Page 105 of The Unwanted Mate of the Lycan Kings
The next vision twists and warps and materializes around me.And I find myself once again forced to follow Regan.He goes to the dungeons, and I feel sick watching all this play out.So much heartache and betrayal, and as I come to learn in this one, it’s all for nothing.So many lives were lost in a war over the selfishness of one man’s infidelity.King Theron.
There, in the cell beside Regan’s mother, is Litha.She stands under the bars of the window, gazing out at the moon, her eyes close as the moon lights up her face.My granny sobs beside her, shaking her head and clutching me.“What’s done is done,” Litha tells her mother.“You don’t need to do this, there is another way.”
“No, mother, there is no other way.I’ve seen it,” Litha tells her.
“Seen what?”Regan demands, and his eyes go to his mother in the cell beside Litha.
“Fate!”Litha says coldly at the moon.Upon seeing Electra, Regan freezes in place, seemingly shocked by the state his mother is in.
“Regan,” his mother whispers, her voice weak and scared.“You must help them.Your father is planning to kill them.”Regan says nothing, but his eyes go to Litha in the cell beside his mother.
Electra gasps.“He sent you to do it...”Electra shakes her head, and Regan clenches his jaw.Yet as the vision plays out, I come to learn the true extent of Theron’s cruelty.
Queen Electra could not bear the thought of Litha’s fate and tried to save her, but King Theron stubbornly refused to admit his lies, so he locked his wife up.
Queen Electra explains this to Regan.She says the only thing Litha was guilty of was admitting one of her coven witches was having an affair with King Theron and was plotting to kill her.His infidelity and her desire for a divorce set everything in motion.This was not over some war between families, but his father’s inability to accept responsibility.
“If you kill the oracle and the baby, you will be no better than your father.Don’t kill your mate.Is that regret you can live with?”Electra asks.
“You know?”Regan asks.
“Yes, Lyon realized he made a mistake.He didn’t realize she was his mate until after he came back with your father.Lyon came to me and asked for my help to get them out.I tried, but—Well, you can see where that got me.”
“I was never coming here to kill them.I was going to run with them,” Regan tells his mother.
Regan opens the cell door, and Litha stands defiantly inside, her arms protectively around her baby.
“Litha, we have to go!”Regan urges, his eyes wide with desperation.
Litha shakes her head, her eyes filled with a deep, weary sadness.“It’s too late, Regan,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper.“You should have kept your promise.You should have set us free when I asked.”
Regan steps closer, his voice pleading.“Litha, please, I can still get you out.We can still make it.”
“No,” Litha says firmly, her gaze steady.“I can’t cloak us anymore.My power is fading, and I won’t risk my baby.I won’t risk her life for a promise you already broke.”
Regan’s face falls the weight of his failure evident in his eyes.“Litha, I’m so sorry...”
She looks away, her expression resolute.“Sorry won’t save us now.Go, Regan.Save my daughter while you still can.”
“No, it’s not too late we I can still get you…” Litha cuts him off.
“King Theron blames me for exposing his affair and putting a stop to the queen’s quiet assassination.He will stop at nothing until I burn.”
Resigned to her fate, Litha closes the cell door and locks herself back in.Electra begs her to reconsider and to run with her mother.Litha just looks at Regan.
“Save the oracle, and you’ll save the last female lycan,” Litha continues.“Set them free, and I’ll consider giving you a chance to break the curse I’ve placed on your kind, on your family.”
“Curse?”Regan asks.
“Yes, your kind has proven that you do not deserve mates, so I’ve taken them away.No female lycan will be born again until the curse is broken.”
“Wait, what do you mean?He’s setting them free like you asked,” Queen Electra says, and Litha looks at her through the bars between them.
“Mate bonds are sacred, granted by the moon.They are meant to be protected.Your kind has proven that they do not deserve mates.So I’ve taken them.Your sons failed to protect theirs, my daughter.Your husband disregarded his.When I burn, take note that the lycan race will lose their chances of ever finding their mates again or fathering a daughter until the curse is broken.”
“But you can reverse it?”Regan asks.
“I can...but I won’t.My people died, and my kingdom fell.And so will yours,” Litha states before wandering back to her steel bed and taking a seat.
