The King

Bryan

Brennan led us to a room at the end of the hall, giving Gunner and me privacy while he said he'd bring the females for us to meet. Gunner shook his head at him.

"You think if you bring either of our mates in here, she would feel at ease with another male in the room?" He snarled.

It wasn't like my beta to act this way, but then again, I had never seen him catch a whiff of his mate's scent before. If Brennan wasn't careful, this could end badly-and not just because of me.

"Brennan, you are smarter than this. I need to be in a separate room. Our king is barely holding his lycan back, and that's just from catching her scent."

Brennan growled and took a step toward Gunner. I moved faster than I had in ages, grabbing a fistful of his button-up shirt before he got any closer. If he thought he could challenge my beta, he had another think coming. Brennan wasn't the type to fear anything, but when I was an inch away from his face, I caught the flicker of it in his eyes.

"Do as my beta says, or you will find out exactly why you shouldn't piss me off." I flicked my wrist, and Brennan stumbled backward.

His son, Caleb looked over at Gunner, and I could tell he was thinking of a way to salvage the situation and save his father. He cracked his neck and then motioned for Gunner to follow him. "There's an empty room next door. You can go in there, Sir."

"Good," Gunner said as he walked toward the door. "You two lucky we are being patient enough to meet the unmated females of this pack. Otherwise, we would be talking to your beta about becoming the alpha." Gunner snarled at Brennan loud enough to rival my own.

"We're sorry."

I smirked in Brennan's direction, silently agreeing with my beta, and enjoying the rage in his eyes that were directed at his son. He followed Gunner and Caleb out of the room, and a few minutes passed before I heard Brennan's footsteps walking down the hall. Another set of footsteps followed him. These were softer than his, and I knew he was bringing a female for me to meet. My heart thumped in my chest as anticipation grew. Was this the one I would call my mate?

A blonde-haired female with big green eyes walked in, a petite little thing that smelled of roses. She kept her gaze averted from mine, and I noticed she maintained some distance between herself and Brennan. A whiff of fear coated her, overwhelming everything else, but I couldn't tell if she was afraid of me or Brennan right now. With my lycan on edge from sensing his mate and the anger I felt about Brennan's actions, she could very well be afraid of me.

It made me want to rip Brennan's head off his shoulders for making this young female so scared to be around a male. I had to swallow down that anger before she could feel it rolling off me. She didn't deserve to be more fearful of anyone than she already was. I narrowed my eyes at Brennan before I composed my expression to talk to her.

"This is not my mate. I apologize, little one," I said. She looked down, and I continued, "Don't fear me. My rage is not directed at you. After tonight, I will make things right." I turned to look at the alpha and spoke louder. "This one is not mine. Please bring her to Beta Gunner so he may determine if she is his mate."

Brennan nodded and then turned toward the door. The female looked at me, hope filling her eyes. I needed to fix this pack. No one should look like that among anyone, let alone their alpha.

Several other females were brought into the room. None of them were my mate, but I sensed from the joy I heard in the next room that Gunner had found his. I couldn't be happier for my beta, but my lycan wasn't satisfied that we hadn't found ours yet. She was here. The scent of caramel and vanilla followed Brennan, clinging to him. Was he keeping my mate from me? It was against the laws of lycans to keep a mate from another. It could be punishable by death if I chose to, but I needed to know what was going on for that to happen. If Brennan chose to do such a thing to me, the king, it would most certainly end in death for him. The man didn't understand the fire he was playing with right now.

My lycan felt the same way-he loved to bathe in the blood of anyone who stood in his way. Keeping him caged was the last thing I wanted to do. However, if my mate was here, I didn't want to scare her any more than she already was, judging by the scent of fear mixed with hers.

"Where's my mate, Brennan? She is here. I know her scent, and she is here."

He winced under my gaze, and it did nothing to keep my rage contained. "I've presented every female in the pack to you, Your Highness." Lie. He was fucking lying to me. "Maybe someone from my pack brought someone from another pack-"

I roared, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Wrong, you asshole. I know she is here, and you will bring me to her! Her scent betrays your lie!"

"She isn't here!" he roared at me again.

My fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. Before his mind caught up with what I had done, I grabbed onto his shirt and pulled his face to mine.

"If you don't tell me where she is, I will slaughter every male in this pack until you release her to me."

His pupils dilated, and I could see the gears of his mind turning at the implications. If I took out the males, he wouldn't have much of a pack left. He'd be powerless, something every alpha feared more than dying.

The whites of his eyes became more apparent as he looked at the door. I pushed Brennan out of the way, and I heard his snarl as I stepped into the hallway. I caught a whiff from a door across the hall from where I stood. She couldn't have been that close, could she? If she had been across the hall this whole time, how didn't I notice? Taking in a deep breath, her scent was faint in the air. She hadn't crossed this threshold for a few days. There was a mildew smell coming from the door. My heart sank at the implications of that added scent. Was she here, just beyond the door?

Wait a minute.

That bastard kept my mate locked away and tried to hide her from me. She was in there when he knew it was her I was smelling!

The way my lycan pushed to shift nearly dropped me to my knees. He wanted nothing more than to rip Brennan apart for keeping our mate from us. It took far too long to calm my beast enough to convince him we needed to find our mate first.

If she was locked in the dungeon, it meant she would be surrounded by metal bars etched with runes. If Brennan was the monster I believed him to be, the metal was likely charged with powerful magic-designed to contain not only whoever was trapped inside but their lycans as well.

Many rulers, especially tyrants, hired sorcerers or witches to enchant prison bars with magic that would kill their occupants if they tried to escape. Runes were crafted to hold; darker magic was used to ensure those runes were never broken.

I needed her out of there.

This time, I didn't give anything shit about being polite. Without hesitation, I ripped the door off the hinges, realizing that no one had reinforced it as they should have, and then barreled down the stairs to search for my mate.

The room was filled with the caramel and vanilla scent of my mate mixed with the must of the basement, blood, and decay that sent my lycan on a warpath. Each cage lining the wall was too dark for my human eyes, so my lycan pushed for his eyesight, as he had better night vision. My heart raced as I inspected each one, and my body vibrated from the need to find her before it was too late. That decay I smelled could have been her. If it was, this pack would be slaughtered as I threatened.

I wouldn't know how to hold back my beast if his mate had been taken from him before we found her. Now that her scent had been committed to memory by both of us, the faintest spark of a bond had begun to form-one that threatened to shatter us both into madness at the mere thought of losing what might have been.

That's when I reached the final cage. The small form curled into a ball against the wall sent my lycan into a frenzy. Her clothes were tattered, brown hair matted to her scalp from dried blood, and bruises covered everywhere I could see skin.

With my heart racing, thumping loud enough that I was sure anyone in the room could hear it, I grabbed onto the bars of the cage. My skin hissed from the contact with the runed metal, but I ignored it enough to pull two bars in opposite directions to break into the cage. I had to turn my body to the side to squeeze in, my clothes preventing my skin from contacting the bars, until I got through. Rushing to her side, I dropped to my knees and reached out to touch her. A gentle caress down her cheek was all I managed before I saw fluttering in her eyelids. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing she was alive-that I wasn't too late and could wake her to show her I was her mate.

But my hope of her recognizing me as her mate was futile.

Her eyes snapped open, brown irises looking at me before her pupils dilated as she scrambled to a seated position. My mate winced as she moved, revealing that she was beyond hurt in that moment. Terror was etched into her face, tears welling in her eyes. I wanted to bathe in the blood of the person who caused her to respond this way. They didn't deserve to breathe.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you," I whispered to her while holding out my hand for her to take.

She slapped it away. "Stay back! Please, stay away from me."

I stifled my growl at her refusal to take my hand. That wasn't how I'd win my mate over. I needed to show her I would take care of her.

A million questions ran through my mind, but only one came out of my mouth when I opened it. A growl mixed with my words, but I couldn't contain my fury any longer.

"Tell me who is responsible for locking you away in these conditions! I need names! I need to know everyone behind this!"