Flames of Fury
Chapter 20 - Bonus

Kat

My thoughts are swarming my mind like bees in their hive, the hum from the buzz making me dizzy. Absolutely nothing makes sense. When I caught the scent of lemongrass and coconut my wolf recognized it immediately as belonging to my Mate. I let her guide us through the pack house down the stairs into the great room where Incandis and Syble were standing surrounded by a whole crowd of people, including Alec and a girl I’ve never seen before.

It didn’t make any sense, it still doesn’t. Incandis is undeniably my mate, my soul recognizes his, so why didn’t my wolf or I sense our bond the last time he was here five months ago?

I didn’t even get to ask any questions before my mom chewed out my brothers and ordered us to travel here with Incandis and Syble. I barely had time to shiver from the electric shock between where my skin connected with Incandis’ before we were being engulfed by darkness and dropped back down in an entirely new room – an office by the looks of it.

More people filed in, rushing past me and my brothers over to Syble. I swim through the current of my thoughts like one would swim through syrup, it’s laborious and exhausting. It’s easier for me to tune things out and get drunk on Incandis’ scent than to untangle and make sense of the chaos around me. His scent is the one thing that can reach me clearly, the one thing that can ground me in an otherwise hectic and confusing situation.

“Make sure she rests,” I vaguely hear Syble’s mom’s voice through the ringing in my ears. “Girls, why don’t you come with me and we’ll get you settled into your own rooms?” My eyes refocus on her mom’s expectant face, and as if on autopilot I follow her and the other woman out of the room.

The walk through the halls is mostly quiet. Syble’s mom calls the other woman with us a healer, not just a doctor but a healer, and situates her in a room next to a girl named Magnolia.

When the other woman has been deposited in her room I continue to follow their mom further down the hall and around the corner.

“Here you are my dear,” she directs me to a door on the right. “You are a guest of the queen, if you need anything at all you need simply ask.”

I don’t get the chance to ask her who the Queen is and why I’m their guest before she slips out of the door, shutting me inside the room.

Despite its white walls, the room doesn’t feel cold or sterile. It has an innate warmth that I can’t source and a comfort that calls to the weary.

I replace myself gravitating towards the balcony, drawn to the incredible view of the mountains in the distance and the lush grove beneath me. Dragons fly freely around in both forms; human and dragon. There’s a security here that wraps around your bones, like anyone who enters this place is immediately home.

My wolf is itching to run – not away or from anything, just to feel as uninhibited as those flying above us. I’m not a prisoner here, she called me a guest – of the Queen, no less. I don’t think anyone would stop me from going out if that’s what I wanted. I’m still considering the idea when his scent wraps itself around me like a hug, then I hear his voice call out from within the bedroom.

“Kat?”

“I’m out here,” I call out to him with a shaky voice.

Incandis approaches me tentatively, like he’s afraid to make any sudden movements around me. It’s not the same confidence and disinterest with which he treated me all those months ago, now he’s practically submissive.

“Xander sent me to get you.” He extends his hand out to me and when mine slides easily into his sparks ignite at our touch, rippling waves of delight through me.

He wraps a strong arm around my waist and I can’t resist leaning into him, breathing him in.

Just like before we’re sucked into the abyss and deposited down in the office from before. Xander looks at me sadly, but not unkindly.

“Hey Kat, how are you holding up?” He asks gently.

“Fine, confused.” I shrug, it’s half of the truth. In all honesty I’m overwhelmed and feel like I’m missing something, something that should be obvious but evades me. “Why did my mom want me to come here?”

“Go ahead and have a seat,” Xander gestures for me to sit across from him and I oblige. Once I’m comfortable he looks me in the eye, claps his hands together, and says, “let’s talk.”

I’m thrown into darkness like the one that consumes me when traveling with Incandis, but while I feel safe and secure with him, here I feel like I’m in free fall.

I land in darkness with only a hanging light above me and a couch much like the one I was sitting on moments ago. Soon, the scene shifts, and I’m standing in the packhouse making lunch for everyone after the morning training sessions. I watch myself notice Incandis and Syble interacting, and I can feel how my heart lurches at the way he looks at her. The room spins and I’m at the daycare center, my brothers are staring at Syble with pups piled onto her as she reads a story and it clicks for me that she’s their mate.

But I don’t remember thinking that.

Another spin and I’m shopping with Syble at the mall, but our conversation isn’t the mundane topics I remember, it’s about her feelings towards my brothers, it’s about how I try desperately to hide that fact that I’m pretty sure Incandis is meant for me and the anxiety I feel hoping that I’m wrong about her and Incandis.

More memories that I don’t remember ebb and flow before my very eyes like watching a movie of a forgotten life. The morning of my birthday when I smelled that familiar lemongrass and coconut scent, sure that Incandis was mine. Her date with my brothers at the lake, watching Varian practically eye fuck her in front of my parents, them dancing together at my party and the way they licked the alcohol off her body at the club. Then there’s the cave, but we didn’t replace her family, we found an ambush. Incandis grabs me and shields me from her fire, sparks erupting between us. Our collective panic at her being stabbed, being teleported to the Grove and her admitting to us that she’s the Queen – Queen Magnolia.

I remember talking to Incandis, his hands fisting into my hair and the heat that our first kiss generated. I remember them studying and working overtime to replace her family. I remember the day she left and how broken my brothers were, the sinking feeling that befell the pack the night we were supposed to declare her as our Luna. How my brothers spiraled into despair, allowing their fury to consume them and control them. Then finally laying in my bed feeling rejected and broken waiting for Xander to give me an explanation that would never come. Instead he erased all these memories from my mind.

Instead of talking to me and being honest, instead of being open and vulnerable, it was easier for Incandis to have his best friend wipe him from my mind.

I’m not sure how to feel right now, there are so many layers to the pain. Like a tiramisu but instead of sweetness and sugar it’s laced with acid and razor blades.

I hurt for everyone. I hurt for my brothers who lost their mate twice, once when she flew away and once when Xander erased her from their minds. I hurt for Mags for being subjected to that violation by her best friend. I hurt for our pack for being without their Luna for five months. And most of all, I feel sorry for myself.

The feeling that Incandis can so easily lie to me and discard me eats me alive. How could he do this to me? Does he truly not feel the same way I do? Or is our mate bond one sided?

The pain dissolves after a few moments, swiftly replaced by rage. In my anger I slap Xander across the face, but he only continues to look at me with pity.

“Kat it’s not his fault, I couldn’t risk your brothers seeing you with Incandis. It would have unraveled everything.”

I don’t agree, I don’t see what my bond with Incandis has anything to do with my brothers’ bond with Mags.

I turn my head, just barely able to see Incandis over my shoulder.

“Why didn’t you stop him? You knew he was going to invade my mind, why would you let him do that to me Incandis?”

I don’t reward him with the opportunity to respond. He doesn’t want me and I don’t want his excuses.