Chapter 3

THE KING'S MATE

The ballroom was mixed with the heavy scent of perfume and ambition. It was the same every year, and I had grown tired of it.

I stood on the raised platform at the far end of the hall, one hand resting on the hilt of the ceremonial sword at my hip and watched wolves dressed in expensive silk and shiny jewels parade past me, each one hoping to catch my attention. I didn't notice a single soul. I never did.

"You could at least pretend you're enjoying yourself," Roderic muttered beside me, folding his arms as he scanned the crowd out of habit rather than interest. He, my advisor, had been by my side through eleven Lycan Balls, and every year he gave me the same advice and every year, I also gave him the same answer.

"I'm not here to enjoy myself. I'm here because tradition demands it"

"It also demands that you find your mate, Your Majesty. At least look like you're trying.”

I didn't answer. There was nothing left to say on the matter. For eleven years, I had been in this same place, breathing in hundreds of unfamiliar scents while waiting for something my wolf had ceased believing would happen years ago. Some kings found their mates in their twenties, only months after taking the throne. I was almost thirty with no show, but only silence where the bond should have been.

A noblewoman in a green gown approached, curtsying low to make her intentions obvious. "Your Majesty, you look handsome tonight."

"Thank you," I replied without emotion, already looking past her.

"I was wondering if you'd honor me with a dance..."

"Not tonight."

Her face fell, and she quietly walked away and another one replaced her within seconds, then another, an endless line of women who saw a crown instead of the man wearing it. I had stopped bothering to learn their names years ago. My wolf didn't react to any of them. He stayed quiet, just as he had at every ball before this one.

At first, I thought he was simply patient. Now I suspected he was empty and that whatever piece of me was supposed to recognize a mate had never existed at all, or had been lost in the wars that put this crown on my head in the first place.

The music changed to the same slow formal piece the orchestra had played every year I could remember. I lazily looked over the crowd without really seeing anyone.

Then it hit me.

A scent reached me through the perfume and candle smoke. It was sudden and impossible to ignore at the same time. So warm and fresh, like rain falling on stone, like something I'd been starving for without ever knowing its name. My whole body became rigid. My wolf, which had been silent for eleven miserable years, suddenly roared to life so violently I nearly staggered.

MATE.

The word tore through every part of me powerfully. Every instinct I possessed directed me towards the far side of the ballroom.

"Your Majesty?" Roderic asked. "Kael... what's wrong?"

I didn't respond. I couldn't. My heart pounded against my ribs, and my hands…hands that had held swords through three brutal wars were trembling now.

I saw her. She was standing near the far wall in a pale blue dress, partly hidden behind an older woman who seemed eager to push her into the crowd. She wasn't looking at me. She was gazing at the floor. Her shoulders were slumped, as though she wanted to disappear rather than being seen.

Then she raised her head up. Our eyes met and the ballroom vanished. The music, the noblewomen, Roderic's voice at my shoulder, all of it dissolved into thin air, leaving only her. Her storm-gray eyes widened with shock and fear. She looked like a frightened deer caught in a hunter's sight.

My wolf screamed for me to go to her. To claim the woman who had always been meant for me. For the first time in eleven years, I didn't fight the urge.

I walked.

I didn't remember making the decision. I only remembered the crowd parting for me as I crossed the ballroom without a single word, my eyes never once leaving her face. No one dared stand in my way. Whispers spread around me, but I ignored them. All I heard was my own heartbeat and beneath it… hers, racing just as fast as mine.

She didn't run.  I didn't know if that was bravery or if it was simply shock holding her in place, but she was rooted to the spot as I closed the last few feet between us, and when I reached her, the pull became even stronger. It was almost painful. Every part of me wanted to touch her and to never let her out of my sight again.

The older woman beside her hurried into a curtsy, nearly losing her balance. She murmured something, but I didn't bother to register. I had eyes for only one person in that entire hall.

I raised my hand.

She flinched slightly as my fingers found her chin, gentle, careful, even though every instinct in me wanted to be anything but gentle after eleven years of waiting. Her skin was warm under my touch. I heard her breath catch, felt the tremor that ran through her when our eyes locked again from only inches apart.

"My mate," I whispered.

Two words. The only words that mattered. At last, the empty space inside my heart was filled. The ballroom erupted with noise. Gasps echoed everywhere. Whispers became loud voices. The women who had spent the evening trying to win my attention now stared at the stranger in the pale blue dress with expressions ranging from disbelief to open jealousy. Roderic was saying something behind me, but I couldn't focus. My whole world had become this one woman.

She should have looked happy. Every unmated woman dreamed of being chosen by the Lycan King. Yet she seemed terrified. Pain filled her eyes instead of joy. Her lips trembled and her hands curled into tight fists. Her whole body stiffened beneath my touch, as though she was bracing for a blow rather than receiving the greatest honor a wolf in this kingdom could hope for.

"Please," she whispered so softly I almost didn't hear her over the crowd. "Please... don't do this."

I frowned. I didn't understand. I opened my mouth to ask her what was wrong, what could make a woman recoil from a bond every instinct in her own body should have been screaming to accept. Before I could speak, her hand flew up.

Smack!

The slap struck my face so hard my head turned to the side, that the entire ballroom went utterly, deathly silent in the same breath.  I was frozen in place, my cheek burning and my ears ringing with the sound of it. I slowly looked back at the woman who had just slapped the Lycan King in front of the royal court.

No one moved or even breathed.

Hundreds of wolves were motionless, waiting to see how I would respond and how much of my legendary temper she had just unleashed.