Chapter 44

~Grace~

I was stupid.

I should have known it was a setup.

Everything about it screamed “trap” but I just couldn’t listen to my gut feeling.

What would Alex say if he were here?

“You really thought a magic spell would bring your fertility back?” I could hear him say in my head, looking at me with exasperation.

I had gotten myself into another predicament that I hid from Alex.

I was led back through the forest until we reached some man made structures and I realized there was an entire civilization living out here in the woods.

It must have been the Rogue camp.

Of course Christopher was a Rogue. It all made sense. Why he was out so late at night in the forest by himself with a life-threatening injury… I bet Alex was the one who gave him that wound!

I had been provided my own room, and it was nice enough, but I couldn’t care less. About anything.

About being kidnapped, even.

What did any of that matter when I had felt so close to achieving the unobtainable? To finally get my fertility and ability to conceive back again?

I had been crushed.

My world felt dark and meaningless.

I had everything I wanted right in the palm of my hands, I had held it, felt it. I knew I had everything I wanted, but it was ripped away from me.

It fell apart and I realized it was all a lie.

Deception.

Pain.

I sat on the floor of the room I had been given, my hair falling over my face. I hadn’t moved since they brought me in.

Occasionally, they would bring me food and water, but I hadn’t touched anything.

I didn’t want to eat. What was the point of eating when I couldn’t have any children?

I had been so close. I felt it. I really thought…

A tear slowly rolled down my cheek. My chest ached so much it was hard to breathe.

I was grieving all of the children I could have had, because for a moment, through the magic, I felt like they were there. My future children.

As if they were blessing me to be able to conceive and be their mother.

But it was all a lie.

That Christopher… This was all his fault.

I heard a commotion outside of my door, and suddenly, two figures burst in. The room became very loud, suddenly as the arguing voices entered my room.

I didn’t look up at them. I recognized one of the voices.

Sophia.

What was she doing here? Not that I was surprised to see her here, to witness me at my lowest.

The voices stopped for a moment, and I heard Sophia speak up again.

“You! You ruined my life!! Liam wants nothing to do with me anymore and you didn’t even take him back! You just had to go off and run away with the Lycan King, you werewolf whore!”

Suddenly, I was knocked back as Sophia tackled me, flailing her arms around, pounding on me with her closed fists.

I stayed still, my expression unchanging. If she wanted to make my life any worse than it already was, she couldn’t. She was the last of my worries right now.

My face pointed up after Sophia knocked me to the floor, my eyes widened–just for a moment–in surprise as I saw Chrisopher holding Sophia back as she tried to fling herself onto me again.

“Let go of me! How could you bring her here after everything she did to me?” Sophia cried, and she seemed to melt in his arms as she began to cry.

He let her sink to the floor, giving her a stern look.

She only stayed for a moment before realizing she wouldn’t receive any sympathy or reaction from anybody in the room.

With a “hmph,” she hurried out the door, slamming it behind her.

The room fell silent once more as Chrisopher stared at me, and I stared at the wall. I had nothing to say to him. He had already won.

I put my trust in him and he shattered it like it meant nothing.

“You know where you are, don’t you?” Christopher spoke, his face cold and calloused.

He… spoke. He spoke.

Finally, something other than emptiness blossomed in my chest. It was beautiful and slow, like a flower blooming.

Anger.

Since the very beginning, he had been tricking me. He was never a mute! He was never an innocent man lost in the woods needing assistance!

I slowly sat up, my hair still falling over my face as I glared at him.

I did know where I was. The Rogue camp.

I had never seen it with my own eyes, and most packs truly didn’t know where the Rogues stayed, it was well hidden deep within the forest.

But who else dressed as ragged and dirty as the people here? They had vacant, hungry eyes, and I knew in an instant I was in the company of Rogues the second I was brought here.

However, I chose not to answer Christopher, just to spite him. He deserved nothing from me.

“Oh, switching roles now are we?” Christopher joked, his face lighting up as if joking with a friend. Disgusting.

He continued, his tone light. “I can see it on your face, you know where you are. But do you know who I am?”

I looked away. I couldn’t stand him any longer. He was beyond insufferable.

“No?” He said, giving me a big grin. “Well then let me introduce myself. But first, let’s get you off of this floor.”

Christopher bent over me, and grabbed my shoulders, straightening me up. I let him manipulate my pose only because maybe it would make this interaction briefer.

I refused to let him pick me up, presumably to set me on the bed, so he opted to kneel down next to me as I sat with my back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling.

“Grace, I know who you are. The recently divorced Luna who just announced her wedding with the Lycan King.”

Christopher cocked his head, and I could feel him staring at me, but I did not return the gaze.

“From one Alpha to the next. But maybe, my dear Grace, have you considered that there may be another Alpha seeking your hand as well?”

I only blinked in response, although his words did intrigue me. Another Alpha wanted to marry me?

I couldn’t think of who.

Christopher took my chin in his hand and tilted my face toward him, and I finally looked at him.

Although he was quite attractive, I only felt hate and malice toward him. He was hideous on the inside.

“You had been so kind to me, and you never knew who I was all along,” Christopher continued, seeming to talk more to himself than to me at the moment.

It was as if he were living out a scene from a movie, and he was relishing in his success. He captured the princess, good for him. But he wasn’t the prince.

“Now you’ll know. I am Christopher, the Alpha and King of the Rogues.”