24. Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Pain lanced Ava's chest, startling her awake from a fitful sleep. Eyes flying open to the quiet dark of her quarters, she stilled as her heart raced in response to unknown stimuli.

No one was there.

Her hands fisted in the pillow she held against her chest and she let her senses dive into the mating bond that connected her to Remmus. All she found was a psychic block, a barrier as impenetrable as it was confusing.

When had that shown up?

Brow furrowing, Ava sat up in bed. Remmus had brought her home only a few hours ago, and had gently put her to bed before her memory became fuzzy with sleep. Where had he gone? And why had he been so quiet and evasive after she'd shared her past?

Her quarters were swathed in cozy darkness, but the frenzied thump of her heart indicated something was wrong. She just didn't know what.

Ava's feet hit the ground and she was out the door, racing toward Remmus' temporary lodgings. Her wolf instinctively knew it had something to do with her mate.

Hands shook when she finally got hold of the handle to yank the door open. The iron-rich tang of blood assaulted her senses. Immediately, she was drowning in it, and she choked on a scream. Her eyes sliced around the room for any signs of the Raeth.

No. No. No.

The pool in the middle of the floor was an ominous crimson that'd dried around the edges. Bloodied clothes were haphazardly piled beside it, as though they'd been a nuisance rather than evidence.

Where was Remmus?

There was no sign of struggle. Who had hurt him and why wouldn't he have fought against them? Raeths could lose this much blood and survive, the same as wolves, but he wouldn't have been without some degree of impairment. Judging by the volume lost, she first thought it would be a very deep wound. Or several self-inflicted tracks.

Ava's wolf raced to the surface, peering through her eyes with a frenzied sort of concentration. She had to figure out who'd done this, if it wasn't Remmus himself, and most importantly, where he was now.

Inhaling a breath to steel herself, she stepped around the drying pool of blood to stalk through the quarters. Nothing else was amiss: every chair was upright, every blanket was perfectly folded, and every bag was aligned by the wall.

Nothing that would indicate he'd struggled for his life or had been on the verge of bleeding out. Ava's hand went to her back pocket, growling when she realized she was without her phone.

A crash in the other room spiked adrenaline through her veins. Almost stumbling, her legs carried her toward the sound, gasping when she saw Remmus propped against a wall, his legs collapsed beneath him.

"Remmus!"

Ava was by his side an instant later, her relief at seeing her mate overshadowed by the obvious blankness that marred his features and the blood that soiled his drenched clothing.

Seafoam-green eyes were swallowed by the storm building behind them. "A—Ava?"

"Remmus, we have to get you help. You have to see the healer."

"I—I don't know what's wrong with me." Each word was a broken plea. His head hung where he sat, tendrils of his shoulder-length hair framing shadowed features. "It hurts."

"What hurts? Why is there so much blood, baby? Who did this to you?"

Ava knew her rapid-fire questions wouldn't help matters, but the enraged predator beneath her skin demanded answers: who had hurt her mate?

"My—my mother."

Jolting, Ava's hand clamped around Remmus' wrist as her wild eyes speared through the quarters once more. Her wolf growled, "She's not dead? She was here? Where is she?"

A strangled sound choked in Remmus' throat, following quickly by a shake of his head. The motion elicited a moan before he pressed a trembling palm against his temple. Eyes sliding shut, his head bobbed forward.

"Remmus, come on, we have to get you to a healer."

Shuddering, his hand slowly trailed over hers where she'd grabbed his wrist. Electricity flowed between them, the rightness of the contact resonating within her.

"Avelina." Another shake of his head before his eyes met hers. "I saw you. I saw you hiding beneath that pile of blankets."

Every muscle in her body locked. All the air left her lungs as she froze, eyes locked on Remmus. As Ava searched his face, she fought back the tide of rising nausea: his eyes had always been so familiar. She swallowed harshly and forced herself to speak.

"What are you talking about?"

"It was my parents who took the lives of your village, your cousin. I saw you under those blankets, Ava. And you saw me," he sobbed. "I betrayed you."

His eyes slipped shut again and a wave of pain and despair rippled through their mating bond. He whispered unintelligible words and his fingers clutched at hers, but all she could do was sit frozen before him, horrified. Then, he repeated the words that tore her to pieces.

"‘This is how Raeths kill their prey. We coerce them into submission, taking as we please.'"

A tortured wail shook her to the core, a hollowing sensation eating away at her stomach and dropping her heart to her feet. "No—no!"

Remmus shook his head, groaning. "Please, I can't stand. She—she tied them too tight; they're burning against my wrists."

It took her a moment to realize it was a memory.

He was no longer in the present; he was reliving the day her parents had died. When Ciru—Remmus—had betrayed her. Her own memories swelled as he spoke, dragging her right back to the moments that changed her life.

Ava, despairing and hurt and angry, wanted Remmus to suffer through it, just as she had.

"Not strong enough to save her—please, fates, why? So many dead, more blood at my feet—but I can't do anything! All my fault, all mine! I can't scream, I can't vomit; you froze my face, coerced me so that I can't even cry. You always found it distasteful when I felt things, mother."

His palms pressed against his temples, and his nose dripped red. Horrified, all Ava could do was listen as the memory poured out of his mouth.

"‘Watch, son, see how blood spills until life is drained. See how humans meet their end by our hands.'" Remmus flinched again, his knuckles going white.

"I can't help you, Zina—I'm so sorry. I can't even apologize." He sobbed. "She coerced me—forced me to be silent, and I can't watch as they take your life."

Her cousin. She'd screamed as Ciru's parents murdered her in front of him. She had pleaded with him, but he'd remained immobile, his face frighteningly bored.

Grappling with the horror of Remmus' memory, Ava jerked the instant his chilled hand touched hers. "And then I saw you, Avelina. I saw you safe. Hidden from my psychotic parents. You—you always looked so much alike, you and Zina.

"What I wouldn't have given to … to tell you how sorry I was," he grimaced and sucked in a breath, "to hold you as you cried. They took everything from you, Avelina. So I … I took everything from them."

When his fingers brushed over her jaw, she couldn't help her wince. It didn't matter to him, he followed her backward as though drawn to her like she was his light in the darkness.

A feral mix of fury and torment tore from her throat.

How could Remmus have been the one to betray her? How could he be Ciru, her childhood friend? Why was her mate the one who'd broken her beyond any saving grace? Fate couldn't be this cruel.

"No!" The vengeful anger that boiled beneath her skin had her wolf claws digging into his forearm without remorse. "No—no—no—no—no! How? Why?"

"Please forgive me, Avelina." No flicker of pain registered on his features as blood bubbled beneath her fingernails. "I'm so sorry. Please. Please."

Ava threw herself backward. "No—I hate you! I hate you!"

As he fell forward onto bloodied hands, Ava desperately clung to her resolve while every instinct roared. She trembled, torn between volatile emotions that both drove her forward to see to her mate's existing injuries and to make new ones of her own.

His voice, broken and pleading with her over and over, met ears that didn't want to hear him. Remmus reached toward her, blood dripping from his nose to join the growing halo beneath where he'd collapsed.

"Don't come near me!" she hissed, wrath overtaking the hurt with a keen sense of finality. "I never want to see you again!"

Though a part of her wanted to hurt him as badly as he had hurt her, she couldn't bring herself to speak the damning words of rejection. Though it would show him the depth of her despair, it would also serve to punish her.

Ultimately, rejecting the mating bond would take both their lives.

Face twisting in turmoil, Remmus' bloody hands rose to reach for her again. "Avelina, please, please don't—don't leave me. I love you."

Every ounce of disgust she felt for him contorted her features. "My love for you will never outweigh my hatred. Leave the den before my wolf tears you apart."

Without waiting for his response, Ava shifted to her beast, sprinting from the blood-laden quarters where her ailing mate remained. Overcome by anger, her claws dug into the wooden flooring, gauging deep grooves in her haste to leave.

No one stopped her.

Chilly air bit into her eyes as she emerged into the night. Fresh snowfall had settled over the Estes Park area, covering the soil and dormant grass.

Ava's heart had been viscerally torn from her chest. Remmus—Ciru—was her mate, and he was the reason her parents were dead. Betrayal simmered with every stride away from him.

Snarling, her wolf vented her rage toward the heavens. A grey blur, she sprinted from the man who'd broken her, who'd bruised and beaten her beyond recognition. The one who'd taken everything from her.

Remmus. Ciru.

The man she'd begun to love was the Raeth she hated most in this world.