Shattered - Completed

38 - Eventually

CeCe

Lashed into a standing position, Tivo's wrists are tied above his head to a large hook bolted to the roof beams. He is nude and thinner than I've ever seen him, with ribs poking out of skin that is stretched too tightly. His wrists are raw and red, with a trickle of blood slowly dripping from the cuffs. There are no whip marks, no stab wounds or excessive bruising. His feet are able to touch the floor. With my stomach churning, I know that Gavin is preserving Tivo's health for a reason.

Swallowing the bile surging, I meet the gaze of my truemate. I can't fathom what he's thinking or feeling. In fact, when I meet his eyes, I feel nothing. My she-wolf also ignores him, going as far as to turn her back on him completely.

I drag my gaze away from Tivo. In his eyes I see defeat and I don't want to look anymore. Stubbornly I glance around the meat shed until my eyes lock on something so grotesque that it takes a moment to register.

In the corner of the room, the king has placed my mother. Right next to her is Luna Lucretia. The two females are dangling from hooks and chains around their naked torsos. The wicked metal curves out from under their armpits toward their faces. I see a wound on Luna Lucretia's right cheek that must be from her head dipping into the pointed end of one hook. Unlike Tivo, their feet are dangling in the air. My mother is spinning slowly, and when she rotates enough, I see that one of the hooks has pierced her flesh. The wound is a terrible, angry red, exposing muscle down to the bone. Other than their sneering, agony-filled faces, they resemble nothing more than rotting flesh and bone.

"Don't look, love," Gavin grabs me and hides my face in his chest. His chest rumbles under my ears in a deep, soothing sound.

I pull away. "I'm fine," I whisper. I won't cringe away from this. I'm not an omega wolf. I can't be so queasy in the face of what my mate does. My she-wolf, on the other hand, hides her eyes under her paws.

Slowly, I look again at the former MoonGlist luna. How is she still alive? She reeks of dead flesh and despair. Part of her left leg looks blackened and greenish from rot. Angry red lines radiate from the wound. It resembles what I think my mother's leg will look like in a few days. Claw marks run along her sides, her arms, her face. They are shallow, meant to torture not kill, but it's a bit of a miracle that she's still breathing when her mate of over twenty years is dead. Unless... "were the luna and Alpha Tilain not truemates?" I ask.

My oldest brother, Malcolm, speaks up, "I have always wondered that."

Startled, I glance at him. I hadn't even noticed him lurking in the shadows, arms crossed over his chest as he voluntarily shares space with his mother and stepmother.

"I want this done. Then you are coming back home," the king suddenly orders.

Gavin grimaces at his father. "You go home. It's been how long since you saw Mom?"

"Four days and seventeen hours," the king mutters. "Twenty minutes," he adds under his breath. With a heavy sigh, his arms fall to his side. "They'll need to be taken care of before you bring my daughter south," he says abruptly.

Gavin nods. "I am aware."

I look between the two males worriedly. "Who needs to?" I ask.

Gavin kisses my forehead. "We'll discuss it, later, my love." To his father, he says, "go. This won't take long. Bring our son with you."

The king nods abruptly before walking over to me. To my shock, he grabs me to his chest and hugs me tightly. He never did this in the Knowing. I wonder if being away from the queen is affecting him more than I understood at first.