by Rose, Aubrey
Chapter Thirteen
“A proposal?”
“The Scarred Prince wants to take us over, right? That’s why he’s invading?”
“I’m sure he wants to take back what his father lost,” Alekk said. His voice was measured, cautious. He wasn’t going to give me any information. But as my mind raced ahead, I thought that the plan I had in mind just might work. It was dangerous, and it would require a tremendous sacrifice. But sometimes sacrifice was necessary. I thought of my mom’s face, and how she had cringed to think about war.
“Would the prince consider a union of the packs?”
Alekk paused, considering my words.
“A union? How?”
“My mother says that you want us for our women. If we married the two packs together, you would be able to court our women.”
“We don’t court our women,” Alekk said flatly. “We claim them.”
I bit my lip. His pack sounded so crass. I went on.
“In our pack, the females decide for themselves if they want to be claimed. In any case, that wouldn’t make a difference for my proposal.”
“What’s your proposal?” he asked.
I breathed in deeply. This wasn’t like any other game I’d ever played. This was real life, with real life consequences. I knew I had to continue.
“The Scarred Prince,” I said. “He isn’t married, is he?”
Alekk’s eyes narrowed.
“You think he’d want some whore from your pack?”
“He might take me.”
I sat up straight, my back erect. Again, Alekk burst out laughing at me. His howls of laughter echoed off of the cabin. I swallowed. I hadn’t expected this reaction.
“Kinaya, Kinaya,” he said. “You are too much, Princess. What would the Scarred Prince want with you?”
I stood up from the ground. Alekk raised his head, looking as though he expected me to slap him. But I knew something he didn’t.
“Do you smell me? Do you notice my scent?”
“Yes.” Alekk smiled softly. “You’re a fine girl, Kinaya. A strong wolf. You have a sweet scent. I might take you.”
I stared baldly at him, his eyes searching me. The strangest part? That I didn’t feel scared anymore. For some reason, his words thrilled me. They told me that I was a woman. His gaze told me that I could be desired. Someone… someone could want me… like that.
Alekk continued.
“But the Prince? He doesn’t need a bitch from another pack.”
I took a deep breath and shifted completely into human form. Closing my eyes, I took my wolf into my inner self and kept it there, hiding. I heard Alekk breathe in sharply as my scent disappeared. My mother had this power, and so did Dee. Blaise too, although he never used it and was out of practice. It was the secret of our family. Most shifters were always in a state that included both human and animal. But I could be fully wolf, and fully human. I could disappear into human society and never be found out, if I wanted to.
When I opened my eyes, Alekk was staring at me with his eyes wide.
“You’re purebred,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“They said… they said the gene was lost.”
The way he was looking at me almost frightened me. He was alert again, his full attention on me. I could feel his gaze as though it was palpable, moving across my skin. Caressing me. I thought of what he had told me before. That he would tame me…
“I thought you knew about our pack,” I said.
He shook his head slowly.
“We didn’t know this.”
“Now you do.”
He was thinking about something. I could almost see the mechanism moving behind his eyes. What plans had they made? What would this change? I hoped that it would end the possibility of war. Alekk licked his bottom lip, opened his mouth as though to speak, then closed it. When he spoke again, it was slowly, evenly. I could tell that he thought of me as more of an equal than he had before.
“Why wouldn’t we conquer you anyway?” he asked. “When our pack moves against yours, we can claim any woman we want. Even you.”
I smiled. I’d anticipated this argument at least.
“Our women are proud,” I said. “We would kill ourselves rather than be slaves. I would kill myself. You would have nothing but these acres of worthless land. But if you accept, you’ll have the last purebred genes in our lineage. My mother can no longer have children. But you would have me.”
He leveled his eyes at me again, as though evaluating. I wanted to rephrase my last sentence. Not him. Not Alekk. But the Scarred Prince. For a brief moment, I felt that I was making a mistake, but then the feeling passed. Alekk nodded slowly.
“You might do. If I can take your proposal to the prince.”
I knew what he was saying. He wanted me to untie him, but not to give his arms rest. He wanted me to let him go.
“No,” I said. “We have to tell my father first.”
“He won’t let me go back to my pack.”
“He will if you think the prince will take me. He doesn’t want to go to war. I’m sure of it.”
Alekk’s eyes burned blue.
“You’re brave, you know.”
“Brave?”
“To give yourself up to the Scarred Prince.”
For the first time since I’d gotten the idea, I thought about what the decision would mean for me. It was silly, I suppose, but I hadn’t thought about myself at all. I’d only been thinking about the pack, and how I could save them from being killed. How I could save us from war. I hadn’t thought about what would happen to me if I gave myself over to the Scarred Prince.
Fear began to creep back into my chest. I pushed it away.
“What is he like?” I asked, keeping my voice bolder than I felt.
“The Scarred Prince?”
“Yes. Is it true what they say about him?” Curiosity filled my mind.
“That depends. What do they say?”
“That he has more scars than skin.”
“Every alpha has scars,” Alekk said, grinning. “That’s how they get to be the alpha.”
“Tell me more. Tell me what he’s like.”
“I’ll tell you. But untie my hands first.”
I frowned, looking down at the floor.
“I can’t let you escape.”
“I won’t. I’ll stay here. But you said that you would ease the pain in my arms if I answered your questions. And I’ve answered your questions.”
I gulped. I had promised. I took the wolfbone blade from my belt and went around the pole. His wrists were scabbed over with blood at the ropeline. I felt so bad for him—he’d been sitting there all night like this. It was abuse, if not torture, and I hated that the guards had done nothing to help him. He groaned when I pulled the rope away from the pole to have a better angle.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll be done soon.”
“Please,” he said. “It hurts.”
I cut through the knot, careful not to cut his skin when I got close to the end.
“There,” I said. “Just a bit more—”
The ropes snapped, and in a whirl he had spun around the pole. I felt rather than saw his kick to my wrist as I brought the wolf bone blade up. The knife fell, and I moved in slow motion. It clattered to the floor, and Alekk kicked it behind a shelf on the opposite side of the room. Before I even had a chance to raise my arm, he had grabbed me by the neck and shoved me back against the pole. I tried to scream, but his fingers only gripped my throat tighter and the scream was cut off into a gasp instead.
It was like an explosion of light in my mind. As his hand touched my throat, I felt all of my nerves seize up. I couldn’t have fought back now, not even if I had wanted to. My entire mind was caught in a whirlwind of sensation, and as I clutched at his arms helplessly, the sensation only heightened. I saw bursts of colors in the air, and the sound in my ears was a high-pitched cacophony of voices that I did not recognize. And the scent—
I couldn’t understand it, but I didn’t smell my own scent anymore. My scent was always background noise, like the taste of your own tongue. But now, it had disappeared. Instead, my nostrils filled with a different scent, something darker, with a sweetness under it. Like burning embers after you throw a green branch onto them.
Was he choking me to death? Was that what this was? I beat at his arms with my hands, but I might as well have been fighting a tree trunk for all the good it did. He was stronger than anything I could have imagined. He wasn’t weak at all. He was—
And then I met Alekk’s eyes, and there was a recognition in them that I didn’t understand. He leaned closer to me and licked my neck. The sensation made my vision blur, every muscle in my body shivering, twitching. If he hadn’t been holding me up by the neck, I would have fainted, I was sure of it.
“Brave girl,” he said. One hand stayed at my throat. The other moved down, and I shuddered as he caressed me roughly. My body was burning hot and cold, and where he touched me, I could feel his fingers possess me as though I was his. Oh, the agony of his touch!
“You want to be the prince’s bitch?” he asked. His voice was rougher, now, and his fingers touched me like he already had me in bed. I would have screamed but my air was cut off completely by the hand at my throat. I could feel him listening to my body, reacting instantly.
He couldn’t escape this way. He must know. He would have to kill me. He didn’t look like he was going to kill me. He looked—
“Oh!” A small moan escaped my throat as his hand moved down. His palm curved over my hip. His other hand moved slightly, his thumb touching my bottom lip. Why did every touch of his feel like fire?
“You like this, don’t you, Princess? I bet you would love being tied up by someone who knew what to do with you.”
I was getting close to blacking out. My body twisted against his hands, but there was no hope. This was it. This was—
“Kinaya! Damien, help!”
Alekk’s head snapped toward the door. I looked over to see my mom. She was alone in the doorway, moving into the room, and a second later my dad and brother were at the door behind her.
“Let her go,” my mom said, the growl in her voice.
It must have been the three of them together that convinced Alekk he couldn’t escape. He let go of my throat and raised his hands in surrender. I bent over, coughing, the sensations draining from my body. I could breathe, yes, but more than that I felt as though I had lost something that I couldn’t even name.
“I’ll kill you!” Blaise cried. “You son-of-a-bitch, I’ll kill you!”
He stepped toward Alekk, and I raised my hand in protest.
“Wait!” I cried weakly.
My mom put her arm out , barring Blaise and at the same time reaching out to me.
“What is this, Kinaya?” she asked. Her voice was dangerously soft, and I think it was this more than anything that stopped my brother from charging. He stood like an angry bull, his fists at his side. I could smell his need to shift, to fight.
“We need him,” I said. “We need to send him back.”
“So he can fight with his pack against us?” Blaise snorted. “I don’t think so.”
“Hush,” Damien said. He stood next to Blaise, and his reprove shut my twin brother up. I felt vindicated. For once, my parents were listening to me. “Why, Kinaya?”
“So he can propose a marriage,” I said, regaining my voice.
“A marriage?”
I looked up at my family. My tongue felt thick in my mouth when I spoke.
“Between me and the Scarred Prince.”
Chapter Fourteen
“A marriage? Are you insane?” Blaise blurted out.
“It’s a possible solution,” Alekk said. It was the first he had spoken to my family. “I will bring the proposal to the Scarred Prince.” He looked at me strangely.
“Kinaya, come here,” my mom said.
“First, let’s talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” my mom said. “I will not allow it. You shouldn’t even be here talking with this prisoner.”
“It’s the only way to stop this war!” I cried.
“My child…” My dad moved forward and held out his hand. I took it and let him help me stand up. He pulled me away from Alekk, closer to the doorway.
“Please,” I said. “Dad. Please. Just think about it.”
“There’s nothing to think about,” Dad said. “The council has decided to stay and fight.”
“That’s a bad decision,” Alekk spoke up.
“Why should we take your opinion into consideration?” my mom asked. “Who are you to decide what is a good decision for us and our pack?”
Alekk shrugged. After all this, he looked as calm and collected as when he had first walked in. Bloody and bruised, he was still completely sure of himself.
“From the looks of it, you’re not a fighting people. Your wolves are not warriors. Your alpha is a blind man.”
My dad pressed his lips together.
“Don’t be so quick to judge. Trax tried to lead your pack against mine two decades ago, and it did not go well for him.”
A strange look flitted over Alekk’s face. I could sense the tension between them rising. I wanted to throw myself between them and shout at them to stop. All I wanted to do was prevent a war. How could they not see that this was the only way to do it?
“Then you will fight?”
“We will defend ourselves if your Scarred Prince declares war. And we will see how your pack fares against us now.”
“You will not have to wait long. The pack marches forward. Even as we stand here.”
My mom nodded.
“The scouts have picked up scent at the northern edge of our territory. Their own scouts, no doubt.”
Alekk turned to her.
“Perhaps you should take this proposal to the council and see what they decide.”
I never saw my mom look as furious as she did at that moment. Her eyes blazed with fury. The scent of it radiated off of her.
“I won’t give up our child to this madman. Your pack is hard, aggressive. And the Scarred Prince is known throughout the territories as a madman. He’s a scary story to tell to children, not a legitimate alpha.”
“Your pack will die if you don’t do this.”
“Who are you to say that?”
Alekk motioned toward me.
“She’s said that your women will kill themselves rather than be taken captive.”
“And a marriage will stop them?”
“I don’t know. Let me go back to the prince with these terms and we will see.”
Damien shook his head.
“No. We won’t do it.”
Throughout all of this, I hadn’t spoken up. Now, I stepped forward.
“It’s not your decision to make,” I said. Fear bled into my heart at the thought of war. Thinking about Blaise and Erroll and Francis and the rest of them fighting against warriors like the messenger… They would all die. My mother and Mara would die. My father would die. And Dee…
“Kinaya…”
“I’ll do it to prevent this war.”
“You can’t give yourself up like this. Kinaya,” Dad said sternly. “This isn’t an option.”
“You always talk about doing things for the pack. I’m willing to do this. Let’s talk about it as an option.”
“No.”
“Dad, you’ll die!”
My voice echoed off of the cabin walls, and I realized before the echo was gone that my eyes were stinging with tears. I could not let my pack die, not like this. It didn’t matter what happened to me, if it could save the pack.
“Kinaya, go back to the house.”
“Dad—”
“Go!”
His voice boomed, and tears ran down my cheeks. My mom’s hand was at my back, but it wasn’t a comfort anymore. None of them understood. None of them. Sobbing, I pushed past them and out the d
oor. My mom followed me.
“Kinaya, don’t—”
A yelp from the storage cabin made me spin around on the trail. I turned to see Alekk leaping out the door. He shifted into a wolf before his feet hit the ground, his black robes fluttering to the ground. My dad was at the doorway. I was about to shift and chase after Alekk, but then my dad shouted out.
“He hurt Blaise!” my dad said. “Max! Ziv! Where are you?”
My heart dropped as I saw Alekk in wolf form, bounding away through the trees. His dark pelt rippled as he ran, and in three leaps he had disappeared into the forest. I stared agape, unsure of what to do. My mom had already run back inside the storage cabin. Max came running.
“Track him,” I ordered the guard. “Run him down, if you can.” I turned back to the storage cabin and looked in through the door. Blaise was lying on the ground, his leg bleeding. He hissed a breath through his teeth. My dad held his leg.
“Get a doctor,” my dad said.
“Ohhhh,” Blaise moaned, clutching his leg. I stared at him in terror.
“Kinaya!” my dad shouted. “GO!”
I turned and ran, my heart beating a million miles an hour. Oh, god, Blaise was hurt. The prisoner had escaped.
What had I done?
Chapter Fifteen
The next morning, after a fitful few hours, I woke up alone in my bedroom from a nightmare. My fingers gripped the sheets tightly. I had been taken by the Scarred Prince’s pack in my dream. They had come and killed everyone else, but they had left only me. I gasped a few breaths before realizing that it was only a dream.
Blaise. Where was Blaise?
It took me a second to remember that my brother was spending the night downstairs on the couch. I pulled on my clothes and went down. Every step made me more nervous.
The doctor was there, watching over him. And my parents too, sitting across from Blaise. Mara and Dee were there, too. I could hear their voices arguing. When I came downstairs, they all looked at me. A lump rose in my throat.
“How’s your leg?” I asked. My voice was a whisper.
“It’s fine. No thanks to you,” Blaise said.
I choked on my tears. I’d messed up before, but never like this. This was all my fault. I turned to my parents.