Gabriel’s POV
Nick and I were driving back from the forest.
I was gripping the wheel tightly. We found nothing. Again.
Nick was staring through the window. His body was rigid, and he was clenching his jaw. He looked like he was in pain.
I tried to loosen my grip on the wheel. I would pull it out if I continued like this.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.
This whole thing was killing me. I had no fucking idea how I will continue like this. I needed something. I needed some fucking clue that will bring me closer to my sister.
I parked in the driveway and turned the engine off. Neither I nor Nick made a move to exit the car.
I saw the front door opening and Jacob running toward my car.
He looked excited.
What the fuck happened? Why was he excited all of a sudden?
He ripped my door open, and I raised my eyebrows at him. “What the fuck, man?”
“There is someone inside who wants to talk to you,” he said impatiently.
I was surprised. Who the hell even knew we were here?
Nick leaned forward to look at Jacob over my shoulder. “Who?”
“Patricia Jones!” he said with a smile.
I heard Nick gasp and my eyebrows shot up.
She was here?!
I pushed Jacob aside and hurriedly sprinted to the front door. Nick was right behind me.
I ran inside and frantically looked around the living room. Where the hell was she?!
“Kitchen!” I heard Jacob shout behind me.
Nick ran past me and opened the door to the kitchen.
She was sitting at the table, sipping coffee. It was the same woman from that photo Sebastian gave me. Her brown hair was now half-gray. There were wrinkles around her black eyes, and her face was no longer smooth. She looked calm and collected. Her posture was rigid, but not like she was afraid. More like, she valued herself highly and thought she was above all of us. Considering what Sebastian found out about her, I didn’t think that was far from being true.
She glanced up at us and smirked.
“Well, you two look like shit,” she said with amusement in her voice.
Nick growled and stepped toward her. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“You must be the mate,” she said, looking up and down Nick’s body.
“Yes,” Nick answered through his teeth.
“That makes you the twin brother,” she said as she shifted her gaze toward me.
My eyes widened and my breath got caught in my throat. Nick growled and stood in front of me.
I looked at Jacob and narrowed my eyes. “How does she know that?”
“We told her,” Jacob said calmly and sat down at the table.
Nick growled loudly and started yelling. “Are you crazy?! She is Victor’s fucking mate! He doesn’t know about Gabriel! She will tell him!”
“No, I won’t,” Patricia said calmly.
Nick and I looked at her in disbelief. What the hell?!
“Sit down and listen to her,” Annie said. “She is here to help.”
Nick and I glanced at each other, but we listened to Annie and sat down opposite Patricia.
“I want to help you find Aria,” Patricia said and looked at us.
I felt Nick tense next to me. I clenched my fists together. What game was she playing? Was Jacob crazy? He should never have told her who I was. Not that I cared about what happened to me. I would trade places with Aria in a heartbeat. But him thinking that the twins from the prophecy didn’t exist, was our biggest leverage against him. I was confident in Aria, and I could beat him before our 22nd birthday. I just needed her back safe. And then we can plan an attack on him and his followers.
“Why?” Nick growled. “Victor is your mate. You stood by him the first time he wanted to rise to power. You are as ruthless as him. This whole inquisition thing was your fucking idea.”
“You are right,” she nodded calmly. “It was my idea. I told him about it years ago. Back when I was by his side, back when I thought he would be a good mate, back when I thought he and I would rule over the world together.”
“What changed?” I asked her. “When he fell the first time, you switched sides and tried to rise to power without him.”
“I did,” she nodded and looked up at me. “But nobody knows the real reason why.”
“What was the reason?” Nick asked her.
“I will tell you,” she said, looking at Nick. “Let me start from the beginning.”
Nick and I nodded and waited for her to continue.
“I don’t like to talk about that man, so I will keep it short,” She started talking. “I found out he was my mate at one of the gatherings he had organized. We hit it off pretty well. After all, the Goddess doesn’t make mistakes. We were perfect for each other. Or so I thought. He treated me nicely at the beginning. We had huge plans. We wanted to rule the supernaturals and get rid of humans. We were happy and we had a lot of followers. We really thought we would make it. But then he found out about the prophecy, and I saw him for who he really is. He was always a cruel man, but he was never cruel toward me. Cora told him about the twins, and he lost it. He was angry all the time. He became abusive toward me. But it didn’t matter at the time. All I wanted was power. I could deal with a hit or two if it meant I would be on top.”
“Unbelievable,” Nick sighed and interrupted her. “So, what happened? Did he hit you too hard one day and you just lost it?”
She looked up at Nick, and I saw pain in her eyes.
“No, it wasn’t about me,” she said and lowered her gaze. “He killed our child.”
Nick’s POV
I froze in my seat.
What the hell?! How cruel was that man?!
I looked around the room and saw that all my friends had sad looks on their faces. The girls’ eyes were filled with tears, and the boys were angry.
I had no idea how the hell he could do something like that. I could never harm a child, let alone my own.
“I am so sorry, Patricia,” Gabriel said quietly.
“Yeah,” I said nervously. “I am really sorry for your loss.”
She looked up at us and nodded. Her previously cold gaze had now softened. Her rigid posture was gone. Her shoulders were slumped, and she looked broken. I couldn’t imagine the pain she must have gone through. She lost her child because of that man.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, as she fidgeted with her fingers. “He broke me that day. I swore I would never stand by him again. I decided to fake my own death so I could run away and wait for my chance to crush him. You are my chance. I believe you can defeat him, and I want to help you do it.”
“Why did he kill your child?” Gabriel asked her.
“He didn’t want children,” Patricia sighed. “He said that our child would only slow us down and distract us from our main goal. He had just recently found out about the prophecy, and he thought that a child would mess up his plans. He wanted me to go get an abortion. When I refused, he did it forcefully.”
Gabriel and I gasped.
Fucking shit!
“What do you mean forcefully?” I muttered quietly.
“He put me under a spell so I would remain asleep for a while,” she said, her voice trembling. “Cora took the child away from my womb while I slept.”
I growled loudly.
WHAT THE FUCK?!
I will kill him. I will kill Cora.
“Goddess, Patricia, I am so sorry,” Gabriel said quietly. “I can’t imagine what you went through.”
“No, you can’t,” she said and looked up at us. “And you shouldn’t have to. Nobody should have to know what that feels like.”
Gabriel and I nodded. We were both still shocked.
“When you choose a partner, you give them your trust,” she continued. “You give them your love and you expect to be safe and protected by their side. When a Goddess chooses your partner for you, all of that is enhanced. Your trust, your love, everything is amplified. You feel safe and protected immediately. You don’t need to get to know them. They are your mate, and they are everything to you. You love them from the moment you see them. Anyone would be broken if a partner forced an abortion on them. But when a mate does it to you, it is unbearable.”
My heart clenched painfully. She was right. Nothing could compare to a mate bond. Everything was stronger with a mate. Love, trust, sadness, betrayal.
“It is even harder for a wolf,” Patricia sighed. “Not only do we feel our own pain, but we also feel the pain of our wolf. And the wolf’s pain is different. It is more aggressive, harder to control. They react on instinct, and they don’t listen to reason most of the time.”
She looked at me, and I nodded. “Being away from her is torture.”
“I know,” she said. “The pain you feel right now is immense. I admire you for managing to control your wolf like that.”
“It is not easy,” I mumbled. “He is one stubborn bastard. I shifted a couple of times, but the guys managed to stop him.”
Patricia nodded and sighed. “Understandable.”
“Wait a second,” Jacob interrupted. “He thinks you are dead, right?”
Patricia looked up at him and nodded.
“How?” He narrowed his eyes on her. “Mates feel the break of the bond if one of them dies. How did you manage to fake your death?”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at Patricia. Jacob was right. How the hell didn’t I think of that?!
Patricia was as calm as before. Her behavior didn’t show any signs of nervousness.
“He did feel it break,” she said.
“How?” I growled.
“Because I used a spell to break the mate bond,” she said, as she looked at me.
Every one of us gasped.
She broke the bond?!
I thought that was impossible!
I was staring at her speechlessly. What the fuck?
“How?” Annie asked quietly. “That is impossible.”
“It isn’t,” Patricia shook her head. “There is an ancient spell that can break a mate bond. I had a hard time finding a witch who would help me, but eventually, I found one who hates Cora as much as I hate Victor.”
“Who?” Gabriel asked.
“Her sister, Petra,” Patricia said.
I furrowed my eyebrows. I had never heard of her. But it looked to me like Gabriel had. I will have to ask him about her later.
“Why does she hate Cora?” Cassie asked.
“That is not my story to tell,” Patricia sighed. “Maybe she will explain once she joins us.”
“She will join us?” Jacob asked, his eyebrows raising.
“She will do anything to stop Cora,” Patricia nodded.
“How did you survive breaking the bond?” I asked her.
“Barely,” she sighed. “I almost died. But I guess my hate for that man kept me alive.”
Her eyes darkened and I could see her wolf coming to the surface.
“How did your wolf survive it?” I asked her.
“She didn’t talk to me for years,” she said. “I could barely feel her. But after a while, she understood why I did it. That man took her pup away from her. He didn’t deserve to be our mate.”
I nodded and I could hear Annie sobbing quietly. I got up and pulled her into a tight hug. She didn’t have a mate, but she was a wolf. She had a better understanding than anyone here of what it was like to lose a mate.
“Can you help us find Aria?” Gabriel asked her after a few moments of silence.
I looked at her over Annie’s shoulder. My body stiffened and Annie stopped sobbing so she could hear her answer.
“We don’t need to find her,” she said, looking up at him. “I know where she is and we are bringing her home tonight.”
