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Damn.
He waited until a path that led directly to me cleared – Rainey wasn’t the tallest or the one packed with the most muscle – but he had other skills. Although…was immeasurable beauty a skill? I wasn’t sure.
“You’re dismissed for the time being,” Rainey said when he reached me. There was something about his gaze, something that shifted as he looked at me. My wrist throbbed, being this close to him, like it remembered what happened last time, but it wasn’t just that. It was hard for me to explain.
“Dismissed,” I said, furrowing my brow. “Is it because Embyrlyn isn’t here –”
“Embyrlyn is fine,” Rainey said. “These instructions were given to me by your father. Apparently, he doesn’t want his only child getting hurt during a training session, especially since he intends to peacock you in front of potential suitors.”
There was judgment laced in his tone, reflected in his dark eyes. That was it. Rainey wasn’t typically judgmental this way. But that had changed, thanks to her father.
“But…I want to train,” I said stupidly. “It’s part of my duties. If I’m going to inherit my pack –”
“Are you, though?” Rainey arched a brow before sliding his sunglasses back down his face so they covered his eyes.
“What –?”
Rainey glanced to his left and then to his right, almost like he wanted to make sure no one could overhear what he was about to say. He took a step forward and leaned closer. The gesture itself might have been intimate, but I wasn’t one of those girls who fell at his feet, and I never got the inclination he saw me as someone he could desire.
“We both know about your father,” he said. “Just because there hasn’t been any official announcement doesn’t mean we don’t know what’s going on and who he’s elected to marry in order to get out of the Marriage Law lottery. Haven’t you considered that this marriage isn’t just going to get him a new wife?”
I searched the reflection of his sunglasses, wishing he’d speak plainly.
“Think about it, King,” he said, dropping his voice even lower. “You were his heir when you were all he had. Now, he’s going to mate with someone else – a younger wolf who’s extremely fertile. What happens when they reproduce? What happens if he gets a boy?”
“What does that have anything to do with my birthright?” I asked, though I couldn’t keep the wobble from my words despite my best effort. “My father promised me. He can’t…he can’t take that away from me. He already announced it to my pack the second I turned fourteen. His men swore fealty to me. The surrounding packs did the same.”
“You think that won’t change if he produces a son?” Rainey asked. His face softened slightly and he took a step back. “I know what you’re capable of. I do. I know how hard you’ve been working at this because you care about your pack and you want to do right by them. But this entire thing with Rianne and your father…it’s bound to change everything. It already has.”
I looked up at him, waiting. Waiting for him to explain.
“Your father wants to pull you from training so he can marry you off to some wolf that might make a decent alliance to your pack,” Rainey said. “Much like he did with Matthyw. And honestly, it’s not a bad bargain, considering the Vrykolakas and the Light Bringers are only going to attack soon. Plus, it gets you out of the lottery.” A beat. “It also means, by marrying a wolf, you forfeit your place as heir. You can’t be both Consort to an Alphaandan Alpha.” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Adrya. But nothing can be done.”
Freya
Ibreathed in.
I breathed out.
Byron continued to hold onto my wrist. I wasn’t sure if it was because he still believed I was going to strike him or if he even realized he was doing it at all.
“Do you understand the implications of this, hmm?” he continued, leaning even closer to me.
His nearness overwhelmed me. His mouth kept drawing my eyes to it, demanding my attention. I wanted to distance myself, to pull away. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t move.
“If you, a legacy of a star human pupil, are even thought to have killed a wolf –“
“Do you honestly think I could do such a thing?” I demanded to know. I searched his eyes, hoping to find…I didn’t know, an answer, anything that might indicate what he was thinking.
“You’re a slip of a girl,” he said with a sneer, like he could never think I was anything more than a child.
“I don’t mean that,” I barked out, my face heating up. I didn’t care that he would never find me desirable. Ididn’t.“Do you think I could kill her?”
“I don’t even know you! How could you expect me to judge your character when I’ve seen very little of it?”
I flinched. I hated that I did, but I did. He wasn’t wrong, either. How could I expect him to know anything about me? All he knew was I was a human at a wolven academy, which already stacked the weight of belief against me. Being my mother’s daughter might have won me some points, but considering she was dead the same way Lucy was, it actually hurt me more than anything. And the only person I really talked to during my short stay here was murdered in my room. I could understand why the belief in me was limited, if there was any at all.
“Okay,” I said, looking at the ground. I shifted my jaw left and right, refusing to even tear up. “What now?”
