Page 11 of Bonded By Moons

It’s comfortable and private. My safe haven. No one comes to this wing.

“At Least I have a mate and she’s better than any tramp you’ve laid with, that’s for sure.” I pat him on the cheek. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

Artemus and I begin heading towards the dining hall. He’s been my personal guard and best friend since I was 6 years old. He’s grown with me, trained with me, and bound his life under the moons to protect me against all threats.

He walks ahead of me as always, checking around the ornate marble corners and ensuring no threats are near. “So, are you going to tell me about it or do I have to wait for your father to rip your throat out in front of the entire dining hall?”

I chuckle and decide fuck it, he should know. “She ran from me the second our bond snapped into place at the club last night, and I hunted her like a rabid animal.”

Artie stopped dead in his tracks, and I nearly slammed into his back. “Wait, say that again?”

I move around to face him. “She ran from me like I was a beast from the shadow realm.”

“You mean to tell me,” he paused for his typical dramatics. “Your mate just ran from you? She didn’t even ask your name, or begin the acquancy rituals? Nothing?”

That stung. I turned on my heel and began walking ahead of him as the shame and pain of that evening started flooding my body. My shoulders sagged and I looked out the windows as we passed each pillar of the silver and gold star covered palace. We’ve almost made it to the main hall, and I’m already dreading fathers face when he sees me.

“Honestly, when I did finally catch her, she practically spat in my face as I held her down. I just wanted a second to talk to her, to get to know the girl the moons have chosen for me. But I chased after her like an animal. I don’t know what came over me but the moons made me crazy for her. She immediately rejected me and it tore my heart in half.”

Like the asshole that he is, he suppressed his laugh and instead studied me closely. “I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing, the fact she ran from you or the fact she rejected you. Does she even know who you are?”

“Don’t be a dipshit. No one knows who I am, Artie. I never get to leave these damn sparkling walls.”

“Well, the moons are up to something considering how bright those mate rings are. I don’t know what your fathers going to do about this, but I don’t have a single good feeling about it. I’m sorry that we couldn’t have been more prepared for this.”

I sighed and we walked in silence the rest of the way to the dining hall. I don’t know how my father will react either, honestly. I’m expecting lashings, maybe frostbite from one of the water faeries he controls.

That’s what he does. He controls.

If he can’t control me and my mate, he won’t allow the bond to be completed. He will have to see her as an advantage in order to let me follow this through. But, even the primes and high fae couldn’t defy the natural order of mate bonds when they ruled. That’s defying the stars and moons themselves and no one risks the wrath of the cosmos, except maybe my insane father.

We approach the two silver and golden ornate doors and I use my air magic to open them simultaneously. I might as well make a grand entrance in confidence, rather than cowering under my fathers gaze. Silver and gold vines of ivy intertwined with stars and planets wrap around the marble pillars that line the bright white dining hall. Large arch shaped windows cover both sides of the room, allowing for the morning sun to shine through. The table is big enough for 4 families to dine together. Above the feast laid out this morning, hangs sculptures of our three full moons and the twelve constellations that surround our planet.

And just like that, I walk into King Bryton’s fiery stare. My brothers and sister are sitting in the three chairs to the right of my father and my mother, Queen Sharynne, is holding the queen's place at the opposite end of the table. I nod to my mother in passing. She looks beautiful as always, a ray of sunshine compared to my father. They’re mates, even though they detest each other now. She says they were in love once, but my mother only tolerates him now. I return my gaze to my father as I approach my seat on his left.

“Father,” I say in a dull tone.

He says nothing. He continues to stare at me like he’s debating decapitating me right here for everyone to see what an insolent child I've become. “Would someone like to tell me who the lucky fae is to be mated to my son?” The king glances around the room, before his attention lands back on me. “I don’t recall you leaving the palace for any local appearances recently, so how did you manage to get mated between last night and this morning, son?”

My father loves calling me ‘son’ to remind me I’m below him. Also, my loving father doses his ‘children’ with truth elixirs at every meal to ensure we are incapable of hiding things from him. He just mixes it into all the wine in the palace, so any guest or staff that consumes it is affected.

“I went to The Virgo District last night for a few beers. I wanted to spy on the locals to ensure they’re preparing for your upcoming tithes.”

A truth and a lie. That’s how I get away with most things in this palace. Even though I did visit Virgo last night, I surely didn’t stay there.

My father tilted his head in thought. “Hmm. I also don’t remember giving you permission to make those sort of scouting decisions on your own.” He turned his gaze back to me with a sort of feral smile, grabbed his knife, and stabbed it between my middle and forefinger. I didn’t even flinch. I know better than to show him weakness. Weakness is something he can exploit. Weakness is something he’s trained out of us.

My father smoothed down his tunic and adjusted his perfectly sleek silver hair. “And might you tell me about this mate? Is she worthy of the crown prince, and the children she should bear in your name?”

I removed the knife from the table and began slicing off a piece of ham from the feast laid before us, choosing to ignore my fathers plotting.

Artie cleared his throat behind me where he stood in between the marble and metallic pillars that adorned the room.

“Yes, father. She is beautiful, a monochromatic faerie from the Comet Cottages.”

“That’s it? She’s Beautiful?” He laughed obnoxiously as he reached for his glass of mulled berries.

I turned to my mother for some sort of reprieve. She gave me a ghostly empty stare and returned to eating her blueberry crumble. She’s always silent around my father, refusing to show her true joy and peaceful aura. I think she hates him as much as we do, but she also fears him like we do. I’ve never seen my father punish my mother publicly, which makes me worry about what happens behind closed doors where I can’t protect her.

---