The King's Prey (Unedited Edition)

Chapter 24 : Reflecting

Accismus • [ack-sis-mus]
Feigning disinterest in something while actually desiring it.

🖤

~+~

~ Samuel ~

I feel Anastasia's body relax the more she drifts off in my arms. My fingers intertwined in her soft strands of hair is something I will never get over. The fact that I'm even touching her—that she's allowing me to touch her—seems almost like a dream. This situation I've entangled myself in should be an illusion—it can't be real.

Her tears slow the further she falls into unconsciousness, but the front of my shirt remains slightly damp. What have you done?

I don't know, I respond honestly to my wolf, Jaxon. My second half—practically my conscience—voices his opinions whenever he sees fit. While he's more of a nuisance than any help, he's expressed several times that he doesn't know how to feel about what I've wounded myself up in.

You're a fucking idiot, Samuel, he growls in my head.

You don't get to have an opinion in this, I respond. I seal my mental barriers, disallowing him from commenting any further.

Inhaling her scent drugs my animalistic instincts into a ramble of thoughts. I shouldn't be allowed to think of her like this, I should've sent her away to prevent this from happening. But something clicked—from the moment I saw her at that stupid ball and when she tried to defy me, something just snapped.

I know that it wasn't these new feelings of lust and desire; it was much more inquisitive. She's the first human who's ever willingly challenged me. She's composed and independent, yet so broken and lost all at once. It's fucking confusing. She's fucking confusing. I'm fucking confused.

And this is messy. Yet when she asked me to stay—it was all I wanted her to do, to beg me to stay as I was closing that door—it split open another void within my soul. The more she proves that I'm not the only one feeling this, the more I struggle to resist touching her, craving her.

How do I explain this to Liam? To my pack? He'll surely smell her scent all over me. And I don't know how to tell him, but she's not normal. I tried that night when she came home from the hospital when I thought she was asleep and couldn't hear our conversation. There are so many reasons why I can't tell her my suspicions. For starters, I could be horribly wrong. I could skew up her entire situation. If I'm wrong, I'll have no choice but to send her away to one of our labor camps. My body cringes at the thought.

Technically, she's here to pay for her parents' debt. But she's also here because I could see the profound amount of disgust she felt for her family and their wrongdoings pouring out of her like a waterfall at that idiotic party. The decisions that night were solely made to uphold my title. I thought for a second I had shattered her to her core because of the amount of onslaught that was occurring—that was until she tried to punch me, and that moment proved her resilience all at once. How different she was.

Liam insisted that I should keep her as a pet since she was so prized by Mylithia—at least that's what his intentions were when he whispered it in my ear. A part of me found it amusing at first—my psychotic, Alpha side—but then our eyes locked and it made me curious and confused. Why she looked so ready to take down an entire pack of wolves is something I might never figure out.

I won't be able to keep a human in my house forever though, I know that for a fact. I had to make up a position for her so she could stay—so I could study her and understand why she hit so many of my chords. I know what I said to her, about my power as Alpha, but if this continues I will indefinitely lose everything. I would lose the trust and loyalty of my friends, my pack, and my allies. But after everything that's happened...there's no way I can be wrong.