Her Strength

Children

It was a short walk to a road—well, a trail, actually.

    The Jeep had large tires and Luca opened the passenger door for me, making me hesitate.  Glancing backwards, I saw Kai lying by the entrance of the cabin in his feline form, sunning himself.

    I’d just found Zech and I was going to just . . . leave him again?

    “He’s your bond so we can’t harm him,” was Luca’s words of encouragement.

    I grimaced.  “He’s chained to a wall.”

    A sigh.  “Yes, well, it’s unfortunate but he is a well-trained assassin.  I can’t very well just set him free and hope some nice living accommodations will keep him from killing everybody.”

    Turning, I took in Luca’s expression and realized . . . that’s what they had planned for me.

    Nice living accommodations.

    The bath.  The grand bedroom.

    A tactic to keep me sated.

    “That’s how you planned on controlling me.”  It wasn’t a question.

    “You’re pregnant.  You’ll soon feel the urge to nest,” he shrugged, as if this was a nonchalant conversation.  As if he didn’t just admit that my need to “nest” was what they were planning on using to manipulate me into staying put.  “You’ll naturally feel more at ease in a safe, quiet environment.  We’re offering that to you.”

    “Offering . . .?”  I couldn’t believe it.  That line of reasoning.  The way they viewed this entire situation.  “I was abducted!” I snapped, hardly able to control my own outrage.  “Taken against my will—”

    “You walked onto the jet of your own volition, actually.”  Luca’s smile hadn’t budged an inch, there wasn’t even a flicker of dishonesty in his expression.  It made me blanche and I realized . . . I may have just walked onto that jet.  I wasn’t . . . me.  I wasn’t me when this began.  “Calm down.”  Luca reached for me and I stumbled a bit, losing my balance, bumping into a hard wall.  Kai, in human form, his hands gripping my elbows, holding me steady.  I felt a mixture of emotions—rage, confusion, and just—when the sob broke through my chest, it was strangled.  “You’re pregnant, love.  I know this is a very stressful situation for you but really, you need to try to calm your heart rate,” Luca was scolding, reaching out to wipe at my face.  I went to slap his hands away but Kai’s grip on my arm tightened, stopping me.  Sandwiched between two mythological creatures, water leaking down my face like a broken faucet, they Luca fussed over me like a small child.  “This is for the best,” he was explaining to me.  “You’re safe here, your child will be safe here—what the Augur showed you must mean something—”

    “How do you know about that?” I demanded, struggling against Kai who didn’t budge an inch.

    “Ign—Ignicu—your other self.”  Luca huffed, annoyed.  “She has a funky name.”

    “What?”

    “I’ll just call her Ig for conversations sake,” Luca decided.

    “Wait, what?” I snapped.

    “Talk slower, Luca.  She gets confused easily,” Kai scoffed.

    Anger shot through me like a volt and I stomped on Kai’s foot, making him growl.

    “And she’s childish,” Kai added, glaring down at me.

     “Let me go!” I screamed, my temper flaring at the insults, at the feeling of his hands on my arms, still holding me in place.  Struggling, fighting, I hated Kai for being so composed.  Unbothered by my attempts to be set free.

    Why had it worked before?

    Why wasn’t it working now?

    “Let her go, Kai,” Luca sighed.  “Mood swings are completely normal in this state.”

    “You should know,” Kai snorted, removing his hands from me.  Turning, I went to slap him and he caught my wrist, sighing at what was apparently a weak attempt at harming him.  “Just listen to Luca,” he said softly.  His tone was jarring, leaving me a breathless, voiceless mess glaring up at him.  The way he’d said it—it was too soft for a creature that had just been manhandling me.

    “Don’t tell me what to do,” I hissed back, quickly realizing that he was nude.  Again.  This must be a normal state for shifters.  I averted my eyes skyward, quickly turning my back to the man, ignoring the sound of cracking bones.

    Stupid jaguar.

    “I see you two get along well,” Luca chuckled.  He was enjoying this?

    I glared at him and he just gestured for me to get in.

    Did I even have another choice?

    “Where are we going?” I grumbled, climbing into the car.

    He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.  “There’s somebody I think you should meet.”

    “I don’t want to meet anybody,” I snapped, exasperated.  “I want to know why I’m here.  I want to know what this Ig—I want to know what she is!  Why is this happening?”

    Luca nodded, eyes focused on the road ahead.  It was bumpy and I was bouncing enough in my seat for me to grab what Theo always called the “oh s**t” handle.  “What has your bond told you about us?” he prodded, curious.

    My bond.

    Was he referring to Zech or Cronan?

    Did it even matter at this point?

    “Not enough.  Something about having multiple Gods.  Shifters.  Dragons.”

    Luca quirked a brow but didn’t glance away from the road.  “Kai shouldn’t have come as a surprise to you then.”

    “I wasn’t sure if it was true,” I admitted.

    “I see.  Normally humans trust their bond completely.  Especially if they’re . . . linked?  I’ve never seen a human communicate telepathically to their bond like you two were in the cabin.”

    “We weren’t,” I insisted.

    Luca smiled but said nothing which was more infuriating, I think, than having him argue.

    Like he needn’t bother with a response.  After all, nothing I say matters.

    Squeezing my hands together, I pressed my nails into my palm, trying to keep calm.

    To think of the right questions to get the answers I wanted.

    I didn’t even know what to ask and I was scared of giving anything away about myself.

    I needed to come up with something, quick, before--

    “Calm yourself, love,” Luca hummed.  “There’s no pressing emergency.  Your life isn’t in any danger with us.  Your child is safe.”

    Digging the nails in deeper, I felt my bottom lip quiver.

    This entire situation was so weird.  Confusing.

    I’d been abducted before.  It was terrifying, horrific—thrown into a cell, starved, assaulted, threatened—if this situation were like that one, it might actually be easier to handle.  To stomach.

    Xavier seemed to be the largest threat of the bunch somehow, scary but no show of violence.

    Luca was all smiles and seemed almost gentle by nature.

    Kai, for being a bit of an asshole, was just a kid.

    And Paola—Paola was fond of Xavier for some reason.  She’d even called him a child.

    A child.

    “How old is Xavier?” I wondered quietly.  Tears were falling again and I couldn’t control them.  With blurred vision, I gripped the handle tighter, ducking my head, hopeful that Luca hadn’t noticed.

    “You’re crying.”  Of course he would notice.

    “How old is Kai?” I pressed.

    It was silent for a moment, still aside form the bumpy terrain we were driving on.

    “Fifteen,” Luca said quietly.  “Both of them.”

    Children.

    Two years younger than me.

    Boys like Theo.

    “They seem older, no?  A curse, I guess, for children forced to grow up too fast.”

    I didn’t know what to say to him.

    “You’ll have to forgive his behavior before.  Teasing like that, it’s just in his nature.  He’s young and your pheromones—they’re intense for grown men, let alone adolescent boys and Xavier was locked in a jet with you for hours, breathing it in.  He was practically high on the ride to the mansion.”

    That actually . . . explained some things.

    His grip on my throat, how domineering he’d been in the jet and the contrast of his behavior later, in the kitchen.  He’d even explained that his intention wasn’t to threaten me.

    I’d thought it was lies, a farse after the way he'd treated me before.

    “I thought he would try to put his hands on me,” I admitted anxiously.

    “Xavier is a little rough around the edges but my brother would never hurt a female.  Aside from having some moral sense, he’s terrified of Paola.  She would kill him,” Luca chuckled.  “Then it’s my turn,” he added, a glimmer shining in his eyes.

    It was hard to view them as monsters when he spoke so highly of his brother.  The way he talked about him made me think of my own brother.  Rough around the edges but deep down, Theo’s actually a pretty big softy.  I wondered how he was handling my disappearance.  Again.

    Gnawing on my cheek, I tried to stay focused.

    I needed more information.  Something useful.

    “And Xavier . . . he’s a King?” I wondered aloud, thinking about Cronan.  The weight that would fall on his shoulders—a weight that a fifteen year old was carrying now.

    “Yes.  He took the throne.”

    “Where is his, er, your . . . father?” I wondered.  Cronan was older but his father Ezekial still bore the crown.

    “Dead.”  There was a lilt of finality in his tone.

    Oh.

    I felt confusion pull at me.  “Xavier is younger than you and Zech said that you’re the second son.”  Luca’s grip tightened on the wheel.  I watched his profile, taking in his expression.  No longer smile, jaw tight.  It was a big change.  Noteworthy.  “Why Xavier?”

    The smile came back, tight lipped, forced.  “It’s a long, sad story, love.”  With a bump, our terrain evened out and I realized we were back on asphalt.  The road leading us back to the mansion in the woods.  “What you really need to know about is the child growing in your stomach and to explain why that’s important, we need to talk about our God’s.”

    He’d changed the conversation quickly.

    Their family history—it must be some kind of sore spot for them.

    Still, I was fine with talking about the Gods.

    I nodded, wiping at my eyes, taking a deep breath.  "Fine then.  Tell me about the Gods."