Bound By Legend

CHAPTER EIGHT:WILLFULLY IGNORANT?OR JUST PLAIN STUPID?

REVERIE

Uma slammed her phone down and yanked her hands through her hair. “Apparently your dear husband and his Mistress are outside some random hospital giving a soliloquy. Why?” She threw her hands up in defeat. “For some reason she couldn’t go to our hospital.” She muttered. “To make things worse? That is apparently newsworthy, instead of, you know, the threat of war to the west, the drought in the south, or the fugitive rogues on the run!”

“Treatment for what?” I asked.

“Who even knows at this point? Maybe not even them? One report says the w***e fainted. Another says her little belly hurts. The Sunchat reported she had a mere sniffle.” Her exaggerated baby voice nearly had me out of my chair with laughter. She drank her hot chocolate and glared at it like it offended her. “If you are going to report on bullshit like this as news, then at least have the decency to be f*****g accurate.”

My Solvane Pack phone dinged with a notification from the counter. Uma leaned back on two legs of her chair to grab it for me and tossed it in front of me. “Bet that’s the notification to show you.”

I smirked. “Let’s wager on if you are right.”

“A fresh cup of coffee. I love Rhiannon, and I endured a half cup of this monstrosity in her honor.”

I laughed. “Deal.”

With a flick of the wrist, a flood of notifications filled the screen. News updates showed the exact story that ran on all outlets–internationally and locally. I laughed at the headline. “Luna Delilah Solvane hospitalized.”

“Oh? Calling her Luna now? They move fast,” Uma commented and took another sip. I climbed to my feet and prepped an actual cup of coffee for her while I scrolled through the social media apps on my phone. Tucked in the corner was the Wolfen app we all used to stay connected when we didn’t want to use the mind link. I clicked the notification bubbles. Instantly, my screen was inundated with Delilah’s posts, photos of her and Kieran all over the place, intimately and otherwise. Dinner, hotels, jewelry, other luxury gifts–who knows what else. I laughed. They were only visible to me. I shook my head in amusement.

“What?” Uma asked when I placed her perfectly made, espresso intact, French Vanilla with creamy coconut in front of her. I slid her my phone as I sat down with my caramel macchiato, creamy coconut with honey concoction and a creamy whip on top.

“Willfully ignorant? Or just plain stupid?” I said as she shook her head and scrolled. My thoughts wandered, the difference in how Kieran treated me, his wife, and Delilah, his brother’s wife–was startling. I recalled the way he spoke to her in the courtyard. His actions didn’t match his demeanor toward her. He could say she was nothing all that he wanted, but he treated me like nothing. He treated her like treasure. Was that how he showed love? Acts of service? Yet, when we were alone, he couldn’t keep his hands off me.

Was that just the lust from the mate bond? Not that having any of this information matters.

She scoffed. “Doesn’t matter. Either way, you win. Ass.”

“Maybe when this is all said and done, I will write a book? The Adulterer and The Adulteress? Is that title taken?”

Uma raised a brow as she took screenshots of Delilah’s content. “You are handling this all surprisingly well. It’s suspicious.”

I laughed and sipped my coffee. “I’m fine.”

“You actually don’t care?”

“No. It’s not that I don’t care. I’ve been mourning this relationship for years. It’s been over since the moment it began. There is only one thing that matters anymore and it isn’t Kieran.”

The unspoken what between us was evident. She smirked. “I still can’t believe he fumbled you, of all people.”

“Should I be offended by that insinuation?”

She laughed. “Obviously not. I just know when he finds out the truth he will be furious.”

“The goal is for him to not find out.”

Uma laughed even harder. “How do you plan to keep your second-biggest secret a secret, when you have to reveal said secret, in order to protect the biggest one?”

Thankfully, my phone signaled a message before I could pretend to find an answer to her poignant question.

“Oh, looks like Alpha Knox Salem has requested your appearance at the Rally of Minds in his Golden Ray territory? Seems, amidst the Alphas and Lunas, he wants to meet with Pack Doctors and discuss new health strategies.

“He is newly appointed. Political neutrality is his best bet right now. Smart. Strategic.” I said absentmindedly as I thought about the invite.

“I like it. You met him on your travels before you came here, right?” Uma recalled.

“I find it unnerving that you can remember these details even though we hadn’t even met yet.”

“I remember everything you ever told me.” She shrugged and downed the rest of her coffee.

I rolled my eyes. “Let’s get dressed.”

She motioned to herself. “I am already dressed.”

“You know what I meant.” I rose to my feet and collected all the dishes. Washed and rinsed them while she stretched lazily before she moved her lanky form to the couch. “Take all the time you need. I am just going to take a cat nap.”

“Very funny,” I teased before she made her way to do just that. Twenty minutes later, I exited the room, and she was nowhere to be seen. With a sigh, I grabbed some documents and a couple of suitcases, then loaded up my four-door SUV. With a white lab coat secured, flats on my feet and some medical supplies Kamari sensed we might need, we climbed into the car, just as Uma materialized next to us.

“Welcome back. Have a good adventure?” I asked.

“No. It was rather boring, actually.”

We put it in gear and arrived at Golden Ray faster than anticipated. “You go scope out the place. I have an extra stop.”

“Got it.” Uma all but tucked and rolled out of the car and vanished into the venue. I searched my surroundings before I turned and headed toward the parking garage.

A message from Leoric popped in on the encrypted phone: P3, Spot 86. No lights around.

I took note of the directions and followed the signs until a black SUV came into view in the darkest, deepest part of the garage. I parked next to it and climbed out.

“Thanks Mer, sorry to make you come all the way out here but–” I started to say before the smell of sunshine after rain, cinnamon, and apple came over me. “Wait, you don’t smell like Merrick. You smell like–” My gaze met the beautifully warm brown eyes of Leoric Vaelthorne. The caramel orbs filled me with so much comfort and peace, I thought I might melt. I hadn’t seen him in person in so long, it took my breath away.

“Leoric? Where’s Rhi? Is she–” Panic seized my heart.

Instantly, he placed his enormous hands on my face, tingles erupted across my entire body. “She’s fine. I wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t.”

A sigh of relief came out of me. “Why are you here then? Not that I am not happy to see you, I just–”

“You spend so much time healing and looking after others? Who’s looking after you?”

“I’m fine, I–”

He took his hands off my face, grabbed the things from my trunk and placed them into his own. Then he passed me a to-go plate. Judging by the smell, it was all my favorite Stonehaven foods. “You haven’t eaten. You’re pale.”

I took the items from him and tried to object, but he continued. “Also, Kamari. Heal your human before we get to the Rally of Minds, or I will be killing Kieran Solvane on the spot.”

I felt the purring of my wolf inside before my face started to warm up–whether it be from the healing or the emotions I couldn’t tell. “Kieran didn’t put that bruise there. His mother did.”

Leoric closed the trunk and clasped the back of my neck so he could whisper in my ear. “The details don’t matter. No one places a mark on my Queen’s face.”