The Delta's Daughter Chapter 251

HUNJI

3 MONTHS AGO

“This is one creepy forest,” Gregorio gives a low whistle as we enter the forest of Morngord that surrounds the Kingdom of Riocht, and he peers out the front windshield. his heavy accent making him sound almost comical. “I don’t think Morgan would be comfortable here, it feels like it's haunted.”

“They say it is. There have been many battles here throughout the centuries, many lives lost.” I scowl thinking if the ghosts of Morngord would disturb Morgan.

“Exactly, she feels those echoes. It might disturb her too much.” He states.

I have come to understand just how much Gregorio loves Morgan during our ride to Riocht. He talks about her like she is his own daughter, telling me all the things she would get into trouble for when she was younger and how just as defiant, she was then, as she is now.

Gregorio was a patient man, I found out. Which was how he became Morgan’s head guard when she was transferred and locked away in a room in the Megaron. We conversed very easily, and I was happy to say he wasn’t intrusive and knew just when I had had enough of talking and wanted silence.

We broke through the forest tree line not long after and the Lycan village ahead became visible. I explained to Greg that they were the guardians of Riocht and had lived here for centuries, each generation guarding the throne until the true Queen came to claim her rightful place. He laughed when I told him all about the crowning, and how it was not as flamboyant as it was made out to be. In actual fact, we had been so hyped up that Lamia had to spill her blood to lift the curse of the throne that when the head of the Lycan Guardians – Lucien, took a drop of blood we were all left stupefied at how simple it was.

I pulled up outside the main courtyard, shut the car off, and climbed out.

No sooner had my feet touched the ground than did I hear the rushing of footsteps before Queen Lamia pounced on me, dragging me to the floor and punching my arms. “You asshole!” She shouted at me, still reining down punches “I thought you were never coming back!” Punch. “I thought you had abandoned me for a damn crown and a Kingdom!” Punch.

“I can’t help but laugh at her anger because she wasn’t really that angry. If she was, her punches would be much harder, and I wouldn’t be able to feel my arms. “I’m sorry!” I tell her between grunts and chuckles.

Suddenly she stops fist midair, staring at me and cocking her head. Her bright emerald green eyes bore into me, and I feel myself begin to sweat with her intense glare, “What the fuck happened to your eyes? They’re not black anymore.”

“Umm, I have a lot to explain…” I say as she sits on me, pinning me down, fist still cocked and staring at me.

Finally, King Mathias makes his presence and lifts his mate off of me and into his arms. “Yeah, you do, a shit ton!” She barks but her words lack any bite.

“Good to see Hunji, Glad you are home.” Mathias acknowledges me. I look up at the beast of a shifter who stands at about six foot seven at least. Making anyone next to him look tiny. Especially Lamia who is taller than the average she-wolf at about five foot ten.

“Good see you too King, it’s good to be home.” I take his outstretched hand giving it a firm shake when I remember Gregorio is behind me. “This is Greg, he is from Andora and traveled with me to Cambiador where we left my friend Tristan with Tawny.

“You went to Cambiador first?” Lamia looks shocked and hurt “Before coming home and Tawny didn’t even tell me?” She pulls out of Mathias’ arms roughly and plants her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. “Is everyone keeping secrets from me?” She throws her hands up in the air in exasperation.

“Calm down little wolf,” Mathias tries to soothe his mate, “You're just overreacting because of your hormones.

I take a step back when I see fire flare in her eyes, and she whirls around glowering at King. She growls at him and then turns back to face me and Gregorio. “It’s nice to meet you, Greg,” Her face changed, and her aura immediately tampered down as she plasters a smile over her beautiful face that was just ready to tear us all apart. “Come, tell me all about your journey and about Hunji, before my three children wake up and demand my attention.”

I watch her as she leads Greg inside the Castle, leaving King and I to stand there alone. I heave a sigh and he laughs at me, “She is really pissed huh?”

“You have no idea, happy that you are home, but really pissed that you didn’t contact her.”

“Hey, this mind-link thing works two ways. I didn’t contact her because she didn’t reach out, I thought she was to upset at me.” We start walking into the castle side by side when King stops.

“She is super hormonal after giving birth – still. And I can’t express how worried she was about you. Especially when she found out you had spoken to Kellen and not her.”

“Thanks for sending the guys out to help me, especially Finn. Surprised you let him not only live but let him leave the Clan Mansion.”

“I didn’t have a choice,” He grumbles.

King and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. It took us all by shock when we found out he and Lamia were mated. Especially given her history when she kidnapped, tortured, and raped. Then Someone slipped King a mind-altering poison and let’s say he was less than nice to her. At one point I thought I was going to have to go toe to toe with the beast of a bear shifter. He wasn’t a king for nothing. This man was a tank and unstoppable. But I would have for my Queen.

Thankfully everything worked out and they couldn’t be happier.

“I need to debrief Lamia, but I also need Kellen here. Think he will come? Because I can only do this in person.”

“That bad huh?” He asks.

“Yeah,” I bob my head.

“So should I be calling you highness now?” Mathias says and when I look at him, he is wearing a smirk.

“No.” I give him the short answer.

Two days later King Kellen arrives with his heavily pregnant mate, Tala. She has another 4 months to go but she is already big!

“How many of them do you have in there?” Tobias, King’s second in command, best friend, and pain in my ass - mocks pointing to Tala’s large stomach.

“Just one, you ass” She glares back at him.

I embrace King Kellen as we greet them and lead them back into Riocht’s castle. Passing the many statues that line the covered walk on the way in. Glancing at the ones that depict the Goddess Inanna and King Conrad (Conri). Both, the spitting images of Lamia and Kellen.

I was not looking forward to this debriefing. This was when they discover I knew much more about them and their wolves than I ever let on. This was also when they found out who I really was.

Initially, I wanted to speak with Lamia and Kellen alone, just the three of us. However, Lamia insisted that they kept no secrets from their mates, and they would be present for the debrief.

I was even more nervous and annoyed as we all took seats in King’s office and Tobias joined us. Fuck. He was a sarcastic SOB and I just hoped he would keep his mouth shut – if he knew what was good for him. Or I would have no problem knocking him on his ass. Again.

The debrief went as well as it could. I started from the very beginning when I was stripped of my title and then whipped to an inch of my life. I told them about my mate, Divya. I told them how I was found and everything I had learned while at the sanctuary and how I had been sent on a quest to find Lamia. The chosen one.

Lamia and Tala couldn’t help but cry when they heard how and why I was betrayed. One was overloaded with pregnancy hormones, the other revealing her post-pregnancy hormones.

I explained that my twisted brother had been looking for Morgan and everything in between from when I first found her to when I called Kellen and Travis, Rhett, and Finn showed up. I even told them about the painting I had seen at the sanctuary similar to the one Kellen and Tala had brought home from Bhakhil. I explained what happened to Morgan, and what Asena and Ashe said and told them about the stone egg.

We had been in there for hours, Tobias kept quiet while he wrote things down, acting like a secretary. I even caught him glancing at me with pity in his eyes.

I finished by explaining that I had gone to Cambiador looking for some type of closure. Admitting that I had had a thing for Tawny. And grateful that Tawny had kept her word and not spoken to her best friend Lamia so nothing had been said about mine and Morgan’s relationship.

All in all, it went well. There were moments when they were stunned, moments when they looked angry, and moments where they looked at me with pity and love. By the time I had finished speaking, I felt mentally exhausted. And blew out a long breath, leaning back in the chair I occupied.

Lamia leaned forward from her seat in Mathias’s lap, propping her chin up with her fist and staring at me with a blank expression. She was processing. This is what she did, she would process all the information until she had a firm grasp on it, and then she would speak.

So, I waited.

And it was the longest stretch of silence I have ever incurred, even though it was only probably ten minutes, it seemed a heck of a lot longer.

“Tell me about your eyes.” She finally spoke, her sweet melodic voice, soft and curious. Out of everything I told her that was what she asked. “Ever since I met you, your eyes have been almost black. Void of emotion. Closed off. But now, they are bright and golden brown. I can see every emotion reflected through them. Why? What changed that you haven’t told me?”

Shit. She always could sense when something was being hidden from her. I gulped down the lump in my throat and glanced around the room at each person my eyes finally landing back on her.

*When everyone else leaves, I will tell you.* I speak to her mentally, not wanting the others in the room to hear.

“Everyone out now!” She commands and without another word, but bewildered glances King Kellen, tala and Tobias stand and leave the office. Only Mathias remains.

“No chance,” Mathias growls out when our eyes meet.

I nod at him, understanding that I couldn’t kick the King out of his own office, and he would not be leaving Lamia’s side. At least when I tell them this next part, he may not take my head off as he really holds no love for his half-sister and brother.

I clear my throat, trying to figure out how to say it. After a few seconds of not figuring out where to begin “Fuck it, this is difficult.” I stand up and start pacing. “I told you about the vow I made the same night I got my wolf back,” they nod when I look at them, then I go and stand in front of the window and look out to the center courtyard.

“I had kept that oath for over thirteen years. Tempted many times to break it. Tawny was one of those temptations. But I never gave in to those temptations, I always managed to walk away. Putting all my energy into fighting, training, and mentoring. Then, the little witch came along. So fragile and pure. She was attracted to me, and I admit she is beautiful, and the attraction was mutual. She lied about keeping her virginity or she would lose her gifts.” I frown thinking of when I learned that, and my heart picks up as I think of her touching me that first night and kissing me. “Let’s just say I lost my resolve and broke my vow.”

I hear Lamia gasp and turn from the window to glance at her. Her eyes are big, and her mouth is covered by her hand. Mathias has his eyebrows arched, almost reaching his hairline. I clear my throat again.

“Anyway, eventually, during those short weeks, I fell for her and took her innocence.” I hear King chortle, but I don’t turn around. “On the night of Blood Moon, I gave her all of me, body, mind, and soul. I had already mated her and knew I could lose my wolf, so I just wanted to feel free one last time, remember what it was like to be lost in someone, to feel loved. She imprinted on me that night.”

“Oh, my goddess Hunji!” Lamia sighs, I can hear the compassion in her voice and know if I face her eyes will be full of tears.

“That’s not what I was expecting you to say at all,” Mathias speaks, without a trace of sarcasm. He sounds just as ruth as Lamia.

“Ashe was adamant that we were not meant to be together, and that the connection needed to fade. She said that Morgan wasn’t meant for me.”

“That’s not how imprinting works,” Mathias growls, agitation lacing his voice. I turn to face them, my hands behind my back and my head slightly tilted. “When a bear shifter imprints, it’s for life. There is no fading, there is no breaking the connection between them. You literally bind your soul to them; the exchanging of blood is just a way to concrete the union like a wolf marks their mate. Your wolf and she are connected on a spiritual level and always will be. Do you feel her emotions?”

“I have,” I answer honestly letting his words sink in. Why would Ashe say that if the connection did not fade or could not? Yet again she hides things from us, only giving me half the story or, none at all.

“And how do you feel now?” I cock my head at Mathias's question “About Morgan, being so far from her?”

I scratch the back of my neck “I honestly don’t know.” I frown thinking about it. “I want to be with her but the craving to have her in my reach is not as strong as it was when she left Eririat.”

Mathias hums and Lamia turns to look at him. They are silent and I wonder if they are having a private conversation.

“She didn’t know she even imprinted on me, she has no spirit animal,” I supply hoping King could provide more insight seeing as he just contradicted Ashe.

“Interesting.” He says leaning back and dragging Lamia against his chest to hold her. “Honestly Hunji, I can’t offer you any guidance. It is up to you what you do with Morgan. Pursue her, don’t pursue her, it’s your choice. The connection will stay intact. There is one way out of it, maybe - the third full moon from the day the imprint was made you may reject her as your mate, and then it will fade, kind of. However, an imprint doesn’t fade like a marking. She will always be a part of you until one of you moves on and finds a mate. Even then deep inside you will be drawn to her and you to her.”

“Until then we are still bonded?”

“Yes,” He replies leaving me more confused than I was, to begin with.

There were only two full moons left, the last one occurred the night before we reached the shores of Cambiador. The second was less than two weeks away.

I walk out the office with a lot think about and more decisions to make. Not feeling any wiser the man than when I entered.

I walk into one of the receiving rooms that had been transformed into a recreational room.

“Here you deserve this, for all the shit you have been through.” Tobias is standing there holding out a drink. My nose twitches and I recognize the scent as rum. A favorite liquor around here. I take it and without thought, down it. I’m not a drinker but I feel like I could surely do with one right now to take the edge off a little. I hold my glass out and Tobias picks up a bottle from behind the bar and fills it again. I down that one too.

“Another?” He asks,

“No,” I tell the large bear shifter.

“Suit yourself.” He says smirking and leaves the room.

I stand there with my eyes still on the doorway, thinking how strange that was of him when he comes back in two minutes later. “You been drinking Hunji?” His nose crinkles as he sniffs. “Wow, that shit really must have gotten to you if you’re drinking alone. If you wanted a drink, I would have joined you.” He smirks grabbing the same bottle he was holding just moments ago and pouring himself a drink.

I point to the door then him and back to the door. Utterly baffled by what just transpired. “Are you fucking with me, Tobias?”

He looks genuinely taken aback by my accusation. “What? No, why would I be fucking with you?” He puts his glass down “Look just because we don’t always see eye to eye, man, I’m happy your back. More so because now I can unload the pile of shit, I have stacked on my desk onto yours.” He smirks again, his moss-green eyes twinkling as he winks at me.

“Fuck this shit, I’m too mentally drained to deal with your games,” I tell him, convinced he is trying to pull one over on me. “If anyone is looking for me, I’m going for a run.”