Chapter 3

XADEN

The argument started in the war room, where it always did.

I'd wore a smug face, like everything doesn't matter, it was better than painting the room red again.

I twirled the glass of wine in my hand, barely drank from it, my head void of thoughts.

“You’re drunk,” Roseline chipped in.

My sister-in-law. Dowager alpha.

The woman who’d been holding this pack together with sheer spite since my brother died two years ago.

I didn't even want to meet her gaze because she stared at me like I was a loaded gun she wasn’t sure wouldn’t go off.

I set the glass down on the table next to me. It didn’t shatter. I had better control than that.

“I’m not drunk. I’m done.”

“Done with what?” She walked closer, her eyes observant. “With mourning? With protecting Kieran? Or by pretending you don’t want the throne?”

Oh, the eight year old. Kieran, my brother's son. The real heir.

A kid who still left the hallway light on at night and asked if his dad was watching him from the moon.

I smirked loudly like a mockery.

“What are you afraid of, Roseline? That I’ll wake up one morning and decide I want to be alpha?”

Her jaw ticked, she'd clenched her fists in frustration.

“I’m afraid you’ll be forced into it. That they’ll use you. That you’ll let them. Kieran can’t fight them, Xaden. He’s eight.”

Eight. Too young to shift properly. Too young to understand why half the pack looked at him like a problem to be solved.

“So you’re arranging a marriage.”

I finally met her eyes but they'd never look at me with respect, I smelt her fear even despite the distance she set between us.

She didn’t deny it.

“Someone from the council. Strong. Old blood. Someone who can act as a buffer before the elders decide Kieran needs a ‘stronger’ guardian.”

Buffer. Definitely someone to control me before I became a threat.

I stood up, pulling the lapel of my coat, a habit that'd help quell this sudden thirst...for blood.

“Stop making plans for my life, Roseline. I’ve spent ten years cleaning up your husband’s messes. I’m not your problem to solve.” I mused but didn't attempt to raise my voice.

She caught my arm before I reached the door.

“I’m doing this to protect you. And Kieran. And the pack.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then you leave me with no choice but to trust the council.”

That was worse than a threat. I pulled my arm away, breathing hard.

“Keeping Kieran safe is my responsibility. You don't get to choose a bride for me”

I walked out before she could say anything else.

Stomping around the hallway, I realized it was too quiet. The kind that meant people were listening from behind doors.

I made it to the east wing before I heard her voice through the half-open council chamber door.

How quick she was.

“...because I don’t trust him alone with Kieran,” Roseline was saying. Her voice was tight, urgent. “Xaden is the most popular alpha in the territory. If he decided he wanted the seat, no one would stop him. I need him married to someone from the council. Someone who can keep him in line.”

Silence. Then an elder's voice. “And if he refuses?”

“Then we find a way to make him accept,” she replied in a shaky tone.

Anger hit hot and fast. Not at Roseline but the fact she was right to be afraid.

I didn’t wait to hear more as my cold expression melted into something darker.

In a haste, I grabbed my car keys from the room and the next minute I was driving on the road.

If they wanted to control me, they could try. 

But not tonight.

Tonight I just needed to drive until my hands stopped shaking.

***

I drove really fast like I was ready to commit suicide or a murder.

The road to the ridge was empty, wet with rain, and I took it at eighty.

Roseline didn’t get it. I didn’t want the throne, a promise I'd made after dad had me thrown to dens of rogues at ten.

Thrones got people killed. Pushing back the memories behind me, I'd focused on the road, just go to a bar and crash out.

However, the headlights caught it first.

A black sedan off the road, one tire shredded, smoke pouring from the hood.

And in the driver’s seat—

Veralin?

Her hair was stuck to her face with blood and rain. But even like this, she was unfair.

Sharp jaw, high cheekbones, lips part in a snarl that had nothing to do with seduction and everything to do with defiance.

I hated that I noticed. Hated that my pulse kicked up just seeing her alive.

Her hands were white on the wheel, trembling.

I hit the brake and jumped out.

She saw me and her expression went from shock to fury in half a second.

“Don’t touch me,” she said the second I opened the door.

“Your car’s about to blow,” I snapped, reaching for her.

“I said don’t touch me, Xaden.”

I rolled my eyes, that stupid pride of hers. I'd unbuckled her, hauled her out.

Dragging her back ten feet just as the engine gave one last shudder and died.

We hit the ground together. 

Her weight was solid against me. Her heart was beating too fast and her breath fanned my neck.

My body reacted before my brain could stop it. Heat low in my gut. My wolf stirred. Stupid and traitorous.

Goddamnit! Not now. Not her. I hated it. Hated that after everything, one close breathe from her still did this to me.

For a second, I saw it—back in college, at the training yard, when I'd let her win the archery games and stared at me like she knew I did it on purpose.

But then she shoved me off.

“Why are you here?” she barked, gasping for air, her eyes danced in their sockets.

“Wrong question,” I whispered, wiping blood off my knuckles.

It was hers, always getting injured.

“Ask who cut your brake line.”

I couldn't look away even if I wanted to. Her eyes were wide and furious, and gods, she was beautiful like this.

Fierce...unbroken.

The kind that'd made you want to ruin her just to see if she'd break for you.

Stop xaden! She's an enemy!

The sedan exploded.

Heat rolled over us. I rolled on top of her without thinking, shielding her face with my body as shrapnel hissed into the dirt.

We were breathing hard again, eyes locked and her lips parted, close enough to kiss.

Full. Soft. The kind of lips that had cursed me out for years and haven't left my head.

Those fucking lips!

Hastily, I pushed myself up, yanked her to her feet and kept her behind me.

“Stay behind me.”

An instruction she didn't listen to. She grabbed the pistol from my holster before I could stop her.