Page 9 of Branches of the Willow

“My apologies, Jessica…” Her face scrunched in pain as she attempted to fight the order that I had given for her to only speak when asked a direct question. I had not thrown a whole lot of weight behind it, but it was good to let her think she had any power here. If she underestimated me, then that meant she would let her guard down and show her true colors sooner. “I know…”

“You know what?” I asked directly so that she could answer without fighting through the pain.

“I know that he was someone special to you. I swear, we didn’t realize what they’d done.”

I stared at her a moment and then leaned forward just a hair. Without raising my voice, but using the power I had inside of me just the same, I commanded her. “Stop stalling and answer my father’s questions as he asks them.” Once the command was given, I turned to Mikael as Leanna continued to explain how that morning had gone, as any other morning did. “You need to call Evan.” I whispered to Mikael. He glanced at me, questioningly. “This is his mother. I want his input, in the end, as to what we should do with her.”

Mikael nodded in understanding. “I’m going to step away from all the ears in the room. Will you be okay?” Concern mixed with the beautiful green of his eyes, etching tiny lines into the corners as he looked down at me. I inclined my head once and stepped to the side a bit. Mikael turned and left the room to make the call.

“…we didn’t see them again after that.” I tuned back into Leanna’s story. “Where is Mikael going?”

“That is none of your business.” I stated simply. Realizing that the minute I humored Leanna as she tried to push past my power, the suggestion that she only answer questions asked of her, the command had been negated and the woman was free to speak her mind again. I internally rolled my eyes at myself for forgetting how this shit worked and that there were always loopholes that could be played upon if the person making the demands didn’t choose their words and actions carefully.

“I would feel better if he were here.” Leanna pleaded.

“Let’s make this clear, right now. Your feelings mean absolutely nothing to me. If you’re scared, I’m perfectly okay with that. If you’re worried, that’s smart, because you should be. If you think for a minute that you are going to get out of here one second before we know everything we want to know, you are delusional. So,” I gestured back to my father, “pay attention, and answer the next damn question.” Something flashed across Leanna’s face in that moment that I was sure she didn’t want me, or anyone else, to see. There was a little defiance in there and it was wrapped up in a thick blanket of hatred for me too.

My father must have caught a glimpse of it too, because he growled at Leanna, bringing her attention fully back to him then. The mask went up, her face crumpled all over again, into the pained look she wanted everyone to see. Pain would get her sympathy, hatred would get her locked away, or worse. She understood how to play the game. Thankfully, so did my father. “Let me also get something straight,” my father warned, “you will look at me. You will address me. If I catch even the slightest hint that you are more concerned with anyone else in this room, or out of it, I will end these talks and have you taken straight to the locks.” Leanna’s eyes flew up in a very sincere showing of shocking surprise.

“Y-y-yes, Jameson.” Her answer came on the heels of her slight head bow, acknowledging that my father held position over her.

“Why did you and Annabelle leave the area? If you knew nothing about Malachi and Antoine’s plans, how did you know to leave?”

“We were already packed to go. Antoine was frustrated with the lack of progress between Mikael and Jessica. He had obviously been fooled because they had already been mated. Had he known we would have left days before. Well, at least I would have thought so. I didn’t realize at the time that he had other plans.” Her haughty tone as she spoke worked my nerves, and it took a lot to keep my place in the room. I was suddenly hoping Mikael would hurry up and get back inside, just in case.

“You’re saying that you already had plans to leave?” My father asked for clarification again. I wasn’t sure if it was legitimately to have her be more specific in her plans or if he was trying to trip her up and catch her in a lie. Some of our kind were built like human lie detectors. Others, like my father, were fairly good at sniffing out lies, but not quite up to snuff with the best of them.

“That morning, Antoine told Anna and me that he had already arranged a flight back home for us. He planned to send us ahead of time.” She sniffed and flinched as she got ready to look in my direction, before she remembered my father’s orders. “I argued with him because I didn’t want to miss the bonding ceremony during the solstice. I liked the idea of Jessica with Mikael. He may not be a son from my own womb, but he is family to me as if he were. I didn’t want to miss the festivities. Antoine said I was being silly, and then he ordered us to go, saying that he would make sure Jess and Mikael came home shortly after so Jess could become acquainted withhisKingdom.”

I nearly laughed at her attempt to make it sound as if the kingdom still belonged to Antoine, though he was now dead. No doubt, she was attempting to make sure she held a claim to the lands and the properties, as his mate. My father didn’t really get any solid details out of her about what took place before they took off for Romania, so I stepped in.

“When you got to Romania, what did you do?”

“I’m not sure I understand your question.” Leanna fidgeted as she looked up at me.

“You left here, you went to Romania, and then what?”

“We didn’t go there first. We found out what happened to Antoine-”

I cut her off there. “What do you mean, you ‘found out what happened to Antoine’? You’re his mate. I would think that you would have felt what happened to him.”

“Yes, well, I felt no change.” She made a side-long glance toward Annabelle and squirmed in her seat a bit. “Antoine was my first mate, but I was not his,” she offered as explanation.

“And that means what?”

She huffed as if I were a petulant child she had to deal with. My father was standing in my peripheral vision and he tipped his head slightly forward encouraging my questions about the bond and how she hadn’t felt it being broken by Antoine’s death. “Annabelle once told me that she could feel things, occasionally an emotion that was not her own, often knowing when Malachi was close by before she could see or smell him, things of that nature that most mates know about one another. I have never felt those things. I questioned our bond several times over the years because there was never a link like that for us. Just as I wasn’t able to sense my mate, he had not been able to sense me either. Often he would ask about my whereabouts when I was in the next room and could hear him.” Red tinged her cheeks at that last admission, which meant she most likely made a habit of spying on the old king.

“I see. Who told you of the King’s demise then?”

“When we landed, the pilot was informed, he conveyed the message to me.”

“The pilot was a werewolf?” She nodded. “And he didn’t find it odd that you didn’t know of your own mate’s death?”

She huffed again, showing her frustration with me. “He already knew of our-”

“Of your weak bond?” I asked, knowing it would ruffle her further to be thought of as weak in any way.

“Our unusual bond,” she corrected. I smiled at her and then shifted directions again. “If you didn’t go to Romania, where did you go?”

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