Page 25 of Starlight Mates

“When you tell me truths like that, sometimes I wish it was a lie,” he murmurs, but he takes me with him to the doors. If he had any clue how much I lie, he wouldn’t ask for any more lies. My heart pounds as we step through the glass doors that have been shattered and into a silent entrance hall. Ian’s apartment is on the first floor, and there is a line of blood leading from the plain entrance hall to a black door that is wedged open.

I almost don’t want to look at what my Nexus did, but I look anyway. I walk through the door and see the absolute wreck. There’s not an inch of the wall that doesn’t have blood splattered all over it, and what is left of him has been ripped apart. He’s been drained, but she tortured him first. Scared him.

Finn stands silent in the centre of the room. He touches the blood on the nearest wall with a fingertip before popping it into his mouth. I wince. “I would put money on this being personal. Maybe a psychotic Vian who likes murder too. This was painful, dragged out for hours. The room must have been soundproofed somehow with magic, because otherwise, neighbours would have heard. This…this is different to any known Vian I’ve hunted.”

“It’s a monster,” I whisper.

Finn looks over at me with pure suspicion, and his eyes search mine before he looks away with a tight jaw. “I’m going to start categorising all the body parts and make a report for the Supreme Alpha. Wait outside.”

Onyx turns me to leave, but he pauses by the door. He leans down and picks something up. Only when he holds it in the light does true fear smack into my heart. A grey strand of fur. “Finnegan.”

Finn is at his side in a second, plucking the grey strand out of his fingers. “Wolf. Grey. Not any known in the city.”

“No, there wouldn’t be. Grey is an extremely rare colour,” Onyx agrees.

“But maybe someone unregistered is helping a Vian. Working with them,” Finn suggests.

“It makes more sense,” Onyx is saying, but I can’t focus on anything but my feet walking out of the apartment. I need fresh air. Onyx jogs to my side, his hand falling to the middle of my back and guiding me out. He doesn’t know it, but that one simple touch relaxes me enough that I stop shaking. Four official-looking Nexus rangers are waiting in the entrance hall, and Onyx leans into me. “Wait outside. I won’t be long. Don’t wander off on your own. Not when there’s a murderer around on the streets. Not when they come after you.”

“You don’t know they’re after me.”

He smiles softly at me. “Yes, we do.”

I feel the rangers’eyes on me as I walk out before I can hear them investigating anything more. The broken tape flickers in the wind, but everything else is silent as I let the breeze blow around me. “There you are, Gwenieve.” I turn at the old, earthy voice and find my grandmother standing on the other side of the tape. “I was hoping I’d find one of your mates here and he could get me into the castle, but it looks like we just ran into each other because the Gods wished it.”

I look at my grandmother and I hope to feel something about my only remaining family—I don’t. I can’t see much of myself in her. She’s tall, willowy almost. Used to have red hair, but now it’s all grey. She is all skin and bones in a black suit, like she’smourning. Her wrinkled face barely moves as she watches me. Her eyes find mine, her dark brown eyes. “Can we talk…alone?” she asks.

I nod and walk with her a few feet away from the building and the ears of the rangers. “What do you want?”

She bristles. “Still as lovely a child as you were back then. All grown up now, though. You look like your mother.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You shouldn’t.” Cold temper runs through her words. “I’m here to warn you that it doesn’t matter if you’re back. You might as well have stayed gone and dead like I hoped. Everything is mine because you cursed us. I lost my family because of you.” She taps her foot. “I was barely able to even make friends after hearing of your rejection. Your parents running away with you was a slap to the face and dishonoured our family name and line. I know that you somehow convinced them to take you away. I don’t care how you did it, or why you did it, other than being a selfish little girl. All you should know is that you need to stay away, because where you go, death and misery follow.”

Tears burn in my eyes. She is right. “I?—”

She points her finger into my face. “I’ll make sure you’re never seen in Starlight if you so much as dare come near my estate or use my family name. You’re dead to me.”

A warm, firm hand wraps around my waist as Onyx steps up to my side. Whatever look he gives my grandmother has her dropping her finger and stepping back. “You’re going to not say another word to her or about her ever again, Lexandria.” Fury captures each word and so, so much possessiveness.

I know I should push him away, but I’d just like for a moment to let him hold me. To have someone fight for me rather than running. I need to have one person who does not hate me. Loving me is impossible, but maybe, just maybe, he can be the one that doesn’t hate me. Even then, no one can hate me asmuch as I hate myself. My grandmother is right. I am a disgrace to my family.

“I would carefully remind you that there were wills put in place by her parents. She is to solely inherit everything. You are married into the family, and you have no biological descendants. By the laws of Starlight, Gwen is due everything and you are not family.” I’d almost forgotten that fact that we aren’t actually related. “I’m aware that you brought him up, but his father left everything to him, and he left everything to Gwen. Therefore, she is the sole inheritor of the title, the house, the money, all of it. When she wants it, she can simply kick you out. That is Starlight rules. Whether she’s a stain on your family name or not, it belongs to her.”

“Biologically means nothing!” She changes her tune like a pro. “The real mother was a housemaid who slept with him, knowing he was arranged to marry me. Our Nexus bond only kicked in years later. That wench died in childbirth, and I took in the baby as my own. Out of honour for my mate, of course I brought him up, raised him as my own. We couldn’t have children, we found out later, and he didn’t like how I preferred your father was kept in boarding school within the city for the entire year except holidays. He was always running amuck.”

“You were his mum,” I offer. I don’t owe her any kindness, but I won’t lie about my father. He was a great man. “He always did speak well of you, and he loved you. I miss him too, you know? I don’t care what the laws of Starlight say, you were his mum.”

“I don’t want your sympathy,” she snarls like a cat, all but hissing at me. “He didn’t speak well of you. We had a few conversations when he was running away. Protecting you cost him everything. I’m sure you’ll come and take everything from me now, just like the spiteful little girl I knew once.”

I wipe my tears away, and I go to tell her to just keep it all. I don’t want it, but Onyx does it for me. But worse. “It won’t be her taking everything from you. It’ll be me. Including a one-way ticket straight out of Starlight City for talking to my mate like that. You can go and find a place for humans, with no money, and see how they treat you. She is my family now, and you don’t get to speak to her like that.”

She goes quiet and the angry woman disappears, morphing into one who is scared. “Please don’t?—”

“Apologise to her and I’ll consider it,” he commands, and I look up at him seething with nothing but ruthlessness in his gaze.

My grandmother turns her eyes towards me. “I’m sorry.” We both know she doesn’t mean it, and it does nothing for me. “If you or your mate come after my fortune, I’ll make sure everybody knows the truth. I know, Gwenieve. I’ve always known.”

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