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T he moment I got back, I learned our assumptions were right about Ivy.

She is, in fact, Azalea Ivy Landeena, the rightful heir to the Landeena Kingdom.

And knowing she is actually a Lycan means the king may have broken his bond because of his actions.

I can only hope it’s reversible damage. Lycan bonds are fragile, and by casting her out on her birthday, he damaged their bond.

And now he is paying the consequences for his actions.

Kyson is in a terrible mood because she is on the verge of her heat and denying him which could kill them both.

She refuses to forgive him. Yet as the days slip by Damian gives me every excuse under the damn sun not to interrupt the king to ask about Abbie.

I’m becoming more impatient by the day. And I am on the verge of telling Azalea.

For so long, we thought she was Marrissa’s daughter, just Ivy, and to think she is a princess—one promised to Kyson all along—is astounding, though not completely unbelievable.

We had our suspicions — something being off with her merely by her eyes alone.

That is the first thing that tipped me off that something was odd about the king’s mate.

Now that we know the truth, I hope it really stings the king for his actions because we all warned him about his treatment of her.

Knowing this information only adds to my need to tell Azalea about Abbie.

Azalea has no idea about how Abbie is truly living or about Kade’s infidelity, and if anyone can convince Abbie to come home, I know it is her.

So knowing this, I go in search of the king, finding him in his office. No matter how hungover I am from last night, my mind is always clear when it comes to Abbie. So I don’t hesitate once I make up my mind that today, whether he wants to see me or not, we will be speaking.

“Gannon?” Damian asks when he sees me stalking toward the office. He rushes over and steps in front of the door as I go to grip the handle and let myself in.

“Move Damian, I need to speak to him.”

“He is not in the mood right now, Gannon. And you smell like a fucking brewery. Are you drunk?” Damian asks, his hands shoving against my chest. I’m not drunk, just extremely fucking hungover.

I wish I were drunk, then it would stop the nagging feeling pulling inside me telling me something is extremely wrong.

“He is never in the mood. Now fucking move! It will take five damn minutes.” I snarl. However, Damian doesn’t move, so I shove him aside and barge through the door.

The door bangs on the wall as I enter, and Damian is right on my heels. Kyson groans when he sees us then clicks his tongue and tosses the document he was reading on the desk, which tells me he knows exactly why I am here.

“Gannon, I have not got time for your drama with Abbie, right now.” There lies the issue he never has fucking time to listen to reason.

“I wonder if Azalea would say the same thing?” I ask him as I drop into the chair across from him and he growls at me. He looks at Damian as he wanders into the room to stand behind me. I ignore his angry presence.

“Not happening. Don’t make me order you off castle grounds. I am struggling enough with Azalea going into heat soon. I don’t need you making it worse by causing an argument.”

“Kade is hurting her!” I snarl at him, punching the desk.

“Enough! He is doing no such thing. Azalea spoke to her the other day, and she said she liked it there.” Kyson’s eyes go to Damian behind me who I can hear is nervously pacing the room behind me.

“Because of the fucking bond! She is blinded by the bond. I want your permission to go get her,” I tell him. Kyson shakes his head and then sighs heavily like the weight of the world is on his shoulders.

“I can’t do that, but—” He runs his fingers through his dark hair.

“You mean you won’t do it. You can override him, force them to reject each other,” I snarl and Damian grips my shoulder when I go to rise from my chair. I shrug him off but remain seated.

“Not without consequences, Gannon. We have been through this,” Kyson tells me. But fuck the consequences.

“Azalea is in the corridor on her way here,” Damian tells the king, cutting into our conversation. I peer over my shoulder at him before turning back to face the king, who is rubbing his temples as if he has a headache.

“I am willing to accept the consequences. I will do it, it won’t come back on you,” I try to reason with him. Still he shakes his head.

“My answer is no. Damian, get him out here before she gets here. I’m not dealing with this shit right now.” The king waves me off dismissively and I get up.

“Then you leave me no choice. You won’t do it, then I will tell the queen!” I snarl, walking toward the door. The moment I step past the desk, Kyson grabs my arm, his grip tight. Damian is quick to get between us, trying to diffuse the situation.

“You will do no such thing!” Kyson growls in warning. But I am sick of waiting, sick of waiting for Abbie to see reason. By the time that comes, it could be too late.

Noise from the corridors reaches my ears, I hear Azalea speaking to Dustin.

“The king doesn’t want you in there right now, My Queen,” I hear Dustin telling her, which makes the king jump at the sound of her voice. He peers at the door behind him.

“Grant my request, Kyson,” I warn him, knowing now is my only chance to let her know what is going on with Abbie.

I know he won’t tell her, which leaves it to me.

I watch his eyes glaze over and the mindlink opens, so I know he is telling Dustin to take her away.

I growl at him when my assumption is correct.

“Ivy! Call me Ivy,” she snaps outside. Clearly, she isn’t the only one struggling to get used to her true name.

“My Queen, the King … ” Dustin tells her

“I want to know what’s going on!” Ivy snaps at Dustin, her voice carrying through the door.

Damian pushes between us as I walk toward the door.

I sidestep him and move to open the door, only for the king to shove me back.

I stagger back at the force and the moment I regain my footing.

He shifts and attacks me, knocking Damian aside.

I know it is Azalea’s inevitable heat that makes his temper short, but for Abbie I will take his anger. Either way, I am telling Azalea.

But the king isn’t having it when he knocks the air out of my lungs and I hear the cracking of his wooden desk as he slams me down on it.

Then the door bursts open. Azalea glances around, shocked while Damian picks himself up off the floor.

His lip is bleeding where he smacked it on the corner of the table.

Dustin grabs her arm as if he is about to rip her out of the room and I shove Kyson off before swinging at him.

He blocks it and punches me. I hit the ground with a thud, my jaw aching from the blow.

With a growl, I try to stand, stumbling from his blow.

Once again, Damian tries to get between us, but Kyson glares at him, and Damian backs away with his hands raised.

“Stand down! She will see sense soon and come back! Stop this!” the king orders me, and I grit my teeth at his command, fighting against it.

“This is fucking bullshit! And you know it!” I snap at him.

“My hands are tied, you know this,” Kyson says, letting me go, and glaring down at me.

“You’re the fucking king! You can make him give her back,” I tell him, noticing Azalea watching closely as she glances between us. I press my lips in a line, knowing it will cause World War III between them, but I don’t care. He will either grant me permission or deal with his mate.

“I wonder what Ivy would say to that. Would you give her the same excuse?” I sneer at him.

“If I knew what?” she asks, stepping through the gap in the door where Dustin is trying to keep her out of the king’s raging path.

“Nothing, Ivy. Go back to our room, love,” Kyson says, glaring at Dustin behind her.

“Don’t glare at him! I want to know what’s going on and why you are all fighting,” she demands, stepping further into the room.

I open my mouth to tell her when the king turns, a furious growl tearing out of him, but I stare back at him. Kyson turns his attention to Dustin who reaches for Ivy.

“Dustin, get her out of here and keep her out!” Kyson snaps. Dustin grabs her arm, trying to pull her from the room when I speak, making everyone freeze.

“Kade is mistreating Abbie,” I tell her.

Dustin tries to yank her out when she tenses, and she shoves him off.

She turns to Kyson, wanting to know what I am talking about.

The king snarls, pivoting. In my hungover state, I don’t see his fist until it is too late.

He punches me so hard, I instantly see black.

I wake moments later, head pounding to Ivy screaming at Kyson. The king has his hands locked around Dustin’s throat, and Damian is trying to break up the obvious fight while I try to figure out what the fuck happened while I was out.

“Let him go, Kyson! You hurt him, and I will walk out those fucking doors and out of your life faster than I stepped in it!” Ivy snaps at Kyson. Her hand grips his wrist.

“We will speak in the room. Now go!” Kyson tells her.

“No, I want to know about Ab—” she screams., Dustin gets between them.

“Room, now!” the king commands, cutting her off, and I instantly feel terrible. She still can’t fight his Alpha aura and is forced to leave. Dustin sucks in a wheezing breath, and Kyson lets him go, shoving him away and glaring at him.

“You know where you should be!” the king snaps at him, and he hurries off after Ivy. The king turns around to face us and Damian takes a step back just as I get to my feet. The king stalks toward me and grabs me. He shakes me and growls in my face.

“Do you have any idea what you have just done?” he snarls at me.

“She has a right to know!” I retort.

“You disobeyed a fucking order! I told you not to get her involved!” he snaps at me, his aura growing more potent by the second as I fight the urge to submit to it.

“And what about Abbie? Ivy may be the only one who can make Abbie see sense. Abbie trusts her,” I tell him.

“That may be so, but now you have just caused me a giant fucking headache. I didn’t want to deal with this right now.

Not when she is so goddamn close to going into heat, and the bond has just fucking forged!

I had to fucking command her, Gannon!” he yells at me.

I did not make him command her. That is on him.

Just as every bad decision he has made when it comes to Ivy is.

“You didn’t have to do anything, Kyson. You chose to command her because you don’t like being challenged, so don’t blame that on me!” I tell him.

I understand his reasoning for not wanting to break the laws he created.

We have laws even the king must abide by, and until Abbie asks to come back, his hands are tied entirely unless he wants a war with all the nearby packs.

And he already has enough enemies without adding them to that list. Yet I wasn’t asking him to break those laws.

I would do it so it wouldn’t come back on him.

“I know you are mad, but we can’t afford this crap right now.

You want something to do, go back to Silver Creek!

” the king snaps at me. What use would it be of going back there?

I have already whipped Mrs. Daley an inch from her life for what those girls endured at her hands.

He shakes me, and I try to shake his grip off.

“I already got that bitch. She can’t walk for god’s sake! What the fuck else could I possibly do to her?” I snarl at him

“Not Daley. But make sure she is dead before you return home. I have another job for you while we wait for Abbie to come back,” he says, his voice dropping low and the cruel glint in his eyes tells me whatever he is about to tell me is going to be bad.

“No, Kyson. Not while he is like this,” Damian says, but the king smiles.

“You want revenge? Then take it out on the butcher. Daley will know his name,” the king tells me. I furrow my brows, wanting to know what wild goose chase he is sending me on now.

“The butcher?” Damian asks, and the king nods and looks at Damian over his shoulder before he turns back to face me. My heart nearly stops at his next words.

“Yes. He’s Abbie’s rapist,” the king growls, letting me go. I blink at him, taking in his words, and my stomach plunges somewhere deep and cold within me. Rapist?

Someone raped my Abbie? Now thinking back to how odd Abbie was with touch and nudity when I would take her on a run.

The scars on her hips and thighs, when it dawns on me.

It suddenly makes sense, I thought at first maybe those scars were self-inflicted.

Now I see them differently. My entire body trembles as my blood boils, my canines slip free of my gums and my claws extend and the noise that leaves me is more of a savage roar, as burning rage and disgust forces my shift.

I want him to take his words back. I need to unhear them.

I don’t want the picture of her so vulnerable and helpless like that stuck in my head.

Someone touched her, did unspeakable things to her, and they are still breathing?

Some part of me tries to tell me I heard him wrong.

However, the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me I heard right, still I ask.

“He did what to my Abbie?” I snarl.

“I won’t repeat it. It wasn’t my place to say, but I was planning to tell you, anyway. Find Daley, and you will know where to find the butcher,” the king tells me and my eyes dart to Damian, who looks at me just as horrified by this information. I turn my gaze back to the king.

“I’m not bringing him in,” I warn him. My eyes flicker as a coldness settles over me, so strong I think it will freeze my heart at the horrors my girl has had to endure. The butcher will wish for death long before I grant it.

“He’s all yours,” the king tells me as I try to breathe around my burning fury.

Turning on my heel, I leave, slamming the door behind me.

Walking back to my quarters, I head for Liam’s room, knowing he is sleeping since he came off the night shift.

My hangover is now long gone, and I am finding it hard to shift back.

Shoving his door open, I rip his blanket off, and he groans, opening his eyes before noticing me shifted standing above him. Liam sits up.

“What is it?” he asks, rubbing his eyes.

“We’re going hunting,” I tell him, and he smirks instantly.