Chapter NineteenThere was no Daryl, no Tasha as I look around. Instead, a tall man with whiter than white hair was stood a few metres in front of me. His red eyes gazing at me as my royal name rolls from his tongue.“Rudina, what did you do?” he asks again.The metallic smell of blood fills my nose and I find myself looking at my blood coated hands. Blood drips from my fingers and as I look down, I’m shocked. A woman with hair like fire lays dismembered on the ground of the forest. A pool of blood growing around her limbs.“Rudina. Look at me. What did you do?” he sounds agitated. His cold hands begin shaking my shoulders.The more he shakes, the more I feel like I am falling. My body dropping through the air even though I could see my feet were on the ground.“Rudina snap out of it. We need to get you out of here!”His voice was fading until I could hear nothing. Instead, I was surrounded by darkness, unable to move.“Ashley, come on Ashley. Can you hear me?!”“What’s the matter wit

“Are you joking?” I stare at Lucian like he had lost the plot.“I am most certainly not! After everything, how are you surprised that this could be a possibility?”“Mates, at the same time?” I needed him to be clear that it was what he was suggesting.“You were mated in your visions, correct?”I nod my head biting my lip, trying to remember everything.“But I rejected Daryl. I know there is a second chance mate, but at the same time? It just doesn’t seem right!”“It may not seem right, but it would appear you have something in common with Amber.” He shakes his head frowning.“Amber has more than one mate?”“Yes, though she has five.”“Five mates?”“The last I had heard. What’s the matter with your hip?”I glance down, not noticing that I had been massaging it. The wound from Christian had healed but it still ached.“Nothing.” I tut, dropping my hand.Lucians eyes narrow as he tilts his head.“I cannot protect you if you do not tell me sister.”So now he wanted to play the big brother

Unable to answer him, I lean my body against his chest. It just didn’t make sense. If I was dying, how was I having visions? And what did that man say? My mate was Christian? “You’re okay Ash, you are okay!” His arms tighten around me, his cheek resting against mine as he held me close. “For the moment.” I hear Lucian groan. I flash my eyes in his direction and he raises an eyebrow at me but keeps his mouth closed. The cold water continues to run over Daryl and I. His chest rising and falling in the same rhythmic pattern as my own. From here I could see my arms, the purplish bruising on my arms was blackening and I wriggle my fingers to make sure I could still move them. “A cursed mate marking another cursed mate.” Lucian tuts “Did you find who it was?” Daryl questions Lucian, but keeps his arms around me, refusing to let me out of his grasp. “No, but I believe my sister may already know who it is that has cursed her.” “Huh?” I turn my head properly to look at him. "How could

Lucian was wrong, but maybe not completely.My blackening skin wasn’t a result of a curse, my body had slowly been readying itself for this moment.The bed cracks beneath me as my body continues to shift. Every single thing hurt, it was so slow and painful, like a punishment for being this way.My legs continue to lengthen, my large feet sticking out at the end of the bed. I see the fear in Daryl’s eyes. He hadn’t seen me like this and yet as I glance at Christian, he is all smiles.By the time my body had finished shifting, Lucian had appeared. He was confused by my appearance, demanding to know why I had shifted, but I had had no control over it and neither did Reaper.“It feels so good!” Reaper mutters, stretching us both out, the bed completely collapsing beneath us.“What the actual fuck?”He looks up at me as I stand, my body towering over his, my head brushing against the ceiling.“I should have mentioned, our beasts are not the same as yours.”“No, shit Lucian!” Daryl groansI

I think it was the fastest that I had ever moved, I hurl myself back into Tasha’s house, crashing through the front door, preparing myself for the worst.I was too late.Tasha was already out cold; Lucian was wiping her blood from his lips. He stares at me, his brow furrowed with annoyance for interrupting him.“Isn’t this what you wanted sister? For me to be with my mate?” He carries Tasha's body to the sofa and carefully lays her down“He knows what he is doing!” Daryl’s deep voice comes from behind me. He had followed me in to the house, wondering why I was panicking.“It’s a risk!” My eyes are wide as I start shaking my head. Yes it had worked in my visions but so much was different, so much had changed."No it isn't. Yes it's rare but its not unheard of!" Daryl looks at me like I've lost the plot“She will be fine, sister!”I look up to meet Lucians amber eyes“How can you be certain?”His lips twitch into a smile.“Listen to her heart, it is steady, rhythmic. I told you dear sis