Their Hidden Princess (Zora and Maximus) novel Chapter 299

Chapter 299

I didn’t know if I believed that, and that made everything worse. Renault was the enemy. I couldn’t let my feelings confuse that.

“We will find a way to stop him,” Victoria said. “It seemed hopeless at time in the past as well, yet we still overcame all odds. We will not fail now either.”

She was the kind of confident that I wished I could be. I tried to emulate it, wiping my tears away, but it wasn’t honest.

“Valentin will not forgive me.”

“He will,” Victoria said, but I didn’t believe her.

Valentin’s POV

Valentin should have been with his mate, offering comfort and support. He could feel her pain through their bond. Yet, he could not make himself go to her. Not yet.

Not until he had properly processed the news.

Neo, Zora’s fifth mate, was Renault, his enemy of old. The monster who had kept him a slave, killed his mate, chased and tortured all werewolves across the kingdom.

A creature so powerful, their collective power had been unable to kill, only imprison.

And now, Zora – sweet, perfect Zora was bond to him.

–

Valentin couldn’t let that stand, so he went at once to the library, where he searched and searched among the stacks for every book he could find on mating bonds and how to break them.

Zora couldn’t reject Renault, not without cutting her life short. And Renault, the bastard, likely wouldn’t let her go. He’d enjoy torturing her too much, just by staying bond. And he could follow the bond. Already, he had to know that she was here.

They’d put the Academy on lockdown, warned the students that the war would soon find them here, but Valentin knew against the whole of the vampire army, with Renault at their lead, they would have little chance.

They had to find some way to stop him, other than brute force.

“I thought I’d find you in here,” Victoria said behind him. Valentin didn’t turn from where he was standing, his face to the books, his nose practically buried in one of them. “I just came from Zora’s room.”

“Is she well?” Valentin asked.

“She’d be better if you went to see her,” Victoria said.

“Not until I have an answer,” he said.

“She already thinks you hate her, Valentin.”

The words startled him and he nearly dropped the book he had been holding as he looked up at his queen. “What?”

Victoria, her lips twisted in a sympathetic, sad smile, nodded grimly. “She is hurting.”

Valentin looked away. “The others will comfort her.”

“So you are punishing her?”

“No,” Valentin said. He swallowed hard. “The one I’m punishing is myself.”

Victoria came closer. “Valentin.”

“If I had been there,” he said, “I would have recognized him. I could have stopped this from happening.”

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Chapter 299

“This is not your fault.”

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“How can it not be?” he asked, raising his gaze once more to his queen. His eyes were watery reflections of the heartbreak that tormented his soul. “He has come again for the person I loved, and I nearly lost her just as I did the first.”

Victoria gripped Valentin by the shoulders. “Zora is not lost. She is alive, and scared. She needs you.”

“But I could have —”

“No, Valentin. Even if you had been there, you know as well as I that the mating bond always finds a way. He wouldn’t have been able to resist her. Or her, him. But right now, she needs you. By staying away, you are doing something you’ll regret. Go to her

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