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“He’s taken too much from us already,” Griffin growled. His eyes flashed clay-red again, and my wolf raised her hackles at the sudden and unexpected show of dominance. I’d never seen his wolf this close to the surface, not outside of a planned moon-shift. “I’m going to destroy him. The challenge is just the beginning.”
“He hasn’t taken anything from us,” Not yet, at least. “All he’s done is force me to participate in this stupid competition. And I thought we both agreed I’d handle this so we could start our lives.”
“You don’t understand,” Griffin said, low. “Frasia doesn’t belong to him—it belongs to your pack. To your father. To Daybreak. And when we marry, it will belong to me.”
He bared his teeth in an instinctive show of aggression, like the thought of the challenge filled him with a violent desire he couldn’t suppress.
This wasn’t the man I knew. This wasn’t the plan we’d made.
Then it all began to click into place.
“You didn’t come here to try to ‘rescue’ me,” I said slowly. “I’m just an excuse to challenge for the throne.”
“Of course I want you to be mine,” he said, “but our lives are secondary to the throne.”
“Secondary?” I gaped at him. “We were supposed to have our own lives, away from the court!”
He stepped closer to the bars and tipped his head to the side. “You had to have known that was a fantasy,” he said condescendingly.
“We had a plan,” I said. Shock pinned me to the spot. “I trusted you.”
“You can’t have wanted that to happen to your pack,” he said. “To your family. To lose the King’s Choice? After losing the throne by force? It would’ve brought so much shame. You really thought we could go through with that plan?”
“I thought you didn’t care about any of that!” I whisper-shouted. My world was crumbling around me. “I thought you cared about me!”
“I do care about you,” Griffin said. “Reyna, I do.”
I found it was becoming harder and harder to believe him. I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling cold and small in the dungeon.
“See it how you wish,” Griffin continued, “but your father needed a reason for me to come challenge for the throne. Your presence here was the perfect reasoning. And now, the king will die, and the Kingdom of Frasia will be returned rightfully to Daybreak.”
“Has this been the plan all along?” I asked quietly.
Griffin sighed. “Reyna, you can’t really believe I was satisfied with what we had, can you?”
I did. I thought he was. I was satisfied—why wasn’t he?
“Did you think I was happy waiting for you? We had no timeline for marriage. You wouldn’t even kiss me. I’m a wolf, Reyna, I have needs. I can’t be told to wait.” Again, his eyes flashed as he looked at me, hunger and desire evident in his gaze. My wolf cowered, pulling away from him. “A wolf isn’t supposed to run from a fight,” he continued. “I won’t run from Daybreak to follow your flights of fancy. I’m meant to be a leader. An alpha. When I kill the king, I’ll take what I’ve always been owed.”
Under his burning gaze, I wasn’t sure if he meant the crown—or me. Nausea turned my stomach. This wasn’t the man I’d loved. Was this who Griffin truly was? Had everything we’d had together been a lie?
“You never loved me,” I said. “You just wanted a way into the court.”
“I do love you,” he said. “But you can’t run from who you are. You are a Lady of the Court, and now you will be queen.”
I’d never seen Griffin like this, bloodthirsty and single-minded. “I won’t be a part of this,” I said. “I won’t help you destroy kingdoms for your own greed. Too many people will suffer.”
“And you think they don’t suffer under the Bloody King’s rule? Frasia belongs to Daybreak. Only under Daybreak can she prosper.”
“You don’t care about the citizens. You only care about the power.”
Griffin rolled his eyes. “I won’t argue anymore with you, Reyna,” he snapped. “There’s no stopping fate. It’s time for you to stop running from it.”
“Fate?” I asked. “None of this is fated!”
“The daughter of the Stars will marry the Bloodied King to bring back the Shining Ones,” he recited, then raised his eyebrows at me.
“Where did you hear that?” I stumbled back.
