Lorenzo
I WAS PLANNING ON SNEAKING DOWNSTAIRS and having a quick look at the girl I was told about and then joining my parents for breakfast afterwards, but as soon as she looked up, I felt a lightning bolt hit my damn heart!
“Mate!” My wolf whispered before I could stop him as a growl escaped. We fought for control over my body and in my scattered state of mind, he gained control and strutted right over to where the bewildered girl was blankly blinking at us. I fought and regained control just as he gripped her wrist and she flinched.
“Let go!” The girl shouted and in an instant. I could see the recognition in her eyes as they grew wider. “Mate.” She whispered, looking confused. My mind was all over the place. A slave girl couldn’t possibly become queen one day!
“I, Lorenzo, king of the werewolves, hereby reject you …” I realized that I didn’t even know her name. Her eyes were filled with confusion.
“Ariana,” She blinked and I could have sworn I saw sadness in her eyes for a split second before it was replaced by a dead cold stare. “My name is Ariana,” Her voice sounded like music to my wolf’s ears and he begged me not to do this.
“I, Lorenzo, king of the werewolves, hereby reject you, Ariana, as my mate.” It felt for a moment as if someone had knocked the wind clear out of me.
“I, Ariana, accept your rejection.” She didn’t look away. She kept my gaze, which was strange for a slave. I quickly became aware of all the people around us that I didn’t even notice before.
“Don’t you all have work to do?!” I growled as they all returned their attention to their work before I stormed out of there. I felt like ripping my own skin off my body as I made my way upstairs. There was no way I could see my parents in this state. My mother would find out what happened and insist I take the girl as my mate. She would insist that I take back the rejection and there was no way in hell I was going to do that!
If the girl was weak enough to get herself captured by the slave traders, there was no way she would be strong enough to ever be queen! My father would understand that. He understood what I was looking for in a future bride, but my mother just wanted grandbabies!
Storming into my office, I paced back and forth, shifting between pulling my fingers through my hand and huffing and puffing in utter frustration. What the hell was the moon goddess thinking?! The woman had clearly gone mad the day she chose a slave girl to be my mate!
“Dude! The entire castle is talking! I just came to warn you that your mother is on her way …”
“There is no need to protect my son from his own mother, Luc.” I stood glaring at my Beta who whimpered away under my mother’s gaze. She might not ever have been in charge of the pack, but my mother was a force to be reckoned with. I had hoped this would just fade away in the background without her ever finding out, but I had completely misjudged the fucking castle grapevine!
“Mother, if you give me a chance to explain before you start ranting, I’m sure that you will see things my way.” But I should have known better. I might be the king of all I see, but she was still my mother …
“I don’t understand, son. You have a perfectly good destined mate waiting for you downstairs, and what do I hear? You rejected the poor girl before even speaking two words to her!” My normally calm mother threw her hands in the air in frustration and I rolled my eyes. She was being overly dramatic. “I want you to go back downstairs and apologize. I want you to accept the girl this instant1” She demanded and I could see that she was not going to like my answer.
“No.” It was a simple word, but she frowned.
“No? What do you mean, no?” My father made his appearance and leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed. He was looking far too amused under the circumstances and suddenly I wished I was in his shoes rather than my own.
“Isabel, he made his choice and I agree with him. A slave girl can’t be a queen.” My father intervened, which he didn’t do often and I almost breathed a sigh of relief when my mother turned her angry gaze on him.
“Do you actually agree with him?!” She pointed at me as my father walked into the room and closed the door behind him. At least with the door closed, the rest of the castle couldn’t hear the rest of our conversation. My office had been soundproofed for that specific purpose. Sometimes a king had meetings here that he didn’t want the entire castle to know about.
“I do.” My father took a seat on one of the couches and I poured all of us a drink. I was still in shock after what I had done, and my wolf was howling in pain, but I couldn’t show any of that. Not even to my parents. Especially not my mother!
“You do realize that he will only be stronger with his destined mate by his side?” It had been the same old conversation we have had for a couple of years now. Destined mate, blah blah, stronger king, blah blah, healthier heirs, blah blah. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes as I heard it yet again.
“Mother, I don’t need to be any stronger than I already am. Besides, it’s done. I’ve rejected her and now it’s over. Don’t you have a party to plan or something? I really do have a lot of work.” My mother looked sad and I felt awful for being the one to make her feel that way, but what I said was the truth. It was done and there would be no going back.
A slave girl could never be a queen. My father escorted my mother out of my office and I felt as if I could breathe for the first time since I rejected my mate. My wolf was furious by now and put up a block so I couldn’t speak to him. Luc returned and I could see that he had loads of questions, but he respected my privacy and we focused on work as much as possible.
My mind, however, kept drifting to the slave girl downstairs. From the little I saw of her, she was in a bad way and Luc was right. She probably won’t survive the week. If I was lucky, she wouldn’t and it would all be over in any case. I forced my mind to focus as we worked through the reports until lunch, at which time, my body was screaming for food. I couldn’t face people just yet and Luc had our lunch brought to my office since I also couldn’t face my mother just yet.
“Your mother has cancelled this evening’s ball.” Luc laughed and I looked up from the report I had reread about three times already.
“What? Why? It’s too short notice. It would look bad.” I sighed and he quickly explained that, according to my mother, there was no use in having any more balls if I wasn’t going to accept the mate I had been given. She was throwing a royal tantrum the only way she knew how and since I had been fighting the pain all day, I didn’t have the energy to fight with her.
“You know what?” I smiled at Luc, who looked a little bewildered at my smile. “Maybe it is a good idea. Maybe cancelling is the best idea my mother has had all week. Cancel them all. I’m done trying to find a mate this way. I’m done trying to make my mother happy. I have a kingdom to run. I don’t have time to dance and faff about women who clearly do not have what it takes to be a fucking queen!” If my mother could throw a goddamned tantrum, well so could I!
“I don’t think that’s what she meant …” Luc tried to calm me down, but I was on a roll. I was done. I was tired and I had had enough of being traipsed out to prance around like a fucking peacock in front of these women!
“I don’t care what she meant. Cancel all the balls that are meant for me to find a mate.” I put a little bit of my alpha tone in the command and Luc would have no other alternative but to do as I said. He looked really nervous. “And if my mother asks you why you did it, you tell her to speak to me.” That was that.
Ariana
AFTER HE LEFT SO ABRUPTLY, I could hear people talking. I could feel them staring at me and I turned my back on the lot of them. I didn’t need to be the mate of a king! I didn’t need any of them to feel sorry for me!
“That’s right! If he doesn’t want us, we will find someone who does!” My wolf’s voice was filled with the same pain I was feeling, but she nonetheless tried her best to be strong for both of us. If I thought the pain I felt in the cell during the night was bad, I was mistaken.
The pain of being rejected was threatening to completely black me out, but I fought it. I fought as hard as I could to stay conscious and I got back to the job at hand as if nothing had just happened. Nothing did happen. He didn’t want us. The king of the werewolves cared so damn little that he didn’t want his destined mate, and if that was the case, well then, we sure as hell didn’t want him!
He hadn’t even taken the time to get to know us. He simply decided that because we were a slave girl, we weren’t good enough. I rubbed the stain in front of me with such vigour that the shirt tore and I gasped. It was the shirt. The one that previously smelled like our mate. It was his shirt and I had torn it in two. I didn’t even realize I possessed that kind of strength anymore.
“Look what you did!” A voice shrieked from behind me and my entire body went cold as I realized the supervisor was standing right behind me. For a split second, I could actually see myself dying. I was going to be killed because I was the rejected mate of the king who tore his damn shirt! “You are going to pay for that!” She gripped my wrist and I winched in pain as she pulled me out of the laundry room down a dark passage.
We turned left and then right and then right again and she burst into a cold room before turning to look at me. I wondered if this would be the last room in the castle I would ever see before I died and then something inside me snapped. I looked at the woman in front of me and, for the first time, I noticed worry in her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t ask in front of the others, but are you okay?” Her voice softened as she asked. Nobody had ever cared about me before. I nodded and she pulled me into her arms. “Oh, goddess, you really are skin and bone. If you are going to survive this, we will have to fatten you up a little.” Before she could say anything else, a knock on her door interrupted us. A guard had come to find out where I was and when I looked at her, she had the same cold look in her eyes as before.
The kind woman who spoke to me just moments ago was gone.
The guard gripped my arm and dragged me back to my basin. His whip came down over my back for good measure as he laughed. Walking away, he spat in my direction.“Precious little princess rejected by the king!” He laughed and I was again reminded of what had just happened. Down here as a slave we weren’t allowed to have feelings. I wasn’t allowed to mourn for the mate who didn’t want me. I had to carry on with my work as if nothing had just happened, and I did. My mind and heart were fighting over whether I should be angry or totally devastated while my body just kept on working.At lunchtime we were given barely enough time to eat the dry bread and drink our water, but at least the bread was fairly fresh and the water tasted sweet compared to what we got on the boat. What was supposed to be the best day of my life, had not even turned into the worst. It had become just another day as I got back to my station and finished the washing.That was that then, I guess. My chance for my mate
ArianaIT TOOK SOME DOING, but I escaped! I felt like sticking my tongue out at the girl who told me I couldn’t do it, but there was no time to be petty. I had to get out of the castle. Making my way down one of the many long dark passages, I ducked behind a door frame the moment I heard the familiar clang of the guards’ boots. It was a lot easier to escape than even I anticipated.In fact, it was too easy! My blood ran cold and I wondered if they would hunt me! I heard from some of the slaves on the boat over the years how some owners would let you think you escaped. They would purposefully make it easy to escape and the moment you ran, they would hunt you down like some animal. Okay, fine, so I’m a wolf, but still, who the hell would do such a thing?!!I pondered going back for a moment and then decided to let fate fall where it may. I was going to make it out even if it killed me! I wasn’t going to make it easy for them to find me! Quickly finding my way out, I sneaked out of the c
What I was about to do would probably cause huge ripples throughout the kingdom, but someone had to pay for the fact that a slave girl was my mate and that I had to reject her! Wait … I wondered for a moment if I was angry that the slave traders treated the people the way they did or if I was angry that I felt I had to reject my destined mate! Flopping into my chair, I sighed deeply and leaned back, closing my eyes.“I’m sorry, my king, but they’ve already left.” Luc’s frustrated voice penetrated my ears. He was my oldest and dearest of friends and I was being unfair to him. What was happening wasn’t his fault. What was happening was the moon goddess’s damn fault! She destined me to a slave girl when she should have given me a strong alpha princess! I stood up and nodded.“Do you know when they will come back?” I sighed, trying to sound calmer than I felt and he hummed and ha-ed. I knew he couldn’t really tell me. It could be months, even years before they return. Did I risk going aft
ArianaThe guards took extra care to keep an eye on me when the time came to go back to the cell in the evening and even more so in the mornings as if they expected me to try and escape at a different time. There were far more guards around those times, which meant there was no way I was getting out that way again. Couldn’t they understand that my mate didn’t want me and that I needed to get away from there?Of course, they couldn’t! They didn’t give a damn that deep down inside I was broken and my wolf was dying because we had to be reminded day in and day out that the one who was destined to love us didn’t even care enough to check that we were okay! I shook my head and closed my eyes for just a second as I fought back tears and tried to convince myself that I didn’t want him!“Get back to work!” The whip came down over my shoulders and I cried out in pain. I was so focused on my thoughts I had forgotten where I was for a second and the guard was too close!“She won’t be able to wor
I could feel that the meeting was not going my way. The pixie queen wanted rights to the port in exchange for safe passage through the woods. I knew that her kind would soon take over the entire port. That has been her plan for generations. Yes, my father and his father before him have been trying to get her to give us safe passage. I had hoped if I spoke to her, she would listen.My father had already told me it wasn’t going to work and he was probably waiting in the wings somewhere to tell me he had told me so.“Well, it saddens me that we can’t come to some sort of agreement, your majesty, but there is no way the werewolves will ever give up any part of the harbour.” I got up, greeted her, and left. She was not going to budge and neither was I. It infuriated me and when my father appeared around a corner to say he had told me so, I lost control.Shifting in an instant, I pinned him to the floor and snarled. My mother’s gasp brought me back to my senses and I breathed in deeply to t
Of course, what the king did overshadow what happened to me. I was fast asleep when a loud ruckus woke me and I was still rubbing my eyes to try and focus when I heard her voice. It was the queen!“Why wasn’t I informed?! I want to know who is responsible for this! They should be charged! They should be tarred and feathered and then drawn and quartered!” The next moment she appeared frowning. Her eyes flashed with anger and I wondered what I could possibly have done to make her this angry. Dammit! It had to be the food! She was probably furious that they were giving me such luxurious food! “Oh, my darling girl, how are you doing?” Her eyes softened as she rushed to my side and took my hand. I had been trying to push myself up so I could get out of bed and curtsy but Trixie rushed in and shook her head and I lay back down.“I’m doing much better. I’ve been trying to tell the doctor that I am okay to go to work, your majesty, but he won’t let me. I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience
I was running on pure adrenaline when I stormed into Luc’s room. The girl in his bed was the first one to wake up and her eyes grew wide at the sight of me. I ripped the covers off the bed and Luc complained but sat upright as soon as he saw who it was.“Dude, seriously.” He complained.“Get up!” My alpha voice rattled the windows and the girl flinched. I recognized her as one of the so-called nobleman’s daughters that was at the ball. “You have a lot of explaining to do!” I growled at Luc and stormed out of his room. “Meet me in my office! NOW!” I growled through the mind link at Luc before making my way to the doctor’s room.There I found him getting dressed and I realized how damn quickly the castle grapevine worked. Patrick must have alerted the doctor to the fact that I had found out what was happening. I was a little more polite with him since he was the one taking care of the girl, but I ordered him to meet me in my office. I had to get dressed myself.I couldn’t be seen reprim
This was not what I wanted, but if I let him get away … What was I showing the people? That the royals were untouchable and could do whatever they wanted and treat people in whichever way they pleased?“SON! Please! I beg of you! Don’t do this!” My mother cried. “What do you want me to do to stop this? I will go down on my knees and beg if you want. I will stop bugging you about grandchildren. Whatever you want.” She fell down on her knees in front of me and I sighed, feeling like a monster.“Mother,” I sighed deeply as I pulled her upright. “You know as well as I do that, I have no other choice. Father’s selfish actions have caused this. If he didn’t interfere, my people wouldn’t think me a fool.” I frowned as I saw anger flash in her eyes. Was it possible that she didn’t mean what she said just seconds ago?“You could pardon your father. You’ve warned him. He won’t do it again.” She pulled at her skirt and suddenly her tears were gone. I understood that it was her mate I was taking