Crown and Shackles: The Princes Mate (Story Updated)

Unexpected Chains

It only took seconds for me to be carried out of the room, like a dog escaping a bath.

The pain had vanished—but its echo still clung to my bones. I was trembling, every nerve still lit up like it was waiting for the pain to strike again. Tears wouldn’t stop. I felt wrecked—sore, weak, and afraid to move in case it came back.

And then I heard Logan.

“What kind of twisted bastards would do something like this?” His voice was low, furious, and shaking with restraint.

“We’re slaves,” I whispered, my voice hollow, stripped of hope. “To them… we’re not even people.”

John’s jaw clenched, and for once, the calm he always wore like armor cracked. “It's disgusting,” he spat, his voice shaking with fury. “I told the Alpha this was inhumane. I told him what was happening down here!”

I looked away, the weight of it all crushing. “It wasn’t him,” I murmured, barely more than breath. “It wasn’t the Alpha.”

John froze, the realization hitting him like a blow.

A small breath returned to my lungs, and I shifted just enough to move toward Logan. My body protested, but my wolf surged forward, aching for him—for comfort, for safety.

He didn’t hesitate.

Logan pulled me into his arms like I belonged there. And even though part of me wanted to fight him, scream at him for all of this—my wolf didn’t care. She nestled into him like he was home.

“I’ll fix this,” Logan growled, his voice low and crackling with fury. “Whoever did this to you… they won’t get away with it. I don’t care who they are. I will make them pay.”

His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles went white, veins rising along his arms like cords ready to snap. His rage was a living, breathing thing—radiating off him in waves.

Then he turned to John, sharp and sudden. “Can you remove it?”

John grunted, arms folded. “I could—if I had any damn clue where they embedded it.”

The air in the room seemed to shudder from the weight of Logan’s fury. I had seen him angry before—brutal, lethal, relentless—but this was something else. This was personal.

And it scared me.

Not because I thought he’d ever hurt me—never that. But because for one terrible heartbeat, I didn’t recognize him. His eyes were wild, his breathing short, like he was two seconds from tearing the world apart just to keep me safe.

And that kind of love…it was beautiful.

But it was terrifying too.

Then—his eyes found mine.

And everything in him shifted.

That fire in his chest pulled back, just a little. For me. Only me. His gaze softened as if my presence tethered him to something human. His voice dropped, rough and aching.

“Sweetheart… can you remember where they put it?”

I tried to think. Tried to force my mind to go back to those early, fragmented memories. But it was like chasing shadows.

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I was too little. Everything’s a blur.”

His jaw ticked, frustration rippling through him again—but he swallowed it. He stepped toward me, slower this time, gentler.

“Is there anyone else who might know?”

The name hovered like smoke on my tongue. Saying it out loud felt like opening a locked door I’d spent years nailing shut.