Page 24

Cedric Raine

Crossing the Veil and leaving my mate by herself isn’t ideal, but I need to deal with this matter immediately.

“An heir?” I stare at the old farts in front of me. I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have left my kingdom for so long. They seem to have forgotten their place. “You think you can order me to produce an heir?” I ask slowly, wondering which of us have taken leave of their senses.

The elders exchange a look between them, and I see the satisfaction on their faces. From my mild tone, they must think that I feel cornered.

I wonder whose heart I should rip out first.

“It is a matter of duty, Your Majesty. You need to produce an heir. This dispute between you and Queen Vivian has gone on for long enough.”

“I don’t recognize that woman as the queen.” I shrug. “There was no mating ceremony.”

They bristle but are clearly prepared for this argument. “Be that as it may, according to the laws of this kingdom, if the elders of the noble families collectively agree that it is time for an heir to be produced, the royal family has to comply. Aside from this, the elders have the right to proclaim a queen in the absence of one. It is Vivian’s signature on the document that ties the two of you, therefore we have decided—”

“Decided?” The corner of my lip curls in a half smile that has a hush falling over the room. “You’ve decided? Then I’ll drag her in here and you can decide which one of you useless pieces of meat wants to fuck her, because I won’t touch her.”

“Your Majesty, you are crossing a line!” Bella gets to her feet, her expression outraged. I stare at her in silence, and she falters. However, true to her personality, she mutters, “Don’t disrespect the queen.”

Once she sits down, I look at the tense faces in front of me. Under that tension is arrogance. They truly believe they can get their way. Studying them, I’m pretty sure of what they plan to do. Controlling me is getting harder for them, so they intend to have me sire a child, and then they will find a way to get rid of me so that they can put that child on the throne. With Vivian already in their pockets, they will then be able to fully control the kingdom.

They must really think that all the fighting on the border has dulled my intellect.

“I didn’t realize the noble families paid such close attention to the laws of the kingdom. But if that’s the case, let me enforce another law. The one that says each noble family has to appoint one member of their family to go fight on the border. I’m sure you remember that there is a law governing this.”

I see their expressions shift to uneasiness.

“I have been wondering why the noble families have been sending such weak fighters to the border. Or to be more exact, I’ve been curious why nobody from the main families have fought at the border in the last two decades. There’s a new squadron that is going to be dispatched tomorrow. I will be choosing whom to send from the noble families. After all, it is my right as the king to choose, according to the laws of this kingdom.”

“Sire, you can’t do this!”

I watch as the elders cry out in alarm. I gaze at them in apparent boredom.

My eyes come to rest upon Bella, who is sitting beside her father, Henry, one of the elders of the council. Bella recently became the head of her family. She’s watching the proceedings in stony silence now.

“You say I can’t do this?” I study her father, who was the one who spoke up. “Why not? I think I’ve been quite lenient so far by letting you select who to send to the border. As I recall, it is up to me who goes and fights. I’m simply exerting my right to choose.”

Henry Asher tenses in his seat. “Times have changed, Your Majesty.”

“I don’t think they have. The laws sure haven’t changed, as you have just reminded me.”

“Then, perhaps they must!” The man who speaks now is Luther Fenrin, Derrick’s uncle, the one who removed Derrick from the family for refusing to marry Bella.

“That sounds reasonable.” I shrug. “Maybe I should start by reducing the power and authority of the noble families. I feel they have far too much say in the king’s personal matters.”

A strangled silence falls upon the room, and I smile sharply. “You’re also free to try to depose me before I produce an heir for you to control. Would you like to give it a shot?”

The elders exchange troubled looks, and finally, one of them says, his voice cautious, “Your Majesty, why are you acting this way? The kingdom has run fine for the past eight years. Why are you suddenly trying to make changes?”

My smile widens, and I feel anger burning through me. “It’s interesting that you specify the past eight years. Because for the past eight years, I’ve rarely returned to the castle, and this council has had free rein to do as it pleased. If anything, I would say that you have been running the kingdom for the past eight years. Am I wrong?”

My attention moves to Bella again, and she meets my gaze, anger sparking in her eyes. “Well, we didn’t have much of a choice, Your Majesty, since you ran off to sulk because you didn’t get your way.”

My smile fades. “Sulk? The people I protect betrayed me and tortured my fated mate. They then proceeded to hold the safety of the common people as hostage to prevent me from punishing the aggressors. I think ‘sulk’ isn’t the right word, Bella.”

She turns pale and looks away.

“You were not betrayed, Your Majesty,” her father says sharply. “We were looking out for you. You fight on the border, and most of the time, you do not seem to understand the integrity of the royal bloodline—”

I slam my hand down on the table, causing a silence to fall across the room. “Do not tell me about the integrity of the bloodline. Right now, it is your own bloodlines you should be worrying about. I will send a list to each family by the end of the day. The individuals named therein will be sent to the border to fight. If they perish, I’ll send the names of their replacements.”

“We will not allow this!” one of the elders roars, and I pin him to the spot with my eyes.

My voice is soft, though. “Allow this? Since when are you in a position to allow me to do anything? Or have these past few years led you to forget your place? Have you suddenly become the king?”

The temperature in the room drops by a few degrees.

Crossing my arms across my chest, I look at each face. “I’m not a child anymore. You can’t force me to do your bidding. Go ahead and try. Eight years ago, I was grieving my mate—”

“Your mate is here in the castle,” Bella spits out. “That low-blooded woman was not the queen!”

“On the country. Even if Leanna signed her name as Vivian, all that means is she signed her name wrong. I would not consider that deception, and it certainly doesn’t make Vivian the queen. I’ve never officially mated the woman you claim to be the queen, not even in the legal sense. So, she is still just a princess. And definitely not my mate. You can quote all the laws you want. That woman is not my mate.”

Henry Asher exchanges a look with the other elders and nods subtly before speaking. “Your Majesty, if you insist on behaving this way, then the noble families and I will follow through with what we said—”

“You mean you will pull resources from the local villages and towns?” I blink. “You will try to harm the people of this kingdom so that I bow down to your wishes?”

Henry shifts in his spot uncomfortably, but his jaw is tight. “It’s unfortunate, but the noble families have a duty to make sure the royal family continues its progression. We demand that you officially mate Vivian and be done with this nonsense. You need an heir, and this time, during the full moon, we insist that you impregnate her. And the laws have to be changed with regard to the noble families fighting at the border. They are outdated—”

“Or”—I stare at him—“I could simply remove all of your land from you since, according to your threat, you seem to be incapable of looking after your people. How about that? Or how about I simply wipe out your entire family since you are being defiant in front of your king? There are plenty of soldiers in my army who have worked hard and should be rewarded with more land. I can give them yours.”

Bella looks horrified. “Cedric!”

“Watch yourself, Bella.” My voice is icy. “Don’t ever use my first name again. You are my subject, not my equal.”

She goes white as a sheet, and I turn my head to look at her father. “Well, Henry? Which will it be? Would you like me to take your lands from you? Or would you like me to wipe out your entire family?”

Bella’s father’s face is frozen in place, and another elder says, “Your Majesty, we are the noble families. Our bloodlines go back centuries. We sided with the royal family during the great war. How can you talk about erasing our bloodlines—”

“How can you have the audacity to threaten your king?” I shoot back.

He falls silent.

I get to my feet. “The lists will go out tonight. Rothan is going to stay in the castle as my delegate. In the meantime, Rothan,” I say, looking at him, “if anyone tries anything, kill them. It doesn’t matter how ancient their bloodline is. I want their heads sent to me. Anyone attempts to disobey you, you kill them and their family. Am I understood?”

Rothan nods.

The pale faces of the elders tell me everything I need to know. I leave the room and head to the other side of the castle where my office is. When I round the final corner of the corridor, I see a woman leaning against the door. She’s wearing a short dress that barely covers her ass, and her cleavage is nearly spilling out. An airy, transparent stole is wrapped around her shoulders, under her long, loose hair.

If Leanna were waiting for me like this, I would waste no time throwing her onto the table and taking her. But this woman? She makes my dick shrivel up.

“Why are you in this part of the castle?” I demand.

Vivian straightens up, pretending to be surprised. “Oh, you’re here. Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you to come back home. It’s been months, Cedric. You haven’t even written to me.”

She tries to touch me, and I slap her hand away as I enter my office. She follows me inside and sits on the edge of my desk.

I say sharply, “Don’t touch my things. And get out of here. Go to your part of the castle and stay there till I’m gone.”

She bristles, and I anticipate the outburst that is to follow. Vivian doesn’t disappoint me.

“Enough is enough. Eight years have passed. I want to have a child now. The elders must have spoken to you already.”

I sit down behind my desk and give her a flat look. “So, go have a child. But it’s not going to be mine. You are free to open your legs to anybody else.”

Her skin flushes in humiliation. “How dare you imply that the queen of the Northern Kingdom—”

I hold up a finger. “No. You are the princess of the Eastern Kingdom. I’ve told you that plenty of times before. I have not mated you.”

“It’s my signature on the certificate,” she hisses.

“A falsified signature.” I shrug. “Either way, if you want a child, go to one of your many lovers.”

Her lips tremble, and I catch the crafty shift in her eyes. “What are you talking about? I don’t have any—”

I turn my attention to the pile of papers before me. “I don’t care who you fuck as long as you stay away from me. You are a political prisoner here, Princess Vivian. You want to have a child, have one. I’m sure it will keep you busy.”

Vivian slams her hands down on the desk, her voice raised. “What am I lacking? I am more beautiful than that little tramp! I am of royal descent! You should be grateful that I’m allowing somebody like you to lay with me! Do you know how many men have begged me for a sliver of my attention?! That woman—Nobody even knows who her parents were! She could have been the child of a prostitute, for all you know! She and I are worlds apart! I am better than her in every way! You should feel lucky to have me!”

I lift my head. “But you are not her. Leanna is my mate, my wife, and my queen. Not you.”

“But she’s dead!”

I shrug. “You’re still not a good enough substitute. You can cry about it all you want, but you aren’t half the woman that Leanna is. If anything, you’re simply a cheap copy. And I don’t want anything to do with you. If you try to look for me again, you’ll be spending a week in the dungeons.”

Her body quivers in rage. “A copy? How dare you call me that cheap whore’s copy?!”

I’m on my feet in an instant, my hand wrapped around her throat. “Cheap whore? My Leanna? I think you’re confused. You are the whore here, Vivian. I know the name of every lover you’ve had in your bed. My Leanna is pure. She is loyal. And she is my mate. You are nothing.”

I toss her to the ground, and she clutches her throat, her eyes watery but filled with anger.

“I know everything you put my mate through. Every humiliating act. You’re lucky I don’t hit females. And you’re lucky the elders stopped your execution when they did. Because what I had planned for you would have surpassed anything you put Leanna through. I would have broken your pride, your body, and then your mind.”

Trembling, she scrambles away from me now. “You’re crazy!”

“No,” I say simply. “You’ve simply not recognized the beast that I am. So, I will say this again, Vivian. Go fuck your lovers before I forget how useful the Eastern Kingdom is to me.”

She struggles to her feet, her face red. “If I end up getting pregnant, Cedric, I will pass it off as a child of yours. The elders will believe me. I can find a way around the blood test.”

I give her a cold look. “If you get pregnant, the child will be sent to the Eastern Kingdom to be raised. You are a political prisoner, after all, and if you have any other children, they will share your fate as political prisoners. And if this is something you and Bella have been plotting, to create a child of royal blood from your bloodline alone, you will not like what I do in response. You’ve not yet seen what I’m capable of.”

“The elders would never allow—”

My eyes narrow. “You seem to forget your place, Princess Vivian. Perhaps I should remind you.” I grab her by the upper arm and drag her out of my office.

“What are you doing?! Let me go!” she cries out as I pull her down the corridor. My grip isn’t too tight to hurt her, but if she keeps struggling like this, it’s going to leave some marks.

There are guards standing by the entrance to the next corridor, and I throw her at their feet unceremoniously. “Escort the princess to her bedchamber and confine her there for a week. She is not allowed to leave that room till the week is up.”

“Princess?!” Vivian shrieks. “I’m the queen!”

“Leanna is the queen. You are the princess of the Eastern Kingdom. And you are a prisoner of the North,” I tell her coolly. “If your bedchamber is too restrictive for you, you can always reside in the dungeons instead.”

The guards try to help her up, but she pushes them away, hissing, “Do not touch me! Don’t you know who I am?!” They exchange a look but allow her to get to her feet herself. “You can’t do this to me, Cedric!”

I begin walking away and throw a glance at the soldiers over my shoulder. “If she doesn’t go willingly, take her by force.”

I watch as the guards approach her again. She screams, “I can walk!” and storms off, accompanied by the guards. I continue with my day.

When I return to my office, it’s not empty. Rothan is standing by the window, looking outside. He turns around when he hears me enter. “Well, that went as well as expected. The elders may very well try to replace you, you know. They go on and on about the royal bloodline, but they don’t really understand why it’s so important.”

“As long as one parent has royal blood, it’s fine.” I sit down at my desk. “And let them cry all they want. They’re not going to remove me. If they get rid of me, there will be no one to fight at the border for them. The monsters will run rampant. Those old fools haven’t battled in decades. They’re just sitting in their mansions, growing fatter by the minute.”

“They’re going to start wondering why you’re taking action now and not eight years ago,” Rothan points out.

My lips twist in a grimace. “Eight years ago, I thought Leanna was dead. The monsters around the Veil were out of control. I couldn’t both contain them and keep my people safe from whatever retaliation the elders would have taken against them for executing Bella and Vivian. Things are different now.”

“That’s true,” Rothan agrees. “But to come at the elders like that? And then appoint me as your delegate again? They’re losing their minds. You know how much they hate me.”

I give him a sharp smile. “They should be more worried about how much you hate them. They had your father executed on false charges. As my delegate, you are well within your rights to torment them.”

Rothan rolls his eyes. “Yeah. That’ll keep the peace.”

I sign some documents and hand them to him. “My seal is still in my desk. Use it if you need to. I want daily reports on what the elders are doing. If they start taking their aggression out on the commoners, let me know.” I look around the office to make sure we’re alone. “And once Leanna returns, there will be massive changes in this kingdom. My mate finds comfort in human technology. We’re going to have to start implementing some.”

Rothan’s eyes widen. “Come again? You hate human technologies.”

I get up to leave again. “But Leanna prefers them.”

I’ve nearly reached the door when Rothan says softly, “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve seen you so relaxed? I wish I had stopped her back then, Cedric. Things shouldn’t have come to this point.”

I pause and then shake my head. “No. If I hadn’t lost her back then, I might never have understood how important she was to me. This time, I’ll keep her safe. And if I have to wipe out every single member of the noble families to do so, so be it.”

I’d prefer not to have to do that because it will severely upset the balance of the Northern Kingdom. But steps have to be taken to reduce the power and control of the noble families. Since my parents’ deaths, they have been getting away with more than they should be allowed to, mostly because I spend too much time at the border rather than governing my kingdom. However, that will soon be rectified.

It’s late at night by the time I return to the human world. If I hadn’t had help from a witch to use portal magic, it would have taken me a couple of days to get here. Fortunately, Freya, the witch Leanna befriended in her short time in the North, now works at the border, creating portals for me and my soldiers to travel back and forth between the castle and the Veil, saving us a lot of time. The young woman seems to like money, and I give her plenty of it.

I see Derrick sitting on the steps outside Leanna’s house. When he spots me, he straightens up. “What happened? Why did Rothan call you away so urgently?”

“A new scheme by the elders to force Vivian into my bed.” I glance at the dark house. “Is she sleeping?”

He shrugs. “She offered for me and Edgar to come inside, but we refused. We’ve been patrolling since you left. Nobody around.”

I see the small, empty food container next to him. “And that?”

He flushes. “The queen gave it to us. She was worried we might starve.”

I give him a dark look. “You made my mate cook for you.”

Before Derrick can respond, I walk past him. Entering the place Leanna calls home, I look around and realize that another reason the castle looks so dull and bare is because Vivian removed every single thing that Leanna had decorated the castle with. Bella must have told her it was all Leanna’s work.

In the dim lighting of the hallway, I take a good look at the small house that is filled with bright colors. This is Leanna’s taste. Once she is back at the castle, I’m going to ask her to make it feel like this place. I want to see her touches everywhere, in every room I walk into.

She must be in bed since it is so quiet in here. But as I walk past the kitchen, something catches my eye. Flicking on the light, I see Leanna sleeping at the table, her head resting on her folded arms. In front of her, there are a few covered dishes and two places set.

Quietly, I remove the lid of one of the dishes and realize they are filled with food. Judging from the table settings, she must have been waiting for me to return. That means she hasn’t eaten, either.

My heart feels warm. Running my fingers through her short hair, I consider waking her up. She must be hungry. My own stomach is rumbling, but I don’t want to disturb her. I pick her up carefully, walk up the steps, and go down the hall to her bedroom.

She doesn’t stir as I lay her down on the bed. Looking around, I hesitate.

I want to stay here with her. This should be our bedroom, not just hers. But Leanna has drawn lines that she is slowly removing at her own pace. The idea of losing her again is far too terrible. I can wait.

As I move away, I feel her small hand grasp mine.

“When did you get home?” Her voice is thick with sleep, and when I turn to look at her, her eyes are still half closed.

“Just now. Were you waiting for me?” I can’t help but touch her soft hair.

“Thought we could have dinner together.” She yawns.

“I’ll put everything in your icebox. We can have it tomorrow.”

“Fridge,” she laughs sleepily. “You’re so silly, Cedric. Road box, icebox. Just call things by their names.” She sits up on the bed when I begin heading out of the room. “Wait, where are you going?”

“To put away the food.”

“But you’re coming back, right?”

I study her. She looks nervous, almost uncertain, a hint of vulnerability behind her eyes.

When I don’t answer, she pats the bed. “Just stay.”

I give her a long look. “Are you certain?”

She flops back down on the bed. “I don’t want to sleep alone, Cedric. Not tonight.”

“Alright.” Tugging off my shirt, I climb into bed with her. Without wasting a second, Leanna curls up against my chest. Her small frame presses into me, and my arm tightens around her waist. When she looks up at me, I smell something sweet and fragrant. “Have you been drinking?”

“Just a little.” She beams at me. “Just enough.”

“Enough for what?”

She shrugs. Her fingers start ghosting over my chest, and I feel my cock stir. My hand comes to cover hers, and there is a warning edge to my voice when I breathe her name. But she simply pulls her hand free and continues.

“Leanna, how much did you drink?”

She shrugs once again, clearly unwilling to answer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Leanna drink before. I didn’t see any alcohol on the table. She must have drunk straight from the bottle and tossed it.

“I missed you,” she finally murmurs. “I missed sleeping next to you the most.”

Her finger is drawing circles on my chest and it’s getting incredibly hard to control myself. “Leanna.” I grab her hand, stopping her. “You are going down a dangerous road.”

Her brow furrows. “Why? You’re my mate.”

As soon as she says that, she pulls her hand away and shifts her body so that she is now suddenly straddling me, her hands planted palms down on my chest. My cock hardens instantly.

My hands settle on her small waist. “You’re drunk.”

“I’m not that drunk,” she protests.

“You wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t.”

She blinks at me. “Why not?” She leans forward, her arms now resting on my chest, her face ridiculously close to mine. “I missed you, Cedric. I missed the way you held me at night. Do you know how hard it was to sleep without you? Even now, after eight years have passed, I find myself reaching for you in the dark.”

I go still under her. “What do you want, Leanna?” I ask quietly, my hands tightening on her waist. “I won’t do anything till you tell me.”

She sighs. “Since when did you get so careful? You always used to take what you wanted before.”

My heart tightens. “When I realized that I could risk losing you.”

Her fingers trace my cheek and then my nose. “I want my mate back. Things are fine between us now, so why are you still—”

I curl my hand around her wrist. “Living without you was worse than losing you. I will do whatever it takes, become whomever you need me to, if it means keeping you by my side.”

This time, Leanna’s eyes tighten. “I don’t want you to be anybody but yourself. I want my mate. Stop walking on eggshells around me. If I don’t like something, I’ll tell you.”

I can sense her frustration. “If I take you, Leanna, my wolf will mark you. You should be prepared for that.”

“The mating mark.” She’s beginning to sober up.

“Yes.”

I expect her to say something, to react, but instead, she straightens up and pulls off her shirt. She’s not wearing a bra, and her generous mounds stare at me.

“If you give me the mating mark, that means you’re all mine.” I hear a hint of dark possessiveness in her voice now. “Whatever happens after this, you cannot be with anybody else. I don’t care if it’s for the kingdom or for revenge. You’re mine.”

She leans closer, and I feel my cock harden even more, if it was possible, at her next words.

“And if you even look at anyone else, I’ll kill you myself.”