The Lycan King’s Abused Mate

5.

***

Aiden was not entirely sure why he let her into his home. It certainly seemed like a stupid idea to let a strange woman who had been following him around like a creep into his home, under the guise that she needed his help. He had faced a lot of stalkers in his career to know that there were some truly psychotic people out there.

But Sarah did not look like someone who was stalking him. She looked like she was truly desperate, and in serious trouble.

"Have a seat," he said as they walked into the living room. She was clutching a black bag tightly to her chest, and she looked around slowly as she took in the room.

"Would you like anything to drink?" he asked.

"Just water, please," she said.

When he returned with a glass of water and handed it to her, Sarah was still looking around the room and she was clutching her bag tightly.

"Thank you," she said as she began to drink, and Aiden took the opportunity to study her carefully. She was nearly a foot shorter than he was, and her long red hair looked like it didn't belong in a bun. The freckles across her nose made her look somewhat younger than she actually was, and there was an elegance about her which told him that she was well brought up. Either that, or she was a very good actress.

"So," he said when she set the glass down beside her. "You said you needed my help. Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"I-I need to know that I can trust you," she said in a quiet voice.

"Trust me?" he raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Haven't we already established that I'm not going to rip your throat out and feed it to the dogs?"

She flinched, and Aiden felt like a jerk for saying that to her. He was still slightly on edge, and still a little bit drunk. He shook his head, and the living room swayed slightly before he blinked at stared at her more carefully.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm still a bit drunk."

“It’s okay,” she said. “I just need to know that you’re not going to turn on me and send me back to them once I tell you why I’m here.”

“Send you back to who?” he asked.

“The Lamias,” she said. “I just managed to escape, and I don’t ever want to go back. Please, you have to help me.”

The Lamias.

Aiden wondered briefly why they kept coming back into his life. He didn’t want anything to do with them, and yet somehow he kept being dragged into another problem with them. Was the universe trying to tell him something? Or was it all just a massive coincidence.

“Why did you run away?” he asked.

“Have you ever heard of the orb?” she asked.

“What orb?”

“The orb of Zephyr,” she explained. “It was a gift to Alpha Luke’s family many years ago, and it is the source of their strength.”

Aiden knew about the orb, but he had never thought much about it. Most Alphas had emblems of power which was passed down through generations and given to the next Alpha when their father was ready to step down, died, or he was killed. For Aiden’s family, it was a black ring with a strange, triangular symbol on the back which he had always worn. He never took it off, not even when he showered. And he could still remember how his father had given him the ring long before he died, in the hope that its power would somehow awaken his wolf and allow him to shift. Unfortunately, all it did was boost his powers which he was already familiar with.

He glanced down at the ring then, sitting on his left ring finger and looking so plain and simple that no one would have guessed what it was. Only the bearer knew the true power of the ring, and how precious it was.

Sarah opened her bag slowly, and when he saw the orb falling out of the bag and onto her laps, he froze.

No wonder she fled.

The orb of Zephyr was something he never thought he would lay his eyes on. It was silvery white, pearlescent and with a smooth texture to it. The inside appeared to be filled with white smoke, which swirled and rolled around as Sarah picked it up and held it in front of him.

“Take it,” she said, extending her hand towards him.

Aiden hesitated. It was difficult enough for him to try and grasp the idea that the orb was right here under his roof, but it was something else entirely for her to offer it to him so willingly. He had never been one to crave power, and yet somehow it always seemed to find him. He used to think that he would never succumb to it, and that his heart was so pure that he could be tempted as many times as possible, and with any object of power, and he wouldn’t act on it at all.

But it would be foolish to deny that for one fleeting moment, as he looked down at the orb and saw his reflection in it, saw the way the smoke within stirred and tumbled lazily, he imagined himself wielding both the orb and his ring, and using both of them to bring the rest of the packs to their knees.

It was just a thought, however; nothing more.

He took the orb slowly, reverently, holding it as gently as he could. It was cold to the touch, almost like ice. He found this strange, since the ring on his finger burned like the flames of hell. The ring always burned anyone who held it, as long as they weren’t it’s rightful owner. But the orb was freezing, and he suspected that his fingers would freeze off if he remained with the orb in his hands for a few more minutes.

Fire and Ice, he thought. Two polar opposites, and yet he held them both.

“How did you get this?” he asked.

“Alpha Luke keeps it locked in the basement of the manor,” she said. “There are guards who protect it every minute of every day, and it’s almost impossible to get past them. I had to d**g both of them so I could sneak past and retrieve the orb.”

“Why?” he asked. “It is treason to steal from an Alpha, much less to steal something as valuable as this. You would have been hung to death if you were caught.”

“I understand this,” she said. “But I had to do something. I had to use it as a means of negotiating my escape, and possibly the freedom of others.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He has several women who he keeps locked away in a house,” she explained. “He comes each night to r*pe us, and he makes sure we do not have children. He is a violent, wicked man and he does not deserve to walk this earth. I was fifteen when he took me, and he kept me locked up in that house for the last seven years. He has this obsession with keeping female prisoners, and abusing them until they die or grow too old for his taste. It was a nightmare to live there, knowing that you could die at any moment. There were about sixteen of us, each one brought several years ago and kept in deplorable conditions. I was tired of living like that, so I decided to escape. The others refused to follow me, so I had to find a way to leave on my own. I took the orb in case I was caught, so I would use it as a means of negotiation for my freedom.”

“It was a silly plan,” he said. “If you were caught, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill you.”

“Not if I threatened to destroy the orb,” she said. “But now, I want the orb to be used for something else.”

“Which is?”

“I want you to use it to negotiate for the other women’s freedom,” she said. “Alpha Luke will kill me on sight if I attempt to negotiate with him. But he fears you. I heard him mentioning it once to his beta. He will listen to you if you ask for the freedom of the women in exchange for the return of his orb.”

Aiden stared down at the orb, lost in the beauty of the object. It weighed no more than a football, and yet it was one of the most powerful objects on earth. If he was Alpha Luke, he would give anything to have it back. But negotiating with him would be like negotiating with the devil himself. How on earth could he guarantee that it would work?

He couldn’t even begin to imagine just how sick and twisted the man’s mind was. How could he keep all those women in a personal whorehouse just because he could? It was a sick and cruel thing to do, and he deserved to burn in hell for something like that.

But if Aiden tried to bargain with him, Luke would assume that he was the one who stole the orb in the first place, and it could spell doom for their packs if either party declared war on the other. There hadn’t been a war in decades. And t last one had cost several people their homes and livelihood. Aiden was not ready to start another one.

“What makes you think he’ll bargain with me?” he asked Sarah, who was looking at him expectantly.

“Because he’s afraid of you,” she said. “And I came to you because I know you’re a good man, and you cannot bear to let those people suffer when there’s something that you can do to save them.”

“I need to think about this,” he said, handing the orb back to her. “You can stay here for the rest of the day while I make my decision. You can stay in the guest room.”

“Keep it,” she said. “I have no use for it anymore.”

Several hours later, Aiden sat outside in his backyard and watched the sunset. The sky was painted a dull orange, and the clouds formed a beautiful mural as they streaked across the dusk sky. The orb was tucked safely in his study, locked away in a safe and out of his sight.

But it remained in his mind, along with a single idea which had crept into his thoughts ever since Sarah mentioned the conditions they were living in. He couldn’t get it off his mind, and he guessed that was because the idea was correct.

How could it not be?

Axel arrived shortly afterwards, and he bowed beside Aiden with a curious look on his face. “You called?”

“Set up a meeting with Alpha Luke of the Lamia tribe,” he said. “Sometime next week should do it.”

Axel looked up confusedly. Surely Aiden was not thinking about doing something stupid. Tensions were running high already between the two packs. If he rushed to simplify the crisis, he could end up doing more harm than good.

“Sire, might I ask why you want to meet him?” he asked.

Aiden was silent for a while, watching the sun dip behind the mountains. He drew in a breath before he said in a quiet voice, “I think he’s keeping my mate captive. And I’m going to rescue her.”

***