Roderic
I entered my chambers and shut the door behind me, leaning against it for a moment with my eyes closed.
I’d spent the last two hours sitting across from Lord Aven’s cold smile and Alpha Eldric’s hostility, making small talk about trade agreements and feast preparations while I battled with the weight of everything I knew.
Esmira’s absence had hung over the dinner like a ghost.
When I’d informed Eldric that his daughter wouldn’t be coming, he’d ignored me without saying a word, which unsettled me far more than any outburst would have.
He’d eaten in near silence, his massive frame hunched over his plate, his dark eyes flicking to me every few minutes with a cold expression.
But as I’d risen to leave, he’d caught my arm and dragged me to the corner of the hall, his grip tightening until I could feel a bruise forming beneath his fingers.
“What is this, Alpha?” I asked, mirroring his cold expression as his tall frame hovered over me.
“I don’t care if you want to fuck every woman in this kingdom,” he said, his voice low, his eyes flashing with annoyance.
“But you will learn to respect my daughter. She comes first. Before your whores, your politics, and your pride.”
“The agreement was to go through with the wedding, Eldric. I don’t love your daughter, or do you want to force my heart?”
“By the gods!” He growled, tightening his grip.
“You shameless little prick!”
“No.” I gave him a patient smile.
“You’re the shameless one. I’ve always made my intentions known. Esmira would never come first. I do not see her. I am not attracted to her in any way. The only reason I’m putting up with this charade is that I care about the lives of my people. But if Esmira were the only woman on earth, I would choose death over a second with her.”
Eldric’s hold on my arm loosened as he stared at me.
I could see confusion, and maybe even pain flicker through his eyes.
Then he seemed to recollect himself.
Hatred burned through his gaze as he lowered his face toward mine.
“Do you want to end up like your family?” His eyes glinted with amusement.
“Your mother was a good fuck before she killed herself, you know. I had her and passed her around my generals…”
My chest hammered with the words as air left my lungs.
My vision blurred at the edges, and something inside me cracked.
“You savage!” I growled, my body trembling as I raised my hand to strike him.
He blocked the blow with ease, giving me a leering smile.
“Your sister too. She’d been a virgin. I enjoyed those perky breasts of hers, and I swear I heard her moan, or maybe it was my imagination, before I fed her to my dogs. I still get hard whenever I remember her screams.”
My knees nearly buckled.
A wave of nausea surged through me so violently I tasted bile.
Images flooded my mind.
My mother’s face, my sister’s laugh, the life they’d had before this monster and his armies had torn through our gates, and I felt my wolf thrash against its cage with a fury so primal it nearly split me open.
My hands shook.
Every fibre of my body screamed at me to shift, to tear, to kill, but I couldn’t.
I was suppressed.
I was caged.
I was exactly what Eldric saw when he looked at me.
Powerless.
“You’re useless, Roderic Valdren,” he continued, holding my gaze as tears of rage burned in my eyes.
“A weak little thing, not suited for the throne. If it weren’t for Aven, I would have fucked you myself before sending you on the way to meet your pathetic father.” Find the original chapter at g.com.
He released my arm as he pulled away, straightening his shirt.
There was a mysterious glint in his eyes.
“If I hear or see any moment where you disrespect Esmira again — any moment at all — I will burn the Eastern Kingdom to the ground and salt the earth behind me.”
He grabbed my chin, forcing my gaze to his.
“I will fuck your precious Lysara in front of you before I gut her to pieces. For my daughter, Roderic, I would do anything. You’d do well to remember that.”
He released my chin and walked away, leaving me standing in the corner of the dining hall, my fists clenched so tightly my nails had drawn blood from my palms.
Everyone knew Eldric’s threats were never empty.
I’d had to push down the urge to spill everything about his dead daughter and watch him do his worst.
But until I could protect the people I loved and my people, I had to bear everything.
I sighed and pushed away from the door, shedding my coat and tossing it over the back of a chair.
I pulled off the rest of my clothes and walked to the bathing chamber.
I lowered myself in and let the heat soak into muscles that had been clenched since dawn.
The water stung the crescent cuts on my palms where my nails had broken skin.
By the time I dried off and pulled on a loose pair of sleeping trousers, some of the tension had eased.
I pushed open the door to my inner chamber and stopped in my tracks.
A rich, cloying scent hit me.
It was unmistakably Lysara’s.
My wolf snarled instantly, hackles rising deep inside my chest but not with desire.
My wolf was disgusted at the fake Lysara’s scent carrying a chemical undertone.
But there was something else.
Underneath the false scent, another aroma emerged.
It was earthy, warm, faintly fruity, like sun-ripened berries after rain.
My wolf caught it and went calm.
It was Enora’s scent.
The fake Esmira.
And it was sweeter than anything I’d ever smelled.
She was a commoner, but a commoner’s scent shouldn’t register like this.
Common-blooded people barely carried a scent at all, certainly nothing that would make a Bloodright wolf stop and pay attention.
And yet here I was, standing in my own doorway, my mouth watering.
What was she doing in my room?
I crossed the chamber, scanning the space.
The bed was empty, covers undisturbed.
The chair by the desk was vacant.
Where the hell was she?
Then I saw her.
She was on the floor in front of the fireplace, curled into a ball so small she barely occupied the space of a single hearth stone.
Her dark hair fanned out behind her, loose and tangled, catching the amber light from the dying embers.
Her knees were drawn to her chest, one hand tucked beneath her cheek, the other resting palm-up on the floor. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Dried traces of tears streaked her cheeks.
My wolf stirred, filling me with a strange warmth as her scent wafted through the room.
I walked to the wine cabinet in the corner, poured myself a glass, and carried it back to the fireplace.
I stood over her, frowning, drinking slowly while I looked down at the woman who was supposed to be my queen and was instead a maid from Dunmere sleeping on my floor like a stray.
The firelight caught her face, and she stirred in her sleep, moaning softly.
Warmth flooded through me, and my mind drifted unbidden to the night I’d thought she was Lysara.
The feel of her body beneath mine, the sounds she’d made in the dark.
I shook my head to dispel the thoughts, but instead of walking away, I was on one knee beside her.
My hand reached forward, hovering over the strand of hair that had fallen across her face.
I was going to brush it aside when I stopped.
My hand hung in the air, inches from her skin.
What the hell was I doing?
I pulled back and stood up sharply, anger flooding through me at myself — at her, at the fact that a common girl on my floor could make me lose control.
If she needed to lie down, she could have used the bed or the couch.
I hadn’t asked for her.
What was she even doing here?
I hissed and crossed back to the wine cabinet and poured another glass.
I drank it standing, my eyes drifting back to her despite myself.
Her scent was filling the room, making my wolf pace restlessly inside me.
By the third glass, the edges of the room had softened, and my eyelids were heavy enough for sleep.
Good.
I needed to be drunk enough to pass out before my thoughts circled back to the woman on the floor.
I crossed the room and began blowing out the candles, one by one, until I reached the last — the one nearest the fireplace.
I hesitated.
If I put it out, the room would be pitch dark.
The fire was almost dead.
If she woke in the middle of the night, she wouldn’t be able to see a thing.
I started to walk away.
Then stopped.
Why did I care?
It was not my problem to worry about her.
Whether fake or real, Esmira meant nothing to me.
I hissed again, bent over, and snuffed it out.
Then I crossed to the bed in the darkness and climbed under the covers.
Within minutes, I was asleep.