SIX: THE FORGOTTEN QUEEN

CASSANDRA BLACKWOOD

“Come to bed, Your Highness, it's late already,” I purred, widening my legs for the dark-haired Alpha but his penetrating iron-grey eyes were noticeably turned away from me.

I was wearing nothing underneath my pink night slip and I could already feel the tingle of arousal stirring in my sex where I had dipped my fingers, hoping to catch my husband’s attention.

“Did you see that woman back at the welcoming dinner Sandra? What the hell were the elders thinking, summoning a human for the surrogate match? Why, I could kill her if I snapped my fingers hard enough,” Ezra murmured, and my heart skipped a beat in my chest.

Why was he asking about her now, when he should have been in bed with me?

Something painful hooked the back of my throat and I struggled to blink back the tears that had already pooled in my eyes.

There was a part of every woman that knew when her man was drifting away and every alarm bell in my body went off as I slid my fingers slowly out of my pussy, taking my time to respond.

There was no mistaking the air of wonder that marked his gravelly voice or the way he kept his back deliberately turned to me so that I wouldn't see his face.

Had I seen the woman? I snorted.

Every wolf at the dinner with a good long cock between their legs and half the sense to recognize a good thing when it came had SEEN the bitch, strutting into the royal dinner chambers with her chest thrust out…like she owned the fucking castle!

I could still remember the way my heart raced in my chest when I caught the lustful look on my husband’s face as he stared at her……that…that HUMAN!

What the hell did Elizabeth Milkhart have that I didn't?!

I glanced down to see that my knuckles had gone white where I gripped the pillows before I relaxed my hold, carefully breathing through my nose.

“Why does Your Highness bother himself with a mere human? When he has his Queen’s unmatched beauty and submission?” I whispered, my face straining into a smile when he suddenly turned to face me.

I was stunned at how a man so cold could be so beautiful. His darkly kohled eyes raked over my body with interest, and I allowed mine to roam over his tan chest that peeked through the V of the black shirt he was wearing. My breath caught in my throat at those large hands hanging by his sides…the full pink mouth that formed tugged down into a small frown…what that mouth could do…

Alpha Ezra Blackwood was not an easy man to please, and with each passing night that my belly remained flat, I could feel him pulling away, returning my kisses more reluctantly than the last time.

I needed to act fast if I wanted to keep being Queen Luna of Stone County and the Blackwood pack. I wasn't going to let some red-haired human with tempting green eyes steal my man away. Not without a mother-fucking fight.

“Indeed, I'll see you in the morning Sandra…rest up,” Ezra rumbled in a cryptic voice after contemplating for longer than I would have liked as he towered over the Queen-sized bed of my chambers. He had turned to go before freezing at my words.

“W-Wait…you’re not staying?” I stammered, the panicked edge showing clearly in my voice as I rushed to my feet, tugging on the stunning Alpha’s bicep.

My heart was beating a jagged rhythm in my chest as I begged him desperately to stay, knowing he would go out there to find the naughty human girl instead.

“Please…i need you-” I whispered, squeezing my nipples and watching his gaze darken with lust.

Something flickered across his chiseled face before I could spot it and just like that…my spell was broken.

“Maybe another time.” My husband growled, clasping his hands around my cheeks and pressing a dutiful kiss to my forehead before storming out of the room.

A sob rose in my throat as I watched his broad back stride toward the doors which opened automatically to let him out, shutting with a heavy thud behind him.

I fell to my knees, shaken. My eyes met my reflection of the stricken woman in the mirror.

My blonde wavy hair was expertly curled, falling over my shoulders and brushing against the hard pink nipples that showed through my transparent pink nightgown.

I traced the full mounds of my breasts with my hands, my breath catching at the tingle that ran through my body when my hands followed the small of my waist over flared hips and into the engorged lips of my pussy.

I was the ideal woman every wolf in Blackwood hoped for! A goddess in the flesh! And yet, some wide-eyed bitch from the slums was about to take my man away.

“What's wrong with you Cassandra?” I gasped, sniffing and wiping at my cheeks as my thoughts jumbled inside my head.

It had been hard getting to where I was, Queen of Blackwood and Stone County. It had taken years for me to seduce Alpha Ezra, to grace his bed enough that my scent followed him everywhere he went until the elders intervened and he had no choice but to marry me.

I hadn't been worried when there was no child two years after our mating. We’d been fucking like wild animals, his thick cock pinning me in the bathroom, the drawing rooms, and even out in the garden under the silver light of the moon!

Those were the days! Breakfast in bed and dinner in his chambers where he treated me like I was the only woman on Athena’s green earth who was worthy of his time.

We were in our tenth year now…and my spell had long run dry. I was painfully aware of his coldness…the snide remarks of the elders about when I was going to give the mighty Blackwood an heir.

I couldn't even raise my head in the throne room with dignity anymore without being reminded of the countless whores that trooped in and out of my husband’s bed chambers every night!

And now this…this new obsession! There was something different about her…something about the way he gazed at her that scared me.

“You have to do something, Cassandra. You have to keep your man no matter what it takes. It's a wolf’s world out here…playing nice would have you back on the streets.” My mother’s stern voice echoed in my head and I shuddered.

I was suddenly transported back to my old life. I could still smell the moss back in our old bathroom, as my mother applied her makeup in the cracked mirror, her leather tights peeking through the short dress she wore. A whore’s attire.

No…that life was behind me now. Something I had made sure Ezra could never find out about!

I'd be damned if I let everything I had worked for up until this point go to waste!

“Theresa? Theresa!” I yelled, gritting my teeth when only the wind whistled through the big square windows into the room.

Where the hell was that girl? Ezra had insisted on gifting me a handmaiden as his Luna and yet, it seemed like the stupid girl much preferred gossiping around in the commons than doing any actual work!

“Theresa! Where is that stupid girl?!” I shouted for the maid angrily through the intercom, watching with narrowed eyes and tapping my foot impatiently when the double doors finally opened and the timid-looking maid shuffled in.

“Your Grace-” She rasped but I raised a hand to cut her off, sickened by her slowness. Did no one in this bloody castle have a sense of urgency? My entire life and luxury was about to fall apart but the silly girl couldn't be bothered to rub her two brain cells together and put one foot in front of the other!

Why the hell did Ezra even waste money on lowly wolves like her? Ugh! I could never understand it!

“Summon the new girl. Sarah Sossen. I want to have a word with her…your discretion would be appreciated.” I growled, watching the maid’s eyes widen at my meaning before she stammered something I couldn't hear, nodding and hastily leaving the cold room.

The woman with the orange tattoo. She was all wolf like the rest of us and still my enemy. And yet…i couldn't say I hadn't seen the green, envious look in her eyes when the human had waltzed into the dinner party an hour late.

If anyone was going to be the Alpha’s surrogate, I wanted it to be Sossen. The bitch was pleasant enough…lowly enough for me to break and control and keep under my foot where a surrogate belonged. Surrogates were an abomination in wolf law…meant only to be whispered about and not fucking seen.

Sarah Sossen was just Ezra’s type too. Blonde and regal. With enough sense to know not to bare her cleavage before a Luna and her husband.

“Goddess help me,” I prayed, watching the dance of flames in the fireplace until it turned to smoldering ash.

Help me so I don't kill anyone…not this time.