༄Chapter 4

I sat in the carriage and watched through the window as the two of them finally pulled themselves away from the door. Andrew's hand on her back, she was leaning into him, both of them completely unbothered by the fact that I existed.

I rolled my eyes so hard it nearly hurt. What was I thinking, chasing after this man? What version of me looked at Andrew and decided yes, that's the one, let me drag my father into it, and involve the Lycan King himself, to make it a whole royal decree? I must have been out of my mind well before I pretended to lose it.

I turned away from the window.

One way or another I was getting out of this marriage and back to Blackthron. The sooner the better. Every second I spent watching those two made me more certain of that.

When we arrived at the palace I stepped out of the carriage and had to actively stop myself from looking around like someone who had never seen anything this grand. I managed it for about four seconds before the ceiling inside the entrance hall made me forget myself entirely.

“Stop that,” Andrew said beside me, his eyes straight forward not even looking at me.

“Stop what.” I countered 

“Looking around with your mouth open. You look like you've never been anywhere.”

I shut my mouth and faced forward.

A man was waiting at the entrance to the banquet hall. He walked toward us and something about the way he carried himself made the air around him feel different, unhurried, certain, like someone who had never once questioned whether he belonged in a room.

“Alpha Andrew,” the man said. “Welcome. I'm Beta Matthew, I'll be leading you in.”

Andrew who had shoved me down a staircase without blinking straightened up like someone had pulled a string through his spine. His chin dipped. His whole voice changed register.

“Beta Matthew.” He actually smiled. Warm and sheepishly genuine. A smile I had personally never received from him. “Thank you for receiving us. It's an honor as always, truly.”

Matthew gave a small nod and turned to lead us in and Andrew fell into step behind him like an obedient puppy, and I followed behind both of them trying to process what I had just witnessed.

We were shown to our seats at the long banquet table and I had barely sat down before Andrew leaned toward me, his voice dropping low and clipped.

“When you meet the King,” he said, “don't embarrass me. Don't say anything stupid or make any mistakes. Not tonight for your spoiled attitude Bella.”

“What kind of person is he?” I asked.

Andrew looked at me. Then he looked away without answering and faced forward, which told me everything I needed to know and nothing I actually wanted to hear.

I sat with that and let my eyes move carefully around the room. It was extraordinary. Everything about this palace was deliberate, the kind of wealth that didn't need to announce itself because it was simply everywhere you looked. I leaned slightly and opened my mouth…

“Bella.” Andrew didn't even turn his head.

I sat back, shutting my mouth.

The room filled slowly. Every person who walked in carried themselves with the specific tension of someone trying very hard to appear relaxed, and failing. The conversations around us were low, careful, nobody saying anything that couldn't be immediately taken back.

Then the doors at the far end opened.

“His Majesty, the Lycan King.”

Andrew was on his feet before I'd even processed the words and I followed, keeping my head down. We joined the crowd moving forward to pay respects and Andrew turned to me one last time, his voice barely a breath in my ear.

“Not one word, Bella. He killed someone today. I mean it.”

I kept my face neutral and my eyes down.

A guard stepped forward to report something, military by the sound of it, and then the King's voice came across the room and landed on everything like a stone dropped into still water.

“Useless.” Just one word and completely flat.

Then something cut through the air close enough that I felt it pass and the sound of crystal exploding against marble cracked through the silence. I didn't turn to look but I caught the dark stain spreading on the floor from the corner of my eye.

The guard made no sound.

I stared at the floor and thought very sincerely about my father, and how deeply I did not want him to lose his only daughter in this palace tonight because of someone else's temper.

And then Arabella woke up.

She had been completely silent since the coma, not a stir, not a whisper, nothing. I had almost started to wonder if she was gone entirely. But the moment that voice filled the room she came alive like fire catching dry wood , so sudden, total, and completely out of control. She surged forward in my chest, frantic and excited in a way I had never felt from her before, pushing at my control like she was trying to climb out of my skin.

“Arabella,” I thought hard. “Stop it. This is not the time to..”

She didn't stop, if only she pushed harder, twisting and pulling, and I was trying to hold her back and keep my expression blank and my feet still all at the same time and I lost track of one of those things.

I stumbled forward.

My shoulder hit something solid, cold and warm at the same time and two hands caught me before I could go down completely and I grabbed the nearest thing to steady myself and then looked up.

I forgot what I was doing entirely, I forgot how to breathe.

I had never seen a man like this in my life. Not once. He was looking down at me with his hands still on my arms and I just stood there, looking at him like a complete fool.

Arabella absolutely lost her mind.

The feeling that ripped through me from her was so sudden and overwhelming that my breath actually caught. Recognition. Certainty. Joy, almost, pouring off her in waves. And in his eyes, something shifted. Something that hadn't been there a second ago moved across his expression and settled there, quiet and searching, and the air between us did something I didn't have words for.

“Bella.” Andrew's hand closed around my arm and yanked hard. “Apologize. Right now. Do you have any idea who you…”

“I'm so sorry, Your Majesty.” I continued to look up at the King and made myself hold his gaze. “I've just…I have genuinely never seen a man as handsome or as commanding as you. I panicked. I lost my footing. It won't happen again, I apologize.”

“Arabella,” I said internally. “Do you see what you just made me say out loud to the Lycan King? Are you proud of yourself?”

She was abso-fucking-lutely thriving and had no regrets.

The King looked at me for a long moment. His expression was unreadable, the kind of face that had been carefully schooled over a long time to give nothing away easily. Then the corner of his mouth moved.

He laughed.

It was brief and genuine and it changed his whole face. He turned to Andrew and there was something almost easy in his voice when he spoke.

“Your wife is very funny,” he said. “She's interesting, Andrew. You should cherish someone like that.”

Andrew said something in response, some agreeable noise, and I didn't catch it because the King glanced at me as he said it, just a brief look, barely a second, from the corner of his eye.

My entire body heat up from my throat to my feet.