Chapter 134

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Leah spits at me. “I didn’t admit to anything.”

“You don’t have to,” I tell her. “I can see the truth in your eyes. I know how much you despise me. I never thought you would go so low as to terrorize me like this. Even then, when I suspected and everyone told me I was being vicious towards you, I believed them. I thought, how could one sister do this to another?”

“You are the one who acted all high and mighty,” she snaps. “Everything I’ve ever done has been to claim what should have been mine to start with.”

For her to believe that, she must feel no sisterly devotion towards me even slightly. She only ever wanted my life to be her own, even at the cost of my life, my dignity, and my safety.

Caleb has clearly had enough of the venom spewing from her lips. Glaring at her, he says, “I wonder how Samuel would feel, if he knew you have done all this to the woman he loved?” His glance shifted toward the door. “Perhaps we should ask him.”

At that moment, the door opened, and Samuel burst into the room with Tristan following.

Samuel’s eyes were alight with his own fury, his own rage.

Leah jumps out of the chair, rushing to her feet. Caleb places a strong hand on her shoulder and shoves her straight back down into it.

“Stand again without being told to, and I will remove your legs,” Caleb growls.

Leah grips the sides of the chair, her face as white as a ghost. “Samuel, I can explain…”

“You don’t have to. I heard everything.” He dips his head to the side, gesturing to window built into one wall of the room. From this side, it seems like a mirror. “I could see you through there.” His hands curl into fists. “I knew you could be vicious, even conniving at times. But to do that to your own sister – and to me, the man you claim to love…”

“Samuel… please…” Tears well up in her eyes. “You have to believe me. I didn’t mean to.”

“That’s not true, Leah. Stop lying. You did mean to, else you wouldn’t have put something in Harper’s drink and left her there. Or you would have spoken up after, instead of letting the pack tear Leah down. Hells, even your own family faced ridicule because of those actions, and you never said a word.”

I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen Samuel this viscerally angry. Perhaps that night after the attack, when he had begged me to run away with him.

“I’ve had enough,” Samuel says. “Of you. Of all of this. I’m divorcing you for this, Leah. You can find your own way back to pack lands, if they even release you from this place.”

“Samuel, you can’t let them keep me here!” she shouts, leaning forward in the chair.

“Watch me,” Samuel replies. With that, he turns and walks straight out of the room. He doesn’t once look back, not even toward me. It’s as if he’s written us all off. I wonder if he’ll just leave the palace and go home. With the bad blood between them, Caleb isn’t likely to stop him, not even to force him to participate in the Alpha Council.

“Well,” Caleb says, once Samuel is gone. “I think it’s time we kill her.”

“We can’t,” I say. As pissed and hurt as I am, I can’t let Caleb kill my sister. She’s vile and treacherous, but she’s still my flesh and blood.

“I must be hearing things,” Caleb grumbles. “Because I know I did not hear one of my loyal subjects object with her King.”

“You did hear it, and I’ll say it again. You can’t kill my sister.”

“I can’t?” Caleb steps around Leah, ignoring her and her pale face entirely to focus primarily on me. He leans close, danger in his eyes, jaw clenched, teeth grit together. “Do not ever tell me what I can and cannot do, consort. Or have you forgotten yourself?”

Maybe I have. With everything Caleb and I have been through together over the course of my being here, maybe it was so easy to think we might have the kind of relationship where he would spare my sister just from me asking him.

Since Annabelle’s arrival, I haven’t really known what to think to or to believe. Whatever affections Caleb says he has for me feel fleeting, as changing as the tides.

“She’s my sister.” That’s all I can really say. I have no other means of defense.

Caleb glares down at me for another moment, his breaths huffing, before he growls, grabs me by the wrist and yanks me out into the hallway. He does not release me, dragging me along behind him, all the way back up the stairs and to my room. There, with the door closed behind us, Caleb turns on me.

“You cannot undermine me in front of others,” he snaps.

I blink once, twice. Was that what had him so angry? It’s not that I wanted him to save my sister; it was because I didn’t ask submissively enough?

“Caleb…”

“They cannot know of my softness for you, Harper.”

“They… who?” I ask. The only people in the room were Tristan, Leah, and presumably a few other guards on the other side of the window. All of whom should be loyal to Caleb.

“Anyone,” he says fiercely.

A sliver of fear runs through me, but I have no idea if this is Caleb’s paranoia talking, or if I have actual legitimate reason for concern.

“Caleb,” I say again, letting some of the fear come into my voice.

It splashes over him like cold water. Wincing, he takes a step back from me. He closes his eyes and breathes deeply. When he opens his eyes again, they lack the fierce intensity they carried only a moment before.

“Tell me what you want me to do with your sister,” he says.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I don’t want her dead, but she shouldn’t just get away with what she has done. She needs to face some kind of consequence. For her entire live, she’s avoided getting into any kind of trouble.”

“We could send her to the coliseum.”

“That’s as good as killing her,” I said. “She’s even less adept at holding a blade than I was. At least I had known some manual labor which gave me some sort of strength. She’s been spoiled her entire life.”

Caleb considers my words. “We could punish her by having her work some physical labor. For proprieties sake, we will have to pretend she’s been executed, but secretly, she will be living out her time as a servant.”

I wasn’t sure if this was the best solution, but for now, it would have to do. At least she wouldn’t be killed. Although to her, maybe this would be worse.

“I’ll take care of everything,” Caleb says.

“Thank you, Caleb,” I tell him, meaning it. He didn’t have to make these exceptions for me. He could have easily just had Leah killed and not listened to me at all.

That he took the time to listen means something to me.

If only he didn’t have to marry Annabelle…

The next morning, the Alpha Council reconvenes. Samuel, however, is missing.

He is not found anywhere within the palace, nor the capital. It is as if he vanished into thin air.