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Father looks to Mother, then to me, before he stammers, “W-what about banishment, Your Majesty?”
“Would you like to be banished?” Nathan asks coolly. “What about you, Mr. Daniels? Is that a punishment you believe you all deserve?”
None of them answer. If a feather drifted through the air and brushed up against the ceiling, we would hear it. And Nathan lets us sweat in that silence.
“I’m an outsider. It’s not a secret,” Nathan says, his piercing gray eyes fixing on my father. “But you, Thomas. You fought harder for me to assume this position than any council member. What could have changed, that you now think of me as a threat to your pack’s independence?”
I think back to the night in the ballroom, the hushed conversations and whispers that Nathan had come to take the Toronto pack for Greater London. If Father believes that, he must have some reason.
“But would I seize my queen’s throne?” Nathan asks. “Perhaps a marriage pact between your daughter and I will convince you that I am not here to claim Toronto on behalf of my former pack.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ashton bursts out, and Nathan is so shocked, Ashton is able to get in, “I lose my assets, my parents are banished, and Thomas Dixon becomes a member of the royal family?”
Guards move in, but Nathan raises his hand to stop them.
“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” Nathan reminds him. “But I’ll forgive your disrespect this time. You’re emotional. Criminals often are when they face the consequences of their actions.”
What about the consequences my sisters are facing? I want to rage. When they weren’t the ones who did anything wrong?
And why am I facing the consequences of something I didn’t do? I haven’t even been back for a full month. That’s certainly not long enough to have been able to plot anything. I was entirely focused on not getting married to Ashton.
Well, I’ve certainly found my way out of that one.
Ashton hasn’t grasped that, it seems. “You can’t just take my mate.”
“She isn’t your mate,” Nathan says calmly. “And she’ll be mine at Lupercalia.”
I hate the way my stupid, horny mind immediately flashes to the images I’ve fantasized about ever since the last time I saw Nathan; scenes of being chained up in the ceremonial chamber, Nathan’s clawed hands holding my wrists, pinning me between the rough wooden post and his straining muscles.
This man just obliterated my life. I should be sick at the thought of being his mate. But that awful desire, the force I don’t understand, has a stronger hold on me than my morality. And it frightens me.
Nathan turns and walks back up the dais. “The guards will see you out.”
“We…can go home?” Mother asks, blinking in astonishment.
“No.” Nathan sits on the throne. “You don’t have homes anymore. They belong to the pack now. The council will decide what happens to them, but in the meantime, they’re under guard while your belongings are searched and confiscated.”
“Where are we supposed to go?” Father asks pathetically.
Nathan shrugs. “Quebec? I hear your son-in-law has family there.”
All of our possessions are being confiscated. We don’t have a place to sleep? I stand slowly and the room sways. My tennis shoes under my bed. My phone in my purse on my nightstand. The fucking nightstand. Everything is gone, in the blink of an eye, and if no one will take us in tonight, we’ll suffer through the cold, alone.
“Come on, Bailey,” Mother says gently. She’s rarely maternal toward me, so I assume I must look as disoriented as I feel.
“No,” Nathan says, the word echoing like a gavel. “I will take possession of Bailey immediately, while we await our mating ceremony.”
Take possession of me? The arrogant, misogynistic bastard. All of his bullshit about me making a choice, about how I’d be a good queen for him… all of this was going to happen, anyway. He knew all along.
He knew the night we almost…
I want to throw up. Had that been what the call was about? The one that interrupted the hottest night of my life? He’d been waiting for a call that would lead to the destruction of my entire family, and he’d gone right ahead and felt me up, anyway.
He would have gone farther, if not for that phone call.
Two guards approach me. I expect Nathan to stop them, but he just says, “Escort her to her rooms, please.”
This can’t be happening. I wonder what the guards will do if I try to run, but I should probably worry more about what I would do if I ran. Because there’s nowhere I can go. Ashton’s already made that clear.
We leave the throne room the way I entered, and they take me to the stairs I’ve walked up twice before. In the long pink entry hall of the private residence, the door to the sitting room is open. My stomach roils at the glimpse I get of the interior before the guards open a side door and lead me into a part of the house I’ve never seen.
