Chapter Four: Mate
1095 Words
"No." I stumbled backward, disbelief crashing through me. I'd been set up.
The man in the bed wasn't awake. He wasn't sleeping either.
Tubes ran from his arms into a bank of machines. His chest rose and fell in slow, shallow rhythm, aided by the soft hiss of an oxygen line beside the bed. He was barely holding onto life.
Before I even registered moving, I was at the door, yanking at the golden handle. "Open the door!" I shouted, slamming my fist against the wood. "Bastian! What is this?"
No answer.
I twisted the handle again. Locked.
"Open the damn door!" My voice cracked, fear and betrayal tangled together in it. "You can't just leave me in here with him!"
I pressed my back against the cold wood, eyes wide, scanning the room again as if it might have rearranged itself in the last two seconds.
A king-sized bed with dark navy sheets sat surrounded by machines beeping in slow, steady intervals. The man lying in it, Alpha King Ronan Ashgrove, looked nothing like the vivid, smiling figure from the photograph. His hair had grown longer, unkempt, like he'd been here a long, long time.
I took a slow step toward him, then another, drawn in despite myself.
That's when a voice came through the door.
"Forgive us, my lady," Bastian said. "We had to lock the door for your safety. We weren't certain how you'd react."
I stared at the door, stunned. "My safety? You lied to me."
A pause.
"I didn't lie," he said, quieter now, more careful. "I told you the Alpha King was waiting for you. He is."
My head shook on its own. My heart wouldn't slow down. "He's in a coma, isn't he."
Silence answered first.
"Answer me!" I screamed, my hands trembling.
"Yes," he finally said. "Nearly a year now."
His voice stayed unnervingly steady, like a man used to handling something wild and unpredictable. Which, at that moment, was exactly what I felt like. A caged animal, thrown into a room with no way out.
"Let me out!" I shrieked. "You cannot do this to me!"
"I'm afraid I can't, my lady."
I beat my fists against the door again. "This is illegal! This is insane!"
He didn't answer right away. When he did, his voice had dropped, gone almost regretful.
"The Elders were firm on this, Mira. You are to lie beside the Alpha King every night. It's the law of this land. A marriage must be consummated, even symbolically. Your presence beside him is what keeps the bond complete."
My mouth fell open. "You're telling me I'm supposed to sleep next to him. Every night. While he's like this?"
"The bond must be honored," Bastian repeated. "His wolf still lives, even while his body doesn't. And the pack needs something to hope for. That's you, my lady."
"I could have accepted a husband who was disabled. I could have found a way to respect that." My voice climbed toward hysteria. "But this? This is sick. This is a corpse with a heartbeat!"
I knew I'd gone too far when silence stretched out on the other side of the door.
I backed away slowly, a raw ache blooming in my chest where the betrayal had settled in.
"What happens if I'm widowed," I whispered into the empty room. "What happens to me then?"
Would they release me? Or would I still be chained to the Ashgrove name forever? Would they expect me to carry his heir through some twisted ceremony? Would they simply hand me off to someone else once he was gone?
The thought turned my stomach.
I spun in place, scanning the room for any way out.
The windows were sealed behind heavy drapes and thick glass, no handle, no latch in sight. The fireplace was too narrow to squeeze through. Even the air vents were too small for my hand.
A sharp, humorless laugh escaped me.
"Of course. Of course they'd lock me in a damn castle."
I kicked a small wooden stool near the corner, sending it skidding across the marble. I paced in tight circles, trying to hold myself together.
Bastian's voice returned through the door.
"There's no way out, my lady. The room's fully secured. Nothing opens without a key. Please, rest. It'll help."
A scream tore out of me.
I don't know how long I sat there afterward, shaking. I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood, forcing everything back down like poison.
I must have cried myself to sleep, because when my eyes finally opened again, the sky beyond the sealed windows had gone deep navy.
My whole body ached, stiff from the marble floor.
I pushed myself up slowly, palms flat against the cold stone. The silence pressed in harder now, broken only by the soft, steady beep of the machines.
He was still there. Exactly as I'd left him.
I stood and crossed the room toward the bed, step by step, eyes locked on him.
His face was handsome in a haunting way, high cheekbones, a sharp jaw, lips that looked too gentle for a man with a reputation built on ruthlessness. His dark hair, longer now, curled faintly at the ends, giving him the look of some fallen warrior out of an old story.
I glared at him, jaw tight.
None of this was fair.
"You could've just died," I whispered bitterly. "Then maybe they'd have finally left me alone."
I crossed my arms, leaning closer.
"I don't know who you were before this, Alpha King. And honestly, I don't care." My voice dropped lower still. "I hate you. Even if none of this is your fault. I still hate you for being the reason I'm standing in this room."
I stared, waiting for his eyes to open. Nothing happened.
I turned away, taking one step back toward the door.
Then I froze.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Had I imagined that?
I turned back slowly, eyes locking on his hand, the same hand that had lain motionless for hours. I watched, stunned into silence, as it twitched.
My breath caught in my throat.
Oh my God.
I stumbled back instinctively as the machines beside him began beeping faster.
Before I could scream, his eyes snapped open.
Deep. Glowing gold.
My lips parted. No sound came.
His gaze locked onto mine, sharp, intent, watching me like I was the only thing in the room worth seeing.
Then his mouth moved, and the last word I ever expected slipped out.
"Mate."
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