“Who instructed you to attack my pack?”
The injured hunter glared at her hatefully. Ava didn’t have the time for this.
She was hurt and angry, this hunter had to speak up because she refused to believe that they had just singled out their pack on their own.
“Calvin.”
He handed her a scalpel. Although she felt more than a little queasy at spilling someone’s blood this way without a fight, she steeled herself.
“If you refuse to speak I will peel off your skin layer by layer, my friend here will give you enough pain meds so you don’t go into a cardiac arrest but not enough to blunt the pain.” She crouched to the woman’s level making eye contact.
“We break hunters here. You will die either way for trying to kill my people but I can make it take a very long time.”
She drew the scalpel along the woman’s face letting her feel the graze of the blade without breaking the skin. She saw the fear bloom in her eyes. Watched her fight it trying to decide which would be a nobler death.
Ava decided for her, took her hand and cut.
Her screams filled the dungeon and after a while, as her blood flowed, her words followed.
**********
Valentine was nervous about meeting Dorian. There was no valid reason but she just felt off. The same way one did when they felt a sense of disquiet about doing something. That creeping sensation of danger that was almost impossible to grasp yet overpowering at the same time.
She walked into his bedroom anyway. One did not become two-faced without any boldness. Besides, she knew Dorian didn’t know about her liaison with Ryker. Didn’t know about her decision to side with the more predictable and easily manipulated man to save her hide.
Why? Because she was still alive. If Dorian had known…
While she would remain grateful to him for giving her the title of member of the Werewolf council she knew how capricious Dorian was. His moods were legendary and the Goddess help those who displeased him.
He sat naked on the edge of his bed when she walked in. He looked at her and merely crooked his index finger at her like she was a dog or something.
She took off her clothes and joined him in bed. Or rather at the foot of his bed where she knelt as though showing obeisance. Then she took him into her mouth with her hands firmly behind her just the way he preferred.
She couldn’t keep living like this. That was the reason she had chosen Ryker. He was a do-gooder but she would make him king and herself free. Free from the compulsion of being this person.
Once he was hard enough, he pulled out of her insensitively and tossed her on her belly on the bed so that she was on all fours.
She gasped and moaned as he entered her from behind, pulling on her hair tightly as he fucked her. This was one part she might actually miss. Being fucked by him was a different experience entirely. He made her feel used but used in a good way.
They moved with each other, his thrusts powerful and consuming. Taking and taking while she yielded.
By the time he was done, she had nothing left to give. She laid halfway on top of him listening to his heartbeat as he allowed her a rare cuddle.
“I’ve missed you.” Valentine told him and it was true.
“Of course you did.” He said arrogantly, his fingers moving through her hair making her feel all shades of good and possessed.
“When do we stop sneaking around?” She knew the answer but that wasn’t what she was fishing for. Not really.
Dorian looked at her with a curious smile on his lips.
“I’ve become rather used to these clandestine meetings. I don’t know if you will have the same allure to me if we begin to meet openly.”
Valentine laughed like he had made a joke. Good of him to remind her why she had to leave him.
He moved so she was on the bed and he towered over her, his body braced above hers with his powerful thighs.
“Ready so soon?” She teased.
Dorian quirked a brow. “I’m always ready.”
Then he slipped on a condom, parted her thighs and was inside her. She lost the power to make any speech as he moved within her.
“I’m hurt.”
She looked at Dorian mid-gasp uncomprehendingly. “Huh?”
He was still moving within her but he felt a thousand miles away.
“Hurt you that you felt I was so gullible.”
He knew. Panic bloomed in her chest.
She tried to move but he pinned her in place with a vice grip on her neck cutting off her airflow as he continued to fuck her.
She choked as he continued to use her, his thrusts increasing with intensity then he came inside her.
“Dorian…ple…please…”She managed to gasp out as her vision dimmed around the edges.
He kissed her lips even as his grip on her neck tightened. Then he whispered against her lips.
“Honey, you of all people should know that I never forgive.”
The last thing Valentine saw was his face staring at hers waiting for her to die. The last thing she felt was a sense of failure. She should never have entered the room.
******
“This is preposterous.” Ryker stammered as he looked at the face of each of the council members.
Looking for mercy or even a lick of logic.
Unfortunately for him, there would be none of that to be found.
“You are found guilty of the charge of murdering council member Valentine,” Eden said impassively, her stony face looking even more rigid. “You are hereby stripped of all your titles and will await your judgment in the dungeons.”
“Eden, please listen to me. I had no motive. Why would I kill her?”
“That is what we intend on finding out.”
Eden signalled the guards and he was seized despite his loud denials and pleas for understanding.
Too easy. It had been too easy. Had Ryker really thought that he would become the king of all the Northern American wolves and set the pace of the world with them? How laughable.
Getting Valentine’s body clean of all his scent and DNA had taken just an order. He owned an illegal research lab, after all, they used it for all the modifications they had been putting on the rogues to control them. They had taken care of that and his men had planted her body at Ryker’s house.
Then he had placed an anonymous call in and viola. Everything was in place.
Once the door was firmly shut, Sophia looked at Eden.
“What do we do now? There is to be a Coronation in less than a month.”
Casper scoffed. “Once the werewolf community were to find out about this, that the incumbent King murdered one of our own… forget about a coronation, we will be in a struggle to keep our heads.”
Eden glared at Casper so viciously that he held his tongue. “Silence! No one will find out about this. At least not until after we install a king.”
It was his time to shine.
“A king?” Dorian chose his words carefully. “After all that has happened, perhaps we ought to pause that course of action. None of us here can take up that mantle without corruption settling upon us.”
“Speak for yourself.” Casper said, suddenly seeing his chance to be made king. “I for one would–”
Eden glared at him again then she looked at Dorian contemplatively. “I don’t agree with what you say. I think you would actually be a good fit for this position.”
Dorian feigned shock. “Me? How could I even–”
“Yes, you. All your rulings since joining the council have been sound and fair. You have shown a cool head even in the most trying situations. I think you can bring us out of this trial.”
Of course, he had. He has carefully curated all his actions for this moment.
He made a move of looking a tad hesitant before nodding resolutely as though he had just taken up a responsibility he had never wanted a part of.
“If I can help our people, I will do this.” He made sure to lock gazes with every pack member. “I will do my duty to our race to the best of my abilities.”