Book 1: Chapter 46

The hostility I felt was palpable as Noah and Finn realized it was me who walked through the door. It made the hair on the back of my neck raise and I wondered if I should just turn around now. I could hear Eros chuckling in the back of my head so I just steeled myself by squaring me shoulder and trying to look the Alpha I was.

“I need to speak with her.”

Noah scoffed. “Why the hell should we even let you near her? Your fucking Beta…”

“I know what my Beta did.” I growled at him. “I am also aware they are fated mates and shit hit the fan. Which is why I need to speak with her. She’s not just someone my Beta got involved with. Aelia is my sister.”

Finn smirked and put a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “Sol is up the stairs. It…took a lot out of her yesterday and she’s struggling a bit today.” A sadness washed over his face, one that also flashed in Noah’s eyes as well.

Nodding to them both, I headed up the wood stairs to the small apartment they kept above the bar. It was much smaller than I thought it was but you could see there was just enough room for three, maybe four people to live comfortably. Aelia was sitting up in the bed, a book in her lap. Her eyes peeled from the pages to look up at me. She smiled and shut her book, placing it next to her on the bed.

“Sil, good morning.”

There was already a chair pulled up next to her on the left side of the bed. Plopping down in it, making is groan, I leaned my head back and pinched the bridge of my nose. She chuckled.

“That good of a morning huh?”

I opened my eyes to look at her, the softness in her face as she looked at me couldn’t hide the deep dark circles in her face. Not just that but she was wearing a tank top that showed more of the bones of her shoulder and her face was thinner than it had been. Swallowing hard, I smiled back at her.

“Apparently better than yours.”

She smiled wider. Lifting up her arms, she gestured to the room. “The almighty Rogue King, First Alpha Prince, confined to the bed because she can’t even get her one good leg to move. Nothing is more humiliating, let me tell you.”

“I dunno. Walking into a human police station because I’m the next of kin for my Beta who not only assaulted his mate but also multiple police officers was a bit humbling.”

Aelia snorted but the smile slowly slipped off her face. “So you heard?”

“Heard? Charles calls me at eight this morning asking me to come down to the station. They kept Nate overnight. I had to sit through the account from Mitch who was the one who apparently body slammed Nate? I spoke to Nate a bit too. As soon as the court decides the bail I’ll pick him up but for now he’s stuck.”

“Is he okay? The madness…”

I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the bed. “Apparently, he came to not long after he got shoved into the police cruiser. He’s absolutely broken but he’s still with us, if that counts for anything.” My eyes looked down and then back up. “Did he actually try to mark you?”

“Yeah, he did. If Officer Ludwig didn’t hit Nate off of me right then…” She trailed off for a moment. “His canines were already out and I could feel his breath on my shoulder. It’s probably the only thing that will save him in the human court. He never tried to sexually assault me. Not by their classification of it.”

“I’m going to have to contact the Alpha King.”

Aelia shook her head. “I already did. So don’t worry about it.”

Panic seeped into me and I guess read it on my face because she gave me a small smile. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on actually talking to my old man but Noah and Finn said it was that or they were going to beat Nate until he wasn’t able to walk for the next few years. Honestly, I couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t consider killing him after the condition they saw me in last night. So I chose the safest way.”

“What did he say?”

“At first, he was up in arms as much as Noah and Finn were. I was able to talk him off the edge though. I also requested that I be the one to enact the punishment by law as the First Alpha Prince. Since technically this area falls under my jurisdiction as I have been living here.”

Shock wasn’t even the word for what I felt. Relief filled me but at the same time, Aelia would now need to enact the punishment herself on Nate. On her mate and her childhood love. That alone was pain that would be inflicted onto her more than it would ever be on Nate. Hell, he would probably feel more guilt than he already did considering it was her having to do it. Her lips were pursed in a thin line and I could tell she was thinking about it as well, her eyes glazed over and far away.

Looking down at her hand, I reached out and intertwined my fingers with her metal ones. I stared down at them as they pulsed the blue glow.

“Are you okay? They said you were bleeding and banged up a bit.”

Her fingers closed around mine. “I’m okay. The claw marks left scars and gives a whole new meaning to tiger stripes but they are good. Bruises are actually a little tougher on me than cuts. I’m already struggling with shit on the inside, so bruising doesn’t help. I’ll get there though.”

Putting my head down in her lap, my head facing away from her. I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry. I should have monitored him better. He spoke to me before coming over but I thought he had it together. I didn’t think…”

“Hush, Sil. It’s not your fault. The only fault of Nate was that he gave into it as well. I dont blame him for his actions after that. It’s not an easy situation. For any of us.” Her other hand brushed over the top of my head.

Before long, she was combing through my hair with her fingers. It was like I was eight again, upset over something that happened at school and she was doing this same thing.

“I didn’t think it would be this bad. Feel this bad.”

“Sil…”

My fingers tightened in her metal one. “I feel lost, Aelia. Before…before I had something to hold onto. The anger of you being taken, someone to blame. Now…now the ghosts of the ones who took you are all that’s left and I can’t…I have nothing to keep me grounded.”

She continued the motion of combing through my hair and I felt the trickle of single tears down the side of my face. After a minute, her humming filled the space and involuntarily I smiled. It was the song our mom used to sing to us, whenever we got hurt or were scared. Aelia picked up the song and while the words had been lost to us, we at least knew the melody still. More tears fell as we lapsed into a bubble. A moment in time where nothing had happened between us, no time had been left apart. We were still children, still comforted by the same motions, the same sounds. 

At some point, between the melody and the methodical running against my head, I fell asleep in her lap. The adrenaline that was pumped into me so early in the morning from Charles call and being at the station, came crashing down. Mixed with only having a few hours of sleep, was enough apparently to slip away.

-

“Yeah, I’ll tell him. Thank you.”

I heard a soft voice speaking in my head. Part of me wanted to go back to sleep but something was nagging me to keep waking up.

“No. No. I don’t believe so. Is he not either? That’s good. I’ll do what I can to help. No. Yeah. I’ll handle that from my side actually.”

My brain finally started to work and I peeled my eyes open. Slowly rising from Aelia’s lap, I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus them enough to see who she was talking to.

“I’ll send him now. You can speak to him from there. Yeah. You too. I’ll talk to you later.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and placed it next to me. “Good morning. Did you sleep okay? You seemed exhausted.”

“I went to bed late and then Charles woke me up early. I think I was on edge the whole time it just came crashing down. Or rather, I came crashing down.”

We both smiled and laughed. She nodded to the phone. “That was Charles. Nate’s bail is five grand and he has to sign that he can’t leave the state until his court date.”

Rolling my shoulders and stretching out my arms, I cursed. “Well, at least they are letting him out on bail.”

“Officer Ludwig and I aren’t pressing charges, so I think that helped a bit.”

My eyes widened. “What? Why?”

She shook her head. “He’s already going to have to handle what our punishment is, Sil. It’s stupid to inflict a second punishment. As for Officer Ludwig, you would need to speak to him in regards to his decision.”

I reached out and took my phone, shoving it in my pocket. Falling back against the chair, I tapped the arm of it a couple times. “When will you handle it?”

Aelia sighed. “I’ll have to wait till I can stand, for one. As for after that, I would need to wait until the human court concludes its shit. If he shows up in terrible shape it’s not going to look good for the territory since everyone knows you operate on your own set of laws and rules. We can only hope they let him off as lightly as they possibly can.”

“Do you need anything? Want me to bring you anything while you’re stuck here with those two nincompoops?”

“We can hear you, dumbass.” Noah called from downstairs.

It made Aelia snort and giggle. “No. They take pretty good care of me. Text me though. The information for the court date and stuff. Also how he is doing. Don’t…tell him though. I know it might just make it worse. I’m sure he just wants to be left alone right now.”

Getting up, I stretched on last time. Coming over to the side of the bed, I placed a kiss on her head. “Feel better, alright?”

She hummed and smiled at me. As I walked out she picked up the book that lay forgotten on the bed while we talked. Once I was down the stairs, both Noah and Finn were smirking.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just unusual to see an Alpha put their guard down in front of another Alpha.” Noah snickered.

Rolling my eyes, I flipped the two of them off as I headed out of the bar and back to the station.