Page 50

I wake up with the sun, but when I try to leave the bed, Beta catches my wrist in an iron grip.

“Did you think Alpha asked us to sleep in one bed just for fun?” he hisses at me with a death stare that would make Cain proud. “You are not going anywhere without me.

“Peeing? Beta.” I roll my eyes at him and yank my arm back before closing myself in the bathroom.

My thumb hovers over Cain’s number long after I’m done with the toilet. When I finally press it with a heart in my throat, it immediately shows me the contact is not available, and part of me feels relief.

“I need to talk with my father. Come on,” I declare, walking straight from the bathroom to the bedroom door.

The thought of a tiny devil spawn growing in my womb consumes me to the point I don’t trust myself with… well, anything!

“Wait, don’t I need a shirt to see your King?” Beta runs out after me.

“He’s not my King anymore and no. What’s the point of being ruthless Rogues if we couldn’t go see him in whatever the fuck we want?”

He sighs, and follows me to the office I haven’t seen since signing our peace agreement.

My father is not there yet, but we are let inside by a guard who clearly had instructions to do that.

“You can read whatever book you want,” I wave at Beta and don’t waste any more time before reading the agreement.

What words are used about me having a child with Cain? Is it ‘provide’ and I have to someday give birth to a healthy pup, or is it something like ‘bear’ and I could try to argue it could mean just carrying even for a moment and not the entire process from conception to labor? Wait, what does ‘bear’ mean exactly? Could ‘Provide’ mean buy? Adopt?

My father comes in before I’m able to find the fragment I’m interested in the most, so I leave it for now. I ask the guard to send messages to Claudia and Greg, and I start smooth negotiations in favor of Rogue Kingdom’s future.

My dad moves his eyes expressionlessly over Beta’s naked torso and my exposed legs, but dives into the business without commenting on our lack of clothes.

I notice Beta doesn’t even care what we are talking about, and he looks through all the books quicker and more frantic with every turn. It’s distracting, but I still manage to get a few good deals Cain will be happy with—and a massive aid in educational reform that is the number one priority in my book. It would help with so many problems in the long run!

Beta barely acknowledges my father’s exit. I can hear a quiet ‘fuck’ leaving his lips while he angrily leafs through another paper victim.

“Okay, what’s going on? Is there something I should know?” I ask while concentrating on the peace agreement again, finally regretting not wearing any pants. My butt cheeks start to stick to the wooden chair where the underwear doesn’t cover them.

“No,” he says, shutting the colossal volume of my royal family history with a loud bang.

“I thought you would be better at lying,” I comment with calmness.

“Why? I’m always honest.” He huffs at me with crossed arms and an irritated look directed at the wall.

Hmm, I never looked at it like that… but Lucifer has a point.

He shuts another book.

“Fuck!” he says way louder than before, so I look up at him again with an expecting face. “Alpha asked me to look for something in here, but even with you ignorantly giving me this library on a silver platter I can’t fucking find anything. It’s pointless. We have to go back.”

“What are you looking for?” I’m genuinely curious.

“Clues.”

He earns an eye roll for that.

They are looking for something in my father’s Kingdom, something that they are hiding from Cain’s father, and they probably planned all this for a long time. I feel stupid for ever wondering why Cain is taking me to visit my family so eagerly. Of course, they have some ulterior motive, for a long time now… maybe even before the union.

“Cain arranged our marriage, didn’t he?” I ask bitterly. Not the King.

“Are you mad?” Beta doesn’t even try to hide the truth this time.

I am mad if that’s true.

But it ended a thousand years of war, so I’ll be fine .

“He married me for access to, what, the Temple? Library?”

Beta looks at me unmoving, with a clenched jaw. It’s clear he’s compelled to keep his Alpha secrets, and no one can override Alpha’s orders, even a new one, so I don’t even bother to try.

“Okay, then let me ask a different question. Why do we have to go back?” I cross my arms and lean back on my chair waiting patiently.

“Because I’m not your babysitter. I am a Beta of the largest pack of wolves in the world, and my Alpha needs me back in the pack where I can actually help.”

“Goddess, maybe you don’t lie, but you are crazy good at omitting the truth, aren’t you?”

“I told you this much only because I can’t alpha command you to come with me and I can’t leave you here either. And I really need to get back as smoothly and soon as possible. ”

“Well, is Cain in danger?” I can’t comprehend another reason that would make his Beta change the plans he has gotten from him. But there is no way in hell Rogue Alpha Prince would ever be in any real danger—

Beta nods slowly. Fuck, he is?!

“Okay, let’s go,” I stand up and put the agreement back in its place.

“That was too easy,” he looks me over with pursed lips and narrowed eyes. I pass him without another word.

Because I’m seething inside.

I ask my brother to drive us to the border when we realize we just have one motorcycle and can’t leave Claudia behind.

Greg looks at his true mate standing behind me and throws me the keys to my SUV. Then, he shuts the door of the room he just got back to, in my face without a word.

“Was he like that when he took you shopping this morning?”

“No. He seemed fine,” Claudia shrugs her shoulders. “We had a pedicure date.”

The drive back is exhausting, mentally.

When we are finally back at the Castle in the evening, I am way past being mad at Cain for possibly arranging anything or getting into dangerous situations without telling me.

I just want to see him.

He’s not anywhere, and it would be fine since I know that he planned to visit his mom up north, but when I notice all of his officers are gone too, my stomach turns into a giant knot.

When I keep demanding to know where exactly Cain and all of his officers are, Beta tries to command me after all .

“Stay. In. This. Fucking. Bedroom!” he shouts at me, rolling all of his powers my way.

I shut the door in his face and start pacing around. My eyes keep getting pulled to the bag with a gift Claudia discreetly gave me in the car when Beta briefly left to talk with the border patrol.

I walk to it and pull out a tiny black short-sleeve bodysuit for a newborn. The cutest thing I ever saw and so him . I turn the delicate soft fabric in my fingers trying to imagine the pup small enough to fit in it.

I wipe with the back of my hand, an unknown reason tear, that fell on my cheek.

It is way too early for getting gifts like this—but it seems perfect to show Cain that I’m pregnant with his child, if we were a normal couple. Maybe that was Claudia’s idea in the first place.

We are not a normal couple, though. Or any real couple, no matter how many times we kiss or hug. But I spread it on the bed for him to see when he’s back, anyway. It’s cheesy but seems way easier than uttering the hard words before him.

I mindlessly iron the tiny garment with my hand, wondering what we will decide about the creature that might someday wear it.

If we even… keep it.

No, of course, I’ll keep you, I think while patting my grumbling stomach.

I furrow my brows and cringe at myself for that weird but also most natural gesture.

No, I can’t take it anymore. All the what-ifs, scares, dreams, and Cain’s not known opinions, and decisions to make, both small and great, and things to do after all the decisions will be made.

I don’t think either one of us is ready for it to happen so quickly. To be completely honest with myself I’ve never lost hope to find a loophole to not have any Rogue King’s grandchildren at all .

The mere thought of the guy makes me shiver with disgust. He wants me to raise a full bunch of Cain’s babies—only for him to command them to kill each other when they are ripe enough for senseless carnage.

Oh, how I didn’t want these poor pups to ever exist. But it’s too late. I’m not sure how it even happened. We tried to be safe…

I have to find Cain.

I have to talk to him, fight with him, discuss, have sex, and fight again and again until I feel myself, normal and calm and worthy… or insecure and confused - I don’t even care, as long as he’s by my side.

My true mate.

I silently swear under my breath when I have to civilly sit at the dinner table after bumping into Beta Lucifer on my way down.

Thank Goddess my stomach grumbled again at that time and he let me at least that. Let me … I want to scoff at this thought. But I don’t want to get him angry by disobeying. Not until I gather some information first.

Claudia is telling one of her colleagues how regular humans act so I look around. Wait a second…

All the warriors, not just Officers, are missing at this point.

“What the fuck is going on, where’s Cain?” I hiss at Beta who angrily loads my bowl with some vegetable soup. “And stop putting that negative energy into my food!”

“Eat,” he hisses back, pushing the bowl in front of me.

Claudia says goodnight to her friend, and uncomfortable silence starts surrounding us.

I discreetly look around again. Everyone is either a servant or a prostitute. No one is laughing, no one is fucking, and as far as I know, coming back didn’t take any stress off of Beta’s shoulders.

“I just want to know where he is,” I say, tasting the soup .

It lacks flavor, but I’m not commenting on it in case it’s just pregnancy hormones. Or is it too early for that? Fuck, I barely know anything useful about making a new person in your body.

“He told you where he is, Luna,” Beta tries to dismiss me again.

I narrow my eyes at Claudia, who looks down as soon as he says that.

“I’m supposed to believe he went to his mom with his whole army?”

“Can’t you just wait and behave until he’s back?” Beta hisses at me again and then looks at his phone.

He’s got a message, but I can’t read it from this angle.

I try anyway.

“What is it?” Claudia asks me worriedly when I scrunch my face in dull chest pain.

Something is wrong, like maybe…

I look down under my dress but there is nothing there except my grandmother's pendant and when I think about it, I feel completely fine.

The dull stabbing pains start appearing all around my torso, but at the same time, they are not there, or they are not mine…

Cain.

He’s being stabbed all over his body and I feel it through the mate bond because he marked me. No… It’s not enough reason to feel that. I worked with enough marked couples on the battlefield to know they don’t feel everything. Only the life-threatening ones…

I abruptly stand up, my chair tipping over, and everyone stills in the dining hall staring at me curiously.

“Ca— Alpha is not healing.”

“Not healing from what?” Beta asks but doesn’t look me in the eyes. He knows something .

“Tell me what the fuck is going on, and why my husband is getting stabbed as we speak?!”

The silence is deafening, and I wince at the new source of Cain’s pain.

“He doesn’t have a mom!” Claudia can’t take it anymore. “She got killed as soon as she was no longer needed for breastfeeding him!”

Beta stands up tipping his chair, and screams with an authoritative voice, “Guards! Take her to the King’s council for betraying her Alpha’s secrets.”