Chapter Forty-Six

Christopher

My blood is boiling while I watch my Celina and listen to her quickening heartbeat. I can see the wheels in her brain turning while she has the phone to her ear. We’re both in disbelief by this call. Why would Randaul call her? This has to be a trap. There is no other reason to basically hand-deliver Damian to us.

“Cel,” I start, moving the phone away from her cheek, “you can’t believe what he said, can you?”

She opens her mouth before closing it, so I grasp her shaking hand in mine. “This has to be a trap. It has to be. Randaul would never do this willingly. Not unless there is something in it for him.”

Celina nods, still thinking to herself. When she finally speaks, her voice cracks. “We still have to go Chris. If this turns out to be legitimate, and we did nothing, everything Damian does from here on out, we could have prevented it. I can’t risk that. I have to go.”

“You’re not wrong,” I agree as I take her hand. She looks at me, her eyes pulling me in and immediately clouding my mind. “No,” I tell her quickly, my anxiety spiking while I take a forceful step back from her.

“What?” Celina asks, looking at me as if I’ve lost my mind.

“You’re going to convince me to let you go,” I tell her while I try to calm myself. The thought of her anywhere near that egotistical maniac makes my skin crawl.

“I don’t need to convince you,” she tells me quickly, her eyes flashing hard. “There is no reason I shouldn’t go.”

“You can’t shift!” I nearly yell and take her hand again. “Cel, please, for my sanity, for the time being, stay away from psychotic beings that are unofficially related to me.”

She smirks, making my heart skip, and gently kisses my hand. “No,” she tells me before hopping off the counter.

I groan while Rajin begins to pace, but I’m surprised by how calmly he is taking this, “Cel.” I chase after her while she takes long strides out to the hall. Swiftly, I grasp her wrist and pull her closer to me. “You know that you can’t shift yet. It’s going to be weeks until you can. Please, for my sanity, don’t go and let me handle it.”

She glares at me, putting me immediately on edge. “Chris, I’m not about to run from a fight because I cannot shift. Mara is still able to assist me mentally, and I her. Besides, my aura successfully subdued your father, which isn’t something you’ve been able to do. If you cannot defeat Damian with your fighting skills, my aura is the only shot in hell we have, next to a tank, to getting him down long enough for you to kill him.”

I let go of her, my anger starting to rise. I grab my hair as I scream in frustration. All I can see in my head is my battered beaten body and Damian’s teeth in my Celina’s neck. I can’t. I can’t let him near her. “Celina, please, I can’t. I can’t let you anywhere near that creature.You’re all he wants. You’re what he craves. You are mine and I can’t risk him taking you away from me. I’m not as strong as you. I can’t survive losing my mate.”

Her brow furrows while she looks at me as if I’m insane. “Man, you made that jump fast. Does track and field know about you?”

Her comment makes me hesitate, allowing my mind to catch up to my unbearably growing anxiety. She takes her hand and touches my face gently. “Chris, if you always think we’re going to lose, then that’s exactly what we’re going to do. There is something to be said for confidence, especially when playing with a deadly opponent. I have to be there. You have to be there. As much as I hate to admit it, I cannot be the one to fight him, so you’re going to have to help me out with that. I’ll linger behind, and stay in the car until things get bad. We’ll leave Ruben to be in charge of the palace, and take Leroy with us.”

Stiffly, I nod while Rajin is finally stilled by her scent.

She smiles. “Good, now go tell Ruben and I’ll go round up a driver. We cannot wait on this.”

Wait, what? How? How did she do that? I watch as she runs off while I just watch completely dumbfounded. Usually, our positions are switched. Quickly I shake my head to get rid of this stupor then send a text to Ruben to explain what happened and that I need him to watch the castle, before trotting off to catch up with Celina.

Several hours later we make it to Lunar Pack. It’s eerily silent, and there is no one at the guard posts. Leroy gets out to look around while Celina speaks to Ruben on the phone. She’s been on the phone with him the entire time, filling him in on what needs to be done, what questions need to be asked, who needs to be interrogated, etc. I think this is his way of getting back at her for being left behind. If he could see the growing screaming smile I see on her face, he would hang up right now.

Carefully, I watch Celina play with a serrated knife Leroy gave her for her protection, while she sarcastically tries to walk Ruben through a list of questions the press would like answered by the end of the day.

“Look, Ruben,” Celina finally snaps, “if you want to continue being able to answer these types of questions, or any questions in general, then I suggest you let me hang up the phone before I rip out your tongue with my bare hands.”

Astonishingly I hear Ruben laughing on the other end. “Four hours, Cel, four hours. That’s three longer than Dad would have lasted.”

“I’m going to kill you!” She hisses at him.

“Looking forward to it,” he chuckles before hanging up.

Celina groans and tosses her head back. “He’s your brother.”

I chuckle and relax when she lets the knife lie on her lap. “He’s your brother-in-law.”

“Don’t remind me.” She lifts her head. “Shouldn’t Leroy be back by now?”

I nod and open the door to get out. When I open the door I catch the distinct smell of vomit. Celina coughs and gags; her sense of smell is extra sensitive right now. She gets out of the car and follows me, heading toward the direction of the smell.

It doesn’t take us long to find the source. Leroy is hunched over a tree, his knuckles white as they cling against the splintered wood for support. He doesn’t say a thing, already hearing our approach. He just points to his left, toward the smell of a rotting corpse. Celina just shrugs and follows his direction while I go to check on him.

I put my hand on his back and rub it. “You okay?”

Leroy shakes his head. “Don’t-Don’t let her see it.”

Before I can take a breath I’m cut off by the sound of Celina screaming; sending my body into motion. Rajin is trying to break through to take over, but my fear leaves us both in a loss of control over our senses.

What I see in the next few seconds is something I never thought I’d see on Celina’s face. Absolute fear. Her face is bone-chilling white with her matching colored hands clasped over her mouth. I look down to see what has done this to her and immediately race to Celina’s side. I pull her into my chest to make her look away.

Once she’s safe in my arms, I glance down again. The body of a man at our feet was clearly dragged here; with the clear intention of him being discovered just like this. His face has been scratched to the point where he’s unidentifiable. From his breast down to his waist the word “Celina” has been carved into this man in big bold letters. I think saying Damian has suffered a psychotic break is putting it mildly.

“Come on, let’s go check on Leroy,” I tell her as I pull her away, directing her away from the terrifying sight. He wanted her to find him like this. To shake her like this. He knew she would be coming…

My grip tightens when we come into view of Leroy. “Leroy, car,” I tell him, jerking my head toward the direction of the vehicle. He wipes his mouth and nods, eyes on Celina’s paled form. Wordlessly he gets up and comes to be by my side while we stroll through the brush back to the car.

“Call for backup. He might still be in the area. He wanted her to find that corpse,” I tell him, just above a whisper while I hug her tighter into my chest. “Do not leave her side,” I tell him, pain already being caused by those words. I can’t leave her alone, but with this lunatic on the run, I will have to. To keep her safe.

When we get to the car, I motion at the black SUV behind us and point to where I want them to go. Silently, I put Celina in the car and slid in next to her. Leroy slides back into the driver’s seat and pulls forward. The town is empty in the setting sun, and after what we just witnessed, I doubt that anyone is still alive. Celina is still sitting next to me with her face buried in my chest. My chest is wet, so I suspect her tears are why she hasn’t revealed her face.

The car comes to a stop in front of an aged mansion made out of red brick. This clearly used to be a pack house, or reserved for important guests. Gently, I pull Celina off me and tell her to wait in the car. She doesn’t fight me, leaving me surprised. Then again, she is still in a pretty grim state of shock.

Carefully, I walk up the cracked stairs and into the tan-colored entryway. The first thing I notice is the smell of amber, raspberries, and vanilla. It’s enticing and strong. My nails grow as my eyes darken, taking in an immediate deeper breath; committing the scent to memory. Finally, I smell him. For the first time, I have almost something tangible in the way of proof of his existence; besides my battle scars.

My beast and I both stalk forward, drawn by the scent of his blood. A drying puddle of blood rests on a brown couch, but there is no pathetic dumpster beast to go with it, so I follow the trail out of the room to another room.

When I round the corner, I see a dirtied ash-colored bathroom across from a room that makes my stomach drop. Scratch marks and holes riddle every single wall. Pieces of a shattered laptop are all over the room, including his red bed comforter and damp towel. He’s not far.

Normally, that would be enough to get me moving, but I’m still in shock at what I see. The untouched wall is plastered with pictures of Celina. My Celina. Rage starts building in my chest when my eyes land on her studying in her old apartment. There are even pictures of her in some of her classes. How-how was he ever this close to her, and we never knew it? How did she miss it? It’s simple. None of us ever knew who we were looking for. Especially Celina. No, Damian was careful to never reveal even a hint of his existence to her, until the Claiming Ceremony neared. Why was that?

My eyes land on a picture of Celina when she looked younger and less hardened. She looks…like she’s barely surviving. She is almost lifeless in this picture, and it looks like she’s wishing the hands she has placed over her face would swallow her out of existence. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’s essentially a walking corpse. Judging by the healing mate mark on her neck, this was right after she had killed my brother.

“King Christopher,” someone calls out to me from the basement, “you need to see this.”

Hesitantly, I leave the room with my eyes lingering on that haunting picture. I never knew that Celina could carry that amount of pain, and I hate Damian even more for making her go through that. If he hadn’t gotten involved, Danny still would have gone to Celina’s eighteenth birthday party, met her, fell madly in love, made me meet her, and all three of us would be living happily in the palace.

There is a blackened rage growing in my heart at that thought. Damian stole Danny’s life from him, and for that, he’s going to pay. What part-time role in his sick and twisted mind did Danny play?

I stop in my tracks at what I see. Celina’s old bed is in the middle of the room. I know it’s hers because I can smell her on it. I feel as if I’ve stepped into her room, except the windowed wall is now another complete wall, and there are chains on the bed that are covered in Wolfsbane. It won’t affect her beast once she’s fully transitioned, but it will affect her right now and it will slow her progress. It’s clear that his intent today was to walk away with her.