The Beast And The Blessed by Ashley Breanne
Chapter 28
Natalie’s P.O.V.
All of the work the ma*s*seuse had put in was pointless as I felt myself tense back up. I cleared my throat, resisting the urge to pull the slices of cuc*umber from my eyes and look over at her.
“Not very much,” I answered, embarra*s*sed to admit that he hadn’t told me anything about them. I had to find out for myself that his mother was even still alive. At this point, I doubted he would willingly offer any information to me if I asked.
We were still at the ‘tell me your favorite color’ stage even though we had already slept together.
“They didn’t have the best relationship,” Charlie started, but the hardness of her voice took me aback. Her bubbly and excited tone was gone, and in its place was a darkness that I hadn’t expected.
I wanted to stop her and tell her that Killian would tell me about it in his own time, but I also really wanted to know. Maybe it would help me to understand Killian better.
“My father had given up on finding his fated. He selected my mother as a breeder. She was the strongest female warrior of her pack, and even without the mate bond, he was completely taken by her.” She took a deep breath, and I listened carefully as I heard the slight tremor in her exhale.
It was clearly a difficult story for her to tell, and I didn’t want to interrupt her. “He tried his best to make her happy. He gave her everything she could ever want.”
The similarity to his son was already at the forefront of my mind, and I had to wonder what happened for the king to be dead and his chosen to be in a coma. Killian had spared no *when it came to me, and I was grateful for it, but knowing that his parents did the same thing and didn’t have a happy ending, I had to wonder what our future held.
“He treated her like a queen, not just because of her title after he marked her, but because he adored her. He loved her with everything he had. She wanted an island, and he gave it to her. She wanted a private jet. She got five.” Charlie paused, and I heard her moving, but I refused to look at her. When she spoke again, her voice sounded more direct, and I knew that she was now facing me instead of laying on the table. “I’m sure you know that the mark of a chosen mate is weaker than the bond of a fated mate. When she found her fated mate, she had an affair.”
The cuc*umber slid off as I opened my eyes wide in surprise. I had never heard about this before, and it was for good reason. The people would have had a field day with that kind of gossip, and the royal family, would have lost a lot of respect. Charlie looked away from me as I sat up, mimicking her position on the edge of my table with my legs hanging over the side. I grabbed my robe from the foot of my bed and slid it on quickly. This wasn’t the kind of conversation that you laid down for.
I wanted her to know that I was there for her, and I reached over and grabbed her hand on top of her robe, over her thigh. She sent me a grateful smile before she looked away and continued.
“After he found out, they fought a lot. My mother would scream her lungs out at him, telling him how much she hated him for bringing her here against her will. He would yell at her for being so selfish and impossible to please. When other people were around, they acted like the perfect couple. But when it was just the family, they did everything they could to tear each other down. It didn’t help that my mother kept seeing her fated behind my father’s back.” She swallowed hard, and I felt at a loss, not knowing how to comfort her.
“I remember a lot of it, but i was really little. Killian was there for all of it though. He watched as it destroyed them. Then, one day, we were having a family dinner, and my mother was acting the happiest
that I had ever seen her. When my father joined us, you could see the way that what remained of his soul left his body when he smelled her pregnancy.
“He went absolutely mad and shifted into his beast before taking off out of the castle. My mother chased after him, begging and pleading for him to listen to her, but he was having no part in it. He killed my mother’s fated right in front of her. The pain of losing her mate caused a miscarriage. It was all too much for her, but she pushed through and made it her goal in life to make my father as miserable as possible.”
I shook my head in disbelief. The healer had said that the queen’s mate had died, and I had just a*s*sumed she was talking about the king. I could see why Killian would have a hard time with relationships after growing up with that.
“The only way to break their bond would be to have another mark one of them. My father refused to take another. He was fiercely loyal even after everything she had done. For my mother, without her fated, no one else’s bite would be strong enough to overpower my father’s. The only other option was death.” Charlie’s eyes began to water, but she blinked them back, regaining her warriorlike composure.
“My father had her locked up for years to keep her from killing herself. She had tried countless times, and it was too big of a risk to let her roam free. Over time, I thought things were getting better. She was acting, happier and nicer. When I went to visit her, she had become a completely different person. Once she seemed stable again, she was released. It was all a trick. As soon as she could, she stole a gun. She walked right up to my father, pulled it out, and pointed it to her own head with a huge smile. Killian and I were terrified as the guards swarmed around us, trying to pull us from the room. Our father was the closest to her and jumped at her, fighting her for the gun.”
Her hand was shaking in mine violently, and I slid off the portable ma*s*sage table I was on, standing by her side.
“You don’t need to keep going,” I whispered as I tightened my grip on her hand.
Charlie shook her head, as she stood from the table, “No, you need to know.
During the fight, the gun went off, and my mother was shot. Her wolf was already weak from the death of her fated and the loss of her baby. She fell into a coma, and my father went mad. He felt that it was his fault, that he had shot her during the struggle. He felt the pain of their bond dying when her wolf left her, and he fought to stay sane just long enough for Killian to become of age to take the throne. Once he was, our father followed in our mother’s footsteps and took his life.”
Charlie walked over to the table to grab her water. I watched as she regained the composure of royalty, hiding back her emotions and trauma and becoming a different person. It reminded me of when Killian would turn cold before going back into the public eye as the king.
“Killian will never let himself love freely. He will always be scared that the woman he gives his heart to will use it to control him or break him as our parents did to each other. Be patient with him. He will be worth it, but it may take some time to fight through his demons.”