Chapter 180

I tried not to let my mouth hang open at this, instead waiting for him to continue speaking. He let the silence hang between us until he was sure I wasn’t going to make a mess of things and then continued.

“We happened to read your most recent article, the one that focused on us.”

Heat coursed all through my body, and I prayed that I wasn’t blushing in a way that made me look stupid.

“After our initial shock at seeing such a candid and unauthorized account of our personal life on display for the entire nation to read,” he threw these words out at me like weapons, “We came to the realization that maybe you had done us a favor.”

I bit my lip to keep from saying anything that would get me in trouble. A favor? Now I was really confused as to where this could possibly be going.

“We hadn’t realized that public perception of us had reached such a horrible state. You have much of the truth there, but it’s all skewed as if being viewed through a mirror. Do you understand what we’re getting at?”

“I think so.”

“No. We don’t think you do because we haven’t finished explaining. But at least now you’re willing to listen. You see, nearly everything you’ve accused us of falls at the feet of our wife, Luna Queen Yarrow.”

I clamped my mouth shut on how utterly ridiculous that was. Everyone knew that alphas ruled, and their queens came second.

“You see, Luna Queen Yarrow is a devious and wicked woman. She took advantage of us when we were at our most vulnerable after the loss of our first wife. She preyed on our distraction. It’s clear that she’s used the past few decades to build a web of deceit and dishonesty around the palace, catching us completely unaware until your article came out and revealed the truth.”

His gaze softened, turning almost paternal. “Don’t misunderstand us. We are not claiming complete innocence. But you, in all your articles, do such a good job of making sure that the blame goes where the blame is due. And we are being blamed for things that were not our fault.”

I folded my hands in my lap and stared at him. “I’m listening,” was all I said.

It was a good thing that I had gone and read through the archives to find my information because otherwise, I might not have been ready for his charisma. I might have fallen prey to the lies that he was selling. He certainly looked very sincere when speaking with me.

“To tell you the story properly, we have to go back to the death of our first queen, Rosemary.” He gave a little snort. “She was too delicate. We never should have made her a queen in the first place. But even though we chose wrong, that doesn’t mean that we had no feelings for her. We tried courting several other women who might possibly be a good queen. We were determined to choose better the second time. But nothing ever came of those relationships because it was clear they only wanted us for our throne.”

He gave me a smile that I thought was supposed to be sympathetic but just came off sleazy. “Even a king needs romance.”

I tried not to wince at the thought, which just grossed me out.

“Anyway, along came Yarrow, and she quickly had us fall in love with her. We thought, here was a woman who was strong enough to carry the weight of being the Alpha King’s Luna. She wouldn’t waste away like Rosemary had, leaving us childless, lost, and confused, despairing of where our dynasty was headed.”

“In our grief, we gave a queen more authority than nearly any Luna Queen before her, allowing her to step in and help us rule while we finished our mourning. We see now what she did with that authority. She ran off to the other side of the country, and she’s been pulling the strings on all of this corruption from afar, using our name to wreak havoc amongst our kingdom.”

The reporter in my brain got to thinking. Nobody that I had interviewed said that they had spoken directly to the king on any of the accounts that I had leveled against him. It seemed that it was a never-ending trail of puppet masters hiding in the shadows. Could there be one more? Could there have been a puppet master behind the throne pulling the strings of even the king?

The king spoke again. “In the end, what we are really guilty of is neglecting our duties as king. We were distracted, and we let that distraction come between us and the good of our nation and our people. We have you to thank for bringing this to light since now we can bring Queen Yarrow to justice for the wrongs that she’s done to Orlune. We can step back into our role as king, fresh and new. We’ll take a wife who’s actually willing to bed us and finally produce an heir for this nation. Werewolves need a strong male leading them, don’t you agree?”

“I think a woman can be plenty strong,” I said. “If she were your legitimate heir, I don’t see that it would make a difference if we had a ruling Luna Queen.”

His laugh came out hard and gritty. “It makes a good deal of difference,” he snapped, then drew himself back. “We’re off-topic. You clearly don’t know enough about alpha lineage to weigh in on the subject, so we won’t bother trying to educate you. What we do need to school you on is where the guilt really lies, so that you can publish an article explaining how such a thing occurred.”

He gave me an absolutely terrifying stare. “You do want to write an article and get back in our good graces, do you not?”

I nodded. Best to let him think that for now. I was getting a better idea of where I sat, but I certainly wasn’t ready to go head-to-head with this man. He still had the support of all of his guards, and with a snap of his fingers, my head could be on a platter on this very table.

“That’s excellent. We had a feeling you were a reasonable sort of woman. Most aren’t, but perhaps your breeding led you to be better than the rest. After all, you have a truly unusual scent.”

Part of me wanted to ask if he could really smell me, but the other part didn’t want the king sniffing around me. Some selfish little part of me didn’t want him to have it. That smell was Charles’, and I’d share it with other people like Violet because it brought them happiness. But I didn’t want this man happy at my expense.

My hesitation drew a frown to his face. “We think you should stay the night here,” he said. “Get a feel for the way it really is here, and not just some uneducated assumptions about palace life. Take some time, ask some questions, talk to people around the palace, and then decide whether or not you’re willing to write the story.”

“I suppose I could do that,” I finally conceded.

He clapped his hands together, that serial killer smile igniting his face once more. “Excellent. In that case, let’s eat.” At his clap, in marched several servers, all carrying trays of food. And despite the mouthwatering scents wafting from under the metal lids, I was having trouble finding my appetite.