Chapter 4 Mate

[Astasia’s POV]

Chaos erupts as those around me start to panic from the constant thrashing of the ocean around us. Their cries and fear fill the small space we are in, and when they start trying to crawl across the floor and over each other like desperate animals, I try to press myself as much as I can into a corner to avoid being injured.

Fools. I think, watching as they pull their bodies up the stairs toward the cabin’s door where they begin to bloody their fists in an attempt to get the attention of the keepers who locked them down here.

They aren’t going to come. I say silently, knowing that the keepers didn’t give two shits about them. To them, they were just cargo. All these people wouldn’t be missed and they could easily be replaced. They knew that as well as I did, but even then, they fight, and they beg to deaf ears as the ship rocks again and then the walls of the cabin begin to buck and groan, and then splinter so that sea water can slowly start to trickle in.

We’re going to die. I realize, and that realization awakens my need to live.

I couldn’t die here.

I wouldn’t die here, not when I was so damn close to being able to exact my revenge.

“I need to get out of these cuffs.” I murmur, looking down on the metal against my skin. “I need to get out of them so when the walls finally give out I can swim.”

For a moment, I look around as though something that will help me remove the cuffs will appear out of thin air, but when it doesn’t, I know that the only way to get out of these cuffs, is to snap my wrists. If I could just get my arms free, that would do. Even if I couldn’t use my legs, I could still use my arms.

Settling on this, I place my foot on the chains of my cuffs and then I start fighting, pulling with all my might until I feel the bones in my hand starting to snap.

It hurts.

Fuck, it hurts, but I knew that drowning would hurt a hell of a lot more.

Bear it. Bear it, Astasia. I tell myself as pain rips through me. This is nothing compared to dying.

I repeat these thoughts again and again as slowly, but surely I manage to snap the bones in my hand until finally, I can pull it free.

It’s bleeding, and I can’t use it, but now I at least have one free hand to fight the ocean that would attempt to take me.

“Now the feet.” I murmur as seawater starts to pool around me. It sloshes around with each heave of the ship, and it hurts like hell as it mixes with my self-inflicted injuries, but even then, I start fighting with the cuffs on my legs.

I only manage to dislocate my ankle before the wall behind me starts cracking, and when it caves and sea water starts flooding into the cabin, I feel myself being torn from my seat and pulled toward the hole in the side of the ship.

“NO!” I gasp, clawing at the water as though that will do anything. “NO! NOT YET!”

I continue to thrash, fighting against the current that drags me closer and closer to the hole in the side of the ship and when I reach, I feel my body being ripped through like a doll.

Gasping, I begin to thrash with my good hand, fighting as the ocean works to pull me under, and despite my fighting with all my might, I can feel my energy waning.

It was a surprise that I even lasted a few minutes against these merciless waves.

I’m going to die. I murmur inwardly as I lift my gaze to the heavens. I’m going to die and all the time that I endured will be for nothing.

Why? I wonder, watching lightning race across the sky. Why was I forsaken? What did I do so wrong to deserve any of this?

All these thoughts rush through me as I feel my arms and legs give out and before the ocean finally claims me as its victim, I spot something large and black erupting from the clouds and heading toward me.

[Iravan’s POV]

It’s her.

This single thought rips through my head as I spot a woman barely managing to keep her head above water. She’s tiny, and it’s hard to make out her face, but even from here I can feel it, the draw of the mate bond.

When I began my journey across this ocean, I considered it just as mundane and time consuming as the others. Who would have thought that during my travels I would come across the last thing I expected.

My mate.

My other half.

The missing piece of my soul.

I felt it from miles away, the draw, the invisible chains that clamped around me, and pulled me to this ship that was clearly trafficking.

I recognized those ships from a mile away and when I spotted them, I destroyed them, and had my men take those who were up for auction somewhere safe, but this woman who fights so fiercely against the waves, she was mine, and for the first time, I would be the one who would save her.

Now, I dive toward the merciless ocean, and as I do, my mate gets ripped beneath, but this is my domain. The storms and the seas, they answer to me.

I hold out a clawed hand as my wings beat slowly, holding me in place, and I let my magic erupt from me.

It travels down toward the ocean and when it reaches, it creates a large bubble that dips beneath the waves.

I extend more power, pushing and searching until I find her.

There you are. I think as I push my magic toward her and once she is safely inside the bubble I’ve created, I draw my powers back, drawing the woman out of the ocean and then toward me. As she draws closer, I begin to notice more things about her.

She’s tiny, not only in height, but also in weight. Even from where I remain, I can see there is barely any meat or muscle on her body, but this was normal of those who were trafficked and then brought to auction, but unlike the other times I’ve seen people who are exactly like her, I feel red hot rage rush through me.

Letting out a growl, I turn my gaze to the ship that is slowly sinking and take in the men who are clambering to try to avoid going under.

Make them suffer. The small voice in the back of my head rumbles as I start to see red. Drowning them is too kind.

‘Men,’ I call through mindlink. ‘Bring the bastard’s with us.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Their voices echo in my head as they continue their task of saving the innocent, and once they are all loaded into the flying carriage that we brought with us, they move onto the bastard’s.

For a moment, I just watch as they pluck them off the ship one-by-one, and when they are all captured, I focus on my mate who remains unmoving in front of me.

She looks awful, I think as I release her and let her come to lie in my claws, but she’s breathing, and her heart sounds strong. However, I knew that that wasn’t a sign that she was actually going to be okay, not when she was in such bad shape.

‘Head toward Barook,’ I tell my men, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to accompany them. ‘I’m heading back to the palace.’

‘What?’ Yam, my second in command responds. ‘The palace? What about Barook.’

‘I have something urgent to deal with.’

I don’t give any further response past that. I don’t need to. I was the leader and those beneath me listened well and did what they were instructed, and if they showed the slightest bit of insubordination, they were sent to the pit for punishment.

After cutting off my connection with my men, I look down at my mate once more, noting her matted dark hair, her tan skin that is peppered with freckles, and her malnourished and scarred body beneath the dirty and torn shirt she is wearing.

I’ll make them pay. I promise her silently while turning and beginning to move in the direction of the palace, but first, you need some medical attention.