Book 1: Chapter 91

Nate’s arms moved and I had expected Silas to pick me up. But instead, the soothing electricity coursed through me as Nate pulled me close to his chest and stood. His body was shaking slightly but after a couple steps, it was far sturdier. 

“Where to Aelia?”

I swallowed, trying to wet my dry mouth. “They should have set up the Alpha Prince tent for me.”

“Aelia! Just come home!” Silas was standing but it was Keri, who moved from behind the tree she had been leaning against, that spoke.

She put a hand on Silas’ shoulder. “She belongs there, Alpha. She belongs with her men. With her family.”

Silas’ shoulders dropped and he moved out of the way. Nate started to walk, not saying anything. We wove our way through the trees and at one point I closed my eyes, leaning my head against mate.

As much as my life has turned out like this, I couldn’t image if that hadn’t happened. If the Hunters had never come. When I was four, I knew Nate was my fated mate but I also saw the golden braid connecting him to my brother. At first, I was angry. I stomped around and yelled at my brother. My younger self blaming him for the connection. When I was six, I was able to do research. Able to reach out and ask questions. It worried me, that Silas had no other connections but the braid. I tried to connect him to Jean, that terrible dinner party at night. Nothing could stick. My powers failed against the golden braid.

When I was seven, I came across a book centuries old. Talking about bonds and they mentioned the gold connection. A rare and beautiful connection but steeped in pain and misery. I was seven when I realized that my connection to Nate was blocking the bond to my brother. All the while I had Nate, my brother would have no one. As someone who always protected them, cared for them, that realization made my seven year old self tailspin.

There was a moment, where I reached out and tried to break the bond between Nate and I. The power needed was too much and I felt myself dying. I was scared and death was not something I was ready for, so I stopped. It wasn’t until I was eighteen and then again at twenty did I realize just how true those words had been. That the golden bond was steeped in pain and misery. 

I was already the Alpha Prince at the time, called to a massacre that may be connected to a Lycan. When I got there, it was worse than I could image. The small town had been set ablaze and bodies littered the ground. Still, I continued in until I saw a scene that I honestly could never forget.

A Lycan, standing tall in the middle of the road. But there were bodies laying around him. For the first time, I saw someone else with a golden braid connection. The thing was, it was connected to the very man that was standing before him. That man was protecting a young girl, whose red fated connection, was connected to the Lycan as well. He was too far gone though and as he howled, and went in for the kill, I got in his way. His claws slashed my chest but I held him off.

The two behind me stumbled back. The girl tumbled out of the man’s hand and rolled to the side. I wasn’t quick enough but the Lycan was. Before I could breathe, his claws were in the throat of the young girl. He didn’t removed them and as she died, she gently held his arm. Her last unspoken but mouthed words were ‘I love you’. 

The scene pained me that the Lycan didn’t know his fated mate. Killed her in cold blood. But I watched as the golden braid flared to life. It burst in a bright color, finally being freed. The man who was behind me whimpered and I knew he felt it. Felt the bond. Even I felt it. It washed over me and I felt like some of it passed through me, through my soul.

In a final effort, I gathered all my strength and enacted my Alpha Prince powers. At the time, I wasn’t in complete control of them. I was still just learning, navigating the power in me. I used too much but it forced the Lycan to his knees. It forced his shift to his naked body next to his dead fated mate. 

He looked at himself, covered in blood. Looked at me, at the man behind me, the dead woman next to him, and he started to wail. He realized what he had done; realized what he had become and caused. But the golden bond burned brighter than anything I had ever seen. The man behind me stepped forward and before I could reach out to stop him, he went to the kneeling Lycan. His arms wove around his body in a tight embrace and I remember the only words that where uttered for the rest of the night. ‘I forgive you.’

That was how I met Finn and Noah. How I decided the two of them were going to be my Betas. I took the fall for not being able to catch the Lycan. That I had failed but cleaned up the town. No one knew that Noah was Lycan. Until now, his first shift in front of others in years. It confirmed my theory. That death is what it took for a golden bond to be secured. That I was standing in the way of this light, this connection, that was like nothing I had seen. It was beautiful and for the first time I accepted death before I was even told I was dying.

The third golden braided connection was far more painful. His name was Damian, his fated mate was Hera and his golden connection was Justin. Justin had actually already lost his fated. You could see the red thread broken from him but the golden one was still strong. Damian was your typical Alpha. Headstrong, pole up his ass, Alpha. His fated mate, Hera, was supposed to be fully mated to him in a week.

I watched the trio with morbid curiosity without realizing just how morbid it would be. Hera caught Damian cheating on her and with more than one she-wolf. All hell broke loose until finally, Hera threw herself off a cliff; the fated bond breaking. The gold flared to life and burst, just as Finn and Noah’s had. It still brought tears to my eye; seeing it. It was beautiful. Damian turned to his Gamma, who was Justin, and as their eyes met you watched the bond solidify.

The issue was, Damian wasn’t happy. In fact, he was disgusted. He sent Justin from the pack house. Exiling him to a house on the outskirts of his territory. Yelling, ‘I’m not a fucking fag’ the entire time. Justin, who from the looks of it, had never actually felt a bond in person was heartbroken. He ran, leaving the house and holing up in the place his mate dictated.

It was a month. Justin’s body was finished going through the change and he had no one, not understanding what was going. As an outsider, I was pushed away by Justin and by Damian. I wish I had tried harder. I wish I had done something else to save two lives. Justin’s heat started and I went to check in on him. It was too late. Justin had hung himself from the second floor of the house.

Running back to the pack house, it was on fire when I arrived. Damian was in the middle of the house and he turned to me, his eyes completely black but tears streaming down his face. He took a gun out and ended it all, everything burning down to ash. I realized how terrible the golden connection could be. How, if it all went horribly wrong, it would end up in both of their deaths. Suddenly, I became overly protective of Noah and Finn. If one died, I knew the other would follow. It scared me.

I looked up at Nate. His face was stoic as he walked carefully through the forest. Out of his chest, the golden braid floated and curved around him, connecting to Silas somewhere behind us. Reaching out, I held it in my hands, caressing it gently. It was why I made so many plans. Why I was so cautious when it came to the information I provided. Why I asked Charles and Sam to help. There would be no risking their life once the bond solidified.

Neither would have accepted each other if I had simply told them that I was going to break the bond. I knew that they would never accept each other if I was somehow still around. It’s why I didn’t bother trying. It would only hurt them worse. Life had a funny way of working out. My body, after the years of experiments and torture under the Hunters, couldn’t handle it anymore. It slowly started to deteriorate. Fate seemed to be in favor of the golden connection and it made me wonder if Finn’s sister that night hadn’t died, if something would have taken her life later on. If the ones blocking the connection were fated to die.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Nate’s voice made me jump and I looked up at him, his eyes looking down at me.

“The past and the future.”

He hummed. “Seems intense.”

I nodded. “It always is. What is set in stone verses the complete unknown. Two opposites of the same coin.”

Nate sighed. “I understand.”

There was a quiet for a few more minutes before I broke it. “Hey Nate?”

“Yeah?”

I paused, chewing on my words. “I love you.”

He stopped walking, looking down at me. “You have a fucked up way of showing it.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “I really don’t. You just can’t see the full picture. Not yet.” My hand ran up the braid and I splayed my hand on his chest. “One day you will. You’ll understand and you’ll realize just how much I loved you.”

“I hate that you keep shit from us, Aelia. Why not just give us the whole picture? Why not just tell us what’s going on?”

“Because you would reject everything as soon as I told you. It would make an already uphill battle, an impossible climb.”

Nate growled. “Fuck this Aelia. Fuck it all.”

I didn’t say anything else as we entered the camp. All the tents were colors the same as our uniforms. The same light blue. There was one in the center that had my sigil as the First Prince hanging from it and Nate took me inside. Rolling my eyes, they had gone all out. Putting a bed, rugs, brining back the chair and table set. There was even a fire pit. Nate started to set me down on the bed and I shook my head.

“Can you set me in the chair?”

“You need to rest.”

I smiled. “I know. Just the chair for now, please.”

He nodded and set me down softly. I thought he would turn and go by instead, he went down on one knee in front of me.

“Tell me what I need to do. Give me something. Anything. Anything to make this pain go away. Please, Aelia.”

My hand brushed the side of his cheek. “I wish I could take the pain away. But I promise you. It will all work out. It’s going to hurt. It may continue to hurt but you’re not alone.”

“But you are…”

Shaking my head, I leaned in and pressed my lips to his hair. “I’m not alone, Nate. Trust me. Go help Silas. I’m sure he’s drowning in battle plans and needs someone to pull his ass out.”

Nate smiled as he got up. Leaning forward, I thought he was going to kiss my forehead but his lips pressed against mine. His hands came up and held my head as we intensified the kiss. After a moment, he pulled away and kissed my forehead.

“I love you too, Aelia. I always have and I always will.”

I smiled. “You have an okay way of showing it.”

He smirked before heading out of the tent. The flap falling, leaving me alone to my thoughts.