Page 7 of Celestial Alphas

We go up several more staircases and through three doors covered in runes. This place is truly fortified, and there isn’t a door we pass that doesn’t stink of Paavo’s magic. He might have just become Alpha Supreme, but he was a beta before and clearly was in control of protecting this place with his magic. It’s his fortress and that isn’t good for me. As far as I know, he’s the only one who can do these kinds of runes. It means he completely controls this place. It also means that if he’s dead, then hopefully all this shit will vanish so I can walk right out. It’s good to know who I need to kill. I feel Alpha Paavo looking back several times to stare at me. It’s not him checking an enemy; it’s a smug look, because he’s won while I’m like this. He’s winning.

“What exactly happened to the last Supreme Alpha?” My question makes them all tense. Interesting.

We come out into a long, stretched corridor, and there are no windows. The stone is marked with hundreds of archways in a line, and the old architecture of this place reminds me of the academy castle. The only thing that makes it Scottish is the worn red tartan rug that is spread down the middle—and the fact that it looks a little like Edinburgh Castle the one time I visited it. It was the closest I ever got to a normal day out with my mother. I don’t know why she took me there, but she did when it was about five months before everything went wrong. We had ice cream and looked around the castle after driving there for nearly an entire day. We stayed in a cheap Travelodge on the Royal Mile, and we ate pizza for dinner. Life was simple then. I was a kid then, who only wanted to please her parents.

Beta Guili clears his throat. “He was found dead. First, we thought it was a suicide, but on closer inspection, it looks like he was drained by Vian at the same time the bombing happened. He had his own troubles, but unfortunately, his mate felt his death and ran over to try to save him, we suspect. She was killed too, not drained by Vian, but shot.”

I flinch. “Both Annie’s parents are dead?” That’s gut-wrenching. Gut-wrenching for her. I know what it’s like to suddenly lose both your parents in one night. Annie…

“A tragedy, both the deaths of the Supreme Alpha and his mate. Along with the bombing. Hopefully, we’ll find both Annie and her mate alive,” Edvard’s voice echoes. “My rangers are working to find her, and we won’t give up. She will be found.”

I want to tell them that getting them back from my most deranged mate is not going to be an easy task. I escaped from his home once, and I never want to go back there. But I would, for Annie. I want to scream that Alpha Paavo is letting Vian in to see me at night. But I know that I’ll just be called crazy, and at this point, I need to be believed to escape a death trial. Smart. My father knew this might happen one day, and he told me that the only way for me to escape a bad death would be to become something the Nexus desperately need. A weapon against the Vian. “Annie doesn’t deserve any of this.”

But I do.

Now I have to face my past. At the end of the corridor is a line of five Nexus rangers, and I recognise all of them from the academy. I don’t know their names, as they are from the upper years, but the way their eyes widen when they look at me tells me they probably know mine. They step to the side, and the doors literally fold in on each other to open into an impressive, sleek and modern room.

The stark white walls are smooth, but the ceiling is something else altogether. It’s white, but textured stars smotherthe ceiling, and each one is part of a different constellation. Each star is a slightly different shape, but right in the centre of the ceiling is a five-pointed star, shining bright like it’s alive. At the end of each of the tips is a symbol for our Gods. The very Gods who made me like this and have forsaken me. I can barely look for a second because a pull in my soul has my eyes drifting to the left. At the bottom of rows of seats are my mates.

My betraying, devastatingly good-looking, and cruel mates. Except for Rhodes. Where is Rhodes? Hollis is nearest me, but he doesn’t bother lifting his head. Asshole. I bet he is happy I’m here. Alek, Finn and Onyx watch me, and each of them stood up the moment I walked in. They’re all in suits, and it’s not fair how good they look when I’m a mess. My white clothes are crumpled, my hair is a mess, and I’m so exhausted I must be awful to look at. Not that I care about their opinion.

Alek grips the banister in front of him as I walk closer, and my stupid heart races at the sight of them. I remember Alek’s lips on mine; I remember Finn’s; I remember every heated moment with Onyx, where I thought we might kill each other, but it was never that. I remember the feelings; I remember all of it. Rhodes…he isn’t here. I don’t even mean enough to him to come here for me. They betrayed me, and my heart hurts. Literally hurts as I look at them. I gulp down the hurt that is going to make me cry, and I immediately look away.

“Gwen!” Alek reaches out for me, and I step to the side so he can’t touch me, almost bumping into Finn’s father. “Gwen, come here so we can talk first.”

“Don’t bother,” I say to all of them, keeping my expression cold. I can’t let them see how I’m feeling because they have broken me. “Just don’t. You’ve done enough, don’t you think?”

“Sun.” Finnegan’s deep voice is raw, but I don’t believe it.

I turn my eyes on him. “Come closer and see whether you get burnt or not. You’re all betraying pieces of shit, and I hope this trial makes you happy.”

I’m begging my Nexus to break through these handcuffs and just kill the other fuckers that are in this room and leave, until I remember my mates are here. My shoulders drop. She might kill them, and I don’t want that. I’ve never wanted that. After what happened in the warehouse, she didn’t kill Finn, and he walked to me like the grey draining of my magic didn’t touch him. Could they survive me? Are they immune to my Nexus? I don’t know. I ran from them for years because I thought they would be killed by my Nexus, but what if I was wrong?

I’m led to the middle of where there’s a small, waist-high, red stained glass box, and Beta Guili gently pushes me inside before shutting the door. Tutor Edvard heads over to my betraying mates, and I glance for a second, not long enough to catch any of their expressions. I can’t let myself look too long. Beta Guili goes with Paavo to a podium with seats in front of me. The betas stand, and when Beta Guili joins them, four stand on each side of Alpha Paavo.

The alpha speaks first, and his voice is like nails dragging down my spine. “Gwenieve Patience Autumn, you are hereby tried for the murders of five Nexus, for concealing your true Nexus and abilities, which are a danger to the city, and I’m sure there are many crimes of which we are not aware. But for now, this is where we’re going to start. My betas will be in charge of the trial, and at the end, we will make a decision. You will need a minimum of four votes to be free. If not, you will be sentenced to death.”

Beta Guili stands and leads. “Gwenieve, we’d like to get to know what happened to you first.” The other betas are all of a similar age and all men. Small men, at that, with silver spoons stuck up their asses, I bet. No surprise to me, there isn’t a singlefemale in this room to judge me. “Tell us what your parents did to you, or were you born this way?”

“No.”

He clears his throat. “That isn’t an answer, Gwenieve. Please tell us the truth. There is no point to lies and secrets now.”

“I think there is every need for them,” I respond. “Unless you’re going to force me?”

His shoulders drop slightly. “We want to help you. To help you and understand what your Nexus is.” He leans forward. “We know Vian cannot touch you and drain you like us. We know you are very well trained and have at least two abilities, but I’d suspect more. Your Nexus is just as violent as you can be, but not just to our enemies it seems. We have video footage, and we understand that your shift is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our history. You can shift both into a wolf and into a being, almost mortal-like. What I want to know is if you have control when you shift?”

I’m slightly thrown that they have footage of me shifting, because usually my Nexus destroys all technology nearby. They must have gotten lucky, or my Nexus was sloppy. “You’re going to kill me either way. You’ve made up your mind, so why bother with all this?”

“I have not made up my mind, and neither have my partners here. I see a scared young girl who has never had anyone fight in her corner. If you give us a chance, perhaps we can work together to discover why you’re a murderer in the first place. Why your Nexus chooses violence.” He cocks his head to the side. “Gwenieve, not all of us are as evil as you currently believe.”

“You’re right, I’m a murderer. I’ve been a murderer since I was a kid, and I’ve been hidden all this time because my parents fought for me. I have so much blood on my hands that if all the people that I killed were in this room, I’m not sure they’d evenfit, and this is a fucking gigantic room. What else do you want to know?”

He is unfazed by my admittance. I can’t look at my mates to see if they are. “Do you like being a murderer? If you had a choice, would you kill like she does?”

“No.” The word rips out of my soul because it’s true. If it was my choice and not my Nexus, I wouldn’t be a murderer, but I shouldn’t have told him that.

He smiles softly. Like smiling at a wounded animal. “You’re something different and I don’t believe in killing something different only for the reason being that they’re different.”

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