Chapter 27

E yes from across the room made the hair on my neck stand. I placed a hand on Greyson’s arm to calm him. Which was a big mistake. He felt hot enough to burn himself alive.

“WHAT DID YOU DO—” Greyson said, but I jumped in front of him, covering his mouth with my hand, muffling the words.

“Grey—control yourself!” I hissed out, trying my best to keep the watching crowd from finding out.

Greyson ripped my hand from his mouth and said, “Kaydian, move or I’ll move you myself.” Greyson’s voice was deep gravelly, which meant he was probably going to shift right here and kill Sir Muller or die right here.

“What in the bloody hell is wrong with that lad?” Sir Cross asked loudly from across the room.

Greyson placed his hand against my arm and pushed me to the side, but I’m nothing if not clumsy by nature as I stumbled. The loud tear filled my ears as the heel tugged at my train until the thin fabric gave up the fight. My skin felt tight, trembling as I found my footing. No words could form in my head at the sheer audacity that just took place, just utter disbelief. Even my feet wouldn’t move as I watched Sir Muller, the third powerful coven member, glued himself against the wall while he looked on as Greyson grabbed the lapel of his suit. He sputtered and kicked. Greyson trembled before a strangled cough crept out of his mouth as I figured Muller's magic was finally kicking in after the shock. The illusion incantation flickered for a moment, revealing the golden hue of his eyes as Greyson was close to shifting. Muller whimpered, “Please, your—you’re.”

Snapping out of my stupor, I called onto my magic to open a portal in the middle of the room. I needed to get Greyson away as the white light brightened the dim room. Before Stepping over to them, I untangled my shoes from my dress, tearing the skirt until the end of the dress looked like a jagged mess. I said, “Please Muller…you’re both drunk and confused. Let him go!”

Greyson had a slight blue tint around his lips. And despite everything, I couldn’t—wouldn’t lose him like this. I begged Muller again. This time he stood taller with death written in those syrup eyes. As he dropped his magic, Greyson fell onto the floor with a thump, causing the group of coven members to gasp.

“Princess Kaydian, I don’t know what you’re up to, but I never would have thought you would have turned on your own people. I had to bury her and preserve Thetris name. We all have to sacrifice for our coven and family. You, princess, should know more than he does about that. To go against our goddess fate and to…” Sir Muller paused, his pale hand waving the words away. “Don’t you know that if you lay with dogs, you will get fleas? I’ll keep this mishap between us, but remember this…what’s done in the past should stay in the past.”

My parents ran over to me with the house guards in tow, closing into our fiasco. The guards pulled Greyson up. His legs buckled and swayed. Just fucking great! My heart logged in my throat as my mother's gaze landed on me.

“Are you okay?” my mother asked. Worry coated her voice and her eyes as she hugged me.

“Are you hurt, Kaydian?” my father asked.

Shakily, I nodded. “Yes, I’m okay…I’m fine. We just had a misunderstanding. Right, Muller?”

Sir Muller, who still looked worse for wear, being one of the right-hand man of the strongest coven. His hand dusted off the atrocious yellow coat as if he wasn’t shaking just a moment ago. When he looked at us with a twitchy condescending smirk, “Yes, like the Princess said, it was all a little misunderstanding. It seems someone can’t handle their wine.”

“This is unacceptable behavior of the next King—” my father said, but I cut him off before he could finish. My father threw me a pinched mouth look. One thing my father hated was to be cut off.

“I will take care of Morgan,” I said, walking over to him, relieving the guards from holding him up. “He’s not used to Fae wine. This was his first time drinking it. I think we can all remember the first time we drank Fae wine.”

Some of the coven members chuckled at my words. Probably remembering their drunken first time. Even though I knew Greyson had taken a sip of the wine during dinner and cast it aside without a second glance.

“You’re draining your magic, Kaydian. Why don’t you take Morgan home?” my mother said, in a whispered tone, with a finely plucked eyebrow raised. My knees buckled as I trembled. If it wasn’t for my magic holding me up, both Greyson and I would have fallen on the floor. I opened my mouth to refute her claim, but she beat me to it, holding up a finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet. Her small hand cupped my cheek, warming my already heated body as some of her mear magic poured into me, giving my own a boost from holding the portal open for this long. I wasn’t about to complain about it either. Turning with Greyson in my hand and all the coven members watching me as they shook their heads. We entered the portal and landed right inside the cold shed.

And like a flip switch, my mood went from panic to absolute alarm. How embarrassing for us! What if Sir Muller changes his mind? My mother would murder him.

As she should…

Greyson wouldn’t even look at me. He just went to the little bathroom and threw up what little dinner he had eaten. Leaving me with the only source of comfort, the light pattering of the rain hitting the metal roof, as I wished it could wash away my burdens. When he returned, he didn’t have the decency to even look at me or apologize for pushing me. Even when the illusion incantation dropped, his eyes were still yellow. Greyson undressed as if I weren’t in the room. As if I was nothing but a fly on the wall. As if I hadn’t just burned a bridge with one of the Royals in the strongest coven.

I was just as stupid as him because there Greyson stood naked…and hard. Those yellow eyes piercing into my soul with not love or desire but with hate. Nonetheless, it made my thighs clench as the seat of my panties became doused with my essence. My heart logged in my throat as he stalked towards me. The only thing I could do was step back until I was flushed against the wall. Something deep inside my love-deprived chest screamed I should leave him and go back to my room, but the need to help soothe him was stronger than my will. I heard him stumble, and the sound of the springs popping in the mattress filled the room. Once upon a time, Greyson smelled like lemons, but now only a rancid smell overwhelmed the room as it singed my nose hairs.

Pulling myself off the icy wall, I ran my hand over my sweat-soaked face. My hand was clammy as my magic tried to calm my chaotic heart. It took five minutes for me to gather myself, fixing the holes my shoes made in the green dress I used to love that now felt like a starch reminder of tonight. Walking into the bathroom, I washed him off of me the best that I could, making sure not to look into the small mirror above the buckets. Not because I wasn’t mad at what happened, but because I wanted nothing other than to run back into the room and figure out how to make it right. To make him love me as I did him. I wanted to hug him and kiss the pain away until he looked at me like he did when we first met.

Youna must be having the greatest joke right now.

After I gathered myself, with what little dignity I had left, I fixed my hair and swept my magic down the mangled dress—drying my eyes with the sleeves of my dress. I walked back out there with my head held high and a slight tremble in my chin. Greyson was still lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Still in his semi-shifted form with his blue checkered pajama pants, I had brought for him.

“Greyson…”

“You’re just like them, aren’t you?” he asked without looking at me. His wolf’s voice was rough with disappointment. “We could have killed him! But you stood there. Remove your magic, witch.”

Ignoring his dig at me, “Listen, Greyson, I have been trying to learn more about your mother since we got here. I’ve been asking people and reading the Royal journals. I keep coming up at a dead end.” I paused as the pain in my throat became unbearable. “I’m trying to help…but killing Muller wouldn’t be in our favor, and I’m really trying my best?—”

“You’re not trying hard enough then.” He paused, folding his arm beneath him like a petulant child. The bite in his voice made me step back. “We could go back and let me shift…put an end to him for once and for all…You’re just another fucking witch.”

Greyson’s wolf was inconsolable, and nothing I could say or do would make him see reason. His words were sharpened by his wolf’s hatred for me, a change I hadn’t anticipated coming. My stomach turned sour as the rancid lemon scent exuded from his pores. Greyson was a blur as he got up. His long legs connected with the small trash can, sending it across the shed, causing it to ricochet off the wall and sputter until it stopped. Watching him act out caused me to shake my head. Is this how it’s going to be from now on? I can’t live like this. Something has to change. A wolf with an erratic temperate spelled disaster in the making. I guess that’s why the coven made the mixling rule.

Would I have to keep watch of him every time something doesn’t go his way?

That made me pause as Greyson flopped back down onto the poor mattress and closed his golden eyes. When he opened them back up, it was back to the soft brown eyes that I loved. “I’m sorry…my wolf… It’s becoming harder to control him since we got here. Are you okay?”

The question was harmless, but I still played it safe. “You could never hurt me, Greyson, but you and your wolf had taken more than enough from me tonight. You think this is easy for me? I’ve spent my whole life waiting for Youna to show me my mate. Only for him to be my people’s enemy. I’ve bent my back for you twice now. You’re disappointed in me for keeping you alive another night. Well, fine, so be it. Next time, I will let Sir Muller have his way with you.”

My body moved on its own accord as my magic swept out, removing the “offending” magic and opening the door, leaving before the tears I’ve placed on hold fell. Greyson’s heavy footsteps were heard as he repeated, “I’m sorry,” chasing after me. But like my heart and magic wanted, I slam the door, hopefully, in his face. Pulling my arms around me, I wondered if this was how my mother felt when my father roamed the world, sleeping with every living thing that walked. To give your all to someone who is clearly not fit to be beside you. My mind drifted to Del, and I wished I could tell her how lucky she was to have the option of picking her mate. She’s so lucky.

“Kaydian! Wait.” Greyson called from the entrance of the small pathway.

My eyes widened. “Greyson, get back into the shed! You’re not covered by my spell anymore, and you’ve washed off the deodorizer.”

“I know, I know…I’m sorry! I just can’t let you leave mad at my wolf.”

For fuck's sake, “Fine, let’s go back inside and talk then,” I said, clenching my jaw for dear life. He’s lucky it’s almost midnight, and everyone has probably gone home. Grabbing his wrist, I moved around him to walk us back to the shed…well that was the plan, but when I turned around, Sir Reid was there standing at the entrance of the clearing. His bulky body leaned onto the massive tree trunk that was almost the same size as him, covered in the darkness from shadows. The only way I knew it was him was that his pale skin stood out against the darkness.

“Princess,” Sir Reid’s booming voice echoed throughout the wooded pathway. “What’s done in the dark always comes to light.”

Should I have been surprised that he caught us? No.

Sir Reid was the best of the best. Not even Sir Cross, a secondhand man, could take on Reid. Blinking away the puddles in my eyes, I lifted my teary face to meet Sir Reid’s stony one. I tried to keep them at bay, but they got the best of me. His bleak black eyes morphed into something I wasn’t accustomed to seeing with him, sorrow. I guess there really was a first for everything as he laid one of his rough hands against my cheek, his hand engulfing my face in warmth while wiping away the tears that fell. Never would I have thought to see the enormous giant be anything but a brute…well, except with Ms. Kincaid. She was his weakness.

“Let go of her!” Greyson said, wrapping a hand around Sir Reid’s thick wrist.

“If you don’t want your hand to be embedded into your anus, then I suggest you take your fucking paws off of me,” Sir Reid spoke lowly, his steel-like voice dropping an octave deeper than normal.

“Sir Reid,” my voice was higher than normal. Clearing my throat, “Please, he meant no harm. Greyson is just really overwhelmed right now.”

“He should be, Your Highness. This entire area smells like a kennel. I’m surprised Sera and Luc hadn’t eaten your mixling.” Sir Reid said through his clenched teeth. “What would possess you to even think this would have been a good idea?”

Sir Reid stared at me like I had the answers . Hell, I can’t even be sure keeping Greyson as a mate was a good thing. There goes that little stupid thought again. I just want to run away to my room for the night.

“Greyson, please—just stop. I’m tired, and you are as well,” I said, placing my hand on his arm. He dropped his hand from Sir Reid’s wrist. “Let’s go…I’ll walk you back to the shed. Just give me a few seconds to talk to Sir Reid, please.”

Turning back to Sir Reid, “I understand this isn’t appropriate for me as the future queen, Sir Reid. I want this to work…because I…I love him, and I think I can save him?—”

Sir Reid shook his head and sighed, “Your Highness. Love isn’t about saving someone or trying to mold them into the perfect mixling. I know you were scared shitless from the Royal Party, but that doesn’t equate to forgetting your role in your coven and as a descendant of Youna. In case I have to remind you, the Thibodeaux family is the second powerful family of the six covens.” Sir Reid paused, folding his arms across his chest. “Listen, I know nothing about love, just war and protection as my father did and his father, and so forth. And I don’t claim to have the answers to fix whatever is going on inside of you. But is this d…excuse me, your Highness shifter worth losing your family’s legacy? Is he worth giving up the Thibodeaux throne? Does he love you enough to abandon his pack? Or did he want you to leave your people to live with his?”

Closing my eyes shut to calm my nerves for a moment. I thought about the questions, and no, that was the simple truth. A truth I seem to keep forgetting because I wanted to hold on to some glimmer of hope that Youna and the goddesses would fix my gloomy reality. Was I asking for too much? I deserved a life of peace and happiness, whether the goddesses deemed it. And standing here in the night's darkness with Sir Reid made me suddenly realize how Mary Ann may have felt.

“Sir Reid, can you wait—” Cutting myself off after I opened my eyes again, but he had already slipped away into the shadows of the night.

Shit! My only thought was to chase after him and beg him not to tell my mother that he was a mixling, but Greyson wrapped his hand around my arm and begged us to go.

I bit back the curse, waiting on the tip of my tongue as I gave up, walking back to the shed.

It wasn’t until Greyson had fallen asleep, after he spent an hour apologizing, that I snuck out and found my way back to my bed where my hot, angry tears damped the pillow until I fell into a sleepless rest.