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“Let’s go,” Yalinda confirms and follows her sister out of the damp prison cell, leaving me alone with Garren, who I thought was my Omega, but turned out to be not only my future king but also my fated mate.
When I can’t hear the sounds of witches’ footsteps, I turn to Garren. His head is tipped forward, his chin resting on his chest. His black hair is messily thrown over his forehead, and his chiseled jaw is covered with specks of dirt.
“Garren,” I whisper, not daring to talk too loudly for fear that the witches would return.
Garren doesn’t react in any way. There’s no sign that he heard me or that he’s close to waking up. With my wolf retreating deep into us to try to find a path to access our abilities, I’m all alone. I’m aware that without my power, there’s not much we can do, but at least I’ll have him by my side.
“Garren,” I call his name again, not bothering to hide the pleading in my tone. “Please wake up.”
It doesn’t happen immediately just because I begged him to do it; after the longest and loneliest minute of my life, Garren finally stirs and groans. His head sways left and right, his chin rubbing against his chest as he’s trying to gather the strength to lift it.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” I whisper reassuringly after he groans, sounding pained. “They’re gone for now.”
“What happened?” Garren asks, forcing his words out through gritted teeth.
“They’ve got the information they needed,” I reply, not wanting to overwhelm him too soon. “They’re making plans to transport us again.”
“Fuck,” he groans, the sound guttural and raw. “They know, don’t they?”
“Know what?” I ask, wanting to hear it from him.
“They know who I am,” he replies without missing a beat. While he managed to lift his head, his eyes are still half-closed, and his jaw is clenched whenever he’s not speaking.
“Yes,” I confirm, carefully watching him for a reaction.
“What else did they find out?” he asks, not bothering to address the massive elephant in the room. “Did they get any names? Locations? Plans?”
“I don’t think so,” I reply, although I can’t be sure what else Linda saw and decided not to reveal in front of me. “After they figured out your lineage, they couldn’t wait to organize our transport to Hekate.”
“Not ideal, but there’s still hope then,” Garren says, sounding surprisingly optimistic for someone who’s tied up to the chair with unbreakable ropes, had his mind invaded twice, and proved to be quite possibly the most valuable wolf that the witches have ever gotten their hands on.
“Why didn’t you tell me who you are?” I ask, unable to hold it back any longer. “Why didn’t you tell me that you’re Prince Garren Grey?”
“What difference does it make?” he muses, giving me an insufferable little smirk that I’d normally love to wipe off his face, but right now I’m just glad that he’s awake.
“For one, I wouldn’t risk Blaine giving you so many beatings,” I say, but Garren shakes his head and chuckles.
“I think that would have proven counterproductive,” he replies. “I’d still be the same self-absorbed asshole I was when I first joined the pack.”
“Blaine could’ve gotten in trouble for laying his hand on a royal,” I insist, wanting him to see just how dangerous his secret was to all of us.
“Quite the opposite,” Garren disagrees. “My father would reward him for beating me into shape.”
“I don’t believe that,” I argue, knowing that the royals have severely punished the commoners for much lesser crimes than that. “I doubt that King Grey approves of his son getting disciplined by the lower-class.”
“That’s where you’re mistaken,” Garren tells me. “You’re not lower-class. When he shipped me off to the military camp, he temporarily stripped me of my rank. My father made sure that I’d start on rock bottom as a lowly Omega, a servant to the commoners. What might’ve started as a punishment, turned out to be the best thing that happened to me.”
I tilt my head to the side, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“I’ve abused drugs and alcohol for so long that I’ve tainted the bond between me and my wolf,” he explains. “Until you handed me over to Blaine, I had completely forgotten what it feels like to be one. I deserved every punch I received. I even deserved to be on the toilet duty for three weeks in a row. There’s nothing more humbling than cleaning other people’s shit.”
Despite myself, I chuckle at his words. While I haven’t spent much time with him, I did follow his progress and read Blaine’s daily reports on Garren’s training. Since he was the newest and only Omega of the pack, I made it my priority to stay on his case as much as I could without giving him any special treatment.
“The witch’s words might come as a surprise at first, but the more I think about it, the more sense they make,” Garren continues, locking his eyes on mine. As the pain leaves him, his jaw relaxes, and his face softens. “You might’ve been born a commoner, but you’ve risen up the ranks by yourself, which is what my father was trying to get me to do. You’re an Alpha in your own right, and you have all the traits that would make for a great queen. You are everything I didn’t know I was looking for.”
My breath hitches and my heart gets stuck in my throat. He’s not only showering me with way too many compliments, but he also implied that he’d like me to be his queen. I’ve ever only wanted to be an Alpha of the most powerful pack in the kingdom. My aspirations didn’t go higher than that, but now that he’s dangling the offer in front of me, I’m not sure how to even go about considering it.
“I’ve traveled all over the world, and I’ve met a lot of people in my life,” Garren continues, talking as if it’s the last time he will get the chance to do it. “Granted, I’ve been drunk and high for most of it, but I’ve also been both of those things when I first arrived at the military camp and met you.”
