that. Chick or not, if he got out of these chains, he was going to make her regret…whatever the fuck it was she was trying to do. He still wasn't clear on that.
"So what, you're bitter about going into retirement, so you fucked over your successor? And what exactly does Ella have to do with the moon goddess anyway?" Axel demanded.
"More than you realize," Natalia said in a menacing tone, folding her arms. "If you weren't such a disappointment that your father felt the need to keep you out of Felidae, you would know. Every hundred years or so, the goddess does more than merely choose another Empress. She chooses a—"
"Vessel," Sterling muttered in disbelief. "You have got to be kidding me. This is about that old fucking prophecy? It's not real, Natalia! It's bullshit. There’s a reason the temple left all that behind decades ago."
Natalia's gaze hardened. "The temple is a useless institution that has exceeded its time in this colony," she said, walking back over to him. "The only thing that's bullshit is the fact that Selene chose a stray fucking house cat to be the vessel for her power instead of a true Empress. Instead of the one who gave her entire life for this colony. It was supposed to be me."
"I remember," Sterling said, seeming to have trouble keeping his thoughts straight. "My father said the stars weren't in alignment during your choosing, even back then. He told you—"
"Your father was a fool," Natalia spat. "Just like you."
"This is about the fucking stars?" Axel demanded, hoping to draw her attention away from Sterling. He was having a better time holding up against the drugs, and it was only a matter of time before his metabolism burned through whatever they'd given him. Until he was able to shift, though… The best thing he could do was stall. "Superstitions based on some corny old legend?"
Natalia turned to him, glowering. "This is about ensuring that ‘corny old legend’ doesn't come true. Selene can’t return if she doesn't have a vessel."
As her words sank in, Axel felt the growing dread in the pit of his stomach. "No," he snarled. He started struggling again, but the men holding him just grasped him tighter. It was still taking both of them to keep him in check, even with his arms bound in chains behind his back. "You don’t fucking touch her."
"Natalia, this is insane," Sterling hissed. "You don't want to do this. Whatever Bishop convinced you of—"
"Bishop?" She laughed, as if she found the idea hilarious. "My children are loyal. They know their proper places, as guards and protectors. Bishop hasn't done a damn thing I didn't ask him to."
With that, she stepped past them. "See to it that they're locked up properly, and I want a guard on them at all times. I don't want anything interrupting the ritual.”
Ritual? Holy shit, she really believed in all this junk. And she was going to kill Ella because of it.
Axel began thrashing in renewed earnest until he managed to shake one of the guards off. He could feel his tiger waking up gradually, but not soon enough. Something blunt hit his head, and the next moment, he was on the floor, his face pressed into the concrete.
"Axel?" He could hear Sterling calling to him, panic in his voice, but that was the last thing he heard before the blackness closed in.
Chapter 11
Ella
The time that had elapsed since Bishop had left the dungeon cell seemed to be an eternity. Ella could hear sounds and footsteps outside the chamber door, and the low, murmuring voices of people talking. There had to be half a dozen in the area at least.
The drugs still had her mind dazed, but adrenaline helped her think a little more clearly. When she'd given up on trying to free herself from the restraints, she’d decided to study the room in search of any advantage she might have when she was released from the table.
Her only hope that that would happen was that Bishop had mentioned a ritual, and if Felidae’s lavish gatherings were any indication, the plain, dark basement room was not the kind of place they would choose for the ritual stage.
More than an hour had passed, or at least that’s what Ella thought. She listened attentively to the voices beyond the door, and every now and then, about once every ten minutes, a guard walked by, peeking in briefly through the bars on the window in the door.
She'd been