“And I’m just your fucking whore!” I screamed, and pushed against his arms as I tried to escape him.
“You’re not a fucking whore, Synthia,” he said as he pinned me against the wall to keep me from escaping him. “I agreed to marry her before I killed my father. To get out of this contract would hurt this kingdom, and I can’t do that. My first move as the fucking Horde King can’t be to break a fucking contract. It would be going against everything I stand for.”
“So what, you marry her and then what? She just goes to the harem, and we go on like nothing happened?” I asked through tears that burned in my throat.
“It’s not that simple,” he admitted.
“You sire a child with her? Just like you have done with me, just like your fucking father,” I snarled.
His arms dropped and his eyes burned with fire that had nothing to do with hunger. “It is my duty. I don’t have to like it, but I will take her to bed, and then she will join the others in the pavilion, and you will come back to my bed. I demand it,” he said coldly.
“You can demand all you want, Fairy, but the only thing you will get is a cold bedmate with no fire left for you in her soul. If you marry her, you should stay with her,” I said and lowered my eyes.
“You don’t get to tell me no anymore, Pet. You are mine!” He growled and punched the wall beside my head. I cringed inwardly, but didn’t back down.
“Or what? You’ll beat me into submission? Go ahead! Try it, fucking Fairy! Just fucking try it!” I was screaming as tears spilled from my eyes.
He flinched and dropped his hands once more to his sides. “I would never hurt you, Synthia Raine, and I will never let you go.”
“You should have left me alone from the start,” I said as I turned away from him so that he could see the tears that flowed unabashed now. He was ripping out my heart, and I’d given in to his needs last night. I’d felt like I was his entire world. Only to have it stripped from me in the dawn hours.
“I couldn’t leave you alone. You became an obsession, and you still are. Go to your room; I’ll come to you tonight,” he said softly, frustration clear in his voice.
“No, you won’t,” I said and stiffened my spine as I left the room.
Inside the connecting bedroom, I dropped to my knees the moment the door closed and sobbed. I’d been so stupid to think he would love me. He wasn’t even capable of love. It had been beaten out of him as a child, and the only thing that mattered to him was his beloved Faery, and becoming the king to the Horde.
I cried until my eyes were rimmed in red, and raw. I crawled up from the floor and headed to the empty tub that was off to the side of the room. I looked at it for several moments before walking to the door and trying to open it.
It was locked. Ryder had locked me in like a freaking prisoner. Again. I pounded on the door until Aodhan opened it. “Synthia,” he said, but wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Darynda?” I asked.
“I can help you with what you need,” he said, still staring at the floor.
“I need a bath and someone to help me,” I replied boldly, watching a blush flood his cheeks.
“I’ll see if I can get Darynda for you.”
He closed the door, and I listened as the bolt was locked again. I’d been wrong about everything, and I couldn’t change it now. I thought I could fight for him, and that he would love me enough to break the contract. Now, the only thing I could do was keep my head up and figure out a way to get away from Ryder.
Screw Faery, and screw saving it. I wanted to go home, even if I didn’t have a home to go to. Anything would be better than sitting in this place, knowing Ryder would mate with someone else. The tap at the door a moment before it swung open brought me from my musing, back to reality.
“Flower,” Ristan said.
“You knew he had to marry her, and you knew what that entailed, and yet no one thought to tell me he was still going through with it?” I demanded angrily.
He exhaled and shook his head. “I knew, yes, but if you had been raised here, it wouldn’t be such a big thing. This was arranged a long time before you were born, and he really doesn’t want to make one of his first acts as king to break an oath. Alazander broke oaths all the time, and this is not the kind of king he wishes to be.”
“I asked for Darynda, and you showed up. Ryder is going to let you scrub my back, Demon?” I spat, fed up with everything that I was helpless to change.
“Not quite. I don’t think Ryder, much less Danu, would let us play around like that; no matter how much fun it might be.” He smiled thinly. “Ryder sent me while he goes to handle his bride. He wanted you to speak to someone who knows what is going on, rather than working yourself up venting to someone who doesn’t really know the details. Something about the building not surviving your wrath should you get yourself too worked up,” he smirked.