Chapter 120

Arik

This was why I never wanted to be king.

"We must obliterate our enemies!" the new Duke of Fallspire shouted across the table. "Make both countries think again before ever bringing their troops to our borders."

"They hadn't even considered it until the wolf shifters left their posts." The general shot a dark look at the wolf shifter contingent who were now bunched up in one corner of the room.

"Something we wouldn't have been forced to do if the king honoured the treaty," Creed shot back. "One that needs to be rewritten before even one of us leaves our packlands to meet the enemy."

"We can defend our territory just fine," a wolf shifter drawled, the humans around the table hissing in frustration. "You are pack, and due to our familial bond, we are honour bound to protect you as well, but not at the expense of our lands, our mates. A new treaty must be hammered out."

"While we wait for your elders to arrive?" one of the border lords cried. "If we are pack, then will you explain to the widows and orphaned children on my land how this tragedy came to be?"

"Will you?" Creed replied. "If your people need you, why are you here? Why are you not fighting to protect them."

"Because we must form a united front…"

I couldn't help but smile at that, because if that was the key to success, we were doomed. Every man and wolf shifter argued around the table, insisting what they needed was the most important thing, which was perhaps roused by the shade of my father. He materialised in the chair beside me.

"You need to find a way to unite them," he told me.

"Easier said than done," I muttered under my breath then leant forward, resting my arms on the table. I raked my eyes across the map, and all of the counters, bloodlessly organised as if each one didn't represent real men, real wolf shifters, who would be sent into a situation they might not survive and that? It weighed upon me like a tonne of bricks, making each breath an effort to take. "Though I'm open to suggestions right now."

"What?"

I blinked, dispelling my father's image and seeing Silas there instead. He stared at me quizzically, but I just shook my head.

"Is it dinner time yet? We're getting nowhere. Let's find Jessalyn and—"

"Your Highness." The general got to his feet then bowed. "I appreciate that we find ourselves in a thorny situation, but the issue is pressing. Reports are coming in of troops getting closer and closer to our borders."

"And I have told you to take every soldier you have to protect it," I replied.

"Including the wolf shifters?"

I caught the avaricious gleam in his eye. He was like a hunting dog with the scent of blood in his nose.

"I cannot order the members of the wolf shifter nation to do anything until the elders reach us. They are old and cannot travel for hours and hours full speed while on horseback. I have no authority over the wolf shifters until an agreement is made."

Creed shot me a thankful look, the rest of his contingent nodding slowly.

"But you're one of them by blood now, aren't you?" This was Lord Rochester, a blustery idiot and one of Fallspire's bannermen. "What's the point of being in this pack arrangement"—he waved his hand around vaguely—"if it gives you no authority?"

"That's not—" I started to say.

"Arik is my brother." The whole room turned to face Creed. "We are bound in blood to protect each other until death takes one or both of us. There is no bond deeper."

"So use this bond to command the shifters to the border, Your Highness!" another lord said in frustration.

"Here, here!"

The sounds grew louder and louder as the humans shouted their support and the wolf shifters protested, until I was forced to act.

"Enough!" I jerked myself to my feet and slammed my hands down on the table, finally getting silence. "You act as if this is something that can be argued about, but it's not. Each one of you stood by as Magnus ruined everything…" I sucked in a breath, then let it out again, somehow still able to feel his hands around my throat, squeezing. What else explained how tight my chest felt? "As did I. The situation is dire. No one is disputing that, but rather than try and berate people into action, we must work with what we have. How many soldiers do we have?"

The general rattled off a distressingly small number, his eyes staring into mine as he willed me to see it. We had no ability to defend Khean without the wolf shifters.

"Your Highness, enlistment numbers have been down for some time. Magnus made a career in the army less and less attractive by reducing the weekly pay rate and taking gold marked for the army to swell the numbers of the guards because they remained loyal to him alone."

We both knew where the money had gone. Frittered away on yet another perverse amusement, it wasn't hard to accept Magnus was not my father's son. He cared only for the privilege of his position, not the responsibilities. Not for the first time I cursed Magnus' name silently in my head. I'd killed him far too quickly for what he'd done.

"So we can change that," a lord said. "Conscript every able bodied man and lad and send them to the border."

I saw the shine in his eye, knew what he was thinking. That if we had enough men, we wouldn't need the wolf shifters, but he didn't know. None of them did. They'd grown complacent under my father's rule and disengaged under Magnus', but that was about to change.

"We aren't conscripting anyone," I snapped. "If we can't convince men to fight to save their own country, then I am not the right person to become king. What holds us up is the meeting with the elders of the wolf shifter clans. They cannot ride fast towards us, but I can." I nodded to Creed who smiled slightly. "We can. Creed is my brother in truth, and he will select a number of the wolf shifters here to represent the army's interests in the conversation."

"Will we be present at this meeting?" another lord asked with a frown. "This is a treaty that will affect all of us."

"No." I stared him and all of the others around him down. "I am to be king here, not you. You'll either have to trust I have the country's best interest at heart or depose me, just like I did Magnus. Then you can try and bargain with the shifters."

"I wouldn't anticipate that being successful," Creed growled, fur prickling over his arms as he crossed them.

"We've been at this all day and got no further," I said, feeling so very tired. I hadn't had enough sleep for days and it was starting to weigh me down, but the ache in my chest was more than that. "I need to find my mate. Jessalyn was stolen from me by the Raven, terrorised by a man I was raised to think of as my brother and only returned to us by luck, it feels. I've sat in here and listened to everyone squabble over what we should do, right when all I want to do is hold her as tight as I can and persuade myself that no one will ever try and take her from me again."

"Oh…"

That little feminine voice would've stood out in a room seething with testosterone, but her voice? It was like the song of angels, and I couldn't help but turn towards it. Jessalyn stood there with her hands on the door frame, a small frown on her face.

"I apologise for interrupting, but you said to fetch you for dinner? It's getting late and—"

"This meeting is over for today," I said, rushing towards her. I couldn't bloody stop myself, not until I had her close in reality, rather than just fantasising about it in my head. "Our contingent will ride out at daybreak to meet with the elders." I hated the look of concern on Jessalyn's face, my thumb itching to smooth the line between her brows away. "The Duke of Fallspire and two of his closest allies can join us."

Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing to become king. The blessed silence that followed was enough to convince me of it.

"You heard His Highness," Silas said, rising to his feet. "Fallspire, you'll have your choices ready in the morning?"

"Without a doubt," came James' reply.

But I didn't care, not when she stood before me, because that was what they didn't understand. I was never raised to be king, never intended to be the one responsible for a whole country. I'd narrowed my focus down to keeping my pack alive, and now it was complete…

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to kiss you right now," I told Jessalyn in a low voice. "I don't think I can hold myself back."

"Don't," was her only reply as she moved closer, craning her neck to reach my lips.

She'd never need to. I felt like a wolf hunched over my prey as my mouth smashed down on her. I was hungry like one, sucking in a breath at the first taste of her, then going back for more. I had her pressed against the wall, my hands clawing at her, needing her, needing inside her, but Roan appeared by my shoulder.

"What?" I snapped.

"Let's take this back to the guard's quarters. There's no one there to see what happens or hear the sounds our girl is likely to make."

"What sounds…? Oh!" She sighed as he kissed her neck, moving slowly as he kissed every inch of that slope, his hands going to the neck of her dress. It was the sight of him peeling the fabric back an inch that had me scooping her up and carrying her forward. "Arik, I can walk. Arik!"

"You'll never need to again," I assured her, the pathway to the guard's quarters feeling too long and too winding, but I was kicking open our door moments later, only to find a feast before us.

"Well, well, you have been busy." Silas sauntered in the door, but when he reached over to pluck a piece of fruit from the table, Jessalyn wiggled free and slapped his hand away.

"You'll ruin your appetite," she said.

"Oh no." He moved closer, pressing her against one of the chairs now set up around a table in the room. "I won't." Did she catch the moment his hands shook slightly as he reached for her? I did, as well as that reverent look. Silas seemed to eat her up with his eyes, an urge I knew well.

"None of us will." Roan winked at her as she spun around. The prick crunched on an apple before pulling her closer. "Not when you're around. Can you come and interrupt more meetings, please? I'll bring you pretty flowers and sweet scents to wear if you do. I was just about to rip out the throats of those idiots."

"Not before me." Creed pulled out the chair at the head of the table, then escorted her over to it. She inclined her head and smiled prettily, right as he tucked it under her. He didn't straighten up though, his beast bleeding through as was evident in the claws that now clutched at her arms. "I'd kill every one of them if I thought it would help us. Jessalyn…"

He breathed her scent in, eyes falling closed as his nose grazed her neck, then his fangs were bared as he fitted them to the scar on her neck.

"Oh… oh!" Her hands slapped down on the table, forcing the cutlery to rattle, her fingers clawing at the tablecloth as he sucked at the mating mark he'd left. "What is…? Ohh…" Her last sigh was almost sad when he pulled away, a look of triumph in his eyes right before he sat down beside her. "What was that?"

"A mark given during the peak of pleasure will evoke that each time it's touched," Creed replied, which was news to me. To prove his point, he reached and swiped a thumb over the mark, forcing her to shiver. "It proves our bond was forged truly, that the gods meant us to be together." She nodded in response to his words, eyes heavily lidded, but he turned to the table. "You have brought us a fine meal. We must not let the dishes grow cold."

"Dishes…?"

I saw traces of the little demon we'd found in Stormare just then. That dangerous flash of her eyes, I liked it a whole lot. Part of me had feared we'd never see it again after what she'd been through, but this morning the sweetness between her and Silas gave me hope.

This gave me more.

"I mean, we couldn't let all of this good food go to waste," I added. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving."

Roan and Silas met my gaze, their lips twitching, making clear they knew exactly what I was doing. This lightness, this room, locked away from the rest of the palace and free to tease our girl? My soul sucked that up hungrily. If I tried hard enough I could forget we were hovering on the precipice of a war that would wage for generations, causing untold death and destruction. I smiled down at my plate, shoving that aside for just this moment before helping myself to some food.

"You want to… eat?" she asked. I pretended to ignore her, my smile growing wider. "You don't want to…?"

"Don't want to what, Princess?" Silas asked, a brow arching upwards.

"I'm not sure about you idiots," Roan said, spooning great fluffy mounds of mashed potato onto his plate. "But I am starving. Who knew planning a war was harder than fighting in one."

"So afterwards, we'll…?" Jessalyn's voice trailed away, and I had to laugh. After everything we'd put her through, she still couldn't actually ask for what she wanted. For us to clear the table and spread her out upon it, the only meal we truly needed to eat.

I was prepared to do it. I'd break every dish, every plate, send cutlery falling like rain if she said it. If she just told me she wanted me. They might call me Your Highness, but she was always my princess.

And now she would become my queen.

No matter what title she wore, I would tease her, always. Because it made the colour rush to her cheeks and her eyes glitter like the finest sapphires, just as they did right now. She was glorious and beautiful, but most of all she was mine.

Ours.

That mental correction was a sour note inside my mind, and not because of what it meant. I had reconciled myself to the idea of sharing the one woman between us since we formed a pack, even looked forward to it. With my brothers by my side, I could be sure the woman we chose as mate could be cared for when I was abrupt, absent or gods, even rude. They would step in and provide everything I lacked, as I would do the same for them.

But how would the country view that?

Fallspire had already talked to me about the issue and so had the general.

"How will the people know your child and heir is legitimate?" Fallspire had said. "We've already had the problem of your own legitimacy clouding the issue of succession. The country can't deal with that again."

"The child will be mine," I had growled. "Whether born of my seed or any of my pack mates, he or she will still be mine in every way that's important."

They hadn't been convinced, but they didn't need to be. I was. I turned towards Jessalyn now, ready to tell her about everything, only to catch sight of her staring at me, at all of us with a hunger that would never be satisfied by what was on the table. It didn't matter how hard the cooks had worked, it would always taste like dust compared to her.

"We'll eat the very fine dinner you organised," I said in a much gentler tone, because I needed to learn how to smooth her feathers down after I ruffled them. "And then…" I smiled slowly because I knew something the Duke of Fallspire never would. "We will do whatever it is that little overheated brain of yours was thinking about while we were busy."

"I may have some ideas in that regard…" Roan said as my princess flushed bright red.