The King’s Tainted Mate
Chapter 70

I was torn, yet again. One would think my world would be blooming with happiness now that I had been reunited with my family. Well, I was happy, beyond happy, there was no doubt about that, but perhaps the timing had left me overwhelmed with a thousand

emotions. So much had happened today. Most of which I had not expected at all.

With the banquet, being Xatis's centre of attention...I knew this would happen, but perhaps I had not fully understood to what extent that attention would go, or how far the pride of the people of Xatis reached ragarding knowing of the sure future of their royal family. The entire palace resembled a beast awakened from a century's old slumber and nothing I'd known about the place was consistent with the happenings that now filled it after the ritual in the throne room. I was but a stranger within its walls as I witnessed and watched everything with awe and wonder. The usual calm had not only been replaced with its very many guests that talked excitedly among themselves, but it had also been filled with music, dancing and loud cheers. Wine poured from barrels non-stop as men and maidens alike toasted to the future of Xatis. Both the young and the old, noble and commoner drank and made merry, bringing the usually quiet grand reception halls back to life.

Outside the palace, men had at some point shifted too, their wolves howling to their hearts content. The resulting sounds, a melody of pride and happiness, singing of successes of both the current and future king.

I would have been glad to just be a witness to all of this, but that was not to be. Xatis, it seemed, was not only excited and happy about my child. With their queen having been banished, many had turned to me in the most natural and scary manner. I had barely come to terms with Myrna's banishment and yet many had bowed unnecessarily at the sight of me, smiles wide with their mouths a word short of proclaiming 'long live the queen'

And then there was my family that I had no idea I'd lost until today. Tears had been shed, warm embraces shared. I'd been thrust into yet another world that was overflowing with immense love for me that was both beautiful and marred with pain. I'd felt it. The end to my parent's years and years of pain. It was in every tear shed, in every touch, every gaze, every embrace that was both comforting and a painful reminder of all I had lost.

Fate had outdone itself and I couldn't help but wish to escape. If only but for a moment.

My feet had led me straight to my mate and that moment had turned into one long one. I had had no intentions of staying for too long, but here, by my mate's side, surrounded by all the silence and his calming scent, I'd failed to bring myself to give that up. We'd said nothing. Well, he'd said nothing, while I had mumbled a few words about the peaceful world made of the widespread vegetation down below. His chamber's balcony, I had to admit had become one of my favourite places in the whole palace. Or perhaps it was because it came with his presence.

He'd sat by my side ever so quietly, but I'd felt his gaze on me the entire time. The brief moments I had been curious and turned to meet it, I'd been plunged into a golden sea of countless emotions that I feared would merely add to my own overwhelming ones, so I'd looked away just as quickly each time. Of course it had done nothing to dim the curiosity I'd had lurking at the back of my mind. While holding his every attention was extremely desirable and very welcome to my wolf too, I wondered what it was he was looking for. "This is not meant to be worn for longer than the ritual" He tugged at my gown gently, reminding me that I still wore the gown I'd been wearing before the wheels of fate made its final turn. It was a wonder I'd not felt its weight after so long. But was that what he'd been thinking about? My change of clothes?

"We should be able to replace something more comfortable."

Wait, we? I was scooped up before I could protest and carried into the heart of his chambers. "He only wishes to get me changed!" I chastised my hopeless heart that painted visions of something more. Except that did nothing for my own flesh that had ignited with need at the sight of the very first of those visions, and damn the bond that let him know what I was exactly thinking.

His gaze was the deepest shade of its golden colour when he gently placed me on his bed that held the secrets of our very first moments of intimacy in his chambers. Secrets that had me blushing all shades of scarlet at the mere memory of them. Secrets that made me welcome the surprise warmth of his lips on mine.

The surprise, however, was not only in the action itself, but in the way my heart thundered in my chest at the contact. And despite the desire that threatened to run wild in my blood, his kiss tugged me into a whole new world. It was by no means chaste, yet it did not plunge me into the familiar fires of desire. There was no rush, no assault, just an almost sacred gentleness that caressed my very soul. How that was possible I did not know. Or perhaps I did not wish to acknowledge it.

"I-" He broke off the kiss, eyes searching mine with an overwhelming intensity. "I- There should be something lighter among your gowns." He pulled back just as surprisingly as he'd claimed my lips, leaving me yearning for more and wondering what he'd really meant to say.. His touch while he made work of the cloak that covered my gown only served to deepen that longing. "Do you perhaps prefer to have Astryn do this?"

Did I wish for anyone to intrude on this moment? To trade the intensity of his gaze and the feel of his touch with that of my maid? Did I wish to give up the promise of something more once those layers of fine material were finally pealed from my body? To give up the chance to indulge in untold pleasures that would effectively distract me from the heaviness of my newfound reality. "No." I reached for his hand, my own boldness surprising us both. "I wish for you to do it." His eyes glowed at the invitation. That alluring golden shade that had me biting back a moan summoned by the mere way he took me in. A change of clothes was clearly not what was on his mind. Definitely not on his wolf's either, but if he was going to indulge in pleasuring us both, that was a secret he kept closely guarded in his heart as he pulled me to my feet and got to work at relieving me of the burden of my gown.

I would have claimed him instead, but perhaps my own boldness did not stretch as far as seducing kings even if they were my mate. Especially not when the want in their eyes had suddenly been replaced by something heavy and unrecognizable. He'd frozen, was distracted, the pealed layer of my cloak still in his hands.

"What is it?" I followed his gaze, my own eyes landing on the magical tattoo on my arm that had been exposed. His demeanour was a perfect replica of his reaction when he first beheld them while I lay in his bath. "They are something, wouldn't you say?" I mumbled when I was met with silence.

"They are." He hummed, finally, drawn out of his frozen state by my words. "And quite unforgettable. Even to a child."

"Unforgettable?" Curiosity had me shifting my gaze from the tattoo and back to him. "You've seen something like this before?" The idea had not occured to me before now. The twin wolves still meant nothing to me, but what if they should have. Were they a family mark or something? I had not seen anything of the sort on my mother or father. But then again, they had kept those parts of their bodies covered.

A light side caress of my face was his only answer. Coupled with a very thoughtful look that had me rephrasing my question. "Have you seen these before?" My past was not something I wished to dive in just yet. If I had my way, I would choose a more pleasurable endeavor, but the way my mate looked at me stirred a new longing to want to know if there was a possibility that we had a shared past that involved the tattoo. "Of course, they have only surfaced now on my body, but if you have-"

"I have." That thoughtful look morphed into something that was both thought and a mix of pain. Or was that regret? "A very long time ago." He kept staring. "So long, I should have forgotten, but this image simply refused to fade from memory."

I did not know what to make of his words even as a strange fear to understand what lay behind them plagued me. "Why would you wish to forget?" I inquired despite my fears.

"Because you'd been lost right within these palace walls the night I beheld them and it was my fault."

I'd been lost at the palace?! That was...unexpected. And...it was his fault? "How is it your fault?" Hands held mine with a desperate grip at my question. A grip I returned without a second thought. Because, despite his confession, I knew it would never be something I could hold against him. I was an infant when I'd been lost, so if whatever he spoke of were true, he would have been but a little boy himself. And once again here was evidence of our pasts being entwined, speaking of fate's choice and the impossiblity of running away from it. Did I even wish to run?

"According to mother, I'd been so happy when you had arrived that I would not leave the chambers Florithe had given birth in. Being a young prince, they thought I'd do no harm if I stayed around, but I guess they were wrong." Bitterness dripped with his words. I sought to comfort, naturally "I'm sure they were right. You were what, a few years older than I was? What could anyone so young do?"

"Doze off apparently." He chuckled bitterly.

"Doze off?"

"Well, I did. It would be the thing to ensure that you and your family experienced so much pain."

I frowned. "I do not understand. Why would you dozing off have anything to do with my being seperated from my family?"

"It was night time and the moon was high and bright in the sky. I had wished to thank the moon goddess for the pretty baby."

"I was born during the full moon?"

He smiled and held me tighter before continuing with his tale. "Mother says I thought it was the most beautiful moon. As beautiful as the baby that lay in the crib. I'd watched it for a while, because I wished to get back to the crib and tell the baby all about it. I guess no one thought to look out for the little prince that stood too close to the large open window. Mother says when they did, all hell broke loose after they realized I had actually fallen out of the window. Everyone had spilled out of the room that held you and your mother right after. Their focus had been to retrieve the prince. Lord Lydo, your father had led the search. Hoping to replace me before father got wind of the unfortunate accident. They found me, unharmed, luckily, still peacefully sleeping, but it was at a huge cost." He fell into silence at that, forcing me to look up at him, having an inkling of what that cost was.

"Your crib was empty when they returned. Florithe was in a deep sleep, that she later would not recall how she'd slipped into when she had been left watching over the crib.

"Well, that explained why my mother had spent the entire time holding on to me after being reunited in the throne room. She'd never had that chance before." I whispered. That was just heart breaking. Now that I was a mother myself, I couldn't even imagine such a thing happening to my own child. My hand went to my belly as if to wade off any of fate's ideas if it all it had any of the sort.

"Florithe blamed herself for a very very long time for not being able to protect you. Lydo felt much worse. As the lord of the third house he felt as though he'd failed everyone for failing to protect the house's heir."

Heir? I was the heir to a noble house?! My heart skidded to a stop at that and given our bond, it did not escape my mate's attention.

"Shyla?" He held me up, panic filling his eyes. "Are you alright? Is it something I said?"

"N-No. Well, yes." I croaked out when I finally found my breath, thanks to his panicked commands to get me breathing again. "It was a lot to take in, that's all." It seemed that was all today had to offer. What fate had to offer. Life altering discoveries that made the life I'd lived seem as a shadow compared to what it could have been. "Which part?" Warm hands caressed my face gently. "I can stop if it upsets y-"

"Please don't." I held on tighter in protest. Somehow I knew hearing this from him saved me a lot of tears and heartache that would definitely grip my poor heart if my own parents were to be the ones to narrate this tale to me. "Are you certain?"

"I am." I nodded. "This is not something I wish for my parents to relieve just because I wish to know my past."

"You should know they'd gladly do it, however." Elian searched my eyes as he sought to assure me of that fact. "They'd do anything for you. They did everything to replace you, searched far and wide, but it was of no use. And the more they searched and came up with nothing, the more their hope shattered and grief sank its claws in their hearts. Florithe and Lydo became but a shadow of their former selves even as they chose to withdraw from society. Their loss of you had been too great a battle for them to fight."

A vision of me running wildly in the forgotten village's forest brought a tightness to my chest. A feeling of guilt I did not think possible. I may not have had a noble's upbringing but I was happy. Happy while my parents drowned in grief day after day. That was just sad.

"I have grown up knowing their grief. Shared in it too when I was old enough to understand what happened that night." I stared at my mate. Had he blamed himself? All these years?

"You were but a child."

"It didn't hurt any less when I'd discovered why Florithe, Lydo and the pretty baby never came to the palace anymore. It didn't even matter when mother had mentioned that I shouldn't have dozed that night."

"You shouldn't have? I do not understand."

Jaws clenched before he spoke. "It would eventually take Lord Nevan to determine that that was no natural sleep at all when I didn't wake according to my usual morning routine. Florithe had also slept deeply for quite a long time. Too long even for a woman who'd just gone undergone the ordeal of childbirth."

"Wait, it was somone's doing?!" Anger bubbled. "Who was sick enough to poison a child?"

"Perhaps not the culprit's intentions, but the young prince sharing Florithe's cup of tea had worked perfectly for whoever had been set on taking you away. It created the right amount chaos and the perfect window to commit their crime. They were never caught. It would appear you had disappeared without a trace, until now."

Anger raged in my soul at the person responsible, whose identity I was not even aware of. They'd kept me from my family and knowing their love. A path I should not have treaded was woven by someone's selfishness...They'd kept me from my mate! How different would our story have been if I had stayed in my parent's house?

It was just not Myrna, not just fate, someone else had been pulling at my life's strings and I had danced to their tune my entire life! The very thought angered me even more and if I were being honest, I desired to have their blood more than anything.