Page 16 of Microburst

“He doesn’t want his life. He joined the competition so he doesn’t have to be Alpha. He won’t stay. He doesn’t want to be my mate. I promised to help him escape and have a quiet life when this is all over. Now I understand what he wants.”

Oh,ouch. That was… Ouch.

“I’m sorry,” Benson whispered. “I know you like him.”

She gave a half shrug. “He likes me too but not my being queen. Funny, right? I wasn’t supposed to be queen, and that’s the one thing that will keep me from having a good man love me. And Thorn wants to fuck me while he’s here, but he’s meant to be Alpha, not downgraded to be my mate.

“Onyx wants me almost obsessively, and he’s the uncle of the abusive ex-boyfriend who took my virginity and all I knew before this crazy started. So, I honestly think the elders won that I’ll be broken in the end. And now my parents that I’ll be punished for being born a monster and not… Yeah. Punished for becoming queen when he didn’t want me to.”

All three of us were wiping our eyes and all I could think was the same thing again.

What the fuck, Rhys?

Sagan let out a pained chuckle. “You pretended not to care about me because you weren’t worthy of Father’s heir. What hewould do to you since I was going to be queen, right? Except you were actually the perfect reason to the world for me to step aside when they had the child they wanted.” She threw back her head and let out something between a laugh and a sob.

Benson kissed her hair and tried to comfort her, but it was clear that she didn’t want it but couldn’t risk hurting him pushing him away. I couldn’t watch that and was on my feet to stop it, annoyed I hadn’t yet, but my whole body was between shock and just… All over the fucking place.

“No, he still would have stopped it but to saveyou,” she choked out. “He actually lovedyouand wouldn’t want you with a monster. You broke my heart over bullshit because I wasn’t enough—I’m never enough for anyone. And they loved you. I hate you because of it.”

“Please don’t say that,” Benson begged, just as upset. “Don’t ever say that. I didn’t—we couldn’t—please, none of that—it’s all different now and I can—”

I reached him just in time to stop him from saying something that could have snapped her sanity completely. I yanked him off of her and snarled in his face. “She clearly doesn’t want you touching her. You know she can’t push you off.”

“I’m trying to help,” he rasped and reached for her again. “I have to comfort her and—”

“It’s not aboutyouright now, asshole,” I seethed and pushed him towards Darren who had also gotten up to intervene. “Stay away from her. Do your job or we’ll figure out how to get rid of you finally.”

Sagan snorted as she stared at the balcony floor. “He’s beloved. The whole nation loves him more than me. He’s been forgiven everything and—it’s his home more than mine. Even if we could ever tell anyone the truth… They’d still blame me.” She let out a shaky sigh. “It doesn’t matter. He can have it.”

We all froze to the point I wasn’t even breathing.

“What do you mean?” Maple finally whispered.

Sagan looked out at the night that was growing lighter, dawn probably not even a few hours off. She pushed to stand. “I wasn’t supposed to be queen. Time to find out who just Sagan is.”

Fear raced through me as blood rushed to my ears just like when Rhys had died and people said that I should become regent until Sagan was older and mated. But this time it wouldn’t be regent or whatever.

It would beking.

It would be real.

I would have to be in charge for real.

I almost puked again in horror as she turned towards me looking determined… Until I saw the dead look in her eyes like she’d lost everything.

Then I was angry.

Angry at my brother. At Amelia. At Thovudin. At the wholeworldfor breaking this wonderful girl who had been such a blessing to all of us. To this sweet little poppet who used to tell me about studying in other countries and promised to take me there and would make sure I wasn’t scared to travel because she’d done it so young and she wasn’t scaredanymore.

No. No, I can’t let this happen.

I grabbed her arms before she opened her mouth and shook her. “Fuck them. Fuck Rhys. You werebornto be queen. Thegodsdecided you were the person and gave you life, Sagan.” I chuffed when she opened her mouth. “Rhys is dead and was weak to have lost his mind—I don’t know, but he’sgone.

“He doesn’t get a vote anymore. He stopped getting a vote the moment he could call his own daughter a monster. He stopped being someone we fucking listen to when he started thinking crazy shit, okay?” I shook my head when she tried to argue. “I won’t do it. I won’t takeyourposition. I can’t. I can’t take your birthright from you.”

“I won’t either,” Maple said firmly. “None of us will. Not because of this crazy. We’ll tell them and—no. It’s insane.”

Darren snorted. “No one sane would want to come in after you and the amazing job you’re doing. They’d have to be an idiot, and everything would collapse around them. That’s what would happen and fast.”