*Maddox*
“What the fuck?”
I can’t believe what I am seeing. I feel like I’ve been transported back in time. I blink a few times, trying to figure out if what I’m looking at is real.
There are subtle differences. I can see them even at a distance. She’s a little shorter, a little thinner, not as muscular that is. Her hair is a slightly different shade of red, and her eyes are not quite the same shade as her cousins.
But from my perspective, this woman looks as near to my dead wife as anything I’ve ever seen.
And now I know what it is that Alpha Jason wants to speak to me about.
And I know what it is that Alpha Charlton was thinking when he planned this ball.
Fury builds up within me, and I squeeze my hand so tight, if I was still holding the glass, it would’ve broken. Instead, I take a deep breath, grab a glass off a tray held by a passing servant, down it, turn around, and walk right out of the ballroom, headed back to my room.
I hear people shouting my name as I walk out, but I don’t stop, not for anyone. Not even my own Beta who is rushing to catch up with me.
I am already in my room with the door locked before Seth can catch up to me, though. I lock the door and then drag my hands down my face.
“What the actual fuck?” It seems like that’s the only thought running through my mind at the moment.
That, and I really want to see Isla.
I wish I could turn around and drive back to my castle right now, take her in my arms, and tell her how much I love her. But that’s not an option. I still have a battle to fight. I still have a war to wage, and what is best for me, what I want to do personally, is of little consequence.
Seth is knocking on my door, and I really want to tell him to get the hell away from me, but he’s my best friend and my Beta, so I can’t do that. I know he just wants to see if I’m okay.
I walk over and angrily pull the door open, but who I see standing there isn’t Seth.
It’s Trinity.
I close my eyes for a second, wishing I wouldn’t have opened the door. Damn Alpha Charlton for not having peepholes on his bedroom doors. Not that I probably would’ve looked anyway. I felt certain it had to be Seth here, after all. I’m not even sure how Trinity managed to get here from the ballroom so quickly in heels and a long ballgown.
“Hi,” she says, biting down on her bottom lip. She looks nervous and anxious, something I never saw in Rebecca. Never.
“Trinity.” I am cordial. I can’t imagine any of this has been easy for her either. “I’m sorry I left so abruptly. I was just—”
“Stunned?” she asks, giving a little giggle as she nods. “I can’t blame you. Everyone who knew the Luna Queen and then sees me feels the same way.”
She’s not wrong. That’s exactly how I felt. “You look remarkably similar.”
Nodding, she says, “I know. Especially now.” She reaches up and pulls on one of her curls, letting it bounce back into place. “My hair is usually blonde.”
My mouth drops open, and then I close it again. “Please don’t tell me you also have in colored contacts.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “No, my parents didn’t go that far. But they did want me to look as much like my cousin as possible.”
“They did a fantastic job,” I tell her, and she nods in agreement.
“I know you probably want to be alone, and I wouldn’t blame you, Your Majesty, but I thought maybe we could go for a short walk in the garden. I would like to tell you what I know.”
“What you know?” I ask, not sure I follow her. “About… what?”
She takes a deep breath and says, “Everything.”
Again, I’m shocked at her response. This girl is keeping me on my toes, that’s for certain.
Yet another reason why she reminds me a lot of my wife.
It would be easy for me to tell her no, that I’ve had a long day, that I’m shocked and need to clear my head, but I’m trying to see this woman as an individual—not someone who just happens to look like my wife who died.
She has information she thinks might be able to help me. I have to take that into consideration. After all, it is the war effort that is the most important here, and even if all she knows is why it is her father and uncle are trying to manipulate me, that’s information I need to know.
Unless, of course, she’s playing me like a fiddle.
Why would she want to help me instead of her own father or uncle? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.
But then… she might feel manipulated in all of this, which she clearly has been, and there’s a possibility that she’s trying to help me because she doesn’t appreciate any of it.
If this is all a double-cross, then it could ruin everything for me.
I’ve never been one to wave off gathering information, though. I can always hear her out and then see what I think about whatever it is she decides to divulge to me.
“All right,” I find myself saying. “I suppose a short walk in the garden won’t do any harm.”
She smiles at me and then drops her eyes, looking a little shy, and once again, I am reminded that this woman most certainly isn’t my Rebecca.
Rebecca never looked timid about anything a moment in her life. Not that I recall anyway.
The two of us head down the hallway toward the back of the castle, rather than taking a chance on going back in the direction of the ballroom. I think it’s a smart move. I don’t want anyone to see us if it can be avoided. For one thing, everyone will want to know what we are up to, and I don’t want to give them false hope. If I can get information from her regarding what her father and uncle are up to, that’s great, but there is certainly nothing romantic going on here.
When we reach the back of the castle, we descend the servants’ staircase, and Trinity leads me through a back door I’ve never been through before.
We walk in silence until we are away from the castle and deep within the rose bush section of the garden. This was always Rebecca’s favorite place in these gardens, and she would sit here in the sunshine and read for hours. At least, that was something she told me. We never spent a lot of time here together, just a stroll or two.
I can almost hear her laughter breezing by on the wind.
“Do you want to sit?” I ask Trinity as we come to a bench near a fountain.
“Sure,” she says with a shrug. “Thank you.”
We are seated about a foot apart from one another, and she stares straight ahead for a long moment, her eyes focused on a water feature. It’s sort of a fountain, but it also looks a lot like a natural waterfall. I’ve always thought it was an interesting piece.
“My father thinks I am attempting to seduce you right now. Either that or, at the very least, drag you back to the ball so we can dance, and he can find a way to speak to you about what a fine match we would be. Nothing romantic, of course. Only business.” She rolls her eyes. I can see that much from the moonlight streaming down on us and the bright lanterns that are placed every ten feet or so around the garden.
“Well, I appreciate the fact that you’re not doing either one,” I tell her. “It wouldn’t do you any good. You’re a lovely young lady, but you must know, I have someone back at the castle that I care very deeply about.”
“Yes, I know,” she says with a nod. I expect her to say what everyone else has said whenever they mention my girl—“the breeder”—but she doesn’t. No, Trinity is classier than that. “Isla Moon.” She says Isla’s name like she is a celebrity or perhaps she is an old friend.
“That’s right. And I still haven’t changed my mind about taking another Luna Queen. I would’ve thought your father and uncle of all people would understand that.” I shake my head, staring at the ground between my dress shoes for a few moments. None of this makes any sense to me. It’s like Alpha Charlton has decided to pretend Trinity is his daughter, the same way he apparently wants me to think of her.
“They do understand,” she says. “They are just hoping that you can be persuaded to change your mind. They believe I would make a great alternative to not having one… or choosing someone else. They believe I can convince you that, with me, you would get a sense of what it would’ve been like if my cousin didn’t die. According to my uncle, my disposition is very much like Rebecca’s, and he believes I would make many of the same decisions that she made as queen.”
I stare at her dumbfounded. “No offense. I know I don’t know you well, but in the few minutes that I’ve been around you, I can say you’ve seemed nothing at all like Rebecca to me, not when it comes to your personality, anyway.”
Her smile is as carefree as can be expected when she says, “I agree. I don’t think I’m much like her either. But I do want what’s best for my people and all of the people in the kingdom. I am intelligent, like Rebecca, and I make sound decisions. I’m not as bold as she was. I do not speak my mind as she did. And I am not as romantic either. But we do have our similarities.”
When she said romantic, I knew exactly what she meant. Most of the nobility in the kingdom knew that Rebecca was addicted to sex. Even her family had learned of that, though I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her parents to hear. She wasn’t promiscuous before we found one another, but afterward, it was difficult for me to get her to keep her hands to herself in public even—let alone in the bedroom.
The thought of how much she craved sex, how she was always trying something daring, something dangerous, makes me cringe a little. That is, after all, how she ended up dying.
That wasn’t something it was easy for me to talk about, though, and I certainly wasn’t going to discuss it with her family—including her much younger cousin.
Refocusing on the conversation at hand, I state what I think has to be the obvious. “So… Alpha Jason and Alpha Charlton think that they can gain more power and influence over the kingdom if they can convince me to marry you and make you the new Luna Queen?”
She shrugs. “I’m sure they would like to hold more power and influence, but ultimately, that’s not their true motivation for putting me in that position.”
I arch an eyebrow and ask the obvious question. “Then what is?”
I see a glint of silver in the moonlight as Trinity removes something from beneath her dress, near her thigh. Her words both shock and alarm me. “They want you to make me the next Luna Queen… so I can kill you.”
The silver object raises in the air, and my hand darts out to grab her arm. It’s then I realize what she’s holding.
It’s a knife.