All Chapters of Pandora: Hunted by the Two Alphas She Abandoned: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Euphyllia possessed blood that recognized mine.But her attendant knew far too much.The contradiction followed me into the council chamber.Asterion rose the instant I returned. His gaze moved over my face, my throat, then the corridor behind me."What happened?""The attendant knew what Ragriel said beneath the two moons."Faolan's amusement disappeared. "The woman who touched your marks?""She also escaped one of my holds."Asterion's eyes narrowed. "A servant should not possess that training.""No.""Then she may be Ragriel," he said."Perhaps."Faolan glanced toward Euphyllia, who stood beside Lucretius near the council table. "But your blood recognized Lady Euphyllia.""It did.""Could they both be your sisters?"I stared at him.He lifted both hands. "I was merely offering a possibility.""Do not become reasonable when I am already irritated."His lips twitched. The warmth reaching me through our bond carried relief rather than humor. He had been waiting to see whether I return

By the second hour of the journey, I decided Faolan had mistaken my tolerance for a divine blessing.The problem began at the first relay station.While servants exchanged the exhausted horses, the attendant stepped down from the Waevalon carriage and immediately slipped upon the frozen road. Her guard caught her around the waist before her boots left the ground. She smiled up at him without the slightest embarrassment, then clung to his arm while he escorted her toward the waiting horses.She noticed me watching through our window. Instead of lowering her eyes as a servant should, she waved.Faolan had spent every mile since then offering increasingly ridiculous explanations for her behavior. "The attendant likes you," he said for the third time.I looked away from the darkening road beyond the carriage window. "She touched my marks without permission, escaped my hold, and knew what Ragriel said under the two moons.""Perhaps, that is how older sisters express affection.""Across fro

"A soul should never be chained to prove it belongs somewhere."The attendant's words disappeared beneath another pulse from the machine.The sparkling dust shattered.Thousands of silver-white particles scattered across the chamber, striking invisible barriers before being dragged back toward the child's body. The machine groaned as blackened blood moved through its glass tubes.Euphyllia reached for the light.Lucretius caught her wrist."Wait."Pain crossed her face, but she stopped before her fingers entered the cloud of dust."If I touch the soul while the apparatus is pulling at it, I may tear it farther from the body," she said. "We must stop the machine without severing the child from it completely."Faolan examined the turning gears. "Can we destroy it?""Not at once.""Then tell us which part to destroy," I said.Euphyllia looked from the machine to the trembling light. Something ancient stirred behind her eyes."The apparatus is forcing the soul through the boundary between

Asterion's breath hitched. He tilted his head, deepening the kiss with a slow intensity that belied the cold of his skin. His other hand rose, fingers tangling in the wet hair at the nape of my neck, holding me with a gentleness that was more commanding than any force. Faolan released a low sound, half groan, half laugh, against my shoulder. His lips traced a path from my collarbone to the sensitive skin where my neck met my shoulder. His teeth grazed me, not a bite, but a question. My own breath caught as Asterion's palm slid down my spine, pressing me flush against him, the water lapping at our chests. Faolan's hands shifted from my waist, one moving to my hip, the other skimming up my ribs, his touch a patient exploration. The marks on my neck pulsed, a faint, answering warmth to the heat blooming between us, a quiet thrum that was no longer just their bonds, but my own desire acknowledged.Faolan shifted behind me, the movement stirring the water around us. He bracketed my hips

The woman moved first.One moment, she stood between the two masked males with her empty hands raised. The next, her boots struck the frost-covered stones, and she crossed the distance between us with a speed no ordinary attendant should have possessed.She did not reach for my throat.She reached for my collar.More precisely, for the two damaged marks concealed beneath it.I caught her wrist before her fingers touched me. Moonfire flared around my other hand as I drove it toward her ribs, but she turned with the motion instead of fighting my grip. My palm passed through empty air. Her shoulder struck mine, her heel swept toward the back of my knee, and I released her a heartbeat before she could use my hold to pull me off balance.Steel rang behind me.Cold rushed across the courtyard from my left as Asterion met the disguised guard's broad training blade with his own. Frost burst outward from their locked weapons, silvering the male's gloves and climbing toward his wrists. He did n