Chapter 417

I land back in my bed happier than I’ve ever been in Atalaxia. Because I have a plan now, and my big sweet mate waiting for me on the other side. Yes, by this time tomorrow hopefully we’ll all be out of this and I’ll be on my way home.

Humming, I hope out of bed and move into the bathroom to take a shower, eager to get the smell of Jackson off of me and hide all my clothes deep in the hamper so that no one knows where I’ve been all night.

When Pippa comes in about an hour later with my breakfast tray, I wave merrily to her. She stops a bit in her tracks and I scold myself, remembering that I have to be Ariel of last night, who was confused and hopeless and scared.

“Did you sleep?” Pippa asks, pushing the door shut as I move to the little breakfast table by the door.

I shrug, implying that I did not. Which is true! “I’m okay. How are you?” I look at her as she pours my coffee, truly worried when I note the exhaustion of her features, the worried lines of her face.

“It’s hard, Ariel,” Pippa says on a heavy sigh. “Elias and I…don’t know what to do.”

We spend the morning together, then, with Pippa spilling out her heart and her worries to me. I do my very best to pay attention, to listen as intently as Jackson does to me, but the whole time I have to admit that my mind is whirring on my plan. How am I going to get clothing suitable for a journey home? My period should end today – thank god – but do I need to pack any supplies? In what will I pack them?

“Well, I should get back,” Pippa sighs a little later, standing and smoothing her hands down over her dress as she glances towards the door. I grimace inwardly at myself, feeling incredibly guilty for not truly listening and being a good friend. “Is there anything that you need today?”

“Um…” I say, biting my lip. “Do you think you could…send Gabriel to me? At some point this afternoon?”

She snaps her head back to me. “Whatever for?”

I shrug. “He’s my mate. We should…talk.”

“Ariel…” Pippa breathes, leaning forward and shaking her head at me. “I do…I do not think that is a good plan. Alone? With Gabriel? Anything could happen.”

“Please, Pippa,” I whisper. “Just…trust me. This is something I have to do.”

Pippa groans a little and looks at me with that same mix of hesitance and wonder that Jackson gives me when he suspects that I might be mildly insane. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I say, giving a steady nod. “Sometime this afternoon, perhaps?”

She heaves a heavy sigh and shakes her head. “All right. But Elias and I will be right in our room if you need us during that meeting, okay?” She points towards the bell pull in the corner of the room, reminding me that one tug will send them running for me.

And I smile back at her, thinking that I’m very well aware of that.

In fact, that I’m depending on it.

“Hello, mate.”

Gabriel’s voice is low and curious as he comes into my room a few hours later. He quietly presses the door shut behind him, leaning back against it.

I exhale, slow and steady, and get to my feet, dipping my hands into the convenient pockets of the pinafore apron that I’m wearing over my simple blue dress. “Hello, Gabriel.”

Gabriel smirks as he crosses the room to me. “Why are you dressed like a servant?”

I look down at myself and shrug. “It’s practical. And more comfortable than those stupid princess corsets you make me wear.”

A finger curled beneath my chin obliges me to raise my face to his again. “You look beautiful in those corsets. Not that you don’t look nice in this as well. yes,” he says, letting his eyes drift down over me. “I find that I…like you subservient. And calling me to your room.”

I drop my eyes and let my lashes drift down, playing my role even as my mind spins. It’s late – later than I’d hoped it would be, closer to night than afternoon. Shit. Is Jackson going to be worried about me, wondering why I’m not calling to him to continue our plan?

“I find,” I say quietly, even as my mind continues to panic a bit. “That I’m…readier now, than I was before, to take a more subservient role.”

“And what has convinced you of that, Princess?” Gabriel asks, his tone suspicious.

I raise my eyes again to him and then wave my hand at the breakfast table, at which I’ve prepared some wine and a snack of some cured meats and cheese. “Shall we have a nice conversation? Maybe come to an understanding?”

He smirks at me. “And why on earth would I agree to negotiate with you? I have you completely under my thumb.”

I straighten my shoulders a little, pretending that it takes a bit of courage to do so. “You wish me docile, don’t you, Gabriel? I can continue to make this hard or…” I shrug. “It could be pleasant.”

Gabriel smirks at me like a man indulging a child and then moves to the table, lounging in his chair. Inwardly I roll my eyes at this smug prince who thinks he is completely in charge. I sit as well and take one of the wine glasses, lifting it towards him. “To your health, Prince.”

He smirks at me. “I don’t drink from glasses I haven’t prepared for myself. Or haven’t you heard that there is someone on the loose, killing Princes?”

I stare at him a little for a moment, letting him wonder at my motives, and then I shrug and take a sip of the wine. “The death of the Crown Prince seems to be in your favor, Alpha. And it puts me in a much more interesting position.”

“Oh, really?” he asks, a bit dry. “How so?”

“You think you know me,” I snap, putting my wine back down on the table, pretending an anger I don’t feel. “But have you not considered that I have also long been second in line to the throne? And that I, too, might have wanted it for myself?”

Gabriel raises his eyebrow at me. “What are you saying, Princess?”

“I’m saying that I want this war done,” I snap, slapping my hand on the table and pretending to be the foolish girl he expects me to be, playing at negotiation with a prince. “And if you were to become King, and to end it the war…” I shrug. “I might enjoy being Queen of a peaceful nation. Even if it were Atalaxia.”

He raises his eyebrow at me. “So that’s your offer? Become King, end the war, and you’ll rule peacefully at my side? Or, not precisely at my side.” He smirks. “At my foot, perhaps.”

I raise my chin. “I can live with that. And I’ll give you children. Beautiful ones.” I smirk a little too. “Powerful ones.”

Gabriel leans across the table towards me, studying my face. “Our children will rule the world, Ariel, if you would just trust me to guide your life. To guide theirs as well.”

My breath hitches and I pretend it’s temptation, letting my eyes move across his face, down to his lips.

“Come,” he says, standing and reaching a hand out for me. “It’s a deal. We’ll seal it with a kiss.”

I pretend to hesitate and then stand, looking up into his face. “You won’t hurt me?”

“Oh, I didn’t promise that,” he murmurs, slipping an arm around my waist and pulling me tight against him. “But I won’t hurt you…much. And you will learn to like the pain.”

He lowers his face towards me but I lean away, turning my face aside. “Please,” I beg, pressing my eyes shut, my right hand dipping again into the pocket of my apron. “I – I am not used to such a willful Alpha…”

“Oh, and you expect me to believe that,” he says, low and sardonic, his left hand raising to brush at Luca’s mark on my neck. “With such a passionate, messy mark as this.”

I turn my head to look up at him with big doe eyes. “My other mates are weak-willed. They follow my own lead, do as I say,” I whisper. In my soul, my wolf creeps close to the abyss between my soul and Gabriel’s – the place where the bond would be. She taps her feet, anxious and curious, urging Gabriel’s wolf to appear.

“Nothing like me?” Gabriel asks, smug, a growl forming in his throat as his wolf appears at the edge of his soul, ready to pounce on mine the moment I accept the bond.

“Nothing…” I whisper, truth in every word as I raise my trembling hand towards his face. “Nothing like you.”

My wolf holds out her nose to Gabriel’s dark wolf, trembling a little at the sight of him. Then, as we planned, she lays down, laying herself flat, submitting. Eager, Gabriel’s wolf pounces and snarls at the edge of Gabriel’s soul, frenzied with want of her.

I lift my hand as if in awe and slowly brush my fingertips over Gabriel’s lush lower lip, my eyes moving to it as well.

“Are you hungry for me, Gabriel?” I whisper, my heart pounding, my breath coming short.

“I am, little mate,” he snarls. “Submit to me. Accept the bond.”

And then, as I hoped he would, Gabriel licks that lower lip just once in preparation to kiss me.

But then he flinches back, surprised at the slightly bitter taste on his lower lip.

And I smile.

Because cyanide works fast.