Chapter 57

"Mother of the gods…"

I watched Fern turn pale and for good reason. Was this the way the mating games always went? I'd seen less savagery take place at my father's tourneys. The prone bodies of shifters littered the grounds, tossed there by a transformed Creed.

The mild-mannered, soft-eyed healer of before was gone, replaced by the same beast that tore my captors apart. No, more than that. The rest of the pack seemed helpless to do anything other than just run interference as Creed waged war with the remaining contenders. While he was doing that, the crowds went insane, jumping to their feet and roaring their approval.

Right up until the end of the melee.

Creed had won. He'd won me, a feeling that made me feel hot and cold by turns. I didn't want to be anyone's prize, but there was something to be said for a male that would destroy the world to get to you. I shook my head, trying to dislodge that traitorous thought, but it stayed there as his chest heaved, as he towered over the others, staring Arik down with a fury I knew well.

"You hurt her!" The crowd's din seemed to fall away as his shout reverberated out. "You were going to take her to the king! You were going to let them kill her!"

He shouldn't say those words, steal them from my throat, from my heart. He shouldn't stab a claw in Arik's direction, the threat clear, but there was trouble brewing. The shifters that had acted as umpires for the entire event rushed the field en masse, obviously determined to stop whatever this was.

"My brother's turning feral," Fern snapped, shooting me an apologetic look. "I've got to go."

And with that, she ran off down the hill, towards the danger, not away from it.

Feral.

The state was spoken about with titillated whispers around the fireside back home, the feared beast men losing all control and turning into ferocious killing machines. The savagery of those affected made the berserkers of the frozen north look like toddling children. Those that succumbed were either kept chained up and unleashed only on a battlefield, where even then they were a double-edged sword. They were just as likely to turn on their masters as they were the enemy. Or…

My feet moved without thinking, taking one unsteady step, then another, getting faster and faster as Creed's litany continued.

"You made her run from us. You're the one that knocked her fucking unconscious. You had her tied up in chains."

"Brother—"

"Not brother!" I stopped still as Creed's jaws snapped the air in front of Arik's face. "No brother of mine would let this happen. No…"

Had I ever seen a beast cry? I'd heard the yelps of beaten dogs, the squalls of swatted cats, but not one of them had shed a tear. It seemed a human conceit, so it was odd to see one pearly tear form in the eye socket of the beast man.

"All of those girls. Princess after princess—"

"I know, brother." Arik's voice broke for the first time since I'd heard his insolent tones. "I know. When I sleep, when I close my eyes for just a second, I see them too. I thought I was doing the right thing then, and now—"

Arik didn't get to finish his speech. He was taking too long, or whatever devil spurred Creed on had reached his limit. Those massive jaws lunged forward, ready to make a very permanent, fatal mistake when my mouth opened.

"Master Creed." I'd always been stunned at my mother's ability to get people's attention, or even better silence them, so it came as a surprise when I achieved the same effect with my crisp tones. I used his title instinctually, trying to stuff the monster back into the man. I strode forward much more purposefully now. "You've won the day." I swallowed hard. "You've won me."

Fern shot me a frantic look, no doubt trying to warn me of the danger I was putting myself in, but she'd rushed towards it, so why not me? Especially as I had succeeded in stopping Creed from eating Arik's arrogant head.

"Did you want to argue with your pack brothers or claim what you see as yours?"

I thought I knew the danger I was putting myself in. My nanny used to tell me story after story of beautiful princesses who married beasts, no doubt some fanciful analogy for the actual animals in human skin we'd be forced to marry, so I assumed I knew what to do. Beauty soothes the savage beast, so I stepped forward, hand upraised.

Only for him to swoop forward and grab me.

I let out a very unladylike squeak as I was thrown up in the air before landing on his shoulders. My nails dug deep into the muscle, trying to gain purchase, lest I drop to the ground. A massive claw grabbed me, helping me to gain purchase, right as he rumbled, "Hold on." My hands wrapped tight around his throat, no doubt compressing his airway, but I couldn't seem to let myself loosen up. For good reason, it appeared. He turned to the rest of his pack, the elders, everyone and made clear his intent.

"I won Jessalyn. I did, and I will be the one to claim my prize."

Without even so much as a by your leave, he wheeled around then, taking us running off into the bushes, then the forest proper. Away from the crowd, the games, the village, everything.

As a princess, I had been trained to deal with many a difficult situation, but my education was quite lacking when it came to riding on the back of a rampaging beast man.

My hands clung tight. Wind was rushing at my face, and so were the branches of the trees we crashed through. I was forced to flatten myself against Creed's back, lest I get knocked off, something he seemed to realise relatively quickly. His pace slowed, and he grew more careful about his progress. I could almost enjoy the ride as he took me far, far away from the arena. That allowed me to take a full shuddering breath before we reached our destination. Instead of a chaotic battlefield, I noted that the trees had thinned, revealing a rocky rise and a waterfall.

It was quiet here. The songs of birds in the trees and the trickle of the water greeted me as I slid to the ground. The only real noise interfering with that was Creed's breath and mine. My heart rate picked up as he turned towards me. The last time I saw his beast-man form, I'd been swaying on the end of the rope, so I'd missed a lot of the details. The way his fur covered his body. The way his face had become misshapen, part man, part wolf. The way his yellow-green eyes stared, taking every piece of me in. At first, it'd been a relief to escape the crowd, people's expectations and the pomp and ceremony of the mating games, but now…

"Master Creed…" I held up a hand as he took a step towards me, then another. A million horrific stories about the beast men of Khean filled my head right then. "Master Creed, I know you defeated all the other packs—"

"For you." He shook his head, the fur receding so fast it was as if it never existed in the first place. "For you, Jessalyn."

"I think I prefer to be called Jess."

Where the hell had that prim little reply come from? The man stood before me, not the beast, but Creed had still not returned to the same person I met back in the stews at the docks. There was a sureness to his step as he came closer, a deadly intent in his eyes. He snorted in response, smiling slightly, which would've been reassuring if I hadn't seen the flash of his fangs.

"Jess, then."

He might not be a beast, but he was as naked as the day he was born. The dappled light that filtered past the trees seemed to caress every inch of his still much larger, masculine body. My eyes moved down of their own accord, taking in the scratches and beads of blood, cataloguing the wounds he had taken to get him here, but that wasn't all. They slid further down, then widened, right before I jerked them away from the evidence of how Creed responded to me. He noted that with a widening smile, but it didn't last long.

"I never would've allowed them to take you to the capital." A dreadful earnestness in his eyes loosened something in my chest. "The king was never going to lay a single fucking finger on you. I'd break that, his fucking neck, this whole fucking country if that's what it took to keep you safe."

"Do you know how much I needed to hear someone say that?" My lips twisted into the semblance of a smile, but I felt no joy in it. "When my father delivered the news, when my mother told me what she intended…" I shook my head sharply, as if that would dislodge his words. "I would have given anything for someone to step forward and tell me exactly that with all of that confidence."

My feet couldn't stop moving, taking me in a circle around the clearing we now stood in, his doing the same. It was as if we were performing a dance, but it wasn't a pleasant one. Each step brought the pain surging up.

"I needed a champion so very badly."

"And I am that, Jess." He cut across the circle, ready to rush by my side, but my jerk backwards stopped him. "I will always look after you."

"But you didn't." I stopped then because there was no outpacing this. "You didn't, Creed. You didn't reassure a frightened girl. You didn't tell her what she so desperately needed to hear."

"If I told you anything, the commander would have gotten wind of it, and…"

"And what, Creed?" I asked, peering into his eyes as his head dropped down. "And what? What stopped you from telling me it would all be fine." I tossed my head, forcing my eyes away to look at the forest around me. "One word from you would've changed… everything. I wouldn't have considered running off into the forest."

"You were going to run away?"

When my gaze locked with his, the sensation was almost painful.

"I wouldn't have put my trust in men I had no business talking to." He winced then, walking backwards as I approached this time. "I wouldn't have been knocked unconscious. I wouldn't have been trussed up like a roast pig, ready to be carved."

"I know, Jess." His voice broke then, and it felt like my heart did as well, but I couldn't take on his burdens. I just couldn't. "I know it's my fault. If I'd said—"

"Why me and not the others?" My mind closed around this point like a steel trap. "Why bring me here and not all the other princesses? If the packlands are a safe haven for all women, why not them?"

"We didn't know what he'd do the first time," he said, his voice becoming hoarse with each word. "And the second… We thought she was from a country big enough, powerful enough the king wouldn't dare harm her. The third took matters into her own hands and tried to kill him. She was executed as a result." I flinched at that, my hand going to my throat. "The next had her head cut from her body for not being a virgin, and the fifth… We realised then what this was."

His eyes met mine, and I noted that all the yellow had faded from them, leaving a very human hazel. Sad eyes they were, tortured ones.

"The king wanted Arik to die when he sent him to the army. When training failed to end him, the prince was put with the most unruly, least-disciplined cadets, thinking we'd kill each other outright or through our own stupidity." He shook his head sharply. "But we made a name for ourselves, surviving one suicide mission, then another. The very thing designed to rid the king of his nuisance half-brother made Arik's position stronger. The court knows he's the only true born son of the king, and the whole of Khean knows the Bastard Prince. The king tried to kill his brother, and instead, he turned him into a hero."

"A hero that stood by as women died." I felt like I spoke for each one of them right now. "A hero that refused to step up and protect the weak from the brutal."

"That's how it works." Creed stared into my eyes. "Nothing King Magnus threw at Arik made a lick of difference, until this. The first time a princess died, that bastard declared a challenge. Either keep ferrying high-born girls to the palace only to watch each one be broken like a spoiled child might dolls, or…"

He sucked in a breath, right as a breeze rippled through the forest.

"Or Arik had to stop him. Kill his brother, take the throne, become the next king of Khean. It's why I couldn't say anything to you, even though every fibre of my being needed to, because I knew I couldn't rely on the commander to back my play. He will do anything to avoid sitting on the Emerald Throne, including seeing a bunch of women die."

I blinked, my cheeks flushing bright red, as if I'd just been slapped. In some ways, I had been, by a truth I didn't want to hear. The world belonged to men. I knew that before I left the palace that was my home, but now… The only way I'd ever be safe was to remove one man from the throne and place another upon it. My eyes met Creed's then as they began to narrow.

"You want me to feel safe? You'll do anything to make me feel protected? Then tell me how to do that, Master Creed. Tell me how to make Arik king."