Chapter 18: Amelia

The door closed with a soft click, and I let out the breath I'd been holding. Alone at last. My ribs ached with each inhale, and the throbbing in my skull kept perfect time with my pulse. Just days ago I'd been a servant girl in Silver Lake, scrubbing floors and swallowing humiliation, then I'd discovered my wolf and run for freedom, only to be captured by rogues. Yesterday I'd been a prisoner awaiting execution. And now? Now I was the claimed and marked mate of the Alpha King himself, a man I'd watched tear people apart with his bare hands. Fate had a sick sense of humour.

I touched the mark on my neck, wincing as my fingers brushed the tender skin where Lukas's teeth had broken through. The wound was already healing—faster than it should, thanks to the magic of a mate's claim—but the memory of his mouth on my throat, the violent possession of the act, remained fresh and raw.

‘It wasn't that bad,’ Athena piped up, her voice warm and satisfied in my mind. ‘Our mate is strong. His mark will protect us.’

"Our mate didn't ask permission," I muttered aloud, finding it easier to voice my objections rather than think them. "And he made it very clear what will happen if we don't fall in line."

‘Better than Silver Lake,’ Athena insisted. ‘Better than rogues. Better than death.’

The bar was so low it scraped the ground. 

I pushed myself up from the bed, moving carefully to avoid aggravating my injuries. My legs trembled beneath me, weak from days of captivity and poor nutrition. The simple nightgown someone had dressed me in after the ball clung uncomfortably to my skin, still damp with dried sweat from my troubled sleep.

"I need clothes," I said, mostly to myself, scanning the massive bedroom.

A wardrobe stood against the far wall, dark wood carved with intricate wolf motifs. I made my way toward it, each step a reminder of Victoria's vicious kicks. When I pulled the doors open, the scent hit me first—sandalwood and pine, leather and something distinctly male. Distinctly Lukas. Row upon row of shirts, pants, and formal attire hung in perfect order, the clothing of a king who expected nothing less than perfection in all things.

I reached for the simplest shirt I could find, a black button-down made of fabric so fine it felt like water between my fingers. When I pulled it free, Athena made a sound of pure contentment in my mind.

‘Smells like mate,’ she all but purred. ‘Strong. Safe.’

"Keep it in your pants," I muttered, slipping the nightgown over my head and letting it pool at my feet. "Especially since him marking me wasn't exactly consensual."

I pulled his shirt on, the sleeves falling well past my hands, the hem reaching almost to my knees. I had to roll the cuffs several times just to free my fingers. The fabric swam on my frame, making me look even smaller than I was, but it was better than the nightgown. More coverage, at least.

‘Mate good mate,’ Athena continued, untroubled by my objections. ‘Strong mate. Will protect us.’

I shook my head, buttoning the shirt as I made my way toward the glass doors that led to the balcony I'd glimpsed earlier. "You keep saying that like it's all that matters."

‘Is important,’ she insisted. ‘Strong mate means safety. Means position. No more servant. No more hungry.’

I pushed the doors open, stepping out onto a balcony that wrapped around the entire corner of the palace. The morning air was crisp, carrying the scent of pine from the forests beyond the city walls. Below, the Royal City spread out in all directions, a sprawling testament to power and wealth that made Silver Lake look like a country cottage. Guards patrolled the palace grounds, their movements precise and coordinated. Beyond them, I could see markets opening, people beginning their day, all of them unaware that their king had claimed a new queen overnight.

"Look at all this," I said softly, sweeping my hand to encompass the view. "A kingdom."

‘Ours now too,’ Athena said, her mental voice smug with satisfaction.

"Is it though?" I leaned against the stone balustrade, the cold seeping through the thin shirt to my skin beneath. "We're prisoners here just as much as we were in those cells. Just with better accommodations."

‘Not same,’ she argued. ‘Here we have power.’

"What power? He made it very clear that my will, my choices, my freedom—they're all secondary to his."

‘Not power to stop him,’ Athena conceded, ‘but power through him. Queen to his King. Others bow to us now.’

I laughed, a harsh sound that echoed off the stone walls. "They'll bow because they fear him, not because they respect us. We're nothing but his possession. His little luna." I spat the endearment like the insult it felt like.

‘Will prove worth,’ Athena insisted. ‘Strong too. Survived Silver Lake. Survived rogues. Survived prison. Will survive this, become stronger.’

Before I could respond, a foreign presence brushed against my mind—light as a feather at first, then more solid. A voice that wasn't Athena's, deeper and richly textured, resonated through my consciousness.

‘I can feel your stress, little luna,’ Lukas said, his mental voice carrying the same authority as his physical one. 'Is everything alright?'

I flinched, nearly stumbling backward in surprise. The mate bond. Of course he could reach into my mind, touch my thoughts. Another violation, another intrusion I hadn't consented to.

"I'm fine," I said aloud, unsure if he could hear my spoken words through the bond or just my thoughts. "I was just... arguing with Athena. She has opinions about our situation."

‘She sounds wise,’ came the amused reply. ‘Perhaps you should listen to her.’

A second presence joined his, a deeper, more primal consciousness that felt like ancient forests and wild hunts. Ares. Lukas's wolf. I could feel Athena's immediate reaction—a surge of delight, a mental preening, a warmth that flooded through our shared mind.

‘Ares,’ she all but purred, pushing closer to the surface of our consciousness. ‘Strong mate.’

I felt rather than heard the answering rumble—Ares's greeting to his mate's wolf, a sound of satisfaction and possession that made my skin prickle with goosebumps despite the morning sun warming the balcony.

‘She likes the shirt,’ Lukas observed, and I could hear the smile in his mental voice. ‘My scent on you pleases both our wolves.’

I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly aware of how exposed I was, not just physically in his borrowed shirt, but mentally through this connection I didn't know how to control.

"I needed something to wear," I said defensively. "I can take it off if—"

‘Keep it,’ he interrupted. ‘I enjoy seeing you in my clothes.’

A knock at the door rescued me from having to respond. "Come in," I called, grateful for the interruption.

Servants entered—three women in simple uniforms who kept their eyes downcast as they wheeled in a cart laden with covered dishes. They moved with practiced efficiency, transferring everything to the small table near the balcony doors, arranging plates and cutlery with meticulous precision. None of them spoke or even looked directly at me. When they finished, they bowed low and backed from the room without a word, closing the door softly behind them.

‘Eat,’ came Lukas's command through our connection. ‘You need to regain your strength.’

"Are you watching me?" I asked, moving reluctantly toward the table where steam rose from beneath silver covers. "Through the bond, I mean."

‘I'm in a meeting with my security council,’ he replied, sounding faintly amused. ‘But yes, I can feel you. Your hunger. Your discomfort. Your fear, though that has lessened somewhat since last night.’

I lifted one of the covers to reveal a bowl of clear broth, just as the doctor had prescribed. "I'm not afraid of you," I lied, settling into one of the chairs.

A deep chuckle vibrated through my mind, but it wasn't Lukas this time. Ares. His wolf, laughing at my transparent falsehood.

"Great, now both of you are in my head," I muttered, dipping a spoon into the broth and bringing it to my lips. It was rich and flavorful, warming me from the inside out. My stomach growled audibly, reminding me how long it had been since I'd eaten properly.

‘Eat all of it,’ Lukas instructed. ‘The doctor said you're malnourished.’

"I'm fine," I said automatically, though I couldn't deny how good the food tasted after days of near-starvation. 

‘You are not fine,’ he countered, his mental voice firm. ‘But you will be, under my care.’

I ate in silence after that, working my way through the broth and then small portions of soft foods—poached eggs, tender bits of fish, rice pudding. All of it bland enough for my stomach to handle but nourishing. Throughout the meal, I could feel Lukas's attention split between his meeting and me, a background awareness that never fully faded. More disconcerting was Ares's continued presence, a warm weight in my mind that Athena basked in like a cat in sunlight.

By the time I finished eating, I felt stronger, the constant hollow ache in my stomach finally subsiding. I pushed the plate away with a sigh, leaning back in the chair and gazing out at the view of the kingdom—my kingdom now, if Lukas and Athena were to be believed.

‘Want to run,’ Athena said suddenly, her restlessness bleeding into my own. 'Stretch legs. Feel wind in fur.'

"Where?" I asked, gesturing at our surroundings. "We can't exactly shift here."

'Can,' she insisted. 'Lukas shifts up here. Can smell his wolf.'

I inhaled deeply, and she was right—beneath the human scents of food and fabric lingered something wilder, the musky odor of wolf that clung to certain areas of the balcony. Lukas transformed up here, probably ran these very stones in his wolf form, surveying his domain from this elevated vantage point.

"Fine," I said finally, standing and moving back to the balcony.

I laid the shirt I was wearing over the back of the chair, standing naked in the morning light. The chill raised goosebumps across my skin, but not for long. I closed my eyes, reaching for that place inside where Athena waited, eager and ready. The shift came easier this time, my body remembering the way now, bones and muscles flowing like water as they rearranged themselves into a new form.

The pain was minimal compared to my first shift; a dull ache rather than the searing agony of that night in the Silver Lake gardens. In moments, I stood on four paws, my senses expanding exponentially as Athena's consciousness merged more fully with my own. Colors faded, replaced by a world of scents so vivid I could almost see them—the lingering traces of Lukas and Ares on the stones, the guards patrolling below, the kitchens preparing the day's meals, the forest beyond the walls. Sounds sharpened too—conversations from the ground below, birds calling from distant trees, the steady breathing of the guards at our door.

We reached the corner of the balcony that offered the best view of the kingdom spread out below us. Athena sat on her haunches, head high, ears pricked forward as she surveyed what she already considered her territory. I felt her satisfaction, her pride, her absolute certainty that this was where we belonged—at the pinnacle of power, mate to the strongest wolf in the realm.

'See,' she said, her mental voice smug. 'Always meant to be Queen.'

I couldn't argue with her, not when the evidence was right there before us. From this vantage point, with these heightened senses, with the mate bond humming in our veins, it was harder to deny the truth of our situation. For better or worse, fate had bound us to Lukas Volkov. We were the Alpha King's mate, claimed and marked by the most powerful werewolf in the Northern Territories.

We were, whether I liked it or not, Queen.