*Isla*
Saying goodbye to Maddox is always impossibly difficult to do, and the more pregnant I become with our baby, the harder it becomes.
A few days after he introduced me to Commander Pepelos, the amber-eyed man is walking just behind us as I escort Maddox to the vehicle that is waiting for him.
“I’ll call you as soon as I can,” the Alpha King says, patting his pocket where he has a cell phone. They are not common among our people, as most of us prefer the old-fashioned ways of communication and don’t necessarily trust this new technology, but I insist that he have one to call me with when he’s out this far away, where the mind-link won’t work.
“I will be waiting to hear from you.” Perhaps I should say something more comforting, like I understand he’ll be busy, and he should take his time, but I don’t. I want him to know that I will be expecting to hear from him because I am already feeling anxious just knowing he’ll likely be gone far longer this time.
Not to mention, he’ll be negotiating with men who don’t want to talk, which will likely lead to a war. Beta Seth and others have done what they can to try to get these people to listen to reason, but now they are about at the end of their negotiations, and fighting is how they seem to handle their differences.
At the car, Maddox turns to me, taking me lightly by the shoulders. “Try not to worry about me,” he says. “I will be fine. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I nod, but tears spring to my eyes. I don’t want to cry, but I simply can’t hold them back, and as they tumble down my face, Maddox reaches up and wipes them away.
When he kisses me, he lifts me off the ground, his kiss is so deep and full of emotion. I wrap my arms around him, concentrating on how he feels, how he tastes, the smell of him, and imprinting everything about this moment into my mind, as if I will not be able to breathe again until he is right back here in my arms.
It’s difficult for Maddox to show his affections in front of others, and a crowd of people are standing around us, so I know he wants to cut the kiss off for that reason alone, but he doesn’t let me go until he knows I’ve had my fill, as much as is possible considering the situation. When he releases my lips, he looks into my eyes. “I love you so much, Isla. I love you with all of my heart.”
“I love you, too.” I am still crying so saying more than that is nearly impossible.
“Take good care of our baby.” He smiles at me, but he refrains from pressing his hand to my abdomen in front of all of these people, though I can feel that he wants to.
I nod and assure him that I will. Then, he lets me go and moves to get into the car.
I stand there and watch the vehicle drive away. I watch it make its way down the winding drive to the gate in the distance. I watch it pull through the gate, and I watch the gate close behind it.
Even after the car has faded away and the dust has settled back onto the drive, I continue to stand there.
“Miss Isla?” one of the maids says. “Would you like to go back inside now?”
Opening my mouth and expecting actual words to come out is foolish, so I don’t. I just stand there, dumbfounded, already feeling a hole forming in my heart.
“She’ll be back inside in a moment.”
The voice to my left and slightly behind me belongs to the mysterious Commander Pepelos. I’ve been trying to get to know him these past few days since Maddox introduced us, but I still know very little about him. He is often quiet, keeps to himself, and doesn’t talk. But he has been vetted very well, and I do trust the men who brought him to me, most particularly Maddox.
I’m just not sure why he is so quiet.
After the situation with Private Wylie, everyone has been much more careful about where the men guarding me come from. I haven’t asked a lot of questions when it comes to Commander Pepelos, but I have been thinking all along that it would be easier for me to find time to do so once Maddox had left. While he was here, I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.
Now that he’s gone, I can’t find any words to speak, so I just stand there. After several minutes, everyone else is gone, and it’s just the commander and me.
The feeling of safety is strong out here. The guards around the castle wall have been quadrupled since the uprising on the day that Zabrina and the others were hanged. I know I’m safe, so I continue to stand there. I don’t go outside much except for the gardens in the center of the castle. While there is a high wall in the distance, the same one I jumped before when I was trying to escape from Maddox a few months ago, out here, the horizon stretches far into the distance, unlike in the gardens where it seems like outside is a very limited space. Even the sky seems closer inside of the garden walls.
“Your Majesty,” Commander Pepelos begins, and I am taken aback. I turn to look at him, my eyebrows furrowed. “Perhaps we should go inside now?”
“I’m not a queen,” I remind him. “Your Majesty should be reserved for the king and his Luna Queen, and I’m not that.” Part of me wants to add the words, “Not yet,” but I hold back because Maddox and I have much to discuss when it comes to my inheriting that title. I know he loves me, and I’m having his baby. But I’m not Rebecca.
“I believe the term is reserved for the next in line for a throne as well, and since your two older sisters have no interest in ever taking over as the rightful queens of Maatua, perhaps that title should go to you. Therefore, I have no qualms about using it.” Commander Pepelos shrugs like he hasn’t said anything shocking.
My mouth hangs open for a long moment before I ask him, “How do you know about that?”
I can think of several ways. My father is the Alpha of Willow pack now, so it’s possible that the truth about our station has come out in all of that. People want to make sure that their Alpha is qualified, and certainly, a former king would be so, but they wouldn’t know of those credentials unless someone told them.
But there is something about this man who makes me think his knowledge of my family’s life isn’t limited to the amount of information my parents may have suddenly decided to disclose after around eighteen years of pretending to be no one.
“You and I have much to discuss, Princess Isla,” the commander says. “I will assure you that I have sworn my loyalty to your Alpha King. I’m not a threat to you or him or anyone here in any way, but that being said, I’m not exactly who he thinks I am.”
I take a giant step backward, thoughts of the torture I went through at the hands of Private Wylie someone I trusted, entering my mind immediately. Even now, though it’s been about three months since I was kidnapped, I can still feel the pain of the silver and the wolfsbane sometimes when I try to sleep at night.
He doesn’t move, his hands still folded behind him. “Don’t worry, please. I know you can use the mind-link to assemble a huge army to kill me in an instant, and I’m telling you it isn’t necessary. In fact, I believe that you and I want the same things from this life, so there’s really no reason for you to be afraid of me at all, Isla.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask him, my eyes focused on his glowing amber orbs. “What is it that you think I want?”
“I think… you’re concerned about the health of your child, that you’re afraid because of the drugs that were used when you first conceived him that he may have difficulties when he’s born, and even though you have special abilities yourself, possibly the power to bring certain individuals back to life in specific situations, you’re afraid you will fail him.”
My hands protectively go around my abdomen as I consider his words. Everything that has come out of his mouth so far is correct. Even the fact that I believe my child is a boy—something I have only shared with a few people.
“So what is it you think I want?” I ask him.
He leans a little closer to me, and I find a way to keep myself centered, refusing to scoot back. “You want to return to Maatua, to the water that brought you new life. You want to be there, close to them, when your son is born, so that if there is a problem, he can be saved by the same source that brought you back.”
Again, he’s right, but I’m shaking my head. “Maddox will never allow it,” I tell him.
“Yes, I know,” he replies with a nod. “And that’s part of the reason why I wanted to be with you while he’s away. So we could discuss the possibilities without his influence.”
A chuckle escapes my lips. “You think you can persuade me to go against what the Alpha King, the father of my child wants for us?”
He shakes his head quickly. “No, I don’t think I can persuade you because I think you’ve already persuaded yourself. All I can do is give you the tools and the courage you need to make the leap.”
“But why?” I ask him. “Why would you care if I go to Maatua or not?” He was leaving something out, something important, something I had to know.
“Because while you are there, I need you to do something no one else can do.” He is speaking with conviction now, and I find myself closing the distance between us, compelled by his words, drawn to his message.
“What’s that?” I ask, hoping he doesn’t say what I think he might. I draw in a deep breath and hold it while I continue to stare into his unusual eyes, praying to the Moon Goddess that his response is something I hadn’t considered.
When he finally answers, his words match my deepest fear when he says, “Lift the curse.”