Page 22 of Queen
She had given up even caring about the ritual. At this point, Bishop knew it was as much about spite as it was about vying for power.
The cultists had Ella cornered, and she gave another warning yowl before striking out. Blood sprayed the stone walls, and Natalia cried out, darting across the room. Two more bodies hit the floor as the remaining guards fled from the room with shouts of terror.
It was just the three of them. The feral had Natalia cornered, creeping slowly toward the Empress. She flashed sharp white teeth as long as a saber-toothed cat’s as she growled at her prey, her sleek tail lashing.
"Bishop," Natalia hissed desperately. "Do something! Kill her!"
Without even realizing it, he had reached for another syringe he now found in his grasp. Ella's silver eyes darted over to him, sharp with warning. There was only hatred where there had once been love, but he could only admire her for it. She was willing to do anything to protect the cub inside her. Even if it meant killing him.
She gave another warning growl as he walked toward her, holding out his other hand. "Ella, please…"
Her only response was a furious hiss, but in her distraction, Natalia grabbed a gun off the body of one of the guards Ella had killed. Time seemed to stop as she took aim at the feral, and Ella darted back, fear flickering in her gaze for the first time since she'd shifted. Bishop knew it wasn't on her own behalf.
Her eyes met his again, full of betrayal and anger. Something else, too. Something he had thought had already disappeared forever.
"It's already happening," Natalia seethed. "The energy, it’s weakening…"
She cocked the gun, and Bishop knew she was about to fire. He had moved before he could even think about his response, plunging the needle into his mother's neck. She gave a cry of alarm and fell back, immediately affected by the drug since she was smaller than the toms it had been made to subdue.
The gun fell from her grasp, and Bishop caught her before she could hit the floor along with it. Her eyes met his, full of rage. A lifetime of maternal affection vanished in that moment, and he knew better than to think it would ever return.
He had made his choice. He had betrayed her. Both of them.
There was no going back, no matter how much he wished he could. How much he wished he could turn back time and take Ella away the moment he'd met her. To run away with her from all of it. His mother, the colony, Felidae, and their intertwined yet fundamentally opposed destinies.
"You fool," Natalia hissed before finally growing limp in his arms. Bishop carefully laid her on the ground, and when he looked up, Ella was still watching him, her body tense and ready to defend, her eyes full of confusion.
"Go," he said quietly. "Or kill me. Either way, I'm not going to stop you."
She hesitated a moment, backing up toward the door. She kept looking around, like she thought it was a trap, and he couldn't blame her. For a moment, there was so much rage in her eyes that he was sure she was going to take him up on his offer, and he was…relieved.
There was no going back from this. No apology that would ever make it okay. He had betrayed the woman he loved, and he had betrayed the woman who'd given him life. He had failed in the sole purpose he'd been given from the time he was a boy, and he had failed as a man to protect his mate.
There was nothing left for him but regret.
Instead, her eyes filled with sadness. She turned away and darted out of the room.
Bishop staredat the empty doorway where she'd once been for what felt like an eternity. Something snapped him back to reality and he rushed out of the room, leaving Natalia's unconscious body behind.
He quickly found the room where Axel and Sterling were being kept, and the guard turned around, looking at him with curiosity but not surprise. "I take it the ritual’s finished?"
Bishop snapped his neck in one quick movement, taking the keys off the man before he even hit the floor.
He unlocked the door and walked into the stone room, finding Sterling and Axel both chained to opposite walls. Sterling was conscious, but Axel seemed to be drifting in and out. If the guards were smart, they would have given him twice the usual dosage.
Sterling's gaze burned with hatred as it landed on the younger tom. "You son of a bitch," he seethed.
Given the circumstances, Bishop wasn't inclined to disagree.
His presence seemed to jolt Axel awake. He heard a furious snarl that wasn't nearly human, and realized the tiger was stubborn enough that he would probably overcome the drugs in a matter of minutes.
"Where's Ella?" Sterling demanded.
"She escaped," Bishop said, kneeling in front of Sterling to begin working on the man’s shackles. He wasn't sure which key it was, so he had to try them all until he found it.
The confusion on Sterling's face warred with his anger. "What do you mean, she escaped?"
"She shifted into her feral form. The ritual worked, sort of. At least part of Selene’s energy is inside her, but there's no telling what it will do to her in this state," he muttered, unfastening the other tom’s restraints.
