Royal Blood and One Forever : Book Three

by Simone Nicholls

  What had changed her mind? Why was she willing to come see me now? I attempted to keep my suspicion suppressed, not wanting her to hear or feel it. But mostly I didn't want to get my hopes up.

  'Connor, I have to pull my shield back up. But I promise it won't be long.' Isabella rushed into my mind. 'Sorry.'

  Before I could reply, I felt the block come back. I cringed, feeling the shield protecting her from me. My wolf went mad with rage and I could feel him trying to break it down, even though I knew it was pointless.

  Sighing I opened the bedroom door. Had I expected her to stay? No, but I hoped. It was too good to be true. Groaning, I sat on the edge of the bed, so close but yet so far.

  Having felt Isabella again, I just wanted her more than ever. Glancing behind me, Melissa was sleeping on her side, her back to me.

  How could I get rid of her, so I could have my mate?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Connor

  I hadn't expected Isabella to come back to me. So it didn't surprise me, when she hadn't come back to me. Rolling over in bed, I watched Melissa sleep peacefully. I couldn't help but wonder, was Isabella sleeping? Doubtful she said it wasn't nighttime where she was. I couldn't help but begin to run the countries with different time zones through my mind as I remembered that fact.

  "Connor, why are you staring?" Melissa's eyes snapped open and she looked coolly across at me. So much for sleeping peacefully.

  "Just thinking." I muttered.

  "About Isabella, I would guess." Melissa groaned and then rolled over to her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I'm sorry, Connor. I thought I knew what I was doing back then, but. . ." she twisted her head to the side and looked at me, "I'm just sorry. I want you to know that."

  "Last time I checked, I slept with you. So the blame is mine too." I pointed out before also rolling on to my back and staring up at the ceiling.

  "I was thinking perhaps it would be best if we separated." Melissa's voice was low, but her words rang clearly through my mind.

  "What? Why?" I sat up, the blankets falling to my side. Slowly Melissa also pulled herself up and twisted around to face me.

  "You and I, we aren't working." Melissa sighed, "Perhaps it would be better if May and I left."

  "You would take May from me?” I questioned, suddenly enraged. "You can't take my daughter away from me, she belongs here."

  "Connor, think about it. You want Isabella, you can have her this way."

  She was right, I wanted Isabella. I would do anything to have her. But throwing my daughter out to have my mate back felt wrong and I knew Isabella wouldn't agree to it. She wouldn't want me to hurl May away like that.

  "I won't throw my daughter out." I said firmly. This wasn't happening like this.

  "Connor, I want to leave." Melissa's eyes were begging me, why was she looking so scared. "Please."

  "You want to leave? You wanted this! You love being Queen, you love it here." I frowned, not understanding Melissa's change to heart.

  "I don't love you." Melissa crossed her arms defensively; she was hiding something from me. "I want to find my mate; I want to have his children. Not live an eternity here with you hating me."

  "You're lying to me." I clenched my fists. "You knew all this years ago, but it didn't change your mind. You wanted to be Queen, you got it. So why are you suddenly wanting to throw all this away?"

  "Because I want too." Melissa spat, "I can't stay here any longer."

  "Why?"

  "Because my time has run out."

  "I have no idea what you are on about!" I growled. “Time ran out? What are you trying to say to me?"

  "That I want to leave, and I will be taking May with me."

  "No. You can go, May stays."

  "She's my daughter!" she roared.

  "SHES MY DAUGHTER!" I roared back at her, with more anger.

  "Connor, look, we can still have her party." Melissa faked calmness, "But after that, we're leaving."

  She sounded determined, and I couldn't understand why. She was hiding something from me. After all these years together she was still keeping her secrets.

  "You can't take her from me, she is all I have."

  "You have Isabella." Melissa pointed out before crossing her arms, "You will be fine."

  "I don't get a choice in this, do I?" I didn't hide the hurt I felt, as the woman bluntly told me she was taking away my child. "When will I see her? How will I see her?"

  "We can work that out later." Melissa's eyes flowed to the bed, "Personally I want to leave tomorrow, but I can't be that mean to you."

  "Do you know what this is going to look like to our country?" I spat, "What this is going to make me look like?"

  "Connor, you don't really care about that." She snapped, "You will get Isabella back, isn't that what you have always wanted?"

  "Yes."

  "Then this is for the best."

  "I don't get it." I ran a hand through my hair. "What, caused this? What changed?"

  "You just reminded me that May is turning seven. She is growing up and I don't want her to waste more of her life here."

  "Because life here is so bad." I scoffed. "Have I not given you everything you have wanted? Have I not made sure that anything May wants is provided? I have let you have your parties, your jewels! Hell I have even let you take control of the castle! Bloody hell, I married you!"

  "Connor, we will be leaving the morning after the party." Melissa said firmly. Her mind was decided. Nothing I could say would change it. "I suggest you get used to it."

  She was taking my daughter away, and she didn't even care. I was wrong. Melissa was always cold hearted.

  "Let her stay, you can leave." I offered, my voice dripping in my hate for her. "If you have suddenly realised, you hate it here so much, you leave."

  "May is my daughter." She spoke calmly. "She belongs with her mother."

  "I'm her father, doesn't that matter?"

  Melissa's eyes flashed with pity for a moment as she looked at me. Slowly, she shook her head. "No, it doesn't."

  I watched her throw the blankets back and quickly walk out of the room, slamming the bedroom door behind her. May was leaving and there was nothing I could do about it.

  Flinging my legs over the side of the bed, I slammed a closed fist down on the bedside table. Rage taking the best of me, I was so consumed with frustration.

  How could Melissa do this to me? What had. . .

  A blood wrenching scream of pain escaped my lips. My hands went around clenching my abdominal area. My abdominal area felt like it was bleeding outside my chest, glancing down at my tanned stomach. No physical signs were there, but yet I hunched over as I clenched my stomach in agony. It was ripping through my core, I had never experienced such pain before.

  What the hell was happening?

  Isabella

  "What do you mean his gone?" I asked panicked, my hair dripping down my back as I just got out of the bath.

  I found the only way for me to be able to focus calmly on Connor, was for me to relax. Just so I wouldn't stuff up and show him Cooper or think about Cooper. I felt bad lying to him and pulling my shield up so suddenly, but when Chase said for me to come out, it took all my strength not to think of Cooper for those brief moments. I had nearly slipped up and showed Connor his son by mistake.

  "Here." Chase handed me a piece of paper.

  'I'm going to find dad.'

  That was all that was written on a scrap piece of paper in red crayon. Cooper had run away?

  "COOPER!" I screamed on the top of my lungs and stormed past Chase, and pushed Coopers bedroom door open. His room was empty.

  "He is not in the house." Nick said while jogging up the stairs. "Ryan checked the backyard, he isn't here."

  "He ran away." My own shock slipped into my words. "I knew he was angry with me, but. . ." I glanced down at the note in my hand. "I didn't think he was this upset."

  Chase placed a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, he wouldn't of got a far." C
hase squeezed my shoulder reassuring. But I didn't feel reassurance. My son had just run away from me. This was a low point. To find his father. And this only tripled my guilt.

  "We should be able to pick his scent up quickly." Nick shot over his shoulder, walking ahead of us down the stairs.

  I knew I shouldn't be worried, I had two of the best trackers with me. Well and I had Serenity, her tracking abilities were always famous. So I knew we would find him. But still it hurt, he had run away from me.

  "We should hurry." Serenity slipped a shoe on her foot. "Cooper can run quickly when he wants to." She pointed out before pulling the front door open.

  I inhaled the air around, Cooper's scent lingered in the air but it was weak.

  "Ryan and I will go this way." Serenity pointed to the right. "Nick takes the side streets and Chase and Is, go left."

  "But his scent waves stronger to the right." I frowned. "Shouldn't we all go that way?"

  "The wind can mix the direction." Serenity smiled at me. "It can carry or distort the direction of his scent."

  "Okay." I nodded my head. I didn't know much about tracking, and that made me feel weak. I couldn't even hunt down my own son.

  Chase and I broke out into a slow jog up the foot path. We had all broken up and taken Serenity's instructions.

  When I find Cooper, I would yell at him for running away and putting me through this, and then I would hug him tightly. Never wanting to lose him again.

  Chase and mine jog picked up to a slow run. This was my fault, I should have told Cooper we were going to visit his dad. Then he wouldn't be wandering the streets looking for him.

  The squealing of tyres terrified the air and then a deafening blast of a horn sounded from a block away. Then a large thud was heard as the car connected with something. Every noise was clear, as my sensitive hearing picked up on it.

  I fell to my knees; the impact onto the hard surface so abruptly sent a burst of pain up my knees. But that was nothing to the blunt force which just whacked across my chest! Taking the air from my lungs and making me curl over in agony. I wrapped my arms around my stomach, trying to stop the splitting pain that was craving a hole in my chest.

  I gasped in agony, my whole body trembling under the pain.

  "Isabella?" Chase wrapped an arm around my shoulder, trying to comfort me. But it wasn't me who needed comfort.

  My eyes snapped up and I pulled myself up from the ground. Chase helping me to my feet, and as soon as I steadied myself, I launched myself forward.

  My feet thudding hard on the concrete surface below me, as I ran in the direction that I was being pulled too. One hand still clenched my stomach as I ran through the pain, knowing that I had to reach something.

  I fled around the corner and the scene in front of me, gripped my heart. People were standing on the side lines, coming out of their house gasping, some on phones calling for help but most just watched in horror.

  My life paused, everything around me slowed down. Walking up the street, my mouth slightly opened from disbelief. The noise disappeared, everything went silent to me.

  Emotions couldn't be expressed, because in this moment I was numb. The car was on an angle, with a frantic woman crying down a mobile phone. Each step I took, the more numb I became.

  It wasn't the car blocking the street on an angle, or the black marks that trailed behind the car, showing the force it used to stop; that had my eyes watering now, it wasn't the scene around me that had everything slowing down around me.

  My eyes focused on the body, lying slightly under the car; still.

  Dropping to my knees, I ignored the frantic apologies and pleading from the woman driver beside me. I placed Cooper's head in my lap, his body a mess of destruction. I pushed his black hair from his eyes as he laid still.

  Still, he is only still. My vision flooded with tears. He looked as if he was asleep, if only the blood from his chest wasn't covering him and the surface around him.

  "IS HE BREATHING?" Chase yelled at me, and placed a hand on Cooper's chest, which was covered in blood. I gulped and rocked his head slightly in my lap, keeping his head wrapped in my hands as I did so.

  "OH GOD!" Serenity squealed in terror, with a hand over her mouth, before dropping down across from me.

  "Can you find a pulse?" She asked with horror to Chase, who was still seeking for one.

  I couldn't hear a heartbeat, that was all I needed to know. I wiped the tears from his cheek, which had dropped from my eyes and landed on his pale cheek.

  "It's weak." Chase muttered, "I can barely feel it. What do we do?"

  "An ambulance has been called." A stranger's voice piped up from behind me. But their help was useless.

  Cooper wasn't human.

  "I'll go get the Alpha." Ryan yelled before running from the scene. I just kept cradling Cooper in my lap, not wanting to let go of him.

  "The alpha will know what to do." Serenity whimpered, placing a hand over mine as I cupped Cooper's face. "He will be fine." She told me this but yet her eyes told me differently, only sorrow consumed them; I didn't see any hope.

  Sniffing the tears away, I couldn't lose my son. I wasn't that strong.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Isabella

  "He is in recovery." The pack doctor told us, as we all got up from the seats in the waiting room as soon as he entered the waiting room. "He should make a full recovery."

  Those words were like magic to my ears. I couldn't ask for anything else. Alpha Jordan, an older man, followed in soon after the pack doctor.

  "Thank you so much." I choked and then reached out a hand for him. "You didn't have to offer your help and I cannot tell you how much this means to me."

  "Your son is a sweet boy." He smiled gently at me. "Plus, I was sure if I hadn't helped Ryan, may have challenged me for Alpha on the spot."

  I glanced at Ryan and he looked slightly guilty while pulling Serenity back into his chest. Ryan's efforts had saved Cooper, I owed him as much as the Alpha in front of me.

  "Is he awake?" Chase's spoke up. "You said he is a sweet boy, so you must have spoken to him?"

  Chase had barely coped through the hours await. I had stopped him at least twice from storming out of here and going to find what was going on.

  "Yes he is awake." Alpha Jordan beamed at us. "I can show you the way." He gestured a hand for us to follow him.

  Chase reached out and took my hand, and I leant my head against his shoulder briefly before we followed. All the worrying now over, Cooper was fine.

  "So, are you all nomads?" The Alpha asked over his shoulder as we walked behind him. "I know Ryan and Serenity are, but I haven't had the pleasure of meeting rest of you."

  I don't think one of us was up to chit chat, after what we had just gone through. Our emotions were wrenched and I knew I wouldn't feel completely relaxed till I saw my son.

  I pulled the sleeve of my jumper down slightly more, covering the scar on my arm. The only scar which related me back to my past.

  "Yes." Chase answered for us.

  "Which crown do you follow?" The Alpha asked, "Or do you also choice not to follow one?" His voice was full of interest and not judgement.

  Serenity tapped me on the shoulder, I glanced back at her. She mouthed 'Griffin' to me, frowning I turned back around.

  "Griffin." I said calmly. The Alpha spun around with a grin on his face.

  "Well then, we have that in common." He came to a stop at a closed door. "Today's efforts are not in vain then, we have saved a follower of the Griffin throne. Our King would be pleased." He pushed open the door with a wide grin.

  I couldn't look back at him, mainly because I hated lying to this friendly man. I wondered briefly what he would think, knowing he actually saved the King's son and that Serenity and I are both Blackmore's.

  I couldn't give it much more thought, as I saw Cooper shifting in a large bed. Dropping Chase's hand, I quickly went and sat on the edge of the bed, taking Cooper's hand.

  He was ali
ve. He gripped my hand tightly and I reached out and placed a hand on his cheek before leaning my forehead against him.

  He was alive. Nothing else mattered.

  "Thank you again." I smiled and shook Alpha Jordan's hand. I shifted Cooper on my hip, as Cooper reached out and wanted to shake his hand too.

  "Isabella, the taxi is here." Chase sung from outside the open front door.

  "We will be joining you." Alpha Jordan wrapped an around from his wife and followed us out.

  "Why? Are you interested in seeing where we live?" Ryan asked, his voice high with suspicion, while he took Cooper from hip and placed him on the ground. I frowned as I watched Cooper run off and in the direction of Chase.

  He was still recovering, and I didn't want him to push himself.

  "No actually, we will just be dropping you off on the way. We're flying out to the Griffin's Castle today, for Princess's May birthday." Alpha Jordan closed his front door and followed behind us.

  "Are they holding a function for her?" Serenity asked sweetly, and I knew she was asking more for my benefit then hers.

  "Yes, every Alpha under the throne has been invited." He replied happily.

  Well, if that didn't sound like something Melissa had organised, I didn't know what did.

  "I'm sure it will be lovely." Serenity continued to make conversation with them.

  Why did I feel so bitter about May's birthday? I gritted my teeth as I opened the taxi door. Cooper flew in without a second look back. Strapping himself into the middle of the taxi, with a carefree grin.

  I couldn't help but feel guilty. I couldn't keep Cooper from Connor any longer. After May's birthday I would visit him; with his son. As sickening as it made me feel, I couldn't keep the secret any longer.

  "Did you record every episode? What about last night's episode?" Cooper questioned Nick really quickly as he pulled Cooper's luggage from the Taxi. "Wait, did you record the reruns?"