Page 10

Back to Asher’s POV

I look around the Rogue Prince’s blood-splattered office and meet the green eyes of his Beta, who, a few weeks ago, brought me the first draft of the peace deal we ultimately signed yesterday. He is almost as big as my husband—a handsome, dark, mixed-race man with a short shaved head.

I guess Prince Cain finally knows my name.

I brave myself and look down at the lifeless head of Colton.

“So, that’s why you don’t feel your mate bond yet, huh? Your Highness?” I can’t stop staring at the empty-looking eyes of my best friend, even when I hear sudden silence in the room.

“I can feel the mate bond,” he lies through his teeth. “What are you suggesting?”

I look up at his angry eyes and then down again.

“Well…” I point my hand at all the bloody mess he just made without any interrogation if what that Officer said is true.

I’m mad at Colton’s senseless death, but I don’t run around with a sword, do I?

I ask everyone to leave, but I’m completely ignored. Even the Rogue Prince who summoned me here is not paying attention to anything except his dark-red wet sword. He’s cleaning the blade with a rag, not caring about me or the trickles of blood on his handsome face.

I hate to be ignored. I have Alpha blood, after all.

“I’m your Luna, and I said, get the fuck out!” I use my alpha command in full force, and they all start to leave with surprised faces.

I shut the doors and walk to my husband, who is slowly standing up against his will, so I quickly add, “Not you, Your Highness.”

Ha, it's good to know it kind of works when he doesn’t expect it. He probably won’t be as unguarded ever again.

As soon as he stops struggling against my powerful alpha command, he slams my back onto the uneven table, giving me déjà vu from a more pleasant situation. It’s a 3D map under that blood, I think, while something painfully pins into my side.

This time I am the one struggling to get free. He is holding me down with his left hand on my collarbone. His right hand goes in the direction of his sword, but he doesn’t draw it. No. He catches the clean part of the blade with his bare hand.

“What are you doing?” I ask terrified, already knowing that I won’t get any answers from this blood-covered monster. “Cain, please, stop!”

His left hand flees to the back of my neck. Holding me in place like a baby kitten, he moves his now profoundly bleeding right hand to my mouth.

He makes me drink it. I try to resist, but it’s all in vain. I cough, and finally, I have to swallow it to not choke on it, so I do.

By this point, I know what he is doing, and I can’t help but cry while drinking his blood. I could try to command him again, but he’s physically too strong. He can resist and fight it, but he is determined. I can see that.

He wants to strip me of my last piece of safety in this strange, scary land he calls home, and he does it with conviction and dead-cold eyes.

It lasts longer than it should. I’m drunk on his sweet blood. My face is wet from tears, my body aches from struggling under his heavy body, and his thigh is pressed between my legs with too much pressure. I can't take it anymore and he must feel it because he finally stops.

He helps me up and laughs bitterly—another déjà vu .

“Say it, Asher,” he demands, drawing his sword and putting its tip to my chest for good measure.

I cough, and he impatiently pushes it in a little bit.

“I, your wife, pledge my loyalty to you, Rogue Alpha Prince, with both of my forms.”

There, I said it. I had no other choice. He is my Alpha now. He can command me. I’m no longer safe. Not from him and not from his alpha-blooded officers that he unknowingly leveled with me.

He accepts my pledge with standard words while yanking my hand and making a shallow cut on it with the bloodied part of his sword.

Then he looks me over with hatred and exits the office, slamming the door.

I start to cry again. I’m so scared it physically hurts. I fall to the bloodied floor and scream.

I crawl to the brown leather sofa and curl up into a ball like some cat, not a werewolf.

I’m left alone with the dismembered body of Colton and his dripping blood. My best double agent, my dear friend that I mourn all night, falling out and back into unconsciousness.

“Here you are,” says my husband's cold voice.

Like he wasn’t the one who did this to me and left me here until the early hours of the morning—judging by the harsh light slipping through the window blinds. I spare him a cold glance.

His hair is wet, his t-shirt crisp, and his soul rotten.

“Come, get washed so we can go for breakfast,” he says, stretching his hand to me.

I ignore it and pick up Colton’s head, then I grab his dead arm and start to drag his already stiffened greyish body around the Rogue Prince and out of the office. Colton is a heavy bastard, but I keep pulling him through the corridor and out of the castle. It’s a cool, sunny morning, and I continue to drag his lifeless corpse until I find a decent spot under a lovely tree with a view over the rogue capital city.

I put Colton’s remains down and fall onto my knees. I reach my wolf inner self to elongate my nails into claws and start digging up the dirt with my bare hands.

Maybe I should turn into the wolf and do it with my paws?

I smell my true mate before I can hear him, so I’m not surprised when he approaches me. Still, I flinch when he throws the shovel in front of me.

I don’t say anything. I’m proud but not too proud—I take it and start to dig with it, because it’s easier.

Rogue Prince sits down by the tree and looks at me while I work, like the true gentleman he is.

Fuck him.

“I killed him, you know,” he says finally without a tiny drop of remorse.

I straighten my back, contemplating whether I have to respond to his taunting.

No, I don’t. I bend down again and go back to work.

“Don’t you have some Alpha work to do?” I ask him.

“No, I don’t. It’s Sunday,” he says and bites into the apple that he must have brought with him.

“Good to know you all have at least one decent rule, Alpha .” I bow mockingly, not stopping the digging.

“Asher—” he starts by using my name.

“Cain,” I roll my eyes, irritated at his presence.

“Is my cock in one of your holes right now, and I somehow missed it?”

I look up blankly at his mad face. He looks like he is actually waiting for my answer.

“No?”

“Then you don’t have a right to say my name, Princess ,” he spits the last word, stands up, and leaves me alone with my dead friend and a pile of dirt.

When I finally return to the castle, everyone seems to be avoiding me.

These are the people who were cheering me on at my wedding. Now, they turn their heads away awkwardly.

In their defense, I probably smell awful, and I am covered in dirt, sweat, and blood of both their Alpha and the traitor.

“What happened to you?” I take a step back and catch the face of a petite blonde maid.

“Luna,” she tries to bow despite the fact I’m holding her.

“Tell me what happened so I can help you.”

Her eyes dart down.

“I… I failed to bring you a meal when Alpha asked me to take care of you being fed. I’m so sorry. I had so many duties, and you seemed so mad, and I was scared and wanted to come back later, and then I forgot… But don’t worry, Alpha already hit me for it.”

I stare at her, taken aback. I let go of her beaten face, leaving some dark smudges on her.

“I’m so sorry you were scared of me. Please remember you don’t have to ever be scared of approaching me, no matter my mood. I’m your Luna.”

“We’ve never had a Luna before,” she whispers, still visibly scared.

“Well, Luna' s job is to take care of her pack. You are my pack. You can always come to me,” I say what I was taught to know.

I see her discomfort, so I let her go and continue my walk without bothering anyone else until I reached the Rogue Prince’s bedroom.

I take a big breath and walk inside, closing the doors quietly behind me.

Rogue Prince is lying down shirtless on the bed with a book in his hand. My book. The one I threw at the stupid servants' heads.

Well, maybe that tiny maid’s fear had some grounds after all.

“I don’t get one thing,” Rogue Prince says, not looking at me. “Why were you called Alpha Asher back home?”

“I was acting Alpha of all Alphas,” I say, taking my dirty sandals off.

He rests the book on his abs and honors me with his gaze. I stare back for a moment, unmoved, and then proceed to take off my bloody, soiled dress.

“I thought the King is an Alpha of all Alphas.”

“Yeah, and I thought the werewolf kingdom should consist of many different packs, not one huge one like yours…”

I can feel his death stare on me, so I go back to his question before he throws one of his hidden knives at me. I’m sure he has some under the mattress.

“I was only acting as one. They were not pledged to me. But I am a royal princess with alpha blood, so I wasn’t below them either.” My ruined dress falls to the floor, and I walk to the bathtub.

I notice he’s looking at me expectantly, so I quickly add, “My Lord.”

I reach for the small towel and soak it in the cold, used water.

“So, you are telling me they just called you Alpha from their own will,” he says with doubt while I try to scrub my body clean, standing by the bathtub.

Goddess, I would give anything for access to a modern shower .

“They did respect me, and I was the General Officer who was bringing all of their affairs to the Alpha King, so maybe they had bruised egos, but it wasn’t that weird. Plus, they did have to listen to me if they didn’t want problems with their King. And there can only be one person who would want to have to say ‘yes, Princess’ all the time.” I try not to chuckle.

“Who?”

“Her husband,” I bow at him.

He snarls. He fucking snarls at me like a beast!

“If you don’t want me to joke with you, then please tell me now, Alpha .”

I still can’t forgive him for making me his subject in the scary and humiliating way he did.

“If you don’t want me to get rightfully mad at your bad jokes, then please, tell me now, my princess,” he says mockingly, and throws my book on the nightstand on the side of the bed I occupied the only night I slept here.

Wait. Did he just call me his out loud? I look at him dumbfounded.

“Get inside,” he says with an alpha command. “I’ll help you.”

Is he serious? He wants me to stand in this freezing water he probably used yesterday evening or this morning at best. Did he not humiliate me enough already?

I take a step back, and my head suddenly spins. He used his alpha command on me, and I don’t have the strength to fight it, not after my last twenty-four hours. I step into the bathtub like it is not me who controls my body. I shiver from the cold.

Rogue Prince comes to me and takes the washcloth from my hands. He squeezes it over the water and puts it away. He grabs a new one and immerses it in water. Then, he grabs my jaw and proceeds to clean my face.

He looks at me with his navy-blue eyes, colder than the fluid I’m standing in.

I hate him so much .

He doesn’t care. He commands me again, this time to stand still, and he cleans me painfully slowly for what feels like an eternity.