Chapter 31

Aleena’s POV

The morning had arrived by the time I found the Chase brothers. All three were in Aiden’s room, and he looked like shit. I wasn’t surprised after all he had been through. But I didn’t have time to stand here feeling sorry for him. I had to see if I could siphon the Shadows out of his body, so he could function when we needed him. Being unpredictable was not what we needed right now.

“There you are, Aiden. You look like hell, but I think I can help if you let me,” I spoke quickly, hoping to get in there before they all tried speaking at once.

“Oh, hey Aleena, yeah, thanks for that. I feel like hell, too,” he smiled at me, which I was shocked at. I thought he would be a massive pile of brooding mess by now.

“Well, I can help get some of the darkness, if not all, out of your system, which will help in the long run if you want” I shrugged like it was nothing but knew how massive it was. I was doing everything I could to keep my mind on task and not on Michael.

“Sure, let’s do this; what is it we are actually doing, though” he looked concerned and shared looks with his brothers.

“You just have to lay there and let me pull it from your soul, it may hurt a little bit, but you’ll feel so much better after”, I beamed at him; he didn’t look all that enthusiastic now. “Oh, and one of you needs to hold this bottle so that I can put it all in there” I held out a glass bottle with a cork stopper on the top.

Axel reached out and took the bottle, and looked over at Archer as he stood next to me.

“Archer, stand by his head. Hold it steady, okay” I told him, and he did as I instructed

“Hey, guys, this seems a bit concerning now”, Aiden started to worry.

“You will be fine big guy, don’t worry,” I tell him with a wink, placing one hand on his chest and the other on his forehead. “Hold steady this won’t take long,” I say seconds before diving right in.

Sucking in a massive lungful of air, I threw my power at his chest and head, targeting my light from within to hunt down the shadows hiding inside him.

It didn’t take long until I crashed full force into a thick tar-like substance coating his heart and mind.

“Bingo found you”, I say out loud “get ready, Aiden,” I say through gritted teeth as I throw my full power at the black mass in front of me.

“Ahh, fuck me, Aleena, that hurts like a bitch,” Aiden roared.

“Hold him”, I bellowed as I forced the shadows out of his body. Axel was ready with the glass bottle, and Archer was doing his best to keep Aiden in place. He was bucking like a wild horse being broken in.

As the last drop of shadow left Aiden’s body, I collapsed on top of him. That took more than I expected it would.

“Aleena, you okay there” Axel rushed over to me just after he recorked the bottle, which was now black and full of shadows.

“Yeah, I’m good, but goddess, that was hard work”, I huffed.

“I’m great here, guys, thanks for asking; oh, and Aleena, as much as I like you, I’m not a pillow”, he sighed. I knew he was exhausted, but it was nice to see he had a sense of humour back again. I pushed myself up, making him grunt as I used him as support.

“That feels so much better, thank you, I don’t feel so down anymore, so angry or murderous”, Aiden smiled. “Now, we need to talk about how Ayla can reach us when Alune sleeps. Of course, she will only sleep when Ayla’s body gets tired, so the window is limited, but at least there is a window,” Aiden said, hope blooming in his voice. He was right; at least we could reach her, meaning with hope that there was a chance.

“Woah, when did this happen” Axel piped in, excited at the idea of being able to speak to his mate at least.

“Not long after I took on the magic-using bitch” Aiden grinned

“Without Titan, I won’t be able to hear her” Archer was full of sorrow

“What do you mean, without Titan,” I asked; how could his wolf not be there?

“I lost Titan on the way back to the living plane. He never came back through with me,” Archer wailed, throwing his head into his hands.

“So, he’s still there with that thing that hurt Ayla”, I gasped; I couldn’t imagine what he was going through, and then to think how poor Archer was coping without his wolf half almost broke me. “Does Michael and Alune know this?” I asked.

Archer shook his head, tears prickling in the corner of his eyes; I hate seeing guys cry, they looked so vulnerable, and I didn’t know how to help them.

“Goddess help us”, I utter “right, we are in a massive mess; we have to save Titan, Ayla and Michael now”, I sigh.

“Didn’t I already save Michael?” Aiden asked, looking completely confused.

“You stopped the spell, yes, and his pain would have stopped, but he isn’t free. He is under something called the Alpha bonding spell” I paused, making sure they were still following me. “Basically, it’s when you bond an Alpha as your mate when you are not their mate”, I explained.

“So the Luna, isn’t Michaels true mate?” Axel confirmed. And I nodded.

“So, who is his true mate,” Aiden asked.

“I am”, I sigh, pink flooding my cheeks; saying it out loud sounded so odd but amazing at the same time.

“What the fuck” Aiden bellowed, “How the hell does that work, and why didn’t you know before.”

“Trust me, it can happen, and I am coming of age this year. That is how I know, and no, he doesn’t know yet” I felt overly flustered and embarrassed to be talking about my mating bond with a group of youngsters.

“So your only eighteen?” Archer asked, “The alpha is a sugar daddy” he barked a laugh, and his brothers joined in.

“No, you buffoons, I’m one hundred and forty-nine; when I hit one hundred and fifty, I will be of age, don’t be a bunch of idiots; I thought better of you, don’t let me down”, I scolded, but my cheeks still blazed.

“Sorry,” they all said together.

“What do we need to do,” Aiden asked, all seriousness back in his voice.

“We need to find Michael, tell him what’s going on and try to work out how to stop Laura and her witch friend; I don’t know enough to get the bond fully off of him yet, but I am working on it”, I explained, my shoulders sagging a little as the magnitude of what we had to face was starting to weigh me down.

“It’s okay, Aleena, we will get your man back” Archer smiled as he slung his arm around my shoulder, giving me a side hug.

“One last thing, guys, if we don’t get him free by my birthday and he can’t accept me as his true mate, there is a very high chance I won’t survive the heartbreak. And I’m not just saying that Elves can die from a mate’s rejection” I throw that little bombshell into the mix to make it that little bit more interesting. “My birthday is in three weeks’ time”, I added, knowing we didn’t have long.

“No pressure then. Hey,” Aiden hugs me on the other side. I never thought of drawing close to a set of werewolf triplets that I had just met, but I have, and I felt like we were becoming a proper little team.

Michael’s POV

I couldn’t stay here pacing the room like a manic animal. I had to go find out what was going on. So first, I needed to find Laura, find out why she would do this to me, and then I needed to find Aleena; I felt she was the one I needed and had been needing my whole life.

My mind is made up; I stride from the room with purpose. I was going to find Laura and get to the bottom of this. Surely there was an explanation for all of it.

Walking through the pack house. It didn’t take me long to find my wife. Not that she should really be called my wife, not after what she had done. It was so confusing, I knew what she had done, and I was angry and hurt by it, but I felt like I still loved her, but were they my feelings or the effects of the spell?

I was lost in thought as I made my way into the kitchen; Laura was frantically cleaning like she always did when things were on her mind. Instinctively I went to her to comfort her but stopped myself at the last second. I needed to know.

“We need to talk,” I said, my voice sad and heavy. Her head whipped up, and her eyes met mine, full of tears.

“Yes, we do. But unfortunately, I have found some very troubling news,” she sobbed, covering her mouth as tears spilt from her eyes. My heart tugged to see her so upset, but I couldn’t trust my own feelings anymore.

“Go on then, tell me what you know,” I asked, trying my best not to allow my emotions to get involved. I no longer knew which was real or not.

“That Elf you trust so much has cast dark magic; she is trying to get you to leave me, to say I am not your mate and she is, but its lies, surely you know it is lies. We have been together for so long, and now she comes up from the archives and tries to break everything we have,” she sobbed inconsolably, clutching my shirt in her hands and looking at me with such sorrow.

My heart broke looking at her. I could feel myself falling deeper in love with her. She was right. We had been together for so long, and it was only this most recent time of seeing Aleena that I felt differently. Maybe the Exalted was wrong, and Aleena was to blame, not my mate.

“I see, and where did you hear this?” I asked her as I stroked her hair, trying to calm her. I needed to hear everything.

“A dear old friend of mine has a way with magic and told me that she felt the spell being cast” she sniffed and looked at me with her big beautiful eyes. She was tugging at my heartstrings a little harder.

“Okay, well, I’m going to sort this out, my love. You don’t need to cry; I’ll fix it all,” I reassured her and kissed her forehead. “I need to talk to Alune; she has taken control of Ayla’s body. It all went a bit wrong when Ayla retrieved her mate from the spirit plane, a fallen Exalted Hurt our Ayla, and now she is bound to the Exalted completely unless we can find a way to release her. The only way Alune can heal Ayla is to get a sample of the Fallen’s venom so she can make an antidote” I let all the information spill from my lips; it was like I had no choice; I had to tell her everything, my heart seemed to want me to.

“Okay, my love, you do what you need to do; I will just clean; you know how it makes me calm”, she sighed and smiled a teary smile up at me, making me feel happier inside.

Walking from the kitchen and leaving my wife, my mind felt foggy, like I had forgotten something important, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. So instead, I walked to my office; surely, I had work to do that I couldn’t ignore any longer.

“Michael”, one of the Chase Brothers called my name; it was Aiden. I was always angry when seeing him; I guess it was the fact he was with my daughter. I couldn’t warm up to the guy.

“What do you want, Aiden” I grumbled, feeling irritable.

“We need to talk about Aleena and Laura”, he started, but I stopped him, remembering what my wife had said.

“Don’t talk to me about the Elf. I know what she’s up to, and it won’t work; she will not split my wife and me. We are bonded mates, and that means for life,” I growled at him, refusing to entertain these lies.

“Your wrong, Alpha, Aleena is your mate, and if you don’t accept her, she will likely die”, he urged me.

“I don’t care for her, Aiden; I care for my mate, and she is trying to hurt her. Once I get my hands on Aleena, that will be the last thing she ever does; I swear on the moon goddess, she will not hurt my love,” I yelled the last few words at him, making sure he understood. “Now leave me alone.