I had expected to be dead, to join my father alongside the rest of my long departed kin. But life is unfair, and so is waking up to the sound of crackling flames and the feeling of a large warm body pressed against my own thin frame. Through no thought of my own, my body stiffens. Skin tightening, my heart beating faster against my own volition.
I force my eyes to remain closed, not wanting to see what I already assume to be true. The Alpha King saved me, and then someone divested me of my clothes and placed me next to him under the heavy pile of furs weighing down upon us. A subtle creaking begins, my body rolling slightly to the side as I feel the King sit up and settle himself at the edge of the bed. I remain still, silent, waiting for him to make the first move.
"I know you are not asleep mate," he grumbles, his weight leaving the bed as he stands up. "But it would be wise for you to at least sit up. It will make it easier for you to drink the tonics Ursa and your mother brewed for you."
My eyes snapped open, my back going straight as a sword. Clenching my teeth, I force myself up into a seated position amongst the furs. I clutch them hard to my chest, setting my gaze upon the King divested of clothing except for a pair of undershorts. Even though he is an untrustworthy beast, he is a gorgeous one. Defined muscles carving though his back shoulders and arms. The gleaming tan skin, crisscrossed with a myriad of gnarled and moon white scars.
"My mother?" I question, forcing my hands not to tremble as he turns around at the sound of my raspy dry voice. "My mother is here?"
His eyes settle upon me, blue orbs gazing at me with bared surprise and a burning hunger. I don't move an inch as he prowls over and bends down to his knees by the bedside. I watch him like a cornered animal, waiting for him to strike, wondering what he shall do to me for restraining him during the mate hunt.
Instead, the King merely places his callused fingers upon my bare back. The foreign feeling of this male's touch, is both heady and horrendous. I narrow my eyes at him, biting down on my tongue to keep my temper in check, as he traces the coiled body of the snake from my shoulder to my now trembling hand.
"You are a viscous one aren't you?" he drawls, bringing up the same hand to cup my sharp cheek. "So unlike the pampered pests in the city, but still in need of taming."
The King abruptly takes ahold of my hair, gripping the tangled inky strands and using them to pull my face close to his. So close, that his breath flows across my lips with a scorching, scalding heat. I use the bite of the pain, the sheer pull extending from the roots of my hair down into my scalp, to hone my anger into strength. Into an inner fire that demands blood, his blood.
"Yes, Alpha King," I utter, staring him down with the bitter cold gaze I learned from my mother. "I am unlike the women of the Silver City that dwell in your court. But I need no taming, for what is a tame queen of use to a mighty king?"
The King releases his hold on my hair, pulling back just enough to grip on tight to my chin. He brings my head up to stare into his eyes, prisms of forget-me-not blue that have been coated in a layer of early spring frost.
"Then do only as I bid," he utters, gently trailing his hand from my chin down to my throat and wrapping his strong hot fingers around my throat. "Call me Evander, for that is my name and only you shall be allowed to use it. Obey my command, do what is expected of you as my Luna Queen, and then I won't need to tame you. Instead, I will give you anything that you want."
"Whatever I want?" I say, my voice but a whisper like a faint breeze through aged branches of a willow tree. "Would that include sparing my village from the yearly tithe? Sparing all the human villages the burden of giving away the majority of what they need to survive?"
"If that is what you want," King Evander drawls, releasing my throat and then taking a single finger to trace the scar from my mouth to the edge of cheek. "I will see it done. However, you must do something in return, to solidify this bargain and for any future demands that you ask of me."
"And what would that be, Evander?" I question, forcing down the taste of bile churning in my gut and throat. "What must I do to gain peace for my people?"
"You let me mark you here and now," King Evander rumbles, placing both his large hands upon my bare shoulders. Sending a skittering feeling of chilling pinpricks along my skin. "You will agree to be my Luna Queen, live within the bounds of the Silver City, and you will bare me an heir to my throne."
I clutch even tighter to the furs, my pulse beating faster like a war drum signaling the beginning of a viscous battle to come. I know what will happen if I go through with this willingly, or unwilling. What I will give up in return for the protection of those I have sworn to care for. But I know within my soul that this is my only chance to do what I have longed for all these years.
I do not fear this beast, I fear the isolation and longing for my home that I might not see again for a very long time. But, it will all be worth it in the end. I can sense it, knowing that a whole new door shall open up to me, and bring down this King and his kingdom.
"I accept, Evander," I finally say, twisting my neck to the side, baring my neck for where his teeth shall sink into my pale flesh. "I will be yours, I will be your Luna Queen."
King Evander rumbles with contentment, gently bringing his lips against my neck as he winds his large arms around my body. I hold back a shout as hot searing pain like a howling bonfire rips into my neck and down into my bones. Instinctively, I try to push away, fighting back the painful sobs brewing inside my breast bone. The King does not move, he only holds me tighter as his fangs remove themselves from my neck and licks the blood away from my icy skin.
I gasp and sniffle, my body shaking like a falling leaf as the pain ebbs away achingly slow. I close my eyes as he pushes me down, settling me back into my former sleeping position and placing another fur blanket over my trembling body.
"I shall send Ursa and your mother in," the King drawls, placing a gentle scorching kiss upon my brow. "They will tend to you Nyx, and when you are back to full strength we will head back to the Silver City. Where I will personally declare the tithe to be disbanded, just for you my love."
With that he pulls away, grabbing himself a cloak of sea blue and heading on outside. I breath a sigh of relief as he goes, finally letting my body relax as the tension leaves me. In that still moment of peace and silence, I make a vow to myself that will set me on the path towards my revenge. I will be his mate. I will be his Queen. But, he will never be my love. No one will. For the only being that will ever have my heart, is already dead.
My beautiful Minerva, the first of my friends to down a predator. The first to shoot a target dead center with her eyes blindfolded. The first to ever hold me, touch me, kiss my lips with all the gentleness of my truest love. The first of us to die. To die at the hands of a werewolf at just eighteen. A lifetime ago it seems, though it has only been a year. A full year since she gave her life to protect me. Sacrificing herself, at the hands of the beast who claimed her as his mate. A beast who I killed and whose body shall never be found. Not by his friends nor his family. Not even his oldest brother, who now lies wrapped around my weak little human finger.
I let a small smile spread across my face. Oh what a beautiful gift the gods have given me.
YOU ARE READING
Forest of Lies
WerewolfA thousand years past, the world was run by humankind. But it changed, when countries became embroiled in a war that gave the werewolves the opportunity, to recreate the earth in their own image. Now humans are the lowest on the food chain, little m...
