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I cleared my throat.
“I can take it,” I insisted. “I want to.”
“You want to?” Byron arched a brow.
I didn’t look at him. Instead, I kept my eyes onBarnes. “Please. If this will give us answers, I want to do it.”
Adrya
Istood up, placing my hand directly in Matthyw’s offered one. I ignored the way his fingers curled around mine, the way my heart skipped a beat at the feel of him simply holding my hand. There was too much to concern myself with and focusing on that when I had a potential betrothal, a former best friend who had talked my father out of giving me my inheritance, and a Marriage Law looming overhead seemed more important than Matthyw touching me.
“Matthyw,” my father warned as we began to make our way out of my father’s personal banquet hall. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Matthyw ignored my father and proceeded to lead me out. The scrape of the chair against the floor was enough to cause me to pause, only so I could look to see what my father was doing, but Matthyw ushered me out before I had the opportunity to even make eye contact. The last thing I noticed from my peripheral was Taskier pouring himself more wine, and then we were out of the dining room altogether.
Matthyw didn’t speak until we left my father’s quarters completely. He didn’t release my hand until he had descended a staircase and headed outside. It had to be after eight, maybe even nine, in the evening. The darkness swallowed us whole, the air chilly as we made our way through. Soldiers from the Water Pack glanced our way; it appeared as though it was their turn for guard duty, but one look at Matthyw, and their eyes focused somewhere else, giving us a hint of privacy.
I wanted to ask what he needed to speak with me about, but I wasn’t sure where to start. Rarely were we ever alone. I fingered the necklace he gave me without thought.
“You can’t marry him,” Matthyw said, the second we were on the training grounds. It was completely empty save for the howl of the wind as it blew through the passage of space between the forest and the building. He finally released my hand, stepping forward, away from me, and began to pace against the concrete. “You know this.”
I tilted my chin down. “What would you have me do?” I asked, taking a seat on a slab of stone. As much as I wanted to agree with him, I also couldn’t completely rebel against my father, my duty. Even Matthyw knew that. I didn’t have many options.
“You would be miserable with a cunk like that,” Matthyw spat, spinning around on his heal to glare at me with those blue eyes.
“My happiness doesn’t matter,” I said, gesturing with my arm. “The only thing that matters is the pack, is what’s best for the pack. Even you know that. And if I don’t marry him, I’ll be forced to marry a human, and that would be worse.” I sneered, my eyes glaring at the ground. “My prospects withered up the second my father decided he wanted to try for a male heir.”
“Truly?” Matthyw’s word was stiff, like he couldn’t believe it.
“My father is marrying me off to get whatever he can for the pack,” I said, shifting my weight. “But he intends to try and produce a son with Chamberly and bestow the pack to him. He thinks that would benefit the pack more than giving it to me, considering there had never been a female Alpha before, and, apparently, that decision had already alienated not only other packs but those within our own pack.”
“Fuck them,” Matthyw growled. “Fuck those cunts.”
“You were my father’s heir for the longest time,” I pointed out, risking a glance at him. “Before I was born.”
“How could I forget?” he asked. “It was what he used against me, forced me to marry that bitch, and even when I went through with it, he still…” He let his voice trail off, clenching his teeth together.
“I’m sorry,” I said, suddenly realizing my father only chose me as his heir to make it a point against Matthyw. “I didn’t know.”
Matthyw said nothing in response. Instead, he resumed his pacing. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “None of it does. Not anymore. What I need to know from you is whether you want the pack. And what you’re willing to do in order to get it.”
I furrowed my brow, leaning back against the bench so I could look at him. The moon was nearly full, casting Matthyw in an ethereal glow that I couldn’t look away from. He was beautiful as well as intimidating, something that caused my heart to skip a beat and lightning bolts to shoot everywhere in my body.
“I don’t know –”
“How could you not know?” Matthyw asked. I hated his tone, like he was disgusted with my response. Like he thought I was like everyone else that he loathed, and there were many when it came to who Matthyw liked and who he didn’t. “You’re the sole child of the Fire pack’s Alpha. It’s your birthright to inherit it. Fuck me, fuck the fact that I was heir for years. This isyourbirthright. You have to fight for that legacy or it will be stripped of you, just as it was. Surely you’re not so spoiled that you don’t care?”
“What would you have me do?” I demanded again. My boldness had shifted from my father to Matthyw, something I hadn’t thought was possible. I stood up, the energy within me swirling and pushing against me. “Tell me,kepus. What shall I do, hmm? My father has already made up his mind. He’s already taken the pack back and intends to marry me off to someone else before a human can marry me.”
Matthyw whirled around and strode over to me so he was a breath away from my body. “I have a plan,baela,” he said, and I hoped he couldn’t see the way my body shuddered at his nickname for me, the effect his voice had on me even now. “Do you trust me?”
What couldI say to that?
Of course I trusted him.
The second I told him as much, he took the hood of my cloak and put it on my head the way it had been that night I snuck out, before he took my hand and led me away from the academy building. Part of me wanted to know what we were doing, where we were going, and how this had anything to do with getting my pack back. I hadn’t even thought about whether or not I wanted it, but as he pulled me along, his words began to sink in. That pack was my birthright. I deserved it – as long as I made a good leader and did what was best, I should inherit it, regardless if my father produced a male heir. There shouldn’t be any doubt about it.
By the time we made our way to the village, it was settled. I would speak to my father alone, make him see reason. I still wasn’t sure what Matthyw had up his sleeve where he believed I would get the pack back through his doing, but I also couldn’t say I wanted to leave. I couldn’t remember the last time Matthyw and I had been alone together, except when I had snuck out of the academy and saw him at the brothel, how he scented me, how he looked at me…
