AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There is a letter among my personal effects that reveals the secrets I kept, should I meet a mysterious end.” She lied without compunction.
The result was an arched brow from the prince and a light touch on her elbow. “Our kind can scent an untruth,” said the duke, who sounded regretful.
“Well played, nonetheless,” said His Highness. “Secrets weigh equally heavily on the keeper. I will relieve you of your burden and elevate you at the same time, dear Beatrice, if I may.”
“No. You may not.” She would run, to America, to the Antipodes—
“Were you to flee you would not get far. My influence would precede you to the very ends of the earth.” Beatrice met his gaze, as she was not meant to, as would be treasonous under any other circumstance that did not involve the knowledge she kept close. He looked vaguely apologetic as he continued. “Do you tell your tale, I will have your mental capacity questioned. I will see your fortune disappear in the snap of a finger. In addition, your family will fail to benefit from your candor. Is your youngest sister not about to make her debut? I will ensure she has the most disastrous of Seasons, at the hands of—”
“Monster.” Beatrice set her shoulders. “Beast.”
“Odin’s breath, ma’am,” the duke gasped.
“My formidable enemy.” George smiled; Beatrice questioned his mental capacity, but even she would not say so, given the state of his father’s. “My soon-to-be cousin by marriage.”
***
Georgie could not mean that he and she… Arthur looked at the little female, who did not appear to have been caught by surprise. “Pardon me?”
“It is time your hibernation came to an end, cousin,” Georgie said.
“I do not wish to marry, and I will not marry, and I will never marry.” Arthur’s boyhood vow sounded appropriately childish, and he did not care.
“I hope you do not intend to insult the lady,” Georgie said. “Humans are quite the rage these days.”
“Homo plenusorversipellis, I will not.”
“I say you will.” The air bristled again, a ripple, a threat. “I say you will throw off your naive rancor and take your place. Your clan awaits and must have its Alpha.”
Thundering Thor, how could he use these words before her?
“Family is so important, is it not, ma’am?” George purred. “Arthur, only see how far the marchioness would go to protect them, and she only human.” He would challenge Georgie on the spot did it not mean the utter destruction of the entire nation. “Such sentiment accorded to family ties is far more powerful amongst those of our kind, dear Beatrice. We, who must live two lives at once, require a strong bond with our kin or else we would weaken and die. Much the way Arthur’s father weakened and—”
“Do not!” Arthur let his claws drop and snarled full force at the prince, uncaring if the lady fainted, uncaring if a brawl broke out between himself and his Regent. He need not worry as to the former: the marchioness looked at him with as little dismay as if he had sneezed.
“As I say. So important, the ties that bind. How swiftly you rush to defend your father’s name.” George cocked his head. “I wonder does such protection extend to a brother and the brother’s wife and children?”
Dare he threaten Ben and Charlotte and the cubs? Her ladyship’s epithets came to mind.Monster. Beast.“Leave them out of this,” Arthur demanded, his bear looming in his aura.
“The family of an Alpha who will not take his rightful place and who have no true home of their own may find they are required, for their own good, to reside at Court,” George continued, undaunted. “This would be a pity if the male and the female are a love match, as mates are not in one another’s pockets under the royal roof. Such devotion is suited only to the lower orders. Thus, the husband will be separated from the wife, the wife made a lady of the Court, and we know how the royal dukes adore them.”
“You. Will. Not.” Arthur was that close to Changing; a light touch to his elbow checked him, and he was taken aback at the lady’s daring and her perception.
“Won’t I? And that is, of course, to say nothing of the children. A whelp of three, I believe?” George assumed a look of forlorn concern. “Court is no place for the young and needs must they be put into the care of nursemaids and governesses and tutors, perhaps out in the countryside or even as far away as the Hebrides.”
“You will not separate a mother from her children,” said the lady. Sweet Freya, this female had no sense of self-preservation. She stepped forward, which only resulted in making her even smaller before George, and yet her hands were in fists and the rage pouring off her was—
Breathtaking, swooned his bear.
“And how shall you stop me, ma’am?” With that, George called forth hisdominatum.
***
The threat Beatrice had sensed, the terrifying quiver in the atmosphere, finally erupted and was nothing to what she’d experienced in her marriage. When the marquess raged and howled and by some class of dark art made the air unbreathable; when she felt her bones were on the verge of crumbling into dust, the stronger she stood and the calmer she remained, the less it affected her. Year after year, rage after rage, she strengthened and he weakened and she became invincible.
Or so she thought. The Prince of Wales had finer control of his ferocity and a greater ability to wield it. Beatrice’s muscles trembled; her hands shook, and she swayed on her feet. The enormous duke put her behind him, and his shouts for the prince to desist sounded like he was underwater. The prince remained unmoved, and she forgot herself so far as to clutch at the coat of the man before her.
The duke fought back in the same fashion if not to similar effect: a wave of power radiated from him, but it was no match for His Highness’s. If Beatrice had learned anything in life, it was how to choose a battle; she moved back to the duke’s side, and grabbing his hand, finding strength there, she struggled through the life-sapping force and assumed her exaggerated curtsy once more.
