Page 27 of Mated To The King's Gamma
“Taylor is alive!” I gush, needing to see for myself.
“Whose Taylor?” Gannon asks me.
Gannon stares at me in confusion as I stare at him. What does he mean? Who is Taylor? I have no time to explain; I just need to get to her, touch her to make sure she is real and not a figment of my imagination. But I know he isn’t going to let me run down until I give even a brief explanation.
“Taylor is one of the rogue girls we were with at the orphanage. Ms. Daley hated how close we were and constantly tried to separate us. She said we were plotting against her, anyway. Mrs. Daley’s friend broke a vase and blamed us rogues. Taylor stood up for us, and it got her beat and kicked out. One day Azalea and I woke up to her gone. We looked everywhere surrounding that hell hole before we had gotten up the courage to ask Ms. Daley. She whipped us good for even asking.”
Gannon furrowed his brow, “We never saw any other girls close to your age in the documents we had taken from the SilverShadow pack. This is just more confirmation of what we already suspected.”
I have no time for semantics; I need to get down there; I take the stairs two at a time in my rush and run out the front doors. Just as I all but bolted through the door, I nearly knock Trey over.
“Hello, can someone tell me what the fuck is going on? Did you give me your whore name?” I hear Damian demand, and I gasp at what he called her. Taylor snarls, spinning on her heel to glare at him.
“It’s a long story and Abbie?” Azzy glances over her shoulder at me moments before my hurried footsteps catch everyone’s attention. The moment Taylor turns to look at me, I stop in my tracks before I stumbled out of the door and down the steps in a state of shock. Trey grips my arm to keep me steady as my mouth opens and closes in shock. As I look at Azalea with the same shock that she clearly feels upon seeing Taylor, I find myself staring at her, needing that confirmation from her.
Several steps behind me, Gannon and Tyson emerge from the castle. My bottom lip quivers when Azzy nods to me, telling me what I’m seeing is real before my feet are moving quickly, and I collide with Taylor. There is barely enough time for Taylor to catch me as my legs and arms wrap around her.
I can’t believe my eyes. It can’t be Taylor, but it is. She is alive! Ms. Daley had gotten tired of us asking for her. She spun on her heels, almost snarling at Azalea and me. Mrs. Daley screamed in our faces, telling us she was dead and that she couldn’t wait until the day it was our turn so she didn’t have to look at our faces ever again.
“I thought you were dead,” I gush, squeezing her tight. Taylor, who apparently is now named Tandi, reaches over and grabs Azalea, squishing us together as she embraces us. “How, how?” I say, placing her feet down as tears stream down her face. Kyson, Gannon, and Damian all stand there gawking at us while we fuss over each other when Tandi turns to Damian and pins him with her glare.
“My son, now. I did what you asked,” she said, and Damian stares at her, but it is Gannon who nudges Damian to hand her son back.
“Give her son back. She looks like she bites, like an angry gremlin,” Gannon mumbles, and I press my lips together to stop from laughing.
“She fucking does. She bit me already, twice actually, while pitching a fit,” Damian growls in annoyance as he reluctantly hands her son to her.
“You have a child?” I ask, making sure I heard right, and I pull back the blankets to take a closer look at the toddler in Tandi’s arms. Turning back to Gannon, I hold out my arms for Tyson, who flails in his arms, wanting to come to me.
“Who is this little one?” Tandi asks while reaching out and gripping Tyson’s little fingers as I hold him. I have so many questions, like where she has been all this time when, she had a baby. I don’t have a chance to ask before Damian is asking us to take Tandi inside.
“Gannon, Abbie, take Tandi to my quarters and help her settle in, please. I need a word with the king and queen,” Damian says, and Tandi’s head whips to the side to stare at Azalea. I guess Azalea hasn’t had a chance to tell her yet. Tandi’s eyes widen when recognition hits her at Damian calling her queen.
“Azalea, Queen Azalea Landeena, I knew I heard that name,” she exclaims.
“Have you heard of the Landeena’s?” Azzy asks her, shocked because I know she can’t read like us unless she has since learned, maybe she had.
“Yes, of course,” Tandi says. Then the king speaks, “Everyone has. It is in every history book, love. You and Abbie are the only ones oblivious to who they were, who you are.” He purrs at Azzy when Tandi speaks up, shaking her head, answering one of the many questions I had for her.
“No, I can’t read. No, I heard about it at the brothel when the hunters come in sometimes. Amazing the things you hear when you aren’t supposed to be listening,” she says, blowing out a breath.
“Hunters?” Kyson asks her, lifting his head to look at her.
“Yeah, the ones who work for the council. Larkin, introduced me to a couple of them. They creeped me out,”
“You know Larkin?” Kyson asks her.
“Yes, she does, and that is what I need to speak with you both about. Because I just stole his son,” Damian says, and I gasp at his words. He just kidnapped a council member’s son? Surely that will have consequences. Kyson straightens, and I look at Tandi’s son in her arms. I wonder what sort of repercussions this will have. But I also wonder why the hunters would be working with the council. Aren’t they supposed to care and preserve the Lycan and werewolf way of life?
“You said the hunters work with the council?” Kyson asks Tandi. She nods and shrugs as if this is something we should already know.
“Yeah, I have seen them a few times. Larkin and Crux seem pretty buddy, buddy with them. They hold meetings at the brothel. They all wear patches and call themselves the rebels.” Her brows furrow as if she is thinking hard, trying to remember some detail.
“Mr. Crux holds the meetings. He has worked with them for years, and they have meetings yearly for some blood ceremony or some crap. Bloody freaks always drinking each other’s blood from a cup, and they call me diseased since I am rogue. Those fuckers sitting around drinking blood as if they think they are bloodsuckers,” she says with a swift shake of her head.
“Did you say blood?” Azalea asks her, looking a little shocked. Why would the hunters be drinking blood? Tandi nods. “Yep, like clockwork. Every February, on the 1st day of the month, is the annual meeting. They talk shit and spout changes within the council. Dawning their stupid insignia’s about how Crux will take over once the royals are dead,” she says with a shrug as if we should know this already.
Turning my head, I see the worry on Azalea’s face. She has enough going on, and I don’t want this to be another added worry for her.
