Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8) (39 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

S
ilence settled over the room. A silence that should have made the hair on Cerek’s nape stand straight but didn’t because all he could focus on was the weird energy again. The one he’d felt tingling in his limbs as soon as they’d stepped foot in the castle. The one urging him to walk out of this room right now and find…

Holy hell, he didn’t know what he was supposed to find. All he knew was that it was tugging at him to find something.

Fighting the pull, he glanced around at the eight Argonauts staring toward the doorway where he and Elysia stood. Though the office was big, with two-story ceilings and arched windows that looked out over the city shimmering in the morning light, the males seemed to suck up all the space, dwarfing Elysia and her mother.

“What did you say?” Demetrius asked slowly, a vein in his temple bulging as if it were about to explode.

“You heard what I said.” To the Argonauts, Elysia said, “I’d like to speak with my parents in private if you don’t mind.”

The Argonauts exchanged worried looks, but when the queen nodded, they slowly filed out of the room. Several—Cerek wasn’t sure who—muttered comments as they left. He picked up “Way to go,” and “Good luck, buddy,” and the long-haired guardian who always wore the gloves mumbled, “Well, that was one way to go.” But Theron’s warning gaze caught Cerek’s attention as he passed, and when the leader of the Argonauts said, “I’ll be right outside in case he tries to kill either of you,” Cerek realized the shit storm he’d started when he’d stayed on Pandora with Elysia wasn’t simply going to hit the fan, it was about to rain holy hell down all over him.

His spine stiffened, and he stood a little taller. Maybe he deserved whatever was coming his way, but her parents deserved it too for trying to bind her to someone she didn’t want.

Only Ari stayed. Elysia’s father shot him an intimidating look, but it had no effect on the guardian. Ari perched his hands on his hips and shook his head. “If they’re bound, that makes us family. Sorry, D, but you’re stuck with me now.”

At least Cerek had one person on his side. Correction, two. He had Elysia. He squeezed her hand.

“I don’t believe you’re bound,” Demetrius said when the Argonauts had all left.

“Believe it.” Elysia let go of Cerek’s hand and tugged the edge of her pant leg up so her parents could see the Alpha and Omega marking on her ankle.

“Holy
skata
.” Demetrius stiffened, and that vein in his temple pulsed faster. “Who did this?”

“Delia,” Elysia answered.

“Fucking witch,” Demetrius muttered.

Elysia crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, seeing as how you’re part witch, I guess that’s a diss on you, and me,
patéras
.”

“Elysia.” The queen squeezed her mate’s arm and stepped forward. She sent Cerek a worried look before focusing on her daughter. “Your father has every right to be upset. We had no idea where you’d gone last night. We’ve been sick with worry for hours. And then we find out you ran off and were bound? How could you do that without—”

“How could
I
?” Elysia’s voice lifted, and her arms dropped to her sides. “How could both of you? You were going to bind me to Nereus like I was nothing but property. And don’t try to deny it,” she added when her father opened his mouth, “because I know it’s the truth. You’re not upset I’m bound. You’re upset you didn’t get to benefit politically from the arrangement.”

Tension curled like a thick fog all through the room. A tension Cerek knew he was responsible for.

“That’s not true,” the queen said softly. “Your father and I talked last night and we both agreed there would be no binding, to Nereus or anyone, unless you were in favor of the union. And any discussions we had on the matter were done in an attempt to keep you safe—then and now. That’s our duty as your parents, Elysia, to keep you safe. If Zeus—”

“If Zeus comes after me, I know how to take care of myself. I killed harpies on Pandora. I trained with the Sirens on Olympus. Not only that, but I escaped from both the gods and that hellhole of an island. How many Siren recruits do you know who’ve done either of those things? How many Argoleans? I’m not the weakling you both think I am. And I wasn’t about to be bound to someone you picked out just because you think I can’t take care of myself. I’m not a child anymore—”

“We know you aren’t,” the queen said.

“—and I’m done letting you treat me like one.”

“Then start acting like a grown-up,” Demetrius cut in.

Elysia’s mouth snapped closed, but her hard, narrowed eyes pinned on her father told Cerek she wasn’t about to back down. And the way Demetrius glared back at her was a big red warning flag that this argument was nowhere near over.

Cerek didn’t want to be the cause of a rift between her and her parents. Family was something he’d never known. He wouldn’t
 
be able to live with himself if he was the reason she walked away from hers.

“The binding was my idea,” he said. “Not because I think she needs me to keep her safe, but because I love her.”

Elysia turned his way, and when their gazes met, he felt that connection deep inside. The one he’d felt from the very first. Her eyes softened, and she reached for his hand once more. As her warm fingers slid around his, he knew this was right. That they were meant for each other. That it no longer mattered what anyone thought.

He looked back at her parents. “
She
saved
me
, more than once. On Olympus, on Pandora, here. And I wasn’t about to lose her, to you or Zeus or anyone. So if you want to be pissed at someone, be pissed at me.”

Demetrius crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the desk, but his jaw was a little less clenched, his expression a bit more relaxed. The queen’s mouth softened, and her chocolate eyes grew damp. From the corner of his vision, Cerek saw Ari smile like an idiot.

The tension in the center of his chest uncoiled.

“
Materas
,” Elysia said, her voice gentling. “
Pampas…
I know this is not what you envisioned for me, but this is what I want. This is my choice. I love Cerek, and I would have chosen him even if I’d never known about the arranged binding with Nereus.” She looked toward her father. “You, of all people, should understand. Once we found each other and realized who he was and that I was his soul mate, this was inevitable. I know you have—
”

“Whoa.” Demetrius dropped his arms and pushed away from the desk. “Soul mate?” He looked between Elysia and Cerek. “She’s your
soul mate
?”

Icy fingers squeezed the air from Cerek’s chest. He tried to remember back to what Elysia had told him about the whole soul mate connection.

“Holy
skata
.” Demetrius’s jaw tightened once more, and he glanced toward the queen, whose own worried expression sent Cerek’s pulse up all over again.

Elysia had made the soul mate bond sound like a good thing, but Delia had called it a curse. Was it a curse? Had he missed something in his rush to make Elysia his?

Scowling, Demetrius pinned Cerek with a hard look. “I guarantee Zeus knew about this. That’s why he took Elysia.”

Cerek’s spine stiffened.

“You don’t know that,” Ari said.

“Why else would he take her?” Demetrius glared at the Argonaut. “Immortal law states Zeus can choose any female from the age of twenty to join the Sirens. She’s twenty-five. Why did he wait five years? I’ll tell you why. Because he didn’t know she was Cerek’s fucking soul mate until recently.”

Ari held up his hands. “D, you need to dial it down a notch, because you’re jumping to all kinds of conclusions that make no sense. How would Zeus even know that? The soul mate bond is Hera’s curse, not his.”

“Which Zeus clearly discovered when he fucked with your son’s head.”

A warning tingle raced down Cerek’s spine, one that grew in intensity even when Elysia squeezed his hand in reassurance.

“So you’re saying Zeus set this up?” the queen asked. “Forced them together so they’d be drawn to each other? Why would he do that?”

“Hell if I know,” Demetrius answered, leveling a look on Cerek again. “Maybe so she’d do exactly what she did and bring him back here to Argolea. The soul mate bond is, after all, a curse. And we still don’t know what Zeus has planned for him.”

“This is bullshit.” Ari stepped forward. “You’re letting your personal feelings about this binding interfere with rational thought. There’s nothing wrong with Cerek.”

“Maybe not,” Demetrius answered. “Then again, the soul mate curse fucked you up for a good fifty years. Maybe that’s all Zeus is banking on here. That, like father, like son, the curse will tear him down the way it did you. And in the process destroy the rest of us.” He glared at Cerek once more. “I’m not about to let that happen.”

That weird energy tingled stronger, urging Cerek to leave, to flee, to search. The one he didn’t understand but knew instinctively was somehow related to all this.

“I don’t care what you
think
might happen,” Elysia said to her father in a hard voice once more. “And I’m done listening to your theories about Zeus and what he may or may not have planned for Cerek. This male is an Argonaut. He’s your kin. And he survived twenty-five years of hell to come back to this realm and the people who are supposed to care for him. If you can’t accept him for who he is now, then you can’t accept me. We’re bound, whether you like it or not. And that means where he goes, I go, even if that’s out of this castle forever.”

Cerek glanced Elysia’s way. At her strong jaw, determined chin, and the fire in her dark eyes as she met her father’s gaze. No one believed in him the way she did. No one had ever stood up for him the way she just had. Warmth and love pushed aside the weird energy. A love he planned to show her tenfold as soon as they were alone.

“Come on, Cerek.” Stepping back, she pulled him with her toward the door. “This conversation is over.”

Relief trickled through Cerek.

“Elysia.” Demetrius’s voice rang out. Stopping in the doorway, they both turned and looked back. “Stay within the castle walls.”

“Is that an order?” she asked.

“No.” Demetrius’s shoulders relaxed. “It’s a request. At least until we can send word to Olympus that you’re…bound.”

Elysia nodded. Looking up at Cerek, she said, “Are you okay with that?”

Cerek wanted nothing more than to leave this castle for good, but he didn’t say so. He nodded. Because more than fleeing, he wanted Elysia to be happy, and he knew she never would be until she mended her tattered relationship with her parents.

He just hoped she did so before whatever this odd energy was grew too strong to resist.

“Y
ou know, if you can’t sleep,” Elysia said, rolling to her side and propping her head on her hand, “I can think of something way more exciting for you to do right here in this bed than staring out the window.”

Cerek turned from the moonlit view of the city with a half grin that warmed Elysia’s insides. “Sorry if I woke you. I thought you were asleep.”

“I can’t sleep when you’re stressing.”

“I’m not stressing.”

She huffed. “You’ve been pacing. I know the sounds of an anxious male. Have you met my father?”

Frowning, he leaned back against the windowsill and crossed his arms over his chest, the movement pulling at the thin white T-shirt he wore over all those strong, sexy muscles she wanted to trace with her tongue. “I’m not like your father.”