Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2: The Enemy's Price

"You're late."

I step out of the car. Marcus is asleep in the backseat. I grabbed him from school so fast I didn't even put on his shoes. Mid-nap. Still in his uniform. His small hand clutches that stuffed wolf he loves. I grabbed it from his bed without thinking. The only thing he asked for when I pulled him out of class.

A man walks toward me. Tall. Broad. Scar through his eyebrow. White and jagged, like lightning cut his face. He moves like he expects the ground to move for him, like the world should step aside.

"Kael," he says. "East territory Alpha. Your husband's enemy."

"I don't know you," I say. My voice is flat. I am too tired for fear.

"You will." He stops three feet away. Close enough to touch. Far enough to not threaten me yet. "I watched your house. I have cameras in the trees. Darius's men arrived at the school ten minutes after you left. Big men. Armed men. You got the boy just in time. Another five minutes and they would have had him."

I look at the car. At Marcus sleeping inside. His face is peaceful. He doesn't know. He doesn't know any of this. "He wants to take my son."

"Not your son," Kael says. His voice doesn't change. It stays flat and hard. "Biologically. But yes. He wants him. For leverage. For proof that you are unstable. A kidnapper. A danger to the child. He will use the courts to take him from you forever."

"What do I want me to do?" I ask. I am too tired to think. Too broken to plan.

"Marry me."

I laugh. It sounds crazy. The most hilarious thing I have ever heard.

"What?"

"Fifteen days until election. You need a husband to claim the crown. I need Darius to suffer. We marry. You become Queen. I watch him lose everything he stole from me. Then you annul the marriage. Send me away. I don't need to be King."

He steps closer. I can smell him now. Forest, smoke and blood.

"I just need him to not be. I need him to know he lost. I need him to see your face when you take everything from him."

I look at the trucks behind him. Three. Black. Armed men watch from inside. This is real. This is happening. I am standing in the dark with a stranger who wants to marry me. My husband wants to steal my son. I am a Princess. Nothing makes sense anymore.

"Why not just kill him?" I ask. It seems easier. Cleaner.

"Too fast." Kael smiles, not warm, cold sharp.

"I want him to lose everything slowly. The election. The title. The respect of his pack. The love of his people. Then I want him to know you chose me. His replacement. His enemy. The man he couldn't defeat. I want that look on his face when he realizes. That is my price. That is what I want."

"And after?" I ask. "When the fifteen days end? When I have the crown?"

"You annul the marriage. Keep me as advisor if you want. Send me back east with a handshake and a check."

He shrugs, like this is nothing. Like we are talking about the weather.

"Or keep me. Your choice. I don't need to be King. I just need him to not be."

I look at my hands. They still have flour from the cake. Red velvet under my nails. Seven years of my life, ground into nothing. Into ash. Into this moment.

"One condition," I say.

"Name it."

"Marcus stays with me. Always. No matter what the DNA says. No matter what the law says. I am his mother. You don't use him. You don't threaten him. You don't even look at him wrong. You swear this on your life."

Kael looks at the car. At the sleeping boy. His face changes. Something cracks. Just for a second. Then it is gone.

"My sister had a son," he says.

"Darius killed her before the boy could walk. I couldn't save her. I couldn't stop him. The boy is being raised by my beta now. I see him monthly. I bring him gifts. He calls me uncle."

He looks back at me. His eyes are different now. Softer. "I know what it means to love a child not born to you. To choose them. To be their family because you want to be, not because blood says you must." He holds out his hand.

"Marcus is yours. I swear it on my sister's grave. I swear it on my life. No harm will come to him from me."

I look at his hand, Large, Scarred across the knuckles. A fighter's hand. A killer's hand. The hand of a man who has nothing left to lose.

I take it. Warm. Rough. Real. More real than anything in my life has been for seven years.

"Fifteen days," I say. "Make them count."

Kael pulls out his phone. "We move now. Darius filed a police report ten minutes ago. They are looking for you. Kidnapping charges. He says you stole the boy. He says you are unstable. Dangerous."

He opens my car door. Lifts Marcus. The boy stirs. Opens his eyes. Sees a stranger. A big man with scars.

"Who are you?" Marcus asks. His voice is small. Sleepy. Afraid.

"Kael. I am helping your mama."

Marcus looks at me. I nod. I try to smile. I don't know if it works.

"Okay." He holds up his arms. Small. Trusting. "Carry me?"

Kael lifts him. Easy. Strong. The boy rests his head on Kael's shoulder. His eyes close again. He trusts so easily. He loves so easily. I have taught him that. I have taught him to love people who will hurt him.

"You're big," Marcus mumbles.

"Yes."

"You smell like trees."

Kael almost smiles. Almost. His mouth moves. "I live in the forest. I like trees."

We move to the trucks. The convoy starts north. I ride with Kael, Marcus between us. The boy sleeps, thumb in his mouth, the way he only does when he is truly exhausted. When he feels safe.

"Tell me the plan," I say.

"First, we hide. Safe house in the mountains. Then we strike back." Kael drives with one hand. The other rests near Marcus, ready to catch him if he falls. Ready to protect him. "Tomorrow. Public announcement. You claim your identity. You name me as consort. We do it live, on camera, before Darius can spin the story. Before he can call you crazy. Before he can call you unstable. We take the story from him. We make it ours."

"That is fast," I say.

"Fast is safe. Slow is dead." Kael looks at me. His eyes catch the light from the dashboard. Gray. Like a wolf's eyes. "My sister was strong like you. She thought she could fix Darius. Change him. Make him good. She believed people were good inside." His jaw tightens. I see the pain there. Old pain. "He killed her. Slowly. He made her watch him take everything first. Her home. Her reputation. Her son's love. Then he killed her. You are not trying to fix him. You are trying to destroy him. That is smarter. That is why you will win."

I look at my hands. They shake. I hide them under my legs so he cannot see.

"I loved him," I say. The words come out broken. Shameful.

"Seven years. I really loved him. I believed him. Every lie. Every delay. I thought if I was good enough, patient enough, quiet enough, he would finally see me. Finally love me. Finally mark me."

"I know." Kael's voice is flat. Not gentle. True. "That is why he picked you. Easy to love. Easy to lie to. Grateful orphan. No family to warn you. No power to fight back. No one to tell you that you deserved better." He pauses. The road is dark. The forest is thick.

"But that is done now. You have power. You have me. And you have fifteen days to learn how to use both."

The safe house is a cabin. Wooden. Small. Hidden in trees that touch the sky. I tuck Marcus into a narrow bed. He doesn't wake. I stand in the doorway, watching him breathe. Watching his chest rise and fall. Memorizing his face. The face I have loved for six years. The face that is not mine by blood, but is mine by every other measure that matters.

Kael waits in the hall.

"He calls me Mama," I say. I don't look at him. I can't.

"Even if I am not. Even if they try to take him. Even if the law says I am nothing. I am his mama. I am the one who was there. I am the one who stayed."

"Then protect him." Kael hands me a phone. Black and simple.

"New number. Encrypted. Sleep four hours. Then we work, we plan, we prepare for war."

He walks away. His footsteps are soft for such a big man. Soft like he doesn't want to wake the boy.

I lie on the bed next to Marcus. I don't sleep. I stare at the ceiling. I plan. I remember.

Tomorrow I will stand before the world. I will claim a crown I don't know how to wear. I will name an enemy as my husband. I will burn seven years of my life to ash. I will become someone new.

And Darius will see. He will know. I am not his orphan anymore. I am not his grateful wife. I am not his nothing.

The phone buzzes. A text.

Kael: Sleep.

me: Can't. Too angry.

Kael: Good. Save it for tomorrow. You will need it.