Ana watched his eyes as he spoke, his voice determined and low, his expression grave. For the first time, she noticed a sadness embedded in his anger for the situation, and she wondered how long he had been doing this. It had to be heartbreaking to see this happening all the time. When she thought about Moonvale… There were potentially over one hundred families who lived there. On a much larger scale, however, Maddoc had not saved that many. And in the meantime while this was happening, she'd been tucked away in her library reading stories. How right he’d been that first night; she had been so woefully ignorant about everything. And even now the houses treated her like some kind of vessel and shell to bear the next heir… just as he said.
A rough finger under her chin brought her back to the moment; Maddoc's eyes were alive on her. “You cannot take on the horror of this, Analisa. I’m not showing you this for you to be sad. I’m showing you so you understand. This will not be our life.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that. He was planning some life with them together, and in the meantime she was just confused.
He leaned in, pressing his mouth against her ear. "I miss your pussy, Analisa."
The gravelly tone of his voice made her breath hitch.
"I think I will have you climax in my mouth tonight. A treat for good behavior." When he pulled away, his eyes were sparkling, and she had to smile. He was so handsome, and she instantly wondered what he was like before he knew about this darkness that plagued the kingdom.
His hand inched up her thigh, and she pressed her knees together, desperate not to become soaking wet while in this room.
Maddoc chuckled, and Ana averted her eyes, only to remember that they weren't alone. His highcloaks stood stationed at the windows and doors, and although most were ignoring them, Raine stared at them with great interest.
"They're not heading to the right room," one of the highcloaks said suddenly.
Maddoc sat up. "What do you mean?"
The man standing by the back door gestured to the window. "I just saw them entering through this door, which means they’re not coming through here.”
"Then where are they going?" Maddoc growled.
"They’re coming to this floor," another highcloak said.
Griff cracked open the door to the room that they came through and peeked through for a long moment and then closed it. "They are next door," he said quietly. "We have to be extremely quiet; the walls are thin. Our contact must have put us here because she wasn’t exactly sure where they’d go. Perhaps she knew they might change venue."
Ana's breath became unsteady as she realized she would be able to hear everything instead of seeing it, and suddenly she wasn't so sure she wanted to listen. Maddoc stood slowly and placed her down, then took her hand and led her to the adjoining wall to listen. All the highcloaks stood listening.
There was a shuffling and closing the door, heavy boots walking around the room.
"This is the fifth we've had," a deep voice said irritably. "It had better lead to some good results."
"Or what," another voice shot back. "Do you have anything better?"
Heat drained from Ana’s face. That was Aldous from Redcrest. Suddenly, she was extremely uneasy about what she was going to hear. Aldious always seemed like a kind and generous man. She braced herself.
"You’re only giving him this amount of leeway because you want something when he becomes king. I don't even know why he is our best chance."
"Who would you have instead?" Aldous asked. "You? Do you know anything about the court or about the people? You'd be run off the throne before you even sat down."
The door opened and a series of shuffling and dragging followed before something hit the wall that they were listening against. Ana almost squealed, a tiny squeak bursting from her throat as she jumped.
Maddoc locked eyes with her, both of them frozen, but it seemed those on the other side heard nothing. Maddoc carefully lifted Ana back into his arms and held her against chest. Immediately, her nerves calmed.
"Where is Maddoc?" a new voice said. It sounded as though there were multiple people in the room now, just by the amount of footsteps.
Whoever was against the wall, shifted. "I don't know," he wheezed. It sounded as though he had trouble breathing, and his voice was thick, as though his mouth was full of blood or his tongue was swollen. "I've told you so many times before," he groaned. "Why won’t you believe me?"
"Because it's impossible for you not to know where he is when he has been sighted by your property so many times," the man growled. "So we're going to ask you over and over again until you tell us what the fuck we want to know!"
"I don't know, I swear to you! I don't know where he is, I don't know where he's been, and I don't know where he's going to be. The sightings must be because he frequently goes past my property. But I don't know him."
Ana glanced at Maddoc. His jaw was rock hard.
"Tell us where he is!"
A loud thud hit the wall, and the man cried out.
"We can do this all day," came Aldous’ low tone. "And now we have the use of the king's guard, we can make it as painful and as crippling as we want."
Ana closed her eyes, willing away the nausea that rose. Why did they have access to the king's guard? The king’s guard were only supposed to protect the king. But then, she didn't know the rules around what happened in this scenario when the king was assassinated and there was no heir.
"I swear," the man wheezed. "I swear I have no information."
A series of thumps and slams hit the wall, a couple with bone crunching sounds accompanying them. The man sobbed and pleaded and begged, and Ana had to curl up in Maddoc's arms, gripping his tunic so she wouldn't cry. She hated listening to all that pain and violence. How could they do it?
Just as Maddoc was placing her down so Raine could take her away, the door opened, and more footsteps came in.
"No!" the prisoner cried out. "Leave him, please!"
"I remember when you didn't pay your taxes a couple of years ago, and your grandchild was invited for the fun. You managed to find the money pretty quickly," one of the men said. "So let's see if he is as effective to get us results this time. After all, Duke Ryden is all about results."
Ana froze, but Maddoc was ushering her out of the room with Raine. Ryden? Was he was alive?
Before she had time to think about it, Raine was leading her down the steps and out onto the side road.
"I need to go back in," she urged. "I need to know if Ryden is still alive."
Raine shook her head. "Impossible."
Ana yanked her hand away. "It may be impossible for you, but I want to go back in."
Raine stared at her. "You want to go back in and see what they do to his grandchild?"
"I need to know if Ryden is still alive."
"What difference does it make if he is?" she said, disgust in her voice. "He is part of that house. He is condoning that behavior."
"You don’t know that," Ana said immediately. "He may not know what they're doing in his name." Even though Aldous was an Alpha Ryden looked up to, it didn’t mean Ryden was aware of this. He wasn’t a representative of the house. He could be kept out of the truly terrible acts. Besides, it was too hard to believe that Ryden would know about this and approve it.