*Maddox*
It’s taken me far too long to accept what Austin already told me in those few moments when he was trying to save Zabrina. He said he was her mate, but I didn’t think that was possible. His pack is so far from hers. Even though they were mates, it made little sense to me that he would want to save her. It’s not as if they were lovers–were they?
I need to catch up to Austin to find out the truth. He has started quite an uprising by even being at the hanging, so there has to be something I am missing.
Zabrina told me about the mate bond herself. She told me that it hadn’t meant much of anything for her to walk away from her mate, so why would Austin go to so much trouble to try and spare her life? If she died, it would be painful for him, but not for long, not without a true relationship like I had with Rebecca to increase the pull I had to her. I didn’t just feel a mate pull to Rebecca, I loved her as my wife and Luna.
So why is Austin running through the woods from me now after having tried to save her from a death she so very much deserved? Why would he be willing to risk everything to try and save someone who didn’t care about him at all?
There has to be more to it than a simple mate bond!
I see him up ahead of me and know that I am gaining on him. He is large and fast, but I am bigger and faster. Being the Alpha King has given me the ability to run faster than a lot of other wolves, even those who aren’t quite as… mature… as I am. When he has to slow to leap over a tall hedge, I can ground on him. He takes a corner too fast, and I am literally nipping at his heels. I bite down on his back leg and grab hold of him, tugging him toward me.
He yelps but then turns his head to face me, attempting to bite the top of my head while I am clamped down on his leg. I’m having none of it, though as I lash out and hit him across the face with my claws, instantly drawing blood from his snout. He yelps again, this time falling backward onto the forest floor as I shift my position and move to hold him down by his shoulders.
I hear some of my guards coming up behind me and know that he’s not going to be able to get away from us now. Maybe he’ll be smart enough to start answering some of my questions.
Using the mind-link, I say, “You know this is over, Austin. What the hell are you doing? You can’t possibly love Zabrina after she walked away from you.”
He glares at me. “Fuck you, Maddox!” he says back to me in my head, his wolf face still bleeding from where I swiped my claws across his snout. “You don’t know a damn thing about love! You fucking killed her, and all she ever wanted to do was to love you!”
I stare down at him, confused about what the hell he’s even talking about. Is he talking about the same Zabrina that I knew? The one that kidnapped Isla? The one that killed Private Parker and seduced Private Wylie and sent him to his death?
“You need some time to get your shit together,” I tell him. “At the moment, you’re in big trouble for starting an uprising at an execution. You and your band of assholes killed some of my guards and some innocent people. You’re going to be the next one to swing from the gallows, Austin, unless you cooperate.”
“Fuck you!” he says and attempts to spit blood in my face, but I dodge out of the way, and then, my troops are there, and I release him into their custody and trot back toward the village, thinking I still need to know why someone brought Zabrina’s body to the village.
When I get back to the square in the center of the village, I see that Seth has Preston, the man who apparently brought Zabrina’s body here, in his custody, and they are both in their human forms, which means he didn’t have to shift to track him down. I am handed some pants by an aide, and then I head over to see what’s going on with Preston.
“It’s a revolution, man,” he’s saying to Seth, clearly nervous but also hyped up. “If we don’t nip this shit in the bud right away, it’s going down, and it’s going down faster than you can even think about it, man!”
I look from Seth to Preston and then back again, not sure if I should ask Seth to interpret this for me while the man is still standing here, babbling on, or if I should just shut this down and take them both to the castle.
Seth seems to be on the same wavelength as me. “Preston is concerned about Austin’s motives. He believes he’s trying to gain sympathy through claiming Zabrina is his mate, but he believes there’s another woman who is actually Austin’s mate, and this is all political.”
All of that makes sense to me, somehow, and it’s the first time in a long time that I feel that way, the first time I’ve heard something related to this situation.
But Zabrina does have a mate. Her father told me so, and he alluded to it being Austin when I talked to him in the dungeon before we heard that Zabrina’s body was in the village.
I am missing something… I am missing something important.
“Let’s take him back to the castle, and we’ll sort this all out there,” I say.
“But I didn’t do anything wrong!” Preston protests.
“You stole the body of an executed prisoner, brought her to a second location, and encouraged a mob to stone her, Preston,” I explain to him. “How is that not doing anything wrong?”
“Because! I was doing it to help you!” he replies, with his arms splayed at his sides. “I needed to encourage the people of the village to remember why we hate Zabrina and why we love you, Your Majesty!”
I was beginning to think the man had been smoking something pretty potent.
“If you were truly trying to help, the sentiment is appreciated, but this wasn’t the way to go about it, Preston. You’ve riled everyone up and potentially put people in danger. With Austin still hanging around here, there’s a good chance that other people from his rebellion might still be here, too. Citizens could’ve been injured, Preston. This is not the way that we handle things in a civilized village.”
“No offense, Sir,” he begins, his eyes not quite focusing on my face. “But I’m pretty sure society frowns upon hangings these days, too. Public executions are a bit barbaric, don’t you think?”
I open my mouth to attempt to explain myself, but then I remember that I’m talking to someone who is probably so stoned he won’t even remember having had this conversation with me later, let alone what he told me.
“Get him the fuck out of here,” I tell Seth.
My Beta doesn’t have to be told twice. He takes hold of Preston while he continues to shout and hauls him to one of the transport vehicles. He’s not the only one who is being placed in custody. Several other people who were vigorously tossing rocks at Zabrina are also being loaded up.
And then there’s the body itself.
I don’t want to bring Zabrina back to the castle yet one more time. I’d really rather just bury her here in the village and be done with it. But I won’t have her body continuing to stir up trouble. I order the guards to have her taken back and buried in the criminals' cemetery in an unmarked grave, hoping that this is enough to finally put all of this behind us.
But I know that it’s not the end of the problems.
Clearly, Austin’s pack is unhappy and ready to march against the throne. I have to think that there are other packs out there that are willing to do the same. I need to find out for certain if Austin really is Zabrina’s mate or if my first hunch that that couldn’t be the truth was right.
Several townspeople want to speak to me. “Do you think there will be a war?” a woman clutching a small child to her bosom asks me.
“What are the chances that this is the end of all of it, now that the witch is dead?” an older man wants to know.
“I assure you, our soldiers are ready to stomp out any uprising,” I tell them. “As you can see, we are fully capable of protecting you and your families.”
“But what about the heir?” another woman asks. She looks to be about my age, and judging by her clothing, she is one of the more affluent citizens of the building. “Until you have a child, won’t there always be the threat of an uprising?”
Shaking my head, I try to choose my words carefully. “Nothing will stop some people from lusting for power. Unfortunately, that’s just how some people are. But the fact that I don’t have an heir shouldn’t be seen as an extra reason for these uprisings.”
“I heard a baby was born at the castle a few weeks ago. Is it true?” another man asks.
“A baby was born, but she wasn’t mine,” I say, watching their faces fall. “I promise, all of these issues are being addressed.”
“So you are working on having an heir?” the affluent woman asks.
I don’t want to answer that question. I smile at her. “All I can say is, you needn’t worry. Trust me. Trust the Moon Goddess. You are all in good hands.”
“No offense, Your Majesty,” the younger gentleman says, “but it seems like we don’t have a lot of reason to believe that’s true after what happened during the executions and knowing that something like this can happen under your watch. How did that woman’s body get out from the castle walls?”
I need to get out of here before I lose my cool and begin to yell at these innocent people who have done nothing wrong. “We are investigating the situation,” I tell them. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are people back at the castle who need my attention.”
“Wounded?” the woman shouts after me, but I pretend not to hear her.
I am beginning to lose my grip on the kingdom, and I’m going to have to do something to fix this. Having a baby will help, but it won’t do everything. No, I’m going to have to figure out exactly where this most current uprising was sparked and nip it in the bud.