The Unwilling Queen

I belong to no one

The pub was busy even though it was early for sapiens to be eating dinner. Too many people with too little to do but drink. Though he didn't recognise everyone, his dress and general air authority made it clear he was of importance in Corinth. Roedin nodded at a few acquaintances. If they thought his company unusual they didn't let on. Most Corinthians knew of Avery and her membership in the alpha pack. But he noticed the males in particular gave their table a wide berth. As if they could smell the territorial claim Roedin was emitting.

"I'm sorry we couldn't go someplace nicer," Roedin said again. "It would mean going home to change and ..."

"More questions than we're ready to answer."

He forced a laugh. "Yeah."

Food arrived.

Avery picked up her knife and fork but hesitated above the plate. "So the food thing."

It wasn't a question, it wasn't a conclusion. It was an opening. She was unsure.

"It's a tradition. A symbol. There's no magic spell that is cast on the first bite. Sometimes couples will have a huge ceremony where they exchange food in front of their packs. But it's usually just for show. I don't know of many true mating bonds that could wait that long."

Avery cut into the steak and took a bite. "True mating bonds?" she asked after swallowing.

"There are mates and there are bonded mates. The magical connection isn't always present between two people, but that doesn't mean they can't fall in love or choose to mate."

She stopped chewing and flushed, then swallowed her food and washed it down with another gulp of beer. "How do you know the difference?"

The food turned to ash in Roedin's mouth. Why was she asking this? Did she not feel the bond? Had she changed her mind? He thought back to that night on the balcony. I know exactly what it means. But did she? She knew what the textbooks said; she knew fairytales and romance novels and tragedies dramatized on the stage. Did he know what it meant?

"Can you have more than one?" she followed up. She was in love with someone else. That's what had happened this winter. On the preserve. "Niamh lost Tao. So is she...doomed?"

"I don't know the will of the Ancestors," Roedin confessed. "There are no rules."

"No rules..." Avery took another bite. "What if it doesn't work? Can't work?"

Can't? Won't? She was making a plan, how to escape. She left once and then he dragged her back from the Delta without even asking her first. She had kissed him but that was Razel's spell, not real. Was it the species thing? She wanted to live with humans.

Roedin forced himself to keep chewing.

"What if Adelyn was bonded with Tobias but Tobias is in love with Robert? I mean, I know that she's not -- well I guess I don't know but she hasn't said as much -- but, what if?"

A concrete example. He could work with that. "Adelyn would want to do anything to make her bond-mate happy, so she would let him go. The bond would remain unfulfilled but he would still hold a special place in her heart. She would be drawn to protect him and want to be around him. There would still be some level of unspoken connection. If she couldn't control herself, then she might need to... go."

Avery's eyes snapped up to his face. "Be put down?" she asked in horror.

"No! Well, maybe. If Tobias rejected her then his pack would defend him and the fight would be... vicious. They would put Adelyn down -- well maybe not Adelyn because she's an alpha prime and extremely powerful -- but Tobias' pack would shield him from her advances so she would be better to leave if she thought she couldn't control herself."