Page 35

Cain’s POV

G amma Atlas double-checks that it’s only the three of us left inside the meeting hall. We left everyone else in my office with my delta, as soon as I made sure he had everything under control.

Beta reads the ancient text out loud from his phone, and I try to focus on its rhymed words. The sooner we solve it, the better for everyone in our Kingdom. And I fucking mean everyone.

It doesn’t take long to remember the gibberish nonsense of the scroll, without the need to look at it anymore.

“I don’t think it will work. Your birthday is in the spring, and I swear to God the first two lines mean you would have to be a winter pup, as in—born in winter,” Beta Lucifer sighs, leaning on a window that is getting silently assaulted by the heavy storm rain.

Of course, I was born in April, everyone knows that. Except…

“Asher is convinced I was born in December,” I say, and they just stare at me. Lightning bolts are brightening our faces every few seconds. We don’t hear thunder; this hall is soundproofed for precisely the kind of meetings we are having right now.

“What do you mean convinced? You lied to her or—”

“No. I mean, she has a birth announcement letter from my father that states I was born in December.”

They look at me dumbfounded, but then Beta makes wide eyes .

“What if soon after you were born and the announcement was already sent, the King came to know that prophecy and he changed your birthday to throw future you off?”

“And misplaced it. The scroll, I mean. Maybe that’s why it was so hard to get?” Gamma chirps in.

Thinking about your birthday date being fake is ridiculous, but…

“It’s just a few months and a few Alpha commands, so you guys might be right.”

We all pace the room at this point.

“It still doesn’t change the fact that you would have to be mates with Asher for everything to work,” Beta points out, so we look at him, “If there is anything obvious in this stupid riddle, it’s the fact that ‘promised male, princess foe’ is Asher, right?”

I nod alongside Atlas. She’s the enemy King’s daughter, with a traditionally boyish name. Of course, it’s her. That one is easy.

I must say, I had a good hunch to propose a marriage deal to her in the first place. After hearing a few versions of that fairytale Claudia told us, that started all of this years ago, I had a feeling she might be more useful to us than just the easier access to their University grounds for Atlas.

All versions had one thing in common—two lovers from feuded lands. It was a stretch, but still, proved to be a good choice.

“If I didn’t overlook anything, there is nothing about Moon Goddess here. I don’t think you have to be true mates, Alpha, so it still might work with a regular mark. Maybe,” Beta adds, looking at the photo of the scroll with a tilted head.

I go back to the moment when I started suspecting that we might actually be true mates, but I don’t want to discuss it with them. It would just prompt the whole when-should-I-kill-her talk, and I’m not ready for that. We have different kills to discuss first.

“I don’t think they have to be mates at all, they just need to be in love,” Atlas starts to argue with Lucifer .

“Doesn’t matter, they have to be in love to properly mate, anyway. Right? We have to read about that, I don’t know a thing about proper marking.”

I hide my face in my hands with frustration, while I’m listening to their discussion about me being a heartless Rogue Alpha Prince, and all the ways they can help us somehow fall in love sooner than later.

“Guys, that won’t be a problem,” I say firmly, after five minutes of this torture.

They look at me weirdly.

“No, Alpha, without it, it’s all null, and you know we have to do it quickly.”

“It won’t be a problem,” I repeat.

“What do you mean?” Beta asks skeptically. “It clearly states—"

“I’m fucking in love with her already!”

They stare.

“What, since when?”

I have a sudden realization, I can pinpoint the exact moment it happened. Her first bantering, looking straight into my eyes.

Don’t worry guys, my future husband just likes it rough…

“Since the day we met,” I admit dryly, before them and myself.

“Oh! Oh. Really? That quick?” Atlas asks with wide eyes, and then exchanges a glance with Lucifer.

I roll my eyes and look back at the scroll to change the topic, so they will stop torturing me. Being in love is fucking torture in itself already.

Blessed wh e n his hidden part is the strong e st,

“When his hidden part is the strongest, what does this verse fucking mean? ”

“I don’t know, Alpha, when does your usually covered dick get the hardest?” Atlas says jokingly in a riddle style, and I roll my eyes again.

“Asher,” they answer in unison, and laugh at me.

“Oh, is that why you are jealous?” Atlas adds.

I furrow my brows. I was never insecure enough to be jealous of anything… before I met her.

“I’m not.”

Atlas snorts. “Right. And you also never asked us to find out who her true mate is.”

“Hey, I wonder how you would feel if Claudia had some perfect guy made specifically for her… Oh, sorry, you can’t, that’s you.”

“She still can have a second chance.”

“No, she can’t,” both me and Beta say. Everyone knows regular werewolves don’t get second chances.

Plus, any true mates on our Rogue lands are rare.

Beta huffs. “He might not be that perfect. I mean… I’m one hundred percent sure anyone related to Asher can’t be perfect for me, but I’m still mated to Gregory.”

“Gregory is a cool guy, actually,” I admit.

“Have you really only slept with her five times?” Lucifer asks skeptically, completely ignoring my comment about Greg.

“What?!” Atlas shouts, and I give them both a death stare.

I look back at the scroll, but I still feel their eyes on me, so I give up quickly.

“I was fucking tired last week, and it’s a fucking miracle she wants to fuck any rogue at all,” I mumble, looking at Beta’s phone.

“So, can I go back to fucking Claudia, now?” My Gamma is unashamed.

He couldn’t do it while she was mine the past few years, but I released all of my whores from my personal service when I married Asher. Both regular and rotating ones.

“Technically, yes,” I answer with furrowed brows, “But do you think she will let you?”

“She can’t say ‘no’ in the castle, right?” He grins.

“You are such a dick,” Beta says unimpressed, and I couldn’t agree more.

‘Cain,’ Asher’s distressed voice suddenly sounds in my mind, ‘Can I fight your dad?’

Something is wrong. I straighten my back and focus on her.

‘You can’t, he’s…’ I ponder telling her the truth about his partial immortality, but that would mean I would have to tell her about mine too—so I quickly abandon the thought. ‘No matter what, don’t try to fight him, it’s punishable by death. ’

She cuts the link, and I try to focus on the scroll and the guys’ new theories—but my mind keeps going back to my father and Asher’s distressed voice, no matter how much I try to avoid the topic. Fighting or not, she can manage the old wolf no matter how obscene and cruel he can be.

“I think my father might… oh shit!” I bolt out of the meeting hall, realizing she was wearing jeans when I last saw her.

My Gamma and Beta are on my heels, no questions asked.

I don’t even bother to mind-link her again, because somehow, I feel where she is. It’s probably due to the link I have with every member of my pack, or maybe her blood that I tasted is calling to me, but I run through the corridors instinctively knowing I’m getting close to her.

‘Cain!’ she practically screams through the mind link, suddenly.

‘ Ash? Little Wolf? What’s going on? ’

Silence. I’m not even sure she knows she reached out to me.

I feel like I can’ t run fast enough. I feel guilty that I left her without a second thought. I let her wear anything she wants; I should have made sure that she was not alone as I’ve always done—not without the reason. I will never forgive myself if she got raped because of that.

I can’t stand the thought of my father touching her at all! I swear I will kill his immortal ass if—

My heightened senses catch the presence of two royal wolves, and I slow down at the last moment.

“Oh, here you are,” I say, with the most unbothered voice I can muster.

Asher is pinned to the wall by my lewd father. He has a fist tangled in her pink hair, and she looks sideways—evidently trying to calm her pulse. In vain. I can hear her rapidly beating heart even from a distance.

So can he.

“I was just teaching your wife some manners,” my father says, and it takes everything in me to not yank her from his grip.

My eyes dart down to the small movement he does with his other hand. He’s opening the zipper of her jeans, and I can’t pretend to be bored and unbothered anymore.

I am very much bothered!

I push my whole body between them, facing my raging father with a rage of my own. He looks at me with disgust, like I am weak. But there is nothing weak in defending your wife from the Rogue King. Stupid, yes, of course. But weak? Not at all.

“I’ll discipline her myself, your Majesty, thank you for bringing it to my attention,” I say boldly through gritted teeth, because now is not the time to back down.

He smirks at me, but takes a step back.

“You’re welcome,” he says with a grin that freezes my blood .

He leaves, passing by my beta and gamma, who are standing with bored expressions stuck to their faces.

I feel Asher’s arms wrapping around my abdomen tightly; her whole body nestled against the back of mine, her breathing shallow, her pulse high, and her hands slightly trembling.

I look down blankly at her forearms tied together against my abs—not knowing what to do. I slowly drop my own arms and try to take a step forward, but she remains glued to my back.

“How bad did it look?” I ask my beta, but Gamma is the one who answers quietly.

“I guess, Alpha, it would look even worse if you had let him do whatever he wanted to your wife, right?”

I drag my right hand over my face with frustration. “Fuck. It’s bad.”

“If he was truly offended, we would know by now,” Beta adds, almost whispering. “He’s not the type to do elaborate revenge, is he?”

I chuckle coldly. Beta has a point. Cutting, stabbing, and killing on the spot is something rooted deep into my DNA from my father's side. If he was offended, I would be bleeding right now. Probably.

Maybe.

I’m not sure. Shit.

“Did you try to attack him? Ash?” I ask, trying to look at her under my arm.

She shakes her head ‘no’.

I nod to myself, content, and drag her to our bedroom where I know a hot bath awaits. I asked my servants to prepare it for Ash while she had dinner.

We enter. Heavy rain is pounding on the closed balcony doors. It would be very dark if the servants hadn’t left the lamp on by the bathtub. Asher still holds to my body like it is the only thing keeping her together. She’s so distressed, but quiet and shut down—it’s nothing like her mental breakdown from this morning. God, is it still the same day?

“Did he do anything to you?”

She clears her throat.

“He mostly talked about some disturbing things that I tried to, you know, ignore. Then he pinned me to the wall, but you told me not to attack him, so I couldn’t even push him off me, and he was so close and started to grope me…” She shudders at the memory, and it makes me wrap my hands around her shoulders, and hug her almost as tightly as she was holding me in the hall. “He observed me.”

“What do you mean?” I furrow my brows.

“He told me I looked cute with a pup, or something like that. But he wasn’t there in the dining hall, right? What does he even do all day? He’s never around, even at meals.”

“I don’t know. Fuck, kill, laugh, repeat?”

She burrows her face in her hands, right in front of my chest, and groans in frustration. “I definitely didn’t look cute with a pup. I looked lost. I felt lost. I don’t even know if I want to have any pups. I mean, we have to have it one day, but I just know I will be a horrible, absent mom.”

She did look cute with a pup, but I won’t tell her that.

“If by absent, you mean carrier driven, it doesn’t have to mean horrible… And what are you even talking about? You are a Luna, you’ll be natural.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong,” she says bitterly, and looks up into my eyes. “I’m not a Luna. I’m an Alpha. I don’t want Luna's duties. I want your duties.”

I look sideways. I know where she’s coming from, and that she doesn’t mean to actually act on it. She had to forgo that path when she chose this arranged marriage for the peace of her people. And something tells me she will always do whatever she needs to do for them, just like I will.

I don’t know what to tell her, though. Will it be enough for her personal ambitions if I give her an official Officer position in my pack? It’s not being a King but…

I try to step away from her, but she doesn’t let me go. I sigh deeply and manage to take my sword out and put it on my desk.

She’s still shaken by the encounter with my father, or rather, what would have happened if I didn’t come as quickly as I did.

I feel so guilty about this whole situation. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—”

She puts a finger to my mouth to stop me from talking. When she looks at my lips, I see the lust in her beautiful grey eyes. That’s all it takes to completely lose my cool and just kiss her.

She gives access to my tongue, but it’s not enough. I want to feel her naked body warming up against mine. I reluctantly stop the kiss, and start undressing us without words—Ash never stops staring into my eyes, or let go of me for real. No, she’s clinging to me, however she can, even when she has to put both her hands up for me to take off her shirt. I notice the steam from the corner of my eye and I start leading her to it.

We move together toward the bathtub, leaving a messy trail of clothes and knives on the wooden floor.

I step into the hot water and sit down before pulling her onto my lap, her back to my chest. Water almost overflows when I submerge even deeper. I rest my head on the rim of the tub, and she snuggles into me, resting hers on my shoulder. We don’t talk, we don’t need to. I mindlessly roam my hands all over her hourglass body—trying to decide if I even want to talk about all the stuff we should talk about.

“Cain?”

“Mmm.”

“I meant what I said earlier. I’ll always come back to you, so don’t bother leaving me again.”

I don’t even want to entertain the thought of her coming back because of actual feelings for me. Why can’t I be content with her just being scared of me, and determined to make it work no matter what? It should be enough. But it’s not. I want her to want me .

I pull her even closer, and burrow my nose into her hair.

She fits so perfectly in my arms that it scares me. She holds power over me that no one has before. I’m falling so hard for her, that I don’t know if there is any hope left for me. She is already my weakness, and we are not even mates.

She is my only weakness.

I slip my arm around her neck, my biceps pressing to her throat. She elongates her claws—but my hold is so tight—when the first deprivation of oxygen hits her, her claws retract without even scratching me.

I feel her fear. She holds onto my arm, trying desperately to pull it away. Water finally overflows while she’s wiggling her body and legs, in a weak attempt of saving herself. But it stops shortly.

I know if I release her now, she’ll immediately heal, and that’s not my intention.

But I can’t kill her either. At least not until she helps me access that magic stone that the ancient scroll is supposed to guard.

‘ Cifer, have you ever choked anyone without killing them?’ I mind-link my Beta, never loosening my hold on Ash. I feel his presence, but he’s quiet. ‘Lucifer? ’

‘Yes, Alpha, sorry, you haven’t called me that nickname in twenty years, my brain froze. Yeah. Yeah, you have to hold them long enough for some brain damage to start. Otherwise, they will wake up immediately. ’

‘Brain damage? Does it heal?’

‘I’m assuming you are in the middle of choking your alpha-blooded wife, yeah, she’ll heal. I did that to my brother all the time. But better not do it on anyone that doesn’t have alpha blood.’

I cut the mind link and keep cutting oxygen to my wife’s lungs and brain. I rest my head on hers, and just listen to her slowing heartbeat. Thump thump thump, thump thump… thump. Thump .

Thump.

My heart almost stops with hers. I let go of my hold and pick her limp body up, so she won’t drown. I stand up, with her dangling from my arms like a rag doll, splashing even more water on the already wet floor.

I step out carefully and carry her to our bed, looking at her closed eyes and peaceful face. I put her down, come back with a towel, and start to dry her unconscious body. I sit on the edge of the bed and brush away strands of wet pink hair from her calm face. She looks like a rag doll, and I have to focus on her resumed breathing and heartbeat again, to not freak out.

Which brings me back to the reason I did it in the first place.

I fucking fell for her so easily, as if she was made for me by the Moon Goddess herself. That only makes me wonder if she is a good enough liar to hide from me that I am, in fact, her true fated mate.

Fuck. I don’t think she is, but…

A deep sigh leaves my mouth, and I look away from her, clenching my fists. Whatever, it changes nothing, I tell myself. I can love her and still be a ruthless, asshole, Rogue Alpha everyone fears.

I compose myself, cover her naked body with my fur cape, and leave the room feeling as heartless as I can ever be