Page 22 of Celestial Alphas

“I didn’t know that.” My cold tone echoes everywhere in the equally cold room. I try to channel Genevieve in every response I give him because I know exactly who he is, exactly what he’s done, and he is the reason my mum and my dad are gone forever. I won’t get to say goodbye to them now. I know no one will believe me if I start shouting to the world that the new alpha supreme killed the previous and betrayed us all with the help of my mate. He’ll call me crazy, say that my mind’s impaired or broken because of the loss of my mate and then they’ll lock me in some mental facility deep in the city where no one will find me. No, I can’t do that. Onyx and the others got me out, and they told me to stay silent for now. He will be knocked off his chief seat soon enough and I’m not alone. “Onyx and the others in the bond group were looking for their mate but found me.”

“For Miss Autumn, yes. We assumed they’d gone after her after she escaped and ran away from Starlight. Again. How lucky it is that they found you instead.” He watches me with calculating eyes.

I’m not good at lying, I never have been. Keeping secrets is something I can do when I need to. But Gwen, I meant what I said when I asked her to be my sister. I don’t have any true family left now. Some distant cousins here and there, but no one close. Mum and Dad, they were everything to me. I was their only child. They wanted me for so long. I remember the stories my mum used to tell me like it was yesterday that she sat at the end of my bed and told me how wanted I was. They were inches away from asking humans for IVF help. I’m not sure how IVF would even work on Nexus beings, but they were desperate for a child before my mother found out she was miraculously pregnant with me. They never had any more kids and I’m secretly glad about that. It meant I got all of their time,at least until my father became the Alpha Supreme. His time was sucked up into the job he loved. Alpha supreme, protector of Starlight City and the Nexus race. I could have changed this all if I was here and used my family’s vote, one that would have been important. Now it means nothing, and I can’t change anything now. He has the job and the power that comes with it. “Gwenieve was not there. Only Kosma and I.”

“Are you sure? Unless you personally investigated the entire mansion?—”

“How did you know it was a mansion?” I cut him off, hoping he just admitted something he shouldn’t have known.

“We tracked it, found nothing left but a burnt down forest, and what was probably left of a mansion and dead Vian. At least that’s what my rangers reported back.” He watches me very closely. “Are you sure Miss Autumn was not there?”

“No, but like I said, they were looking for their mate and mates can find each other.” I answer. “Your son said she wasn’t there, and I don’t believe they would have left without her.”

“Rejected mates are not that close,” he counters with a chip in his words. “What happened to Kosma, and how was he even there?”

More lies. I’ve just got to keep lying. “He was there with me.” I begin, trying to keep it simple. Not too much detail, the same lies that I’ve told his parents so they can have a wonderful memory of their hero son and then never know the truth. “I was attacked by Vian when we were escaping, and I was away from the others. It was a split-second thing, but he jumped in front of attacking Vian and they killed him in front of me. They drained him.” Mrs Marsenton bursts into tears and her mate holds her. “Onyx and the others killed the Vian, and they helped me bring the body back here where it rests in one of these rooms, if you wish to examine it.”

I don’t realise I’m crying until he pulls out a white handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to me. I reluctantly take it, clenching my hand around the silk. “Ann, I want you to know that you have my full backing on anything you want to do with your future. I know that you are bound to the academy, but if you wish to not go back, then as the alpha supreme, I can offer you a pass. The death of a mate is truly a terrible thing, and alongside your parents, too. It would break most Nexus apart.”

I’m not sure if he wants me to break or not. I don’t understand why he is even pretending to care right now. I already know my decision, though. “I want to go back to the academy. It is my home.”

“Ann—”

I stand up, and he stops. “Please excuse me, I am still in mourning and quite a bit of shock over everything that happened. My Nexus and I now need to be alone... to heal.” I just want to get away from him.

He rises to his feet, towering over me. “Of course. Thank you for the information you have given me, and I won’t press you further. You are free to go to the city and the academy when you feel like it. If you hear from my son or Gwen, do tell someone. They are all wanted, and they must be reported. Do you understand?”

“Of course. I heard about her crimes.” I walk to the door and stop. I have to say something. “I will just say one thing. Why do you think she was born?” There is silence as I turn to look at Paavo. “This Nexus inside her, that’s seemingly different and more powerful than anything that has been reported in a long time, can’t be here for nothing. Why now, when Vian are stronger than ever? When our people are going missing all over Starlight City? Why was she born? Why now? And why would you want to kill her? The gods do not give us our Nexus for nothing. We are starlight born alive, beautiful andendless. Timeless. That’s what we’re taught. It’s what my parents believed. We are all connected by the very stars above us. That means that she is one of us and maybe sent here for a reason.” I make sure to hold his stare. “And she is your son’s mate, bonded along with four other very powerful Nexus. I don’t believe the gods make mistakes... and we should cherish what gifts they send us.”

“I understand you have a friendship with her, but no matter what she is, she will answer for her crimes.” There’s a tightness to his lips, a flash in his eyes that tells me I’ve pissed him off.

“Good night.” I respond before I leave, feeling Paavo’s creepy eyes digging into my back until I close the door. I head up the massive marble staircase that goes up and up until I get to the fourth floor. I told Kosma’s parents that I couldn’t stay in the room that I had lived in with Kos, so they gave me the room next door. It didn’t help much. I can’t be in the room that I stayed in with him. The memories, the bedsheets that still smell like him and I...it would hurt. Our mating was so quick, so easy. Everything about Kosma was easy and perfect. It’s hard to look back and realise he was lying to me the entire time. I stare at the door of our room. Anger feels like it burns through me as I open the door, slamming it shut behind me and glance around our room. It’s full of our stuff. Tickets from the fun fair we went to are still pinned to the mirror, along with photos of us in a photo booth on the night we lost our virginities to each other. In a haze of red, I rip all the memories down, chucking the photos on the floor and go over to his cabinet. I start yanking the drawers open.

“Careful. That piece of furniture appears to be crafted from a very expensive and high-quality type of mahogany wood. Shame to break it.” I spin round, my eyes widening at the shadow man standing by the door, leaning on it like he has been there for a while.

“You’re not real. You’re just not real!” I shake my head, turning around to push myself back into the cabinet for a little strength. “My therapist said that in times of stress, I see you and you’re...” My words drift off because since I was a child, I’ve always seen this shadow man. Not always, but sometimes. A shadow of a boy that then turned into a man as we both got older, but now this shadow man is different. It’s an actual man about my age, dressed in a black jumper, dark jeans, heavy boots that cover his dark skin. He’s thick and muscular literally everywhere. He’s gigantic, actually. He looks like bloody Thor from the Marvel movies I love, except that he doesn’t have blond hair. Instead, his hair is shaved at the sides and thick black hair is spiked up in the middle, with a braid hanging by his right ear. There’s a gold piercing through his right eyebrow too. This isn’t real. I’m losing my mind. The shadow man’s lips tilt up and I can’t stop staring. Seeing him like this, not a shadow in the corner of my room, is like having an unanswered question I’ve had since childhood—answered. This is what he looks like.

There’s a roughness to him that seems unnatural as his shining gold, actual gold eyes lock onto me. “Hello Annie.”

“What the fuck? What the actual fuck?” I whisper.

“Don’t scream. You’ll just send those two annoying pair of twits running up here, worrying about you, or even worse, calling the alpha supreme to come and lock you up.” He grins. “Wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“How do you know they’re in the house? Or who they are?” I demand.

“Because I can see what you’re doing and who you are with. I’ve been watching you for a while. We’ve always been haunting each other since we were children, haven’t we?”

“No,” I draw out the word. “You’ve been haunting me, but you’ve always been a shadow man. Not real. Like I said, my therapist told me?—”

“Your therapist was wrong.” He purrs and goosebumps litter my skin. “Your mate bond clouded me. What’s real and what’s not, well that’s still up for discussion between us when you’re ready to know my name.”

I don’t know where to begin with that. “What do you mean, my mate bond clouded you?”

“He made it hard for me to appear close to you as my true self.” He steps up off the door and leans down in the middle of the room, picking up a picture of me and Kos. “But as it turns out, Kos was a betraying little shit, so it’s good that he’s dead and out of the way. I would have killed him in the end to get to you. You can’t escape me anymore.” The picture fades into nothing but black dust in his hand.

I lean backwards, pressing myself against the cabinet draws as he steps forward. I hold a hand up. “No closer.”

“What were you looking for in the draw, Annie?” He asks, not moving.

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