Page 24 of Deadly Alliances

“She was a princess?” I blurted, astounded. “Wait, that means I’m...”

“Mer royalty?” Hadrian finished for me. “Yes. Higher even than your friend Kendall, I’d wager. Your mother’s kingdom was the oldest.”

“What happened to them? Did Mom succeed?”Maybe I do have family out there somewhere after all!

Hadrian shook his head sadly. “I don’t believe she did. After she ran away with you still in her belly, I had scouts scouring every coast in search of her. I don’t believe she ever went back to her people after she left me.”

My insides burned with promise and curiosity. A wholecivilization of mer were still underwater—mer that were directly connected to me. Ineededto know what became of them. All the more reason to get out of this prison. But how?

I decided to change my line of questioning. “You said you and my mom had a connection. If that’s true, why did she leave?”

He lowered his head, as if his sadness made it heavy. “She got scared. She forgot that wars have casualties. She walked in on an interrogation that went awry, and she started to fear she made the wrong choice. She snuck out that night, and I never saw her or our unborn baby girl again.”

There was so much information to process. Every time I thought I knew my mother, another skeleton jumped out of the closet. I really didn’t know her at all. Could Hadrian be telling the truth? Even Kendall had said my mom fell for Hadrian. But would she have willingly allowed him to experiment on her baby? I couldn’t imagine any woman doing that.

“Is Alex like me? I mean, is he a chimera too?”

He shook his head. “No. Alexander is completely human.”

“Why?” I felt like it was a stupid question, but I couldn’t see why the boy would be so important to Hadrian as just a human.

He shrugged ever so slightly. “He’s my Heir.”

“But what does that mean?”

Hadrian’s face brightened. “My family is the oldest and noblest vampire line in existence. Every fifty years, the patriarch produces a male heir, and when that heir comes of age, he’s turned into a vampire. This compounding of vampire blood produces a stronger vampire each time. I’m more powerful than my father, and he was more powerful than his. Alexander will be more powerful than me.”

“Wait, so Alex is going to become a vampire?” Horror struck a deep and harrowing chord inside me, inciting an urgency to protect the little brother I hardly knew.

“Yes, when he turns eighteen.” Hadrian was practically glowing with pride.

“Does he know?” My voice raised a whole octave, but Hadrian didn’t seem to care.

“He’s known all his life that he’s being primed to take my place as leader of the vampires.”

No, no, no! Not sweet, innocent Alex!

“Why don’t we get off this conversation. I can see it’s making you upset.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “I have something else in mind for today. You don’t have any ursa training. Let me show you what you’re capable of.”

He went around me and opened the door, gesturing for me to follow him out. I didn’t want to go with him. As curious as I was to learn about my ursa side, I was disgusted by Hadrian for what he was doing to Alex. Alex was nothing like his father. The boy may look like a miniature version of his dad, but he was pure and kind. I hated that Alex was destined to become a monster. I would keep that from happening, even if it was the last thing I did.

“Come, Arya,” Hadrian insisted.

Getting rid of Hadrian was the only way to ensure that Alex’s innocence remained intact, that my friends and all shifters stayed safe, and that I could one day reconnect with my mother’s people. If I could use Hadrian to perfect the monster he’d created me to be, then maybe I could actually fulfill the destiny everyone insisted was mine.

***

“What have they taught you at your shifter school about ursas?”

Hadrian took me down to the main level and into a training room in a section I hadn’t previously ventured. He instructed me to change into a pair of smart clothing he’d “acquired”, and now we stood in a large, empty square room with a mirror lining one wall.

I skimmed through my mental repertoire on bear-shifters before answering. “Ursas, like all weres, have their transformation triggered by full moons. They’re bitten, not born. They’re the strongest of all the weres, impossible to contain when they’re having a fit, and struggle the most with self-control.” I’d experienced that last bit first-hand.

“Good,” Hadrian said, pacing in front of me with his hands clasped behind his back. “Basic, but good. What do you know of their powers?”

I pondered. “I thought their strengthwastheir power?” I said, my answer coming out more like a question.

“In a manner of speaking, that’s true. Ursas have the most physical strength of pretty much all shifters, not just weres. But they’re hyper-strong in other areas as well. Some have been known to have very powerful telekinetic abilities, even able to create forcefields at will.”

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