Surreptitious Alliance: Marked by My Alien Slave
61

Rain pov.

The moment Morgan, Luca and Ragna leave the room the tension goes with them. Magus rolls his shoulders before moving away from the wall my mate threw him against, muttering something about not being a rag doll. I grin, taking my seat next to River again, hoping that whatever they're doing ends soon. I feel like dead weight but I know trying to sleep without Morgan is going to be useless.

"Rain, we need to talk about your parents." I try not to glare at Agness. With everything going on around us I haven't really let my mind drift on the possibility of my parents still being out there somewhere. That they abandoned River and I, in preparation for this war none of us even want to be a part of.

"My parents are dead. Come on Riv, you need to get some sleep." I push up from the couch and drag River to her feet.

"I'm not a child." She huffs but my sharp glare makes her start walking out of the room.

"This isn't a conversation you can avoid forever pup." Benjamin tells me, causing me to direct my glare at him.

"There is no conversation to be held." I follow my sister out of the room.

"They want to see you. They'll be here in a few days." Agness tells me but I don't stop walking. I give River a gentle push out the door and we start walking back to our rooms.

"Are they really coming?" I shrug my shoulders. "I don't want to be mad at them, Rain." There's a carefulness in her words, like she thinks she'll offend me if she doesn't harbor the same animosity towards our parents that are slowly starting to build within me.

"You don't have to be mad at them." She stops walking and stares up at me, her lips pushed into a straight line.

"I know you went through a lot trying to take care of me and then your mate was ripped from you, and I know if they maybe took us with them, we wouldn't have had to go through everything we did, but... can't we all just stop being angry and work together?" I sigh and run a hand over my face, exhausted from this never-ending roller coaster of change and ongoing deception.

"Just because we're angry doesn't mean we're not working together. I..." I run a hand through my hair, not knowing how to explain to River what it feels like to be bonded to someone and feel the pain and rejection they went through all because people who were supposed to protect them didn't. As much as I'm raging inside, most of it is for my mate. I've known who I am, what I am, for my entire life and as much as my parents lying to me sucks, she's only now coming to terms with who she is and all I want to do is kill everyone who's ever made her feel lacking. "When they come, you don't have to keep your distance from them. You can just be you. Just, afford me some time to sort through my own feelings and don't blame me for not embracing them. You're still a pup, I don't blame you for wanting your parents." How could I when all I ever wanted was my parents back? When I spent months wishing and hoping they'd made some mistake. Only to replace they broke our bonds to keep themselves safe. I don't even have pups of my own yet but just the thought of leaving them behind already makes me sick to my stomach and they actually did it.

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"Yeah, okay." I walk her back to her room and enter mine, deflating as I go through the motions of taking a shower and then getting into bed. A heaviness settling over me. "This sucks man." I snort at Remi's unhelpful comment, but it makes me feel a little bit better that my wolf and I are on the same page, smiling when Morgan appears next to me. "What's wrong?" I lean into my mate's touch as she runs her fingers through my hair.

"My parents are coming in a few days." I mutter, pulling her close to me, positioning us so I can hide my face in her stomach. Her scent surrounds me, causing my body to relax as my desire for her peeks through and I think I might hate being apart from her more than I thought.

"It's okay to not want to see them. Heavens know I want to kill Magnus every time I see him." I feel her anger for him though our bond and I know I should talk her off the ledge, convince her to give him a shot but I just can't. It's something more than the mate bond keeping me from doing so. I disliked the man since the moment I saw him and nothing he's done since proves to me he's anything but a treat to my mate.

"I haven't seen them in decades. I..." I groan, something like grief scratching at the corners of my heart but it doesn't make sense. It makes my skin feel tight, aggravating me to no end.

"Hush now." I feel the pressure release as Morgan's magic wraps around me tighter. I can feel her Sentinel pushing her way under my skin and Remi purrs in my mind, ever the sap for his mate. "We can plan to kill them after this war if that's what you want. We first have to kill Sinclair."

"How the fuck is she a mother?" I ask. What is it about the hunger for power that makes people this insane?

"I have no idea. At least we've figured out how to remedy what's wrong with Ragna. They've been poisoning them with Evergreen. It's a big no-no for Faries and I don't think Sinclair knows it. It's what causing them to rot." Huh, you learn something new every day.

"So, you've figured out why the Fairie hybrids are dying. What about the rest of them?" I ask and she shrugs her shoulders.

"We'd have to run our own test on them, but we don't have a way of doing it without alerting Sinclair. I'm sure she's already noticed that Magus is missing." My mate huffs, her frustration ebbing through our bond.

"What if we use samples from dead hybrids?" I ask and she frowns at me. "In the room where I was, there was a lot of dead samples we could use. I'm sure they're using them for testing of their own but if we've already figured out what makes Ragna sick, we can figure out what makes the others sick and I'm pretty sure selling them a cure is a way to win loyalty. Plus, I'm sure they all hate Sinclair just as much as Ragna does." The smile that spreads on my mate's face is enough to spark desire in me so I pull her down beneath me and slot my lips over hers. We can think about going to the Bio-Glaze tomorrow. Tonight, she's mine.