Make Me: The World of Knott

34Aldric

Those bastard brothershad done nothing but defy me. Nothing but trick me. Ever since the beginning, ever since I had washed ashore after what they thought was a failed attempt at escape.

They never believed in my strength, and now they had used me, kept my Omega from me, kept the Fae with her powerful blood away from me.

But now they would pay.

Even with my speed it had taken me longer to arrive here than it should. I had brought Dawn with me so that I could keep up my pace, even though she had slowed me down. I had contemplated killing her multiple times but I needed sustenance to arrive in time. I could only trust Grina to take my place for some long, after all.

I had spent evenings feasting on her blood to give me strength, letting her moan beside me to keep me entertained. The Covern Mountains were high, thick and unforgivable. They were supposed to be uncrossable, and now I had done it four times. Twice to get my people over to Sypani and to the beta's that would feed us, and once to return back to spread the word of what we had done.

I would say that this would be my final time, but I doubted it. I needed to return to my throne, to my Omega. Although if I was smart I would leave Dawn here and not drag her half mutilated body back with me.

"I've been expecting you," Theon said before I had even crossed the threshold of the broken castle, the massive building that sat in the center of Xen, the city that we had occupied for centuries. It had been our castle, the seat for our kingdom.

It still was, we had just expanded our kingdom. It was no surprise Theon had come here. It was, however, surprising that Garret and Parris hadn't considered that he would.

Theon stood there waiting for me, his pale skin speckled with blood, his eyes a deep red that nearly matched his hair. He had always been a portly figure, but it was always a ruse, a cover to hide all the strength that was beneath.

"Did you bring a treat?" Theon grinned at me, nodding to Dawn who knelt on the end of a chain beside me. She was naked, shivering, her flesh covered with scratches and bite marks that still scented the air with her aroma.

“Not this one, she’s half dead and near addicted. Her blood tastes more like rubber.” I dropped her leash and she fell to her hands, her skin that was already cracked and caked with blood and mud making an odd grinding sound. She looked up to me, her crack lips parted as she begged, those gaunt eyes already filled with the addition that made her kind so fickle. Useless.

"Welcome Home, brother," Theon beamed, his fleshy arms wrapping around me and pulling me to him, crashing me against him.

"It is not a welcome," I was snarling, no matter how much I tried not to. "I have come with news."

"News?" His arm tightened around me as he led me toward the high glass door, Dawn stumbling beside me as Theon led us to the hall of four thrones just beyond.

"Yes. It’s about our covens. When you left your coven was bound with mine."

"It was?" He gave a heartless laugh. "The Fools."

He wasn't wrong. But Parris and Garret had relied upon their kinship to keep any uprising at bay. They knew that their two covens were stronger against the rest, just as they knew Theon’s coven would not join with theirs so easily. They knew it, they were overly confident in it, and I squandered it. Even if it hadn't been my plan originally, something I would not be telling Theon.

"Yes, and together we drove Parris and Garret from Sypani." I kept it short, leaving out the how’s and whys of it all. Theon had always been at odds with the other kings. He needn't know what I had done, or what they had taken from me. Besides, if I told him, he would just stand in my way. He would want her for himself and then I would have to kill him before he had served my true use for him. I couldn't have that.

He had his own Fae, after all.

"You drove them from Sypani?" Theon stopped right before the door, his hand floating above the knob as he narrowed his eyes at me. It was clear he didn't believe me, but did I blame him? We had talked about it all in jest so many times before. But now I had done it.

"Yes. It is ours, and now we can position ourselves to take Xerai, to feast on beta's and destroy the Fae when we are strong with their blood.

"And here I was thinking you were coming to ask me for help. This is better," Theon grinned, opening the door to the wide hall that had spent so much of my life wasting away in. It looked the same, the tall glass and the blood soaked floors. The four thrones of bone and sand, and the paintings of a history that I barely remembered. Except that two of the thrones were gone.

One was empty.

Jett sat in the other.

His long grey hair had been cut short, but his eyes were the same. His jaw was the same. I had taken him many times, but the man I had pleasured no longer sat before me. He sat tall and regal, as though he was a king himself.

The thought twisted through me and I felt my fangs drop.

"What is this," I laughed, gesturing to the half-Fae bastard just as Theon dropped to his knees, bowing his head before the man.

"Aldric,” Theon whispered as he rose. “Let me introduce you to my husband and King of Syn, Jett, the eldest son of Healynas."

"Holy fuck!" Dawn shrieked.

All I could do was stand there and stare.