Chapter 3

~ RONAN ~

"The council's demands are just stupid."

I snort, not even bothering to look at Nikolai as I say it. He knows, because he was there, he had sat right beside me through three hours of the councils debating the terms of an alliance that should have taken twenty minutes to settle.

"A seventh bride might just be the charm," Nik says, with a tinge of smirk in his voice without looking at me.

"Shut the fuck up, Nik."

"I'm just saying..."

"We both know she's going to end up dead like every other bride, so drop it." I say, even though It fucking hurt to say because I want to put a end to all of these fucking madness.

Nikolai goes quiet.

'He's not wrong though,' Kael my wolf, mutters from the back of my skull. "Seven's perfection, idiot. Try to remember that."

You too?

'Just saying what you won't.'

I shut him out. Something I've gotten very good at over the years.

The territory of Westbrook comes into view, and whatever I think about the council and their demands and the whole cursed arrangement, I file it away. I don't walk into another Alpha's territory distracted, because that's how you end up dead.

Nikolai splits off at the gates, saying he needs to confirm the meeting time with Warren's Beta, and I walk the grounds alone.

It's a decent territory. Well-kept, well-guarded. Warren runs a tight pack, I'll give him that. Whatever else he is.

'Something's off,' Kael says suddenly. I slow without meaning to. My scan around, every hair in my skin prickling, and alert.

'There.'

I don't know what I'm expecting; A threat, maybe, or a scout who got too close. Instead I round the corner near the main staircase and stop.

There's a girl on the stairs.

She's descending slowly, carefully, like each step costs her something. The gown she wears is too fine for someone who moves like she's still learning how to hold herself upright. She's so ethereal, even thouhh she's looking pale with dark circles rounding her eyes. A fading mark across her cheek that my wolf catalogs before my brain even catches up.

She hasn't seen me yet.

"You should go meet her," Kael urges, purring loudly in my ear. This is the first time he's acting all giddy and excited just by seeing a female.

I don't move. I'm trying to place the scent, and that's the strange thing. She has a scent, but it's a faint one, as though it's barely there, like something that was almost extinguished—like a candle someone tried very hard to put out that refused to go completely dark.

One minute I'm still trying to decipher it, the next, she trips on her gown and is already falling. My adrenaline surges, and I close the distance between us immediately.

She lands in my arms instead of the floor, and for a second we're just… still. Fucking still. My brain is calm, the raging storm in my chest pauses to ease.

Her eyes find mine, and they're extraordinary. Wide, dark-circled, frightened. But beneath the fear, there's something else, there's something there, the passion, the fire, the spark in her that tells me she's feeling whatever this is too.

Hell, can someone be this pretty?

"Mate," Kael chuffs. I ignore him, because I know he can be crazy at times… I can't feel any bond with her… the only thing I can sense is her different smell, nothing like a girl that has her wolf or… I can't smell her wolf, and she doesn't smell purely human either.

"You smell different," I say, somewhat out of the blue. Shit… hell, that came out wrong… and why the hell am I suddenly chickening out?

She stares at me without saying a word. Why isn't she saying a word? I do want to hear her talk, but then again, why is it driving me crazy to know more about her?

There's something about the way she holds herself even now, half-caught in a stranger's arms, exhausted and clearly unwell, there's a dignity to it.

I set her down carefully. "She's royalty," Kael says. My thoughts exactly.

I bow. Because my mother raised me with one non-negotiable rule: you honor women. All of them. Regardless of rank, regardless of circumstance.

"You should be careful," I tell her, and then finally leave.

"We're going back for her," Kael says.

"We're going to a meeting."

"Same thing."

Snorting, I roll my eyes, knowing it's going to be stupid arguing with a wolf that's inside my head just to make a point.

***

Warren's office is easy to find, from the description his Beta had sent. I'm about to open the door when a sudden voice in the room halts me. I stop—I don't want to enter and interrupt whatever drama… that's not what I came for… I hear a muffled sound, and Kael almost goes crazy when the scent suddenly hits me.

I storm in, throwing the door open, and my eyes go directly to where the scent is coming from. Same girl, same gown. And Warren's hand comes off her face, her head still turned sideways from the impact.

Everything in me goes very, very quiet. I cross the distance in three steps. My hands find Warren's shirt before he even registers I've moved, and then he's off the ground, back hitting the wall with enough force to rattle the frame.

My hand connects with his face before he can dodge. I slam him onto his desk, watching as the dark wood cracks from the impact… I don't care if he's going to break his spine or bones or whatever the fuck he ends up breaking. I'm not done… Kael lets out a fucking growl, threatening to rip free and fully finish him, but I suppress the urge.

Turning to her, I find her visibly petrified… I don't know if she's surprised I stood up for her or if she's scared of me. I can tell she's frightened… and the fact that she has to see me like this makes me want to break more of Warren's bones.

Her hazel eyes narrow into mine, and like ice, they chill every burning fire raging in me.

I don't register all the fucking words and threats I throw at him, but one thing is fucking clear. I'm going to make Warren pay for ever laying his hand on my bride. I want to ask questions—when he says she's my bride, that she's his sister, that arrangements have been made, why would he hit his own sister? But Kael isn't having it. I'm taking her to my pack.

I immediately mindlink Nikolai.

"Get our lawyer. There needs to be a modification made to our contractual terms…"

"What kind of modification?" he answers immediately.

I whisper the terms, earning a gasp from his side… sometimes, when you want to play chess, you don't move a single piece, you flip the entire fucking board.

"I'll have it drafted in ten," Nikolai says, voice tight with disbelief.