“This?” He grins, holding the towel out so I can examine it. “That’s your husband’s blood. I’m sure your mother,” he tips his head at her, “told you all about him attacking me.”
“Yet, you don’t have a scratch on you. Perhaps I should rectify that?”
“There’s my lioness. I knew Noble hadn’t tamed her out of you.” He steps into me and I look away.
Without thought, I slap him, digging my nails across his cheek. He growls, his eyes darkening as he trails a finger over the small trickle of blood on his face. With poised movements, I grip his wrist, noting the scrapes on his hand and put his finger in my mouth. I swirl my tongue across the tip and he moans. I drop his hand and move a step closer to him, so our faces barely touch.
“I never loved you,” I tell him, my voice devoid of all emotions. “I loved the idea of you, the idea of ruling with you, but never you. Now,” my tongue sneaks out, “I know why. You taste like everything I hate. You taste like the prison I was freed from when my father betrothed me to Noble. He was my salvation.” I press closer to him so that my chest rests on his. “How does it feel to know you were nothing more than a pawn? That I used you to get what I thought I wanted? And left you without a second thought? How tragic it must be to be you, Crede, King of the Lions, Ruler of all the Realms. You have nothing but a title you don’t deserve and will be wed to women who seek nothing but the throne.”
Crede rests his thumb on my lifted chin and gives me a small smile. “What do you have? You have less than me, Liana.”
On a scream I hardly recognize as my own, I twist his fingers from my chin and leap away from him so that we can no longer occupy the same space. Our eyes crash, anger pulses between us. A muscle on his jaw ticks, making the claw marks on his face dance. A rush of air passes through his nose and I feel it – the enormity of what he’s done, of what my mother has done, of what my father is asking me to accept.
I lean toward Crede and as if by instinct he also inches toward me. His scent, the scent I once recognized as love and devotion, invades my nostrils. I hate it, almost as much as I hate him. Through narrow eyes, I curve in closer and spit on his face.
With an ugly sneer on his pained face, Crede takes out a white handkerchief from the front pocket of his suit and cleans the spittle from his cheek. He then throws it at me and I watch it fall and land at my feet.
“Guards!” he shouts, his eyes never leaving my face.
Two men run into the room and take us in and I wonder if they can sense all the hatred boiling between us. Crede lifts his chin in my direction and they both rush toward me, each on either side, and hold me with both my hands wound behind my back.
“Am I your prisoner now, too, Crede?”
“Silence!” His voice booms in the quiet room. “You will obey me. You will obey your mother and father.”
“Liana,” my father pleads. His voice, the helpless surrender in his tone breaks me. His face has lost all its color and I feel my own blood drain from my face.
Spent, my shoulders slump forward and the guards release me.
Defeated, I put my face in my hands and fight the unbearable pain that thrums behind my chest. My heart, that poor organ, that weeps every time I think of Noble locked away, unable to be free. Surely, he can’t keep the wolf at bay, and soon Crede will know what lies behind the fa?ade Noble and his parents have carefully built to hide away his secret.
Everyone but me. His wife, who he entrusted with his deepest secret. His wife, who he turned away from when things got difficult. His wife, who no matter the circumstances, he seems to always circle back to.
It was me that was able to speak to the wolf and bring back the man when he battled my father. And it is me that will save Noble from the clutches of the very people I thought I could trust.
I turn and walk to the window, drawing the shades open. A warm breeze flows through the open window and I breathe in Summer, the only home I’ve ever known. The same home I need to flee from. A small rustle from the bushes below draws my attention as I try to drone out the voices of the very people I’ve always turned to. I search the bushes for a solution I can’t find and swallow a gasp when I find a pair of familiar red eyes peering back at me.
Oren, the shadow I’ve begrudged since Noble demanded he look after me, watches me in his wolf form. Anger brims from his eyes and I can only hope he’s heard enough to know Noble’s in danger.
Help Noble, I mouth, and he vanishes from sight.
“No.” I turn, facing Crede and my parents. “I will not stay, I will not be your wife or queen. I am already married to a man I honor. It was your decision to marry me to a wolf for our pride,” I say to my mother. “And it is my decision to stay with him. You’ve not only jeopardized my life by having Noble’s father killed, but jeopardized the life of every soul in our realm. It is now my duty to bring peace between the two realms. You will release Noble.”
“No.” With jerky strides, Crede comes to me, digging his fingers into my arm. “Have you not listened to a word your mother has spoken? If we release Noble and his pack finds out your mother…”
“You will release Noble!” I shout. “And I will tell them myself the treachery that has fallen onto his family by my family.”
“Are you mad? Have you lost all your senses?”
“No, but you have.” I turn from Crede and address my father. “Please,” I plead with him, hoping I can still reach him, “do something.”
“I’m sorry, Liana, but I don’t know what I can do after what your mother and Crede have done. If we release Noble, there will be a war among our two realms.”
“If you don’t release him, there will be a war! Or do you think there will be no retaliation for his unprecedented imprisonment?”
“That is where you come in, my Liana.” Crede caresses my face. When I growl at him, he chuckles. “You will go along with our plan and Noble’s life will be saved.”
“Saved?” I laugh. “Saved to live out his life in a prison cell? How is that any life for a wolf?”
“We are not negotiating terms. Either you agree and help us unite the two realms, or you don’t.”
“And if I disagree?”
My mother inhales a deep breath as worry lines map over her sullen face. The two guards melt into the background, molding their bodies against the walls of my mother’s room.
“Then you are against us,” Crede says.
“I am against you, then. I will not take any part in you bringing down my husband or our pack. Take me to Noble.” I turn from them and when my mother’s cold fingers reach to touch my face, I grip her wrist. “Take me to Noble. Now.”
“Take her.” She waves me away, directing her attention to the two guards. “Torture her wolf until she changes her mind.”