I am Sam
Chapter Thirty-Five

ERIS

Noah and Circen’s faces were priceless when I told them that I wouldn’t be going with them; Noah even tried to pull rank since Atlas isn’t there; how laughable that pathetic idiot is to think he has any authority over me is not only comical but insulting.

Little do those idiots all know that this entire time I’ve been the one feeding Ronan information while they were all wrapped up in the pathetic rescue mission of that little bitch Sasha.

Urgh! I hate her.

I can’t wait to help Ronan take her powers and end her miserable life; the way she’s been able to manipulate every one of these gullible idiots into helping her, that sweet and innocent girl act is so overrated. Yet she’s been able to fool everyone, including Caleb. I mean, come on, he, of all people, should be able to see through her fake, sweet girl routine, right; but no, he ended up wanting to choose her as his mate; how laughable is that?

I’m his mate, and not by choice, trust me. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would be mated to him. I wanted his brother, Cole. He was my first love, my only love, but because of what happened, I will never have the man I truly loved; instead, I’m stuck in this pathetic roller coaster ride of being engaged to Atlas, yuck, and fucking Ronan, double yuck. In the end, I have one goal, one purpose in mind, to rule Aeonian, and I don’t care who I have to fuck to get there. Love is redundant to me, and I couldn’t give two shits about a fated mate bond, either.

As I climb out of my shower, I stand in front of the mirror, combing my long damp hair, remembering like it was yesterday the moment I went through with that idiotic dare we played in Circen’s room one night that changed everything.

The thing is, I wouldn’t have gone through with it; I even think that, on some level, I would have rocked having my head shaved bald. Except I hadn’t considered that Ronan had stood eavesdropping outside Circen’s door and heard the whole thing.

I remember that night, I didn’t want to go, but Cole insisted; he liked hanging out with the pathetic trio; that’s what I used to call them and still do. Noah, Circen and Liam, my baby brother. Those three have always been best friends and are just one of the many reasons I can’t stand my brother because he’s weak; he has no backbone to do what needs doing. He would rather hang out with a bunch of losers than twin bond with me, and every time that I forced him into twin bonding when we were small, I would always make him cry; then it just became a fun game for me to play, let’s see how quickly I can make Liam cry, it was fun until he turned six and decided he would rather hang out with Noah and Circen indefinitely, he even started sleeping in Noah’s room, the sheer audacity of the little turd.

By the time we were all fourteen, Ronan had decided we could all have our bedrooms, so Liam got his own space, and so did Noah. They truly are a pathetic bunch of losers, all three of them.

I’ve always been this way, I mean, not a cold-hearted bitch like I am now, but a menace, it’s just always been my nature to be cruel, I guess, I tried to kill Liam once, and I’m not ashamed over it one bit, he’s weak, and I would rather die a thousand deaths than be related to someone like him. Liam is like the weak link in our chain, the one we would surely think of first if we needed to sacrifice someone; at least, that’s what I would do with him.

On the other hand, Cole has always seen something in me, and because of it, I was drawn to him; there was a part of me that wanted to be good when he was around, the way he touched me, the way he kissed me. I’ll never forget his eyes, so soulful and pure; Caleb has nothing on his brother; Cole ticked every box of what a great man should aspire to be, whereas Caleb always had this looming darkness that made him unapproachable.

I always expected to be mated to Cole, don’t ask me why, but I had dreams of it happening one day, of him, and I just discovering that the attraction we shared wasn’t just physical but much more profound. The dare, however, messed everything up; we played spin the bottle, and it landed on me, Circen asked, and I chose dare; why she dared me to take the firestone from the Ultimas and give it to Malvessa? I will never honestly know. Maybe the bitch wanted to see me shave my head, perhaps she thought I would never do it, and I guess I wouldn’t have, but then Ronan called me into his office, which would change my outlook on life forever.

Ronan told me he had overheard our game and asked if I would go ahead with the dare. I said I didn’t know; he looked incredibly intrigued as a grin crept up at the corners of his mouth.

I remember the moment Ronan moved around his lavish office desk and came to stand behind me; I remember feeling nervous and scared as he gently began running his fingertips down my bare arm. He told me I was his favourite because I wasn’t weak like the rest. He promised me a life where I could have anything and everything I could ever want, including becoming Queen of Aeonian if I went through with the dare; but the problem was that I was in love with Cole; I wanted him to be the one I spent my life with, the one I gave myself to.

Ronan took all of that away from me the moment he forced himself on me, the moment he took whatever innocence I had in me and replaced it with the desire for nothing else but hatred and power.

Things changed after that one moment, and it didn’t matter how many times I tried scrubbing it away in the shower until my skin eventually bled, I couldn’t get the image of him on top of me, breaking me wide open while tears ran down my cheeks, that desk of his nothing more than a hideous reminder of what he did; the moment he took away any chance I ever had of being a good person. He ruined that, and with it destroyed the slither of kindness Cole had planted inside my heart.

Cole quickly picked up that something was wrong; I ignored him after what happened; I felt tainted with a darkness that I would never again be able to escape. Ronan told me to get close to Asher; back then, the Ultimas and the Aeonians got along; well, Ronan tolerated the wolves let’s put it that way.

The way into the enemy’s lair is to become friendly with the one who’s the most naive, which was Asher. He was only a few months younger than I was, not that I had ever liked him before, but I did what Ronan commanded; I engaged in getting closer to Asher, so close in fact that I fucked him and told him that I loved him; all to get closer to the firestone.

The thing with Asher was that I started to feel something for him, which sounds ridiculous; the more we fucked, the more I felt a tingly sensation coursing through my body when he touched me.

I wouldn’t say I liked it and I definitely didn’t want to feel anything for him, mainly because I suppose of what I had gone through, and that I still loved Cole, so the thought of feeling anything for anyone else wasn't something I wanted to entertain, especially when he turned around and said that he thought we might be fated mates. I wanted to laugh at him.

So one night, after we fucked for hours; I slipped him something, and by the time he was fast asleep, I used the wolf cuffs Ronan had given me; I slipped them on him without him even stirring. I felt a little bit guilty as I stood over his bed watching his sleeping form; he looked peaceful and genuinely the most breathtakingly beautiful boy I had ever seen; but I had a mission, and he wasn't it anymore.

I stole the firestone that night, ran straight into the Unseelie realm, and very nearly got myself killed before making my way right at the front gates of Castle Mirk; to say that Malvessa was somewhat surprised to see me of all people standing there, is an understatement. The moment I showed her the stone, however, telling her that Ronan sends his regards and wishes to bury the hatched and, one day would like to establish a united front once we have the fifth stone, sure got her attention fast.

She took the stone, I left, and by the following morning, I was on my way back to Aeonian, except I didn’t make it that far. The moment I started making my way back up river, I was ambushed by Ultimas. News had spread quickly about Asher being cuffed, and the stone was missing, so I was their first suspect. Of course.

I ran and might have even gotten away from the Ultima King himself, Gideon. But somehow, Cole had followed me all the while, clearly concerned with how strange I had been acting those last couple of weeks; he saw me with Asher; he watched as I cuffed him, as I stole the stone and as I gave the stone to Malvessa.

He was heartbroken, but before I had a chance to defend myself in any way or form, King Gideon suddenly came out of nowhere, launching himself at Cole; I mean, Cole never stood a chance; he had his back to him, he never even saw it coming, it was over before he even had a chance to fight back.

Cole died because of me, and to make matters worse; Caleb must have come looking for Cole, the moment the Ultima King killed Cole; Caleb appeared out of nowhere.

Caleb damn well lost his mind when he saw Cole lying on the ground, he killed the Ultima King that day, and the natural darkness that had always been inside him became the petrifying rage of the abyss we know him to be today.

I wish I could say the madness stopped there, but it had only begun. A few moments after Cole’s death, Caleb and I discovered that we were fated mates; the way Caleb looked at me was nothing short of raw hatred. He would have killed me that day if not for the mate bond kicking in and saving my ass. I remember vaguely staring into the distance and seeing Malvessa watching us with the strangest look of satisfaction on her face, but I didn’t have time to focus on her much after that. The Ultima king was dead, Cole was dead, and Caleb was forced to help me cover it up.

Caleb told me to return to the castle, but I followed him anyway; I watched as he buried his brother in the witch’s forest. I watched him sit there and cry for hours as he rocked himself back and forth, all because of me.

I left him like that after I couldn't handle it anymore, and headed back to Aeonian to tell Ronan that I had done what he commanded; I said to him that I had killed the Ultima King, not wanting to implicate Caleb. The thing is, Ronan wasn’t even all that upset over that or losing Cole; he seemed happy about it; I know he didn’t really like Cole, probably because Cole was pure and good.

After that, Malvessa and Ronan banished the Ultimas; those who didn’t leave our realm were slaughtered. I remember hearing that Asher went after Malvessa, but then we never heard from him again, and we all suspected that he had been killed, only to replace out recently that he had been cursed.

The day I saw Asher on that bridge, it was like looking at a ghost from the past come back to haunt me, and the way he looked at me told me he hadn’t forgotten.

Sighing, I finally open my bedroom door; now that I’ve had time to freshen up, I can go downstairs and face my monster.

RONAN

I can’t help smirking the moment Eris walks into my office; I’m lazily seated against my leather recliner, a warm fire crackling in the fireplace beside me as I slowly take another sip of my scotch on the rocks; I’ve been waiting for her to get her little ass back home.

Giving her a once over, I scoff as I roll my eyes,

“You had a shower before reporting to me first,” It’s not a question; I should know by now that Eris is all about appearance and power; that’s why manipulating her has been the easiest thing to accomplish.

“I smelt like shit, or would you rather I’ve walked in here covered in the blood of you’re men?” She asks sarcastically as she raises a cocky little brow at me,

“Careful now, don’t forget your place,” Smirking she leisurely starts moving closer to me until she’s standing right in front of my feet, “So the plan is falling into place, I see,” And she merely nods stiffly as her jaw clenches. A sly grin creeps up at the corners of my mouth as I pat my one leg, and Eris slowly comes to straddle my legs as she places the palms of her hands against my chest.

“Was Liam mating with Lana also part of you’re plan?” She asks as she narrows her eyes on me, and I can’t help replaceing it all a bit humorous, is my little Eris getting jealous of her brother’s pathetic happiness?

“No,” I retort steely, “But it will make the moment you kill him a lot sweeter now, won’t it?” Smirking, Eris cocks her head,

“You want me to kill my brother for you?” Slowly taking her chin in between my thumb and forefinger, I sigh as I tilt my head,

“You want to become Queen of Aeonian and fuck my son?” A slight grin creeps up at the corners of her mouth as she looks down at me,

“Queen, yes, but I would rather continue fucking you if you don’t mind; Atlas... just doesn’t do it for me.” And I can’t help the moment a low chuckle reverberates through my chest,

“So you don’t want my son in your bed?”

“I didn’t say that; I’ll fuck him if you order me to, but it’s you I want.” Smirking, I cock my head at her as I give her a curious look,

“Now you and I both know that’s a lie; it’s the crown you’re after, that and the power of having all five power stones.” Smirking, Eris raises a brow at me,

“Is wanting power so bad?” Narrowing my eyes on her, I suddenly tighten my grip around her waist.

“I do enjoy getting my dick wet with you, Eris, but if you ever double cross me, I’ll snap your neck like a twig.” Smirking, she hungrily leans in as she crushes her lips to mine, and my dragon growls deeply inside my chest.

I can replace some time for a little bit of fun with my toy before I get what I want, ultimate power and control, right?

The biggest mistake they ever made was underestimating how far I’ll go to have what I want, and by Sasha leading the fight into Mirk, everything is going according to plan.