Chapter 14

Raven

“You will be meeting the Lycan King and Queen today.”

Great, I thought as Ember carefully pulled my hair back into two ornate braids, affixing small golden cuffs around the end of each. That was just what I needed; to spend a day having to blend in with people who executed their own.

After all, if they executed their own, then that meant that they’d happily execute me if they knew who I really was.

The image of Neil lifting that heavy blade over the traitor’s exposed neck, the sound of the family’s screams, the coppery tang of blood in the air…

It was still so fresh. And it would remain that way for some time.

Castor and the others had explained, after Neil had stormed off during dinner, that what Neil had done was necessary—that the man Neil had executed had attempted to harm the Lycan Queen. And in this country, the punishment for such a crime wasn’t a prison sentence. It was death.

I understood why he had done what he’d done, and I couldn’t blame him. Customs were customs, and Neil had made a blood pact promising not to harm me.

But Neil wasn’t the only Lycan prince. And if his brothers lived up to their reputations…

Well, they didn’t have a pact with me.

“Put this on.” Ember handed me a deep burgundy gown. It was made of a soft silk with long bell sleeves and a plunging neckline. When I slipped it on, it fell all the way to the floor with a small train at the back.

Ember helped me fasten a gold chain belt loosely around my hips, and I put on a necklace with a chain that dangled between my breasts.

Underneath, I wore my boots.

And a knife strapped to my thigh, which could be accessed through a slit in the gown.

“I don’t know how to use—”

“It is just for appearances,” Ember said matter-of-factly as she finished fastening the knife to my leg. “Every noblewoman carries at least one weapon on her person. Should someone ask what you carry, you can show them this.”

I frowned, thinking back on how Neil had said that the noblewomen were particularly vicious, but said nothing. Hopefully, I wouldn’t have to use the knife; but it did make me feel a little safer, I had to admit.

Neil was waiting for me in the corridor outside the banquet hall when we arrived. He was wearing a burgundy tunic that matched my gown, a pair of leather pants, and that cloak of his. It was clean now—no blood.

He looked… handsome. Wickedly handsome, in fact. Especially with a golden circlet, which held the symbol of a crescent moon right in the middle of his forehead, around his head.

A prince. My prince, had we not come from two completely different worlds.

“You seem to be fitting in,” was all he said when he saw my gown.

I bit the inside of my cheek, quelling my disappointment. It wasn’t easy to meet his gaze, not after yesterday, but I managed. “I assume that’s a compliment.”

If it was, he didn’t say so. He just offered me his arm.

His muscles were warm and taut beneath my fingers as he led me into the banquet hall. At first, I was too busy trying not to think of how those muscles might have bunched when he lifted that sword, but when we entered the enormous room, I quickly forgot about everything else.

The room was awash in warm golden light spilling through the large windows from the sun setting in the sky. A fire crackled in the large fireplace against the far wall, and a long table was already set in the center with decadent food and pitchers of wine. The room was bustling with servants and finely-dressed guests.

Thankfully, hardly any of those guests looked our way when we entered. Except for one.

“There he is,” Caleb said, crossing the room to meet us. He wore a matching circlet to Neil’s. “Our favorite little runt.”

Neil’s muscles tightened at that. I blinked in surprise at the jab. Runt?

“Good to see you too, Caleb,” Neil replied cordially.

Caleb eyed Neil up and down, barely glancing at me, before he said, “I hear you’ve been busy. Executed the traitor yourself yesterday while Edrick and I were handling the border matters.”

“A suitable job for the lesser son.”

The sound of another man’s voice caused me to turn, and I felt my stomach twist a little at the sight. Prince Edrick, Neil’s other brother, strode up to us with a brown fur cloak trailing behind him. He was nearly as large as Caleb, with equally icy silver eyes and a hard look to his handsome face, and wore the same circlet as his brothers.

Most notably, there was a single scar that ran across his cheek.

“Lesser son?” I used our Mindlink without even meaning to, causing Neil’s arm to stiffen a little more beneath my touch.

“I do not share a mother with my brothers.”

The answer took me by surprise. I had no idea that Neil was an illegitimate child—since he apparently still had a right to battle for the throne, then it never occurred to me.

“It’s complicated,” he added, sensing my confusion.

With that, he turned to Edrick. “It’s good to see you as well, Edrick,” he said diplomatically. “This is my fianceé, Serena.”

Edrick merely nodded once at me by way of greeting, silver eyes sweeping across my body like he couldn’t have been more bored with the idea of me. Not that I minded. The less attention on me tonight, the better.

“You said… fianceé?”

A woman suddenly hurried up to us. She was beautiful, with curly red hair and freckles covering her face and pale shoulders. She wore an emerald green gown—in a very similar cut to mine, making me wonder if this dress was in style right now—that matched her eyes.

I couldn’t see a weapon on her, although I thought I caught the faint outline of something around her ankle when she moved.

“Hannah.” Neil turned to the woman, whose eyes were as wide as saucers. “Yes. This is Serena. Serena, this is Hannah. She’s a family friend.”

Hannah’s cheeks flushed at that, and she playfully swatted Neil’s arm. “Oh, Neil. You wound me. Is that all I am to you? A ‘family friend’?” She turned to me and leaned in, green eyes flashing. “Neil and I have been best friends since childhood. We have a very strong emotional foundation.”

As she spoke, her eyes flicked distastefully over me. She didn’t need to say it out loud for me to get what she was hinting at loud and clear; I’d spent enough time mingling at high-society events to read between the lines.

She was jealous. Very jealous.

But Neil simply turned away and asked Caleb about his patrol yesterday.

Hannah’s face reddened even more.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I managed with a tiny smile, keeping my voice soft so as not to betray my accent too much.

The redhead’s nose wrinkled. “Do you smell that?” she blurted out, not responding to my statement.

Frowning, I sniffed the air. I didn’t smell anything out of the ordinary—just decadent roast meat and spiced wine.

“No,” I said. “Why?”

Hannah furrowed her brow and leaned in. And then she… sniffed me.

Before I could lean away, she caught my wrist—her grip was surprisingly firm and her fingers cold—and hissed, “It’s you. Are you wearing smuggled perfume?”

I felt my entire body stiffen at that.

Perfume…

Lycans didn’t use perfume. From what I understood, they preferred their natural scents. Werewolves, on the other hand, used it almost daily.

And back home, I owned a perfume company, for Goddess’ sake.

Yesterday, while gathering herbs for the roast fish, I’d found some extra herbs in the forest: some wild lavender, sage, honeysuckle. Unable to bear having to smell my own armpits any longer—I’d been working up quite the sweat during my training—I had secretly pocketed my finds and ground them up with some coconut oil I found in the kitchen, making my own homemade scent.

It was something that I knew how to do quite well. And since the ingredients were all natural, I’d figured that it was okay to put a little on this morning.

Not even Ember had said anything.

But now…

Noticing my silence, Hannah’s lips curled back into a sneer.

“You are wearing perfume, aren’t you?” she asked.

I forced another tiny smile, suddenly feeling Neil’s, Calebs, and even Edrick’s gazes on me. Neil’s eyes seemed to burn into the side of my head, his annoyance practically radiating through our mate bond in waves.

“I…”

“The Queen is highly allergic to those disgusting chemicals, you know,” Hannah cut me off with a derisive snort. “If you are going to smuggle in illegal products, then don’t you know at least not to wear them around our Queen?”

Allergic? I glanced at Neil, who remained silent but stiff as a board. Caleb and Edrick were both snickering behind him, Hannah staring at me with her arms folded across her chest. There was a… satisfied look in her eyes.

At that moment, I knew exactly what this was: she was trying to make me look bad in front of them.

Vicious, Neil had said. He had mentioned slitting throats, but this… this was just mean girl behavior. The one thing that seemed to be shared amongst Werewolves and Lycans alike. Something that I was no stranger to.

“It’s not smuggled,” I finally said, pulling my shoulders back. “I made it myself.”

Hannah rolled her eyes and scoffed again, flipping a red lock over her hair. “Is that so? Where did you even learn such a thing?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, a regal voice suddenly carried across the room.

“Ooh… What is that scent?”