Chapter 37 - I’m on your side

EMMA

The tunnels are dark, very dark. There is no sunlight and the temperature is frigid. I can hardly see the outline of Hadrian walking in front of me, even after my eyes have adjusted to the darkness. The air in the tunnels is humid. I guide one hand along the wall to steady myself and prevent myself from tripping. Water seeps through the bricks and coats my fingertips. My other hand however is toasty warm in Hadrian’s hand. His large hand engulfs mine. The heat radiating from him travels through the rest of my body.

“So, you know. Out of curiosity. Why do you have tunnels running through the palace?”

“They're not just in the palace. The tunnels run all through Sanguinem.”

“Really?”

Hadrian hums in confirmation. “I’ll show you the layout sometime. You could walk a circle around the city.”

“And how far would a walk around said circle be?”

“Only around twenty miles.”

His pace is brutal and I already have a hard time keeping up. “Right, easy peasy,” I mutter.

"We're here.” He says and stops walking.

My body doesn’t have the reflexes of a werewolf, so naturally, I collide hard into the wall of muscle. I bump my head against his shoulder blade. “Ouch.”

“Are you okay?” Hadrian turns around and cradles my face with his big hands. The speed of his movements sometimes gives me a whiplash.

The warmth of his hands feels so good on my skin. It dispels the cold and ignites a fire in my stomach. I sigh a breath of contentment.

“Emma? Are you hurt?”

I hum and move closer to the deep voice calling my name. I like how it sounds when he says it. I press my body to the source of heat and let it warm my frigid body.

I press my nose against his clothes. I can’t see him, but the smell of cedar, sandalwood and bergamot is so good.

I hear a choked sound beside my ear. “Emma, what are you doing?”

I’m drawn to his warmth like a moth to a flame. Like ice melting under the sun. Or a scorched desert soaking up all the water. I can’t help myself.

His arms wrap around my waist and a rumble vibrates through his chest. I feel it revibrate through my body and I need more. The burning heat in my stomach is on a path of destruction and in search for more fuel to burn.

His lips move on the exposed part of my neck, beside my necklace. He sucks on the mark he left there a few weeks ago. A loud moan fills the space around us and I realize that it’s mine.

“Fuck.” He growls and the sound mixes with my moan.

I need to do something about this fire in my body, but I don’t know what. “I need—“ I croak out.

His urgent lips find mine. His lips are warm and electrify my body. I feel like I’m going to combust. Without the sense of sight, the rest is heightened.

I wrap my arms around his neck and his hands grab the back of my thighs and lift me up. I gasp and wrap my legs around his waist. He pushes me against the wall and something long and hard presses onto the apex of my thighs.

The friction of his hard body against mine has me gasping and clinging on to him. Pleasure ignites from my core and spreads to the rest of my body.

“Do you want more?” He asks in a rough, restrained voice.

I blink my eyes, but it doesn’t matter, because everything is cloaked in darkness. *What am I doing?*

The question douches the heat in my stomach. Not because I don’t want to, but because his question pulls me back into reality. I’ve been climbing him and rubbing myself against him like an animal in heat.

“Can you put me down?”

He rests his head beside mine against the wall. I hear his knuckles crack on the other side of my head as he presses them onto the bricks. “ Yeah.” He grumbles.

I take a step away from him in the darkness, putting a little space between us. The cold from the tunnels immediately seeps back into my bones and leaves me trembling and longing to go back to the heat.

“I don’t know what happened—“

“You don’t have to explain. It’s the mate bond that’s affecting you. I shouldn’t have engaged in it. I know you don’t want this either.”

That little word. *Either*. It’s like a punch in the gut. I take a deep breath to settle the jumbling emotions in my body.

“Right.”

I think there might be a part of me that is curious about what just happened. A new part of me, that is left unexplored. A part of me that thirsts for his touch. A part that definitely wants whatever *this* is.

——

Hadrian opens the wall paneling. I can’t help the flush that runs over my whole body when he steps into the light. His clothes are rumpled and his raven hair is disheveled. His muscles and frame seem larger than usual. Unmovable, steady and *climbable*.

I move my eyes away from him as I drag my mind out of the gutter. I look around me and notice that we're in one of the palace towers. The layout is the same as the library. “What is this place?”

“These are the royal archives. Everything that has happened within the kingdom for the past one hundred and eighty years is recorded and archived here.”

I take a few steps along the shelves and let my fingers wander over the dusty filing boxes.

Hadrian follows behind me. “It holds all the information of the different packs, the missions of the army and the decisions of the king. The top floor is closed off, but we should be able to find information about the Snow Moon pack and hopefully about his daughter.”

I look through the open floors to the ceiling. There must be thousands of filing cabinets. *This is going to be a nightmare*.

—————

Dust particles land in my hair and I cough when I open another filing box. I’m sitting on the ground, with my legs crossed and documents scattered around me. We have been here for two hours. Going through box after box. Hadrian didn’t tell me that each pack has its own long history and there are countless boxes per pack accumulated over a hundred and eighty years.

Hadrian is roaming the wall and reaches for the top shelf. He takes two boxes at the same time and I avoid looking at how his body moves with the action.

I focus back on the closed box in front of me and open the cardboard lit. Inside are stacks of documents, but a pink piece of cardstock catches my attention. I pull it from the other documents. On the pink cardstock is a birth announcement of Graciella. The daughter of Alpha Amadeus.

I browse further through the box and find a copy of her birth certificate, copies of school diplomas and other official documents regarding her youth. On the bottom of the box lies a single picture. The girl has long auburn hair and electric blue eyes.

I gasp and drop the picture back into the bottom of the box.

“What is it?” Hadrian asks and walks over to me.

I bury the picture under the other documents. “Nothing,” I say and my voice is shrill.

Hadrian sits down next to me and I avoid his piercing gaze. “You’re lying. Tell me.”

I shake my head. I hate that he can see right through me. I’ve always been a bad liar.

“I can’t.” I eventually say and tears brim my eyes. I feel the imperative need to protect her.

His hand comes up to cradle my shoulder. “Emma, please tell me. I can’t handle you crying.”

“She’s probably already dead. That’s why she’s gone. They killed her.” I whisper. The realization floods my mind and I start to tremble.

“Hey, calm down.” His voice is low and soothing and he pulls me to him. His fingers rub over the bare skin of my wrists. “Why would you think that?”

I look at him and through the tears, I can see that worry clouds over him. “Her eyes. They killed her because she has blue eyes.”

His body freezes around me.

*It’s true, right? That’s the reason*.

“They didn’t.” He mutters.

“How would you know?” I start getting annoyed.

He matches my stern look. “Because a human woman, with ocean blue eyes, killed my mother. The target has always only been human.”

I get up from the floor and away from his arms. His touch fogs my brain and I need a clear head right now. The annoyance multiplies tenfold. “How would you know that? Your father is a terrible person. He killed that man, he was one of your own people.” I shout as I walk away from Hadrian.

Then I turn back to face him because I can’t let it go. “The king is a monster. I can’t believe that you're defending him. I can’t believe you are on his side.”

Hadrian is quick to pull me against him. He isn’t faced by my outbursts and he cages me in. “Yes, I once was, but things changed.”

I want to refute, but he grabs my chin and holds my eyes.

“I’m on *your* side Emma.”

I take two unsteady breaths and I let my racing heart calm down. Hadrian doesn’t let me move away.

I close my eyes to think. “You really think she’s still alive?”

“Yes. There is no record of her death. Like I said. Everything is recorded, even deaths initiated by the army.” I open my eyes and find sincerity in his.

If that's true, then somewhere within these walls is a record of my mother’s death and the soldier who killed her.

“Fuck.” Hadrian mutters.

Footsteps sound behind me and a guard approaches with a distressed look on his face. He’s older with lines in his face with gray hairs peeking through brown. “Your Highness? How did you get in here?”