CHAPTER FOURTEEN: CHANGING OF THE GUARD
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Trigger warning: there is talk of molesting and/or raping people in this chapter, but nothing happens as our circle slice is saved before anything happens to them
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The minute that I hit the floor, I try to escape; I am able to take a quick look around the dark, unlit room. I look for a way to leave, but before I am able to find any doors, a hand reaches over and knocks me out. As I pass out, I hear sounds of pain from my bonded.
I slowly wake up as my eyes hazily look around. As my eyes slowly adjust, I take in the dark and unlit room before my eyes instantaneously dilate as I realize where I am. I pull at all of my bonded, but no one comes to the rescue. My wings start itching and almost vibrating in the seconds after I am alert. I immediately start looking around for my bonded and slightly relax when I realize all four of my bonded are there.
Before I can fully relax, I hear noises come around the corner and play dead while having my eyes open just enough to see who is coming. In a matter of minutes, five men come around the corner laughing and chuckling at each other. "Won't it just piss off Lord Aiden to know that his prized submissive has been stolen from right under his nose?" Says a lanky man with long stringy hair.
"Ha! As if Lord Aiden cares about anyone other than that new consort of his. Even then, he treats her like garbage most of the time." Says a short man with no hair. The other three don't say a word, but as one of them goes over to Odeta's body, the second man suddenly yells at him. "Hey! That one is mine. The male is yours." The man groans but walks over to Adrian before groping his unconscious body.
The second man snickers before going over to Odeta and doing the same to her. My wings feel like they are about to vibrate out of my body at any second. One of the men walks over to Traudel while the last walks to me. As the man touches my body, I can no longer hold back my wings. They fly out of my body and the pain is unlike I've ever felt. The sides of my wings feel like they're being torn apart while the backs of my wings feel like they are both being ground down by machinery and pulled out with pliers. I scream loudly as the pain becomes too much and I pass out as I see white.
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When I come to again, the only color I see is red. Everything is like it's colored in blood. I look around for the man that was about to molest me, but I can only see a dead body next to me along with a dead body next to Traudel. But the other three men are still holding my bonded while gawping at me. I quickly change into the form of Alexian before pulling out my longsword and quickly cutting the men down next to Vanessa, Odeta, and Adrian.
I get up from next to my unconscious bond mates, but not even unhappy warbles wake them up. After the second try, I give up and hunt through the entire building. I mow through several more bags of meat, but I barely notice them as they quickly fall to the floor. Once I can no longer find any more living things in all of the rooms, I sprint back to the room with my most vulnerable mates. Again, I give a croon to them and nothing happens. I angrily screech to the ceiling before trying to once again pull at the ones that were supposed to protect me. I drop my sword in anger and scream loudly with the pain of abandonment from my circle.
Suddenly, a crack rings through the air before a door explodes inward from the outside and several more people cautiously make their way inside. My vision turns bright red and I dart to the closest man, trying to both bite and claw at him. Before I can do any damage, I hear sounds coming from a large red-haired man before stomping at the feet near me to get away. I try to reach for his red hair, but before I can, a dainty woman almost gets me in a headlock. I bite at her arms and am able to flee after she yells in the air. The next person I try to go after is a small light-purple-skinned man who darts out of the way of my grasp before he leaves the room. The red-haired man shouts in language that I cannot currently comprehend; I try to go after him again, but a new orange-eyed man grins and tries to tackle me. He is able to capture me, but when the same light-purple-skinned man walks by again, I am able to wriggle free and almost succeed in biting the light-hued man. The red-haired man talks louder, but before I am able to latch onto the small man, I am completely head locked from behind and unable to move at all. Any attempts to scratch and claw at the man are completely rebuffed. I scream in fury before he slowly starts to sway the two of us back and forth. I angrily growl before it slowly peters out. One by one, new hands slowly start caressing me, I try to snap and dig at them, but all attempts to escape are futile.
Over time, the color red drains from my vision and I am able to comprehend language. I slowly hear someone crying far in the distance while another person is slowly crooning a song. I relax even further as the swaying slowly soothes my inner soul. "'Lexia!" I hear words as if they were warped through a tunnel. I turn to stare at the person trying to talk with me. The light-purple-skinned man stands in front of me and cups my hands. "It's fine, 'lexia. You're safe." As he speaks, I relax and go limp in his arms. As I go limp, I change back into Alexia. The red-haired man abruptly lets me go and I fall into the light-purple-skinned man's arms before I lose consciousness and everything fades to black.
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Out of the space of darkness, a hand caresses my cheek but is quickly retracted as my fangs snap out toward it. A hand roughly grabs my face before shaking me fully awake. "That was NOT nice, Alexia! You may have had a scare, but that is no way to respond!" I blush as Lord Aiden scolds me. "You should be glad that you didn't actually bite me!"
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I fully sit up on the couch and try to look pathetic. "I'm sorry, Lord Aiden. I wouldn't have snapped if I had realized it was you. Favorite or not, Lady Death would've torn me a new one." He sighs as he sees tears stream down my face and sits next to me on the couch.
"What all do you remember, Alexia?" He asks me before motioning all the other people in the room to sit down, including Vanessa, Odeta, Traudel, and Adrian.
I grimace before attempting to think back. "I remember getting ported away from the rest of the group." I jump up from the couch. "Harry! His Gheyo talked about the scents hunting us! Is he fine?"
Adrian sits next to me and speaks as Lord Aiden stands up. "He's fine. All of his Gheyos came and took him home to make sure he wasn't under any threat." I marginally relax as I don't want my new friend to be injured.
Lord Aiden makes his way to the door. "Now that you are awake, Princess Alexia, I need to call everyone to discuss what exactly happened here. Your circle is already on its way along with your grandparents. But I need to send messages to all the Courts. Everyone should be here within ten minutes. Wait here with your bonded until everyone is here." As the door is closed, I freeze in place.
"Don't freeze out our bonds, Alexia!" Adrian snaps before getting up and sitting next to Odeta who starts crying again.
A familiar light-purple-skinned man sits next to me on the couch after Adrian walked away. "Aren't you just a bubble of trouble?" He sighs before making me look at him. I gasp as I basically look into a mirror; this man looks almost exactly like my male form. I put a finger on his fluted ear that would match mine perfectly. "Lord Aiden could've been a bit less rough waking you up." He looks back at the rest of the unknown people in the room. "My circle is the Tenebris Military Clan. We are called when people are kidnapped or when there is a catastrophe on a planet for search and rescue. Lord Aiden had us go searching for you after he heard whispers of it happening today. We normally would have eased you into this slowly, especially with you having been in a berserker Gheyo rage when you did your cry."
"I'm not a Gheyo," I say as I pull out my wings and stand in front of the mirror. I shake my head as my wings are no longer my own. Instead of being normal pale white and peach-scaled wings with hints of iridescence, they are completely different. Now, they are pale white and peach-scaled armored wings with multiple plates and hooked spines. And the edges! They look sharp enough to shave my legs with. I moan lowly as I stare at my new wings and hear my single Gheyo growling lowly. I pull my wings in and look toward the group before realizing that they are a military circle, just as mine is.
Then, the realization kicks in of what just happened. I start to feel nausea in my lower stomach. I murmur, "Bathroom. Going to go find a bathroom," before running out of the room and going to the closest bathroom that I know of in Aiden's Estates. I sit on the toilet while gripping my pants and rocking back and forth.
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After I have hyperventilated on the toilet for ten minutes, a shimmering blue message bubble appears next to me. I sigh deeply before making it play. "Princess Alexia: Last Princess of the Earthen Merrow, my youngest son Asher has seen the water rise just now in your future. To make sure that the last of your line does not die out, I am sending him to bond with you. If you choose to do so, he shall be in Lord Aiden's Estate in exactly one minute to join you in the bathroom. With him, comes his two bonded Jokers. Love, your Sede's mother, and your future mother-in-law: Queen Amalia of the Water Fae Court. P.S. - you should call me more, I have deeply missed you since we met last."
"Fuck." I say before the bathroom door is quietly opened. "You can join me in the stall, Sidhe. I'm fine now."
"If you insist, Princess." A deep voice rolls over me. "You remember Elijah and Augustine, correct?"
I sigh again, "You know that I remember them, Ashie..." I slowly open up the bathroom stall. "You only message me all the time about them and what they've done to be oh so mean to you." A tear drips down my face as I stare at his face before I run and hug him. I hiss after purple sparks fly off of us. I soul cry at the three of them and they all cry back.
"Only you Alexia. My brother warned me that you would be trouble, and don't I know it." Asher says before gesturing for me to remove my shirt. I do so and Asher marks me on the top of my belly button before Elijah and Augustine mark the sides of my belly button.
The door suddenly opens and a lanky Dragel with ash-blond hair walks in before noticing the four of us marking each other. "Oh, dear! Um, excuse me. I'll find another bathroom." He quickly walks out before Asher grabs my wrist and gives me a very serious look.
Asher says, "The tides are low for him, princess. You better catch up to him and make them rise forever." He lets go of my wrist before motioning me to go after the other man.
I groan before running out the door. I run my way to the mysterious man before touching him on his wrist. As I do, purple sparks fly off the two of us like a fireworks display. "Oh." The man says before closing his eyes. He brings me closer to him in a hug before he soul cries to me. I cry back at him. I mark him high on his neck before he marks me on the bottom of my belly button.
"Well glad the low tide is over..." Asher says while the three of them walk out of the bathroom. "Prince Michalis." Asher nods to the man holding me. "We should probably head to the room where everyone is waiting. Everyone is there already."
I nod and gesture for them to join me. A few minutes later, we get into the room that Lord Aiden has for large gatherings. A hellhound is angrily talking to him about some intruders in the Estate. "Three unknown men just up and walked into the Estate, Lord Aiden! You can't just walk into the Estate without an escort! The sheer audacity of these men! I'll go wrestle up some troops and we can find these men." I snort and Lord Aiden looks at me before rolling his eyes.
"I've found the intruders. Now shut the door and guard it until you're called for." Lord Aiden says while pointing at the door. Once it is closed, Aiden spins to me and grins maniacally at me. "Now, you've got some 'splainin' to do Lucy."