Mated to Evil

Visiting Sumba

I awoke with Luca and Niko both curled around me in bed.

It was odd, as I lay there I could feel both their emotions. I had both of their memories and my magic was coming alive. Each time another marked me I felt more powerful.

Though the bond wouldn't be truly complete until I marked them as well, I could feel the bond finally relaxing from Brecclan's rejection.

That is, until my next heat when it will demand it of him. I worried that if he rejected me again he would break out bond and I wasn't sure I could handle that. The rejection had sent me into a deep depression so I couldn't imagine what breaking our link to each other would feel like.

I could feel both Luca and Niko were angry with Brecclan for rejecting me and I knew having both of them here with me his bond was screaming out for them, for me. How could he deny it so easily?

Niko groaned next to me and I felt his hand tighten on my waist.

"Good Morning, Aubrette." he whispered.

"Good morning." I smiled reaching up and pecking him on the lips. He tried to deepen the kiss but I pulled back giggling,

"Niko, No! Morning breath!" I laughed.

"I'll show you morning breath." he growled and held my head while he licked my cheek. I giggled wiping off his saliva with the palm of my hand,"

"Niko, gross!" I whined.

Niko chuckled and cuddled against me.

"Niko?"

"hmm?"

"Where is Sumba?" I asked needing to see her and make sure she was okay.

Niko's eyes popped open. "Why?" he asked.

"I want to see her. I haven't seen her since I was brought here. She looked out for me. We became close. She helped me." I explained to him.

"Brecclan put them down in the dungeons. He was going to kill them but I insisted we keep them alive. You should have a say in their punishment." he told me.

I shook my head, "We have to get Sumba out of the dungeons. She had no place in what Silva and Parker done to me. If anything she protected me from them. She warned them you would come. Warned them to let me go. And then she accepted that they would be punished." I whispered to him feeling sorry for her. What it must feel like as a mother not knowing if your children will live to see tomorrow. Regardless of how awful they were, they were her children.

"Get up!" I smacked him. Luca began to groan and wake up.

"Take me to the dungeons. I want her out today."

Luca groaned, having heard our conversation.

"Brecclan isn't going to be happy about this." he grunted.

"Yeah well, Brecclan does a lot of things I'm not happy with. Now come on! Both of you. "

I climbed from the bed and pulled the covers off of them urging them to hurry. They groaned but didn't argue knowing it was no use.

Niko and Luca retrieved their clothing from their room and showered with me in my bathroom. I was content and happy for the moment. Such a different feeling than the way I felt yesterday.

The visions from Luca's memories still haunted my mind but I kept shaking them away.

"This wasn't him any longer. He was driven to acting that way because of his wives murder." I kept chanting to myself in my head over and over again.

After showering and I blow dried my hair and quickly dressed. I was getting impatient waiting on Luca and Niko who insisted I wait for them and not go alone.

"Come on you two." I groaned as they are their toast they had made for breakfast.

"Aubrette, sit and eat. Sumba isn't going anywhere." Luca patted the seat next to him and I rolled my eyes.

"Yes she is. She is getting out of that dungeon. Sumba committed no crime. This was Parker and Silva." I grumbled adamant they were letting her out.

Just then Brecclan came through the door. He went over to Luca and Niko and kissed them good morning. I was surprised when he done the same to me.

"What are you up to today?" Niko asked him.

"I have to go shopping for the upcoming week. I thought maybe Aubrette would like to come." he looked toward me expectantly.

"Seriously? I can leave the forest?" I jumped up smiling.

I had been eager to leave the palace and the surrounding forest. I had begun to feel claustrophobic despite the huge palace.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Luca raised an eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't it be?" I questioned noticing Blip appear in the room.

I was excited to see him. It seemed he had been staying gone longer and longer between visits when normally he wouldn't leave my side.

"Hey buddy, did you find a girlfriend or something?" I rubbed his head. He made his usual screeching noise and flipped on his back wanting his tummy scratched. I chuckled. But it didn't escape me how much he had grown in the few days since I had seen him.

"I'll be careful and we won't be long. Besides I'm sure she needs things and I have no idea about that girly stuff she uses." Brecclan waved to the bathroom with a scrunched up face. I chuckled at him.

"I will be safe with Brecclan. He is one of the most powerful fae on the world." I told them as if they had forgotten.

"Not up against an army of seekers or his father." Luca muttered and received a warning look from Brecclan.

"Anyway," I interjected changing the subject.

"I am wanting to put Sumba in one of the rooms in the palace. If not for her I don't know how far Parker would have went with the things he did to me, and she told them to release me. Even warned them that you guys would be coming." I explained to Brecclan.

"What if she tries to free Silva and Parker?" he asked.

"she won't. it breaks her heart, but she told me she knew they would be punished." I told him and was surprised to see him nod.

"Come on then. I'm guessing your eager to go get her?" Brecclan asked and I grinned nodding my head.

Brecclan walked out and I began to follow but turned and stuck my tongue out at Luca and Niko who chuckled.

I followed Brecclan to a part of the palace I had never been. We went down a long corridor lit by torches to the door on the end. Brecclan unlocked the huge pad lock and lifted the large board that lay in the holds on each side to prevent someone from opening it on the inside.

Brecclan picked up a torch off the wall and waved for me to come to him. I walked up to him and his tucked me under his arm and against his side.

"I don't want you falling down these steps. It's a long way down." he told me and I nodded.

What was this sudden change in him. He had kept his distance since not marking me and even had stayed away from Niko and Luca.

We began to descend down a spiral stone staircase. It was so dark it was as if we were descending into the recesses of hell.

"Aubrette, I wanted to apologize for the other day. I know I hurt you. I should have just talked to you. Told you what the problem was." his voice echoed off the walls of the staircase.

I was stunned at Brecclan's apology and his show of affection toward me. Maybe there was hope for us.

"You know you weakened the bond between us right?" I asked and he nodded.

"I know. That's my stupidity." he admitted.

"So why wouldn't you mark me?" I questioned him.

"I don't want you seeing my memories. I have done things that are unforgivable. Things even our other mates don't know about. I don't want you to see me as that person. I'm working hard to change that part of me." he confessed.

"I would never tell anyone you're memories. Just as I haven't with Niko and Luca. It's not my place to tell. " I told him.

"But you would look at me different. And I'm not sure I could take you looking at me with such disgusting, disappointment, and fear." his voice got lower as if it painted him to talk about.

"If you don't mark me there is a chance that you will sever the bond." I told him.

"I'm aware. I'm trying to sort through it. To figure out a way to postpone it at least." he admitted.

"You know you could let me mark you first." I notified him.

He shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. Your bite is meant to seal our bond. We can't seal our bond until I've marked you first. Once we have all marked you your instincts will take over and drive you to mark us. You are our keeper. The center of our mating. The one who holds us all together." he informed me.

"What's a keeper?" I asked him as voices began to echo up the stairs from down below.

I froze when I heard Parker's voice as the memories came flashing back through my mind.

"Aubrette, are you okay?" Brecclan asked worriedly.

"I'm okay." I breathed out and pushed the fear down continuing on down into the dungeon.

At the bottom of the stairs two guards stood watching over the prisoners. Another walked the narrow walkway between the cells looking in on them. Two more guards stood at the other end of the corridor.

Brecclan nodded to the guards and took me to a cell. I noticed Sumba as soon as I peeked through the bars and ran to the bars.

"Sumba!" I gasped.

She turned from the desk were she sat writing and smiled. The cell was sparse. There was an old wooden bed with a wool blanket covering it. There was a desk, a chair, and a toilet and sink.

"I've come to get you out. Your going to stay upstairs next to my room." I smiled at her.

She looked weak and frail. She had obviously lost weight and a pain of guilt hit me hard.

"I should have came sooner." I eyed her delicate frame.

"Nonsense." Sumba smiled.

"Let her out!" I told Brecclan with an urgency to get her comfortable.

I could feel Silva and Parker's eyes on me starring into my back but I ignored them.

Brecclan looked at the guard expectantly and he nodded his head moving to unlock the cell door.

"She'll need help up stairs." I told the guard and he looked me.

"Carry her up!" I ordered him. I was after all the mate of the owners of the palace so they could listen to my orders or suffer the consequences.

"What are you waiting for Aubrette gave you orders." Brecclan snapped at him when the guard looked to him to ask permission to listen to my orders.

The guard turned his head and went to Sumba to scoop her up. I laughed when she smacked his hands.

"Watch your hands boy, this old woman will whip your ass if you touch my booty." Sumba growled at him.

The guard grinned and surprisingly so did Brecclan .

The guard carried Sumba out of the cell and we turned to leave.

"What about us? I've missed you Bre." Haven't you missed me? I don't want to stay down here anymore. Momma please." Parker begged and I stood frozen.

The guard turned with Sumba in his arms and she looked at Parker. I refused to turn around to see him.

"You done the crime boy, now you'll do the time. I warned you and you refused to listen. Now deal with it and toughen up. You sound like a little b***h over their screaming and crying." Silva growled at him and my eyes widened.

"I think I like her." Brecclan said in my ear as he slid his fingers between mine. The tingles from our bond relaxed me and I smiled up at him.

"Yeah she is something else that's for sure." I laughed.