17. Chapter 15 Camus

Chapter seventeen

Chapter 15: Camus

" I t's possible, but how would she have even known about them?"

"Your grandmother has spies everywhere. There were at least two in Feldorn while I was there; possibly more. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm safest in Feldorn with my other mates."

"Then we'll go back to Feldorn," I say. I don't want to share her, but it may be her best bet of survival.

"You and Zorvan hate each other. You and Livarius hate each other. You'll end up killing someone or dead or both within hours of arriving."

"I promise I won't hurt your other mates," I vow.

"Zorvan will not be as forgiving. He slit Livarius' throat when he found us together."

"That's rather dramatic. But I don't blame him. I probably would have done the same. But knowing that they'll protect you just as fiercely as I will makes me want to accept them. And knowing how the bond feels; I couldn't take that from you. It would kill you."

"Zorvan and I don't have that bond. He broke it," she says bitterly.

Every time she mentions Zorvan I can feel the pangs of sadness through our bond and it makes me ache to fix it.

"Did you reject the bond as well?"

"No. But I felt it break when he did."

"If the rejection wasn't mutual it can still be fixed."

"What?" she gasps, and rubs at her bare chest anxiously; something she does when she thinks about him. "Why didn't any of the others tell me that?"

"They might not know. Rejecting a mate bond is so rare that most fae don't know exactly how to do it. But mating magic kind of works like the deal you and I just made. If you and I both agreed to it, we could dissolve the bond we made through that vow. But we both have to release it.

"Think of it as a circuit. There's a line tethering you to him and him to you. He severed the side tethering him to you. If you had accepted, it would have broken the other side. It would have made it impossible for you to form a proper mate bond. You could have been together, but your offspring would have been horrifically cursed by the stars; assuming you were even able to conceive any. Your union would have been plagued with anger and bickering.

"At least that's what they say. As I said, it doesn't happen often, and it's even more rare for a mated pair to continue on and try to be together after the fact. Normally a bond is rejected for good reason. But knowing that cold-blooded beast, he just let his emotions get the better of him?" When she nods, I say, "You can still fix it."

"I don't know if I want to fix it," she says, picking at her fingers.

"Yes you do. You love him."

"No I don't. It's just the mate bond. Zorvan isn't a bad man, but he's not a good mate. Not for me anyway."

"And I'm not a good man, but you're stuck with me anyway," I say with a smirk. "You're stronger with all of your mates. We have to try."

"Your grandmother has my blood. And she'd never let me leave."

"Why do I feel like you're making excuses? I can get your blood back from her. And I can get us most of the way to Feldorn via teleportation."

"And then what? She won't stop until she has me back. And you're just going to give up your lifelong dream of taking the throne to be with me? To share me with other men?"

"Maybe I'll just take Zorvan's throne," I say with a chuckle. "I'm not going to give up my bid for the throne that easily. My grandmother has always been a royal bitch—pun intended—and it's about time that her reign came to an end. But we'll need help if we're going to take her down.

"What is really holding you back, love. Why are you so hesitant to get out of this place with me?"

She chews her lip. When she finally answers, her voice is soft. "I don't know if Zorvan will let me back, and I don't know if I can handle that rejection a second time. Even if he does, I don't know if I want to go back. He wants my dad dead. And I need to find my father. I need to get him out of whatever prison he's in."

"What if I told you something that would fix things between your dad and Zorvan?"

I've been holding onto this secret for a long time. If ever there was someone to share this information with, it's Arden. She deserves the truth more than anyone—even Zorvan.

"I don't think anything could make him not hate me."

"What if I knew for a fact that your dad didn't kill his parents?"

"What?" she breathes. "Then who did?"

"It wasn't your father. It was mine ."

Her teeth grind together in anger, and she pulls away from me and moves off of my lap.

"Your family has been the root of so much of my family's suffering. They've been the root of my own suffering. I need to get out of this place. I need to get my dad back. He's been on the run and in prison for so long..."

"Let me help you. Let me make up for some of the sorrow and the pain by helping you get your parents back. We'll go talk to Zorvan, and then go get them back."

"And what about Dira?"

"We can take her too. Though my brother is going to lose his mind."

"He doesn't seem to care about her that much."

"He's trying to pretend like he doesn't."

She rolls her eyes. "Men. Fine. Figure out how to get us out of here, and we'll go from there."

"Good. It's settled," I say and scoot down the bed. "Now come here and sit on my face. I only have a couple of more hours with you up here, and I intend to enjoy them."

She hesitates, but eventually complies, crawling across the bed and straddling my face. I wrap my arms around her legs and lap at her slowly, enjoying the sounds she makes. I can taste myself leaking out of her, and her own arousal. The combination makes me hard again. I can't wait until she goes into heat again. I'm going to fuck her senseless.

I graze her clit with my teeth making her gasp out. She begins riding my face and I hum into her folds. I probably shouldn't have mated her without her permission, but I would never take it back. I love how needy she is for me. I love how eager she is for my cock at all hours of the day.

"Fuck, Camus," she gasps, as I apply pressure to her clit with my tongue. "I need you inside of me."

She's about halfway off of me when I throw her down on her back and force myself inside of her; desperate to feel her soft warmth around my length. She screams when I bottom out, and her fingernails rake down my back. I want to feed from her, but the dose of suppressants we've been giving her is so high that it affects my powers, and I need them if I'm going to steal from my grandmother.

We both tumble over the edge together, me coming inside of her for the second time today. She picks at the meal on her plate, and we make small talk until she falls asleep.

I'll let her enjoy the warmth and comfort of my bed for as long as I can, then I'll take her back down to that wretched place for the night. My chest tightens at the thought. What if I just 'forgot' to return her ? Grandmother wouldn't be mad for long.

I sigh, watching Arden sleep. I have to abide by the rules and play the game. Grandmother thinks I'm trying to make Arden ‘crown ready'. If I slip up too much, grandmother will figure out something is up and I can't afford any missteps. Just a little while longer, and I'll be able to have her out of there for good.

***

The next day, I wake up on the floor of Arden's cell, my arms wrapped around her, breathing her in. Judging by the amount of sunlight in the room, we've slept away most of the afternoon.

She's still enjoying a peaceful slumber—as peaceful of a slumber as one can get down here—when the dungeon door clanks open and my grandmother enters. I push up onto my elbow and stare at her with a raised brow. She glances around the room, looking as though the dungeon is worse than something smelly on the bottom of her shoe.

"I thought I would find you down here, Camus. This is despicable. A royal should not be sleeping on the floor of the dungeon. Get up and make yourself respectable."

"As long as my mate is down here, I will sleep down here. I am restless when she is not near. And if you feel so strongly about royals having a proper bed, then why is Arden in here in the first place?"

She ignores me. "We have a dinner planned for this evening with some of The Council. You need to decide on one of their daughters to take as a proper mate."

"I thought we talked about this."

"We did, but if your little plan fails, you'll need a back up."

"Have you no faith in me?"

"It's not you who I lack faith in." Her eyes settle on Arden.

Arden sits up and glares at my grandmother. She looks angry, but I can sense her anxiety through the bond. She doesn't want me to take anyone else. And I'm in agreement with her. There is no one else for me.

"He is mated to me, no thanks to you. And now you want to give him to some vampire bitch?" she snaps.

"You have another mate, so why can't he? This has been in the works for a long time. You're not going to interfere."

"I'm so fucking sick of fae politics," Arden grumbles. "You cannot force him to mate with someone else. Or I will rip my womb from my own body and you will never get your precious hybrid baby."

I work hard to keep the pride off of my face. "Don't be so dramatic, love. I won't be taking another mate. Grandmother knows that just as much as I do."

"Yes, you will," Grandmother insists. "So come. Let's get you ready. You stink of filth."

"Go," Arden whispers. "Just promise me you'll come back." The look in her eyes tells me everything I need to know. She's reminding me that we're only buying time.

"See. Even the girl gets it, and she was raised by humans. Now let's go ."

I kiss Arden, and run my fingers through her now clean hair. "I'll be back as soon as this Star forsaken dinner is done. Don't miss me too much."

Grandmother stares at Arden long and hard, suspicion brewing in her gaze. She doesn't say another word. She opens the cell and lets me out, and I toss one last glance at Arden over my shoulder. The last thing I see through the cell door is her sad smile.

"You're too attached to that thing, " Grandmother says, her words icy cold.

"You were the one who insisted I knock her up. This is your fault."

"Yes, well I didn't anticipate you mating with the girl. You've always been impulsive, but that was stupid—even for you. What on earth could she possibly give you?"

"You mean aside from a cute little baby hybrid, and mind blowing sex?"

"Don't be crass."

"Your exact words were 'now go down there and give me a great-grandchild' and I'm the one being crass? Why are you so intimidated by my relationship with her?" I ask, knowing the answer to the question.

Arden's very existence intimidates my grandmother. But between her being the great granddaughter of Ardeth, and grandmother having stolen her from Zorvan, and her being mated to me, she cannot kill her just yet. If she kills her, she breaks about thirty fae laws and will have Feldorn and Kildara working together to break down the front gates.

But she knows that Arden is a force to be reckoned with even without Grandmother threatening our hypothetical child. And nothing is more terrifying than a fae mother whose baby is in danger.

Arden isn't even pregnant yet, and she's a scary woman. If we weren't giving her enough suppressants to take down a fucking dragon, she would have killed us all by now, and made her escape back to Feldorn. Or maybe she would have just taken Grandmother's throne as her own. Who knows?

But Grandmother will never admit to her fears; so she deflects. "Make sure you dress sharp. And get your hair out of your eyes. They're your best feature. You want to look presentable."

I am over five hundred years old and she's still lecturing me on how to dress. She leaves me at my bedroom door without another word, and I go inside to pass time before the dinner.

These stuffy fae women will be chomping at the bit to get time alone with me. Each of them will be vying for my attention, and attempting to seduce me. The ultimate sign of disrespect will be having the scent of sex all over my body while I'm supposed to be courting them. I won't be bathing. I never want to wash her scent off of me.

My clothing from yesterday is still sitting on my bed. I was wearing them before we fucked so they smell like her, but they look a little more presentable than my bed clothes, so I pull them on.

Once I look halfway decent, I pull out a book that I've been reading. At some point in the midst of all of my time with Arden, I've begun falling for her. She's everything I ever wanted in a mate. But I know that convincing her that it's anything more than just the mate bond will be difficult. Sure, it helps. But my emotional feelings for her are organic rather than a symptom of our destiny.

As far as romantic relationships are concerned, I've always been able to get by on looks and charm alone. So I found a book in the library on wooing fae women. Unfortunately, Arden was not raised here, so most of the suggestions here do not apply. But there are a few that I suspect are applicable in all situations.

My first plan is already in place. I've started working on getting her to trust me. Which will take longer thanks to my inability to stuff down my impulses around her. If I had just taken my time with her, we would be in a much better place. But I have to accept where things are now.

Making her trust me will take a large sacrifice. Or giving her information that could destroy me and just hoping that she doesn't use it against me. Arden has fast become the only thing I would ever possibly betray my kingdom for, and it's looking more and more like it'll come to that.

Grand gestures are all well and good—and that would be the grandest of them all—but before all of that, I need to prove to her that I'm willing to put in the work to get to know her. It's taking a lot more time than I anticipated, but I think I'm winning her over. She insists on shutting me out, but she did open up about Zorvan and that was a huge win.

After a couple more chapters, I'm feeling like the book is bordering on useless, and I chuck it across the room. Dinner is in about ten minutes, which means I'll show up in twenty.

I meander out of my room, and down to my grandmother's door when I'm sure she's no longer inside. Glancing around to make sure the coast is clear, I reach for the doorknob. She locked it. She always locks it. In order to get into her room, I'll have to somehow get my hands on her keys.

I have a plan but it's a risky one. If I get caught trying to break into her room, then I'll be arrested, and Arden's safety will be at risk. They'll threaten her to make me fall back in line. The other option is to come up with a reason to meet with her in there, and somehow render her unconscious. I mull over my choices on the way to the dining room. There's no other way for us to get out of Solardin. I have to get into that room.

Pausing outside of the dining hall, I suck in a deep breath and put my mask of indifference firmly into place. I will not allow any of them to rile me up. My only goal is to play the game. I pull open the side by side doors simultaneously and open my arms wide.

"Good evening lovely fae," I say in a booming voice.

Grandmother stares me down from her position at the head of the table. "How nice of you to finally join us, Camus. I went ahead and had the cook make you a plate. Unfortunately it's probably cold by now."

"That's no problem at all, Grandmother. I've been eating just fine these last several days," I say, hinting that I've been feeding from Arden.

I haven't—much. My hope is that Grandmother will let her guard down if she believes that I've been feeding from someone who has been taking suppressants. I've taken small drinks here and there, knowing that her little minions at the guard station will report back to her. I take up my spot next to Gormon. He gives me a tight-lipped smile.

On the opposite side of the table, are four council members and their daughters. I've met the girls each once or twice, but I could not tell you their names if I tried. The council members themselves, I know, but most fae women refuse to get involved in political nonsense until it's a necessity. These women are below my station, and have likely never even dreamed of mating with the likes of me.

"Camus, you of course know Lady Della and her mate Tibbon. This lovely thing is their daughter, Rhyandi." Grandmother gestures to the blonde directly across from me who coyly dips her head in my direction, a broad smile painted on her face.

"Sir Camus. It is a pleasure."

"I'm sure the same could be said about you," I say coolly and turn my attention to the next young female fae.

"Right," Grandmother clips out in irritation. "Then we have Lord Durlan, and his daughter, Solina."

The girl doesn't even bother to speak, she just nods her head once in acknowledgment then turns her attention back to her plate. She looks like she doesn't want to be here any more than I do.

I don't bother listening to the rest of Grandmother's introductions. My plan may have just become a little easier to carry out. I make eyes at the pretty fae with long raven black hair, waiting for her to notice. She refuses to look up from her plate until her father clears his throat.

She shoots him an irritated glance, and then realizes why he disturbed her meal. Her eyes find mine, and her teeth grind together. She absolutely does not want to be here.

"Solina, would you like to go for a stroll with me around the gardens?" I ask politely.

"No," she says plainly, and I snort in amusement.

"Sure you do. Your father will be extremely disappointed in you if you don't. We wouldn't want to let the old man down, would we?"

I'm actually older than Lord Durlan by about fifty years. But who's counting? I place my napkin on the table and stand.

"Camus, are you sure this is the one you want to spend time with?" Grandmother asks in annoyance. She likely invited the girl out of obligation.

"Well, no. I would rather be spending time with Arden, but as you've told me that isn't an option, I'll take this one."

"Camus!" she snaps.

"Let's go, Solina," I say as I round the table and hold my hand out to help her up.

She shoots another angry look at her father, and slams her napkin down on the table before pushing back from the table so hard that her chair topples over. She ignores my hand and storms away.

"Feisty. I like that," I say and follow after her.

As we're headed out the door, I hear her father say, "You know how these young fae are. They think they know everything."

I shut the door behind me and jog to catch up to Solina who is walking like she has somewhere far more important to be. I grab her by the shoulder and spin her around to face me. Her fangs descend and she growls at me.

"Don't fucking touch me," she hisses.

I hold my hands up in surrender. "I was just trying to get you to slow down."

"I've heard stories about you, Camus. I know your games, and I will not be playing them. I felt I made it pretty clear that I wasn't interested so why bother getting me alone if not to take advantage of me." She crosses her arms over her chest. Her black dress glitters in the last rays of sun that dance through the large windows in the hallway.

"How well can you keep a secret?" I ask.

She eyes me curiously, the defensive defiance lifting just enough to let me in. "I have plenty of my own. Why?"

"Let's go to the gardens where we can speak more freely, I say and grab her gently by the bicep and spin her around.