Zion

“You look tired.”

I turn around, Penelope watching me as I stand on the balcony of the ballroom. “The last time I was in this room was when I was seven.”

“How long ago was that?” I ask, crossing my arms as Penelope advances towards me, pulling her long and dark rich red hair back into a bun.

Penelope shrugs, picking up a vase from a stand, examining the designs of the storms upon the glass. “About forty years ago.”

My eyes widen. “You look to be in your late twenties!” I exclaim, causing her to laugh. She smiles, standing beside me as we look out upon the sunrise. “How?”

“My best friend is a witch, Lady Sybil, she keeps me young looking. Quite a plus to our relationship.” I nod, taking a swing of the alcohol in my glass, burning my throat as it goes down. “You don’t strike me as the drinking type.”

“I’m not,” I mumble in reply, watching as she takes a step forward, looking over her shoulder to me.

She turns to face me, pulling her silky robe down in the front, revealing a set of breasts covered by a thin white bra. But something is off, how there’s a scar between her breasts, one of a bite mark. “I believe Zion filled you in on my human mate.” I nod. “Look at the scar.”

I look closer at the scar, unsure of what she is showing me here. “A bite of a wolf. It’s a mark, yet you are mated to a human.” She smiles, pulling the robe back to cover herself.

“Good, you’re not as dumb as I thought,” she comments, pushing past me, setting the vase back down as she takes my drink. “So, by the drink? What is it for?”

“You didn’t finish the story,” I add, watching her raise her chin, nodding slightly.

“I like reasons to give away pieces of a story.” She cocks her head to the side. “Why are you drinking? Poor little Sebastian doesn’t want you around? Zion confuses you?”

“How do you know?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “How do you know about Sebastian? Not even-

“Not even Zion could figure it out? I am a dear friend of Sebastian’s mother, and word gets around. Besides, conversations are better in secret than hallways.”

My body tenses. “I’m drinking-

“Because the big and bad King hasn’t spoken to you since his outbreak?” She strikes a nerve. “You miss his company.”

“I want my answers from him,” I reply, “I want to know why I am here.”

“So do I, Sybil, but it seems to me you miss his company.”

I scoff.

“You miss him always saying you are his or how he flirts with you.” My eyes roll, walking back towards the railing of the balcony, the lake below. “You miss his company.”

“I miss my family,” I snap, looking back to the Alpha female, her jaw clenching. “I want answers from him, thus, because I cannot get them, I am drinking.” She rolls her eyes, shaking her head as I cross my arms, watching as she takes the last swing of my alcohol, throwing the glass over the railing and into the lake.

“I was eighteen when my pack’s future Beta and I decided we would mate.” I watch as her face turns sour, hurt flooding her eyes. “We did not have our mates yet, and thus, we decided to mark one another.” I lean against the railing. “It turned bitter and I found my pack suffering because of it. Thirteen years after mating I found my mate while drinking at a bar in Spain. We had a one night stand. He was hammered. He could feel the pull.”

“How old was he when you met him?” I ask, watching as a smirk crosses her lips.

“He was twenty-two and I was in my early thirties.” My eyes widen at the age gap, through the King and I have one as well. “I left that next morning back to Canada where my pack is.” I watch as she paces back and forth between the archway and railing. “Another two years and I was dying on the inside. I rejected my beta mate and made him rogue, then asked my witch friend to age me younger. After a week, I went back to Spain and found him, mating right away.”

“Why did you tell me this?” I question, spotting a group of Alphas cross the ballroom. “Why does this apply to my current state?”

“Should it apply?” Penelope inquires. “I went back to my true mate after I suffered.”

“You’re saying I will return to Sebastian,” I whisper, leaving the balcony and her company. My hand is grasped, pulling me back and by her side.

A smile crosses her face, one that warns me off. “I am going to say, Sybil,” she begins, running her fingers through my hair, causing my neck to be pulled back, putting me into a submissive position. “With where you are, Lady Sybil, I would suggest you be careful over which man you trust.”

What does she mean?

I’m let go of, stumbling forward as Penelope sighs, leaving me alone to be once more.

I am shocked by her story, how she decided to mate someone else because their mates never showed. They mates to become the power couple, after all, the Beta and Alpha is quite the pairing. For her to be mates and married for so many years only to then meet her mate at a party and spend one night with him. Sure, the age gap is there, thus her witch friend helps her still attain a youthful look. But why did she intrust this story to me?

I bet the press would love this story, a scandal of a witty female Alpha and human boy who is actually years younger than her. Yet she entrusted me with her story, meaning I am to respect that. If it was a story to say that you will always go back to your mate no matter what, I do believe our stories are different.

She had never met her mate before she decided that the Beta and her would try our a relationship. She met her mate years later, only to leave and then return to spend her life with him. The story I have is different, how I met my mate first and he rejected me. The story of how I was made rogue by my mate and have found myself in the palace walls beside the Wolf King.

Does Penelope mean that I will head back to Sebastian, because after everything he has done to me and how he still treats me, I’d never go back to him. Ever.

I walk back to the Senate chamber, taking a seat on the second floor where, usually, guests are allowed to watch the Senate take action. However, up here are only scribes as they document the occasion and shut out the public eye. They are smart, to not get the public involved just yet. I mean, the way they would respond to possibly calling upon rogues is all up in the air and no certainty whatsoever.

“Where is the King?” an Alpha shouts, the sound of a fist slamming upon the table causing me to jump. “We need this meeting to go on!”

“No one has spotted him since he left last,” a female Alpha speaks up as she moves next to Penelope, speaking with her about what to do.

“We need him to carry this meeting on or we have nothing to say.”

Zion needs to be here for the meeting to continue, for things to get done. He’s still MIA and no one has no idea where he is. He didn’t come back last night to his room, nor is he still within his library walls.

Getting to my feet, I straighten out my dress and leave the Senate chambers, my feet moving fast across the floor as I try to pick up his scent. If there’s one thing that I’m amazed at, it’s that his scent is intoxicating to me, how I can pick it up quickly or it sneaks up upon me.

“Zion?” I call out as I arrive at the music room, only to find it completely empty. Groaning, I think of where to look, to find the Zion who refused to speak with me, something strange. “Zion?”

I’m an hour I’m back to the massive lounge on the top floor, the last one he showed me my first night here. Maids clean the room swiftly as they are just finishing up on polishing the floor. “Lady Sybil?” One asks, looking up to give me eyes of concern. “Are you in need to assistance?”

“Yes,” I reply. “I am looking for the King, it is of importance.” The maid nods, putting down her polishing rag as she motions for me to follow her. And I do. We head down five different hallways, each one getting narrower, and soon, right as a stain glass window lies at the dead end of a hall, the maid turns to me.

“He is right through there.”

“What?” I look at the window, the tall glass with colors of the sunrise painted on. “That’s a window.”

“Yes, indeed it is, but also a door. Through there is a section of private quarters.” I nod, walking past the maid and to the window. Strange that he needs so many private quarters. What could this one be? “All you do it step through.”

“How?” I ask, gaining a soft laugh.

“Like much of this castle, magic runs through the walls. Imagine this to be a projection that you can just walk right through and into another room.” I take her advice, putting one foot up, and as it goes through, I just fell a small breeze of air. Passing through the rest of the way, my eyes widen as I come into a circular room, the ceiling made of glass as the sunlight streams in, the walls covered in books and painting, and in the center? The King lies face down upon a couch, a book by his side, and something else. On the coffee table before him lays a sword, one that is long and thin, the blade sharp and smooth, the handle decorated only in simple design of engravings.

My hand moves towards the sword as I bite the inside of my cheek, unable to understand why the sword is on the coffee table or if it has special value. Just as my fingers brush the tip of the sword, voices echo around me, my head spinning as my vision blurs.

The voices whisper, their voices rushed yet calm as my breath hitches.

I snatch my hand away, stumbling back and into a table, causing that one to tip over, and the vase and lamp upon the table, they shatter onto the floor.

“Shit.”

My body is suddenly against the wall, golden eyes with amber streaks searching my face, the body against mine is tense. “How did you get in?”

He’s angry, he doesn’t want me here. Too bad. “The Senate needs you to continue their session or they will all be here longer than needed.” Zion let’s out a deep sigh, letting go of my body as he stalks back to his chair, his eyes glued upon the sword. “What is that sword? Ancestor?”

He shakes his head. “Sword of a werewolf hunter, about two centuries old,” he replies. Why would he have a sword out and up here? Why not down to be displayed in the weapons room. “Legend says that the prince fell in love with a huntress and her father killed him out a rage, not wanting his daughter to marry his enemy. The huntress later killed herself. This sword killed the prince.” As to why I’ve been told the story, I don’t know why. Everything here holds a story yet he rather tells me one of doomed lovers.

“The Senate would like to be in session,” I break the silence, his arms crossing. My eyes drift to the sword, how those voices surrounded me. Perhaps the voices of all the victims it claimed.

“I will go back when I feel like it.”

“Stubbornness is a downfall many time,” I express, walking along the rows of books, countless mythology books meeting my eyes. “They just want to get it over with.”

“Some Alphas need to learn respect,” he snaps, causing me to look at him with a scowl. “They need to be taught when to shut their muzzles.”

He is right, many of them need to seal control, but the King does as well. How he got angry so easily frightens me. I walk back to the King, stopping a hard before him as I sigh. I want to ask the million dollar question. I want to ask away so badly and watch his eyes as they either show truth or lie.

“Why did you come, Sybil?”

“The Alphas want you back in session and I also want you there. The sooner you finish with them, the sooner the palace is free of them.”

“Because your mate is here.”

My throat runs dry as he brings that up. “Because your mate is here you want them gone so I never get that name. Sybil, I could so easily just have the guards tell me who you saw that night when you snuck out to see him.” I frown, crossing my arms as the King cocks his head to the side. “It’s so easy yet I want to play a game. Just keep in mind that I could easily have that name.”

He takes another step forward, his hands moving up as one cups my cheek and the other runs through my hair, weaving through as he catches hold of some knots. My head tilts to the side, my neck exposed by his actions as his eyes are focused upon where the mark goes. “I could easily mark you.”

“But you will not,” I hiss, gritting my teeth together as he offers me a sarcastic smile.

“I can and I will if it comes to that.”

“Don’t you see I feel nothing for you?!” I shout, pushing his hands away. Is that true? Is it true that I don’t feeling anything for this man? Penelope said I missed his company, that I missed our simple talks or complex ones no matter what the subject. She said I enjoy his company yet I don’t even know. She could be messing with my head for all I know. “You should head to the Senate,” I mumble, looking up to meet his eyes, hurt-filled ones as they search my face for something. “You cannot make me suddenly go head over heels for you.”

He takes a step forward, eyes still locked on mine as I can feel his hurt, how my words have stung.

And that’s when it happens, the action he’s been waiting so long to do. As he pulls me closer, his hand on the back of my neck to keep me there, I give in, replying with passion as some feeling awakens within me. A feeling once dormant.

The room spins as I close my eyes, a hand running through his hair as I pull gently, gaining a growl as he sets a hand on my waist, pulling me even closer as I give into the feelings.

Suddenly, it’s gone just as fast as it occurred. With that, I see Zion’s eyes turn black, but not with rage or sadness, but with one that makes feeling run south and my wolf try to remain her cool.

That’s when I do it, when I pull upon his shirt and tug him back to me, needing the release as I give him one more kiss just as, or even more, passionate as before, grabbing hold of him to keep him close as a small growl escapes is lips when I tug his hair.

Slowly, we separate, out of breath, and my heart beating faster than I have ever felt, as if it’s gotten some new form of energy that I’ve never had. “See you at the Senate,” Zion whispers against my swollen lips, offering me one last peck before he leaves the room, leaving me to the silence and thoughts of what I have just done.

How I just let the King easily get to me, how I allowed him to let me feel things I thought only Sebastian could grant me.

Looking out upon the lake through the window, my mind races with a million thoughts, only, the voices return. As they whisper in my ear differing things that I am unable to understand, my mind flashes back to Zion, to what we just committed.

Something tells me that was only the beginning.