*Isla*
“No.”
I stand there, staring at Maddox, unable to comprehend what he’d just said to me. I have to repeat the word out loud before it fully sinks into my mind. “No?” I ask him.
“That’s right, Isla. There’s no way in hell that I’m letting you go to Maatua. Not now. Not ever.” He is standing in front of me with his hands folded across his chest, looking down at me, as if his word is final.
Technically, his word is final. After all, he is the Alpha King. He would be able to keep me from going there in several different ways–everything from just ordering me and compelling me to comply so as not to go against the word of the king to locking me up in the dungeon near Zabrina and the other captives he’s just brought in from Hill Country pack.
Not that I think he’ll go to those lengths, but as I look into his narrowed eyes, I understand that he means what he’s saying to me. For whatever reason, this is not up for discussion.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m willing to just say, “Oh, okay then,” and let it go.
“Maddox,” I begin, keeping my tone as level as possible, even though I feel my hands beginning to tremble and my heartbeat increasing. “You have to let me go. I need to understand what happened in my homeland. I need to find my people and make sure they are safe.”
“Well, I think you can find out what happened from your parents, and as far as whether or not your people are safe, Isla, I’m sorry… but they’re not. They couldn’t possibly be. The war that happened there was violent and all-consuming. It was a total war where nothing was spared, and those who didn’t escape to other lands before the war broke out are most certainly dead. The island is all but abandoned now. Only a few rogues live there, and it’s practically uninhabitable because of the mass burnings that destroyed all of the buildings and the natural resources. So… there you go. Problem solved.” He shrugs at me in a condescending way, and for once I wish I was much bigger so I could slug him.
“Oh, okay then.” Now the words are coming out of my mouth, but my tone is very sarcastic. “If that’s all there is to it, then I’ll just go ahead and have my parents tell me all about what life was like there. They seem pretty willing to do that since they’ve been lying to me for at least the last eighteen years and my mom even lied to me about it on the phone a few days ago. But hey, I’m sure they’ll be happy to comply now that they know my brother went snooping in their room, found some stuff there, stole it, and secretly brought it to me here.” I throw up my hands and turn away from him.
Maddox says, “Wait–your parents don’t know your brother is here? I thought you guys said they did.”
I spin around and take a few steps closer to him. “After everything that I just said, that’s what caught your attention? The fact that Ben might’ve lied to them about him staying over at a friend’s house?”
Outside of my window, thunder growls and lightning rips across the sky. Sometimes, thunder makes me jump, but right now, I’m too angry to even let it register.
I need answers. I need them from Maddox, and I need them now.
“Isla, I have a lot going on right now,” he says, his eyes dropping to the floor where he’s toeing the carpet with his boot. “I know you get that better than anyone else except for maybe Seth. Can we talk about this later? Like in a few days? Or a week? Or a month?”
I take a deep breath. What he’s saying to me doesn’t sound unreasonable. He has had a lot going on lately; for that matter, he has a lot going on all of the time. But a lot of this stuff is going on because of me.
“Fine,” I say with a deep breath. “We can talk about it later, but not in a week or a month. I’m sorry to tell you this, Maddox, but I’m going to fight you on this one. You can’t just tell me that I can’t go there.”
“Yes, I can,” he says, taking a step closer to me. I don’t retreat, even though everything inside of me is telling me to cower to him, to bare my neck and make the sign of respect, leaving myself vulnerable to his sharp wolf teeth. But I don’t. I keep my eyes trained on his as he continues.
“I can keep you from going there, Isla. Not because I’m the Alpha or the king or a lot bigger and stronger than you but because I own you.”
I feel my eyes bulging from my head as my mouth drops open. He’s never said anything like that to me before. In all of the time that I’ve been here in the castle, never once has he made me feel like I am a belonging, something he can just use and toss aside, something he can command.
Not even when he made me feel worthless the other day when I was leaving his office did he make me feel like a possession.
“You… w-what?” I ask, still staring up at him.
“That’s right,” he says, nodding his head. “You belong to me. You don’t go anywhere without my permission, remember? We just discussed this. You’re here to do a job, and you will do that job. After you’ve done that job, if you care to leave the castle, we shall discuss it then. But for now, as long as you belong to me, you will not leave this castle without my permission. And I do not give you permission to go to Maatua.” He leans forward so that his nose is practically touching mine. “Is that clear?”
A wave of nausea washes over me, turning my stomach and making bile rise up the back of my throat. It seems like an odd response to my Alpha King’s intimidation tactics, but I suddenly feel sweaty, clammy, like I’m about to throw up–or pass out.
I open my mouth to say something, but I can’t get a word out, and I feel my eyes begin to roll into the back of my head as I lose sight of Maddox.
“Isla?” he asks, and his tone has changed. I feel myself tipping backward and hope I am close to the bed so that when I fall, I will land on the mattress, though falling on the artifacts my brother brought is probably not a good idea.
I don’t feel the bed behind me when I tip back, though. Instead, I feel Maddox’s arms as he says my name again. “Isla? What’s the matter?” he asks me.
My eyes roll back to their proper position, and I say, “I’m sorry. I don’t feel good.”
Without a word, he sweeps me up and lays me on the bed, moving the backpack and paperwork out of the way and placing them on the nightstand. He picks up a glass of water I have sitting there from this morning and lifts it to my lips.
I take a sip and choke it down. It gets stuck in my throat for a second, but then I get it down, along with the contents of my stomach that were trying to come back up earlier. My mouth still tastes sour. I reach for the glass and take another drink as Maddox sits next to me on the bed.
“What can I do?” he asks me. I can hear the concern in his voice. It has replaced all of the commanding tone he was using to address me earlier.
I shake my head. At least I can see him again now. “Nothing, I’m fine,” I tell him.
“Clearly, you are not fine. Have you been feeling badly all day, or did this just come over you right now?” He brushes my hair back away from my face, and I can feel how sweaty it is when it bounces back and sticks to my skin again.
“No, I’ve been fine,” I tell him. It’s the truth. I haven’t been feeling bad at all today. “I wonder if it’s just left over from hiding my head on that tree.”
“I don’t think so,” he says. “And the poison should all be out of your system by now. Could it be… what I said?”
Part of me wants to say that it is. It’s what he said to me earlier that upset me so much it almost made me pass out, but I’m pretty sure that’s not it. “Maybe it’s just… too much excitement for one day,” I reply. “I’m sure I’ll be back to myself soon enough.”
“Well, I already sent for Mystica, so we’ll have her do a thorough exam,” he says.
“Maddox!” My tone conveys my protest. “No, I don’t want her to have to come and examine me again. She sees me more than anyone else in the castle!”
That makes him chuckle for some reason. “Maybe that’s because you’re the most important person in the castle.”
I narrow my gaze at him. “A moment ago you reminded me that you own me.” I probably shouldn’t have said that, but he is always sending me mixed signals. I felt compelled to call him on it.
His smile fades. “It’s true, Isla. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have feelings for you. I already told you that I love you.”
“Yes, and I’m sure people who have pet dogs love them, too,” I reply snidely.
He shakes his head at me. “You’re not a dog, Isla. You’re a wolf.”
“I’m also a person, Maddox. A person with feelings. And I hate it when you talk to me like that, like I don’t even matter.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He says it like I’m way off base. “You definitely matter, Isla. More than anyone.” He leans down and presses his lips to my head, and while I want to keep arguing with him, Mystica opens the door and walks in.
“What happened, dear?” she asks.
“She almost passed out,” Maddox says, getting up and moving aside so that the healer can examine me.
“Oh, dear,” she says, coming over to me. “Let me check your vitals and run a few tests. Have you eaten today?”
“Yes,” I say to her. “But not very much.”
“Hmmm,” she says as she listens to my heart, takes my temperature, and then checks my blood pressure. “Everything seems normal. Maybe your blood sugar is low. I’ll take a bit and go run some tests, all right?”
“Okay.” What am I going to say to argue with her?
It stings a little as she sticks the needle in my arm, but then, she leaves, and Maddox and I are in the room alone together again. He’s managed to put the items my brother brought me into the backpack without Mystica seeing them–purposely, I’m sure–and I am beginning to wonder where my brother is.
Before I can reach him through the mind-link, Maddox says, “I’ll leave you to get some rest while I go take care of a few things, but Isla, if you start feeling badly again, let me know. And don’t you dare try to go anywhere.”
Thunder booms outside, and I say, “Don’t worry. I’m not going out in the rain.”
He looks at me like he’s not sure he can trust me but then bends to kiss me, and I let him before he takes off, leaving me all alone with my thoughts.
Now, I not only don’t know who I am… I don’t know what’s wrong with me.