The Lycan King’s Defiant Surrogate by Riley Above Story (Chapters 121 to 130)

Chapter 121

Time ticks by.

Caleb goes on date after date.

I try to avoid the hurt that swells inside of me every time he leaves me to spend time with some other woman.

It doesn’t get easier.

To distract myself, I push my body with the warrior training. The Pitmaster is a demanding teacher. She does not punish us for our mistakes or failures. She simply makes us get up and try again and again. Even after we get it right, she pushes us to continue trying.

“I want you to have completed these moves so many times they are second nature to you,” she says. “You shouldn’t even need to think of them. Your hand will find your blade and move before your mind has a moment to consider anything.”

Eventually, it starts to feel like an accurate sentiment. The more I do the movements, the more natural they seem until I can complete them without even looking anymore.

My problem, as ever, is that I lack strength. The Pitmaster makes me flex my arms for her then frowns at my thin arms.

“I doubt the King wants you to bulk up,” she says. “So you will just have to depend on your speed.”

“Does this mean I failed warrior training?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t put you on the battlefield,” the Pitmaster says. “But I don’t think that was ever the intention with you. The King just wants to make you into a fighter capable of defending herself.”

I nod. “Have we done that?”

“Let’s find out,” the Pitmaster says and unsheathes the massive sword from her back.

We enter the sparring ring, with the other trainees surrounding us in interest.

The Pitmaster gives me a half-second to collect myself. Then, she lunges, dropping her sword down on me.

Quickly, I slip out of the way. The sword clanks into the ground instead.

While she works on freeing it, I twist to slice at her. I severely underestimated the time it would take her to pry her sword from the dirt. She easily lifts it and blocks me.

“Good, Harper. But you are holding yourself back. You don’t want to hurt me, but I insist that you can’t. Give me all you’ve got. Show me what you’ve learned.”

With her encouragement, I try to stop holding myself back as I had. She was right. I truly didn’t want to hurt her. But I have to trust, as she is the instructor, that she will be able to withstand whatever I might throw her way.

I slice at her a second time. Blocked.

A third. Blocked.

As I step back to think about my next attack, she whirls the sword around her head and cuts in at me from the side.

I lean backward to dodge. But because the sword is lower than I initially anticipated, I lean back so far that I fall down onto my ass.

A few of the trainees cheer for me to get up. As I hurry to do so, I’m too slow.

The Pitmaster drops her sword, stopping it a hair away from my neck. For her to wield such a big sword with such precision shows her the level of her strength and skill. She truly treats it as if it is an extension of herself. Watching her, you could think the blade weighed nothing at all.

Having held it, I could attest that it is indeed very heavy.

Smiling, the Pitmaster moves the blade away and returns it to the sheath on her back. Then she holds out her hand. Once I take it, she pulls me up to my feet.

“You did well,” she says.

“I lost,” I reply.

She laughs. “You didn’t think you’d actually beat me, did you?”

No, I guess that’s true.

“You’re making progress,” the Pitmaster says. Releasing my hand, she pats me roughly on the shoulder. “Keep training.”

Then she moves along. From her, that is wonderful praise and I’m absolutely beaming.

“Good job, Harper,” Ted says, along with a few others.

“Thanks, guys,” I say as I stop to join them.

Despite everything, Ted and the trainees have been becoming my friends. Ted hasn’t really changed all that much, though he makes certain to keep appropriate distance between us, and he never lets his gaze linger on me for too long.

He still has his optimism and easy smile, though. I like being around him. He’s like a fun little brother. The kind of sibling relationship that I wish I had.

Caleb sits at a table across from his date. His subordinates have rented out the entirety of this restaurant within the capital for Caleb and his date to spend a romantic evening alone, undisturbed by anyone other than the waiter.

Yet Caleb can feel eyes all over him, like tiny spiders crawling across his skin.

Looking around, however, he catches no one around him. The curtains are down over the windows, giving them even more privacy.

No one is watching. Caleb knows that.

Yet the feeling remains.

“Do you like your salad, King Caleb?” asks the blonde sitting across from him. He’s forgotten her name. Jessica? Jennifer? He’s fairly certain it starts with a J.

It’s hard to keep his thoughts straight when he’s certain there’s someone right behind him. He spins to check.

Again, no one is there.

“Are you well, Sir?” the date says. “You seem… uncertain.”

“The salad is fine,” Caleb says gruffly.

He’s looking at her now. She’s not a natural blonde, but the color suits her well enough. Her eyes are kind, though there’s a vague sort of smile on her face that could easily be hiding darker feelings.

Could she be plotting against him?

No. They only just arranged this date yesterday, after all the others did not go very well. That would hardly leave enough time for her to organize a coup. It could be enough time to arrange for an assassin though.

Caleb checks behind him.

“Maybe we should bring out the main course…” the date says. Clapping her hands, she calls, “Waiter!”

Hot fear flashes through Caleb.

One moment, he is sitting in his chair, then, after the clap, he has suddenly jumped over the table. His dates chair back is on the floor. She’s still sitting on it, staring up at him with wide eyes. Caleb’s holding a salad fork to her throat.

The waiter brings out a silver plate with their meals on top of it. When he sees the sight, he drops the platter and curses. While he rushes into the kitchen again, Caleb tries to recollect what led him to this moment.

The date is afraid, her eyes wide, her pulse pounding so loudly it’s giving him a headache.

He looks at the fork in his hand. Did he mean to kill her with this?

Foolish.

He tosses aside the fork, and, righting himself, steps away from the woman.

Tristan immediately steps out of the kitchen.

“My King, we should leave. The guards can handle this,” he says, already leading Caleb to the door. Only when Caleb is outside of the restaurant and sitting in his car does he realize the full severity of what he’s done?

“I could have killed that woman,” he says.

“Yes, Tristan confirms. “I suspect you nearly did.”

Caleb looks down at his hands. “I have no idea why I did that.

“Your mind has been uneasy,” Tristan says. Softer, he says, “As it always does when you go days without seeing Harper.

Caleb frowns. Has he truly become so dependent on that consort?

“You should bring her next time,” Tristan says.

“What?” Caleb asks as if waking from a dream.

“On your next date, bring Harper as well,” Tristan says. “Before you hurt someone.

Chapter 122

The next day, I am once again summoned to Caleb’s side. This is the first time that it’s happened since our moment of passion in the gardener’s shed, so hope fills my heart. Since I care as much as I do about Caleb, I want to be near him, no matter what.

From what I can tell, from the time of day, and the way the servant who requested me is leading me towards the dining room, I suspect Caleb and I are going to sit down to a nice lunch.

As soon as I walk into the dining room, I realize I was mistaken so much that it’s laughable.

Only, I’m not laughing.

Caleb is sitting at the lone table in the room, with a woman sitting across from him. There is no additional third spot for me.

Tristan, standing near the door, spots me when I come through it and quickly joins me. After sending the other servant away, he says to me, “You are needed. Stand near the King but do not look at him or Miss Annabelle. Do not address them.”

“This is a date,” I say. I know it is. I can see it with my two eyes. But I still require verbal clarification.

“Yes,” Tristan says. With narrow eyes, he offers me no sympathy. Why would he? Even if he knew of my feelings for Caleb he would have no care for them. Caleb’s wants were all that mattered in the capital. “King Caleb is on a date with a werewolf noblewoman named Annabelle. Now, see to your duties, consort.” The word has added bite like he thinks I might say no.

I suppose I could use my one request to get myself out of this situation, but I would not waste such a rare and valuable gift on this. Besides, it would save me from one afternoon of misery, but not from those that would follow.

Sooner or later, I would be faced with Caleb dating and eventually marrying someone else. It’s an inevitability.

Swallowing down my pain, I approach the table, taking my place at Caleb’s side. He does not look at me, but Annabelle does – though only once, in passing.

Perhaps she’s been warned that Caleb has an entire wing dedicated to his harem. Perhaps she already knows that she’ll have to share her husband, if things progress that far, with a hundred other women. Perhaps she simply doesn’t care.

“It’s so nice that you invited me inside the palace, King Caleb,” Annabelle says, smiling with teeth. She has a soft, lilting voice that makes her sound ever-so-grateful with every single word.

I hate her. It’s irrational, and I know I shouldn’t. But she is sitting across from the man I love, trying to convince him to love her, and I hate her.

Then, the worst possible thing that could ever happen happens.

Caleb starts to smile too. “It’s my pleasure, Annabelle. Thank you for accepting the request.”

“One would have to be foolish to deny a request from the King. Or blind, once she gets a good look at him,” Annabelle says.

Caleb’s smile turns into a mischievous smirk. “I’m glad you aren’t disappointed.”

“Far from it, my King.”

My stomach twists so violently, I’m pretty sure I’m about to be sick.

It’s one thing to make me stand in the room. But to actually be here, in the front row, to them – to both of them – actively flirting with each other? It hurts so much. I am in absolute agony.

With Caleb’s mind clear, he knows he is saying all the right things to charm Annabelle. And he’s not immune to her charms either. She is pretty, short with long dark hair, dark eyes, and a straight-toothed smile. Her voice is like a chime of a bell, soft and sweet. Sometimes he has to strain to hear her.

She’s everything a noblewoman werewolf should be. Dainty and beautiful, she will look good sitting beside him on the throne. And her good household will help solidify Caleb’s popularity and power within the kingdom.

That’s all that really matters.

This date could end right now for all he cares. He and Annabelle don’t have to actually get along more than this.

Yet with a glance at Tristan, and his stern, frowning reply, Caleb realizes perhaps he will need more than this to make Annabelle agree to be his wife.

Coming from a powerful pack, she has more sway than most others. She is in a position to be able to say ‘no’ to him.

Harper shuffles on her feet to Caleb’s left. She’s another problem in this situation. While Caleb is trying to woo his future wife, he is constantly distracted by the woman to his left.

He sees her little frown and the way her eyes are downcast.

“Tell me, my King,” Annabelle continues. “Do you enjoy the outdoors as much as I do?”

“I do,” Caleb replies, but all he can think about is watching Harper tend to her gardens at their little farmhouse.

“I love to shift in the woods on my pack’s lands,” Annabelle continues. “It’s so… freeing. Giving over to the wolf once in a while. Don’t you agree?”

She’s trying to make connections. Caleb can appreciate that. Even if, in this particular instance, he cannot relate.

“My wolf is too powerful to be left to its own devices,” Caleb says. “I would risk hurting someone.”

Annabelle’s face falls somewhat. “Oh. What a pity. It really is very… exuberating.”

Caleb nods. “Perhaps, at some point, if you were to move here, we could erect a forest just for you to set your spirits free within.”

Annabelle’s smile comes back, full blast. “Oh, thank you so much, King Caleb. That would make me very happy… if we decide to proceed.”

“I have a good feeling about this,” Caleb says.

“As do I,” Annabelle replies.

Beside him, Harper stills, even as her heartbeat begins to quicken. What is she thinking of?

No matter. Her closeness has done what he needed it to do. She has helped him maintain a clear mind. It doesn’t matter that she seems hurt or upset.

What would she have to be hurt or upset about?

It vexes him the entire duration of his meal. By the time Annabelle and he split ways, he’s more annoyed by not knowing what Harper is thinking than he is overjoyed about how well things have gone with Annabelle.

“Harper,” Caleb says, once they step into the hallway.

“Forgive me. I’m not feeling well.” She rushes off in the opposite direction. Caleb thinks of rushing after her until she disappears into a bathroom.

Maybe she just wasn’t feeling well. That could be the reason for her upset.

Not that it mattered to him.

Tristan comes to stand beside him next, as Caleb stares at the bathroom door.

“Things went well with Annabelle,” Tristan says.

“Yes.”

“No incidents with the salad utensils,” Tristan says.

Tristan glances at the bathroom door and back again. “Harper did a good job.”

“All she did was stand there.”

“That’s all she was supposed to do,” Tristan reminds him.

That’s true, and Caleb knows it.

So why does it annoy him so damn much?

Chapter 123

In the bathroom, I splash water over my face. My hope is that Caleb will be too busy or too annoyed to wait around for me to leave the bathroom and I won’t have to face him. I really don’t want to face him.

Watching him flirt with another woman cut me deeply, down to my bones. I always knew that it would happen. Caleb never made any secret that he was searching for his mate, and that woman would take precedence in his life.

After all, he is meticulously careful that he won’t have children with anyone else, with the exception of that very first time we’d been together, back when both of us had seemed out of our minds. And then, that accidental time more recently, but that has since been resolved. I’m decidedly not pregnant.

The thought of Caleb having a child with Annabelle makes my stomach twist into an uncomfortable knot.

At the sink, I run the cold water and then splash it onto my face.

This is the life that’s been set before me. I don’t have much choice in the matter. I simply have to watch the man I care about fall in love with someone else.

How I wish we could still be at that farmhouse… Just the two of us…

But that might have well been a different life. Caleb, as King, would never want to settle for anything less than his throne and his palace.

With a sigh, I dry off my face, and then step out of the bathroom.

Fortune continues to not favor me today because Caleb is waiting for me just outside the door. His arms are crossed and his eyes narrowed. He seems pissed off, but that isn’t particularly unusual with him, especially when I start acting like anything other than his dutiful slave.

“What’s the matter with you?” he snaps.

“Nothing,” I say. “If you’ll excuse me.”

I try to slide past him but he grabs my arm in a tight grip, denying me passage.

“Why are you acting like a spoiled child?” he growls.

Spoiled?! What a jerk! He has no idea what I’m suffering through.

“Did I not perform my tasks successfully, my King?” I tell him, keeping my voice devoid of emotion. “I arrived promptly when summoned, then stayed by your side as directed. I did not say a word the entire time.”

“You performed your duties adequately,” Caleb counters. “What bothers me is your behavior now. You are acting like something happened when nothing happened to you.”

“I’m fine,” I say shortly. “I’d like to go back to my room now, please.”

“You are not fine.” Caleb roughly pushes me back into the bathroom I had just stepped out of. The bathroom is separated into two areas, a sink and vanity area, and a toilet area, separated by a door. He pushes me only into the vanity area, then slams closed the door to the hallway behind him.

“Caleb -” I start, thinking to calm him down.

He doesn’t let me finish, instead, snatching me up in his arms and covering my mouth with his own, swallowing down my words. His tongue licks past the seam of my lips. He hums as he tastes me and I can’t help melting against him, even though my heart still aches in my chests.

Shifting me, he angles me so that I’m pressed up against the wall opposite the mirror and the sink.

Breaking the kiss, he insists, “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” I tell him…

He glowers at me. “Liar. You will tell me the truth.”

I keep my lips tightly sealed.

He drops down to his knees in front of me. Grabbing the hem of my skirts, he starts rolling them up, bunching them up as he goes, until they are at my waist. There, he demands, “Hold these.”

When I do, he grips the top of my panties and drags them down my hips, exposing me to him. He licks his lips.

“You will tell me what’s wrong, or I won’t let you cum.” Then, without further warning, he surges forward. With two fingers, he separates my folds, exposing my clit. “Pretty little thing,” he breathes before plunging forward, taking my clit into his mouth and bullying it with his tongue.

I can’t see much of what is happening under my skirts, aside from Caleb’s head dipping back and forth. But then, I look up and catch sight of myself in the mirror.

Caleb only just started and I already look debauched. My cheeks are red, my eyes hooded, my lips parted.

The sight of Caleb on his knees, face buried between my thighs is almost too much to bear. I almost cum just from the visual.

Caleb, with a finger inside of me, feels when my pussy starts to quiver. Immediately, he pulls away. I hiss at the sudden cool air on my damp clit.

He smirks up at me. “Ready to talk.”

I slam my mouth closed and shake my head.

He waits another few moments, simply staring at me, and it’s absolute torture.

“Caleb…”

“Tell me what’s wrong, Harper.”

I refuse.

He narrows his eyes, then surges forward again. For a few brief moments, he takes me right to the edge of climax. Then, at the last moment, he pulls away.

He repeats this process several times, but each time, I refuse to give up the truth.

Eventually, frustrated, he attacks my clit with his tongue once more. This time, he does not stop licking and suckling. He adds a second finger inside of me, pumping in and out of my pussy.

Looking at myself in the mirror, and Caleb, his back shifting as he works his fingers.

I can’t stop it this time. Caleb doesn’t seem to want me to.

After being pent up for so long, edged, I cum so hard I tremble and shake. My knees gave out. I grab onto Caleb’s shoulders to keep myself upright.

“Caleb! Caleb, oh gods!”

He doesn’t stop, not even as it becomes too much. It hurts almost, the consistent drawn-out pleasure.

Tears form in my eyes. “C-Caleb!”

He laps and sucks. The tears fall. And he wrings another orgasm out of me.

This time he does not linger. He pushes away, wipes off his mouth with the back of his hand and heads to the sink. There, he washes his hand.

I can see his face in the mirror, the way he’s not looking at me. “You will join me on all of my dates from now on, Harper. I suggest you get used to it.”

He dries off his hands and then struts out of the bathroom. Just as he opens the door, I remember to lower my skirt.

He’d gifted me the best kind of pleasure, but now, with him gone, I feel nothing but hollow inside. His words were a threat and a promise.

At his command, I would have to attend every date whether I wanted to or not. There would be no escape for me.

Unless… I could try running away again.

It was futile last time, but this time I’m smarter, I know the palace a bit more, and I’ve befriended some of the guards.

Maybe this time it could work.

Maybe I could be free.

Chapter 124

Caleb thought that his blissful torture of Harper would facilitate a few answers, but as he walks away, he remains as confused as before. Withholding her pleasure, while enjoyable, had only managed to further prove just how stubborn she is.

He hates how much he likes that about her. It would be so much easier if she was as eager to please him as the other women in his harem. All he had to do with them was make a suggestion of a desire, and they would bend over backward to see that desire fulfilled.

He could tell Harper to her face what he wants and she would just ignore him.

Impossible woman.

Annoyed, Caleb does not attend to his regular duties of the day, deciding that he is much too frustrated for that. Instead, he heads out into the courtyard to look over the new guards who are being brought into his service – including the one that Harper befriended during their warrior training.

Caleb wanted to throw the man out immediately, for daring to lust after one of his harem, but even the Pitmaster approached him to tell him that this one – Ted, I believe she called him – was a good sort with a strong sense of loyalty and a promise with the blade.

After the coup, Caleb couldn’t afford to turn away any candidates. Nearly half of his guards turned out to be traitors.

Now, though, it was exceedingly difficult for him to trust anyone. Who was to say that any of these new guards wouldn’t turn against him with the right motivation?

The paranoia scratched at the inside of Caleb’s skull like a squirrel who had climbed into the attic of a house. Annoying. Insistent. Sometimes easy to ignore, sometimes impossible.

Tristan said that he had vetted each and every guard here. He held them to tough standards, interviewed their families, and spoke to several references. He even conducted intense interviews to test their loyalty and their ability to maintain composure under pressure.

With all of that, Caleb still struggled to trust. Tristan, he believed, would only do his best to attempt to keep Caleb safe, but Tristan was bonded to Caleb with a blood bond.

Maybe he should start requiring blood bonds from all of his guards, slaves, and servants…

The new guards are lined up in five rows in the courtyard, with ten in each row. Each is standing at attention, with their gun held at their side and their heads held high.

Caleb walks among them, glancing at their faces as he passes. As trained, none make direct eye contact with him, not even Ted, who Caleb is inclined to distrust.

Until, the last in the second row, nervously glances up and meets my eye. I stop, glaring. Immediately, the young man’s gaze dips away.

He couldn’t have been older than twenty, though he is tall and broad-shouldered. With a gentle sniff, Caleb determines that this guard has the alpha potential, though for him to be here, he has clearly been passed over for the role within his pack.

Suspicion immediately floods through Caleb. Perhaps this young man has ba igger ambition. Instead of a pack leader role, he might have his eye on the crown.

“Which pack are you from?” Caleb asks.

The man, straightening, swallows hard. “Crimson Dusk, King Caleb…”

Caleb frowns. “The current pack Alpha is an older werewolf, isn’t he?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“So why aren’t you attempting to earn that role?” Caleb asks.

“The Alpha’s son will take that role.”

“You did not think to fight him for it?”

“I have to desire to… King Caleb.”

All of the alarm bells in Caleb’s head rang at that response. “Why not?”

“I… uh… I’m not much of a leader, Sir. I don’t want to be.”

Lies. Everyone wishes they could lead. “Do you think that by coming here, you might have a shot at my crown?”

“What?” the guard’s eyes go impossibly wide. “Of course not!”

Some of the other guards subtly start to shift away from Caleb and the guard he’s interrogating, as if they don’t want to be caught in the potential bloodshed.

Good. The rest, at least, will be subservient to Caleb. This one, though…

“I think you are lying,” Caleb spits. “And liars should not be tolerated.”

Caleb raises his hand and the guard flinches. Yet before Caleb can strike, Tristan is immediately at his side.

“King Caleb. A word.”

Caleb shifts his fiery gaze to Tristan. How dare he interrupt this man’s punishment?

However, even with the scratching inside of his head, Caleb trusts Tristan enough to lower his arm. He leads Tristan away from the group, to a more quiet area along the walls of the palace where they can speak without being overheard by the recruits.

“This had better be important, Beta,” Caleb snaps.

“You would have killed that new guard.”

Maybe. Or maimed him.

“The others need an example,” Caleb says. “Or they will all think I am weak enough to be overrun.”

“With due respect,” Tristan says gently. “I do not believe that to be the case. This group is already loyal, my King. I’ve interrogated each of them myself. Even under the threat of death, they would not turn against you.”

“There should be no problem, then.”

“When I threatened them, they would not turn against you, King Caleb. For you to threaten them is a different matter. Such ruthless treatment might quell unrest again. Their loyalty should be rewarded, not punished.”

“You have no true knowledge of what you speak,” Caleb says with a note of disgust. Tristan may be Caleb’s most trusted servant, but he is just that. A Beta will never have the knowledge and strength of an Alpha, especially one like Caleb – a King.

“Look for yourself,” Tristan says, motioning back towards the recruits.

Just to prove him wrong, I do look. There, I see a level of nervousness among the mercenaries, as if some are reconsidering their dedication to their new chosen profession and its cause. Chief among them is the man Caleb threatened. Now, he seems more angry than afraid.

“I will need to interrogate them again,” Tristan says. “To see if their attitude toward you has changed. Where before they saw you as a powerful and brave figurehead, now they might see you only as a brute.”

Caleb snaps his gaze to Tristan. “Is that how you see me?”

“I know what you’ve been through,” Tristan says. “I know all that you have suffered to make you into the person you are today, with both your good qualities and your bad. So no, I do not see you as a brute. But these people do not know you beyond the tales of heroism they’ve heard. It’s those tales you are shattering now. You could have easily lived up to their expectations.”

“If one angry outburst causes them to turn, Tristan, then I don’t trust them at all. Throw the whole batch away.”

Tristan straightens, taken aback. “But, King Caleb -“

“I don’t care for your excuses or your reasoning or your worries. I said, demote all of them and find more.”

Tristan closes his mouth a moment, though his eyes speak of his disagreement and his anger at Caleb’s decision.

Caleb doesn’t care. The scratching in his mind is full-on pounding now. He can’t trust anyone here; he’s sure of it.

Maybe he can’t even trust his Beta.

Chapter 125

In the night, within my mind, I travel back in time to a night when I joined my sister Leah at a club on the edge of our pack’s lands. It was the night of my disgrace, my birthday. Samuel and I had making plans to solidify our mating bond, but Leah, furious, was not speaking to me, except in front of our parents.

When she had asked me to join her at the club, I had been ecstatic, believing she meant to extend an olive branch. Despite the many disagreements of our youth, I still wanted my sister to be at my side for my big day.

So I went to the club, even though it wasn’t the time of place that I would normally visit. I’d already found my mate. For what reason did I need to go to a club and attempt to seek out another one?

My intention that night had only been to make amends with Leah, but when I met her at the club, the music had been so loud, it had been nearly impossible to hear her. We both had to shout.

“Can we go somewhere quieter?” I asked.

“What?” she replied.

“Can we go somewhere quieter?!” I asked louder.

She laughed. “My goody two-shoes sister never wants to have any fun. Why don’t you have a drink and relax? I know you drink.”

On occasion, I would steal a few sips of wine, but I was never a huge drinker. Leah knew I had a low tolerance.

She didn’t care to hear my response, instead she turned to the bartender and ordered two more of whatever she was drinking. It looked like some kind of martini, in a glass with a long stem.

Before the drink was delivered, I excused myself to go to the bathroom.

“Don’t be too long! Or I’ll end up forgetting about you,” Leah shouted with a laugh.

The words hurt me, but I laughed too. I’d gone off to the bathroom more to calm down than to actually use the facilities, but I found little comfort within them. The music, though muffled, still pounded through the walls enough to throb in my head. Also, a drunk woman was throwing up in one of the toilet.

Looking in the mirror, I waged war with myself. Everything inside me begged me to just go home. To call Samuel and laugh about all this. He’d be supportive, saying something sweet like how I don’t need my sister in my life, if she is too big-headed to want to meet me in the middle.

But Leah was my family. She was part of my pack. She was not someone I was willing to just throw away, not if there was a chance I could mend this.

This night was that chance.

I left the bathroom with renewed purpose. I would do whatever it took to be friends with my sister again, to mend these bridges that we had burned lately.

As I approached the bar where my sister was, I saw that our drinks had been delivered and were sitting on the bar top.

I stopped as I approached, noticing my sister move her hand over my drink.

At the time, I hadn’t thought anything of it. But the safety of the dream world let me stop and evaluate. Am I remembering this correctly?

It looks a hell of a lot like Leah put something in my drink.

Gasping awake, I sit upright in my bed. I suck in large gasping breaths, my heart beating out of control.

Was that a memory? Or was it something else? Was my mind just playing tricks on me?

I’d always suspected my sister drugged me that night, but the memories had been so hazy, it was difficult for me to piece together exactly how it happened.

Was it true, like I saw, that my sister put something in my drink? Or was this just the assumption my brain was making, trying to fill in the black holes of a traumatic evening?

I don’t know. But I feel cold and uncertain.

For the rest of the night, sleep eludes me. When Bethany comes to me in the morning, I ask her, first thing, “Do you think dreams could be memories that we’ve forgotten?”

“I don’t know,” Bethany says, looking at me strangely. “I suppose it’s possible. Did this happen to you, Harper? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

“I think I did,” I tell her.

I want to explain more but at just that moment, there’s a knock on the door. A King’s messenger enters without waiting for a response.

“The King is taking a morning stroll through the gardens with Annabelle,” the messenger says to me. “You have been summoned to join them.”

It seems the King is keeping good on his threat to have me attend every day he goes on from now on.

“Very well,” I tell the messenger, because I don’t really have any other choice. “If you could please wait in the hallway so I can get dressed.”

The messenger looks annoyed but still does as I ask, moving out of the room. He gently closes the door behind him.

Bethany gives me a sympathetic look, but we don’t speak about it. What’s more for there to say?

This hurts, but it is my life. Until I can actually think of a viable escape plan, I have no choice but to obey the King’s requests.

Dressed, I follow the messenger to where the King and Annabelle are waiting near the edge of the gardens. Caleb looks beyond annoyed with me.

“What the hell took you so long?” he asks.

“I had to change,” I told him.

Annabelle tugs on his arm, reclaiming his attention. “She’s here now. May we start our walk?”

Looking at her, Caleb calms slightly, even as I start to silently seethe.

They start to walk, while I stay a foot or two behind, close enough to intervene if Caleb needs me but far enough away that I can at least pretend I’m there for a different reasons. Maybe I’m on my own little walk, and it just happens to be at the same time and along the same path as Caleb and Annabelle.

Halfway through their walk, they stop to look at one of the more elaborate displays, a mixture of roses and crawling vines.

Glancing at me, Annabelle asks Caleb, “Can we go somewhere quieter?”

I don’t hear Caleb’s response…

I don’t hear anything but white noise.

I’m immediately back in time once more, a vision or a waking nightmare, I don’t know which.

Leah handed me my drink, but I’d been hesitant to drink it. I tried to put it down on the counter, but she gave me a disgusted look.

“I thought you wanted to repair things between us, but you are acting like the drink I gave you isn’t good enough.”

I don’t remember what I said. I think I might have said the drink looked funny.

Leah didn’t listen to me. She held up her own glass for a toast. “Cheers with me, Harper. Or I swear I will never be on your side for anything ever again.”

I knew there was something in this drink, but I trusted Leah. I thought, maybe, she only put some kind of sweetener in it or something. She knew I liked sweet things.

So I drank.

And then I fell.

Chapter 126

Caleb is only half-listening to Annabelle. Rather, his full attention is on Harper and the way she sways as if she might faint. He will not let her head hit the ground if her legs give out, which they seem about to at any moment.

“My King?” Annabelle says, likely trying to reclaim Caleb’s focus, without realizing it’s a lost cause.

He needs to check on Harper. Right now. Now!

He darts forward, catching Harper right at the moment her knees start to buckle. Even as he catches her, her gaze seems so far away, like her mind is a great distance from the royal gardens.

She slumps slightly, so Caleb scoops her up into his arms in a bridal carry, cradling her safely against the wide expanse of his chest.

Annabelle flitters to his side. “My King, I’m sure others can attend to your harem member. She does not require your specific attentions.”

Caleb begs to differ. If anyone would try to take Harper away from him right now, he would rip their arms off.

Even Annabelle, he is growing annoyed with. Though, reminding himself that she is likely to become his betrothed, he tries to reel in most of his anger.

“Stay here and enjoy the flowers, Annabelle,” he says through clenched teeth. “I must tend to this.”

Without hearing another word – and frankly, Annabelle was lucky that Caleb heard those few words he had – Caleb carries Harper back inside and all the way to her personal rooms.

By then, she is starting to rouse again.

“Water,” he commands Harper’s handmaiden while he brings Harper to her bed. Once there, he gently lays her down onto it.

“Caleb?” Harper asks. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You are in your room,” Caleb answers. “You passed out in the garden.”

“Oh.” She still seems confused, with a small line forming between her brows. Though she doesn’t say anything more, she’s clearly troubled.

More secrets.

Caleb hates secrets, but this time, since she’s fainted, he doesn’t have the same fury that possessed him before in seeking answers. This time, he just wants to make sure she is alright, health wise.

“I will send for a doctor,” he says. As soon as Bethany returns with the water, Caleb sends her straight back out for a doctor.

“That’s really not necessary,” Harper protests, but by now it’s already too late. Her reaction times seem to be on a delay of some kind. Even after fainting, she is still distracted by plaguing thoughts.

Caleb wants to press but he doesn’t. Instead, he waits, quietly watching her.

After a moment, she looks at him, worry mixed with confusion there, and asks, “Do you remember much from the night we first met?”

“On your pack lands?” Caleb asks, to clarify. She could be meaning when she was first brought to the palace.

“Yes,” Harper says. “That night… So much is a blur…”

“You truly do not remember?”

“Not everything,” Harper says. “I was hoping you could fill in some blanks for me.”

Caleb had plenty of dark moments from that evening too, but he remembers Harper beneath him, begging him to fuck her. She was so hot, physically and temperature-wise. And she smelled so fucking good. No one else has ever smelled like that for him, not before and not since.

Not even Harper now, though she’s the closest. Something always seems to be in the way, holding back the full scent.

“Your heat scent triggered my rut,” Caleb says. “I’m afraid much of the evening is hazy after that.”

“What about before?” she asks. “Do you remember how you found me? Do you remember if my sister was there?”

Caleb remembers Harper’s sister Leah from the Alpha Council events. The bitch had been unkind to Harper, and Caleb had thought of disappearing her into the dungeons many times. He held himself back, only because he thought Harper would not appreciate the gesture. She’d likely be mad at him, like she so often was.

“You were alone when I found you,” Caleb says. “Other werewolf males had been attracted to your heat scent, but I chased them all away. Then you called out to me. You begged me to have you…”

Irritation swells within Caleb. The best scent of his existence, the best sex of his life. He had thought she’d been right there beside him, along for the ride. Instead, she’d been… what?

“The heat makes things so intense,” Caleb explains. “It’s possible you were lost to all but the feeling.”

She nods. “I remember some of it. But I don’t know how it happened at all. What triggered my heat? It came so suddenly. There was no warning.” Looking at Caleb, she asks, “Did you wonder at all, who this woman was? Why she was suddenly in heat?”

As soon as Caleb had caught the scent, all logical thinking had gone out the window. And when she called out to him, begging for him to take her, telling him how much it hurt being so empty… He lost all reason as well.

“I don’t have an answer for you that you’ll like,” he says. “But it doesn’t matter now, does it? What happened, happened, and you are here with me now.”

“That was the night of my disgrace,” she says. “The entire trajectory of my life changed that night.”

“Fate had plans for you and me.”

Harper lowers her chin. “What if it wasn’t fate, Caleb? I keep having these dreams, these memories? Of that night. It plays out in my head all over again. Meeting Leah at that club. Her ordering me a drink. I think… I think I remember her putting something in my glass.”

Caleb goes very still as sudden inexplicable rage fills him. How dare someone interfere like that? And since a child culminated from that event…

Was Leah trying to sabotage her sister’s future, or her king’s?

“It could have been a dream. I could have imagined it, but…”

“You think it’s real,” Caleb fills in the blanks. “You genuinely believed she sabotaged you so that she could ruin your reputation and steal your fiancé.”

“I do,” Harper says, seeming sad about it.

She didn’t have anything to be sad about. Not anymore. Maybe her sister set them both up, but Caleb will make sure that she will pay for what she’s done.

“When the Alpha Council reconvenes, she will be welcomed back to the capital,” Caleb says. “When she arrives, we will make certain that she receives a very special greeting.”

“If she dies, I won’t know the truth,” Harper says. She looks away. “Plus, she is always my sister, even after what she’s done to me.”

Harper’s soft heart has no business being in a place like this. Even if it meant he never would have met her, Caleb hates Leah all over again, for ruining the perfect and happy life Harper might have otherwise lived.

“I won’t kill her.” Right away, he adds in his mind. “But she will be interrogated. We will make certain that she tells us the truth of what happened that night. In fact, I’ll see to it personally.”

Chapter 127

I know Caleb’s idea of interrogation involves torture. I’ve seen it happen. Hell, it even happened to me once. And I don’t totally trust Caleb’s promise not to kill Leah, either. When he gets in those overly-aggressive moods sometimes, it’s hard for him to hold back even. when he wants to.

So I tell him, “If you are going to interrogate Leah, I want to be there. Not just watching, I want to be in the room.”

Caleb glances at me sideways. “Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t have the stomach for that. You are too soft.”

“I don’t think it will come to actual torture,” I say. “The threat of it should be enough.” My presence will ensure he doesn’t go too far.

I might hate my sister for what she’s done to me: drugging me, mocking me, stealing my life, and treating me like her own personal slave. But beneath it all, she is still my sister. My parents love her. She’s Samuel’s wife.

I hate her, but I can’t be responsible for her torture and death.

I deserve better than the guilt that will come with that, even if she doesn’t.

Caleb glares me down like he thinks that will change my answer. He can still be intimidating as hell when he wants to be, but the concern that occasionally flashes in his eyes takes away all the real heat in this moment. So I stare straight back at him.

Eventually, he acquiesces. “Fine,” he says. “But if she starts badmouthing you again, I can’t promise to be civil.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to be anyway,” I say, lightly teasing.

It feels good to have the past aired between us. I’ve always wondered how Caleb felt. I didn’t remember him finding me. I do remember being insanely attracted to him, craving him with my entire body and soul. And that scent – all masculine Alpha. It must have been his rut.

His rut was triggered by my heat, but it also amplified my heat. We were the perfect kind of storm, going on each other for the entire length of the evening.

Knowing that I can’t even fault him for disappearing the night before I woke up.

“That night,” I say, my final question. “In the morning.”

He nods, letting me know he’s listening.

This question isn’t easy to ask. It takes me a moment, to gather my courage, “Were you going to come back?”

“I thought about not,” Caleb says. “I went on a long walk to clear my head. When I did return, the bed was empty and you were gone.”

He came back. My heart aches. If my parents hadn’t found me. If Caleb had returned in time to claim me properly… How much would be different?

Or was I always doomed to end up in Caleb’s harem?

“I assumed you wanted a one-night stand. I wasn’t angry then,” Caleb says. “It was only later when I found out about the child.”

With a sigh, I tell him, “There is no child.”

He frowns at me. “So you keep telling me.”

Before we can speak further, Bethany returns with a doctor, and Caleb insists the doctor check me over. Once the diagnosis is delivered, that I’m more or less okay, though I should eat something and drink more water, Caleb walks out of the room and does not re- enter.

“Are you okay?” Bethany asks once Caleb and the doctor are gone.

“I don’t know,” I reply. It’s the honest truth.

After lunch, I receive a strange summons from a handmaiden I do not know.

“My mistress, Annabelle, wishes to speak with you,” she says.

From my doorway, I glance up the hallway at the guards, but they pay the handmaiden very little mind. Caleb likely authorized this then. Perhaps he’s given Annabelle and her servants reign over the entire palace.

My stomach flip-flops but I push down the feeling. I’ve been sick enough for one day.

Well, if Caleb has authorized this, then I have no choice really but to honor this summons, even if I’d rather run screaming, naked into a forest filled with bees.

“Very well,” I say.

The handmaiden leads me out to the courtyard, to a small rod-iron table in the shadow of a great oak tree, where Annabelle sits, having her afternoon tea.

There’s only one cup, so I imagine I’ll just stay standing. She’ll say what she wants, and we’ll both move on with our days.

So it surprises me when she gestures to the empty chair across from hers. “Sit down, Harper. We should probably have a little chat.”

I want to refuse, but knowing there will be consequences if I do, I just sit instead.

“How are you feeling, after your little tumble this morning?” she asks.

I look at her with suspicion, but her eyes seem genuinely concerned. Her lips dip down at the corners in a small, worried frown.

“I’m doing well,” I say. “I didn’t get enough sleep last night, I think.” It’s not the full truth, but she doesn’t need to know my entire life story. She’s Caleb’s suitor, after all. Not mine.

“Sleep is important,” she says and sips from her tea cup.

She’s stalling, even I can tell.

There’s no way in hell she called me all the way out here just to ask after my health, so I prompt, “I imagine you wanted to ask me something else.”

“Yes,” she says. She sets her teacup down with a clink of porcelain. Then she dabs at the corners of her mouth with a napkin. “I suppose there’s no point in delaying the inevitable. It’s not an easy question to ask, mind, so I know it will be equally difficult for you to answer. Still, I must persist, and I ask you to as well, for Caleb’s sake.”

I nod, though truthfully, I’m waiting until I hear the question.

“I want to know more about the relationship between you and Caleb,” Annabelle says. “He has assured me that you are simply a member of his harem, but I saw the way that he dropped everything for you this morning. He even ignored me, in favor of tending to you.”

Caleb didn’t tell me that part. As far as I knew, I passed out and some guard dragged me back to my room. But I suppose it made sense now, how Caleb was already there when I came back into myself.

“You are more than a member of his harem,” Annabelle says. “But how much more?”

Annabelle was right – this is an exceedingly difficult question to answer. Also, I’m not sure I’m the person to ask for the answer. “Only Caleb really knows that.”

Annabelle frowns a little. She clearly doesn’t care for that answer. I don’t blame her. If she does try to ask Caleb about me, he will likely blow off the question as absurd.

And maybe it is. Caleb and I are intertwined based on our one-night stand and a brief trip to a farmhouse. Aside from that, I am no different than any other harem member, despite what it looks like to Annabelle.

“Regardless,” Annabelle continues. “I do want to make one thing clear to you. If I am to marry Caleb, which seems like a distinct possibility for our near future, you will step back and take a more passive role in his life. Not just for me, or for him, but for yourself.”

I blink, unsure how to feel. Presently, all I feel is stabbing hurt.

“When the wedding is completed, the first thing I’m going to ask Caleb to do is release his harem as a gift to me,” Annabelle says. “I insist on being the only woman in his life.”

Chapter 128

I can’t speak against Annabelle. I might be in the King’s harem, but she is an honored member of a powerful pack and favored to be the Queen.

What would I say, even if I could? No? Caleb need to keep his harem?

That’s not what I want. If I could have my way, Caleb would free all members of the harem anyway. All of them but me. Though I’d prefer not to be a harem member anymore either.

I can’t ask Annabelle to exclude me from this equation, not when I want her out of the picture too. If anything, I could understand exactly how she felt. I certainly couldn’t fault her for it.

Though the words still hurt me. As much as I also don’t want to share Caleb, nor do I want to lose him. My feelings have budded these past few weeks, especially during our time at the farmhouse.

To walk away from him now…

Perhaps he will release the harem into freedom. He is putting money into an account for me and our non-existent child, wanting us to be taken care of. With it, I could have enough funds to survive. I wouldn’t have to return to my pack to survive a second disgrace and become a slave again.

I could go anywhere.

Where would I even want to go?

My head spins. There’s so much to think about, and none of it will matter at all if Caleb tells Annabelle no.

What did she say? That she’s not going to ask him to release the harem until after the wedding? In that case, to keep his new bride happy, he won’t have much choice.

However you look at it, it seems my days at Caleb’s side are numbered.

Maybe it’s for the best. Being close to him, with these feelings of mine… it’s only led to heartache so far. I can’t imagine that will change. Caleb won’t- and can’t, given his lack of genuine feelings for me understand.

“I’m sorry,” Annabelle says. She holds some measure of sympathy in her eyes but her mouth is a hard-pressed line. “But you must see things from my perspective.”

“I do,” I assure her. “If I were you, I would want the same.”

She looks at me a moment as if studying my face. Then, she nods. “I’m glad we understand each other.” Looking away from me, she returns her attention to the nearby flowers. Some bumblebees are floating around, pollinating.

“You can go now,” she tells me.

I don’t need to be told twice. Standing, I rush out of the gardens and back toward the palace. I won’t stop until I am safely inside of my room.

Bethany was expecting me to stay away longer and is off tending to other duties while I return alone. Though I deeply enjoy spending time with Bethany, she is a dear friend, and I prefer to be by myself right now.

These feelings within me… I don’t want to have to try to explain them to anyone else, not even Bethany who already knows much of how I feel. Having been around the harem so much for so long, she wouldn’t understand my general level of disdain towards it.

I’ve never liked it. One man does not need one hundred lovers all living under his roof, waiting and ready for him at any moment. It was the very picture of excess.

Yet to my knowledge, Caleb has only been with me since I’ve been added to the harem. He’s entirely ignored the rest of the harem.

Maybe that’s why this feels so much like a personal snub against me.

I suppose what I need to do is back off of Caleb totally before he has the chance to push me away. Would this be enough to protect my own heart? I’m not sure, but it’s worth a try. I can’t just sit around and do nothing, just waiting for my heart to be shattered into pieces.

I can’t distance myself physically, but I can start to safeguard my own feelings by putting some emotional distance between us.

Later that day, when I’m summoned to join Caleb and Annabelle for dinner, I stand off to the side as they eat and flirt, and pretend that I am somewhere else entirely, somewhere very far away.

It only mildly works. Too often, the sound of Annabelle’s bell chime of a laugh calls me back to the present.

Once, I glance over and see Caleb offering her a small smile.

He never smiles at anyone. This cuts me tremendously deeply.

When he smiled at me, I thought I was special. Now, I know I’m not special at all. At least, no more so than Annabelle.

Eventually, the date ends, thank the gods, and I start to head towards my rooms.

“Harper,” Caleb calls after me. “Wait.”

Even though I want to ignore him and escape, he remains my King, and a ruthless one at that. He’d see the act as a personal slight against him and the crown, and likely chase me to tell me so.

Not in the mood for a chase, I stop and wait for him to catch up with me.

“Don’t retire yet,” he says. “I need you to come with me.”

“Where?” I ask.

He lifts his brow at me as if scolding me, letting me know that I should know better than to ask him questions like that and question my King.

If he thinks I wouldn’t ask anyway, he doesn’t know me at all.

Turning, he walks down the hallway away from me. A few feet away, he slows, as if waiting for me. I don’t really have any choice, so I fall into step slightly behind him. Once my footsteps echo alongside him, he continues forward.

Together, we walk toward the guest wing, and then through the hallways of empty chambers. There is one, larger in size than the rest at the very end of the hallway. Once we reach it, Caleb straightens somewhat and knocks.

“Enter,” says a male voice from within.

Caleb pushes open the door and we both walk through.

This guest chambers consists of a large living room area, with a couch and a fireplace, as well as a small table and chairs. A large bed sits on the other side of the room, divided by a partition.

Caleb’s parents are sitting at the table as we enter. When Hector, Caleb’s father, sees us, he stands. Kira’s mother continues to sit. Both watch their son curiously, not paying any attention to me.

“To come here at this late hour, I trust you have some news you wish to share with us,” Hector says. The late hour is only 8 pm, but who knows when Hector and Kira actually go to bed.

“I do,” Caleb replies. “I’ve decided that I’ve found the perfect woman to become my wife.”

Kira’s brows go up, just as Hector’s go down. They both turn to look at me.

“I am vehemently against it,” Hector says at once. “A harem girl will never be Luna of this -“

“I don’t mean Harper,” Caleb says quickly. His brows furrow like he too believes the thought to be outrageous. That look slices deep into me. “I’m talking about Annabelle. I intend to propose and make Annabelle my wife.”

Chapter 129

I return to my room absolutely humiliated. In a way it was flattering, that Caleb’s parents misunderstood and thought that Caleb cared enough about me to want to break traditions and marry me, a member of his harem.

Their expressions, however, a mix of horror and rage, left me feeling nothing but deep despair and embarrassment. It is insulting how lowly they think of me like I’m subhuman somehow. A slave, put on this earth only to serve, never to rise about my station. Or even dream about it.

The worst part for me, though, was Caleb’s absolute lack of response. He did not defend me. He probably didn’t even think to.

I know it’s impossible for Caleb to return my feelings, but each time that something like this occurs, when the chasm that stretches between us seems as far as an ocean, I’m hurt all over again.

By now, I should know better, but my foolish heart has set on him. It will keep flinging itself forward, keeping hurting itself against the barbed wire he’s laid around his own heart until I force myself to move on.

It’s difficult to move on when I live in Caleb’s palace and see him all the time. In between his dates with Annabelle, it’s me he comes to see. It’s my arms he falls into. My lips he kisses.

Annabelle wants this to end. Maybe it’s time that it should.

I change into bed, miserable yet resolved. I let myself cry onto my pillow, but I make a vow that it will be the last time. I’ve shed too many tears over Caleb already, while he’s given little to no thought to me. Tonight will be the last time.

In the morning, I will be a new person, determined and independent.

Tomorrow.

Tonight, and only for tonight, I will allow my broken heart to flood my being with sadness, and I will cry.

In the morning, the sun rises, and I awake a new person, incredibly resolved. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. A life that doesn’t revolve around King Caleb.

When Bethany arrives, she seems surprised by my good mood.

“Are you okay?” she asks me, spying on the crumpled-up tissues in the nearby waste basket.

“I’m planning,” I tell her, because that’s better than the more honest answer, that I’m a wall of misery held together with a thin layer of resolve.

“Planning what?” Bethany asks.

“You’ll see,” I tell her. Maybe I should tell her the truth, to warn her, but I’m still a bit worried that I won’t have the willpower to go through with it when faced with Caleb himself. I’d be facing my own self-hatred, in that case. I don’t want to have to also carry someone else’s disappointment in me.

Or, maybe it wouldn’t be da isappointment. More likely, Bethany would try to talk me out of it.

We continue with our morning routine. I shower while Bethany tidies up, and then we both sit down for coffee and breakfast. Just as we finish up, a royal messenger opens the door without knocking and steps inside.

“The King demands your presence in the dining room for his breakfast date with Annabelle,” the messenger says.

I stay just where I am, sitting at the small two-person table with Bethany.

Bethany glances at me, her brows furrowing with concern. “Harper?”

“Yes?” I ask her.

He nods her head toward the royal messenger.

“Oh,” I say, pretending to have forgotten he was there. Looking at him,

I say, “Tell King Caleb that I will not be joining him this morning for his date, or for any future dates he has planned. Thank you.”

His eyes go wide as saucers. Bethany’s mouth fell open. They both gaped at me for a moment.

I sipped my coffee.

When I place it down, I double-take looking at the messenger, then say, “If that’s everything…?”

He glances nervously between Bethany and me like he’s not sure what to say. But then, still speechless, he backs out of the room and closes the door behind him.

“Harper,” Bethany says. “The King is not going to be pleased.”

“I don’t care what the King thinks,” I say.

“There’s something going on with you,” Bethany says, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

I shrug but give nothing away.

Bethany, as if sensing what’s coming, starts to clear the plates away.

We both know the storm that’s about to come through the door.

King Caleb does not like to be told ‘no.’

As far as I’m concerned, he needs to hear no far more often, especially since he’s so damn bad at hearing it.

Bethany nearly makes it all the way to the door with the dishes, when loud footsteps thunder down the hallway. She stands off to the side, as the door bursts open so roughly that it knocks clean off its hinges. It hits the wall first and then slams down onto the ground.

Caleb’s eyes flash red as he takes long, angry strides into the room, slowly closing the distance to me. Bethany sneaks out behind his back.

I glance at him, but then otherwise ignore him, sipping my coffee – even as he walks right up to the edge of the table.

In a flash, he snatches the cup from my hand and then throws it straight against the far wall. It smashes, chips flying, as coffee splatters.

With a long blink, I turn my head to look up at him where he stands beside me, glaring down at me.

“You dare to -!” he begins.

“I’ve decided what I want for my request,” I reply, cutting him off.

His voice stops abruptly. His face goes through a series of very fast changes: annoyed to confused to understand to furious again. He grits his teeth, and a hint of a growl emerges from the back of his throat.

“What is it?” he says, his voice low and gravelly.

Somehow, I manage to hold his gaze. I thought facing him might make me waver in my resolve. Instead, it seems to solidify it within me.

I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep pretending like everything’s fine when it’s not.

Caleb promised me any request I could think of. Right now, I fully intend to push him to see how much he truly met those words.

“I want to leave,” I tell him.

He blinks, but his expression doesn’t otherwise change.

“What?” he says curtly.

He wants me to repeat my request? I don’t mind. I’ll shout it from the rooftops if he needs me to.

“I don’t want to be in the harem anymore,” I say. “I want to be free to find a regular werewolf to settle down. No more Alphas. Maybe he could be a farmer, and I’d get my own farmhouse…” I’m rambling. This part isn’t necessary. I shake my head. “I want to find a mate for myself and have a quiet little life.”

Caleb’s growling rises in volume.

“You said I could have anything. That no request is too great,” I say. “Well, this is what I want. I don’t want to be in the harem. I don’t want to be your lover.”

I take a breath.

“I want to be free.”

Chapter 130

“Why the hell would you want to mate with some inferior male?” Caleb demands, his rage flaring like the red flashing through his. eyes.

“He wouldn’t be inferior to me,” I snap back. “He would be my husband and mate.”

“Stop saying that!” Caleb roars.

He’s trying to intimidate me. Well, it won’t work. I’ve agonized over my feelings for him, and this decision. I’m not going to back down now. The status quo is not acceptable; it’s far too painful. Something has to give.

I hop to my feet, tired of him towering over me. Taller than me, he still towers somewhat, but it’s not nearly as bad now that I’m standing as it was when I was sitting down on the chair.

“I’ll say it as much as I want,” I tell him. “I don’t want to be your consort anymore!”

Technically, I suppose, I never really did, but there have been enough pleasant moments to keep me from saying those words that I would immediately regret. We’ve had many nights of pleasure, some lasting well until the morning. There’ve been moments of softness too, which always takes me by surprise.

I wouldn’t trade them, though. The only thing I would maybe switch out is our rocky start.

Caleb straightens, still trying to intimidate me. He can be a scary man when he wants to be, but I’m past the point of being frightened by him. Not when he’s acting like this, like a petulant child unwilling to give up his favorite toy.

I have no misconceptions that I mean anything more to him than that, and I’m tired of it. I don’t want to be a toy anymore. I want to either mean something to Caleb, or be gone away from him. There’s no middle ground here.

We glare at each other for several long moments. I keep thinking Caleb is going to lecture me or scold me. He certainly looks like he wants to.

But then his face softens somewhat. Well, he starts to look less like he wants to murder me and more like he just wants to break some inanimate object in half instead.

“I don’t understand,” he says.

“You… don’t…?” I search his face, trying to discern if this confusion is sincere or if he’s playing some kind of game, setting me up for something. But the longer I look, the more I realize… the confusion is real.

Caleb genuinely has no idea why I wouldn’t want to be his mistress.

Gods, what kind of privileged life has this man lived? Has he never in his entire life been rejected?

Looking at him, at his handsome face, at his wide shoulders, no. I suppose he likely would have never been rejected, even if he wasn’t born king.

But knowing that the confusion is real softens some of the animosity that has been growing inside of me towards him. It makes me want to answer his question.

“I don’t want to be a backup, Caleb. What I want more than anything else in the entire world, is to be my partner’s most cherished person. Not someone who gets passed around and forgotten…”

The weight of Samuel’s betrayal weighs heavy on me. I don’t have feelings for Samuel anymore, but the memory of the pain I felt remains like a phantom wound. I never want to feel that way again.

“I want to be by my partner’s side for all occasions and celebrations. Once you marry Annabelle, you will do those things with her. If I stay as your harem member, I will be set aside. That’s how it should be. You should focus fully on your mate. But it’s not enough for me. I want to be someone’s one and only.”

Caleb’s face is a hard mask, making it impossible to tell what he is thinking.

Then, like whispering a breath, he says aloud his realization. “You think you don’t mean anything to me.”

It wasn’t a question, more a statement. There’s nothing I can say against it, because it is one hundred percent the truth.

His brow furrows slightly, giving him an annoyed expression. He steps closer, chest so near my chest, so that he can stare down at me with a deep intensity.

“You mean more to me than you realize,” he says. It’s almost as if he’s speaking the words straight into my soul, the way they seem to reverberate through my body.

He lifts his hands, and without touching, traces them up the lengths of my arms to my shoulders. His palms hover just over my skin. It still, somehow, feels like a caress even when he’s not touching me. He’s so close, if I concentrate, I can feel the warmth of his hands.

“Caleb…” I whisper.

For a moment, I feel like I can see the stars in his eyes. Then, all at once, he hardens once more, dropping his hands away.

“You belong to me, Harper, and you always will,” he growls.

Then, as if that is the logical end to our conversation, he turns and walks right out of my room.

Caleb has not been this confusingly annoyed in some time. Why does he care what Harper wants? Even if she was kind to him, even if she saved his life, he is the king. He’s not beholden to her request, so what if he is the one who had originally offered it?

Only, that’s exactly why he should honor it. Harper did save his life, and he promised her that he would give her anything. The sky is the limit.

He didn’t think she would ask for freedom.

The one thing that he absolutely does not want to give.

She spoke of mating another werewolf so casually. Even now, it has Caleb clenching his jaw with rage. She is his and no one else’s.

The thought of some lesser being attempting to taint her with his touch makes Caleb want to put every man in the castle straight through a wall.

He doesn’t care if it’s unreasonable. Not when any of them could be the one that Harper wants instead of her King.

Too furious for reason, Caleb storms out into the training yard where the guards are preforming their drills.

He walk right into the middle of their formation, stretches his arms out wide, and shouts, “Someone fight me!”

The guards look at each other, uncertain.

Nearby, Tristan, rubbing his forehead, starts walking toward him.

“You!” Caleb shouts, pointing at a guard at random. “Fight me. Now!”

The guard seems shaken but all know better than to deny a direct order from the king. So he rushes forward and takes position in fighting stance.

Tristan walks faster.

Caleb starts to low growl as he tenses his body, ready for a brawl.

His fangs start to elongate. His fingers twitch, turning into claws.

The guard’s eyes grow large and Caleb starts getting taller.

At once, Tristan darts forward and shoves the guard behind him.

“King Caleb,” Tristan says. “I request that you do not kill any of our guards.”

“If they will might fight me,” Caleb growls. “Then perhaps you will, Beta.”

Tristan goes very still. In a fair fight, no one can beat Caleb, not even Tristan, who matches Caleb’s strength with speed.

“If that’s what it will take to stop you from killing someone, then fine,” Tristan grumbles. Looking around, he’s aware of their audience.

In barely a whisper, knowing Caleb will still hear it while no one else will, Tristan adds, “Or, maybe you can just tell me what the hell has you in this state, without all these damn theatrics.”

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