Page 44 of Lycan King's Captives
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The days pass slowly, each one more painful than the last. Xandros is absent from my life, and it feels like I’m living in a nightmare. After the second night he doesn’t visit me I know something is going on. No amount of distraction can make me forget the emptiness that has taken root in the castle. Even when I am in his presence, all I feel is an unsettling unease because he does not acknowledge me, like he has decided to distance himself as well. Though he does not speak to me, our bond is still screaming for attention.
Carina returns back to her cold self, and I am positive now that I imagined the entire scene of her crying in my head. Every day, Carina passes by and gives me a cold smile that speaks volumes about her opinion of me. She knows exactly what I am, and still she shows me no mercy. It’s clear she blames me for her suffering, so why do I feel sorry for her as well. She is stuck in a loveless marriage and must endure humiliation from her husband’s mistress every day. It is odd feeling sorry for his wife when I am his mistress.
I keep to myself as much as possible, and focus on my duties as a maid. I spend my days cleaning and polishing the floors of the castle until they shine like never before, while enjoying my private phone calls with Toby each night. Yet even those are becoming shorter, his temper growing more each day since we have still found no way out for me. The castle is heavily guarded, and even Tyra hasn’t been able to sneak back to see me.
One night, while taking out the trash, I hear faint music coming from inside Xandros’s library room that makes my heart skip a beat. As I move closer to the door, I realize he is talking to someone.
“My father will be furious if we push the wedding back another month, are you insane?” Carina snaps at him. I peek through the door, seeing her pacing with her flowing white dress, cascading to the ground.
“Is this about her?”
“Of course it is!” Xandros bellows.
“Calm down, both of you. Can we find a way around this?” I hear another voice, peering in a little more, I find it is Xandros’s mother who is sitting in an armchair by the fire.
“Well, any suggestions, I am all ears,” Xandros grumbles at her.
“We push the wedding back like he wants.”
Carina tosses her hands up in the air.
“Wait, I have an idea,” Carina glares at Xandros, and I notice he leans forward a little more.
“We find a way to safely break the mate bond.”
Xandros scoffs. “You want me to give up my mate?’
“That is exactly what I expect.”
“You think you can change fate, do the impossible?” he laughs.
“What if she can?” Carina whispers so low I barely miss it, yet her words make my heart falter.
“You’re seriously entertaining this?” he asks her.
“You can’t even touch me because of her, don’t think you are the only one suffering here,” she snaps at him.
“It’s the right thing, Xandros.”
“And what of Sienna?” he snarls, and my heart flutters at his words.
“What of her, your mother is right. I’ve seen it before, a bond can be broken.”
“I’m not giving up my mate.”
“Then you give up the kingdom!” his mother snaps.
Silence falls for a second. “You have a month. Either you find a way to be with Carina and give her father what he wants, or we break the bond, and Sienna dies when we do. The choice is yours, Xandros, because Carina is right. We back out of this marriage, it will start a war!”
“I have kept my distance from her like you both fucking asked.”
“Yet it has only caused a bigger rift between you two. Do you think no one has noticed? The whispers around the castle, this gets back to her father, and it will cause more issues,” his mother states.
Forcing myself not to think further on it, I quickly discard the trash, then hurry back to my room, hoping none of them noticed me eavesdropping outside his door.
However, later that night. My bond aches even more. I don’t know if it is the bond or overhearing them talk so candidly about breaking the bond I share with Xandros and letting me die that hurts the most. Either way, my bond screams for my mate.
