Chapter Three The Deal That Was Never Mine

Avery's POV

Father's answer hung in the air like smoke. "She is my youngest, Alpha Lucian. I swear it on my life and that of my daughter. I swear—"

"Stop it!"

The word tore out of me before I could contain it.

"Stop it, Father. You swear on me? Because of this man, to sell me? What is wrong with you?"

My chest heaved. The tears came hot and fast and I hated them.

He moved fast. The slap cracked across my cheek so sharp that my head snapped sideways. My ears rang.

"I told you to be quiet."

I lifted my head anyway. Slowly. My cheek throbbed. My lip was split.

"You are a monster. And one day, every single thing you have done will come back to you."

His hand went for my throat.

"Enough."

Father's hand stopped.

Then slowly — very slowly — dropped.

Lucian oriented himself toward my father.

"Dorian." Just the name. Nothing else needed.

Father turned. And I watched something happen to him that I had never seen before in my entire life. I watched him shrink.

"Alpha, I—"

"Kneel."

Father knelt. Without argument or hesitation.

Lucian walked toward him. He stopped directly in front of my father. Looked down or performed looking down.

"You lied to me. Her scent is wrong. Her wolf is wrong. The way she holds herself is wrong." A pause. "Everything about her is wrong for the description you gave me."

"Do not insult my senses again, Dorian. I have extended more patience than you deserve."

Father opened his mouth.

"I am not finished."

Father closed it.

"However. I will keep her.”

"Alpha Lucian —" Father began, relief flooding his voice.

"Not for you. She stays because I have decided she stays. That is the only reason that exists in this room. Do you understand the difference?"

Father nodded rapidly. "Yes. Yes, Alpha. Of course."

"You may go."

Just like that. Dismissed. Like a receipt being filed after a transaction, necessary for a moment and then completely irrelevant.

Father stood. Smoothed his jacket. He walked to the door and put his hand on the frame.

I watched his back and I waited for something. Anything. One glance. One hesitation.

The door opened. The door closed.

He was gone.

The rope fell from my wrists. Lucian's guard, moving quietly, had cut it without being asked.

I looked up at Lucian. "You screamed at your father."

"Yes."

"What is your name? Your real name."

I held his gaze or held the space where his gaze would have been, and I said nothing.

"Hard-headed."

"I don't want to be here. I didn't choose this. Whatever deal my father made, I was not part of it. I am asking you, right now, to let me go."

"Please," I added. The word cost me something.

He said nothing for a long moment. Then he turned away.

"Raith. Take her to the east wing."

"That is not an answer!" I stepped forward.

The guard caught my arm, but I pulled against him.

I did not think about what I did next. My hand was just moving. Open palm, swinging hard, connecting with the side of Lucian's face.

The whole room went rigid.

Lucian's head had turned slightly with the impact. He was completely still now. One hand raised slightly, stopping his guards without a word.

The silence lasted for seconds.

Then he turned his face back toward me. Slowly. And whatever I had expected, rage, violence, the unleashing of something terrible. It was not what I got.

"You will not do that again."

"Then you will let me go." My voice shook but held.

He looked at me with that all-consuming look

"Take her," Lucian said to Raith. And walked away.

In my room, there were shadows beneath my door. Two feet, shifting weight like people trying to be quiet. The shadows moved away.

I counted to ten. Then I opened the door.

The whole wing felt empty. That particular quality of silence that meant people had been recalled somewhere else deliberately.

This is a test, something in me said.

I went anyway. I was not here to pass his tests.

I moved through corridors I had not been permitted to see yet. The east wing gave way to a wider passage.

I stopped in the centre of it and turned slowly, looking for exits. Two doors on the far wall. A barred window but the bars were decorative iron.

I was still calculating when the air changed.

“Fuck.”

"Are you lost, baby girl." His voice came from behind me.

He had been standing there long enough to watch me map his house and had simply been waiting to see how long it took me to notice him.

I turned around slowly. Lucian stood in the doorway.

"I was looking for a way out."

He stepped into the room. He stopped close enough that I could feel the warmth coming off him.

"You know I'm not my father's youngest. You said it yourself.” I held my ground even though every instinct was telling me to step back. "So why am I still here?"

Silence.

"Why are you keeping me? Answer me."

He reached out and caught my chin between his fingers with an iron grip, tilting my face upward, and his thumb pressed lightly against my jaw like he was measuring the shape of my defiance.

I spat. Full in his face. Hot and deliberate.

He released my chin. Stepped back one pace. His free hand came up slowly and he wiped his face with the back of it.

"You blind bastard. You think I am something you can just keep? Let me go. Say it. Just say the words and let me go."

Still no answer. Something snapped inside me.

I lunged.

My fists connected with his chest, his shoulder, anywhere I could reach, hitting and hitting because I had nothing left but this.

"Sit. Down."

I kept hitting.

"Let me go! I don't belong here, let me—"

He caught my wrists in one motion and pushed. I went back into the chair behind me hard enough to knock the breath out of my lungs.

"Sit the fuck down."

I sat.

"You want to know why you are here." He began to move around the chair.

"Do you think I brought you here to mate you?"

He laughed. One low, sharp sound.

"You are not fit to be my Luna." He stopped behind me. The words landed on the back of my neck like cold air. "You are not even fit to be my maid."