Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 140412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
“You’re not going,” he says flatly.
The words knock the wind out of me. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not going to dinner with him.” He states it like fact, and that infuriates me.
I take a step back. And I realize this might be my salvation. If I defy him, give him a taste of what he can expect in our marriage…
“He is our king and our pack leader.” I straighten in indignation. “Or didn’t you listen to the words we just said when we were kneeling in front of him?”
“Kneeling in fron—” Ashton turns away, one hand flexing. That gives me a moment of pause. Will he strike me? And if so, will anyone care?
He whirls on me, his lips practically white with fury, and jabs the air in an explosion of anger. “You do not lecture me on loyalty!”
I take a step back. It’s the last concession I’ll make, I decide. He can walk right through me if he wants. I don’t care. I’m not giving up any more ground, despite the stomps he takes toward me to punctuate his statements.
“You ran from the pact your father made with me.” Stomp. “You ran from the pack entirely.” Stomp. “You allowed a usurper to make a spectacle of you, and now you think I’ll allow you to go to his home and have dinner with him? Alone?”
Ashton looms over me, but I don’t quaver. I stare up in to his furious eyes, unblinking.
“I didn’t run from you,” I correct him. “And I didn’t run from the pack. I invoked an ancient right that hadn’t been disclosed to us. It was your right, too!”
“And yet you didn’t inform me of it,” he seethes. “You waited until we stood in front of the Hierophant, and only then did you say anything about our right to leave to the pack.”
That takes me aback. It never occurred to me that he might have wanted an out, as well. I denied him that. I suppose he has every right to be angry about it.
But not about whom I dance with or whom I see socially. Not when we aren’t even mates yet.
“I’m sorry. I should have told everyone. But there’s no going back now. And if I knew you would have wanted to—”
“I didn’t want to!” He stalks away, running a hand through his hair in frustration, and turns back, one hand on his hip, his jacket pushed back. “Even if I had the choice, I would never have left. You shouldn’t have left. And I’m tired of pretending I’m not embarrassed by what you did. From now on, there will be no more embarrassments. Do you understand?”
“Do you understand that you don’t get to order me around?” I shoot back, braver now that he’s across the room once more. “We have a mating pact, but we aren’t mated. Not yet. And my pack leader has extended an invitation that’s an honor, not a disgrace.”
I hope it’s a disgrace. One so bad, so awful that Ashton has no choice but to spare his family name and let this whole mating thing go.
“If it were any other king, or you were any other subject.” Ashton curses, then lets out a deep, aggrieved sigh. “You’re right. I can’t stop you from going. But I also can’t guarantee that I won’t break our pact if you go. My father is a powerful man now, Bailey. He’s on the council. Our family can’t afford a liability. So, I would advise you to stop acting like one.”
He strides to the doors and pauses, not looking back. “Make the smart choice, this time.”
I sit, very still, on the brown leather sofa that my father has had since I was a child, and I listen to the raised voices in the hall.
I am going to Aconitum Hall.
I am going to see Nathan.
CHAPTER 11
The night of the ball, every light in Aconitum Hall was lit. Tonight, it’s mostly dark. It’s not as inviting; the towers loom sinister and medieval over the city, blotting out the sky rather than polluting it with added light.
I take a deep breath as I step out of my car. Mother and Father refused to let me take the driver and I’m not sure where one parks at a royal palace. My shoes crunch on the gravel of the small parking area beyond the front porte cochere. I head in that direction, my heart beating in an unfamiliar and worrying pattern. The door opens at the top of the steps, and I expect to see a thrall butler there. But it’s Nathan.
Nathan just opened his front door. Like he’s a person and not a king. I freeze in place. He does, too. It’s a strange moment; before, the undeniable attraction between us was insulated by the presence of others and the etiquette demanded by our society. It felt like if only we were alone, nothing would hold him back. Now, it appears we are alone, and he’s still restrained, despite the charge in the air that makes me want to run to him instead of walking the interminable pace required to appear normal.