Subterfuge

ALASTAIR

Alastair was shivering, feeling like a leaf in the dead of winter. He hadn’t thought this punishment through. He’d acted on impulse and let his pride keep it going for over a week. He’d resisted visiting her.

He bent down to get a better look at her. She was shaking uncontrollably, her head buried in her lap, her knees pulled tight to her body.

She was rocking back and forth, whispering “no more” over and over again. It was a plea to the gods. She was curled up as small as she could make herself. She was terrified.

He could feel her fear through their mate bond, mixed with a sense of lifelessness. It was similar to what he was feeling, except his fear was often replaced with anger.

When he reached out to her, she clung to him, burying her face in his chest and holding onto him tightly.

She needed to get out of here. She needed him to save her. He loved that feeling. He craved it.

She was panicking, her breath coming in short, hiccupping gasps. She was so weak she could barely stand. Her pain was draining her until her knees gave out and her eyes closed.

Alastair picked her up, letting her head rest against his shoulder and her breath tickle his neck. She was so small, it felt like she could slip through his fingers—like water.

He carried her back to their chambers, avoiding anyone who might see, and laid her on their bed. But she didn’t let go. She clung to him.

So he climbed into bed with her, laying her against him and keeping her arms around his neck.

Her touch was all he needed. She wanted him, and that was what he wanted. As she stirred restlessly, he found himself stroking her back, trying to soothe her.

This was his fault. What had he expected? She was a young wolf. Even his strongest warriors couldn’t survive in those dungeons.

But he’d put her there. He’d left her there. He’d let her suffer there.

He’d visited, just to see how she was doing. But he knew what he would find. He could feel it.

She’d started out strong. She’d been willing to fight. But at some point, she’d given up.

He hoped she’d learned her lesson. That she’d finally listen to him and understand the consequences of her disobedience. That she’d do as he said when he ordered it.

Nothing else had worked.

That night, his sleep was troubled.

Guilt wasn’t something he felt, not in hundreds of years. But it was eating at him, chipping away at his resolve. Her soft whimpers only made it worse.

He shouldn’t have felt guilty. He was the king. He could do whatever he wanted without facing any consequences.

It was just the mate bond messing with his head. It was the bond that wanted to take care of Aurelia. He didn’t. He didn’t care about the little wolf at all.

At dawn, after a sleepless night, the king got out of bed and left his suffering queen. He ordered the guards not to let her leave, if she tried.

He couldn’t have her wandering around the castle in the state she was in. And... he couldn’t let her escape.

She would want to. He wouldn’t blame her, maybe. His punishment had gone far beyond what he’d planned, but her will was so strong, it had taken a stronger discipline to break it.

With the king’s expression and the aura he gave off, no one dared cross his path that day. The king, looking like he was about to explode, was not someone to mess with.

Even Laurent and Henri kept their distance when the king was in this kind of mood. They figured it had something to do with his little queen, since they hadn’t seen her around.

Laurent didn’t like her, especially when she was around. Maybe it was her beauty, which seemed to affect many of the wolves living in the castle.

But the king would never know that.

Maybe it was her sharp wit that surprised and annoyed him. He’d been superior to all the wolves, except the king, until the new queen arrived.

And even though the king considered her inferior, Laurent wasn’t sure where they all stood in relation to the king.

Henri, on the other hand, was fascinated by the new queen. Maybe it was the wise words she’d spoken the other day, but he was quite taken with her. For such a young girl, she was charming and knowledgeable.

When the king dismissed her as she listened in on their conversations in the battle room, Henri was wary, and he knew Vidarr was too.

Even though they were all much older than the wolf—especially her mate—she seemed incredibly elusive, like she knew all the secrets.

It was hard to predict her movements, to figure out what she might do next. Every time Henri watched her, it was almost like she wanted him to. And when he didn’t, maybe she was planning something.

Henri was on his way to a one-on-one training session with Laurent when he overheard some servants gossiping. He stopped outside the laundry room and listened.

“She looked dead,” one man whispered.

“Dead? Did he kill the queen?” The queen? If the queen had been killed, the king would be out for revenge, Henri thought, despite the king’s attitude toward her.

“I saw the Alpha King carrying her up from the dungeons. I think he put her in a silver cell. But she looked lifeless.”

Henri should have been told if the king had put the queen in the cells for her own protection. He continued on to Laurent and told him what he’d heard.

They both decided they would ask the king. After all, whatever he did with his mate was his business.

“Don’t come in!” the king’s voice roared when they knocked on the door. “Who is it?”

“The beta and gamma, my king,” the guard announced. The king growled, but he let them in anyway.

“What do you want?” the king snapped.

For Alastair, the day had gone from bad to worse. His mate’s condition was driving him crazy. Her pain echoed in his body like a haunting melody. Its constant hum made him irritable.

Laurent broached the subject with caution, “There’s been some chatter around the castle about the queen and the silver cells. Shouldn’t we have been told about her... living arrangements?”

The king stood abruptly, his glare forcing both men into silence. His red eyes flashed a warning before he settled back down.

“The queen is not your concern. Neither of you. If that’s all, you may leave.” As they turned to go, he added, “And put a stop to those rumors.”

Retreating to his chambers, the king found the girl just as he’d left her. He brushed her hair back from her face, his finger tracing her soft cheek.

She was so innocent, so untouched and young. She hadn’t committed any crime, and she’d barely lived.

In some ways, it angered him. She was his mate, a pup who hadn’t experienced any hardship or pain.

She didn’t understand what it took to wield true power, to be a real queen, to know her place. Maybe that’s why he’d punished her so harshly.

“If only you’d listened to me, none of this would have happened,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “But at least now you’ll be mine forever. At least now you need me.”

Aurelia heard every word, despite what the king believed. She was playing a part. She was playing the long game.

~“You did exactly what you needed to do to get here. Being thrown into his dungeons. Men lose their minds in there. It’s the perfect next step in our plan.”~

~“Your previous plan to manipulate him was a mistake. He saw you as willing, not as desperately willing.”~

~“I know you want to show him that he can’t break you, but that’s exactly what you need to do,” Ella explained to Aurelia.”~

~“I don’t understand.”~

~“When you return to the dungeons, you won’t have lost your mind. Because you’ve been here. But it would be perfectly plausible for you to have done so.”~

~“When he found you, he had an idea of a mate, to treat her so cruelly and then ignore her. He wouldn’t pay her any mind.”~

~“When he sees he’s broken you, he’ll try to fix it.”~

~“You’ll play the part of the vulnerable, broken little girl, and he’ll see you as no threat. He’ll want you to do something, anything.”~

~“He might confide in you. He might do things. Men spill their secrets when they think no one is listening. You have to do this flawlessly.”~

~“You need to show a range of emotions.”~

~“At first, you cling to him. You act like you don’t care who he is, as long as he’s getting you out of those dungeons. You’re terrified from your time in there.”~

~“Then, you flinch at his touch. You tremble. You’re terrified of him.”~

~“Next, you obey every command, but hesitantly. You’re still scared, but you don’t want to be punished again.”~

~“You stay quiet, timid, as if you could shatter into a thousand pieces at any moment. For him to open up, you have to seem like you pose no threat to him, none at all.”~

~“A paranoid man trusts no one. So you have to become no one. Understand?”~

~“Yes.”~