83

“Watch yourself, Bella.” My voice is icy. “Don’t ever use my first name again. You are my subject, not my equal.”

She goes white as a sheet, and I turn my head to look at her father. “Well, Henry? Which will it be? Would you like me to take your lands from you? Or would you like me to wipe out your entire family?”

Bella’s father’s face is frozen in place, and another elder says, “Your Majesty, we are the noble families. Our bloodlines go back centuries. We sided with the royal family during the great war. How can you talk about erasing our bloodlines—”

“How can you have the audacity to threaten your king?” I shoot back.

He falls silent.

I get to my feet. “The lists will go out tonight. Rothan is going to stay in the castle as my delegate. In the meantime, Rothan,” I say, looking at him, “if anyone tries anything, kill them. It doesn’t matter how ancient their bloodline is. I want their heads sent to me. Anyone attempts to disobey you, you kill them and their family. Am I understood?”

Rothan nods.

The pale faces of the elders tell me everything I need to know. I leave the room and head to the other side of the castle where my office is. When I round the final corner of the corridor, I see a woman leaning against the door. She’s wearing a short dress that barely covers her ass, and her cleavage is nearly spilling out. An airy, transparent stole is wrapped around her shoulders, under her long, loose hair.

If Leanna were waiting for me like this, I would waste no time throwing her onto the table and taking her. But this woman? She makes my dick shrivel up.

“Why are you in this part of the castle?” I demand.

Vivian straightens up, pretending to be surprised. “Oh, you’re here. Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you to come back home. It’s been months, Cedric. You haven’t even written to me.”

She tries to touch me, and I slap her hand away as I enter my office. She follows me inside and sits on the edge of my desk.

I say sharply, “Don’t touch my things. And get out of here. Go to your part of the castle and stay there till I’m gone.”

She bristles, and I anticipate the outburst that is to follow. Vivian doesn’t disappoint me.

“Enough is enough. Eight years have passed. I want to have a child now. The elders must have spoken to you already.”

I sit down behind my desk and give her a flat look. “So, go have a child. But it’s not going to be mine. You are free to open your legs to anybody else.”

Her skin flushes in humiliation. “How dare you imply that the queen of the Northern Kingdom—”

I hold up a finger. “No. You are the princess of the Eastern Kingdom. I’ve told you that plenty of times before. I have not mated you.”

“It’s my signature on the certificate,” she hisses.

“A falsified signature.” I shrug. “Either way, if you want a child, go to one of your many lovers.”

Her lips tremble, and I catch the crafty shift in her eyes. “What are you talking about? I don’t have any—”

I turn my attention to the pile of papers before me. “I don’t care who you fuck as long as you stay away from me. You are a political prisoner here, Princess Vivian. You want to have a child, have one. I’m sure it will keep you busy.”

Vivian slams her hands down on the desk, her voice raised. “What am I lacking? I am more beautiful than that little tramp! I am of royal descent! You should be grateful that I’m allowing somebody like you to lay with me! Do you know how many men have begged me for a sliver of my attention?! That woman—Nobody even knows who her parents were! She could have been the child of a prostitute, for all you know! She and I are worlds apart! I am better than her in every way! You should feel lucky to have me!”

I lift my head. “But you are not her. Leanna is my mate, my wife, and my queen. Not you.”

“But she’s dead!”

I shrug. “You’re still not a good enough substitute. You can cry about it all you want, but you aren’t half the woman that Leanna is. If anything, you’re simply a cheap copy. And I don’t want anything to do with you. If you try to look for me again, you’ll be spending a week in the dungeons.”

Her body quivers in rage. “A copy? How dare you call me that cheap whore’s copy?!”

I’m on my feet in an instant, my hand wrapped around her throat. “Cheap whore? My Leanna? I think you’re confused. You are the whore here, Vivian. I know the name of every lover you’ve had in your bed. My Leanna is pure. She is loyal. And she is my mate. You are nothing.”

I toss her to the ground, and she clutches her throat, her eyes watery but filled with anger.

“I know everything you put my mate through. Every humiliating act. You’re lucky I don’t hit females. And you’re lucky the elders stopped your execution when they did. Because what I had planned for you would have surpassed anything you put Leanna through. I would have broken your pride, your body, and then your mind.”

Trembling, she scrambles away from me now. “You’re crazy!”

“No,” I say simply. “You’ve simply not recognized the beast that I am. So, I will say this again, Vivian. Go fuck your lovers before I forget how useful the Eastern Kingdom is to me.”

She struggles to her feet, her face red. “If I end up getting pregnant, Cedric, I will pass it off as a child of yours. The elders will believe me. I can find a way around the blood test.”

I give her a cold look. “If you get pregnant, the child will be sent to the Eastern Kingdom to be raised. You are a political prisoner, after all, and if you have any other children, they will share your fate as political prisoners. And if this is something you and Bella have been plotting, to create a child of royal blood from your bloodline alone, you will not like what I do in response. You’ve not yet seen what I’m capable of.”

“The elders would never allow—”

My eyes narrow. “You seem to forget your place, Princess Vivian. Perhaps I should remind you.” I grab her by the upper arm and drag her out of my office.

“What are you doing?! Let me go!” she cries out as I pull her down the corridor. My grip isn’t too tight to hurt her, but if she keeps struggling like this, it’s going to leave some marks.

There are guards standing by the entrance to the next corridor, and I throw her at their feet unceremoniously. “Escort the princess to her bedchamber and confine her there for a week. She is not allowed to leave that room till the week is up.”

“Princess?!” Vivian shrieks. “I’m the queen!”

“Leanna is the queen. You are the princess of the Eastern Kingdom. And you are a prisoner of the North,” I tell her coolly. “If your bedchamber is too restrictive for you, you can always reside in the dungeons instead.”

The guards try to help her up, but she pushes them away, hissing, “Do not touch me! Don’t you know who I am?!” They exchange a look but allow her to get to her feet herself. “You can’t do this to me, Cedric!”

I begin walking away and throw a glance at the soldiers over my shoulder. “If she doesn’t go willingly, take her by force.”

I watch as the guards approach her again. She screams, “I can walk!” and storms off, accompanied by the guards. I continue with my day.