Captive: Hopeless

Chapter 40 - Bonding

Kay woke from a deep and dreamless sleep, completely rested for the first time in years, too comfortable and lazy to move but overheated. Why did her bed feel like an oven? She tried to push off the covers and froze.

Why was she not alone? How did she end up in the middle of a tangled mess of bodies? A frown tugged at her brow as she finally pried open her eyes and blinked against the weak light entering her room, but their scents already told her what she needed to know.

Bemused, she curbed her natural to disentangle herself and leave, but they looked so peaceful she hated to disturb them, and that same peace infused her soul, mixed with love, belonging, and attachment.

The depth of the bond she now experienced with these women seemed both comforting and terrifying. When she woke the night before, they were there. She experienced the same thing she did with Adrian before her breakdown, their bonds nudging against hers, asking to be let in.

When she glanced at Adrian, the alfa female nodded, and despite her unease and natural wariness that told her this would be a bad idea, she allowed them access to her mind. Not just peripherally to enable communication but access to her inner self, emotions, and core being.

The connection that formed as each of them touched her defied description. Claudia waited until last, being the youngest, and she hesitated; their eyes met and measured as they each fought their own battles, but then she reached out, and Kay took her hand without hesitation.

Although not her actual family or her real blood, she was closer to them than to anybody else. She had never experienced anything like it except with Marcus, but that was different. It allowed for barriers and little white lies; this... she could not find one precise word to describe it? As they could not hide from her, she could not hide from them.

With the complexity of people, being allowed to know their precise feelings left her a little uncomfortable and not something that would always be a good thing. But, despite the mixed emotions of some, their strength and acceptance altered her in unexpected ways.

"Like mind-speaking, you'll learn to control it. If you want to," Claudia said, letting go of her hand.

***

"Come on, ladies, we have work to do," Claudia said from somewhere to Kay's right, sounding sleepy and lazy.

Claudia got minimal reaction from the group, except for Adrian, who lay beside Kay, smirking slightly. Without her formal clothes, her makeup, and reserve, Adrian looked little older than her daughter in her pink checkered pajama top and bottoms.

They all did, and although marginally eerie, her understanding that, like them, she would not age, but unlike them, she'd be around long after them, made it less strange. If this war didn't get her first.

"Now!" The Alpha tone in Claudia's voice did not sound as firm as it should have been but resulted in a groan of resistance from the rest.

How had she not realized Claudia had more natural power than any of them? Perhaps because she hides it so well?

"Someone's getting bossy," Darcy complained.

Marcella laughed. "Someone's been bossy since she turned two," she remarked fondly.

"Bossy or not, she's right; we have no time to waste, and Darius won't be patient much longer," Adrian reminded, and as if she had said the magic words, their lethargy evaporated.

They scrambled out of bed, and by the time they got upright, their usual masks had firmly settled in place, but Adrian and Claudia did not get up, and the others hesitated.

"We will join you shortly, ask my father for his forbearance," Claudia requested, and Darcy nodded.

"How are you?" Adrian asked of Kay in a motherly tone after the others had left.

"Better, thank you," Kay said sincerely, especially with her succubus having fed off their energy during the night.

Their eyes met and held. From the complex emotions in Adrian's gaze, she suspected that her loss of control the previous night allowed the alpha female to see into her past in a way that should not have been possible, and it might have revealed more than she liked.

No judgment or pity colored that steady gaze, only compassion.

"And no," Adrian guessed, and with a lie being useless under the circumstances, she nodded. "Just understand one thing: you are no longer alone."

Their connection seemed like a living thing that always lurked inside her, waiting to find its place, its home.

She truly belonged, an integral part of something bigger and more involved than herself. Kay glanced at Claudia, a little uncertain without them that always insulated them from each other. She had gained a sister and a friend but on a more intricate and complicated level. It reminded her of the pull she experienced toward Akira but was entirely different and more compelling.

"Kay, we need you, and we need you to be focused. The attack was not an isolated incident but an open declaration of war from Carduran on anyone that does not share his views. No one expected it, and we thought we had time, but we didn't. It turns out that although we believed we knew their numbers and what game they played, we didn't," Adrian revealed, a worried frown tugging at her neat brows.

"We focussed on Azera, falling for their misdirection. Somehow, Azera is not in control of this war. In fact, she isn't in control of anything; it is all Carduran and Megan all along. They played us, and if we are to survive this, we need to adapt our strategy," Claudia said, and Kay took a moment to absorb the news.

Did this account for all the arrivals and departures the day before? When she selfishly imploded and added more drama to the situation, distracting everyone?

"Strangely, in all the time I spent at Azera's hands, I never once saw either Megan or Carduran or even heard their names," she mused, and Adrian seemed disturbed by this news.

"Perhaps Azera realized your original purpose was as a spy, and they outsmarted Thane," Adrian wagered.

Her heart grew cold at the thought. "So maybe everything we know about Azera, about Carduran and Megan, is a lie," she concluded, fear stirring in her belly.

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