Untie my heart

I guess this is normal River

The last few days have been uh awkward, but mostly uneventful. After Becca and I had our "heart to heart" she started letting me walk freely around the castle. While I still have guards at least I am out of that room.

Becca and I still share a room, but while we do sleep snuggled together nothing sexual has happened again.

Becca, Hope, Sam and I spend a lot of time together. I won't lie, I have enjoyed the calm that comes with not fearing my dad, constantly protecting Hope and working 50 hours a week while going to high school.

Becca has been okay, still a bit touchy-feely but nothing out of hand. I am currently sitting a breakfast, trying not to vomit while I stress about a meeting the king requested after breakfast. I know what he wants to talk about, he is going to ask me to tell him what happened with the rogue queen.

The king wanted me to debrief right after I got back but Becca went to bat for me telling him I needed time. I know that Becca is dying to know what happened too so I really appreciate the extra time before I relive that experience all over again. I hate the idea of telling everyone what happened, it's embarrassing and I can't help but worry about how Becca and her wolf will react to the rogue queen wanting to make me her mate.

Becca can feel my unease and is attempting to lighten the mood with silly jokes, which I strangely appreciate. Time moves by too quickly and before I know it Becca, Sam and I head to the kings office.

Walking in the tension is thick in the air as I take a seat in front of the king's desk. The king and queen are sitting side by side as Becca sits to my right and Sam sits off to the side.

The king smiles warmly at me before he greets us, "thank you all for coming, as you know we are in a war with the rogue queen, and now that River is back hopefully he can provide some information that may be useful".

The day after my return to the castle the king and I had a heart to heart, he told me how proud he was of the job I did raising Hope and we really bonded.

The king looks to me again, a sad smile on his face, "I know this is hard for you River, take your time and try not to leave anything out", he says kindly.

I take a deep breath before I begin, "uh well, I did not really get a whole lot of inside information considering I was drugged the whole time" I chuckle nervously.

"Just start at the beginning", Becca says, placing her hand on my shoulder to comfort me.

"Uhh yeah okay" I say, "well uh when I woke up I uh, tried to escape", I explain. "Um obviously that did not work" I continue bitting my lower lip. "Uh the uh rogue queen caught me um right before I got to the door and uh basically umm told me that she knew everything about umm the uh, current status of mine and Becca's uh um situation".

Becca tensed next to me for a moment before moving her hand to my thigh and rubbing it soothingly.

"So um, after our chat she uh asked some guards to bring my back to the room and I uh panicked and tried to run away from them. Uh she um caught up with me really quick and drugged me. When I um woke up again I just waited around and uh she came in and threw food at me, telling me to get comfortable because I was going to be there a while. The um next time uh I um saw her umm well uhh..." at this point I am desperately trying to avoid telling them about my last conversation with the rogue queen.

Becca smiles sweetly at me and says, "I know this is hard, but really we need to know" she says as she smiles sadly at me.

I take in a deep breath and continue, "well... the next time I saw her was right after I woke up from a nightmare, I woke up and while Umm sitting up in bed I Umm felt her wrap her arms around me to Umm comfort me I guess?", I say unsure of how that may come across.

Becca is holding my thigh firmly but not hard enough to hurt, I can tell she is not happy that the rogue queen was in bed with me. Unfortunately the king decides to twist the knife by asking, "wait, so she was in bed with you?"

I look down at the ground and close my eyes before confirming, "uh yeah she must have been laying next to me because I did not hear her walk in or anything, I just sat up after my nightmare and she was behind me".

I can feel the anger rolling off of Becca but she does not say anything.

"Hmm" the king hums, "continue please River" he says.

"Yeah okay so" I continue, "um so.... basically she asked me if knew the story of her mate, which I did not so she told me about how her mate tried to turn her in to the royal pack for 20 thousand dollars. She uh, said that she did not know him long enough to tell him about herself and he betrayed her before he found out who she really was".

Taking another deep breath I continue speaking, "she told me that after he pushed her in to the royal territory that her men killed the royal guards and dragged him back to her dungeon where she basically tortured him to death" I say.

"What happened next?" the king asks.

"Well um so she told me that she wanted me to take her old mates place and that she has a friend that can remove my mark and make us true mates" I say very quickly.

I hold my breath, looking at my feet while I wait for Becca's reaction. I can feel her anger, but she seems a lot calmer about that than I expected. After a moment I turn to look at her, while her anger is showing in her eyes she seems to not be surprised. I look at her with questioning eyes and she smiles sadly at me, "we are aware that she wants to take you as her mate, it was part of the reason we rushed our rescue mission" Becca says.

"Oh" I say breathing out a sigh of relief, "that's a relief" I say, "I was really worried you would go all wolf on me", I continue while laughing nervously.

Becca smiles widely, "oh don't get me wrong babe" she says, "I am going to kill that bitch real soon" I can't help but notice the deadly serious look in her eyes but I chuckle nervously anyway.

"Well", the king says, "anything else?"

I quickly shake my head no but I can tell the king is not buying it.

"River", the king says in a deadly serious tone, "anything at all, any small detail could be helpful", he reminds me with a "don't test me" look on his face.

I bite my lip before quickly adding the one thing I never wanted to say out-loud...... "nothing else really but umm everytimeIwokeupIwasnaked", I spit out as quietly as I could. I flinch slightly waiting for Becca's response, it feels like hours before anything is said, "what a CUNT", Sam hisses, breaking the silence.

I look over to Becca and she is looking at me with pitch black eyes.

Becca's wolf speaks, with a deep, deadly and oddly sexy voice, "her death will be painful I can promise you that"..then she shoots up out of her seat and storms out of the room, leaving everyone in the office letting out the breaths we had all been holding.

I hesitate for a moment and then jump up to follow after her, ignoring the kings warning to let her cool off. I follow Becca's scent to the main doors of the castle, calling out to her right before she runs out the door.

"Wait up Becca" I say while running over to her. I wrap her in a tight hug and whisper, "it's okay, we will catch her, everything is fine okay?"

Becca looks up to me, a mixture of guilt, hurt and anger in her eyes but she says nothing. I know she feels guilty, she feels this is all her fault but it's not. If I had not tried to run I would have never been caught by the rogue queen, everything that happened is on me but I don't say that, I just look at her.

"Where are you going?" I ask sadly. She looks to her feet and says, "I just need to calm down, I am going to run off some steam" she says quietly.

I instantly start smiling, "want some company?" I ask. Becca looks up at me surprised and excited and shakes her head yes quickly. I grin and say, "lead the way my lady".

Becca and I end up running in wolf form for hours together, bonding in a way I never knew was possible. Living as a rogue I never felt the connection to other wolves, I have never run along side someone that was not trying to kill me, it was like nothing I have ever felt, a deep connection that felt almost primal, natural, it just feels right, it made me feel whole. I don't know if it because Becca is my mate or because we are wolves bonding but I know deep down that things are changing between Becca and I and honestly it feels amazing.