Chapter 35

Flora’s P.O.V

I felt dead inside, like there was no meaning left to my life anymore.

If this had been anyone else then I could’ve questioned the mating bond; could’ve fought with the gods itself to claim my Clay. After all, how could a bond make complete strangers fall in love with each other?

But these weren’t strangers. This was Dorothy, my best friend; the woman I considered my sister. And Clay, the man I had given my heart to.

I knew now that breaking up with him before his birthday had been the correct decision. It had been a doomed relationship from the start.

Let’s break-up…until twelve.

I wanted to laugh at how delusional we had been. There was no way around a mating bond and once it sets in place, there was no way to reject it. Clay had told me several times that he would reject his mate for me, but I had left as soon as Dorothy had uttered the words I had never thought I would hear her say about Clay…’mate’.

I vaguely registered that we were driving through a big city, but my mind was too numb to register where we were or where we were going.

I had never been to Lindersay before and I could faintly recall Riley telling me that it took seven to eight hours to reach Lindersay and that it looked like a fortress, a place removed from time.

Only soldiers were allowed to go train at Lindersay and aside from them, no commoner was allowed. It wasn’t a vacation spot; it was a sanctuary and a training ground. I was surprised that Garrick had managed to get me into Lindersay and it was only now registering that I never asked him how he managed to do it.

“Excuse me…” I called out to the man on the passenger’s side seat in a small voice.

“Feeling better, Ms. Argentine?” The man asked, turning to face me from his seat. “I’m Aiden Lang and this is my friend, Axel Grant. Is there anything we can do for you?”

“Yeah…umm,” I looked around a bit uncomfortably before asking, “What did Garrick tell you about me?”

“Oh?” the two men exchanged looks before turning towards me. “He said you wanted to train as a healer at Lindersay. Is that not true? Are you not a healer?”

“I can sense your energy.” Axel spoke for the first time, even though he didn’t take his eyes off the road. “You’re definitely a healer. Why are you asking?”

“I, um…wasn’t sure Lindersay accepted healers.” I decided to go with half-truths. “I heard it was only for warriors…so I asked Garrick for help.”

“Ah.” Aiden relaxed into his seat. “Don’t worry, healers are always in high demand. But we’ll let you rest for now, we still have a long way to go.”

“How about you drink some water?” Axel spoke, motioning for the bottle in their cup holder. “It’ll help you relax.”

“Sure.” I told them, noticing that I was thirsty and tired. I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything tonight and it was making me feel uneasy.

I took the water and took a few gulps of it.

“Easy now. We don’t want you chocking.”

“What-” I went to ask Aiden but suddenly, I felt my head spinning as black dots appeared in my vision.

“Sorry, Ms. Argentine.” Aiden took the bottle from me as I slouched in my seat. “But the road to Lindersay is a secret, so we used a mild sedative. You’ll be fine as soon as you wake up.”

“Rest now.” Axel spoke and their words got indistinct as my body kept shutting down. “We’ll wake you up once we reach.”

And then I closed my eyes and welcomed the darkness.

*

*

“Miss? Miss wake up.” “Ms. Argentine?”

Someone was shaking me, but I didn’t want to wake up. I just wanted to sleep forever.

“How much did you give her?”

“Just as much as we give everyone else!”

“We clearly, it was too much!”

I groaned, wanting to go back to sleep but the constant bickering wasn’t helping. The voices stopped as soon as they heard me and the shaking continued; this time even harder.

“Miss, you need to wake up. We’ve arrived.”

My eyes snapped open as I remembered where I was supposed to be headed. Memories came flooding back and along with it came heartache and a headache. I rubbed at my eyes to get rid of the last vestiges of sleep.

“That’s it. Easy now.” I realized it was Aiden who had spoken and looked up at him questioningly while he held another bottle in front of me.

“Again?” I asked him, looking at the bottle suspiciously.

“Just electrolytes to get you up and running. No sedatives, I promise.” He gave me a grin and this time, thanks to all the lights outside, I was finally able to see his face.

Aiden had dark brown hair and light brown eyes, his skin a light olive complexion. And then there was Axel, who had sandy blonde hair and dark green eyes with a lighter, complexion. Both men had a large built and were over six feet tall and they were wearing everything black.

I took the bottle from Aiden and gulped down the contents without complaints. My wolf trusted them, so I could too. This time the liquid tasted a bit sweet and I realized they were right, it was indeed some kind of an electrolyte solution to get my metabolism up.

“Better?” Axel held out his hand when I was done and I took his hand and got out of the car…and finally, got a good look at Lindersay.

To say that the place was gorgeous would be an understatement. It truly was removed from time.

There was a large wall around the entire place, made completely of stones. In fact, everything was made of stones. The walls and the buildings, and the stones were all white. In fact, the colour of the stones had me debating if it were stones at all or marble. But how was that even possible? An entire fortress made of marble?

The car had stopped in front of a huge castle and from what I could tell, there were several other buildings and towers around us. Instead of electric lamps, there were light poles with fire burning inside them, like they would during medieval times. The moon shone from the sky, casting its silvery hue down on the white stone and it made the entire place look like a fairy tale. It made me forget my pain temporarily.

And even though there were a few cars parked in what appeared to be a garage, they were all back and somehow seemed to blend in with the environment.

There were also several soldiers everywhere, guarding the gates and patrolling the areas with mean looking blades and weapons I couldn’t even name. But one thing was for sure, they were all wolves.

“Alright, this is where we leave you.” It was Aiden who spoke, breaking me out of my trance.

“Wait…where do I go from here?” I asked them, looking around in panic.

“Don’t worry.” Axel calmed me by giving Aiden a glare. “We aren’t abandoning you. You are our guest and you are being expected. We must head back to our duties now so someone else will be accompanying you to meet your host.”

Someone was expecting me? Who? And what was I supposed to do now? Who do I talk to about why I came here?

But I didn’t get time to ask questions as two men in dark red uniforms came forward upon Axel’s summon. “Take her to the chamber.” He instructed them before turning towards me. “You’ll learn everything in a short while, but for that, you must follow these men. Do not worry, healer, you are in safe hands.”

The two guards reached us then and told me to follow them in a gruff voice. I looked behind at Aiden and Axel as they smiled and waved at me encouragingly. I nodded my thanks and then turned to follow the guards into the castle, not knowing what else my fate had in store for me.

But one thing was for sure…there was no going back now.