Chapter Chapter Thirteen: New Territory

Mackenzie held her head up high as she walked through the gardens, her gut-punching her from the inside out for what felt like hours but she didn’t care. Mack was finally free, she could wander around the entire castle and the grounds with no bodyguard or annoyingly stubborn mate trying to control her.

That morning had been rough, the second she saw that she had started her period, Mack ran back to the castle and found the closest bathroom to clean herself in. Blood had soaked everything and she had to relocate her- their room and change. Mack would have been embarrassed by it however both boys seemed to want to help her, even after she had picked that unneeded fight with Zack, he was willing to jump if she asked him to.

Mack groaned, he was trying. She could see that as clear as day but she didn’t want this, she didn’t want any of this and she especially didn’t want to be a queen. If anything, she thought she would be some fisherman’s wife or the wife of a butcher but mated to a vampire prince, soon to be king! No, she would have laughed in anyone’s face and walked away if they told her what her future will be a year ago.

She found the garden quite basic, Mack wasn’t one for flowers and pretty things. She liked the woods and fresh air, she liked to dip her toes into streams and rivers and relax under the sun and moon. Heck, she would rather go to the beach and get sand stuck up her ass and folds than spend an hour around bees, pollen, and Lillies.

“I thought I would find you here.”

Mack rolled her eyes. “You have heightened senses, you knew I would be here before I got here.”

Zack shrugged, keeping his distance as he studied her. “True but you also have the same senses and from the look on your face, you hate this garden.”

“It is too pink.”

“Too pink?”

Mack nodded. “My sister loved this kind of thing, that’s why I hate it. I don’t know why but this entire place reminds me of her and I don’t want to be in it.”

She felt strange sharing like that but she had to get it out. From the very second she stepped into this garden, she could almost feel Marley with her and that feeling didn’t sit right. She knew something was wrong, she felt it the second the shift happened but she kept dismissing it. Everyone was affected, and everyone changed in some kind of way, for her, she changed her mind about wanting a mate and for some reason, her mind keeps telling her that she has always thought that way.

The shift will forever affect their minds, it all depends on how you handle it and that is what she’s been telling herself this whole time. Control it, do not let it control you.

“I can take you to the cliff if you want. This spot overlooks the village and when you are ready, I can take you there to meet your people.”

Mack ran her fingers through her hair as she looked at him in confusion. “After everything, why do you still decide to keep me? You could reject me at any given time, you can cut this mark out while I’m asleep if you wanted but instead you keep me around, you follow me into the middle of nowhere and now you are offering to take me to your people?”

Zack didn’t respond at first, she couldn’t read his face as his own brown eyes stared into hers. She both despised and liked how much they mimicked each other, right down to the same type of brown in their irises and because of this, she could see why they were paired as one.

But that doesn’t mean that she agrees with the pairing.

“I was affected.” He spoke, his eyes slightly frowned as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying. “I was an asshole. My brothers have probably told you some stories already but before the shift, I didn’t care. But then the shift happened and I changed, I saw how my actions affected everyone. I saw what I had done and why I did it, I didn’t want this title and I still do not know if I want it now but from the moment I found you I knew this shift was meant to happen. If we had met when I was the person, you would have killed me by now. You would have jumped out of the boat and drowned, then be with me for another second.”

Mack crossed her arms. “What makes you think I want to be around you now?”

“The mate bond.” He boldly stated. “And because you know that I have information about Marley.”

Mack couldn’t deny that because he was right, she mostly stuck around because of the information she wanted but she also left and only she knew the reason for that. “Are you ever going to tell me?”

His face was saddened. “Let’s go to the cliff first. I’d rather get killed by falling than have you rip my head off.”

From his words, she felt her stomach drop. All she could do was nod and allow him to lead the way as she stared at the back of his head as if her life depended on it. Mack felt sick to her stomach, she felt like she was about to hear the worst news of her life.

She didn’t want to hear what he was about to tell her, she didn’t want to know but her mouth spoke before her brain as they stopped walking and looked out towards the small village. “She’s dead isn’t she?”

Mack closed her eyes and waited for the impact as he slowly responded. “Yes and no.”

Her eyes opened, her face forming into a confused frown as she looked at him. “I don’t understand.”

Zack sucked in a breath. “When Marley and Sawyer left, they entered the cave that takes them to The Kingdom of Beasts. They were still in the cave when they got attacked, Marley… Marley sacrificed her soul by entering the crystal heart that they had retrieved here and helped Sawyer save his people. She is still in this crystal and Sawyer is nowhere to be seen. Nobody can find him, he has just vanished.”

She felt herself lose balance, her vision forming dark spots as she felt herself crying. Zack’s warm embrace surrounded her but she was too weak to fight back. The shock had sent her into overdrive as she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

Mack preferred to hear that her sister was dead, she wanted her dead instead of being trapped in a prison that nobody knows how to get her out of.

Marley was gone and her fate was worse than death himself.