we were forced out of bed within the next few hours. I would sleep just fine and I knew Nathan would, too, but the others, I am not so sure. Knowing them, they went straight to bed and closed their eyes hoping they would crash as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Most likely, they were still wide awake thinking about everything that happened.

  The Alphas let us have about four hours of sleep before they sent maids to come wake us up. My body ached from the lack of rest that it desperately needed, and my mind was fuzzy as I tried to determine why I was waking up so soon after falling asleep. I felt Nathan stretch from the other side of the bed, a smile appeared on my fa
ce as I thought about waking up next to him. His muscular, olive skinned arm draped over me just as I was about to rip the covers off of my body. That extra warmth that his body provided made it hard to get out of bed at all. He laced his fingers through mine and we laid there in silence, nothing in the world could interrupt the happiness that filled my soul.

  “Kory will be in here any moment if we keep him waiting any longer,” I giggled as I turned my face towards his. He was so beautiful when he first woke up. His hair was a mess, but his face was smooth and perfect.

  “But it’ll be so much warmer if we stay here in bed,” he whispered in my ear, his argument growing more convincing as the minutes passed.

  “You’re the one always telling me that we need to obey the Alpha,” I reminded him. “Did you suddenly change your mind about that?”

  “No,” he answered quickly. “But being a little late won’t kill him.”

  “We’re going to be really late if we don’t get up right now,” I warned him. I pushed his arm gently back over to his side of the bed and then did the same with the sheets. I threw the silky white nightgown back over my head and let it fall down my body before walking towards the bathroom door. I noticed the tub was filled with water already, which meant the maids had been busy this morning. I wasted no time taking off the nightgown that I had just thrown on, stepping into the warm water, letting rise as I sat down.

  I noticed a second trunk was sitting next to mine through the closet door, and I suddenly realized that all of Nathan’s belongings had been moved. I am not sure when they were moved but it was kind of nice knowing we would be sharing this room whenever we visited.

  “I need to talk to you about something,” Nathan said as he entered the bathroom. I was rinsing my body of the soap that I had lathered all over my skin when he grabbed the chair sitting in front of the sink and dragged it over to the tub. The back of the chair faced me, and he straddled it, resting his arms on the top, leaning his body weight into it.

  “That serious tone tells me I’m not going to like it,” I assumed as I ducked my red hair into the soapy water. When I came back up he was staring at me, waiting patiently for me to listen to him.

  “I am the Alpha’s second in command,” he said. “It is my job to report anything that has to do with Sorcerer Territory or Medova to him. If I don’t tell him what we saw, then I’m not doing my job. He could have my head for that.”

  “He won’t do that,” I assured him as I stood up from the water, droplets running off my body as Nathan handed me one of the towels that was neatly folded next to the tub. I wrapped it around my body before stepping out on the opposite side from Nathan sat. He handed me a second towel, which I used to wrap my hair so that I would not drip water all the way to the closet.

  “You don’t know that,” he said as he stood up from the chair, returning it to its normal position before following me into the closet where he paused for a moment. He had just noticed his belongings on one side of the closet while the other side was filled with mine. His clothes hung on hangers, organized the same way mine were. He glanced over at me and smiled before he returned to the serious conversation.

  “He’s not going to kill you if you don’t tell him,” I spoke before he could say something else to strengthen his argument. “You’re his best friend and Kody’s best friend for that matter and you’re my husband. He’s not going to kill you. He’d have no one to talk to if he did and he would no longer have a sister.”

  “Don’t talk like that, Kota,” he begged. “Your brother needs you.”

  “And I need you,” I said, stopping him where he stood. “If my brother knows what’s good for him, he’ll keep you alive.”

  “He won’t trust me,” Nathan added, seeming to have a list of different reasons why he needed to tell the Alpha about the prophecy I had during the Binding Ceremony.

  “Why do you have to complicate it?” I asked, frustrated as I whipped around to face him. I was holding a cream-colored shirt in my hand, making sure it was covering my chest as I spoke. “Why can’t you just act like you never saw anything? I’m the prophet and if I keep the prophecy to myself then that’s on me. If you act like you never saw anything then you can’t be held accountable for it.”

  “But I did see it, Kota,” his voice grew but he was not yelling at me. He was irritated the same way that I was only about different sides of the conversation. “The longer we put it off, the longer it will take to stop Malachi. What’s the point in going to look for him in the forest if you and I know that we won’t be able to stop him?”

  “I’m done discussing this, Nate,” I told him as I threw the shirt over my head. It came down to my waist, slightly longer than where the black pants stopped. I was slipping on my brown riding boots when he finally spoke again.

  “You’re putting me in a really bad spot, Kota,” his voice was soft now, his tone changing completely.

  “I wish there was a way that you never saw the prophecy,” I walked over to him and grabbed his hands as I spoke. “But you did, and I need you to respect my decision. If Kory finds out, I will take care of it.”

  “I’ll give you two days to tell the girls what they need to do,” he said sternly. “If you don’t, I’m going to Kory and telling him myself. That is my decision on the matter, since I’m in this just as much as you are.”

  He walked away after that. He took a pair of pants, a shirt, and his boots and walked out of the bathroom. He was going to bathe in his old room so that our discussion did not turn into a loud argument for the whole Castle to hear. I did not like being told what to do and I disliked even more being given an ultimatum. I understood Nathan’s position and I hated that I made him feel like he had to choose but I refuse to tell the girls that they had to do something they were not ready to do. It is not my place. Deep down, I knew that we both understood the different positions that we were in but that did not mean that we would act in the same way. How would I even start the conversation that Nathan was forcing me to have with the girls? It would be easy if we were talking about the subject already, but it was a topic that we always avoided. Up until recently, when the Alphas brought it up, we never spoke of it.

  My biggest fear is that they will be upset at me instead of remembering that I am just the one relaying the message. I do not ask for these prophecies. If I had a choice, I would pass the gift onto the next in line, so I could rid myself of them. Was Nathan going to see my prophecies all the time now or was it only because our blood was touching one another that he saw it? I did not want to be arguing about this for the rest of our lives. I know my job as prophet is to write down what I see but, so far, I have not seen anything. I had the first prophecy in the forest when we were searching for my father and my uncles and then second one a little over a month later when Nathan and I were bound. I have not had a chance to write anything down.

  I wanted Nathan to come back to the room and talk to me before we went downstairs but he seemed really upset with me. The next time I speak to him will probably be when the search is over, and he is forced to talk to me again when we return to the Castle. This whole husband and wife thing is so hard. I am so used to keeping the secrets that I wanted to keep but now, there is this other person that I have to think about. This is where I usually go to the girls and discuss my problems but if I did that now, I would have to tell them why we were disagreeing with one another and then they would never leave me alone until I told them what I saw in the prophecy. Nathan would be getting exactly what he wanted. I was not going to give in that easily even if I did want him to stop being mad at me. I did not like confrontation. It made me uncomfortable. I wish I could be like Luna and go looking for a fight but that just is not me. I do not like fighting especially with someone that I care about.

  Just as I suspected, Nathan did not come back to the room before going downstairs. When I exited my chambers into the hallway I was met by the girls who, of course, wanted to know where he was. We were just bound after all. They all expect
us to spend every waking moment together. I played it off well though. I told them he went down to find Kory and Kody to get the search parties all situated. It was a lie, but it was believable and that was all that I needed right now.

  “Shouldn’t we be a part of that conversation?” Juda asked as we walked down the long hallway. We were all dressed in our training clothes, black pants and either black or brown riding boots. Each of us wearing a different neutral colored long sleeve shirt.

  “We should probably get down there before they find a way to keep us here in the Castle,” Deja suggested. “You know they would love it if we stayed put for once.”

  “They never learn, do they?” Luna laughed just as we reached the staircase.

  “How’s your mother doing, Nova?” I asked as we took each step slowly so that we did not fall on top of each other at the bottom. It had happened a few times in our lives and we were not in favor of repeating any of them.

  “No idea,” she yawned, still waking up after only four hours of sleep. “I haven’t seen her, and I haven’t seen either of my brothers, so I don’t know if they’ve seen her either.”

  “You don’t seem that concerned,” Luna noticed. “I don’t mean to be harsh, it’s just an observation.”

  So, she was practicing her bed side manner. A year ago, she never would have explained herself. She would have just said what she was thinking and then expected us to get over any hurt feelings we experienced. Something tells me Declan has something to do with this. She will deny it like she always does but, she did not attempt to be nicer until Declan played more of a role in her life.

  “My mother hasn’t been a mother since my father died,” Nova explained with no emotion at all in her tone. “She did not come out of her room when we were grieving so why should I go out of my way to see if she’s feeling better?”