Page 57 of Petals and Strings
I snorted out a laugh. “That’s unfortunate.” The corner of his mouth ticked up before it was gone again.
“Our fathers arranged the mating, forced us to bite each other in front of them so there was no deceit. Clearly, they didn’t care about our well-being.”
“That’s barbaric,” I whispered, squeezing his arm. He held onto that connection.
“She also, apparently, had already found a mate. I would have understood, never outed them. I wanted nothing to do with her in that sense. Hell, we could have considered us a pack. But,she took it too far. They… tied me up one night after she drugged my drink. I woke up in chains.”
“That bitch,” I growled, rage burning through me. I’d never been violent but the urge to protect him had me and my omega rising, ready to go to battle for the alpha.
“They spent a week trying to break me, to get insight into my father’s business. Information that I never had. My father didn’t trust me with the important things. He trusted no one but himself. He’d always been a little paranoid. Hence the public biting.”
The bitterness and anger in his voice was justified. Would it be wrong to escape this place and kill them all? Hell, I had plenty of anger to go around.
“It took days for me to break free of those chains. When I did I blocked them in the room with me, and made her watch as I killed her alpha. Then I killed her. It was swift, I wasn’t a monster.”
“Did it hurt you?”
“Some. My alpha never truly accepted her so we didn’t break completely. I’m fucked up but that’s more due to the trauma than the broken bond,” he said with a shrug. The haunted look in his eyes said it ran deeper than he cared to admit. “I’ve waited years to find someone that makes me feel anything other than angry, wildling.”
He left the rest unspoken. We weren’t ready for that. I’d only been here a few weeks.
Knowing his demons were right under the surface, I started to sing again. It was a soothing song, one I’d learned from my grandmother when I was young. A song about freedom, escape, falling into our dreams until they come true.
My voice was raspier than it was back then, but the soulful sound seemed to do exactly what I needed. Ledger’s eyes stayedclosed, the tension falling away as I held onto him, his warm palm resting on top of my hand, holding it in place.
“What will you do when you get out of here?”
His question knocked me off-balance for a moment. It was something I hadn’t allowed myself to think about.
I didn’t have means, and we both knew it. Being here meant when we were released our best hope was decent family or a shelter.
“Find myself. To figure out who I would have been if I hadn’t been taken at seventeen.”
Chapter Twenty
Audrey
Rydell had been missing for a week now. Though they said he was in isolation, I was terrified he wouldn’t come back to us.
Or if he did, what would be left of him?
My fingers toyed with the petals at my feet where I’d curled up. It wasn’t my usual spot, I needed time to think and it felt like Ledger was still waiting for me to break. He could see my worry growing day by day without Rydell.
At least Ansel hadn’t pulled away. I worried after we connected like we did he would shy away, hide from me, but if anything it was like something had changed in him.
He was more open, willing to speak again, at least to me. His touches were gentle and subtle, not wanting to have the staff say anything.
The sounds of life going on around me was quiet as I zoned out, falling deeper into myself. It was awful how the medication helped, but also stripped away a lot of emotions along with it.
Some days, I just felt numb and lost. Mix that with the stress of Rydell being in isolation, it was falling over me like a blanket, blocking out the rest of the world.
Movement near my little alcove caught my attention. The last person I expected to find there was Caspian.
He still hadn’t pulled back out of the stupor since the medication change.
His pale face held so much sadness it had my chest aching and throat tightening as I fought off tears on his behalf. Whatever he’d endured had truly broken him.
He tended to a patch of lilies with so much care and tenderness I couldn't help but move closer. I didn’t care that mud rested on my pants from sitting on the cool dirt as I moved closer.
