Chapter 21

Atwood

Watching my mate cry makes it feel as though my heart is being ripped from my chest. I never wanted to hurt her, never wanted to make her cry. I never wanted to make her feel so unheard that she would need to resort to this to get me to listen.

The power of the mate bond feels stronger now than ever.

“Ruby,” I mutter, stepping toward her and wrapping my arms around her. She feels tiny and fragile. Her body shivers with a mixture of anger and distress, but I only hug her more tightly until she relaxes into my arms.

I pick her up now and carry her over to my chair, sitting down with her on my lap. She leans heavily against my shoulder as she continues to sob. I say nothing, simply stroking her hair until she calms.

“Just breathe,” I murmur into her ear repeatedly.

When Ruby has calmed, she sits up and rubs her red eyes. I reach up with my handkerchief to wipe away the tears and snot from her sobbing.

I look into her eyes when I’m done cleaning her face and cup her round little cheeks in my hands. A soft smile plays at the corners of her lips and she nuzzles against me. I know that she’s angry, but the power of the mate bond allows her to relax from my touch. I feel more relaxed now as well, and more clear headed.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been listening to you,” I mutter softly, stroking her cheek with my thumb. “I know I’ve put some heavy expectations on you. I should have been there for you more often. Running a kingdom… it’s not easy. But I’ll try to find ways to be more involved in your life.”

Ruby nods and wraps her arms around my neck to give me a big hug. My wolf gets a little excited at her touch, but I order him to calm down because now is not the time to become aroused. He growls in response and goes back to sleep.

“Now,” I say, standing and placing Ruby on her feet. I take her hand and lead her out onto the balcony where she can get some fresh air. The late morning sun has begun to warm the castle grounds, and it feels good on my skin. “Tell me exactly what’s been going on. Start from the beginning.”

She looks down at her feet. I can tell she’s having a hard time with finding the right words.

“It’s alright,” I say, wrapping my arm around her slender shoulders. “You can be honest.”

“Well… On my first day, Alice gave me a white uniform to wear,” she says quietly, fiddling with her school blazer. “I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to wear white. The other students took offense to it… And there was this one girl, Donna. And her boyfriend, Ethan. They… threw coffee on me.”

My wolf stirs again, this time out of anger at my mate’s mistreatment rather than arousal, but I don’t speak and instead let her continue.

“Donna and her boyfriend really hate me. When they found out that I had been invited to the student council party, they were furious. I…” she gulps nervously. I rub her shoulder gently, which allows her to relax again.

“Did something happen at the party?”

Ruby nods. Her beautiful eyes well up with tears again and she begins to sniffle.

“I… I think they drugged me,” she says. “I wasn’t planning on drinking, really. But then Donna brought me a drink and said that she was sorry for treating me poorly, and coerced me into drinking. The next thing I knew…”

I don’t need the rest of the details. A growl escapes my lips and I pull my mate in close again, this time more so to hide my anger at what happened to her rather than for pure comfort.

“Wait,” Ruby says unexpectedly, pushing me away. She reaches into her blazer pocket to pull out the phone that I had given her on her first day and unlocks it, then opens her social media.

When she turns the screen toward me, I am in utter shock.

Dozens of slanderous photos of my beautiful mate, with nasty captions and horrible comments on each one. The photo that stands out to me the most is the one in which her panties and beautiful breasts have been exposed as she lays on the exact floor where I found her. A sign that says something atrocious sits on her belly.

I yank the phone out of Ruby’s hands and study the photos.

My wolf awakens fully. I have to find the people that did this to my mate and punish them.

I storm off to my phone and dial Kayne immediately. He picks up on the second ring and I start talking before he even says “hello”.

“I want you to retrieve all of the information you can on the social media account ‘@xxrubytheprostituexx’. I want the IP address, the owner’s name, their address, everything you can possibly find. And delete all traces of the images on that page.”

Kayne pauses before answering.

“Sir?” he says confusedly. “I’m… afraid that my programming skills might not be what they used to be. It’s been years since I brushed up on it.”

“Oh, please,” I answer, slamming my fist down on the table. I can see Ruby tremble out of the corner of my eye and force myself to become calm again, although my wolf continues to rage inside of me. “I remember how talented you were with computers in school,” I say calmly. “Remember when you hacked the professor’s laptop to send out that prank email? This won’t be any different from that.”

Kayne sighs. “Alright,” he says. I can hear him typing on his computer already in the background. “I’ll try my best.”

“Thank you, Kayne,” I answer. “The sooner you can do this, the better.”

I hang up and turn to look at Ruby, who stands nervously with her hands clasped in front of her.

“Please,” she begs, “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

My sweet, caring Ruby.

Always caring for others; even her own bullies.

“Don’t worry, Sweetheart,” I say, wrapping her in another hug. “I’m only going to make sure that they never bother you again.”

After a while longer of comforting her, I send Ruby off to get changed and get some rest. I call for Alice to prepare some lunch -- a real lunch, not three slices of white bread -- and spend the rest of the afternoon fuming in my office and plotting my course of action.

It’s just after sunset by the time Kayne comes and knocks on the door of my study. I’ve been looking out the window in deep thought for a long time; I’m not sure how long exactly, but long enough to watch the sun move from its position high in the sky until it dipped below the horizon, and long enough for shadows to overtake the castle grounds.

I call for Kayne to enter. He comes up behind me.

“I’ve found information on this Donna and Ethan,” he says. “Donna is from the Clements family, just east of here. I couldn’t find much on Ethan’s family -- I think they live abroad and sent him here for school -- but I did find something interesting.”

“What’s that?” I ask, turning around to face Kayne. He’s holding a folder with papers inside.

“Ethan races motorcycles illegally,” he says. “He’s part of a gang that calls themselves ‘The Silver Bullets’. He’s never lost a race, but some anonymous forums suggest that he uses unsavory tactics to win, such as ramming his opponents. I’m not sure what exactly you can do with that, but here.” Kayne hands me the folder.

I open the folder and smile at the information inside.

“I think it’s time to dust off my motorcycle,” I say with a dark sneer.