Ana jerked awake. She didn’t move, just opened her eyes and listened.
“I was a promising member of the royal assembly and always took my duties at court seriously. I wanted to be a knight but my father was a scholar. He thought I could be much more—a man who used brain and brawn to reach heights others struggle to get to. So while I started my combat training, he pushed me to study and examine and research everything. I read a lot. I wrote reports and investigative research, and aimed to learn as much as I could.
When I was thirteen, my father told me he had uncovered a series of bribes and exchanges that unfairly advantaged Redcrest to keep hold of the throne.”
Ana lifted her head. “What do you mean?”
“There are five houses. Those five and the crown make up the royal assembly. But the crown is a separate entity—it has no specific association with any house.”
“Yes,” Ana agreed.
“The king and queen can come from any of the royal houses, and when they take the position, they lose their family name, and become wards of ‘The Crown.’ So, if someone from Thorneshaw becomes king, he can no longer have allegiance to the Thorneshaw families and he can no longer use the name.”
Ana nodded, resting her head back down.
"The problem is, one cannot just turn off the feelings for their family members or family friends. It is always the case that whoever rules will slightly favor whichever house they came from. There were measures in place to stop this from becoming a serious hindrance to the system, but ultimately there’s always a slight favoritism. One way the favoritism issue is dealt with is nominating Alpha and Omega couples to rule the kingdom. By doing so, a house is more likely to have a ruling couple on the throne if an Omega was born into one of the families."
Ana nodded. That was how she understood how things worked.
"For the longest time, Sterling and Redcrest both had a lot of ruling couples on the throne, which is why they are the wealthiest houses. But at some point, Redcrest began to cheat. My father found evidence that they went to great lengths to acquire Omegas—to guarantee the couple on the throne would continue to favor them. The longer this went on, the more biased the favoring became.
“When I was thirteen, my father found evidence. It included , including the recent story about your great-grandmother and he was preparing to inform the other houses so it could be corrected. Before he could share what he had learned, he was killed by Redcrest knights. I saw them with my own eyes.
“I tried to save Father’s research, so I could expose them and have them pay for what they did, but they took it a step further. They killed my mother, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, everyone. They eliminated the entire family so Sterling lost a complete family. And then they blamed me for it."
Ana's breathing slowed to a standstill, her heart beating in her chest. That was horrific. "And the other Sterling families believed them?"
Maddoc nodded. "I had none of the evidence. My father was the one who put everything together. So I became their monster from that day. But it was on that day, I was matched with you."
"Me?" Ana said lifting her head.
Maddoc nodded, his eyes holding hers. "I hadn’t met you yet, but earlier that day the scholars told me that we were fated. I hadn't even seen you yet, you were really young, but they matched us very early, which means that we are incredibly compatible."
"But why didn’t I know about it?"
"When my family was killed, I was painted as a villain, and all documents and reports, anything with my name was erased, including our matching. I was already a criminal avoiding the law and couldn’t earn a living doing something useful and simple, but I quickly discovered how cruel the houses were being to commoners. They formally enslave commoners through taxes, Allandis Law, and duties while they enjoy the fine life and conceal what goes on. They make the rules so that they can break them but nobody else can. I soon found that I was the only one who could retaliate. I no longer had anyone they could harm and I had no livelihood.
“I will admit, I was as brutal as I could be in my retaliation, and the more I tried to help people, the more brutal I became. It was necessary to try to find a permanent safe place.
“When I heard about your wedding announcement, I remembered that we were matched, and I couldn’t understand how you could be matched again. I’d left you alone because I told myself I didn’t need you. It wasn’t worth bringing somebody else into my world, and especially not someone aligned so deeply with Redcrest. But I thought I would at least see what you were like."
Maddoc paused, and when Ana glanced up, he was looking down at her, his beard twitching. "I fell in love with you the day I saw you. I knew I had to have you. So I started to look into you, and research who you were, and I was disappointed to find that you didn't have a voice. You were a mild-mannered ornament for the crown, but didn't seem to have your own opinions, even in court. I began to wonder if we'd really been matched correctly. But I knew by then I was going to take you anyway, because I couldn't let anyone else have you. You weren’t ready for me, so I planned and waited for five years. By the time I got into the room with you, I had convinced myself that there was nothing behind the vacant shell that they had made you into—that they had ruined my gorgeous mate. But then, you insulted me, you slapped me, you refused me. And I saw you. It was the moment I knew everything had been worth it and anything coming would be worth it.”
He lowered and kissed her, and Ana blinked away tears from her eyes. "I know I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me,” she mumbled. “But I wish I’d known.”
“If we had had our three nights, you would have.”
Ana squinted her eyes at him. “How? What was so important about the three nights?”
Maddoc gently lifted her off his lap, and she winced as his cock slipped from her sore folds. “You will find out.”
12
ANA
"Mother."
The queen lifted her head from where it rested on the king’s bed. Her face was haggard and exhausted, and for a moment Ana worried for her health. She sat in a chair next to Father's bed, holding his hand.
Ana." Her mother smiled when she saw her. She stood and reached for her, pulling her in for a hug. "I didn’t think I’d see you again. How did you escape? Are you doing well?"
Ana hugged her back, looking her in the eye when she withdrew. "I am, despite the actions you and Father took against me."
The queen's face dropped. She lowered back down to her seat. "Nothing we did was to harm you, Ana. I hope you understand that."
"You were going to have me marry a man who I wasn’t fated to. You forged the match so that I wouldn't question marrying him. How could you do that?"
"Would you have preferred to be an Omega that never had a fated mate?" Her mother said, her brows drawing together. "Do you know what kind of life that would be for an Omega?"
"But I did have one."
Confusion flickered in her mother's gaze and then died. "Who?"
Ana crossed her arms. "Don’t pretend that you didn’t know, Mother. You knew I had a fated mate."