AXEL
The coldness in her face, in her voice and her tone. I almost didnât recognize her. She used the same magic that foul creature had used to kill my own father, the alpha to our pack, her pack.
But she is a witch. Why would she care about the very beasts that slaughtered her family? I paused my momentary pacing of fatherâsâ~Reignâs~ office.
We had come there after everything that had happened because Diego was ripping the castle apart, and Momâ¦well, she was murderous.
~She lied.~
She lied about how much magic she had shown Keir. Did she know? Did she know she was teaching a monster? Did she care? Does that make her the same as him?
All these questions were flooding through my mind faster than I had time to process them. What did this mean for our mating?
Reignâs gaze remained on me as I resumed my pacing again, chewing on my knuckles as I did so, lost in thought of what this latest revelation would mean for us, our bond, our mating.
The floor creaked under my steps as I paced back and forth furiously.
âReign, do you realize the implications of this? Whatâs going to happen to Storm now?â I stared at her.
She just gazed across the room at me, her face a show of boredom.
âAxel, if you pace much more, youâre going to wear out the wood on my floors. Stop it.â
I sank into a nearby chair, still gnawing on my knuckles.
She was my mate, and yet I felt so betrayed by her. Not telling my family, I would have understood. As supportive as they were, it was always best to break things to themâ¦gently.
But not telling me? Her mate? Her pair? Secrets so soon into our bonding had me questioning everything I thought I knew about the mating bond. I had marked her, but had that been enough to seal it?
Reign sighed heavily, sensing my wandering mind going into overdrive. âLook, we all knew that Storm possessed secrets and magic that she would not or could not share with us.
âThereâs an incredibly strong possibility that when she taught Keir this magic, she didnât know what he had intended to do with it.â
I looked at her before rolling my eyes at my own stupidity. She was right, of course. Perhaps Storm didnât know what kind of monster sat in her lessons.
She had told us when we first met her that wandering witches were not tied to any one coven and instead got their magic from the earth and the elements around them.
Meaning they traveled from coven to coven, passing on their teachings as they went.
I rubbed my hands across my face, willing the sleep from my now-heavy eyes. âSo tell me, Alpha, what do we do now? She is being held in one of your dungeons, after all.â
Reign gave me a steeling gaze, almost daring me to beg for her freedom. She let out a huff, gazing out the window and across our lands.
Her first few days as alpha had been tough on her if the bags under her eyes were anything to go by.
A twinge of guilt pricked in my stomach. If I hadnât been such a coward and backed down from the challenge, then all of this responsibility wouldnât rest solely on her shoulders.
âDonât do that.â She spoke firmly.
I just looked at her, remaining silent.
âDonât torture yourself with what-ifs. I wanted this, Axel. I chose this. It is not your burden to bear, but my own. No one thinks any less of you.â She nodded to me firmly.
~I thought less of myself.~
I shook the thoughts from my head, deciding to return to the current issue at hand: Stormâs freedom.
Sheâd been through enough. Mom had tried to kill her while I had been captured. Sheâd been exiled and welcomed back all in a matter of weeks, only to be almost exiled again.
I rose from my seat, suddenly sparking a look of concern from Reign.
âCome,â I said, making to exit from the room. A shuffle behind me told me Reign wasnât far behind.
In silence, we descended down toward the cells in which Storm had been thrown, my darling mate.
The mate I had longed and craved for my entire life to date, the woman I had prayed to the Goddess to grant me, and yet here we were.
She was locked in a cell beneath the pack house because she wielded magic that had once been used to kill the alpha.
Even though she didnât deliver that killing blow to my father, the fact was that she knew how to use that kind of magic and had taught it to the monster that had wielded it.
She was lucky to still be breathing. Half my family wanted her dead for it, but she was my mate. I had to fight for her. Even to my dying breath, I would fight for her.
We came to a stop just outside her cell. I peered at her through the bars. She sat in silence on the bench, her hands clasped on her lap, her head hung low.
She didnât look up at us, didnât acknowledge our presence, but I knew she had sensed us the moment we began our descent down the stairs.
âStorm.â My voice came out like a croak.
Slowly, so slowly, she raised her head, her eyes snapping to mine. I took a step back. My breath hitched my throat.
Her midnight eyes were a whirling storm, and something told me the fallout from it was not going to be pleasant.
Her gaze slid slowly from mine, settling just over my shoulder onto Reignâs. She licked her lips, readying herself to speak. Her voice was cold as ice as she spoke to Reign
âHow do you wish for me to die, Alpha?â