Viola's Risk (The Twin Destinies Saga Book 2) Read online

  “Yet you delivered her to Anna anyway,” Thomas stated.

  “I had no other choice. I had to play it off or Anna would have used us against each other and you. It had to play out as it did for her safety, as well as mine,” Dominic told him, standing firm.

  “You should have told me as soon as you realized and I would have found a way of extracting you without alerting Anna as to the situation,” Thomas chided Dominic. “You put my daughter in danger, I cannot condone that.”

  “She went of her own free will sir. She didn’t fight me.” Dominic shocked Thomas by saying.

  “Why would she do that?” Thomas asked, his mind whirling around this new information.

  “I think she knew my life would be in danger if she didn’t come with me. She did it to protect me without me having to tell her anything. In fact, we didn’t even speak to each other until just a few minutes ago,” Dominic informed Thomas as if he was debriefing.

  “So, you’re saying she sensed you’d be in danger if she didn’t cooperate with you?” Thomas asked for clarification.

  “That was my impression sir,” Dominic said with a nod.

  “You do realize that you cannot go back undercover with Anna now don’t you?” Thomas asked him.

  “I disagree, sir. That is my job. I won’t put her in danger. That, I promise with my life,” Dominic argued.

  “There is no way to not put her in danger if you go back in son,” Thomas argued back. “I refuse to take that chance with either of their lives. I respect that you feel you have a duty to fulfill, but being mated to my daughter is now your primary duty. We will find other things for you to do,” Thomas informed him as if it was no longer up for discussion.

  “Sir, I am good at what I do. You need me inside,” Dominic objected.

  “You being inside is a very valuable asset, I agree. The value of that is not above the value of my daughters’ lives however. You will put her before your need to play mole. We will find someone on the inside to replace you. You are not going back inside and that is final,” Thomas said, ending their discussion.

  As he turned to exit the room and go to check on Cora, he looked over at Dominic with an appraising eye. “Do not defy me Dominic. It will not work out well for you.”

  “Sir, as your daughter’s mate, you will not harm me because it will in turn hurt your daughter, and that is not something you would do because you love her so much. I respect where you are coming from, but you don’t know Anna the way I do. It took me years to get to where I am now and earn the level of trust I have from her. We don’t have time to put someone else on the inside at this point. I have to do what I have to do to keep all of us safe. She is planning something right now and we need to know what it is. I am the only way you are going to find out. Please reconsider your orders before I have to defy them. I have until morning before I am scheduled to return,” Dominic told him, standing his ground.

  “The two of you will come down to my office as soon as she wakes up. You are not to be alone together. I will send someone in to sit with the two of you until she wakes up,” Thomas said, nodding his head.

  “Yes sir. I understand,” Dominic said and moved over to the plush chairs in the seating area and sat down in the chair facing the bed so he could watch Viola sleep.

  With that, Thomas exited the room and headed straight for Cora and Liam’s room where he could still hear Cora screaming from anger and frustration. He entered without a knock and looked around at the destruction that had occurred while he’d been dealing with Viola and Dominic.

  “Enough!” he shouted as soon as the door clicked shut behind him.

  “Who does she think she is?” Cora screamed the question although Thomas didn’t know how many times she’d asked it by now.

  “She is your sister as she’s always been. You will calm down and respect her as such,” Thomas told her in a stern voice.

  “She had no right to do that to me,” Cora yelled, even though he could see she was close to running out of steam. He didn’t need Sage to tell him that.

  “That is something you both need to discuss when you’re calmer and in a better frame of mind. Right now, she is resting from exhaustion and you need to do the same before you burn out,” Thomas told her.

  “I don’t want to rest. How can she rest right now?” Cora screamed, using the information to help her build up steam again.

  “Considering she was so angry she almost caused this house to explode, after defending all of us from Xavier’s attack, her body gave out so it could recharge,” Thomas informed her, his tone becoming firm.

  Taking in her father’s words seemed to deflate Cora’s rage and she sagged down onto the bed. She put her face in her hands as she forced herself to calm down, because everything he’d said had been truth.

  “Will she be okay?” Cora asked through her hands.

  “She’ll be fine,” Liam said as he slowly approached his mate so he could comfort her. He knew she hated fighting with her sister.

  “Sage, go upstairs to Viola’s room and stay there with her and Dominic until Viola awakes and then bring them down to my office,” Thomas ordered.

  “Yes sir,” Sage said and rolled his eyes as he walked through the door and was sure that Thomas could not see him do so. ‘Man, this babysitting detail was getting old fast,’ he thought to himself as he climbed the stairs.

  “Liam, you and Cora clean up this mess and meet me in my office as soon as you’re finished,” Thomas said and left the room to find his mate. He knew Angelica had to be worried sick about their daughters and he had to reassure her they would both be just fine.

  Chapter Seven

  A few hours later, everyone assembled in Thomas’ office for the meeting he’d called. Cora and Viola refused to even look at each other and stayed on opposite sides of the room with their mates.

  Sage’s head felt like it was going to explode from all of the turbulent emotions running through the room. He was close to requesting to be excused from this meeting if they could not calm themselves down.

  As he was rubbing his temples to try to ease the relentless pressure, Thomas cleared his throat to begin the meeting.

  “Before we can begin with the matter at hand which is the training of Cora and Viola, it seems we have a situation that needs to be dealt with first,” he said and paused, looking at each girl in turn to see that neither of them was looking at him.

  “You both will look at me as I speak,” Thomas demanded, raising his voice and commanding their attention. Both girls looked at him with matching petulant stares.

  “Sage, honey, are you alright?” Angelica asked him with a worried tone. She reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder before Thomas could continue.

  “I’ll be fine once everyone calms down,” Sage gritted out through clenched teeth.

  “We’ll be taking care of that right now Sage. I am sorry you are in the middle of all of this, but I need you here for this meeting,” Thomas told him with true regret in his voice.

  “Then let’s get this settled,” Sage bit out.

  “Cora, Viola, you both need to calm yourselves down. You’ve both been through a lot and you’re blaming each other for things that were out of your control. You are both under a lot of pressure right now, confused and dealing with a great deal of power running through your bodies that will influence your emotions and how you handle things. You both have to be stronger than all of this. Your mother and I both believe in the two of you, especially after everything you’ve already endured growing up,” Thomas told them, allowing true emotion to flood his words, which startled both girls into listening closely to what he had to say. He glanced back and forth between each of his daughters as he spoke.

  “Surely the two of you can sit down and discuss the events that have occurred like adults and understand each other’s points of view,” Angelica pleaded with her daughters. “If you fall apart now, they win.”

  “Your mother’s right. If you don’t believe me, as
k Dominic what they’re currently working on in the event they cannot kill you to prevent the prophecy from occurring,” Thomas told them.

  “Your father is right, they are trying desperately to divide the two of you, because it will take you both working together to succeed. They know this is the key, and they know you are good at working together as one.” Dominic confirmed Thomas’ statement without hesitation.

  “I don’t understand, you work for Anna, yet you are here. You took Viola from us and delivered her to that evil witch, yet you’re standing here telling us we have to be unified to fulfill the prophecy and beat them,” Cora said to Dominic, shaking her head in confusion.

  “I have been working undercover for Anna for most of my life, since I was very young. I had to take Viola to her, otherwise my cover would have been blown. I knew her goal, at that time, was only to try to convince Viola to turn her back on you, Cora. I also knew it would never happen because of your strong love and fierce devotion to each other. If she had tried anything else, I would have given my life to protect Viola and get her out of there to safety,” Dominic told Cora with the passion of a man in love.

  “So why did you lie to me Vi?” Cora asked, letting all of the hurt she was feeling in her heart, bleed into her question.

  “I didn’t know what to think. Yes, I went with Dominic without a fight. My gut was telling me if I didn’t, Anna would punish him in worse ways than she ever punished us. Also, I’d felt that spark of electricity with him that you’d described to me with Liam, and I couldn’t process how I could be destined to mate with someone who worked for Anna. I couldn’t figure out how we were meant to be together when he believed what she did and was pretty much our enemy. Nothing made sense to me. I didn’t have you to talk anything through with because before I even had the chance, you were mated to Liam. The right time never seemed to present itself,” Viola pleaded with her twin to understand.

  “I’ve never turned my back on you Vi. Why would you think that I would now?” Cora asked, fresh hurt in her voice.

  “I’m not saying you turned your back on me. I’m saying I didn’t want to hurt your happiness by darkening it with my battle. Thomas is right though, the more confused and alone I felt, the more angry I became, the more the power responded and it got out of my control. You know I would never hurt you. At least not on purpose,” Viola poured her heart into her words as she spoke to the one person she knew, without a doubt, she could always count on.

  “I wish you had come to me. We’ve never kept things from each other before, just because I’m mated to Liam now, doesn’t mean we have to start now. I don’t care what it is, I want you to always come to me,” Cora told Viola and walked across the room, wrapping her arms tight around her twin. “You have always been, and always will be, my best friend.”

  “Ok, now I think I need to throw up. Can we wrap this up?” Sage interrupted, sending both girls into fits of laughter.

  “Anything else either of you need to get off your chests?” Angelica asked with a grin on her face.

  “Not that I can think of right now,” Viola said, looking at Cora.

  “Me either,” Cora replied, hugging her sister tight once more before returning to sit in her usual spot on the couch with Liam.

  Viola took Dominic’s hand and tugged him over to where she usually sat next to them and curled up in his lap, as Sage threw them a smile. He was so relieved to have the pressure of everyone’s high strung emotions gone from his head.

  Thomas cleared his throat again to regain everyone’s attention and continued with the meeting.

  “As you all know, Xavier was dismissed just before lunch as your trainer…” Thomas began but was interrupted by Dominic.

  “Wait. You had Xavier training the girls?” Dominic asked in disbelief.

  “Why wouldn’t I? He’s been an exemplary soldier and member of my team since the start of his career,” Thomas responded with impatience. He did not appreciate being interrupted in the slightest.

  “Well, that explains a lot of what happened here today. Anna turned Xavier to her side,” Dominic said and the room fell silent as that bomb was taken in by those around him.

  “How long ago was this?” Angelica asked.

  “About a year or so ago, I believe. I haven’t been able to give full reports for a while because Patrick started becoming suspicious and watching me closer. When he was neutralized, Anna became more demanding because she didn’t have him at her beck and call. This is the first time I’ve been able to get away and I’m sure she’s noticed by now,” he replied, tense.

  “That explains how he was able to block his emotions from me. That would have been one of the first things she taught him how to do, because emotions give you away long before anything else,” Sage said as if everything was becoming clear.

  Cora and Viola looked at each other and had their own private conversation as the others discussed Xavier’s treason and what his punishment should be.

  It took a while before the conversation waned and the girls were in agreement. Before Thomas could continue, both twins stood and faced their father.

  “Liam, Sage and Dominic,” Cora said without hesitation.

  “What?” All three said in unison as they looked at the twins in confusion.

  “All three of you can work together to train us,” Viola said as if it were a done deal.

  “I’m sorry…” Thomas began but was interrupted yet again by Cora.

  “They train us or we don’t train. Viola and I are both in agreement on this,” she said and Viola nodded.

  Dominic reached up and took Viola’s hand in his. When she turned and looked at him, sudden fear filled her heart at the look on his face and in his eyes.

  “I can’t,” he said simply.

  “There’s no way you are going back in there. Not now. You said yourself she’s probably already noticed your absence. Do you think she’ll let that slide? Believe me, she won’t,” Viola told him.

  “I don’t have any other choice Beautiful One. There isn’t time to have anyone else infiltrate and gain the level I’ve attained. I am the only hope of getting information from the inside,” he pleaded with her to understand and not fight him on this.

  “We don’t need it. Cora and I are here now. We will train hard. We will focus and we will do what it takes to stop them. You don’t need to put your life on the line for information anymore,” she insisted, refusing to believe that what he said was true.

  “We need to know how and when they’re planning to attack you girls to be able to protect you. They won’t just lie quiet and wait until your birthday is here, they will attack and keep attacking until they either succeed in preventing you from fulfilling the prophecy or you succeed in fulfilling it,” Thomas spoke up and Viola closed her eyes as fear and pain filled her chest.

  “There has to be some other way,” Viola said in denial.

  “I wish there was Beautiful One. The last thing I want to do is leave you here and not be able to protect you myself. I am protecting you the best way I can and that’s by giving everyone advance notice to do what needs to be done to ensure your safety. I can’t do that from here,” Dominic said as he pulled her down into his lap and cradled her in his arms. He felt his shirt get wet as the tears rained down from her eyes onto his shoulder and his heart shattered in his chest.

  Chapter Eight

  Cora’s heart was breaking as she watched the scene play out before her. She now understood that Dominic was Viola’s mate and she had to accept him as such. The last thing she ever wanted to do was push her sister away because she couldn’t and wouldn’t accept her mate. Her twin’s happiness meant as much to her as Liam’s did. She had to figure out something to help keep them together.

  Wracking her brain, she tried to figure out another possible plan that would work, because she knew if Dominic left, Viola would follow him and that would be a complete disaster for them all.

  She looked at both Liam and Sage for help but neither would me
et her eyes. Angelica was watching Viola and Dominic with tears streaming down her own face and Thomas was watching with painful sympathy. It was obvious they were not going to aid her in figuring out a plan B.

  “If Dominic goes back in, I refuse to train,” Cora told everyone in the room before turning and marching out. She wasn’t waiting around for anyone to try to change her mind.

  She didn’t head to the room she shared with Liam or the room she’d once shared with Viola. She didn’t go to the spot where Liam had taken her for a picnic either. As she fled the house, the only place she could think of to go, that might take them a while to find her while she tried to devise another plan, was the amphitheater where their powers had been unbound.

  Cora ran as fast as she could and prayed Liam respected her enough to not lead them all straight to her. With that thought in her mind, she began building a wall between the two of them so he could not find her as fast.

  ‘Forgive me. I love you,’ she sent to him through their telepathic link before putting the final mental bricks into place to block him out.

  *****

  Liam felt as if the whole world collapsed on him as he heard Cora’s words in his head and felt their connection broken by the mental wall she’d built. Everyone was looking at him and waiting for him to tell them where she’d gone, but he couldn’t tell them.

  Viola smiled at him and nodded her head in understanding.

  “It’s okay Liam. She’ll be fine,” she told him as she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “What is going on? Where is she Liam?” Thomas demanded.

  “She blocked our mental link so I can’t lead you to her. She’s working on coming up with another way so Dominic doesn’t have to go back in,” Liam informed him, feeling lost without his connection to Cora.

  “Break through the wall,” Thomas ordered.

  “Excuse me?” Viola said as she rounded on their father.