Chapter 110

Olivia POV

I smelled sandalwood and had no idea why. It was light and sweet, but something about it disagreed with my stomach.

I fought a wave of nausea. My head was killing me.

I was in a bed.

Wait, what?

I got my eyes open and saw the tented ceiling above me. The lighting was dim.

With a groan, I sat up and saw that I was, in fact, in light brown tent. The bed was really more a cot, and I saw the shadows of people walking around on the other side of the tent walls. There was no other furnishing, but on the floor I saw a tray with a coffee pot and cups.

I regretted the noise I had just made, and in a moment, the tent flap to my right opened and Denis walked in. He as wearing full battle gear, clean and shining, and a sword hung sheathed at his waist. I supposed he thought he looked impressive, but all I saw was an Elroy wanna-be.

My wolf growled in her muted fashion, and I did a mental inventory of my clothes. Nothing had been removed while I was unconscious but my boots, though even that felt like a violation.

“Good morning,” he said pleasantly.

“Fuck you.”

I had a mental flash then of—what I assumed—had happened the night before. Elroy had donned his fur in a split second and launched himself at Denis. But his Rogues rushed between them, and Elroy ended up with a mouthful of a foot soldier who shrieked in pain and transformed to counter-attack.

I rushed in to help while calling on my wolf, but then something stabbed me in the neck, and everything went dark. I put my hand to the site and felt the tender skin there and in so doing spotted my boots at the foot of the cot.

“Sorry about that,” Denis said with what I’m sure he thought was a charming smile. “I had to make sure you weren’t hurt.

“You failed.” I tossed off the coarse covers and went to put on my boots. “Return me to my mate at once.”

He spread his hands. It didn’t help my nerves that his fingers were long and tapered, like Elroy’s. “But that is exactly what I have done.”

“Not this again.”

He laughed. “We are fated mates, Olivia.”

“You will address me as Luna.”

He shook his head. I thought about the pleasure it would give me to rip it off.

“You’re not my Luna, not yet, but you are my Olivia.”

“I’m not your anything!” I stood up. He was still a head taller than I, but I felt better for it. Besides, Elroy was taller.

But then he launched back into his tired old tale. “You are my savior, my love, my everything. You’re destined to be mine and rule Lunaris at my side.”

“Is this some sort of daily affirmation you make to feel better?”

The tent flaps opened again, and when an aide holding a letter walked inside, I got a glimpse of the landscape outside. I didn’t think we were far from Elroy’s encampment. If only I could use the mindlink, I could tell him to come get me. Why was I so defective?

What’s wrong with you? I demanded of my wolf, but she didn’t reply, as usual.

Then, just slightly, I felt a nudge in response, something faint and wounded. It reminded me that as a child my wolf had felt strong inside me.

Denis finished reading the letter and handed it back to the aide with a nod. As the aide left, he turned to me.

“Alpha Elroy has taken his troops toward the Winter Palace, where I believe Ines and Jordan are still pretending you are in confinement. It was a good plan to lure me there, but, as you know, I had an ace in the hole with Lucas.”

I said nothing, and of all things he sighed, as though I were being a difficult child.

“I will return you to Alpha Elroy, if that is your wish,” he said. “But first, I need you, please, just to sit and listen to me. I promise I can explain everything, and then you’ll see wh I have done what I have done.”

He waved at the bed. I stayed where I was and crossed my arms to wait.

“Would you like some coffee?”

I continued to wait.

He sighed again. “Many years ago, Elroy and I, though he claimed not to remember, met. We were just pups, really. I had been so curious about him, this boy I was somehow connected to. It was before I realized he was to be handed my life. I remember I’d been happy to have someone so strong to meet, someone so obviously born to rule.

“It made me realize I was the same. I too was born to rule, but when I said this to him, he only seemed confused. Then we were presented to the Ravencrest Council, but afterward, when we were left unguarded, we were captured by Rogues, and together we were taken beneath the keep.

“To this day, I’m not certain who in Ravencrest was behind it, but we were to be tested. Our status as half-brothers and our lineage, we were told, made us ideal for some study of bloodlines. We resisted and were wounded, and then they threw us in a cell where, I believe, they just left us to die.”

His gaze seemed to turn inward, as though this were a memory he was telling, not a blatant fabrication.

“I tried to talk with Elroy, at least get to know my brother before I died, but he was only half-conscious. I truly thought we were done.”

He smiled at me. “And then you appeared.”

“From thin air, I suppose?”

He chuckled. “No, you ran in from the corridor the Rogues had left through. You saw us, and I pleaded with you to help. You raised your hands, and a flash of silver burst through the cell. When it cleared, you were standing there as a silver wolf, and Elroy and I were healed.”

He looked at me expectantly. I raised my eyebrows.

“I see.”

He threw up his hands. “Don’t you see? In that moment, you saved me! You made it possible for me to be the future leader of Lunaris! It’s because of you that I survived the Rogues and have become their king! You and I have been fated from that moment.”

I shook my head.

He’s right. Please, listen to him.

I froze, no longer seeing Denis or the tent. I was looking inward, searching for the source of that voice in my head: my wolf.

I felt her, as though I were touching someone through a thick curtain. She wasn’t just wounded. She felt held down, shackled by some invisible chains.

A memory came to me, not of a cell beneath the Ravencrest Keep, but of being that silver wolf, full of power and in touch with the Goddess. I recalled the silver light I had called down from the moon.

Denis couldn’t possibly be telling me the truth, but he wasn’t completely lying.