“You got a wild one there, Knox. I hope you realize what she is.” He was fishing for what I was, which no one knew. Freya had royally fucked me on that one.
“No one knows what Aria’s other half is, nor has she experienced the changes necessary to figure it out. I can tell you that when she went into heat, it was deliciously erotic, and sent even my men into a state of frenzied need. Had I not intervened and slipped my cock into that weeping slit of hers, you and your men would have been at my gates, declaring war to be the first to fuck her. It doesn’t matter what she is, because the laws of your realm and the Nine Realms doesn’t apply to my men or me.”
I winced at the crudeness of his words, but he wasn’t wrong. I hadn’t even stopped to think of that fact when I’d rushed back to find my twin. The alphas and whoever claimed me could have bred my womb, could have hunted me, sealing their own fate.
It could have even gone worse than that, since alphas shared unclaimed women among themselves, breeding a womb until anyone who fucked her found entrance and created a child. I knew that because Luna and Aine would endure that fate if they didn’t choose a mate to protect them from it.
The room grew tense with Knox’s words, or rather his declaration of what I’d been doing, and how he’d protected the wolves present from fighting them. Like he knew it would make their egos kick into gear, and he craved a fight with him.
This wasn’t where I wanted to be, between a male who oozed lethal from his pores, and the heads of the alphas who sat on the council. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. If this went bad, it would do so quickly. Knox’s arm brushed against mine as if he sensed my unease and sought to calm me.
Chapter 25
The entire room held its breath as we waited for Knox or Fallon to speak. When Fallon finally spoke, after hearing Knox’s rather crude description of what I’d been doing, I exhaled. Knox’s fingers skimmed the inside of my thigh until it brushed over his name, causing my body to tighten with need. My gaze swung to his in warning, but a devilish smirk was the only indication he was aware of what he was doing to me.
“I stand corrected,” Fallon uttered, inhaling deeply, watching Knox as he stood, causing the rest of the alphas to rise. I stood, nodding to them as they started to leave the room. “Aria, I am ashamed of myself, and that I jumped to a conclusion so hastily. Forgive me?” he asked, holding his hand out. I placed my hand in his, and his lips touched my palm gently, causing a shiver of disgust. “I may not be a king yet, but if you ever find yourself in need, I will welcome you into my bed, covenant or not, Aria.”
“Pass,” I blurted unexpectedly, then winced at my bluntness while Knox chuckled against my shoulder, staring at Fallon. “I mean, I’m good with Knox. And there’s nothing to forgive. You are grieving and acting out of pain. I’d like to say that I would have done it differently, but I don’t know what I would have done to make any difference. I’m kind of hot-headed when those I love are hurt, and I can’t imagine what I would do if they were taken from me as brutally as Jasper was taken from you.”
“I wish your mother had confided in me when she returned so heavily pregnant with you from the Nine Realms.”
“You can stop fishing, Fallon. I have no idea who fathered me. All I know is that my power is strong, and when I need it, it is there without hesitation. That is all that matters to me.”
“I had to try, but you should know that your mother was in the Nine Realms during your conception. She didn’t speak when she returned. Aurora tried to get her to tell her what had happened, and the only words she would speak were darkness, flames, and monster. They woke Hecate from her slumber and her advice to Freya? Abort the monstrosity that grew within her womb, or end its life before it reached adulthood.” I stared at him as he stepped around me, moving to the door and exiting. “I hope you find out what you are and if you belong here, sweet Aria.” His smile was tight and not friendly. His tone had held a warning, one created from my outright rejection of his offer for protection.
“Leave us,” Knox stated to Regina, and I moved to do as he said in my state of confusion. “Not you, Aria,” he growled, grabbing my shoulder to stop me.
I watched Regina pausing as she stood, her angry gaze locking on to where Knox touched me. She huffed and made an unladylike noise before she spoke. She pushed her hair away from her face, leveling a nasty look at me as if she wanted to shred my face apart. It was so violent that I felt it slithering over my flesh.
“Don’t let the little slut ruin my dress, Knox,” she said demurely. “It’s one of your favorites on me.”
My eyes couldn’t have rolled harder if I had taken them out and bowled with them. I smirked, turning to look at Knox, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
“Make this fast. I have spellbooks to retrieve. Seems I have a tattoo dilemma as well and need to find the blessing spell needed for the House of Magic, lover boy,” I snapped, crossing my arms to glare at him once the room had cleared.
“I just saved your pretty head from my blade, and this is how you act?”
“I didn’t kill Jasper. I was beneath your stupid body, and you used that voice thing on me. Whatever it is when you question me, and I answered you honestly, if you recall? I sure in the hell would never have told you half of that shit unless you’d forced me.”
“But it appears someone wishes you dead. I found this beside Jasper before we allowed the alpha over to see the body.” He held up my hair tie, which appeared to be snapped in half. “You have enemies, and I want to know who they are.”
My gaze lifted from the hair tie to him, and my heart sputtered while denial burned on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t have enemies. I was an asshole, that much was a given. I said everything that popped into my head before thinking it through, but that didn’t make people hate me. In fact, most people appreciated the truth, no matter how brutal I was about it. Now, humans, they didn’t share that sentiment, and yet they were quicker than I was to blurt shit out.
“Someone wanted me to find it, lamb. They snuck into the house and took it from where I had left it and pushed it beneath Jasper’s corpse this morning for us to find when we moved his body. It was the only thing in the house with your DNA on it, which I was aware of since I planted it to see if whoever murdered Jasper would take it.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “My mother is the only one who has ever wanted me dead, Knox. Amara was not the sweetest, but she wasn’t a cold-hearted bitch either. Now, she’s writing me notes speaking gibberish—I mean, who says you are given? What the hell does it even mean?” I sat in the chair before my brow creased with frustration, then folded my hands in my lap.
“In the Nine Realms, when someone is given, it means they’ve been given as a trophy, or as a wife.” He sat down in his chair, watching me. “You said your sister loved you. My guess is that some creature inside the Nine Realms is coming to collect his pretty innocent bride from this realm to parade her virginity around like a trophy catch. It leaves you in quite the predicament, Aria.”
“Yeah,” I frowned as I picked at my fingernail, unwilling to hold his stare for any longer. “I’m getting the feeling something bad is about to happen, and I’m about to be right beside Jasper in an unmarked grave in a realm I don’t even belong.”