Rejection on the Alpha #1

13. Acceptance Is Key

(New and edited)
CHAPTER 13: Acceptance Is Key

"You know, they say women have always been too soft-hearted to rule."

The goblet in my hand sloshed for a second as I looked over to where Elias sat next to a guard of Nicolai's, a corrupted and perverse enforcer who stared at the breasts of women around him like they're his next meal. Elias raised an eyebrow at him, "And yet you would not be here without one. Funny that."

The enforcer scowled, "I did not say we didn't need them." His nose looked riddled with multiple breaks overtime. Sweat from the heated air of the room lingered where sticks of fire hanged from the walls, instead of just the chandelier candles above. I pursed my lips.

Nicolai cupped the hand I had around a steak knife with a wooden handle, I snapped my eyes to his impenetrable silver ones, he removed my fingers from the engraved hilt and held my hand in his. He'd made it impossible to pull away, that didn't stop me from trying, "Jacob, change shifts with Liam at the prison cells. Now." He instructed out loud, not through the mind-link. I watched the wretched enforcer leave on order.

Elias studied me over the rim of his goblet, the red wine graces his lips, "You two will have your first open combat sessions this evening. Celestine, have you gotten use to the weather?" He asked me, while Nicolai takes a gulp of his drink.

I looked to Elias, "No, I haven't gotten use to the snow yet." I murmured.

Nicolai stroked my hand gently, "Eat something." He urged gently, "Unless the food is not to your liking, my darling." He whispered against my temple, before his eyes glazed over elsewhere, he stepped away and left with an apology on those lips. My shoulders drooped in relief. Elias took Nicolai's old position...every time I was about to call him Martin, I found myself hating it more and more. He's Martin when he works hard to get us closer, that intimacy stunt last night cost me more so than him. And I feel as though I still didn't get everything.

"The food tastes like rotten deer, so I don't blame you." He gruffly said down to me. Robert tensed in his seat next to Reina, I almost forget they were all here next to me.

"Mind if we take a walk?" I ask of Elias.

He nods, gesturing to his company, "Can they follow?" He asked, I nodded and he walked us out, taking the lead while his company of men follow silently behind us.

Elias cupped his hands, "What plagues your mind, dear one?" He wondered, eyes roaming the halls yet he somehow sensed it.

I stopped and faced him, "I need to know if there is a creature on this planet, or even on any realm that can identify whether a false bond has been made by the gods." That was the first thing I blurted out to him.

He raised an eyebrow, "Your wolf is not electrified by Darkling's presence?" He murmured, furrowing his eyebrows .

I felt the weight of the pathetic black and gold dress I wore, a neck holder one with jewellery running down my spine, sleeveless in the fact a coldness on the outside could never touch within, "I am something more than just a wolf. No, I don't feel the sparks every mate should feel with their true bonder, that is not Nicolai for me, I don't understand it. He's uncontrollable and ferocious because normally mated couples are fully mated by now." I muttered.

"You're telling me you're still a virgin?" He asked me, hesitantly.

I blinked at him, "I'm...what kind of question is that?" I grumbled.

"You do realise, when Nicolai Darkling moves to reclaim his throne, the eldest of councils in his realm will demand proof of a claiming, which is not just a bite. It is of ancient genetics that once a mated couples meets, that couple finds themselves in a heat within just a few days of being next to one another. You have not been through a heat?" He whispered.