LOGIN“Harder,” I moaned and breathed hard, my fingers locked in Jörgen’s hair as he drove into me against the cold stone wall of the old storage room. The air smelled of dust and his sweat. Every thrust scraped my back against the rough surface. I was soaked, shaking, trying to stay quiet while the rest of the pack house slept two corridors away. His mouth was at my neck, teeth grazing, one hand pinned my wrist above my head. I could feel how close he was; tight, controlled, the way he always got right before he finished. “Ughh, fuck! You’re mine,” he growled against my skin. “Say it!” “Yours.” The word came out broken. "I'm yours Jörgen." I meant it that night. I had meant it for months. I later walked into the same wing looking for him and found Yvonne’s legs wrapped around his hips, her head thrown back, his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. Same wall. Same urgency. Different woman. I didn’t scream. I left. They couldn’t risk me talking. The political alliances tied to their families would have collapsed. So they did something worse. They murdered the Alpha King’s pregnant consort, planted my scent at the scene with surgical precision, and let the entire kingdom watch me sentenced to death for a crime I didn’t commit.
View MoreHis mouth was already on my neck when the door clicked shut behind us.
I didn't care who might still be awake in the pack house. The storage room was far enough from the main hall, and the thick stone walls ate sound the way they always had. Jörgen's hand slid under my shirt, his huge palm rough against my stomach, and I sucked in a breath that tasted like dust and his skin. "I've been waiting all day," he muttered against my throat. I tipped my head back. The stone was cold through my clothes. He pressed closer, thigh between mine, and I felt how hard he already was. My fingers found the front of his pants and worked the buttons open without looking. He made a low sound when I got my hand around him. "Maria." That was all. Just my name, rough and quiet. I stroked him once, slow, and watched his jaw flex. His eyes were dark in the thin light coming through the high window. He looked at me like he always did when we managed to steal time like this. Like the rest of the pack and all their rules could burn. He pushed my skirt up. Cool air hit my bare thighs. I wasn't wearing anything underneath. He noticed. His breath left him in a short laugh that wasn't really a laugh. "You planned this." "I've been planning this since breakfast." He kissed me hard enough to make my back hit the wall. One hand stayed under my shirt, thumb brushing the underside of my breast. The other dragged my hips forward until I was fully against him. I could feel the heat of him through the thin fabric still between us. I rolled my hips once, just to feel it, and his fingers dug into my waist. "Turn around." I did. The stone scraped my palms when I braced against it. He dragged my skirt higher, bunching it at my hips, and then his hand was between my legs from behind. Two fingers slid through the wetness there and I bit down on a sound. He didn't tease long. He never did when we only had minutes. The blunt head of him pressed against me. I pushed back. He sank in slow at first, like he was making sure I felt every inch, and the stretch pulled a broken noise out of my throat. His forehead dropped to my shoulder. "Fuck." I reached back and gripped his thigh. "Don't stop." He didn't. The first real thrust drove me forward into the wall. I turned my face into my own arm to keep quiet. His hand came around and covered my mouth anyway. I tasted salt on his palm. He set a rhythm that was almost too much, almost not enough, and every time he bottomed out I felt it in my teeth. The storage room smelled like old grain and cold stone and sex. My legs started to shake. He noticed. His free hand slid down my stomach and found the place that made my vision spark. He rubbed in tight circles while he fucked me and I came hard enough that my knees tried to give. He held me up with an arm around my waist and kept going through it, chasing his own finish with short, hard thrusts that punched quiet sounds out of both of us. When he came he bit my shoulder through the fabric of my shirt. Not hard enough to mark. Just enough that I felt the claim of it. His hips stuttered. Heat spilled inside me. For a few seconds neither of us moved. His breathing slowed against my neck. "You're mine," he said, voice low. "You know that." I nodded. My throat was too tight for words. I meant it. I had meant it for months. He pulled out carefully. I felt the loss of him and the mess he left behind. He turned me around and kissed me softer than the sex had been. His forehead rested against mine for a second. "Tomorrow," he said. "After the council meeting. Same place." "I'll be here." He fixed my skirt. I fixed his pants. We checked each other for obvious signs and then he cracked the door, listened, and slipped out first. I waited the usual count of thirty before I followed. The corridor was empty. My legs still felt unsteady. I could still feel him between my thighs with every step. I went back to my room with the taste of his skin in my mouth and the certainty that this was real sitting warm under my ribs. Three days later I would walk into the same wing looking for him and find out exactly how wrong I had been. But that night I slept with his claim still echoing in my head and no idea the world was about to end.The consequence arrived before midday, and it did not come gently. I had been standing at the window with the narrow strip of open air on my face when the lock turned hard. Not the careful sound of medical staff or the single guard with a tray. Multiple boots. The door opened and two guards entered first, then a man in the dark insignia of the investigative office. Behind him came the formal-dressed official from the original interrogation. Their faces carried none of the flat routine I had gotten used to. "Maria Jonsson," the investigator said. "You will come with us." "Where?" "A review of specific claims you made regarding the sedative evidence. The request was logged. It is being addressed." My stomach tightened. I had pushed the timeline problem at Oliver the night before. Someone had decided it could not be left alone. Whether that was protection or a setup to shut me down permanently, I could not yet tell. They did not restrain me. The contract made open force unnecessar
She tried to keep her voice steady. "The halted execution and the contract were formally acknowledged. Several members expressed concern that the King is elevating a convicted murderer above the memory of his consort. One suggested that any child produced under these conditions would carry the taint of the crime. Another suggested the contract should be supervised by a fuller medical and legal panel to ensure the Crown is not being manipulated.""And you came to tell me this out of kindness.""I came to tell you that your position is not as secure as the locked door might make it feel. Practical arrangements can be revised. Public pressure has weight even on a King." She tilted her head. "You should also know that your former pack has been very cooperative in supplying character statements. They paint a consistent picture. Unstable. Resentful. Isolated. It will be difficult for anyone to argue that the judgment was rushed."She left before I could answer. The perfume trailed after her
"They are using statements from Lindholm. Character assessments. The same story Jörgen and Yvonne built." Oliver's eyes narrowed a fraction. "Your former pack's statements were part of the original record. They remain part of the record. Unless you have new evidence that changes the facts of the consort's death, they are irrelevant to the terms under which you are still breathing." I held his gaze. "There is a problem with the sedative timeline. The same compound was in my system and in the chamber. No one has properly separated when it entered my blood from when the consort died. If I was already unconscious when I was moved, the official version that I used it to overpower her does not hold." Silence settled. Oliver studied me for a long moment. The calculation behind his eyes was open enough that I could see him turning the detail over. "You are not an investigator," he said. "You are the contracted party in a breeding agreement. The question of the consort's death is being ha
I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the observation fittings in the corners. Somewhere the numbers from my body were being added to a file that decided whether I remained useful. A tray arrived. I ate. The guard took it away. The quiet returned. I used the quiet. The contract kept me alive, but it did not require me to stop thinking. I went back over every piece of the official story I had heard in the judgment chamber and in the interrogation room. The sedative in my blood and in the consort's chamber. My scent throughout the room. The statements from Jörgen and Yvonne placing themselves in the main hall with witnesses. The claim that I had been unstable and resentful. One detail sat wrong. The sedative. The physician who had examined me in the cell had mentioned residue in a cup on the side table in the consort's chamber. The same sedative that had been forced into me in my own room. If Jörgen and Yvonne had drugged me there, and if they had then moved me while I was unc
Welcome to GoodNovel world of fiction. If you like this novel, or you are an idealist hoping to explore a perfect world, and also want to become an original novel author online to increase income, you can join our family to read or create various types of books, such as romance novel, epic reading, werewolf novel, fantasy novel, history novel and so on. If you are a reader, high quality novels can be selected here. If you are an author, you can obtain more inspiration from others to create more brilliant works, what's more, your works on our platform will catch more attention and win more admiration from readers.