Chapter 17
Aurora
I can hear Jaxson outside the door with his father, king Kennedy, arguing about how Xander got away and took some of the royal pack members with him in his escape. I want to feel comforted by the fact that Luke isn’t to blame anymore, and at least Xander is gone and can’t threaten me again, but I can’t help feeling like the second prince isn’t done with me yet.
He wants to be Alpha. He wants to be king. And right now, Jaxson and his father are the only two wolves standing in his way. I can’t imagine what he is willing to do to get to the throne but for now, I feel safer without him down the hall from me.
“Leave this matter to me, Jaxson, I mean it,” the Alpha says, his voice making me shiver.
Jaxson doesn’t even sound frazzled by his father’s command. “If I catch wind that Xander is coming back to do anything to her again, I will send my guys out to have him killed. Now leave this wing so I can tend to my mate. I have nothing else to say to you, father.”
I can’t imagine speaking to an Alpha like that, but Jaxson is over the rules, slamming the door shut behind him while he strolls into my room. He sits beside me in bed, slipping his arm under my shoulders and pulling me to his chest. For the last few days, he has slept in here beside me, and I have come to enjoy his woodsy scent and strong arms curled around me protectively.
“Should we be worried about Xander?” I ask, holding onto Jaxson’s chest, hearing and feeling his every subtle throb of heart. “Do you think he will come back?”
“He should know better than to,” he growls. “I’ll have him dead before he reaches the gates.” He pulls his hand to my cheek, brushing my hair aside, his eyes honed into the sight of my lips. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore. I am focused on you, sweetheart.”
My heart skips a beat.
“What about me?”
“Everything about you, Aurora. Absolutely everything.”
My cheeks flush hot.
“I’ve decided we are going to redo your birthday,” he says, those words hardly computing in my mind. “I want to make that right first, above all else.”
My stomach is in knots of going through the ordeal of a gala again, having people stare at me, judge me, and I can’t say I’d ever want to go through that a second time. The royals see me more as a target now than ever. They will get ahold of me. They will hurt me.
He brushes his knuckles down my throat, over the mark he made.
“It’s not a gala, sweetheart,” he hums, hearing my every thought and concern. “I’ve decided to take you home for the weekend. It seems safer for them to stay out there than it does coming here.”
Xander
I’ve had hunting cabins built all over the place just for instances like this one. I never told anyone about their construction, or their location, and it was the first place I fled to when I heard that Jaxson knew that I had clawed into his mutt’s back. It brought me too much satisfaction watching that peasant squirm. Even her blood smells like dirt, her presence in our world even less than.
It’s the power I am owed as the royal prince to be the future Alpha. My mate will be a royal. That is how that pack will be ran, as it has for generation. A royal and a commoner cannot ascend to the title of Luna and Alpha.
I would refuse to accept something so sub-par in strength, in healing, and in appearance as a mate. My pups need to be the best at everything, so when I mate, it will be with a she-wolf of royal bloodline. Of course, I would keep my brother’s peasant around for fun. I may think of Aurora as a flea on my shoulder but it’s hard not to imagine how badly I wanted to hold her down in the library and force her to endure the feeling of a true royal ruler between her thighs.
I crave power, and watching her bleed and sob, it only fueled it more. It helps put me to sleep at night hearing her beg and whimper at the whim of my power. Not to mention, it gave me a good feeling knowing that I could wound my useless brother just by carving into her body.
“Xander,” my warrior growls, one of the handful of royals that defected with me out here to the woods so we can configure a plan to overthrow my father and get rid of my brother in succession. “One of our insider guards said the commoner is alive,” he gusts.
I shrug, uncaring. “Must have used a healer to save her pathetic ass.”
“We still have informants on the inside. They can kill her if you’d like.”
I tap my foot, wishing her neck was under my boot right now. “Hold off on giving that order.”
“You don’t want her dead?”
“I want her to suffer, just enough to make Jaxson suffer, so I can kill him and focus on the main prize. The crown. Every good Alpha needs a little slutty consort.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sire,” I correct, knowing it is only a matter of time before I get what I deserve. “I will be Alpha. I will be the King.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Jaxson
Tonight is the first night I can feel comfortable leaving Aurora in her room upstairs, instead of having the healers around her every other hour, just to make sure she is healing okay. She steps out of the shower while I sit in front of her fireplace, Snowflake curled up near the flames, humming a purr.
I spot a glimpse of Aurora undoing the gauze, dripping wet, standing bare in front of the mirror while she drops the wrap and turns to see her back in the reflection. Her hand hikes up to her mouth, holding in an audible gasp, the scars still fresh and pink along her beautiful spine.
It makes my heart hurt to see her in so much anguish.
I stand, aiding her in the bathroom, the steam and warmth swirling in the suite while she watches me enter through the foggy mirror, eyes up to mine, even as I let my gaze fall down the pink marks on her back. They may heal more, or she will live with the scars, but either way I would gladly kiss her all over and never let up.
She’s so beautiful.
I hold my hands around her hips, letting them snake back behind her, feeling her tense at my touch but she doesn’t mind for long. She seems relaxed enough to let me lean down and press a kiss into her soft, plump lips. I press my tongue into her mouth, needing to taste her, begging for her aroma to invade my senses all at once.
She practically climbs up into my hands, my arms holding her thighs as they wrap around my hips, my erection perfectly lined up against her sensitive sex. My wolf begs for us to mate her for good, for real, and I can feel her wolf begging for the same. She presses down harder against my pelvis, taunting me, and I can’t stand it anymore.
With one arm around her hips, I use the other to pry open my zipper and push aside my boxers, finally freeing my arousal and letting it tease the wetness between her thighs. She tenses, kissing me softer now, as if worried. I wait for her to build back into her confidence, her tongue pushing mine aside while my hand finds one of her perfectly cupped breasts. I hold it in my hand, squeezing her nipple, watching her head tip back and moan in ecstasy.
I can’t help it anymore. I sit back on the counter-top, spinning her around with me, and move to sit her down right on top of my erection. She gusts alive when I fill her, the pleasure gushing out of us both, but I refuse to let it end so quickly. I move her hips in the desired direction, seeing her perfect body slide up and down my shaft, watching as she gasps with every single movement when she sits down on it perfectly, the size of it filling her completely.
She gushes with heat, with pleasure, and hold my hand out to her shoulder, grazing her mark I made that connects us in link. I pull her forward, biting the spot again, watching it force her alive. She practically screams in orgasm.
I can’t hold back either, giving into the feeling of her writhing against my shaft. Her trembling wetness soaks me, and I let her calm down on my lap while the waves of orgasm travel through her.
She relaxes, leaning into my chest and breathing heavily against my neck. It almost makes me want to have her a second time.
She kisses my neck, exhausted but satisfied.
Ever since I talked to Luke, I’ve come to realize how horribly I have been to her. I’ve locked her away for her own good and ignored the fact that I do know why she fears this place. I’ve heard the screams of commoner maids, of females taken from the pack and their families and forced into unspeakable acts.
Thinking of someone doing the same to my mate makes me feel murderous.
“You are beautiful,” I hum, an excuse to watch her blush. I’m not disappointed.
She coughs a laugh, so unsure of herself. “Thank you, Jaxson.”
“Ah, so it’s not sire anymore, huh?” I chuckle.
She tucks her arms to her chest, pinning herself in my lap, letting me hold her and reassure her that she will always be safe with me. “It’s Jaxson, for now,” she giggles.
“Maybe one day it will be my mate?”
She shrugs and that’s a good enough answer for me.
