Cruel Union (Brutal Universe #1)

47. Slade

47

SLADE

I can’t begin to tell you how much it fucking hurt when I found out Aurora had betrayed me. Breaking her vows like that and taking steps to keep from having my heir when she had sworn to open her womb to my seed was a huge blow, both mentally and physically.

After she admitted it, I couldn’t even look at her.

But just because I sent her away, didn’t mean I stopped thinking of her, though the Goddess knows I tried. I did everything in my power to put her from my mind, to stop feeling for her. But once Fated Mates have found each other and entered a Binding —even a Partial - Binding —turning off your emotions isn’t an option.

I could tell my Second , Rive , was worried about me. He tried taking me out to various parties and shows—he even offered to take me to a sex club. But I couldn’t stomach the thought of touching another woman—of being with anyone but Aurora .

The Thirst was tearing at me, demanding to be slaked, but I refused to slake it. The torture it put me through felt right—like a burden I was meant to bear. I didn’t want to feel content or peaceful— I wanted my body to hurt as badly as my fucking mind. And so I suffered.

I wondered, when I let myself think about her, if Aurora was grieving too. I had seen how upset she was—or maybe was just pretending to be. I couldn’t be sure anymore. I only knew that she had betrayed me in almost the worst way possible.

Rejecting a male’s seed after you promised to receive it was one of the worst insults a woman could give a man in my culture. She might as well have shouted, “ Fuck you!” in my face or slept with another male right in front of me—that’s how bad it was.

And all that time, she’d been pretending to like me—acting like she was falling in love with me. It made me sick and so angry and hurt I could barely fucking think straight.

Which is why I tried my best to ignore the bad feeling I started having about three weeks after I’d told Rive to take her home.

It started in the pit of my stomach—a restless, uneasy feeling that something wasn’t sitting right. At first I thought it was something I’d eaten but it was too nebulous for that. And soon enough it spread to my heart and lungs as well. When I thought of my Fated Mate who had betrayed me, my heart pounded and I found it hard to get a deep breath. Soon , a sense of impending doom began to bear down on me, making me almost frantic. I stood up from my desk and started pacing, unable to be still any longer.

“ Boss , what is it?” Rive asked, watching me pace the floor of my office, which was located not too far from the penthouse. I had moved back there directly after the disastrous confrontation at the dinner table— I couldn’t fucking stand to see Lyrah’s smirking face, rubbing it in. If it hadn’t been for my bitch of a stepmother, I would still be with Aurora now. I wouldn’t ever have known that she was betraying me— I would still be happy.

“ What is it?” Rive asked again, as I paced. “ There’s something wrong with you—what?”

“ I don’t fucking know.” I put a hand to my heart which was pounding heavily in my chest. The Darkness inside me stirred uneasily. It felt the feeling too—the impending doom that was hanging over me like a fucking anvil. “ I don’t know,” I said again. “ I feel like something’s going to go wrong—or maybe is already going wrong.”

“ Something to do with Aurora ? Sorry , I know you said not to say her name,” Rive said quickly. “ But? —”

“ Yes !” The minute her name was spoken aloud, I knew. “ Yes , that’s it!” I pointed a finger at Rive . “ Something’s going to happen to her!” Then the realization hit me. “ Fuck — something’s going to happen to her!”

I ran out of my office with Rive right behind me.

“ Hey , Boss —what the fuck are you doing? Where are you going?” he shouted.

“ To L’Crist !” I threw a glance over my shoulder. “ You stay here—whatever it is, I have to deal with it on my own.”

I knew Rive wouldn’t like that and sure enough, he kept pace with me.

“ I thought you never wanted to see her again?”

“ I don’t!” I growled. “ But I don’t want her to be killed either!”

As I spoke, the impending sense of doom suddenly got much, much heavier. I began to feel like I had a weight the size of a small moon strapped on my back. But that only made me run faster.

Aurora was in trouble! I might hate the way she’d betrayed me, but I couldn’t hate her —no matter how hard I tried. She was still my Fated Mate and like it or not, I was tied to her.

I had to save her or die trying.