Chapter 2

Zayn pov

"Fuck zaynnnn!" Alessia screamed out in ecstasy as another wave of pleasure surged through her causing her third orgasm to explode for that day.

She had her legs tangled up around my waist as she threw her head back in reckless abandon.

"Zayyyynnnn!" Her voice came out pleading this time. She wanted relief but she sure as hell know she wasn't going to get it anytime soon.

I pulled out roughly from her vagina and replaced my fingers with my already hard dick and I thrusted deeper and faster, delving into her warm sultry flesh and slamming into her already dripping count.

She couldn't take it anymore so she pulled her hips to take meet my thrusting dick.

"Do you want to stop?" I groaned as I inched closer whispering in her ear. Even if she said no I wasn't stopping I was already nearing my release.

"Ohhhhhhhhmiiiigoddd!" She screamed as her walls pulsated and squeezed my balls.

Already coming high from her pleasure, "you are so good Zayn when are you making me your queen," I heard her ask which was enough to turn my hard dick into a placid one in her.

I pulled out and grabbed her by the neck before she could get the rest of the sentence out.

"Don't you dare forget your place. You are just my fuck toy. I am only taking my fated mate as my queen."

I let go. She stared up at me from the sheets, breathing hard, more startled by the hand than by anything I'd said, which told me everything about how many times I'd said it before and never once meant it enough to follow through.

"I'm sorry, Zayn," Alessia said, quick, already reaching for me again.

I was already zipping my trousers, already halfway to not caring.

"Where are you going, we're not done here," she said, moving toward me, no shame at all in the way she stood there naked and certain I'd turn back around.

"We're done."

I opened the door.

"And it's Your Highness to you," I added, and walked out before she could find something else to argue about.

*Zayn, where are you?* Tristan, in my skull, uninvited as always.

*Heading to the office. What.*

*What's got you all cranky?*

*Alessia didn't even let me finish before bringing up being my queen. Again.* My wolf was pacing somewhere behind my ribs, angrier than I was, which was saying something. How dare she reach for a title that was never hers to want.

*You gave her the idea, you know. Years now and you still haven't found your mate. The kingdom needs a queen. You need a Luna. If you don't find yours, eventually you'll have to choose someone.*

I shoved my office door open harder than it needed. "Not her. I'm angry enough as it is."

*Then I've got the perfect distraction. Raphael's ego took a beating from a slave. He wants your help fixing it.*

"What'd she do?" Already interested. I needed something to break that would actually break.

*Kicked him in the balls. Cracked a lamp over his skull for good measure.*

I laughed, short and surprised. "She's got teeth. I can't wait to knock a few of them out." My wolf howled, delighted, somewhere in the dark behind my eyes. "The platform, then?"

*Yes.*

"Coming."

I ended the link and walked back out, already lighter than I'd felt all morning, which said something ugly about me that I didn't have the energy to examine.

*What's wrong with you,* I asked Leo. *Still sulking. Get over it.*

*I never wanted you with that she-wolf in the first place. And it's not about her.* A pause, longer than usual. *Something's wrong. I don't know what.*

I stepped out into the lower quarter, the air thick with the usual rot and smoke, and one scent cut clean through all of it lavender, something underneath it I had no name for, sharp enough that I stopped walking for a second before I'd decided to.

*Mate. Mate. Mate.* Leo, chanting, and I hadn't heard that particular kind of excitement in him in years. Not since before I'd stopped expecting to.

*You're sure,* I asked, hating how much I wanted him to say yes.

*She's here. I can feel her.*

How had I never crossed paths with her in this entire kingdom. I picked up my pace, letting the scent drag me through the crowd, and they parted the way they always parted for me, though I barely registered a single face.

*What's she doing near the platform,* I asked.

*Maybe she came to watch,* Leo said.

"Then I'll put on a good show," I said, smiling for the first time all day, and quickened my stride.

The scent pulled me straight to the center of the platform.

*Mate. It's her,* Leo screamed.

A girl knelt on the stage in slave clothing that did nothing to hide the shape underneath it. Her head was bowed, dark hair curtaining her face, hands bound in front of her.

Not human. Not a bloody human. Of every creature in this kingdom the goddess could have handed me, she'd handed me the one thing I'd sworn, standing over my parents' bodies, I would never let close enough to hurt me again.

This wasn't happening. It wasn't possible.

My fists closed at my sides, and I felt something crack loose in my chest that I didn't have a name for yet, something that wasn't only rage, and I hated it more than I'd ever hated anything, more than I hated her, more than I hated myself for wanting to see her face before I decided what to do about it.