Chapter 4

4

CHARLOTTE

F rom the window seat in my bedroom, I watch the pale morning sun paint the sky with strokes of yellow and gold. There's not a cloud in sight. It's going to be a beautiful day. Except, as I hear the sound of rapid approaching footsteps, I can already tell I'm going to hate every minute of it.

Sleep eluded me last night, and I can already feel my patience fraying because of it.

My wolf is sulking, furious we left the party without speaking to him , and she's not going to make my life easy.

"Where did you disappear to?" My mother demands, striding into my bedroom, chin lifted haughtily, without so much as a knock. Standing over me, her displeasure is clear, but from the gleam in her eye, I can tell chastising me isn't the only reason she's here so early.

Sighing, I swing my legs down and leave some space on the plump cushions for her to sit. I doubt she really cares where I was. She definitely didn't miss my company.

"Small talk isn't my forte. I thought you'd be relieved to be able to focus solely on Elodie."

Any other mother would correct me, and say that no, I was equally important to her, but not mine.

She nods thoughtfully, a small smile toying with the corner of her lips. "The prince did seem quite taken with her."

Years of martial arts training, and the self-control it brings, are the only reason I don't reach out and throttle her.

Taken with her . My wolf snarls, angry at my mother and me, in equal measure. Me, for not staking my claim immediately, and my mother for daring to matchmake our mate with someone else.

Unclenching my jaw and smoothing a suitably bland expression onto my face, I smile. "And why wouldn't he be? She's delightful."

My mother regards me with suspicion, checking my tone for sarcasm. "Indeed."

She sits gracefully on the pale blue cushions, where I regularly perch for hours on end, reading and watching the forest below.

I think it's the first time she's ever joined me here. It's making me nervous. I don't want her to ruin my happy place.

"The prince has decided to stay in the palace while he's here. Which would suggest he's not leaving anytime soon." She told me that already, so I wait for the real news she came to deliver. Her red nails pick at a pull in the striped material, and she frowns. "There's already plenty of unease within the council, especially since those Walkers turned up, and started turning into wolves. We must ensure that if the council is disbanded, our position is secure. Grandma Tammy is already asking me what we're doing about it."

She speaks about the Walkers as if they're doing something wrong rather than just becoming the shifters they were always destined to be. They're of royal blood. As a member of the council, she should be showing them more respect.

"Why must we secure our position?" I ask, genuinely failing to understand what she thinks is going to happen if we don't have a seat on the council or have the ear of the prince. I hear this refrain constantly from my mother and grandmother, like they think we'll be destitute immediately if we're not sucking up to the right people. "Are we not secure enough already?"

I gesture to the luxury of our home. My grandfather, George, was on the original council, something my pretentious grandmother reminds us of regularly, with great pride. We're already wealthy. My father is still an alpha, even if my mother does treat him like he's an imbecile most of the time.

The pack will go to my brother, a sensible, if not slightly dull, man who will safeguard the resources carefully.

"Because we already slipped in standing when I was denied the chance to mate a prince. I won't let Elodie suffer the same humiliation." Her voice takes on a shrill, high pitch near the end. Something tells me this isn't all about Elodie. I know my grandmother never approved of my mother's match with my father. I have a feeling it wasn't my mother who felt humiliated but Grandma Tammy. She just told her what she should be feeling and never let her forget it.

Apparently humiliation isn't a problem for me though.

I remain silent, waiting for the part of this scheme that involves me. Because she wouldn't be here if she didn't want something.

Balling her slim, elegant hands into fists, my mother glares at me. She sees my lack of interest in society as stupidity, thinking that I don't get it. I get it, alright.

I get the false smiles and the hushed whispers, the backstabbing, and the superiority complexes. l just want nothing to do with any of it.

My wolf had agreed with me, up to now. But one sniff of a tall, dark and handsome prince, and she's changing her tune.

"Elodie will be just fine. She has a line of high calibre suitors, a mile long." Elodie is clever and beautiful with impeccable taste. The perfect alpha's wife.

Damn. Maybe the prince really was taken with her.

I swallow back the bile creeping up my throat at that thought. Maybe after I fled, he decided she was the best option.

"No! It will be the prince. And you are going to help her."

Oh no.

My mother stands, peering down her nose at me. "Elodie will go to the castle to prepare for the prince's arrival. Once he's there, they'll have lots of time to get to know each other, and he'll see what a good pair they would make."

Closing my eyes, I force back an image of them together, side by side, looking sophisticated and happy. I feel sick. I need this conversation to be over, so I can go back to pretending that man doesn't exist.

"And how am I supposed to help with that? Help her practise witty banter? Let her try out her flirting techniques on me?"

Scowling, my mother looks me up and down. I know she doesn't like what she sees, deeming me too fit and muscular to be a proper society mate. Apparently, unless you're skinny and miserable looking, you're doing something wrong.

"No. You're going to put all of those years of training to good use. Instead of moping around here, running a track around our boring territory, you're going to join the prince's guard. And while you're there, you're going to make sure no other woman can get near him. At least, until he falls in love with Elodie."

Jumping to my feet, I shake my head vigorously. "No. Absolutely no way." Scrambling for something that she'll buy, I blurt out any reason I can think of not to go. "I'll disgrace you. Say something I shouldn't, something uncouth. I have no idea how to behave in front of royalty." I rack my brain for more embarrassments I could cause, any of which my mother could consider worse than death and throw them at her. "I can't dance. What if there's a ball?"

This cannot happen. I joined the elite training program precisely so that I wouldn't have to spend my time indoors, listening to stuffy conversation, and being bored by self-important people.

"It's already done. Zane approved the temporary transfer, keen to support the prince in any way possible. This is what you wanted, Charlotte. A chance to get away from here, to prove yourself. You've trained for years to get a spot on the shifter enforcers team. I thought you'd be grateful that I pulled some strings."

My wolf is happy for once about being played by my mother, who's pretending to be surprised by my reluctance to participate in her scheming. I'm furious to know she could have gotten me a spot on Zane's team at any time but chose not to do so until it suited her.

"You always said you hated the royals. Why are you offering to help them now?"

My wolf urges me to stop asking questions. We will be close to our mate. That's all she cares about. But wait till we're forced to watch him fall for Elodie.

Let's see how happy about it she'll be then.

"Because this is business not personal." My mother tilts her head, her cold smile eerie as she waits for me to give in.

It's not going to the palace that's making me revolt. Every cell in my body is rebelling about the idea of offering up my mate to another woman. My chest is tight, and I struggle to suck in a proper breath. This can't be happening.

"You can't make me go."

Is this the moon goddess's way of punishing me for refusing her match, and fleeing last night? That would be just my luck.

With a sick chuckle, my mother eases forward, her icy expression turning furious at my defiance.

"Yes, I can." Her dark eyes are flinty and cold, not a hint of maternal warmth in them, as she delivers the killer blow. "Because if you don't ensure the prince falls for your sister, I'll make sure you never get picked up for Zane's elite protection team. Granny will disinherit you and I'll find a nice, suitable match for you. Or, if you refuse, you can live here with me, forever."

Hatred burns in my veins as she threatens the one thing that keeps me sane in this godforsaken house, that's more prison than home. Getting out of here. Zane's elite team of warriors, used by other packs and councils to deal with shifter trouble was the only way I could do it without my mother being able to meddle. Or so I thought.

Well, that or finding my mate.

But being claimed by the prince would be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. My mother would never leave me alone, constantly trying to use my position for her own benefit. It would be torture.

"How am I supposed to get them together? I'll be working." I barely recognise my own voice. I feel like I'm having an out of body experience even discussing this.

"Elodie will take care of that. You just need to ensure nobody else gets close to him." Smiling serenely at me, like she didn't just threaten to ruin my life, my mother takes my hand and gives it a soft squeeze. "Think of it this way. If one of my daughters were mated to a prince, I'd be so happy, I don't think I'd mind what the other one did with their life. They could go anywhere. Mate anyone. Work whatever job they like."

Freedom.

She's bribing me with glorious freedom. She's spent years trying to mould me into the perfect daughter, but we've never seen eye to eye. Now she sees a way to get me out from under her roof and also to set both Elodie, and herself, up for life.

All my life, I've wanted to join the elite enforcers team set up when the royal family was decimated. Travelling, fighting, helping people who need to be protected. Twenty-four hours ago, I would have cut my own arm off to get out from under my mother's suffocating influence.

Now though…? It feels inconceivable to leave while he's still here, let alone, stand by while my sister and mother try to snare him.

"You leave tonight. Bring everything you need, as you won't be back anytime soon."

Unsure what I'm going to do when I get there, I smile, and as instructed, start packing my bags.

It looks like I'm moving to the palace.