Chapter 28

Aurora

I toy with the collar around my throat, trying to connect to my wolf, knowing that if I shift, it will break off. It’s only a dream, though, the wolf’s-bane still heavy on my tongue.

Xander barges into the closet and I back up, my body shivering into the corner. He hasn’t let up on his threats, on his beatings, and worst of all I have felt him nearing closer and closer to using my body for his own pleasure.

He pulls me out of the corner by my neck collar. I force myself to a weak stand, unable to keep up as he hurries us through the cabin and outside, the weather cold and the wind brisk on my naked body. I try to breathe, try to catch my breath, but it’s no use. He drags me through the snow behind his every lunging step.

I finally pull back, trying to make him stop, but it only makes his fist find my scalp and pull me to my feet, tossing me in front of him to walk. I know better than to ask questions, simply abiding by whatever he wants me to do, already covered in whipping marks he made with his belt from last night when I made it a point to question him.

“GO!” he roars.

I pick up the pace, walking through the winter mountaintop as he steers me with my arms behind my back. He yanks on the chain on my collar when we reach a clearing, somewhat warmer, only two of his little guards out here with us as he kicks the back of my knee forward and I’m forced to kneel.

I sit down, trying to catch my breath, my vision blurry. I’ve been given nothing to eat but a few crumbs of food he throws at me like a rat looking for scraps. The only drinks I’ve been given are tainted potions, some of them burning my throat all the way down until I cough up blood.

Lashes mark my sides, my stomach, from a beating I was given for begging for Xander to just let me go home. He was sick of my crying and removed his belt, using the metal clip to slam down on my body. I shielded my face as best as I could, but his claws have certainly made their impressions on my cheek from a few hits here and there. I can’t picture how I look now, pathetically hunkered over in the grass.

Xander yanks on the chain, forcing my head up as I sit up straighter. “They will be here soon,” he growls, my heart skipping a beat. “They raided the other cabin and I’m sure one of them squealed. We will just have to duel it out right here.”

“We will be outnumbered,” one of the guard’s grumbles. “What’s the plan?”

Xander yanks on my throat, making me gasp. “We have the only thing he wants. He rejects King Kennedy, and then it only leaves me in succession. Either way, if I can get close enough to kill him, I will.”

The other guard looks down at me. “And her?”

“Our leverage,” he says. “Once he denounces our father, we kill him. She stays with me, as a reminder of commoners belonging to us; they will be inferior like they should be, and she will be my pet. I just need to be sure he denounces the title and rejects the royal pack if I don’t manage to kill him. It’s the only ways I will be back in the line of succession.”

I swallow hard, hearing heavy, pounding steps approach in the distance. Soon we are surrounded by dozens of warriors, one of them standing out, his stark black wolf towering over the rest. I whimper at the sight of Jaxson, wanting to stand and rush over to him, but his sights are set on Xander, eyes deep gray in hue.

“Easy, brother,” Xander taunts. He yanks me hard to the side, forcing me to lay down just at his feet. “You don’t want to start a war out here with your mate stuck in the middle.”

I want to fix that factor, trying to pull the chain away from him, but he presses his boot into my shoulder and yanks the chain upward, essentially choking me. He growls at me, his two buddies shifting, sizing up the group that would tear them to shreds in a matter of seconds.

“Speak to me, Jaxson,” Xander calls out, taunting him. “Or I settle our debts with her blood.” He rears back, slamming a kick into the side of my head. Ringing is all I hear now, dizzy and bloody, blinking back dark spots.

Jaxson shifts, his pale, tired form so attractive, even if he is just as weary as I. “Let her go, Xander. You and I will settle this alone.”

I see it piques Xander’s interest. “A fair fight?” he cocks his brow but ultimately laughs. “Not in my interest. I want you to renounce the pack and—”

“Don’t do it!” I bark.

He strikes me again with the front end of his boot. I cough up a chunk of blood, black and crimson in hue. Jaxson can’t stand it any longer. He shifts, charging Xander who does the same, shifting right over top of my body. He opens his jaw, his teeth hovering right over my face, even as I try to push into the ground as far as I can, his breath hot as drool drops down my throat.

Jaxson pauses.

Xander straightens up, wanting to offer the deal again, but the second his teeth retract, a bright orange wolf pounces over top of us both.

War breaks out.

I curl up at the center of it, Jaxson and Luke’s wolves tackling Xander, biting at him, snarling. I pull myself into a tight ball, warriors fighting Xander’s henchmen, the fight dwindling as Jaxson obviously has the upper hand on numbers. He rushes over to me when we lock eyes. His snout nudges me to move, and I do, crawling out of the fight, watching him return back to bite at Xander more, Luke already trying to do that same.

I cover my ears at the sounds of the fight, unsure if I have it in me to stay conscious. I recall the rouges at the casino, this pain worse than that one by so much more. I duck my head and plead with my mind to release me from this ache. I beg to black out, to escape, and to return to a moment I wasn’t experiencing in the past week.

Xander beat me for fun, for the sound of my screams, and he forced me to beg as Alpha, as a pathetic commoner, and I feel too debased now to even admit it. He wanted me to suffer, and it worked. I feel dirty, I feel less than a royal, and Jaxson or any other royal would heal from these wounds in minutes, while I feel the wind brush through the openings of wounds that I will be stuck with for a long time.

The snarling stops, heavy pounding steps taking off into the woods. Jaxson is back by my side, no longer as his massive, towering wolf, instead pink in color and pale in the face. He is covered in blood, most of it not his own, but it doesn’t faze me. He throws his arms around my back and pushes his lips to mine.

He steals my breath, holds my tongue in his own, and I melt to his chest in heavy, heaping cries. His hand brushes down my scalp, pulling his fingers away to see fresh crimson on his fingertips. I bury my face against his shoulder, so worried that he will take one look at my battered, pathetic appearance, and leave me behind. I am too weak to be a Luna. I am too weak to mate a royal.

“You are mine,” he snarls into my neck, the sound of his voice so rough, so raw, that I have to pull away to make sure it’s him. I instantly lose myself in his crystal blue eyes. “Kiss me,” he says, more so commands.

I do as he says, knowing that deep down he has to know that I am okay, to feel that I am okay, and while I may be alive, I am far from OK. I have never even imagined enduring such brutal hostility in my life. Xander came far too close to debase my body a few times. Those moments haunt me now, Jaxson grabbing for my side and hitting an open wound.

I cringe, pulling away, unable to meet his glare.

“I’m sorry,” he exhales.

He reaches for my cheek, but I flinch away, expecting a hit. I don’t have to look up to see the pity in his features. I feel it enough for the both of us.