Chapter 4; The King’s Business

GREY’S POV

I had a system for traitors but it wasn't complicated. 

The complicated part which included the investigation and the gathering of evidence were already done when they were brought to me and by the time I was involved, the only thing left was the end of it.

Dorian Hess had served in my inner circle for three years. He stood at my right shoulder in council meetings and nodded along to every word I said.

I always thought him loyal and impossible to betray me. It turned out that I was wrong. 

He knelt in the centre of the lower hall now, his wrists bound, and two of my guards at his back. 

"You don't have to do this," Dorian said. His voice was mostly steady. I gave him credit for that.

"I know," I said.

I was leaning against the far table with my arms crossed, watching him with patience. 

When I was younger, I used to let anger lead but the aftermath was always messy so I learned better.

His throat bobbed. "My family-"

"Will be provided for," I said. "I'm not punishing them for your choices. That's not how I operate."

He looked up at me, searching for mercy, I thought, or for a version of me he could appeal to.

"But why are you doing this!?" He cried out. 

"Because you’ve been giving our army movements to the Crestfall pack for eight months," I snarled. "And because of that three of my soldiers died in an ambush last spring using that information.”

I pushed off from the table. "I take that personally, Dorian."

He had the decency to look away and I nodded to the guard on the left.

It was quick. I had made that a rule a long time ago as I was many things, but I wasn't the kind of man who dragged it out for the sake of making a point.

His head rolled to the floor and his headless body fell to the ground. The hall was quiet afterward.

I stood there for a moment in the silence, my hands in my pockets as I let out a sight. 

I heard the door at the top of the stairs open and close and heavy footsteps descending.

Cade didn't say anything about what he walked in on. He had been my Beta for four years so he had seen worse.

"Are you finished?" he asked.

I nodded gruffly. 

"Good." He came to stand beside me, and his whispered. "The elders called a formal session this morning."

I waited.

"They're moving, Grey. Edric has been meeting with the three eldest council members privately for the past two weeks, and they're building a case." He paused. "They want to present him as a viable alternative to succession."

Edric. My father's other son, from the woman he'd kept on the side for eleven years while my mother was alive. 

He was younger than me by four years, with my father's jawline and and a hunger for the position he never been meant to hold that had apparently found some sympathetic ears.

"Let them build their case," I said.

Cade visibly stiffened. "Grey."

"I said let them." I growled. 

"They have grounds." Cade's voice was harsh. "You are thirty-one years old and unmated. There is no heir, no immediate prospect of one, and in the eyes of the old council, that is an unstable throne." 

He turned to face me directly. "Edric is twenty-seven, already paired, his mate is pregnant with their first child. On paper, to the council who care about legacy above everything else-"

"He looks like continuity," I finished.

He nodded. "Yes."

I exhaled through my nose and turned away, walking slowly to the narrow window at the end of the hall. 

Outside, the palace grounds stretched dark and quiet, the tree line barely visible against the sky.

I didn't want a mate. That was the simple truth of it.

The idea that some force outside myself had decided who I would spend my life with was unthinkable.

I had watched it undo people I respected and I had seen it hand leverage to enemies who knew how to use love as a crowbar.

I had decided, without announcing it to anyone, that it was not going to happen to me.

"There are seven families," Cade said, coming to stand behind me, "who have already made it known they consider their daughters eligible. If you simply chose one."

I raised a hand, cutting him short. "I've met those daughters," I said. "Every single one of them has been paraded in front of me at some point in the last three years like furniture being displayed in a showroom. I'm not interested."

Cade was quiet for a moment. Then he said, carefully, "There's another option."

I turned.

He rubbed his jaw, as though it displeased him to say it. “You don't need a mate but you would need the appearance of one or not even that. You need a woman beside you who is not connected to any of the seven families and can give the council enough to quiet their concerns about stability."

I was intrigued, nodding dor him to continue. So he did. "You can choose someone on your own terms.” I looked at him.

"You're describing a purchase," I said.

"I'm describing an arrangement," he answered. "One that benefits both parties."

I turned back to the window.

The practical part of my brain was already turning it over. Getting someone I could manage was the best option I could get. 

And then, without meaning to, I thought about her.

Poppy.

I didn't even know her last name. But I couldn’t forget those pale eyes that caught the bar light. She had this way of talking that sounded self-deprecating and amusing at the same time. 

I left before she woke up. That had been the right decision. 

But I thought about her twice since then, which was two more times than I should have.

So I pushed it down. "Set it up," I said.

Cade nodded once. If he was surprised, he didn't show it. "There's an auction tonight from a reputable source.”

"Tonight?" I frowned. 

He bobbed his head. "Better to move quickly. The elders' session is in ten days."

I looked at him for a long moment, then pushed off from the window. "Fine."

We left immediately, using the back entrance of the palace so as to not alert anyone of our movements. 

By the time we arrived, I was already bored out of my wits and wanted the bught to end already 

The venue was beneath an industrial building and the outside looked inconspicuous enough. 

The inside however was arranged like a theatre with a central stage in front, the only bright lights pointing towards the open space. 

There were about fifty other men apart from me, and my stomach rolled with disgust. I wondered how long this had been going on for.

The show started and I watched without expression as the first few girls were brought out. 

None of them caught my eyes, although I didn’t miss the slight terror in their eyes even as they smiled and waved. 

I was about to suggest to Cade that this was a waste of time when the fourth one came out.

It took me three full seconds to be certain since she was facing slightly away. And my brain kept trying to tell me I was wrong, that it was the dim room and the fact that I apparently thought about her enough to start seeing her face in strangers.

Then she turned and those pale grey eyes were unmistakable.

Poppy.

My heart flipped and my wolf reacted instantly, growling at the fact that she was standing there in front of a room full of men.

Her clothes were so skimpy, it was almost like she wasn’t wearing anything at all.

I pressed the possessive down but my wolf kept toiling and growling. Cade shot me a worried look and I pressed a smile on my face, waving it off as nothing. 

The bidding opened with the first girl, a blonde beauty, and three men raised their markers in the first ten seconds. 

She was sold. The second girl was brought up but my gaze was fixed on Poppy who had her eyes glued to the floor. 

My wolf pushed again, less controllable this time, and I thought about the way she laughed, and how her body felt on my hands. 

I picked up my marker.