by G. Bailey
"Did Arilee save me?" I ask, knowing it must have been something to do with her. I remember the blood and bruise on her cheek and the pain in her eyes. That was the past she didn’t want us to know about, and I’ve never seen her so scared. That king was abusing her, and I could see she hated him.
"I saw her lean over you, but I was distracted and didn't see everything that happened. Either way, we know she did something big because you're not dead, and you drink blood now," he points out.
"Where is she?" I ask, needing to know.
"He took her. I had no chance of fighting all three of them without back up, and your body was sinking into the sea," Tiryn explains to me.
"You left her," I growl, sitting up and sliding off the bed, only to sway a little as the room gets blurry. Tiryn pushes me back onto the bed and picks up another bottle of blood, handing it to me. I take it, despite how angry I am with him. Tiryn sits on the chair, placing his head in his hands and I really look at him this time. He is tired, pale, and looks like a broken man.
"It killed me to leave her," he admits to me. "They took all the children and women in the pack we left behind and killed all the men, draining them of their blood. We failed her; we failed to protect our mate and our pack.”
“What are we doing about it then?” I ask, knowing there is no point dwelling on the facts if there is no plan of what to do in the future. If I’ve been sleeping three days, that is three days Arilee and some of our pack are in the hands of that king. Arilee is a queen, a royal, and I want to find out more about why she would leave her people.
"Hear that?" Tiryn asks, meaning the water splashing against the window.
"The sea?" I ask. “How far out are we?”
"Yes, the sea. We are following the direction the ship went in. We are saving Arilee and our people, even if it's the last thing we do," he tells me, and I get off the bed, following him up the stairs to the deck. There are five men on board, who bow to me before getting back on with their jobs. Seawater splashes against my face as I look out over the sea.
"Where did you get these men from?" I shout to Tiryn over the sound of the storms.
"They were out hunting when the pack was attacked. They want their families back and revenge," he explains to me. I look around at them, and I follow the lights to the front of the ship, where something big is in the water, and we are heading straight toward it. It looks like cliffs.
"What is that?" I ask, pointing at the large rock formation in the distance. Tiryn looks panicked as I feel when he looks back at me and around the ship.
"Fuck. Turn the ship!" Tiryn shouts, running up to the top of the and grabbing the wheel. I jog to his side as Tiryn tries to turn the ship but has no luck. The water is pushing us straight toward it, and it's too strong to turn the ship. Lightning flashed across the sky, lighting it all up as I look at my brother. We have come here to die. Arilee won’t ever know.
"I don't say it much, but I do love you, brother," I tell Tiryn as the rocks come closer and closer like death itself running into us.
"We aren't dying, so don't say stupid fucking last words," Tiryn replies, grabbing my arm and leading me to the end of the ship. "We are going to jump and swim." Tiryn starts shouting to the other men to jump off the ship, and they are quick to do as they are asked, all of us knowing we don’t have much time left.
"After three?" I ask and Tiryn smirks.
"I prefer to just jump." Tiryn jumps at the same time as me, both of us crashing into the cold water as the ship is smashed into pieces behind us.
Chapter 22
"Are you ready to apologize and do as I say, my queen?" my king asks me again, seconds pass where I do nothing but whimper. Even my whimpers aren't really me; they are a reaction to the pain.
The endless pain.
Three leather straps belt against my back, and I scream, wriggling against the wooden plank I am being held on, digging into the cuts that are trying to heal there. It's been three days without blood and any blood I did have has dripped onto the floor of the throne room, drying up. He beats and whips me in the day, and at night, he makes me lie on his bedroom floor as he fucks random women.
I don't know why he hasn't used me for sex. I'm glad he hasn’t, and I'm scared he will. I believe he wants me to apologize first. He needs to hear me beg for my life.
"I will never apologize. Kill me and get it over with," I tell him, opening my tear-filled eyes as he walks up behind me. He grabs the back of my throat, forcing me to turn my head to look up at him.
"I want you to beg," he spits out at me.
"Why are you like this? Why do you need me to suffer so much?" I ask him because I’ve never understood it and he has never told me. I know he is harsh, but sometimes it feels so much more than just being cruel.
"You have everything I ever wanted just given to you," he explains to me. “Everything.”
"I don't understand," I cry out as he tightens his hand on my chin, his long nails cutting into my skin to the point of hurting.
"I met you as a child; I was a servant’s son that your father allowed to stay in the castle. I picked up a toy off the floor for you, and you said thank you. You were six, or around that," he tells me, and I don’t remember it. There were a lot of children around the castle, their parents working there but I know they weren’t meant to talk to me. I mostly played by myself, and later on, I realized it was because my parents didn’t want me to be close to the staff.
"Why would you hate me for that?" I ask.
"The cook saw me talking to you, and the next day, my father was fired, and we were kicked out. Talking to you cost me everything. My father died from an illness not long after, and I had no one," he tells me, and I want to feel sympathy for him. I just don’t.
"I'm sorry they did that. You have to see it had nothing to do with me," I plead with him, feeling so tired and in pain that it’s a struggle to keep my eyes open. I need blood; I’m too hungry to do this. To argue with him.
"But your parents loved you. How horrified they must be to see me hurt their daughter. To make her scream as I fuck her," he says, moving behind me and ripping my dress. “Their princess who was always fucking better than anyone else.”
"Please. Please don't," I beg him.
"I like hearing you beg. I prefer the screaming though," he says, pushing my legs apart. I close my eyes and try to pretend I'm somewhere else as I have him undoing his trousers, the sound of his belt hitting the floor. I wait and wait until I feel my king slam into my back, taking the air from my lungs. He slides off my back and onto the floor, and I gasp as I look down to see him dead on the floor. Really dead this time. There is a hole in chest where his heart should be, and as I look back, his son drops the heart onto the floor.
"Now the I'm king," the son says, and I struggle to remember his name as I arch my neck back to look at him. He isn't focused on me at all, no, he is looking at his dead father. I eye his blood-covered clothes, the long cut down his cheek, and how he looks like he had a fight. Maybe he killed his brother and all the guards, leaving just him for the throne.
"Please let me go, and I will never come back," I ask him, my voice sounding so loud in the dead silent room. The only other noise is the sound of my blood dripping from my back onto the throne room floor. The son doesn't say a word as he unties my bindings and turns me around to face him. He looks like his father, the same eyes, but he isn't the same man.
"My name is King Halyard, second of my name," he tells me with a big smile. “I’ve waited so many years to kill the bastard.”
"You were kind once to me. Kinder than your father and brother," I point out. He was the nice one of the two, but that’s not saying much.
"Both of who are dead. I am sorry for their treatment of you," he tells me. I’m surprised to hear him say that and it gives me hope he will let me go.
"Then let me go," I gently ask.
"See, I cannot do that. You are a royal, and the people will always cry out for you to rule. I need your dea
d body to make sure they follow me," he states with a sad smile, and he reaches up, wiping a tear off my cheek. "Surely death is kinder than life with all those terrible memories?"
"I want to live," I whisper with a sob.
"And I can't rule with you alive," he sadly replies.
"We have another offer," a voice I think I'm imagining speaks, and I look toward the door. I turn to the voice, almost like it was calling for me. Jath and Tiryn stand side by side, holding swords, and l know they are here for me. They came for me. Their clothes are guards’ uniforms, and they must have killed some guards to get them. They look tired but alive. And here in Arlen for me. I run my eyes over Jath, knowing our mating must have worked because he is alive. We are bonded for life now, and he can’t die without me dying. That means I can’t die here, not without taking him with me. I have to live. Jath smells almost like a vampire now, but with a hint of wolf still. I think I like the mix.
"My, my. How the game gets more interesting," Halyard says with a laugh, grabbing me and trying to pull me closer. With all the strength I have, I kick him in the balls, and he lets go as he gasps, giving me time to run across the room and collapse into Tiryns’s arms as he is closer. He picks me up, and holds me close, pressing his lips to my forehead.
"That was surprising from you, Arilee," he admits, though he turns me around and looks at my back, a low growl leaving his lips.
"Did he hurt you?" Jath asks in pure anger, seeing my back. He unclips his cloak and covers me up in Tyrin’s arms.
"No, not yet anyway," I explain. “I don’t think he wants to harm me like…”
"I do not wish to harm Arilee. I do not like to see women suffer as my father did. I want the throne," Halyard states, and I actually believe him. He could have easily joined his father and brother in torturing and raping me. They both did that, but never him. He would always leave the room.
"And we will leave you with the throne," Jath suggests. “But we need a ship to get home.”
"No, Arilee is a royal and the people will never forget her. Do you know how many guards, servants, and random people my father had to kill over the years who tried to save her? It was too many,” he says with a chuckle, though it fills my heart with hope that people tried to save me, just as dozens of guards come running in, surrounding us and looking confused what do next.
“Challenge him for the throne. I will fight him tomorrow for it,” I whisper to them both, and they look at me like I’m mad. “He can’t kill you if you challenge him. As my mates, you have the right to.”
"We, Arilee’s chosen mates, challenge you for the throne, and for Arilee. The fight will be tomorrow, with witnesses, and it's a fight to the death," Tiryn states, and Jath nods once at me in agreement. I see Halyard jaw tick in annoyance, but he crosses his arm, leaning against the wooden panel I was just tied to, his boots standing in a puddle of his father’s blood.
"Very well. Two against one isn't fair though. I will bring my favorite soldier to aid me," Halyard replies.
"Agreed. We will be staying in the castle for the night. If you harm us—"
"I am a man of honor. I also love a good fight. You are safe to stay here for tonight," Halyard states. "With guards outside your rooms of course. I don't want you running away again, Arilee."
"I am not running anywhere, Halyard," I reply. He smirks at me as Tiryn turns around and carries me out of the room, my eyes drifting to Jath.
"You came for me," I say, not knowing which of them I'm speaking to.
"It's forever for us, Arilee," Jath replies, and I slowly drift off into darkness, knowing my wolves came and saved me.
Chapter 23
"Careful, Red. You need to let the healing lotion work," Tiryn tells me as I feel him place another strip of cold, wet material on my back. The moment it touches my cuts, I grit my teeth from the pain, and then it disappears into nothing. "A healer came in,;she said this will heal within an hour from this gel."
"It's a glowing plant seed, all mushed up. I've had them heal me many times with it," I say, turning my head as Jath comes back from the bathroom, and closes the door behind him. He smiles at me as he comes back to the bed, sitting down at my other side and taking my hand. The guards helped me to this guest room on the one side of the castle, which is very beautiful with a large bed and red sheets all set up. There is a bathroom with a deep bathtub and a balcony overlooking the town. I did always love this side of the castle and the views it has. My parents had rooms just above this one, and I had a room just around the corridor, which looks over the forest instead of the town.
“When did you choose to come for me? How did you get here?” I quietly ask, holding Jath’s hand tightly like they might disappear any moment, and this is all a dream.
“I pulled Jath out of the sea, and then shoved him on the ship. I had to trust you saved him somehow,” Tiryn explains to me. “We had a few men, and the ship got us here, but it crashed into rocks.”
“The rocks of the cliff are impossible to avoid; they pull the sea in somehow. The royal ship was built so big so it could fight against the currents under the water and actually get to the dock on the other side. My father said his father made twenty ships, and none of them survived the cliffs until the last one,” I explain to them.
“Makes sense. We jumped in and washed up on some rocks. We then climbed up until we hit the castle and found an open balcony door. We knocked some guards out and dressed up as them to get to you,” Jath softly explains. “Seeing you in so much pain… I’m just sorry you had to go through that.”
“It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, and I’m here. I’m alive,” I say, wanting to change the subject when I sense how angry that makes them. "Is Snow alright? I left her on the island, so my king didn't see her. I don’t know if you saw her before you left. Please don’t say she was on that ship and drowned."
"Yes, I did see her, and I left her with a woman who hid on the island. She is alive. Do you know where our pack women and children are?" Tiryn asks me.
"In the dungeons, I suspect. Until tomorrow when we take power back, we can't free them. They will be considered not much more than food," I say, wishing it was different but knowing it won't be. “But they will be alive. Wolf blood is so nice; I think they would want to keep them alive.” An awkward pause feels the room, and I rest, relieved that the pain is slowly disappearing.
"I know it must be difficult, but we would really like to know everything about Queen Arilee," Jath asks me as Tiryn moves across the bed and sits by his brother.
"I was scared to tell you, but I didn't want to lie," I admit to them.
"I can see why you would be scared. Tell us about how this all started," he requests.
"My family has been kings and queens of Arlen for thousands of years and built this entire island from nothing. My parents were good people, good royals who did a lot to help, but they made mistakes. One of the mistakes meant that my king killed them and took me as his queen. He forced me to be his, beat me when I wouldn't do as he asked, and controlled me with fear. He was always careful to keep me in chains or tied up, never letting me free until one night. I managed to stab him, thinking I had finally killed the monster, but he wasn't dead. I didn't know that until he turned up on the island," I explain. I thought I was free, and then it was so cruelly taken from me. I’m free now though.
"I'm glad the bastard is dead," Jath states as I sit up and looking at my back in the mirror across the room. I've fully healed already, possibly because the cuts weren't all that deep. I peel the cloth off the last of the cut and place it on the side, before getting off the bed. I walk to the balcony, opening the door to the outside and the view over Arlen. The moon hangs high in the sky, shining a light down across the silver slated houses and the millions of different color plants glowing like little stars in a night sky. The sea around the island is harsh, crashing against cliffs of the island and it's like the sea is angry about the murders and pain happening in this castle. The balcony is lit up by
five purple flowers resting on the banister, and they gently let out little sparks of light. I didn't know how much I missed my island until now. Even though this place has been a pit of pain for me for many years, it wasn't always that. It was where I was brought up and had a loving family. I was trained to be queen, to rule fair and make sure my people were happy. He took all of that from me, and now I finally have a chance to get it all back. Jath and Tiryn come outside, standing either side of me and overlooking the town with us. I wonder what they think of this place, and how very different it is to where they are from.
"So am I, but it was his son who did what I couldn't do—kill him. I don’t expect you to fight for me tomorrow, but I am going to fight for Arlen and my people. It’s what my family would have wanted me to do,” I firmly say, holding my head high as my hair brushes around my shoulders in the wind.
“We stand by you because we love you, Arilee. No one in this world could be who you are to us. Queen or not, you are ours. We will fight for us because we are a team now,” Tiryn tells me, filling my heart with hope. I love hearing him say he loves me.
“You saved my life, Arilee,” Jath starts to say.
“I mated with you, and it clearly had an effect. I’m sorry you didn’t get a choice… I just couldn't let you die," I explain to him. “It means we are linked now. If I die, so will you. If you die, so will I.”
"I would have said yes anyway, and it is an honor to be your mate," he explains to me and kisses me softly before stepping back.
“Would you take another mate?” Tiryn asks as he slowly pushes my dress off my shoulders, letting it drop to the ground as I stand naked between them both.