Jessamine
“What is there to explain?” Moira says, her voice hoarse. “This gathering is to—”
Kier angles his head at his Luna and drags the sword very, very slowly across the floor. I wince at the grating noise. Everyone winces, and with deadly softness, he whispers, “Let. Her. Speak.”
I’ve never seen Moira shut her mouth so fast. Her father shifts uncomfortably in his seat, and I see a good number of the council members express their displeasure by fighting with their seats, but none of them speak. Not with Kier’s aura constantly expanding, skimming across the floors, phantom fingers reaching for those who dare to step out of line.
“The Luna…” My voice is a stupid squeak, and someone in the crowd laughs at me. I swallow and straighten my spine. “Renae lured me out at night to kill me, but she was quite unfortunate, as the Goddess decided it was her time to go.”
Gasps ripple across the hall, our audience surprised by my audacity and defiance. Kier’s eyes blacken, but it’s gone in the blink of an eye, replaced with ruthless amusement. “And I suppose it was the Goddess who ripped out her heart?”
My smile is full of a confidence I don’t feel. “She used me, her vassal, to rid the world of evil.”
Someone cackles—I think it’s Az—but Kier doesn’t seem mad or infuriated by my words. He lifts his sword, motioning to the crowd. “You are doing a terrible job at proving your acclaimed innocence. Lest you may have forgotten, the punishment for killing a royal is death.” There is nothing kind in his stare when he adds, “Speak,” and the full weight of his command overrides my senses.
It doesn’t matter that I know he has pulled an aura on me; I can’t break it or resist it now. Nyx isn’t even trying to break it. The pervert is busy mewling in my head at her mate’s cruelty. She finds it erotic. Good to see someone’s at least having fun.
I spill every detail of what happened that night, and I get a bit of satisfaction from knowing that I have also implicated Kier by mentioning the flowers and the notes, and when I am done, I see the question in everyone’s gaze, one they do not dare to speak; The Alpha and the princess are having an affair?
The whispers are loud enough to reach my ears, and I’m not surprised when Moira sniffles, gaining sympathy from the audience. Kier, to his credit, remains utterly unfazed and unimpressed.
“I believe we’ve all heard enough,” Moira’s father growls, getting out of his seat. “Have you called us here to humiliate my daughter? ” He points at me. “That woman is a spy, sent by her father to ruin this kingdom. Whether or not killing the Luna was an act of self-defense, it doesn’t exonerate her of her other crimes! She feeds information to the enemy, concocting plans to destroy what is left of us, while pretending to stand with us!”
Alpha Kytos stands too, his face drawn tightly. “Atticus was a traitor pardoned once, and he has grown to be a thorn in our side. Princess, she may be, but she has spilled the blood of our own, sold us out to the enemy, and now she speaks lies to distract us from the truth! I will stand for nothing else but her demise! For her royal heritage, it will be private and her corpse will be delivered in one piece to her father.”
Waves of whispers overwhelm the halls, killing the silence, and I find that a lot of people want me dead. My gaze finds Darrock’s and he smiles at me, bitterly.
“Father,” Moira beseeches, her voice soft and deceptively kind. “Perhaps the death sentence is too harsh.”
I take a menacing step toward her. “You’ve always been a conniving wretch. I can only wonder who spread the news of Renae’s death; who tipped the guards and got rid of the flowers and the note. It’d have to be someone who knew all along that Renae was in cohorts with Atticus and sought to take advantage of the situation. Who better to benefit from this chaos than you, Moira?”
Her skin pales, and her eyes widen, tears filling them. “How could you…accuse me of something so vile?!”
Her father grunts in agreement. “There is no need to hear her side. Let her be taken to the square.”
“I must disagree,” Alpha Zuri, Katherine’s father says, standing too. His eyes are warm when they meet mine. “I do not believe the princess could have meant harm. She saved my daughter’s life, when she could very easily have let her die. That speaks volumes of her character.”
Another male scoffs, hateful green eyes regarding me and Alpha Zuri. “We have heard of your meetings with the princess. Perhaps, you are in on the plan. She must have promised you something. Wider territories? A place in her bed? It must be the latter, since she is quite adept at seducing males. She even has the Alpha King enthralled!”
I have no words to explain what happens next. One moment, an argument ensues, and the court is divided in fractions. The people who want me dead, the people who want me punished and the people who are just here for the drama. And Kier, he’s watching all of this unfold with that same mask of boredom.
In the next moment, Kier sighs heavily and the air is wrenched from my lungs. It’s Kier’s aura again, the monstrous thing choking the lot of us as he merely whispers, “Silence.”
That is all that is needed to cut through the madness, and we all gape as he rises to his full height and sheaths his sword. He tilts his head towards the council behind him and they all sit, solemnly, begrudgingly, but they do it anyway.
He doesn’t look in my direction when he addresses the crowd. “We all mourn the Luna’s death. She was a mother in more ways than one, and all of her actions and decisions were made for the better of the pack and kingdom.” A wave of sadness encompasses the hall, and to my surprise, he adds, “However wrong they were.”
I stand straighter, clutching my gown to wipe the sweat off my palms as he continues, “Jessamine killed a woman to defend herself, and I will never punish a person for that reason, regardless of how close the deceased might be to me.”
The ground under my feet shakes, and I do not believe a single word Kier speaks. He can’t truly be taking my side. I’m not the only one stunned by his words. The entire crowd is and the members of the council who find displeasure in them do not hesitate to voice them out.
But Kier raises a single, bejeweled finger, shunning the male. “However, there are speculations of her involvement with Atticus, the Rogue King. Until she is exonerated, she will be watched and guarded heavily at every time of the day—”
Moira stands from her seat, her eyes filled with fury. “You take her side because she is your whore! She should be executed for her crimes!”
He regards her coolly. “I am all but following the laws, Moira.”
My brows furrow in confusion, and my heart stumbles when Kier approaches. Thump. Thump. My heart pounds so fiercely, I know he can hear it too. The only sound that can be heard is his footsteps, and those are near silent too. I retreat a step back when he doesn’t stop walking, and shuffling too quickly has me stepping on the train of my gown.
Kier’s warm fingers wrap around my forearm before I can fall on my ass, and he rights me. “Careful, love.”
I’m not sure I’m breathing. I’m not sure anyone else is breathing. I couldn’t care less if they stopped existing either. Not as our gazes lock and his fingers trail up my arm, drifting towards my neckline. He doesn’t look away from me as a single claw juts from his index finger and he cuts the collar of my dress, ripping the fabric until my throat is laid bare before him. Before the entire room.
And his mark.
He steps back and glances over the crowd. “I do not take her side because she is my whore. Not only is the princess my mate, but she is with child. Mine.”
My head whips to Kier and my fingers fly to my empty-as-fuck belly. “I am?”
But my question is covered by hundreds of gasps, of which mine is included, and I see Darrock storming across the space, fury tightening his face as he is held back by guards. Too many guards to fight off.
Kier ignores the chaos and keeps talking, like he hasn’t just set off a bomb. “You all know how pregnant wolves are. Everything is a threat, and in the face of true danger, a possible danger to their pups, it is their basest instinct to eliminate it.” His hazel eyes burn into Moira’s. “We do not execute pregnant wolves. It’s a law.”
Moira’s teeth flash. “She’s not with child. You’re lying to keep her safe.”
Kier cocks his head at her, and then at me, his nostrils flaring. “I can smell my pup on her.”
I rear back at that. I know for a fact that I am not pregnant. What the hell is he on about? I press my fingers into my belly, as if to feel if something is actually there, because I seem to be losing my shit with every second in this damn hall.
“We’d need to verify that—” Alpha Kytos is saying, stepping forward, but Kier blocks him before he can get to me, his voice absolutely lethal as he says, “Touch her, Kytos. I dare you to touch my mate and live to tell the tale.”
Alpha Kytos has the sense to back away, but Moira’s father does not. He is rage personified, his blue eyes, usually bright like his daughter’s glow with a ring of gold. “This is how you treat your Luna, siring a pup with another, sullying her reputation—”
“Asher,” Kier cuts in, his voice dripping like poisoned honey. “You must understand that the mating bond supersedes all. It is so before the Goddess’s eyes. I cannot resist what is expected of me.” He takes in the rest of the council, the elders, leveling them intense stares. “I grow rather weary of your insolence.” He waves at them dismissively. “That will be all for today.”
He doesn’t wait for them to decide if they want to be dismissed. He snatches my wrist and pulls me along with him. Guards flank us. Too many, like he half expects someone to attack us. Me. We pass by a yelling Darrock, a wide-eyed Az, and a smiling Mikkel.
Randale is somewhere around us…I don’t know. I’m not sure. My mind slowly begins to unravel what the hell just happened in there, and it slowly starts to sink in. What Kier just did.
I stare at his broad back as he leads me, not to my new chambers, but his chambers. I half expect the room to be filled with his and Moira’s things, as I’ve avoided coming in here since I arrived, but it’s exactly as I left it, and the sweater I’d knitted him is wrapped around one of his pillowcases.
When the door is firmly shut and we are completely alone, Kier rakes fingers through his hair, scattering his fiery red locks, and he heaves a rather heavy sigh, breathing hard and fast, his fists clenching.
I can hear his heartbeat. It’s racing like mine.
He starts to laugh, an unhinged sound, and when he raises his gaze to meet mine, I see how wild his eyes are. “Jess,” he says, laughing. “We need to make a baby.”