Mates? Total Bullshit.

It had began to snow heavily when Yvette reached the Opulent mansion. She was still in her slip of a gown and her skin had gone red from the exposure to the cold.

The snow slid down her glossy hair and brushed off her shoulders as she marched inside.

The first thing she did was rip off the earpiece she had on for the performance. The girls in the mansion ignored her as usual as she made her way to her room.

Not only was she angry, she was disgusted.

All that ran through her mind were images of her time spent in that cage. The putrid smell of her own vomit and urine. The unforgettable scent of cigar, the tangy metallic taste of blood and the bodily fluids of the men who touched her.

She hurled the earpiece against the floor of her room, shattering it into pieces. Her gown followed. She was shivering but she didn’t realize.

The first thing she did when she got into the bathroom was kneel right in front of the closet and spilled the contents in her stomach into it. She flushed and fell against the wall, exhaustion weighing her down.

She felt rage anew. Raw, blood pumping rage.

“What did I do to deserve such ill luck?” She asked herself.

Tiredly, she reached up and switched on the faucet. She didn’t bother standing up and allowed the cold rush of water pour on her like waterfall.

Mates.

After what Marcus did to me? After what my pack did to me? And to a facking pup who hates witches?

Just wonderful.

The cold water slammed against me witch harsh force that had me gritting my teeth against the sting. Angry tears swell by the rim of my lids but I refused to let them fall.

When I stepped out, dripping wet with no towel to dry myself, Nyx stood waiting, a mug of steaming cocoa in her hands.

She eyed me in my miserable state. A worried sigh slipped from her.

“In this cold weather?” She snapped her fingers and my robe by the opposite side of room, on its rack came to her hand. “Here, take this,” she offered both the robe and hot cocoa to me.

Seeing her made me steel. The tears dried up in an instant as I took the robe from her and wore it.

She nudged the cup of cocoa to me encouragingly but I declined with a small shake of my head.

I should say thanks but I didn’t even want to exist at the moment so I walked past her. She sighed quietly behind me.

“We need to talk,”

I stopped in front of the full length mirror perched against the wall beside my window.

The stranger staring back at me is a grown woman. I didn’t even watch myself grow. When Nyx took me out of that place, I had turn into this strange woman looking back at me.

I tilted my head to side, admiring my violet eyes, wondering when I had them. There were plain black before my life changed for the worst.

“I met my mate,” I say flatly, meeting her eyes through the mirror. “A new mate,”

Her dark gray eyes softened. “ I saw you with the prince. I couldn’t help but eavesdrop.”

I blinked. “Prince?”

She raised a brow. “ the exiled prince. The one whose welcome party you were called to perform at.” My expression remained blank. “You don’t know how he looked like?”

“It wouldn’t have mattered.” I replied, shrugging as I walked away from the mirror to flop onto the sofa next to my bed.

She walked over to me with a comb now in her hand. My eyes automatically closed when she bang combing my hair gently.

“He hates me,” I whispered. “And I don’t want a mate.” My eye’s reopened.

She said nothing until she finishes the last stroke, then sat across from me. Her expression turned grim.

“Do you remember anything from your past?”

I frowned.

Nyx never spoke without reason. The way her expression hardened makes my chest tightened.

“Well,” she began, voice low, “your parents were wonderful. They were legend, songs were written about them. Good ones.” Then her eyes went distant like she was transported to a memory in her head.

“Your father was killed in the process of saving the world, your mother ruined. You have a sister, five years younger than you but I have no idea where she is,” she murmured the last part like it took great difficult to say it.

For a while, I couldn’t react. It took some time for the words to register and for me to realize she was talking about “my” family.

I blinked again. Stunned.

I never wondered about my life before the Alpha took me and raised me like his own but hearing all these from Nyx….. it couldn’t be possible.

Nyx held the sides of my head, the world spun and I was staring into her stormy eyes. They watered.

She didn’t jest.

“You don’t get it do you?” She continued, her eyes searching mine desperately like she was waiting for me to wake up. “The regret, the shame, the emptiness, the…the void that goes deep. It’s because you know this isn’t the life you were meant for,”

Still stunned. I couldn’t speak.

What was she saying?

My unresponsiveness must have heated her up. She got up and began pacing in front of me.

My heart slowly increased its pace, heavily pounding against my rib cage.

“You know you are destined for more. You were to become Luna Queen but that didn’t work because you are destined for something more greater, child.” She spoke with so much emphasis. “Believe it or not, you’re not worthless, you’re not useless. there’s a purpose for you, Yvette. You can do–”

“More?” I whisper into her mind with a scoff.

She faced me, frozen.

“I can do more?” My voice shook. “ look at me.” I rose from the sofa and let my robe drop to the floor. “I’m covered in scars that refused to fade, I’m tormented my memories that refused to vanish. I’m an entertainer who communicates with people through a facking mind link! I’m a facking mute! A freak!”

My resolve cracked and shattered. The tears finally fall. Hurriedly, Nyx grabbed my robe and threw it over me before pulling me into a hug.

“You’re making me sad,” my voice broke.

“No,no,no, baby, I’m giving you a reason to live. Don’t you want to know your past? your true identity? Don’t you want to find your sister? Don’t you want to find yourself again?”

My heart felt heavy. My throat clogged.

“What are you talking about? I don’t remember anyone. I don’t have a family!”

She cradled my head softly.

“You do and they loved you deeply. You need to remember.”

Somehow, we were both sitting, with her in front of me and her hands on my shoulders as I tried my best to remember my past.

But there was no way I could reach the beginning without having to experience all the ones that happened after it.

I couldn’t allow myself go through the memories of my time in golden lake pack. I was going to disappoint Nyx.

“I don’t remember,”

She shook her head. “You will.”

“How?”

She taps my shoulder, urging me to wear my robe properly and like a child, I obey.

“The Selene stone.”

“The one the Lucan’s believe will restore their power, their dominion?”

She nodded. “It’s carries magnificent power. With the Selene stone, you can heal your mind, body and soul.” Her eyes darted between mine. “You can be reborn.” She whispered.

My eyes widened.

It’s impossible.

“It’s not a myth Nyx.” She countered my thought. “Perhaps if I hadn’t tampered with dark magic, I could have restored it but I can’t. That’s why you have to.”

“For my sister….” I whispered. “If only I could remember her,”

“You will.”

“Where can I find it?”

Her smile turned mischievous. Her eyes crinkled. “Not where. How.”

We stare at each other for a second. Then I understood the intent behind her smile.

No. It can’t be.

I jump from the sofa, tightening the robe against my body. “No.”

She sighed. “Prince Nicklaus only returned because he wants to participate in the quest set by his father for the first of his son to acquire the Selene stone would be the next, Alpha King.”

I said nothing.

“The map to the Selene stone is with the king but I have the shortcut with me. Your only chance of finding the stone is through the prince and it is perfect that you have an excuse.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. My head was starting to ache from using mindlink for such a long period.

“He hates me. I don’t want him to think oth–”

She grabbed my hand so quick, I flinched. Her eyes locked on mine.

Laughter and giggling echoed down the hall till it stopped.

“You’re a woman, he’s a man. There’s a reason we outlive them.”

Her voice dropped to a dangerously low volume.

“Here is what you must do.”

Nyx was insane. Completely and absolutely insane.

But maybe I was insane too, at noon, I appeared, standing in front of the prince’s room. When I bowed, it was to hide the sinister smile on my face.

There was a thrill.

It felt good to be the one pulling the strings. For once, I would be the one doing the fooling.

But before I can straighten up, I’m yanked to my feet roughly.

By him.

Nicklaus glared down at me, silver green eyes blazing.

Ah, I forgot how incredibly fine he was.

“Do you wish to die?” He growled. His grip on my collar tightened.

I stared at him with boredom.

“You wish to kill me like you did the last?”

His frown deepened. My intrusion into his mind unsettled him. It must feel foreign and uncomfortable.

Good.

He let go of and stormed away. I took glance at the state of his room. It looked no less like mine. Not sentiments or personal attachments. It didn’t even smell like him.

“For whatever reason you came, I bother not. Leave.”

I squared my shoulders. He seemed more bitter and irked than I last saw him.

“I assumed you’d want to know how I found out.”

He stopped in front of his large arched window. His hand on the pane, head looking down at whatever was down there.

“Leave.”

“You reeked of it.” I began regardless. “Blood of the innocents. It is true that you are a monster.”

The word hardly left my mouth when he closed the distance between us with lightning speed and slammed me against the wall. I heard the crack in the wall and in my spine but my spine healed just as quick as it cracked. Yet, the pain remained.

His face was close to mine. Not a hair on him looked ugly. He was too closed, he was all I could breathe.

“You don’t facking know me,” he snarled. His eyes went livid. “You talk big for a curse. Spreading your darkness everywhere.”

It made me laugh. The blood that had gathered in my mouth from the hit spill from my mouth as I grinned.

I hated my bloody teeth. “So you see, we aren’t that different from each other.”

“Shut the fack up!” He growled, his veins bulging. His grip tightened.

Breathing became hard but luckily, that won’t stop me from talking.

“What do you want?”

“The same thing you want.”

He frowned.

“I’ll help you find the Selene stone if you help me find and rescue my sister. My resources failed me.”

He dropped me. I slid down the wall, gasping for air. He turned away, taking a hand through his golden curls.

“Why should I help you?”

I inhaled deeply as I came back up and adjusted my coat.

“You wouldn’t want people to know the mate of the crown prince is an opulent performer.” I flipped my hair to the side and fluffed it with my fingers.

“Worse, what do you think will happen when they learn I’m a witch? I may not know much about politics but I do know it will reduce your chances to the throne and I’m pretty sure, you wouldn’t want that.”

He half turned, looking down at his shoulder. “And if I agree?”

“I will severe the mate bond and disappear from your life.”

He turned fully and faced me. Something flickered in his silver irises but I didn’t want to give it a name.

It suddenly felt tight in the room like I uttered for forbidden words.

His lips parted slowly like he was going to say something but he closed his eyes instead and gave his head a little shake.

My heart raced but my mind stayed sharp. I couldn’t afford to be distracted.

His eyes opened and they hardened.

“We do this…..and you disappear. That’s the deal. Got it?”

I smirked. “Deal.”