The King's Command

Xander’s POV

“Bring the wounded inside!”

The shouts rang through the courtyard of DarkMoonCrest as guards ran. My head was still spinning over what had just happened. The chaos of the auction, the burn of the mate bond flaring like wildfire in my veins, and then, him. 

That damned slave, that cursed slave.

Edrian. That was what his slave friend called him.

I could see his eyes of puzzlement the instant the stupid mate bond snapped between us. 

The voice of his wolf calling to mine in its outstretched raw need. And I stiffened like ice and turned my back on something as empty as air. Since that is all I required him to be. 

Nothing.

But before I could take a breath, he had done the unthinkable.

Just as the assassin was about to draw back the crossbow, I made out a faint gleam of steel, but before I could act, Edrian changed figures, his body snapped his wolf form with a swiftness that was very surprising. He launched himself in front of me.

The arrow tore into his side. Wolfbane. A killing shot.

The crash of his falling body was louder than the cries of the terrified audience, louder than the noise caused by my bodyguards. My mate, whom I had just rejected without a word, is bleeding out at my feet.

A fool. A reckless fool.

“What kind of idiot are you? I hissed as I squatted beside him. 

His eyes quavered shut, and his chest followed in sustained surge. My wolf was burning within me with rage, but I ignored him.

"Call the royal physician!" I shouted at one of the guards and watched as the rest of the guards wrestled the assassin to the ground. 

By nightfall, the news of me being "saved" by a slave had spread in the kingdom, and it annoyed the fuck out of me. 

How can I, the most feared Alpha in this Kingdom, be saved by a common slave? 

"He is my mate." Feris, my wolf, roared at the back of my mind, but I ignored the idiot. 

I entered the throne room, and the first thing that greeted me was the smell of Cedar and fire. 

The Alpha King, my father, sat high and mighty as the black cloak pooled around him like shadows. My mother, the Queen, sat as beautiful as ever beside him with her sharp eyes, her hand on the carved armrest.

In the middle of the room, Edrian was bound with bandages around him; he still looked pale with barely healed wounds that had forced him to kneel. His gaze flicked up once, meeting mine, and the mate bond pulled at me again. Feris tore in my chest, anxious and wanting. I ground my teeth until I started to taste blood.

“Rise,” my father commanded. His voice was a blade, sharp and absolute.

Edrian rose shakily, his head still bowed. 

He looked…fragile, still bruised from the battle that happened in their kingdom that brought him here and definitely still bruised from the wolfbane-laced silver arrow that hit him earlier, but there was something stubborn in the line of his jaw. Something that irritated me more than his weakness.

My father’s eyes burned with approval as he studied him. 

“This slave,” he said, his voice carrying to every ear in the chamber, “did what many warriors failed to do. He shielded my son with his life. He stopped an arrow of wolfbane meant for the Crown Prince. By that act of loyalty, he will no longer be a slave.”

A thrill went down the hall, shock, murmur, disbelief. I felt something bitter in my throat. 

“Father,” I began sharply, “you cannot..”

“Silence, Xander.” The King’s tone cracked like a whip, his gaze shifted back to Edrian. “From this day, you are free....and more than that, you will serve this kingdom within these walls.”

My stomach dropped because I knew exactly what was coming before the words even left his mouth.

“You will serve as the personal assistant to Crown Prince Xander.”

The hall erupted, Nobles whispering furiously, soldiers exchanging glances, and my mother’s lips pressed into a thin line, but she did not object. She knew better than to object to the Alpha King in the throne room.

But, I did.

“No.” My voice cut through the noise like thunder. “Absolutely fucking not. I don’t need an assistant, and I certainly do not need a slave to assist me.”

“You need reminding of your place?" My father’s eyes glowed red; that's Rava, my father's wolf in control. 

The weight of the throne room pressed in on me, but I stood my ground. 

“He’s a slave... Was a slave." I corrected myself as he has just been freed from slavery. "Do you realize what it looks like to tie the Crown Prince to someone like him?” 

“He doesn’t belong at my side.” I gestured at Edrian with a sharp flick of my hand, not daring to look too long into those eyes that burned me from the inside out. 

A hush fell. My father rose from the throne, with Rava still in control, every step echoing, and his aura suffocating. Everyone in the throw room was already bowing down to him, except for me. He stopped in front of me and looked me straight in the eyes as if challenging me. 

“He saved your life,” he breathed.

“By chance. Out of desperation.” I clenched my fists, still standing my ground. Everyone may fear my father because of Rava, but not me, because Feris is more Feral. Rava only radiates when in the throne room. 

“Does it matter how?” Rava's voice rose, his aura oozing out and pressing. “Our people saw, they will talk. The kingdom will remember that a slave had the courage our own guards lacked. If I strip him of recognition, I strip you of honor as well. Is that what you want, Xander? To be known as the Prince who cast aside the one who bled for him?”

As much as I want to, I want to argue that he was right, and I hated it

My father’s hand clamped down on my shoulder. 

“He stays and he serves you. That is my command.”

The command of a King. Even though I could resist my father's command, I didn't. 

"Yes, Alpha," I bit off the words and turned away before my father could see the glow in my eyes. 

When I finally looked at Edrian, he wasn’t looking at the King. He was looking at me.  His face unreadable, half wonder, half bewilderment, and something besides that had my wolf whimpering at my heels.

He quickly bowed again when our eyes met. I couldn't stay till the end of the meeting because I was so mad, so I left. 

That night, I stormed into my chambers, slamming the door so hard that the hinges rattled. The mate bond thrummed through me, demanding restlessly. My wolf wanted him close, wanted his scent, his warmth.

But I did not want to have anything to do with him.

A slave, a nobody who happens to be my mate.

The mix was poison.

I poured myself a glass of wine, trying to drown the fire under my skin, when the door creaked open behind me.

“Your Highness,” a hesitant voice said. Edrian’s.

I stood stock-still, with the wine in the glass.

What are you doing in my chambers? My voice was sharp enough to cut.

He gulped, and I knew by the sound of his voice that he was trembling. “The King ordered me to report here. I am…your assistant now.”

I turned slowly and began to face him with steady eyes of my own in the glow of the fire. I put my glance on it, and at last I permitted it to look. The defiance of his mouth, the livid mark, the spark in his eyes that no chains had beaten out.

And my wolf roared inside me, Mine.

I crushed the thought, setting the glass down with a thud. 

“Fine,” I said coldly. “Then understand this, Edrian. You may serve me, but you will never matter to me. Not as a slave, not as a man, and definitely not as a mate.”

For a heartbeat, silence stretched between us. I thought my words might shatter him, but instead, he lifted his chin and whispered with quiet defiance,

“Then why does your wolf keep calling to mine?”

The glass shattered in my hand.