"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Helmut cried out in disgust.
"Cousin!" Obeus called out again, "I believe this is a discussion we can easily have, in private." He urged. No one moved. Carter held his mate. He pulled the fabric of her shirt from her grip and smoothed it down.
"Please, cousin," the Merlin implored. He moved to usher Helmut, Finn, Carter, and Arthur out of the banquet room and into his audience chamber. The moment they exited, excited murmuring erupted behind them. This intrigue would be the talk of the house for weeks, if not months. Possibly years if nothing else as interesting occurred.
With the door closed, Malus Helmut made an extravagant show of lowering himself into a cushioned chair. He crossed his slender legs as he looked at his daughter. He smoothed over the lines of his robe, picked off stray hair and flicked it onto the rug. He had a self satisfied expression on his face. Carter, Finn and Arthur stood together, looking at Helmut. The hatred was evident on Finn and Arthur's hard faces.
"You will get nothing of me that you do not take by force," she stated flatly, before he had time to say a word.
"Why must you be so obstinate!?" Helmut screamed out. His fingers gripped the chair's arms with such force his knuckles turned white. The smile was gone from his face, replaced by a displeased expression.
"I wonder," she said, "perhaps because my entire back is a scarred reminder that if I allowed you to have your way, I would be a walking golem? My soul cleaved from my body, destroyed, so you can have a monster to do your perverse bidding? No will. No mind. A murderous being of flesh and bone with no pesky soul. Driven by your chosen impulses only? And we have seen the fruits of your impulses." The expression that touched her face was spiteful.
"Then perhaps I should take back my present," Helmut looked at Carter as he spoke, his eyes dark.
Arthur stepped in front of his son, "Helmut, please. Finn cannot give you what you are asking. It is not a matter of want, she is incapable. It has been years; she did not do this to spite you."
Finn snorted out a bitter laugh, "Didn't I?"
Art shot her an angry look. "You are not helping, sister," he chided harshly.
She grew quiet. She knew continuing to insult Helmut would end only with the death of her mate and her true family. "Just find another dark enchanter and have more children, Helmut. Though, perhaps raping your colleagues is a bad look. I am sure your sons would eagerly give you their children, they have craved your approval since their disgusting births. Why seek me out?" She tried, so desperately, to hold her tongue and failed.
Helmut's eyes turned black again and Finn began to shift. She placed Carter and Arthur securely behind her. Bones snapping and the sounds of rips rung out as she enlarged. "This discussion is at an end, for now. But know this daughter, I will have what I want from you. One way or another." He held up a finger and pointed it at her. Finn felt her heart drop and reverted to her normal size. She cried out once as the bones righted themselves in her smaller body.
Helmet hissed out words she couldn't fully understand, a dark portal ripped open the world before him. The edges of his doorway were the same wet obsidian colour as hers. He stepped through; his dark laboratory visible behind him. He looked back at his daughter before the portal closed, "you may have been strong enough with my magic in your blood to stop my ritual, but your mate would be powerless. You should remember my goodwill. My patience with you will not last forever, Fionn," and with that he was gone. His threat lingered in the air. There was no lingering mist but the smell of something rotten permeated the air around it.
After minutes passed, Arthur looked to Obeus. "Merlin, may we have the room?" He asked politely.
Obeus looked pale and nodded. He slipped out the door and closed it behind him gently. Another round of chatter picked up, the soft murmuring of gossip filtered in after him.
"Okay, we need to leave," Art said quietly, his voice constrained with fear.
"Yes, you both do," Finn agreed.
"I'm not going anywhere without you," Carter began but they both cut him off.
"It can't be true, can it?" Art asked Finn as he ignored his son's protests.
"What, that he bonded Carter to me? Of course, it's true! He raped Elspeth to produce a hybrid abomination for himself, thinking it would be as easy to control as his other offspring. When your dad and Anna took me in instead of culling me or leaving me out to die in the woods, it ruined his plans. He's spent years trying to get me to do his bidding," she pointed haphazardly towards her back with her thumb. "You think this was his only attempt? He knows he can control me through you, through Carter. I went sixty three years without a mate pull and when it happens, it's your son. Our bond couldn't have been natural, Art. You must see
that."
Her words wounded Carter. She felt the hurt, and turned her eyes to him. He looked down, refusing to meet her stare. She wanted to kiss him, hold him. But she couldn't shield him from the truth and keep him alive, she reminded herself.
"Carter, you need to reject me and break our bond. Return home. Helmut won't have sway over me with you then," she said.
"No!" He yelled. He was so tired of his father and Finn treating him like a child. He was going to be Alpha. He would protect his mate to his last breath. He grabbed her roughly by the shoulder. He ripped her collared shirt down slightly to uncover the scarred flesh. Two buttons popped at his motion, they had barely clung to the thread. Carter's mark stood out white and pink on Finn's tattooed skin, still raw. "You are MINE," he huffed. He pulled his shirt in the same manner. He tore the nice shirt's collar to expose his scarred mark from her. "And I am yours." His words were so earnest, they tore holes in Finn's very being. Her broken soul cried out for him.
Arthur coughed a little to remind them he was still there. "I'm just going to get the truck. I'll be waiting outside."
Finn was quiet as she watched Art leave. She looked at Carter when she heard the door shut. She needed to choose her words carefully. "Honey, I need you to reject me. To protect your father and your pack." As Carter was about to continue his protest, she gripped his head. She brought it close to hers and kissed him. Her kiss was deep, he tasted the iron of her blood from her encounter with Malus. "I am so, so sorry that this affected your ability to find your fated mate. Helmut must be stopped but I can't do that if I have to worry about you and your family." She tried to be as honest as she could. Tried to appeal to his Alpha instinct to protect his pack. "If you don't, we are all at risk. This isn't about us, it's about protecting the pack."
He looked defeated. He would always protect his family, at the expense of himself. It was his responsibility. He grabbed Finn and picked her up by her back end. He carried her to Obeus' desk and set her softly down. He ran his thumb over the scar on her bottom lip and kissed her. She kissed him back, a hand rested on his chest. "It'll get easier," she whispered into his mouth, steeling herself. "It won't hurt for long."
