Dark Alpha: A Fated Mates Novel

44: WORSHIP

~SINCLAIR~

He came awake abruptly, gulping like a man that had just been saved from drowning, with her name on his lips.

He ran out of his bedchambers, barely to make sure he was clothed, and made for the palace gates. The Keepers that were guarding his room only had a second to catch up to his presence, before they were running after him. 

He could vaguely register the pain in his chest and back, but it wasn't at the forefront now. All that mattered was that his mate was in danger — enough to force his soul out of wolfspace. He could hear every of her doubts in his head like they were his own thoughts. He could feel her heart race inside his chest. He wanted to touch her and shake her and feel her flesh under his hands.

He didn't even need to ask where she was. The mate bond had gotten so strong without any warning, so strong that her agony was enough to bring him back from the lands beyond. Even he was unsure how any of it had happened, and that unsureness made him feel vulnerable. He couldn't imagine how she was handling it.

But he was grateful for it now, because it led him right to the top of the tower where Vannie was. Where he could smell her mouthwatering scent. He ran up the stairs, paying no mind to the Keepers at his heels. 

He reached her — finally, Vannie — but it wasn't quite his mate he met there. Everything about her was different; her scent, her hands, her eyes. It took a moment for him to realize what he was witnessing, and when he did, he almost stumbled to his knees. 

"Vannie."

She didn't turn to face him. Her hands were controlling a conjured vision of his kingdom walls. His Keepers were wrapping up one of the most brutal fights he'd ever seen. And were doing it in human form.

His mouth fell. But that wasn't the most surprising part of it.

His mate was channeling the power from the lands. The ones he had to touch the soil to harness, the ones he'd thought only a true-born Inlands Alpha could wield, his mate had called forth from a f*cking vision. It looked like the lands had given her one more gift.

Vannie was fighting this battle. He could see the thin film of magick that covered the borders. Whenever a rival wolf tried to cross that boundary, he got fried.

Fried. 

Like a f*cking piece of salmon thrown into a pot of sizzling olive oil.

If it was someone else doing his, Sin would have felt a little bit jealous. Even he couldn't use Inlands powers like this. But it was his mate, so he looked on, awe and joy fizzling in his stomach till he was punch-drunk with it.

Whenever an Inlands Keeper looked like he was getting tired, Vannie lent them power. Literally. From the vision she was holding, she monitored each Keeper, and fed them her powers whenever she saw anyone faltering.

She was chanting incantations rapidly as she did, a one-woman army. Sin felt his heart swell to bursting in his chest. He didn't want her to be doing all of these by herself, but he didn't want to distrupt her flow. She clearly wasn't herself right now. She might crumble if he tried to bring her out of the moment.

He went a few steps closer and sat at her feet. "You can leave now. Go make sure the Inlanders are safe in their homes," he told the Keepers he'd almost forgotten had followed him, and closed his eyes. 

There was no one to lend her strength when she got tired, but he'd stay right here. When she collapsed he'd be here to catch her.

***

The fight was over in about a few minutes, with their rivals either subdued or killed. The vision dissipated into a cloud of smoke, and Vannie took a quiet seat beside him.

"I felt you come into the room," she said calmly, after a few minutes of her trying to gather herself. "I thought — we all thought you'd be gone for much longer. You scared me, Sin. I've been so terrified."

He held her hand and pressed it to his chest. "I'm not leaving you. You aren't leaving me."

"Maeve is our traitor."

He nodded. "I know. I've always known."

She didn't look surprised at his confession, or even mad that he hadn't told her. "Then why did you let her stay around you? Know all your plans and cohabit with the Inlanders? She sold us out."

Us. Gods, she had already embraced the fact that she was never leaving him now, hadn't she? That she was an Inlander and that her subjects were not going to let her leave them?

"She did what she had to do. She found her mate in Crin, and she knew she couldn't bring him before me. I would have killed him immediately."

Vannie looked as if she already suspected what his answer would be, but she asked anyway. "Who is her mate?"

"Crom."

She shut her eyes. Whispered, "That. . .must have been a very tough choice for Maeve."

He chuckled, even though there wasn't anything remotely funny about the situation. "Maeve is — let's leave her for now. I want to talk about what you just did. I want to talk about where we go from now. You just won us the greatest victory in Inlands history without even leaving the palace. You repressed an army of two territories! You know they were planning to lay waste to the Inlands, don't you? They wouldn't have taken any prisoners. They wouldn't have. . ."

He trailed off, hearing as his voice broke on the last word. "I would have lost my city and my mate in one fell swoop. I don't know what I did to deserve a mate as amazing as you are, who can harness my lands' powers and do awesome magick. But I promise I'll spend the rest of my life showing you what true worship is like. I'll love you so hard you don't even — Vannie?"

Since her eyes had gone close, they hadn't come open again. And she had gone limp against the wall. 

He jerked up to his knees, holding her face. "Vannie? Vannie!"

She'd gone unconscious, he realized. He'd been chattering away while she'd fainted. How ironic that he was promising her love when he hadn't even noticed how drained she'd been from all the magick she'd expended tonight.

"For f*ck's sake, Vannylla." He stood up and hoisted her into his arms, running out of the attic.