Chapter 5 5

The maids were long gone by now, but I stood exactly where they left me.

I didn’t know what to do. It felt like I was intruding into someone else’s space, and I hated it.

I was still lost in thought when I heard the tent flap open. I spun around on my heel, wondering who it could be.

I felt my heart drop as my eyes fell on King Alaric.

He strolled into the room, smiling like he'd not just turned my world upside down.

It's when he got closer and I smelled his breath that I realised why.

He was drunk.

I felt my pulse throb in my neck as I stood there, not knowing what to do.

Then our eyes met and it was like the world slowed down all around me.

His eyes were fierce. His gaze alone was enough to make a grown man run, and I was barely holding myself together already.

I felt the sudden urge to pee.

I didn’t know if I should cry or run. In the end I did neither. My legs were too heavy to move and my eyes were too focused on him to tear up.

“This is a mistake, King Alaric.” I heard someone say in a voice that sounded suspiciously like mine. “Please let me go,” It continued.

It took a moment for me to realise the words were coming from my mouth. How was my voice so clear when it felt like I was going to melt away any second now?

I wondered if he was like Damien. He hated it when I talked to him without permission. Would he punish me too?

Either way, I wasn’t interested in taking part in this decade-long rivalry between three brothers. I needed to do everything I could to get out of this sticky situation.

He didn’t say a word. His silence rubbed off on me a certain way, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. It made my words feel heavier because they seemed to settle into the silence between us.

Then he started walking right towards me. My heart beat hard as every hair on my skin stood at alert, looking for even the slightest sign of danger.

It was an old instinct, one that had kept me alive for so long.

He didn’t stop walking until he was right in front of me. I could feel his warmth through the sliver of space that was left between us.

I willed my legs to move, but they remained rooted in their spot, it felt like I was in a trance.

I couldn’t even look away from him, no matter how I tried. It was driving me crazy.

Fear pumped through my veins like wildfire, and behind that intense feeling was another. One that wanted him to wrap me in his thick, muscular arms.

My breath hitched as he reached out slowly. I watched him with wide eyes as his fingers got closer to my face with each passing second.

Even though I knew it was coming, the feel of his fingers on my lips still made my heart race. Warmth and sparks filled my form. Almost like I'd never been alive until our skin met. It felt like I was going to explode the next second.

His face was an unreadable mask as his cool fingers traced my lips. I wish I knew what was going through his head.

There was something about him. Something that told me he was dangerous, but still managed to leave me wanting to lean in closer. It left me wondering.

And I never wondered. I learnt early on that wondering only made things worse. Asking questions was dangerous, just like I was probably about to discover.

It had gotten me this far, but… maybe it was the look in his eyes. They did something to you. Like bottomless pits, they drew you right in.

I was hoping he would stop touching me and we could have a conversation. I thought wrong. It didn’t end with my lips.

His fingers traced my full bottom lip, then made their way down my face to my jaw. I held my breath, scared that breathing a little too deeply would somehow set him off.

The look in his eyes sharpened and he looked at me more intently. The trance like moment was gone, replaced with something a lot more familiar.

Scrutiny. He looked over me the way a person would inspect a piece of meat before purchase.

I knew I wouldn't meet the mark, I never met anyone's expectations.

It made me sick to my stomach.

“Why can’t I sense your wolf?” he suddenly asked, the action startling me. It wasn’t the first time I had heard him speak.

I had heard it back in the kitchen, but this time he was close. Close enough that his voice registered in my bones. Close enough for me to get a whiff of his scent.

His words registered in my head, and I could immediately feel my hackles rise.

My wolf had always been a sensitive topic for me. I didn’t like talking about it.

I couldn’t tell if he was asking out of spite or because he was genuinely curious, but it didn’t really matter.

I didn’t know if I was really his mate, but if I really was, I knew he was going to reject me anyway.

No one wants a mate with no wolf by their side, especially not someone as powerful as he was.

He would want someone as fierce as him, someone who could stand by his side and fight.

Someone who could be a queen.

I wasn’t that person. I might never become that person either. He might as well just reject me now and be done with all of it. It was better now than months later anyway. No need to drag it out.

Another part of my ordeal with Damien that hurt. All that time wasted on waiting for the inevitable. I even began trusting him, believing he loved me.

He fed me hope for six months and in night, shattered me.

Just like this bulk of a dangerous man was going to do.

I was in the middle of mentally dissecting myself when I heard him chuckle. “Far be it from me to reject you.” He said, still chuckling.

Did I say that out loud?

I definitely have a death wish at this point.

Then I saw him moving close with puckered lips and my entire being came alive with a dangerous emotion.

One that pushed me to do something.

Fight or flight.

I didn’t realise what I had done until it was too late.

The blood drained from my face as I stared at my hand.

It held a sharp-edged object I couldn’t recognize.