BOUND: Mates at War | 18+

13 Your Fate, and His

The deep burning of my torn skin rouses me painfully from sleep. I moan in pain and pull my eyes closed again. The fiery intensity of the wound leaves me momentarily unable to think of anything else.

"Solana?" my dad's soft voice whispers in the darkness.

My head jerks up causing me to cry out loud. I feel his hand on the back of my arm, steadying me, comforting me.

"Ada?" I whimper as tears swell in my eyes, making my vision blur.

I feel the painful, yet soothing weight of a wet towel being placed down over my mutilated skin. My fathers gentle fingers run over my shoulder and neck, providing me with a tenderness I haven't known since our last encounter before the attack.

After several moments in silence he moves, slightly, bringing his face closer to mine.

"Eil, what happened?" (Daughter)

After taking a shuddered breath, I tell him everything. What I know about the attack on our camp, Finlas' less than hospitable proposal and the attack on the mountain elves camp and Hadar sacrificing himself for us.

"The young warrior guard that brought you in, who is he?"

I bite into my lip. I haven't actually spoken the words aloud to anyone. I purposely left that part out of my account of the time since we last saw one another. I'm afraid what he will think of me, having a wolf for a mate.

"Ho na nin mel," I whisper as fresh tears burn in my eyes and my voice wavers. (He is my mate)

I look up to see him nodding his head silently, thoughtfully.

"He let me in here. He stormed in, as his wolf, checked on you, then sent the other guard away. He brought me here to your cell, then sat at the guard desk for the rest of the shift. He never moved but I could feel his attention on us the whole time."

"He thinks that I used magic against him. That the bond we feel isn't real."

Again, he just nods his head, silently, taking in the shocking information.

"There is a darkness here, can you feel it?" he says, even quieter than his whispering before.

"Yes, Ada, as soon as we arrived in the kingdom."

"It's worse here in the castle, the longer I spend here the more I can feel it, like a weight in my chest, a fist squeezing my heart. Something evil dwells here."

I feel it too. A darkness over the land. Elves don't have powers but we are deeply attuned to the land, to magic and to the realms beyond ours. Something evil rules over this land. I can't help but feel like it may be our beloved Queen. The thought sends a painful shudder down my spine.

"He's the Queen's son, the warrior Roman," I tell him nervously.

If the information surprises him at all he doesn't show it. He knows of the warrior Roman, he knows his reputation for brutality and cruelty just like the rest of us.

"He's conflicted, eil. His whole life has been spent as an enemy to our kind. When he arrived here his wolf was obviously frantic, checking on you. He brought me here to care for you. The universe doesn't make mistakes. For whatever reason, you were paired together, mated to one another, bound together by your souls, created to be together in divine union. It is hard to understand the ways of the spirits but it is your fate, just as it is his."

Acidic tears burn down my cheeks, I know he's right, I know what a mate is to our kind, I know how sacred the connection is.

A loud clang draws both of our attention to the small, dimly light hallway between the rows of cells. A shrill scream curtles my blood as a guard slams the metal door at the end of the row closed.

What's back there? Or more aptly, who?

The scream reverberates through my chest, rattling me to my core.

"They have someone back there, I haven't been able to catch a glance but they torture her more than the rest..." Ada's voice is sad, filled with the ache of a leader that can do nothing to protect his people.

"Are any of our people here?" I can't move my body but I strain my eyes to search the darkness, looking into the cells I can see.

"Not anymore," he whispers, "they've only kept me alive in case they need to use me as bait, or leverage."

We sit quietly for eternal lengths, hours, days, it's impossible to tell. The dark dungeon never shows any signs of a world beyond the bars of this cell. The only indication of the passage of time is the shift change for the guard.

I drift in and out of restless, fevered sleep, my back is swollen and painful. The wound throbs so intensely that I think I've become delirious. As if in a nightmare state all of the time, waking or sleeping, I think of him.

He invades my mind. Images of his green eyes and dark hair flash through my mind incessantly, causing me more pain than the eviscerated skin on my back. I want him to come, even if it is to taunt and torment me, my battered body longs for the comfort that only he can bring.

Eventually, after an unknown amount of time passes I wake with a clarity I haven't felt since my punishment.

I pull myself up to sit on the cold ground, my tight, scabbing skin stretching painfully with my movements.

My father is sitting beside the bars of the cell, squinting toward the guard desk, his face looks tense and focused.

"Ada?"

He looks startled, like he didn't notice that I was awake or moving around.

His finger flies to his mouth, motioning for me to be silent.

I can feel him before I see him. Roman is here. His back is to us, hunched over the desk. His broad shoulders are tense as he reads whatever is spread out in front of him.

My heart pounds faster in my chest and I scold myself.

The other guard stands from the desk and begins walking down the row, I hold my breath as he stops in front of our cell.

"Let's see if having your daughter here provides you with a better incentive to answer our questions," he pulls the cell open and motions for my father to follow.

I want to cling to him, to beg the guard not to take him. I know it's useless and will likely result in adverse results but it takes everything in me to keep calm.

"Eil," he whispers with a small nod of his head before following quietly behind the guard. (Daughter)

The cell door shuts with a bang and I'm left alone in the dark. I sit back against the wall, waiting. I can feel his eyes on me. He's still here and he's watching me.

I watch him from the corner of my eye as he pulls the cell door open. The loud echo sending a chill down my spine.

He stands, unmoving in the doorway, his shadow falling down over me.

"Stand up."

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