A Lover and A Liar

Facing the Truth

The servants gave Alina strange looks as she rushed through the hallways to her chambers, but the last thing she wanted to deal with right now was coming across Katherine and letting her know she had spent the day with Julian, the one man she had to curse into living the rest of his life with someone he thought was his mate.

She locked the door of her bedroom, and the first thing she did was go over one of the grimoires she had found on the secret door of the library that could hide the smell of Julian's wolf all over her. It was one of the easiest spells her grandmother her taught her, for them to stay hidden from whatever enemy Granny Margot thought were after them, so it didn't take her longer than a few minutes to perform it. However, it was essential. Her plan couldn't work if Katherine, or worse her father, had even the slightest idea Alina was actually Julian's mate.

And she indeed had a plan. In the last few days she had spent supposedly finding a spell to put on Julian so he could mark Katherine for good, she had actually tried to find one that would break the dark spell she had cast on him five years ago.

Unfortunately, she hadn't still came across one even similar to what she intended to do, but at least she had found something that could help her discover Vincent's true intentions. Alina had wanted to make sure it would work, and most importantly would be safe for her to use without exposing her motives and declaring herself Vincent's enemy openly, because in the end she was all alone here, in the wolf's den, but after what happened today, after the hurt and confusion on her mate's face, she had realized she couldn't stand it anymore.

Julian deserved to know the truth. And he deserved having loyal people by his side as he ruled one of the biggest Kingdoms in their world.

Her eyes went over the lines written in black, in a beautiful handwriting, most probably many years ago, as she memorized the spell once more. But a loud bang on the door caused for her to jump off her couch, alarmed. She hid the grimoires under the bed, and went to open it, fully aware that wasn't Julian.

Julian wouldn't knock like that. And she doubted he even wanted to be in the same place with her after the breathtaking kiss they had shared. No, it had been more than a kiss. It had been the most beautiful minutes of Alina's life, and they would be scarred deep in her soul for the rest of her life.

Another loud bang and Alina finally opened the door. Her eyes widened when she saw the man on the other side of it, bulky, and with a cold, almost angry expression on his face. For everyone else, he was probably one of the scariest guards in the castle. Yet for some reason, despite being Vincent's most trusted man, he didn't fully scare Alina.

"What do you want, Grumpy?" She rolled her eyes at him, blocking the view of the room with her body so he didn't even think of entering.

He looked at his right, then at his left, making sure the hallways was completely empty. "Where were you?" Grumpy growled lowly. "I know you weren't inside this castle for a few hours."

Alina didn't show the panic of almost being caught with Julian's wolf on her face. "So you're the one who's keeping an eye on me?" she said it like she was unimpressed. When she was the opposite of it. Perhaps for the first time, she started fearing Grumpy for real.

"Why? Did you want an army to keep watch over you?" he bluntly said.

Alina bit her lip. Sometimes, she had to stop talking when she wasn't supposed to. "I just had a walk on town. Nothing important," she lied with a straight face.

Grumpy didn't seem to believe any thing she was saying, however. "Fine. I will not tell my master this time. But only because I haven't caught you doing anything wrong. If you do anything against his orders, it will be over for you, witch."

Alina made a fake happy jump and gave the big wolf-man a sudden hug that caught him off guard, acting thankful. "You are so sweet, you know that?" she told him. And when Grumpy tried to take her off his body, she mumbled the words in the witches' language she had just memorized in his ear, in a low, soothing tone.

The man's defense weakened, until his arms let go of her body entirely and his eyes closed. And so did Alina's eyes. She could feel it as she let go off her body, not able to control her legs anymore. It lasted for a few minutes, until Alina literally witnessed her own body collapsing on the floor of her bedroom, unconscious.

Watching herself from another person's eyes was completely, utterly strange. But fortunately, her mind and her soul had completely taking over the guard's body, pushing his mind down.

Alina was in control of him. For only half an hour, Alina was Grumpy.

She looked down at the big calloused hands that she could command easily, but that felt much more different than her darker, smaller ones. She looked at herself in the mirror, and spoke a few words to test her voice. Nothing different, Alina looked and sounded like Grumpy.

She took a deep breath. If she stayed inside her room, looking at her body on the floor for a few more seconds, she would lose her mind.

So instead, with only one thought on her mind, she took the courage to walk through the tunnels that had sent her to Vincent's secret room she had once been. Fortunately, she was good at memorizing things, but as soon as she was in front of the door, panic took over. What if Vincent would be able to understand her trick? What if he realized that was Alina and not one of his trusted men?

He would get rid of her right there, Alina didn't doubt it for a second.

But for Julian, it was worth it. Everything was worth it as long as Julian would be safe, and happy, and she would be able to somehow fix her mistake.

She knocked on the door, and the voice behind of it took a few seconds to answer, "Come in, Max."

So, his name was Max? Alina was glad to figure that out too.

She closed the door behind herself, and made a little bow as she supposed she had to. But in reality she was just too afraid to meet his eyes. It was the moment of the truth. Vincent either figured this out or he didn't.

The loud beating of her heart almost gave her away, but she finally met his eyes. Vincent looked at her from head to toe, as if he was inspecting her. It only made Alina panic further more.

"What are you waiting for? Speak," he ordered in a harsh force, even scarier than he had been when Alina was inside here in her own body. Had he tried to hide his true self from her a few days ago? Had he tried to appear softer?

"I-I," Alina stuttered, her masculine voice sounding strange to her own ears.

"Speak, servant!" he growled. "Did you figure out anything about the witch?"

This was what Grumpy had to do? The thought made a shiver run down her spine. "No, Master." She lowered her eyes to his chest. "Nothing unusual. She's just going over books and trying to find a spell that will work, I suppose."

"You suppose?!" Vincent growled loudly this time. "I don't want your assumptions, servant, I want to know what's on her mind! What are her intentions!"

This was how he treated his people. Alina hadn't known he could disgust her even more than he already did.

"I will do a better job, Master," she answered.

"What about Katherine?" he questioned further more. "Did you make sure she drank that potion? Did you tell her she had to do everything in her power to get in Julian's bed tonight?"

Her heart dropped down on her feet, the breath getting caught on her throat. "Y-Yes," she was able to stutter. "Yes, she took the potion." Of course Alina had no idea what potion they were talking about, but she had no other choice but to lie if she wanted to survive this.

The idea of Katherine in her mate's bed, however, as they made love, almost made her vomit right there.

"Fine," Vincent said. "The potion-maker said that potion will work one hundred percent if she is able to get to at least have s*x with him. We need that f*****g heir, damn it! We're stuck because the b***h can't even make him put it inside of her!"

Her body trembled as she tried to make her face stay neutral. Every cell of her being told Alina to run, go to Julian, stop this madness, but she couldn't. Not now. Not yet.

"What will we need the heir for, Master?"

The snap of his head and the hardens of his dark eyes made blood leave her body. "Are you insane? Haven't we discussed this for years? The male heir is the key to our every plan, Maximus. We cannot take over the throne and the Kingdom without an heir."

Alina was speechless, her mind was blank.

Throne?

Kingdom?

He wanted to take over this Kingdom? And he wanted to use Julian's heir for this?

The man was a power-hungry monster.

"You're right, Master." How she was able to still keep her sanity, it was beyond her. "But if your daughter is to... conceive tonight," her heart shattered as she said the word, "we will not need the witch anymore, right?"

"Of course we will!" he stated, his tone still harsh and unforgiving. "We will need her to put that damned spell on that useless of a King and make him mark my daughter, even marry her! We cannot have an illegitimate heir, the elders will never accept him."

He had thought it through. He had planned everything, perhaps for years. The only question Alina didn't want to find the answer of, was how exactly he was planning to dethrone Julian.

But even as she thought it through, she already knew the answer... There was no other way to dethrone a legitimate King of royal blood everyone loved... but to kill him.

Tears burned like hell down her throat, her mind had started to spin. She couldn't figure if it was because of what she heard, or because her time was ending. Either way, it was bad enough. 

"Besides," Vincent continued, "I'm not planning on letting the witch go even after she casts that spell on him. I'll need a powerful witch by my side, and I feel there is power inside of her. Power she hasn't realized herself she has."

Goosebumps erupted all over her body, which wasn't even her body. Not only Vincent was planning to kill the Monarch, who happened to be her mate, and rule over the Kingdom himself, he was planning to keep her a slave too.

"I understand," she said.

"Fine," Vincent stated coldly. "Now go and make sure Katherine has convinced the King to sleep at his chambers tonight."