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Acacia/Ciarán - Age 18

I never want to leave this blanket of warmth.

I feel Lailoken's chest rising and falling steadily beneath my cheek, feeling his hand lacing through the strands of my hair as he gently strokes it. When I slowly open my eyes, I see one of his knees his bent beneath the covers, a large tablet resting against it. His fingers with his free hand tap against the screen, shapes, pictures and many areas popping up and then shifting around on the screen.

Lailoken kisses the top of my head as he already knows I'm awake, asking me, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes," I breathe out, my fingertips tracing over his pecs as I see him tapping on something and it shows an overview of remote areas I've never even seen in this world. Furrowing my brows with confusion, I also realize how quiet it is. In fact...

...it was quiet last night too, aside from the two of us, it felt like...

"Lailoken?" I ask him gently and he shifts slightly beneath my touch.

"Yes?" He asks in return, tapping another space on the screen and sending another aerial view into the center of it.

I'm hesitant, my heart beating fast as I ask him, "I...where are..." once again, I feel like even if I ask a question, I'll be lied to...

"We're the only ones here, Acacia," Lailoken notices the way I waiver and he continues to explain, "after I saw your blood memories, I had everyone in my pack who weren't stationed at Elysium, to search anew for those we now know..." his voice trails off as he releases what sounds like a frustrated sigh. He clears his throat and states, "Your parents never informed us of who the marks had committed their crimes against, perhaps wanting to save face that it was royals...but now that I know that they were the ones to hurt you, my mate...they're not going to stop hunting for them."

My heart stops in my chest, my breathing uneven as I ask, "What's this?"

"I'm scanning for activity in areas that are remote and hardly used," he pauses after tapping on another part of the screen before he states, "I saw in your blood memories...you were taken somewhere. Somewhere off the grid and though you were blindfolded, I hoped to form a structure matching the one you saw entering it."

This man...

...the lengths he's going to...for me...

"I haven't had any such luck though," he sighs again, closing out of the many screens before he shuts the tablet off. Lailoken sets it on the bedside table next to him, turning back toward me before wrapping his arm around me. He hugs me, breathing in my scent before he whispers, "They will be caught and they will face the punishment for their crimes...I promise you."

Promises.

Lailoken has already made so many...yet he says he never breaks one.

Curious...

"Lailoken...you told me about how Taron will either mark or reject me completely..." there are many questions on my mind, ones I want answers to that are honest, "...how is it that I have multiple mates...yet I'm no hybrid?"

"You are," he chuckles, holding me close to him.

Shaking my head, I question, "Dormant?"

"No," his voice is firm. Lailoken is quiet for a moment before he murmurs, "If only you can see what I see..."

I don't quite understand what he means, but I try now with another thought that's been swirling in my head while falling asleep last night. I've never even stopped for a moment to ask him about his mate...his beloved...he bears no marks that he's been claimed...what about his hybrid mate?

The knots form in my stomach, flashes of my parents flickering through my mind and how strenuous their relationship can be...

...I don't know if I want that.

"Can I ask you something?" My voice is very quiet.

"Anything," he reassures me.

Breathing in and out calmly, I finally get the courage to ask, "You already know that Taron is my mate...and...well, I don't know, possibly Rian if Mercury never marked me...I still don't understand," I pause a moment as I try and draw my thoughts into cohesive sentences. He continues to encourage me when I've grown silent for a few minutes and I say, "What happens when you meet your mate? Your beloved?" My voice cracks at the end, recalling what Dante had done to his mates...how Ciarán had rejected Ridge for the sake of a possible jealous bond and weak ties.

Lailoken brushes the backs of his knuckles down my upper arm, caressing me gently. His words hit hard...harder than I would ever have imagined as he states, "You are my true hybrid mate, Acacia. We share the same mate and beloved, souls tied perfectly to balance and match each other."

I'm not a hybrid though...

...he just said I wasn't dormant.

Slowly, I lift up and his arms fall away from me. My brows are knitted tightly together, holding the covers close to my chest as his eyes meet with mine. I stare into those reddish-orange eyes, contemplating everything as I ask him, "How do you know that?"

Lailoken sits up slightly against the headboard, returning with, "Acacia...Richard may have been my father, but that doesn't make him my mother's true mate." He pauses a moment, almost as if recalling that time before he states, "My mother felt a dark pull, an undoubtable connection to Richard...it was merely a draw toward one another as an innate procreation design for hybrids."

My eyes grow wider as I stutter, "Wh-Wha-t?"

"My mother found her hybrid mate awhile ago. His name is Cynbel Mune and with him were their beloved and mate," he shakes his head as if this is common knowledge, "they were instantly drawn together. An intense fire...a passion that couldn't be squelched and there was no jealousy...no hatred or ulterior feelings toward separate mates. Their souls were meant to be together...designed by fate for one another."

My heart stops in my chest.

My skin grows cold and numb.

My eyes never blink.

My gaze is locked with Lailoken and I can no longer hear him, nor anything else around me.

Panic...

...it consumes me a second later.

Lailoken's lips are moving, his features shifting as he tries to reach out and touch me. I'm left completely immobilized...

"Acacia? Acacia?" It finally comes through, his voice piercing through the blood pounding in my ears. His hands cup my cheeks, looking me over while asking, "What's wrong?"

"If...what you say is true..." my voice trails off, my heart aching with a pain set in my chest, "...Dante Matz isn't my mother's true hybrid mate."

Lailoken's eyes shift from side to side as he stares at me intently, watching the way my face continues to pale while he asks, "What are you talking about?"

"Dante killed his mates..." it's barely above a whisper when those words leave my lips.

Lailoken's eyes widen, now feeling the same realization that courses through me. He questions me, "How...what?"

"Even without that knowledge..." my voice continues to constrict, fear of what I've known my whole life shatters around me, "...mom told me once before," I stare at him, "...I asked her about the story of her and her mates. She told me about how she felt to each of them, how she was drawn to them...Dante...she said it was dark. It was a dark pull, something lustful to her, but Dante reassured her that it must have been due to what you just said, an innate draw for hybrids to procreate with one another, isolating the dominant gene and bringing into this world some of the most powerful creatures in existence."

Is mom's true hybrid mate still out there?!

This means...

...Ciarán wouldn't even exist.

"There are many hybrids that would take advantage and manipulate the situation given the chance to pass on their genes to genetically creature a stronger being," Lailoken agrees with me, but also explains, "this is the sole reason the pack I've formed over the many years...I wanted to protect those who could be taken advantage of. The women here, they stay as it's their choice, waiting solely for their true hybrid mate and not settling for any other hybrid before that moment. They put their trust in me and know I'd never take advantage of them because I'd never want to have a family outside of that with my true mate."

Tears are in my eyes, but he brushes them away as I say, "Lailoken...you're too good to be true."

"I am real," his voice entraps me, the way his eyes hold mine, "and when you're ready for me to free you of this torment of a bond and truly claim you as you deserve, you'll know how deeply I feel for you."

Lailoken's eyes darken for a moment and it's moments later that I hear the door opening and closing downstairs. When his eyes return to normal, they briefly flicker with a golden center as he says, "Glofish and Brilite are back," he kisses me on the forehead before pulling away and saying, "I need to check in at Elysium and also bring up the connections I have to see if anyone knows the whereabouts of where you were taken."

My head nods slowly in return, watching him as he gets out of the bed and heads toward the closet. He's dressed quickly, wasting no time...

...something my parents never did for me.

Lailoken walks back toward the bed, leaning over the side I am nearest before he cups one of my cheeks, his eyes searching mine before he kisses me. I breathe out suddenly, feeling the way I meld into his touch as my lips kiss him back, a passion evolving brighter. Lailoken continues to deepen the kiss, both of us attempting to devour any air as I'm now laying down on the bed with him hovering over me. My arms wrap around the back of his neck, his tongue coxing mine into his mouth. A quiet moan leaves my lips, the grip he has on my side intensifying, a sharpness piercing through my flesh as his grip tightens...

...but it immediately halts.

He's breathing hard as he separates the two of us, his eyes staring down into mine when my eyelids flutter open.

"I'm not good to either of us...not unless I can control myself," Lailoken's words wrap around me and I realize...

...that was him, his true born hybrid nature and strength surfacing for a brief flicker of a moment.

Lailoken plants a feathery soft kiss on my lips before he lifts away from me, standing to his full height as he says, "I'll be gone a few days...a week at the most."

The greater steps he takes away from me and to the door, the more my heart suddenly aches and yearns for him to stay. It's almost selfish when I whisper out quickly, "Please don't leave."

"I have to," he gives me this longing look, watching the way his muscles betray him each time he tries to open the handle of the door. He wants justice for me and will do anything to find them...I have to let him go.

I avert my gaze and in that split second, it gives him the strength to leave the room. I've always been hurt because I love too much and I give everything without being given anything in return...

...but this is different.

Lailoken's heart beats for me and he wants to stop the pain I feel.

I'm left with a cloud hanging over my head...

...one that I feel obligated to tell.

Dad.

No matter how much I hurt, I know he does as well.

He needs to know...

...he needs to know the truth.

💫--To Be Continued--💫

Acacia Arin-Valentine (Non-Artwork Picture as requested now that she's older)

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