Chapter 401

“The mating ceremony is…postponed?” Pippa gasps, looking up at her Alpha with wide eyes.

“Yes,” Gabriel drawls, crossing his arms and continuing to glare at me, looking me up and down like I planned this all even though I have no idea what’s going on. “Apparently Ariel’s people have sent a delegation. And that fool we call a King has accepted them into the palace for negotiation, completely ignoring my suggestion for how they should be treated.”

“W-what was your suggestion?” I ask, my heart in my throat. Because I think I already know his answer. Gabriel just smirks back at me.

Elias sighs, rubbing a tired hand over his forehead. “My esteemed brother ordered that they all be beheaded at the door. Which, fortunately didn’t happen.”

Cold sweeps through my blood as I stare at this horrible man to whom I’m mated.

“Does…does that mean they’re here?” I force myself to ask it, my throat tight. “The delegation – they’re inside the palace?”

“Not yet,” Elias says, drawing my gaze to him. “But they will be. Quite soon.”

“Out out out,” Pippa says, waving her hands at the brothers. “Ariel must be confined. No men can come in until her time passes.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Gabriel growls, baring his teeth at his sister-in-law.

“No,” I gasp, desperate for once for them to stay, even as Pippa herds Gabriel and Elias towards the door. “I need to know –“

Elias sends me a sad look over his shoulder as Pippa almost physically shoves them out the door. Honestly I am shocked that she was able to do it – because she’s a very small person who certainly couldn’t best either of them in terms of strength. But I suppose that Atalaxian ideals regarding women’s rules run deep.

A delegation, I say to my wolf as I sit down hard on the side of the bed, rubbing my wrists where the manacles were, even though they don’t hurt me. My wolf howls with excitement even as she turns in a tight, anxious circle. Because…what could that mean? A delegation? A postponement?

Dad sent it, my wolf says, panting a little with her excitement. He must have. He must have sent them to get us back. We can go home soon. We can –

But I put a hand on her fur, willing her to calm. Because as much as I hope that that’s true – I mean…it can’t be that easy, right?

Still, it is my best hope for contact with home. But – who came? Is anyone from my family here?

Is…

But I press my eyes shut against the hope. Because to have him here, in the palace…it would be so good, but so, so dangerous.

Jackson has to stay safe, my wolf says, pressing tenderly up against my heart. We want him safe more than we want him here.

I know, I whisper back to her, my fingers knotting in her hair.

And if he comes here, she says. They’ll kill him for being your mate. So, he has to go away.

I nod, agreeing to it.

“Oh, darling,” Pippa says, sighing as she comes to my side and puts her hands on my shoulders. “You look so troubled. I’m so sorry, my dear. Let’s get you out of this dress and into the bath.”

“A bath?” I ask, looking up at her like she’s a little crazy.

“Yes,” she murmurs, her hands lifting at my arms a little, urging me to stand up. “The purifying bath, to begin the ceremony of confinement. Come on.”

“Oh, Pips,” I sigh, giving her a dubious look as I stand and start to follow her to the bathroom. “You know that’s ridiculous, right?”

“Ridiculous or not,” she says with a little shrug that lets me know that…yeah. She kind of does know that it’s stupid. “It is tradition. And above all things in Atalaxia, traditions must be followed.”

I sigh and walk with my friend into the bathroom, thinking that Atalaxia could use a great deal less tradition in its daily practice.

Jackson’s stomach grumbles as he stares at the castle fortress that stretches before him, perhaps a mile away, built high on a hill. But he ignores his body. Biological signals haven’t been as pressing to him since he was a little boy and discovered that his magic kind of negates bodily demands. He hasn’t eaten in days but…whatever. He doesn’t need to.

Instead, all of his focus is on that fucking place.

That castle where they’re keeping her – where they’re keeping all of the Atalaxian royals. Or at least, where he thinks they’re keeping her. They could, of course, have moved her by now but…

Why? Why do that, when this is the most protected place they have? It’s…impenetrable. Even from here Jackson can feel the magic radiating off the place, though of course he can’t see it. It is utterly protected, utterly controlled.

Making it…utterly impossible to fulfill his mission. To go in there, and get his girl, and kill as many of them as necessary to get her back home where she’ll be safe. To ensure they’ll never come for her, ever again.

Jackson sighs and hangs his head as he sinks to the ground in despair, wondering if he chose to sit down or if his knees just gave out. His butt hits hard, his long arms wrapping around his knees. Because he can intend to barge in there and grab her all he wants but…

God, he doesn’t have any notion at all of how to do it. Now that he’s finally here, staring at the fortress, his blood burning with the desire to tear it apart stone by stone to get in and grab Ariel and steal her back?

He just…he has nothing.

Jackson hangs his head, dread running through him, wondering if this entire week of travel getting here has been a waste. Riding in the car with the guard to the border between Moon Valley and Atalaxia, where an ATV was waiting. And then climbing onto that ATV with only a backpack of supplies, setting out into the desert with nothing but determination to power him along the way. Barely sleeping, just riding, determined to get to her, to get here.

But now that he’s here? Was it all a waste?

Probably. As much of a waste as he is.

God, he’s so pathetic. He can’t do anything to protect her – the one thing in the world that matters to him. At every turn, Jackson knows that he’s failed her. He wasn’t there when Gibson, of all pathetic people, very nearly cut her throat. And when Luca had marked her and left her trembling and bleeding, where had he been then?

And on the battlefield? When that creep had just appeared out of nowhere? What, Jackson couldn’t get there fast enough?

He’s failed her. Failed her, every time. Failed her. A failure.

Jackson’s wolf howls softly, trotting an anxious circle around his heart, trying desperately to get him to see it another way. Not your fault, his wolf huffs. You tried – you’re trying –

But Jackson just roughly shakes his head, looking down at the Atalaxian soil, knowing that it’s not true. That he can’t protect her, and doesn’t deserve her.

If only he could…get in. And try.

Jackson sighs, raising his head to glare at the castle, determination welling in him again. Because there has…there just has to be a way that he can do something. Anything.

Battling his frustration and guilt, Jackson pushes himself to his feet, falling back on his lifelong training as a soldier when he has nothing else left. Quiet and precise, he goes through all of the supplies he packed with Ella, taking inventory. And then he sets up camp, putting up his little pup tent behind a hill where it can’t be seen from anyone scrying from the castle’s towers. He stashes away the little bag of food and supplies that Ella sent for Ariel once he gets her, and begins to roll out the tiny, compact sleeping bag that he’ll use tonight when –

Jackson gasps, his head spinning as he falls backwards out of the tent and scrambles to his feet. He’s up in an instant, sprinting towards the top of the hill, desperate to see –

Because the magic he’s felt radiating protection and invulnerability – it’s – it’s suddenly gone –

And he – he can feel her – she’s here, she’s close, she’s in that fucking castle. He knows it.

Ariel! Jackson screams out in his mind, his heart pounding in his chest as his fingers stumble for the binoculars around his neck. I’m here! I’m coming! I’m going to help you – I’m going to get you out of there –

Even as he shouts the words out in his mind, desperate for them to reach her, he raises the binoculars to his eyes, focusing on the front of the castle where –

His eyes go wide to see men in Moon Valley colors moving forward towards the door.

What…what the hell is going on? He scans their faces, desperate to see if he knows any of them, but…they’re too far, it’s too hard to tell.

Ariel! He shouts again in his mind. Tiny, I’m –

But his thoughts go blank the moment her voice forms in his mind.