CATRINA

Fenris's voice is quiet and firm yet it feels like a bomb in the too silent room.

"What?" I ask, astonished at this news. I smile at the girl, Mila, looking at her, when she steals a glance at me. "That's great news. Congratulations Cayden!"

Cayden smiles cynically, his face looking so enraged that I immediately notice that he's not happy at this situation, at all.

"Yes, Congratulations to me. I found a mate who's a minor?" Cayden's frustrated growl echoes into the room making me gasp in shock and I turn to look at Mila. She's looking down at the floor but I do catch a sheen of tears in her eyes.

"She's sixteen!" Another growl from Cayden causes Fenris to let out a stream of curses that I don't even understand, they are so low.

"Cayden. You are 24 and she's 16. I know she's young but there are a lot of human couples that I have seen with a bigger age difference," I say, hoping to explain to my brother that his erratic behaviour is troubling Mila.

"Yes? Do you know that wolves have to recognise each other as mates? She can't recognise me as her mate. I'll have to wait for 5 more years for her to acknowledge me as her mate."

Fenris shakes his head, sighing in resignation before pulling at his hair. The tears that Mila was holding are now flowing steadily however, she hasn't even once looked at Cayden in the eyes.

"Shut the fuck up, will you?"

The growl that echoes in the room when Sierra enters the room has me turning towards her in a whirl of surprise. The action causes Selene to giggle and Connor to growl.

"Sierra..."

"No, Fenris. Our Beta needs to realise that Mila is not in any state to acknowledge him as a friend, acknowledging him as a mate is out of the equation." The last word is a growl as she walks past us and straight to Cayden, pointing her forefinger nearly in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" asks Cayden with a frown on his face. His expression is so confused that I feel bad for my brother, suddenly. He deserves to have a mate, who'll devote her life to care for him. He deserves someone of his own to love and care for.

"Do you know what happened to her in that dungeon? She's been kidnapped since the age of 10. Six years..."

"No, please. Luna Queen Sierra, I request you to please not argue with your brother-by-mating for me. I understand Beta Prince Cayden's dilemma and I will agree to whatever decision he takes."

Mila's voice is a whisper as she speaks to Sierra, her voice trembling a bit. Speaking out those words, Mila looks up at Cayden once, as if conveying her thoughts to him through her eyes and then greets all of us a "good day" before walking out of the room.

"You are one big idiot," muses Connor, speaking now, and I jab him in the stomach with my elbow. Selene watches me and imitates the action, causing Connor to chuckle at the smartest baby I've ever seen.

Cayden growls back at Connor, "you are an even bigger one then." Fenris shakes his head once again and then glares both at my mate and brother before lifting his hands to ask for Selene as if he needs relief from the problem and his daughter is the only option.

I silently push the baby into Fenris's arms and wince when his fingers brush my arm. "I am sorry, sestra."

"That's fine. I just came here to meet Cayden. To see if he's fine," I say, hoping to distract them when Connor pulls me back in the curve of his arm, the wave of arousal once again rearing its head.

"Yes, I am fine. These wounds mean nothing in comparison to my wolf baring his teeth to tear out of my body and claim our mate," says Cayden, all of a sudden appearing tired and hopeless. Looking at those bags under his eyes, I feel this overwhelming need to go and calm him. 

"Cayden. Why don't you give it time," I whisper, hoping to make him understand that these things take time. You can't just up and claim anyone even if she's your true mate.

"Cade," whispers Sierra, now sitting on the edge of the bed, her anger melting and instead, trying to soothe him. "Just give Mila some time to be comfortable in our pack. She's been through a lot of torture. Try to be her friend first, then a mate? Maybe then she'll open up."

"The girl thinks that you don't want a young mate," growls Fenris this time, baring his canines at Cayden making him wince.

"I want her, desperately, so much that I can't wait and she's not even legal," mutters Cayden. Connor chuckles once again but I glare at him making him put his palms up in surrender.

"I am glad that you are fine," I whisper, really feeling blessed that he's safe. I would've never forgiven myself if he was injured in some way.

"I am fine. You shouldn't have agreed to obey Lance. He anyway would've killed me," he whispers, disapproval clear on his face.

"Because I agreed to Lance, he kept you alive and today you met your mate," I argue back, watching his expression as a soft smile plays at his lips. He nods his head agreeing to what I said.

I smile back but at the same time, a sudden wave of hot lava makes its way through my body, making goosebumps appear on my skin. Connor notices that and rubs at my arms, but that movement only heightens the sensation, making me nervous.

They all can smell me, and I don't want them to smell my heat. It's embarrassing.

"There's no need to feel awkward, Catrina. Heat is an emergency. You can go rest if you want," says Fenris, reminding me that he can sense my emotions. I smile at him and then look at Connor, his forest green eyes asking me if I can handle a little more.

I nod my head, squeezing his hands in return. He lands a kiss on my hair, squeezing my shoulder and then pulling me towards the big chair, sitting on it and settling me on his lap. I squirm at first but then notice that no one's bothered by our seating arrangement so I settle down on my mate's lap, feeling slight comfort with his lap below me and his arms around me.

Fenris too sits in the chair, while Sierra takes Selene from him, holding the child in her lap. The couple then looks at me and then at Cayden and then back at each other, as if having a telepathic conversation, which I now know is true.

"Catrina. First of all, I am sorry." Fenris turns at me, sighing and massaging his temples as if having a headache.

"You were abducted from under my watch. I am responsible for your wellbeing when your mate wasn't available, and your abduction is solely my responsibility. For that, I apologise. I've punished Henry, such kind of behaviour from a pup when he knows that his father's a rogue is not acceptable. His loyalty stays with me, with us, which he disobeyed."

"Please, don't be harsh on the kid," I whisper, interrupting Fenris. Sierra smiles at me, however, it's a very sad smile. Fenris nods and then continues.

"No one thought that there would be such a huge cavern under the Crimson Shadow castle. I should've checked it once after I took back the reins of this pack but I failed. During your rescue, we found a lot more girls and Xanthos's mate. She's pregnant and was asking for you, saying that you helped her. She's resting now. We also rescued the child but her mother, we lost her due to a brain haemorrhage. The mother was already in poor condition. The rest of the females were saved. Mila was one of them but she was kept in a different cell which tells me that maybe Xanthos knew that she's Cayden's mate–"

"How can Xanthos know that?" I interrupt, not understanding this.

"Xanthos has a rare gift. His mother was an Alpha Female possessing the gift to read the aura of supernatural species. Xanthos has the same gift. Because of which he can read if one person is the mate of another person, even when those two haven't met, or bonded," explains Fenris and I nod, understanding Xanthos's agenda. He wanted to keep Mila away from Cayden.

"Unfortunately, Xanthos wasn't there when we raided the cavern. The rogue who assaulted you is in our custody. But Xanthos sneaked away," Fenris's whisper sounds choked as if he's barely controlling his urge to growl. Sierra holds Selene with one hand and with the other squeezes Fenris's hand, soothing him a little. Baby Selene attempts to copy her mother and leans towards her father to rubs her palms on her father's thigh. The action visibly calms down Fenris and he continues. 

"This time, I am not letting him go. I want as much information as you can give me. Anything. Even a small inkling of who's with him. Any alibis. Any hideout. Anything that you must have heard. I want that information because this time I am going to hunt Xanthos and finish him."

When Fenris finishes explaining to me, I look at Connor, feeling nervous all of sudden. With the sudden nervousness, I am also feeling the wave of blistering arousal, hiding just around the corner, waiting to unleash itself on me. It's like I am being pushed and pushed and once there, this heat is going to take over my body.

"Whatever you decide, Solnyshko," whispers Connor. That nickname, his little sun, he calls me. It can calm me down anywhere and anytime. I take in deep breaths, letting Connor's scent flow through my body, the woodsy smell with a hint of dark chocolate which I can detect now after being subjected to that drug, calming me only a little but taking away all the panic as I sigh.

I lay my head back a little, resting against Connor's chest, which beats steadily under me, letting me draw all the strength that I need from his hard and strong body. Looking up at my mate's eyes, watching him as he watches me with all that adoration, gives me all the courage that I need to dive back into that horrible memory and replay all those scenes that happened to me, with me, around me.

Connor smiles at me, knowing the moment that I made my decision to stay and tell him whatever I remember. I turn towards the royal couple who's watching me, patiently, waiting for me to speak.

"I'll tell you from the beginning what happened," I start, telling them everything that I heard from the moment I woke up in that room, including my meeting with Lance, Helena, the females, then about Xanthos taking my blood.

"What?" asks Fenris, his eyes black in colour. The change in his eyes startles me and I push back against Connor, feeling a bit intimidated now.

"He bit into my wrist and took my blood. Later, Rhea told me that he used my blood, since I am dormant, to acquire Xavier's powers to defeat you," I whisper.

"Alexandria. We'll have to interrogate her too," whisper-growls Sierra, her words between anger and sadness.

"Continue, Catrina," says Fenris and I now tell them about Rhea, Alexandria, being pregnant with Xanthos's child. I also tell them about how Lance threatened to kill Cayden and then about how he would rape the baby if I didn't listen.

While telling them about Lance's threat to the child, all the men in the room growl, the combined growls sounding like a roar, making Selene wail at the sound.

That immediately quietens the males and I watch as Sierra cuddles up the baby, making her stop crying and settle her in for I guess, a nap.

"What happened next?" asks Cayden this time.

"He realised that it hurt me when he touched me. That's when once again he acknowledged the same anomaly, about Sierra. Then he gave me another medicine to suppress the pain, he said, but it didn't work. I had shrunk into my mind when he started to advance on me. I thought my fate was sealed and then..."

Connor was already rumbling when I started talking about my near-rape experience but this time, he roars, his arms like iron bands around my body and his fingers digging into my skin, his touch hard but it doesn't hurt me at all. In fact, all I feel is secured, protected. While recalling those memories, I was feeling scared, somehow thinking that me recalling Lance will bring him here, but with Connor's visceral reaction, I am pulled out of my memories and into the present.

I cling to Connor, borrowing myself into him, urging him to calm down, hoping he would realise that I need him more. As if hearing my thoughts, Connor loosens his hold on me, rumbling now, his face buried in my neck, as he breaths in deep, calming down, slowly.

"Sorry," he whispers, only for me to hear. I nod, twining our fingers, relishing the sparks that fly, awakening all my nerve endings. The steady build-up of the arousal is now bordering on the edge of pain, making me squirm in Connor's lap.

"Don't move, Solnyshko," he all but growls this out. It's not out of anger but out of arousal. He's also affected by my heat, I realise and I look at him in his eyes, not bothering to sit and discuss now. He nods his agreement and then looks at the other couple.

"Fenris. We're leaving," he says only that, not even explaining the reason but I think it's not needed. If I can scent my own arousal then I don't know the intensity of their senses.

"Take care, Catrina. Call me if you need anything," whispers Sierra, cradling her little one. I can only smile because thinking of a reply is like a huge task at this moment. I breathe in a sigh of relief when Connor gets up with me in his arms, letting me say bye to Cayden, and then walking out of the room towards my temporary home. 

~~~~~

Sorry for the slight delay in the update but writing on phone takes time. 

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