Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

I don't recognise the room I'm in. I'm lying in a small double four-poster bed, and I pat my body, noting that I'm still in the same clothes as before and uninjured. That fucking beta. I can't believe I didn't know about his powers or the fact he might know me. I knew he travelled, and that should have made me question going near him. I should have jumped out of the car before getting to the others. It was a stupid mistake, and now look where it has landed me. My eyes flash quickly around the small room. The bed is the focal point, and its white sheets are spotless and riddled with ridiculously fluffy cushions. There are two doors, and one has to be the way out.

I know it won't be that simple, and my head spins as I rush off the bed and pull the nearest door open to find a small bathroom. The other one is locked. I grab the handle, pulling on it with all my strength, but it doesn't budge an inch. My heart races as I pace in front of the door. How long have I been asleep? Where am I?

My Nexus is napping, still drugged up, and that's the only good thing about this situation. Still, I feel it fighting to wake, and I know exactly why, even if I prefer living in denial. My Nexus perks up like a dog sensing a new treat, stretching and purring in my chest. It doesn't want to come out to cause chaos, for once, but because it senses something far worse.

I feel them too.

Our Nexus mates…they're nearby. All of them. Nexus feel kind of like a drum that only other Nexus can hear, but it's not like that with them. It's like someone is screaming inside a tornado in my chest. Smack smack smack. One of them is closer than the others. I feel him, right before I hear stairs creaking and then heavy footsteps.

I rush to the other side of the room, rubbing my wrists. I don't need to look to know two runes are painted on me. This power is legendary. Still, I look. The runes are pretty, the black stark against my tanned skin. The letter L but more of a symbol than the actual letter, with flowers curled all around it. Roses, I think.

Where's my bag? Fuck. It's got my Nex dagger, the completely irreplaceable family heirloom from my father's side that I'm bonded to. Nex daggers are random weapons that have their own magic when they are blessed by a Nexus priest in a ceremony, and I got lucky that I felt a calling to one in my father's collection. The only other defence I have is my wolf, and it is definitely not coming out here when one of my mates is nearby. She will kill him. Or fuck him. Maybe both, and I'm not on board with that.

The rest of the room is plain. There is literally nothing else in here, no cabinets, nothing other than the wood floors and plain beige walls that only make me feel more trapped. I run to the bathroom, pull open the cabinets, finding nothing in there either except for a bottle of shampoo and toilet paper. I grab the shampoo bottle. It might be my only defence, and I flick the lid off just as I hear the door lock click.

I step back into the room just as a huge man walks in, shutting it behind him and leaning on the door. He's tall, gorgeous, and he's my Nexus mate. At least one of them. My Nexus groans in my chest, feeling more awake with every second that passes. My blood runs cold as I meet his eyes though. Eyes that are pure black. There's not an ounce of colour in them. Everything from the pupils to the iris is solid black, but at least they match his hair, which is dark, long, and wavy around his forehead, curling round his ears. He wears casual but expensive clothes, just a black shirt and ridiculously tight sweatpants that only reveal how thick he is everywhere. Damn, those are nice thighs.

My monster wants to sit on them. I push it down—its horny thoughts, too. We don't have a bond with them. We rejected them and they hate us. How could they not?

The way this one is glaring at me makes my heart shatter, though. "You're shorter than we were told."

I tighten my hand on the shampoo bottle behind my back. I can't make my mouth work. I can't form any kind of reply, so I shrug a shoulder.

His eyes swirl with darkness and his body tenses. "Nothing? That's all you have to say to me. You've been gone five years! You rejected the bond!" When I still don't talk, he shakes his head. "Are you really heartless enough to not even ask my name?"

"I don't care." I keep my voice flat as I lie. I care. I want to know his name. I want to know everything, but the closer we get, the more dangerous it is.

He doesn't bother to hide the disgust lingering in his hostile tone. "That's what you come out with? You don't care?" His eyes flick to the wall, like he can't stand to even look at me anymore. "Well, while you've been sunning it up in Spain and doing whatever the fuck you wanted, the rest of us here have been looking for you. Where the fuck have you been? Where are your parents, because they are listed as enemies to?—"

"Dead," I snap, interrupting his rant.

There's no sympathy in his eyes. "Good. They took you from us and deserved death."

He is so cold, so empty, and I hate him. Gods, I hate him. "They didn't take me from you! I'm not your property just because the Gods bound our souls together. I had every right to reject the bonds, and I did, and I left. How dare you say it's good they're dead?"

He watches me closely and smirks. He wanted a reaction, anything other than my cold attitude, and he got it. This one is dangerous. "It's never good that a Nexus is dead, but I will never show grief for those who took you from us. Anyone that is in the middle of us is already dead." He walks into the room, and I glance at the door, taking a step towards it. "Don't you fucking try it, Gwen."

I arch an eyebrow at the nickname and his tone. "Did you really think I was just going to stay here? Even I know it's illegal in the Nexus and human world to kidnap and hold anyone hostage."

He flashes his teeth as he smiles. "You're in Starlight." I knew it, but still, my heart nearly gives out in pure fear. "I'm not sure what you know, but Starlight is a completely fortified city in the middle of Scotland. Our capital. No one comes in or out of here without the Supreme Alpha's permission. You've been avoiding this place for long enough, and now you get to live here. Yes, kidnapping and holding someone hostage is illegal for Nexus, but my father, two uncles and grandfather are half of the eight Beta Alphas and voted for special measures, considering how long it took to find you."

I see red. Nothing but blistering fiery rage. "How dare you bring me here and get your fucking daddy to lock me up? You are a sadistic prick if you ever think I'm going to take back the rejection and happily bend over to be your mate. Go fuck yourself!"

He laughs. Actually laughs at me. "You have a real fucking dirty mouth, Gwen." I'm still shaking with anger as he comes closer. Too close. I can smell him, how he smells like vanilla and fresh rain in a forest. "You were lucky to survive, and we are not risking you again. If you died, even with our bond rejected, it would fucking hurt my Nexus. No one is allowed to do that, so I have a mild interest in keeping you alive. That attack you ran from? It was only one of many, and it's dangerous for all Nexus outside these walls right now. Until it is safe, you are staying here."

Vian? He is using them to scare me into staying, and it's almost laughably pathetic. "I don't believe you. Those Vian were a random attack and bad luck."

"You know, I'm Onyx, not that you've bothered to know my name. This is my house." He spreads his arms out. "My father put those runes on you. Everybody has them in Starlight." He shows me his wrists, where the similar runes are. "But yours are different. Ours make us traceable when we leave the city. If we need help, we can press on them ten times. Yours will make sure you're not leaving, and pressing on it will just piss me off as it's connected to mine."

"Then I'll press it all the fucking time." He laughs again and I don't like it. Well, actually I do like his laugh, but not when he is laughing at me. I'm not funny. "Are you going to let me out? I'll carve off my own hands to escape this place, so the runes don't matter."

His eyes widen when he sees how serious I am. Little does he know I could actually do that and survive. The hands would just grow back. "You're fucking insane."

Now he's starting to get it. I shrug, knowing it annoys him, and his eyes do that swirling darkness thing again. Oh yeah, definitely pissed him off. I step closer to the door, right before I run for it. I turn the handle and it opens. I knew the arrogant asshole wouldn't have bothered to lock it because he wouldn't have expected little old me to get past him. He's on me in a second, though, grabbing my wrist to turn me around. Before I think about it too much, I bring the shampoo bottle up and squirt it straight into his eyes. He roars in pain, but he lets me go as he stumbles back, a loud growl echoing from his throat.

From his Nexus.

Time to leave. I don't know where I'm running as I head straight out of the room and onto a staircase. I barely make it two steps before my feet leave the stone steps and I float upwards. Tipping upside down as a scream echoes from my chest. My hair falls down around my face, long enough to touch the stairs as I look down, brushing it aside to look right at another one of my mates.

His hand is in the air, clearly his power, telekinesis, controlling me. Fucking brilliant. I can't even move as he wraps invisible arms around me and walks up the stairs until we are face to face.

So close his very minty breath blows over me.

"Put me down."

He's all blond hair and green eyes, tanned and a very pretty boy. He's wearing a suit that screams expensive, with dark blue straight trousers and a white shirt. A few buttons are undone on his shirt, and a tattoo peeks out. He looks at me from head to toe. I can tell he doesn't like what he sees. "All these years, we have wondered exactly what you look like." He sighs and I can't read his expressions. His face barely moves, and his green eyes reveal nothing. "Now, we were all really fucking disappointed that you were stupid enough to get caught and we have to deal with you." He leans in, our breaths mixing and goose bumps littering down my spine. "I'll tell you a secret: I'm not. I'm going to make your life hell for rejecting me, and I've been waiting five long years."

"Hollis." One warning from Onyx, who I think is still in the room.

Hollis walks away from me, even as it feels like he just stabbed me straight into the chest with only words. I knew it would be like this, but still, it hurts more than I thought it would do. Only when he is gone does a gust of wind blow me to the top of the stairs and drop me in a puddle right by the door. Onyx comes out of the bedroom with a towel in his hand, his eyes bright red, and he smells like lemon shampoo. I find it really, really hard not to grin at him, and I know I fail when his eyes tighten.

"Get in there and lose the smile. Now!" he barks.

No one bosses me around. I smirk and lean back. "No. I'm going to stay right here, and you can fuc?—"

I scream as he picks me up with a growl, his hands iron tight, and the first touch of his skin against mine is like a fire burning throughout my body. He carries me into the bedroom, even when I'm literally kicking and screaming, and throws me onto the bed. I run after him, but suddenly there's a magic barrier in the doorframe blocking me. I can see through it, but it's rock solid. It looks like a glossy, shimmering blue magic, and Onyx slides his hands into his pockets as he watches me from the other side. "You have to let me out. I can't?—"

"I don't want your excuses, mate." There is so much hate in the word mate that it hurts my heart more than Hollis's words. He walks away from me, and I slam my hands on the barrier, but it's like a brick wall, and it only hurts my hands the more I smack it. If I don't get out of here soon, I'm going to bring this entire city down with me.

There is only so long before my Nexus will take over and demand it's time to play.