Page 3 of Wedlock

“For howlong?”

“Three fucking years.”

3

I wake with a start, naked, and lie still, not sure where I am or what’s happened, my heart racing when I realise my baby’s not by my side.

I vaguely remembered a doctor visiting, but he’d given me an injection almost as soon as he’d walked into the room, so what he’d said or done to me after that I have no idea. Struggling to sit up, I see Eleanor standing in the middle of the room holding my son, and my hand flies to my heart in relief.

She looks up and meets my eyes, her stare icy; a far cry from the gentle looks she’d bestowed upon me when I’d arrived here asthe new Lady Dragonspur, escorted to the castle by Jag after my wedding, every staff member lined up in the rain to welcome me.

It’s not lost on me that this time I’d been delivered by Jag too, and both times I’d been scared shitless about what was to come. The difference is that this time I was only met by family, no staff, and the welcome from the woman before me had been anything but warm.

“How could you do this?” She asks as she walks to the bed and places the baby down beside me.

This isn’t the first time she’s asked this. I heard her shriek it to Jag as Falcon carried me indoors.

I hadn’t heard any response from Jag. I don’t know if hecouldanswer; he’d seemed to be frozen.

I hope he left before Falcon did anything to him. If I were him I’d have left as soon as I could. But I know he probably tried to talk to Eleanor. He has equally as much love and respect for her as he does for Falcon. The only one he’d never had time for was the one who’d sown the seed of our destruction. If Jag had the resentful and violent temper Falcon does, he might have lashed out and killed Viper. But I know that’s just wishful thinking. My mind is still under Viper’s control. And Jag wouldn’t do anything to deepen his rift with the ruler of this castle. Knowing Jag he probably feels like Viper was right to expose our dirty little secret.

No, Jag wouldn’t have killed Viper, and he wouldn’t have run. His expression had said it all. He’s so full of guilt and pain, he’d stay to face Falcon because hewantedto be punished.

I focus now on Eleanor. I need her to tell me what her son’s plans are for me, and what happened after I was brought to this room. But, obviously, she needs to get her disgust off her chest first.

“When you said I’d destroyed my son by placing you in The Games, I had no idea you meant it literally. That all along you intended to hurt him in such a way that he would never,couldnever, recover.”

“That wasn’t my intention,” I whisper, clearing my throat and wincing as pain shoots through my stomach and up the side of my bruised face.

“What exactly did you intend, Angelina?”

Her eyes are cold as she perches on the edge of the bed and stares at me, and I shiver and draw the sheet up to cover my bare breasts as I meet her gaze.

“What game are you really playing, Angelina? Because I know you lied to my son about the baby. I know he’s Falcon’s child.”

I swallow hard and look down at my baby, but I can’t even nod to agree with her assertion that the baby is Falcon’s. Viper’s grip on my mind is complete.

‘But thank God he can’t see me or talk to me yet. I know he’ll want to know where I was when I was on the run. I know he’ll put the next phase of his plan into motion, whatever that is. I need to keep hidden from him for as long as I can, and I need to keep my baby from him. I need to figure out how to tip Eleanor off to what is truly happening before Falcon does whatever he’s going to do to me, or Viper manages to see me and give me more diabolical instructions.’

I look back up, meeting Eleanor’s eyes where she sits patiently awaiting my answer.

“You slapped me.”

“I saved your life.”

“Saved me? How?”

She rises and stares down at me, her eyes deadly.

“Many people have tried to destroy my boy,myworld,” she says quietly, “and for centuries they’ve failed, his own father included. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought thatIwould be the one to sow the seed of his destruction when I chose you as his future wife and engineered your inclusion in The Games.”

I stare at her, paling as I watch her sink her nails into the palm of her hand as she goes on, her eyes never leaving mine.

“That’s something I’ll have to live with, and I just hope that one day he’ll forgive me. But whatever plot you’ve concocted, whomever you’re aligned with, however much you’ve planned to hurt him, Angelina, I knew that if he killed you, then as surely as the moon rises he wouldtrulybe destroyed, because he loves you.”

Her words strike me harder than any blow she could have struck, and I cry out and shake my head.

“Eleanor…”