LAST CHAPTER!!!!!!!
Xavier's POV:
My arms curled themselves around Alina small frame, drawing her closer to me as I deepened my assault upon her lips. I had forgotten our audience, too captured within the moment even to remember the hundreds of thousands of eyes watching us. Albeit, the kiss was obviously Alina's first through her actions that showed she was hesitant and confused, but it was also mind-numbingly beautiful and something that I would never forget.
A steady hand grasping onto my forearm drew me out of the bubble that Alina and myself had enwrapped ourselves into. I pulled back slowly, leaning my forehead on my mate's and both bothering to resist the temptation of pecking Alina's lips one last time before I moved back wholly. Alina almost collapsed into my arms, drawing chuckles from our crowd. Chevron didn't fail to move from behind me, releasing my arm, and quickly sweeping Alina off of her feet and moving back once more. As he continued to murmur to my princess, I once again turned around to face my people.
Smiling I rose my hand into the air, signalling the fireworks and called out, "Let the feast begin!"
As the crowd began to disperse towards their tables, their heads raised to watch the fireworks that continuously erupted above them, I turned around, finally allowing myself to relax completely. I watched my small family - Alina staring up in awe at the sky from where she was perched on Mercuries hip and my brothers surrounding her not bothering to tear their eyes from her face to the colourful explosions above. Silently I moved towards them. Alina was the first to look my way before she deeply blushed and swiftly directed her vision downward in embarrassment.
"Shall we go eat?" I asked my brothers, moving my hand up to caress Alina's hair even as she refused to look at me.
Suddenly, a deep growly interrupted Zeus as he made to answer. My brothers and I broke into a laugh as we walked off the stage.
"I think Alina's tummy answered for us, Xavier." Zeus spoke.
If it was possible, Alina turned an even deeper shade of red.
Our table was at the head of the garden, sitting directly in the middle of the clearing with an equal distance between the small private beach on one side, the forest on the other and the gazebo behind us. As per tradition, Alina was seated first in her highchair that was to the left of me. Chevron sat on my other side, and Zeus and Chevron sat on the left of our future Queen. As soon as I made Alina comfortable, I sat, announcing to my people that they could eat. The table immediately filled with colour powder, liquid and foods. There was an assortment of different little safe foods as well as nourishment that was provided for Dominants.
As I grabbed a pink plate or Alina and began to fill it up with suitable powders, she gave an excited squeal, and I looked up to see what had caught her gaze. At the table in front of us sat our most trusted friends and acquaintances. Talion was bouncing in a highchair with a giggly smile on his face at one of the tables. His dominants glanced up at me, and I gestured for them to come forward.
"My kings, I give you congratulations on this special day. I also wish to bless you mateship and request that you accept our gift." Caden spoke as he and his brothers bowed low and presented their gift on open palms. It was a picture, and when I grabbed it from Caden's hands to look at it more closely, I smiled in thanks. The picture was an image that reacted with magic to create whatever was inside the photograph come to life. The image in my hand was a little angel obstacle course, designed to help little's practise flying with the wings. With everything going on, I hadn't even had the chance to think about purchasing one of these for coming future.
As I accepted the Baru families gift, Talion's vibrant green wings caught my eye as he rushed forward jumping up and down. Briefly, I wondered what the colour of Alina's wings would be when she shifted into an angel for the first time later in the morning.
"Mr. King. Hi! Can I please play with Ally. Please?" He squealed.
Caden's brother, Tiran lifted Talion off of the ground.
"Little one, the Princess must eat first." He murmured softly.
"But Daddy-"
"Talion, your Daddy is right. Alina must be fed. She hasn't had much to eat since early this afternoon. But I promise when she is finished, she can come play."
I was surprised that Alina wasn't complaining as well, while Talion's Daddies apologised and moved themselves and their irritated little back to their table. However, when I glanced at Alina, I understood why.
"Mercuries! Really! Now she's not going to sit still for the like the next three days."
Alina was smiling over her sippy cup in her hands as she gulped down a liquid substance for adults that was meant to enable us to be able to stay up for long periods of time should we need to for our submissives. But as Mercuries turned around form his conversation with Zeus and gave Alina a disapproving scowl, I knew that she had grabbed this liquid for herself and shook my head amused as I added this to the other list of offences she had acted upon tonight.
Alina's POV:
"You are to stay in the boundary lines, is that understood Alina? I am already concerned enough about letting you play but if you so much as step a foot out of my sight there will be an even longer punishment for you tomorrow."
I dropped my head to the ground, fumbling with my fingers. "Yes, Daddy."
Chevron sighed softly. "I'm sorry for being harsh baby girl, but all I want to do is cage you in my arms and never let you go. My powers are still not completely back yet from the ceremony and the thought of you being away from me....just promise Daddy you'll be good okay?"
"I promise Daddy. I love you."
"I love you too little one." Chevron wrapped me up into his arms as I buried my face in his neck, nuzzling the skin there. "Now, go play."
I ran off, a light tap on my bottom as I left.
There was a whole marked section where littles could play and my friends, Emma and Talon were both already waiting for me there. Even so, as I approached, all other littles ceased in their playing to watch me. Immediately I began to feel self-concious, but I pushed aside my worries and smiled at them, even going as far to wave at a few. When I stopped in front of Talon and Emma, both of their wings fluttered in excitement, and I felt slight jealousy at the fact that they didn't have to wait patiently like me to be able to show off their angel attributes.
"Alina, what should we play?" Emma asked excitedly after she gave me a hug.
As I went to answer, a group of littles mostly girls but also a few boys stopped to the side of me. Curiously, I turned around as they all seemed to look nervously at one another until one of the girls was pushed to the front of the group. She scowled at her friends before turned anxiously towards me.
"Hi Princess Alina. We were...uh...wondering if maybe we could play with you, or...uh... not. It's completely up to you of course, but I...we all wanted to play with you." she asked nervously.
I smiled and bounced in excitement. I knew that all the other littles were watching us as well as quote a few dominants, including (of course) my Daddies.
"Really? Of course you can. Except, we don't know what we're going to play yet." I said.
She smiled back at me and turned around as one of her friends whispered in her ear. When she turned back around to look at me, I was surprised when her wings freed from her back she was that excited.
"How about hide-and-go seek?"
--------
"6, 7, 8, 9, 10, coming ready or not." The seeker called. I wasn't sure of his name. I was hiding behind a large tree at the edge of the boundary next to the forest. I had already been waiting here for a few minutes as the seeker allowed us all adequate time to hide before he started counting.
I had to say, hide-and-go seek definitely not one of my favourite games. It scared the stuffies out of me. I mean, your hiding and the seeker sneaks up on you and grabs you. Tell me, where's the fun in that? However, its what all the other littles wanted to play and after checking with my Daddies that it was okay for me to hide in the play arena out of their sight, it was decided that would be the game we would all play.
Just as I was starting to get comfortable sitting against the bottom of the tree, playing with the stuffie in my arms, I heard a rustling of leaves in front of me and raised my head to direct my vision away from lilo. Standing in front of me, just out of the boundary was a man I thought I would never see again.
Jumping up in excitement, I forgot all about my Daddies warnings about the boundary and raced into his open arms squealing out his name.
"Ruyard!"
Xavier's POV:
I was sitting comfortably in my chair, surrounded by my brothers and friends. My eyes glanced back towards the play arena every few seconds knowing that even though I couldn't see Alina because she was playing, that she was safe within the boundaries. Currently, I was in the midst of a conversation with Triton when a sudden thirst overcame me. Excusing myself, I made my way back to head table to pour myself a glass of Starburst when something standing next to my house caught my eye.
I growled lowly in threat and stalked over to Johz.
"What the fuck are you doing here. I told you that the invitation didn't extend towards you and that I didn't want you anywhere near my mating ceremony."
"Relax cousin. I mean no harm." He smirked.
"Yeah, sure you don't." I growled in reply, before grabbing onto his collar and pulling him behind the house out of view. "Now what the fuck do you want?"
He smirked at me again. Then grabbed my glass out of my hand and downed the poison in one go. His ability to anger me was high. He knew everything about my past. He was part of my past and having him at this party was not a blessing I wanted for my mating.
"Well, you see, I was curious, little cousin." He turned to look at me, his smirk never leaving his face. "You have always loved your devil more then your beast and yet the whole time I've been here, those precious little wings of yours haven't come out to play once."
I snarled, my fangs dropping down in threat. Yet another weakness of mine that he knew.
"I don't see how that any of your concern Johz. I want you back in that house and you know that if I have to, I will go as far to isolate you."
"This is my response to providing you with the information you needed, I'm disgraced little cousin." And with that he strolled back inside as if he had no care in the world.
I forced myself to stay standing there for a few moments, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. Once I was able to retract my claws and fangs, I turned around to make my way back to the party, hoping that in my absence nothing damaging had occurred. However, as I prepared to turn around, two figures walking through the forest caught my eye. Both characters were walking away from the clearing going deeper into the woods out of the view of everyone. One of the men was slumped in the others arms, seemingly asleep while the tallest one was dragging them determinedly. As my eyes finally focused on the two people, I let out a loud snarl. The unconscious figure wasn't a man but my mate, and she was being dragged through the forest by a man that wasn't even meant to be in the country.
I tore after them. Growling and snarling, in full dominant mode. Even so, somehow Ruyard was faster. He had swooped Alina up into his arms and was racing deeper and deeper into the forest. It seemed like ages before I finally thought I was gaining on them, only to have Ruyard free his wings and take to the sky. I copied his actions, begging with the Aphrodite to help me catch him before he made it past Nemphrodelia's borders where I wouldn't be able to catch him. However, just as my hand grasped around one of Ruyard's wings, I let out a pained scream as I fell through the sky, plummeting to the ground below. My eyes watched hopelessly as Ruyard forced himself through the barrier of my planet, before both he and my future Queen were lost from sight.
------------
"What the fuck happened Xavier?" Zeus screamed at me as I writhed in pain.
"He took her. He took her and I couldn't stop him." Tears poured freely out of my eyes.
Our private doctor gave another tug on the stitches he was making in my wings. Zeus gave a loud cry, punched his fist through the wall before stalking out of the room, breaking things as he went. He was the youngest it was understandable. Mercuries refused to utter a word, blankly staring out of the window. He hadn't anything since they found me. Chevron was pacing.
"Why did you not tell us about your wings, Xavier? We could have helped you sooner." Chevron murmured.
"I shouldn't need help," I screamed, "I'm Alina's first dominant, I'm meant to be able to take care of her at all times."
"I don't even understand how this happened. No one should be able to get through the barriers like he did. Its almost like they were nothing to him." Chevron said.
A knock sounded on the door and Chevron called for them to come in.
"Sir, we have a problem. We...um...can't question Trex for clues of how he got out of his cell because...um...he's still in there." A guard spoke.
Mercuries flew out of the room and after only a single glance at each other, Chevron and I followed. The doctor protested behind me as I raced down to the dungeon, muttering above safety. The door was already open by the time Chevron and I got down there and Mercuries was fuming outside of a occupied cell.
Stepping into the light, I stared at Ruyard in anger.
"Where the hell is Alina?" I growled.
"What do you mean, where is Alina, isn't she with you? I swear, I haven't touched her. I haven't even seen her since being down here." He answered as he moved to the front of his cage.
Ruyard looked completely different. He had lost a lot of his muscles and strength. He now looked weak and fragile. Nothing like the man who had taken Alina.
As Chevron forced his hand through the bars to wrap around Ruyards throat, I came to a realisation and let out a cry of despair.
"He didn't take her. He didn't take Alina."
"I thought you said Ruyard took her," Chevron grumbled.
"Yes, but not this Ruyard."
"Are you trying to tell me some look alike took my baby?" He asked, releasing Ruyard who didn't bother about the pain only watched us with worry on his face.
"Brother...I only know one person in this universe who has the ability to shapeshift. It's the only other person who had easy access to Nemphrodelia tonight."
"Xavier, he's locked away. I made sure of that. You made sure of that. Why are we even visiting this idea."
"Because thats the man that took our mate and I bet to Aphrodite that was the man who hit Ruyard unconscious and pretended to be him, only to try and choke Alina. He's also the only other man who has the right to Alina in this universe." Mercuries spoke softly, falling to his knees in understanding.
"He doesn't have the right to Alina. He may have used to but we broke the bonds between them remember."
"You can't break mate bonds Chevron. Our brother has her. Jace has her."
Alina's POV:
I woke, stretching and groaning. I was cold and in pain. As I opened my eyes, I let out a startled scream, before gasping in shock and utter disbelief. I shot up, looking around me with fear and worry. I was sitting on a hard concrete floor surrounded by bars. A small cage in the centre of a vast room.
The door suddenly, opened and closed silently and a figure walked into the dark room. I tried to remember what had happened, but I could only remember running to hug Ruyard then darkness.
The man came into the light as I scrambled to back of the cage in shock. It was HIM. The man who has been tormenting me for weeks. The man from my dreams.
He walked forward raising a hand through the bars to caress my cheek.
"Ah...mate. Your mine again, little one and nobody is going to steal you from me again."
Author's Note:
FINISHED! Please tell me what you think. This will be the last of my writing for a little while before I publish the second book, Alaria, on the 1st of April so look out for that then. Make sure you turn on notifications as well, there may or may not be sneak peaks in the profile coming out between now and then.
Before I end this book though, I want you guys to ask me a bunch of questions below and I'll answer what I can after 24 hours in another section of this book.
Also I really want you guys to vote on which chapter was the best and whatever chapter wins, I'm going to put a section of it in the description for this book.
Finally, I want to thank every single one of you for reading Nemphrodelia. It's your comments that have made me continue writing and get to this point. I have loved updating Nemphrodelia throughout the last year and a half and I can't wait to continue the series this coming autumn. Thank you, my fabulous readers. Especially the ones who have stuck with this book from the very beginning. You are amazing people, and I love every one of you.
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