But then, then I feel it.
Feel the instant void inside my chest, the way our life-bond changes. It doesn't sever, doesn't break but it almost hardens, turns to stone inside my heart.
And then, then my mate is gone.
Love Conquers All
Silence.
There is nothing but silence and wreckage, bottomless pain and destruction.
There is simply nothing.
A storm cloud rolls in and I have to think this is a sign from The Maker, a way to show me that whenever there is a thunderstorm, my life will change in most horrendous ways. My sunshine will be fleeting, my clear blue skies nonexistent. My life will be filled with nothing but rain and wind, lightning and thunder, cold and bleak nothingness.
I shall be merely existing in The End on earth and so shall it remain until the madness comes for me.
"We should..." Hank sniffles hard, clears his throat. "We should take her inside, get her out of the rain."
I hold my mate tighter to my body, watching a few heavy raindrops splash onto her beautiful chestnut hair.
"Let's get her inside, make her comfortable," Hank chokes out as he gets to his feet. "We don't need to rush into anything else right now but let's, let's just take my..." his words are lost in his cries, a fresh set of tears, of sobs that wrack his body.
And yet I don't move to get up, don't change my position.
"Kai, please," Grace begs. "Please just take her inside. Everything else can wait but she needs to be out of the rain, needs—"
"Leave us," I growl, my grip only tightening as the rain starts coming down in icy drops.
Henrich takes a step forward, Grace cradled in his arms. "Kasimir, brother, please. Take her inside out of the rain, let us make her comfortable for now. Listen, please. It is not only you who mourns—"
My eyes snap to his, narrow on his face I'd like to tear off. "Leave. Us."
"Kasimir" Andrej grunts. "Inside."
I glare at my eldest brother, the one who usually has my back but chooses this time to betray me.
My gaze bounces from each of my brothers, all three bloodied and bruised, Grace looking just as rough in Henrich's arms. I look at Hank, the man a complete mess and then Karel who comforts him, the way the rest of our clan crowd him for support while shedding their own tears.
It is selfish, I know.
Selfish to feel as though this is my loss only and not his, not theirs.
To feel that they have no right to tell me what to do with my mate, not only because of my status as king but as her goddamn mate.
It is selfish to want to keep her away from them and with me alone but fuck all if I care right now because I am the fucking king and since I don't get to be selfish, ever, I'm choosing right this fucking minute to be as selfish as I want and I want to sit in the middle of a goddamn thunderstorm with my mate.
"Leave. Us. Now," I growl even louder, my dragon adding his own to the mix.
"Kai—" Milos starts but is abruptly cut off.
"Leave them," Havok says as he steps from the shadows. "Leave them as he demands."
"You can't be serious?" Hank gapes through his tears. "You're really asking me to leave my... to leave my—her, them out here in the middle of a fucking storm just so—"
"I am dead fucking serious, Kapitán, and you of all people should fucking know why." Havok's ice blue eyes flash red before they glow. "When one loses their mate they deserve to mourn however they see fit." His stare shifts to Karel. "Whether it be to track down a fucking madman and his army to seek vengeance." Back to Hank. "Or whether it is found in the comfort of another's arms when given a second chance at that type of connection." Havok looks at me. "Or even when one disappears for hundreds of years in order to find retribution, isolate from those who he should find solace with because he has become nothing but a living corpse fueled by hate. When one loses their fated mate they should mourn however they need to and no one should ever fucking question that, especially someone who has been there before."
If I wasn't so absolutely devastated right now, I'd be moved by what Havok said, what he did on my behalf.
