Chapter 10

Ethan’s POV

Dinner in the royal hall was a routine I’d grown to hate.

Every bite of roasted meat and every cup of sour wine reminded me that I was surrounded by people who feared me but didn’t respect me. Cowards in fine robes. Councilmen pretending they knew what it meant to protect a kingdom.

I listened with half an ear as the Gamma droned on about border strategies. The others nodded like puppets, but I kept my eyes fixed on the far doors.

Waiting.

When they finally opened, the only person who ever managed to make me lose focus walked in—small, quiet, cloaked in shadows. Her steps were tentative but trained, her chin lowered as she followed the same practiced path she always did to my side.

But something wasn’t right.

Her steps faltered.

It wasn’t obvious to anyone else—no one looked at her long enough to notice—but I did. Her right leg dragged slightly. Her limp was hidden in the way she shifted her weight, but I knew it like I knew my own breath.

Then she turned toward the dishes.

That’s when I saw her face.

My grip on my goblet tightened. A bloom of black and purple stretched across her cheekbone. Her lower lip was split, dried blood clinging to the corner.

And yet—she said nothing.

Not even a wince as she knelt and began tasting the food, as she’d done since I assigned her the role. Her fingers trembled slightly as she picked up the spoon, her grip shaky.

I stared. I didn’t eat.

I waited until she set down the last silver dish and moved to the final goblet. That’s when I spoke.

“Tara.”

“Yes, Alpha?”

“What happened to your face?”

She hesitated, then said, “I fell… down the stairs.”

Liar.

I sat back in my chair, letting the silence hang. Her lie scratched at my brain like nails on glass.

“You fell?” I echoed slowly.

“Yes, Alpha.”

I stared at her. “You’re so stupid you can’t even walk down a flight of stairs without smashing your face into the ground?”

Her shoulders flinched—barely—but I saw it.

I could practically feel the heat radiating from her skin, a mix of humiliation and exhaustion. She didn’t answer.

She never did.

“Finish and get out,” I said.

She did just that. Slow. Limping. Chin tucked as she disappeared like a ghost into the corridor.

But she wasn’t going to vanish tonight.

Not this time.

I had already sent a guard to fetch her. I waited in my chambers, still pacing when she arrived.

She stepped inside quietly, shutting the door behind her.

I didn’t turn around. Not yet.

“Take off your shawl,” I said.

No response. Then I heard the fabric shift and drop to the floor.

“Come here.”

When she stopped a few paces away, I finally turned. The firelight cast orange shadows across her face, highlighting the swelling under her eye and the cuts trailing down her arms. Her limp was worse than before.

“Look at me,” I said.

“I can’t.”

“Look. At. Me.”

She did. Slowly.

And that’s when I knew.

It wasn’t a fall.

It was an attack.

I stepped toward her. “I’m going to ask one more time. What happened to your face?”

Her jaw clenched. “Your majesty, I fell.”

“Bullshit.”

Silence.

I could see the lie trembling on her lips. I could smell the fear and the shame. Her heart was racing, pounding like a war drum.

“Who hit you?”

No answer.

“Who touched you?” I growled.

Still nothing.

I moved closer. “Was it a guard?”

“No.”

“A maid?”

She shook her head.

“Then who?” My voice was lower now, colder. “Tell me.”

The rage hit me like fire licking through my veins.

My hand shot forward before I could stop it, gripping her neck. Not to kill. Not even to hurt just to make her speak. But her breath hitched instantly, and her hands flew up, grabbing my wrist.

“I didn’t… mean… to…” she gasped.

“ Don’t make me rip your head off”

“I fell into her… I tore her dress… she dragged me. It… it was Sophia.”

My grip tightened slightly. “She beat you?”

She nodded frantically, her fingers cold against mine.

“She used something… a cane. Hit me. I didn’t… mean to… ”

Her voice cracked. I let go.

She collapsed to the ground, coughing, one hand over her throat.

I turned away, fists clenched. My body was trembling ans not from restraint, but from what I wanted to do. I wanted to rip Sophia’s throat out. I wanted to burn her chambers to ash and paint the walls with her  blood.

She knew better than to touch what was mine.

She knew.

And she did it anyway.

Behind me, Tara struggled to sit up. She leaned on her hand, her breaths shallow. I didn’t help her.

I couldn’t.

If I touched her again, I wouldn’t stop at her wrist.

“Did anyone see her do it?” I asked, voice raw.

She shook her head. “Her girls were with her… but they wouldn’t talk.”

Of course not. They wouldn’t dare defy Sophia. They feared her almost as much as they worshiped her.

I turned back to Tara.

She sat on the cold stone floor, bruised, shaking, looking up at me like she didn’t know whether to flinch or beg.

Something broke inside me.

I crouched in front of her, not touching, but close.

“You should’ve told me the truth,” I said.

“I was scared,” she whispered.

“Of her?”

“No,” she said, looking right through me. “Of you.”

That hit harder than her bruises ever could.

And I didn’t know what to say.

She was still on the floor, trembling.

The marks on her arms, the bruise under her eye, the red blooming around her throat from my hand… it all should’ve made me feel something close to guilt.

But what I felt was worse.

Heat.

It crawled under my skin like a parasite.

Not from pride. Not from desire.

From something in between… some twisted place where rage and possession tangled together, and all I could see was her, broken and shaking and mine.

Her thin dress clung to her skin, damp with sweat, barely concealing the curve of her chest as she breathed unevenly. Her lip was still bleeding and it only made her look more… breakable.

And that made it worse.

I turned away from her before my thoughts could betray me further.

“Get out,” I snapped.

She didn’t move.

“I said get out,” I barked louder, still facing the fire.

Her soft footsteps shuffled behind me. The sound of the door opening, then closing. Then silence.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and pressed my palms into my face, dragging them down over my mouth. My body was tense, on fire. My pulse raged like a beast in my throat.

I should’ve been ashamed.

I should’ve calmed down.

But instead, I mind-linked the guards outside.

“Bring Sophia to me. Now.”