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“Don’t.”
“I do as I please. In this realm, I wear the crown, and I make the rules,” he spat, his knowing smirk terrifying.
“Let me go. I won’t tell anyone what happened between us. I promise,” I pleaded. I needed to know if there was any way to reason with him, although by the devious glee in his expression, I was quickly realizing that there would be no convincing him to release me.
“You could scream bloody murder and no one in the kingdom would lift a finger to help you. They wouldn’t go against my orders for fear of losing their heads.”
The gravity of his statement was not lost on me.
With a swift, measured snap of his wrist, he cut through my panties, first one side and then the other. His cold fingers brushed against my flesh, and I tried to quiet my frightened whimper and send my mind somewhere else before his fingertips made contact, but it was so much harder to do than I imagined it would be.
I don’t want this.
When his hand dipped between my thighs, I screamed.
All of a sudden, a massive white blur crashed through the window. The crisscrossed metal pane was no match against it as pieces of glass flew every which way. The fuzzy shape moved so quickly that my vision couldn’t keep up with it, at least until it paused long enough for me to make out what it was. When the bright blue eyes of the enormous snow wolf met mine, I stilled. The wolf turned its head, gazing back at Valtimir with a fierce snarl. It bared its teeth, and Valtimir scooted back and squealed like a frightened child.
The wolf took a step towards him, and he made a strangled crying noise that sounded like a squawking bird on its deathbed.
A fierce, deadly growl echoed through the room, and Valtimir scrambled off the bed. The wolf followed and the steward froze, resulting in a tense stand-off between the two. Neither one moved for a long moment as my heart pounded frantically in my chest.
A deafening crash echoed into the bedchamber as the door slammed open and Nykor swept inside, fragments of wood scattering all over the floor. His expression was aggravated at first, and it turned to rage when he saw my current state, naked and cuffed to the bed. He stared at me for a long time, like he needed a moment to decide his next move, and then he turned to Valtimir.
His expression had changed from raw fury to deadly.
CHAPTER12
Nykor
Valtimir deserved to die.
I seethed, seeing red. I didn’t need to ask what his intentions were with Ella. By the looks of things, they were perfectly clear. His dark violet eyes stared back at me in challenge. It was always like this between us.
He’d never liked it when I came to the Glacierhold, because that meant he needed to obey the only person in the kingdom above him.
Me.
Therightfulking.
Even now, the twisted bastard was wearing my crown as if it was his own. My face furrowed with fury at him. I was so focused on him that I didn’t notice the snow wolf in the room until it threw its head back and let out a rattling howl that broke me out of my vengeful trance. With a knowing look, the creature gracefully leapt right out of the broken window without a sound.
Ella whimpered and I turned away from Valtimir for a moment to tend to her. Her fingers had gone white, the spelled cuffs cutting off her circulation. She didn’t know not to struggle within them. Once the magic was activated by movement, they would keep tightening until her bones shattered. They were dangerously close to that. Her ankles were in better shape than her wrists, which told me that she hadn’t kicked as much as she’d tried to fight with her hands.
I thanked the gods that I’d arrived in time before she was truly hurt.
I reached out and touched the chain, and the magic within the warm steel gave way to mine. She cried out as the cuffs loosened and the blood surged back into her fingers. I grabbed her hands, massaging them back to life as her face crumpled.
She didn’t deserve this. No one deserved this.
The floor creaked behind me, and I stilled. The heavy breath of the steward met my ears, and I whirled around to my feet. I curled my fingers and let loose, cracking the bastard in the side of the face so hard that I felt the bones of his skull give way beneath my fist. He fell to the ground with a hard crash. I watched as he pressed his hand over his nose, wailing with much deserved pain. I had broken it, but it was nothing a healer couldn’t fix.
“I brought her to you for protection, Steward, not this,” I snapped.
The castle guards funneled in through the broken door, stopping short when they saw the three of us. Wanting to preserve Ella’s dignity, I grabbed a blanket and quickly threw it over her naked body. I wrapped her up and lifted her into my arms, cradling her against me. Her hands clasped behind my neck as she trembled. My heart cracked when I heard the sound of her sniffling against me. She was crying. I hated that.
“Get him out of my sight!” I roared.
I may have given up the crown long ago, but the men of this realm knew to obey me. They rushed forward, several of them grabbing at Valtimir’s arms and dragging him out of the room.
