The Warrior King's Mate

Chapter 20

The silence in the room was exhausting. I took in my uncle's appearance while he worked on what it was he was going to say to me. The room felt airless. John's shaggy brown hair seemed untidy - I could tell his hands had ploughed through it recently. His large jaw was covered in dark stubble and he seemed to lack his usual business bravado dressed in what was basically loungewear. I'm sure I looked great, on my second feeding tube since knowing the man existed and being alone in a room with him for the first time. He largely left Malcolm, Margot and Moira to manage me. As he struggled to look at me, I struggled to take my eyes off of him. What was the Big Brave Alpha of River Moon going to say to me, his niece, after what I'd tried to do to myself in his house?

"I told Malcolm there was no case to answer for," he finally said. His voice was quiet. Sad. He looked past me to the huge windows by the bed. "I said we needed you to disclose it all or there was no case to answer for. He was angry, he wanted an eye for an eye. This is all my fault, Nova," he sighed, running his hands over his face and pulling his mouth. Resting his hand on his chin, he glanced over at me as I lay still as prey on the bed.

"I pushed him. He pushed you. It was too much, I know that, I knew that, but I pushed...We weren't honest with you, that first lunch. I need to be honest with you now."

I swallowed, my mouth working better now that I'd had some fluids. I thought back to the doctor at River Moon showing me my remodeled fractures. At the time they told me I had a strong wolf - I waited all those weeks, convinced they knew I wasn't a real werewolf - and now John wanted to be honest with me? Had they known the whole time? 'There was no case to answer for' - why? Were the laws null and void if I wasn't one of them?

John walked around the other side of the bed and sat in a winged cream and gold arm chair, dropping himself into it with a familiar ease: he'd been to visit me before, I suddenly realised. He'd sat in that chair, he'd practiced this speech. That's why it took him an age to start. It's always harder with an audience, I guess.

"Before you were born, as you know, Gavin thought Grace had been having an affair. Nonsense, we told him. They were mates." He said this as if I'd automatically understood, but my empty face must have confused him. "You know how mates work, yes?" I shook my head. He rested his head back and closed his eyes, something I noticed Malcolm doing when I had told him about the human pinata story. I suddenly missed Malcolm quite painfully. Why hadn't he come?

"Nova, goddess given mates are a wolf's reason for being," John explained, opening his eyes but looking even more sheepish than before. "They're the other half of your soul, you share one mind, one heart, your - your bodies belong to the other person," his cheeks flushed pink slightly, as if he was questioning whether I'd had even basic s*x ed. "If one is sick, the other feels it. If one is injured, the other feels it. If a mate is unfaithful...the pain is intense. Gavin would have known if Grace had been unfaithful to him - he never told us he had felt that pain. If he did...I feel even more sorry for him now than I did the day he married that beast.

Nova - we - I - never trusted the version of her and Gavin's argument your mother gave us. Gavin DID suspect her, but when he called me from our borders, he told me Grace had mindlinked him to tell him that River Moon was under attack. Gavin had prepared back up from Silver Shore AND Lime Field pack warriors to come to our aid. When he got here, we had no idea what he was talking about - we hadn't had a pack dispute, an attack or even a rogue infestation for over two years - then all of a sudden the forest became flooded with them - rogues. Not just any rogues, rogues who organized themselves, created a border, a defense. Rogues who hunted him down.

When Grace reclaimed his body she told us he thought she was having an affair with a warrior in River Moon - I knew she was lying. She told everyone - the elder council at the palace, other alpha's, everyone that I sent River Moon warriors to the forest to kill Gavin, who was marching on our borders with warriors from two of our closest neighbours. He was my best friend! He told me Grace had warned him we were under attack! It was absurd, but the council refused to listen, refused the inquiry. Told us to stay out of each other's lands..."

I looked at John with wide eyes. He thinks my mother lied to the Royal Inquisiton ? He thinks Grace had Gavin murdered?

"King Harrold wanted the matter settled. Wouldn't tolerate inter-pack disputes. His son - that warrior Prince - he was just a child at the time, already cold. When you came to us in the state you did, I knew. I just knew that Grace was behind it. King Fallon's justice is bloody and brutal and we needed to make sure he couldn't ignore us this time - so I pushed. I..."

His voice trailed away and he looked suddenly exhausted. I felt for him. This was more he'd spoken to me in the entire time I've known him and he was telling me his shameful truth. I understood - he wanted Malcolm to get as much of the gory details from me as possible so that he could avenge a twenty year old argument. That's why Malcolm was so kind to me. They needed me so they could go after Grace. I was just as much a nothing to them as I had been to everyone as Silver Shore, useful for their own specific requirements but otherwise - otherwise just a waste of space.

"I'm so sorry, Nova. We've failed you as a family."

I blinked, startled.

"We couldn't protect you as a pup," his voice thickened, as if he was trying not to cry. "We wanted to protect you now but we - I - wanted too much, pushed you too hard. It's my fault you felt you needed to do this, my fault you felt you had no other way out -" I felt something warm and wet trace a path down my cheeks, round the curves of my nose before stinging as it landed on my dried lips. Uncle John rose from his chair and pulled from a box on the bedside a soft, cotton handkerchief. He gently plotted the skin around my eyes, mouth and nose.

"Shh, there now," he gently cooed, his own eyes tearing up. "We'll protect you now, sweet girl," he said, his own eyes brimming with tears. "I made sure no one could ignore you this time, no one would look the other way. I made sure the King himself would pay attention and that justice would finally come to you, to Gavin, and especially to Grace."

"Wa-wh-what did y-ou do?" My voice was paper thin and painful, mouse-quiet after over a week of no use.

Uncle John heard it clear as a bell. He sat back in his chair, a sad smile on his face.

"I threatened a coup against the King," he said simply, as though announcing he might have potatoes with his dinner. The bottom of my stomach dropped away - the strong reaction surprised me more than the revelation that John committed treason on my behalf - and seemed to still be very much alive.

"Malcolm is now Alpha of River Moon - he asks after you every four hours, and your Aunt and Grandmother every two - and I am a prisoner here at Selinis Castle until such time as a council meeting can be arranged in these...difficult circumstances. I wish I'd done it two decades ago," he said, defiantly. He held his head high, ever the Alpha I'd met for the first time late in September. "I wish I'd made sure that b***h could never, ever lay a hand on you."

I stared at him in wonder. He'd given his alpha title away - he'd willingly come to Selinis Castle to await sentencing for TREASON - for me. And here he was, telling me he was sorry for not having done it all sooner. Out of the small, empty void that was inside me, I felt the first pinpricks of light.

Then, the first tight squeeze of panic I'd felt in a long time. King Fallon was known for being blood thirsty. Before he deposed his father, he had been a solider fighting with Crimson Kingdom - I knew this from what the omegas at Silver Shore gossiped about him constantly. He was a vicious brute of a man, supposedly very clever and handsome - unmated and therefore every wide-eyed she wolf's fantasy. THIS was the man who would sit on the council at my uncle's trial?

"The K-king" my voice croaked, John leant closer to hear me fully. "He's a violent man," I sounded like an old crone. John nodded stiffly, moving to the bedside again and filling a small syringe like Holly had earlier. He used it to water me like a weed in the sun.

"Oh King Fallon is a very reasonable man. Normally. Although his officers - the two men who came in with the doctor? Officer Milo is like the King's Beta and Officer Dax is like a Delta, in a normal pack - have told me the King is otherwise engaged on classified business. Nova, I should probably warn you that, well, our case might take some time." He replaced the water and empty syringe on the bedside table and dabbed lightly around my mouth and chin to catch stray droplets of water.

"The day after we arrived, the King of Onyx Kingdom in the far north - he and his entire family were assassinated on the Castle grounds."

****

Milo P.O.V.

I looked up at my reflection, a toothbrush hanging out of my mouth and curls beginning to form in my slowly drying hair. I was inspecting my neck. The bruises were gone, but I could feel the tender fist and finger marks under the skin. The lashes on my back had already healed completely, but the sting of them burned in my mind like hot coals.

Fallon was furious. He and Kane had taken turns taking their rage out on everyone - omegas included - for the deaths of the Onyx Royal family. He had everyone whipped. He himself had beaten my ass in to the ground, waited for the healing to begin before starting all over again. In the end, Dax had to step in. It's been two weeks, he still growls whenever I walk in the room, forcing me to submit before he continues with business. If I speak out of turn, he lunges for me. He's out of control.

Dax has taken my place in the business wing dealing with the crime upsurge as well as overseeing the massive uptake in wolves in Moon Lake as a result. I've moved my office to the adjoining office in the suite Evenard once stayed in - where Nova Blackwell was currently under hospital care. I'd continue my usual work from here, but apparently the girl's presence in the castle was my doing so her case was my priority right now. John had marginally missed an unceremonious execution for his threat against the King only because Evenard's assassination eclipsed everything. He'd even been moved from the most secure cell to a more lenient and modern one to make room for the prisoners Fallon and Dax brought home from their mission. I was little more than a guard dog for the two of them, going over doctors notes and Nova's statements while trying my best to track down Flora Bell who had escaped River Moon's dungeons, and Logan Dunbar and Grace Blackwell of Silver Shore. Simon, Grace's son, had taken his father's place as Beta but was 'unable' to speak with us whenever we called. Logan, as I was repeatedly told, had decided to go to war with his younger brother Morgan. Both the Dunbar boys were in the wind. Grace had left Silver Shore after Simon was named as Beta. He had graduated college and returned with a mate and a pup on the way. Lawrence said he had no knowledge of any crimes committed in his pack and welcomed the chance to prove that Nova was nothing but a delusional omega with notions of grandeur and a fixation with his eldest son. He did not know where Grace had gone, but suggested she might be either traveling or visiting Hailey, her oldest daughter - currently Luna to Alpha Jacob of Midnight Isle pack in the south.

Midnight Isle had reached out - news about a coup involving their Luna's uncle had turned a few heads and Jacob wanted to reassure us that they were at our complete disposal. I'd met Jacob a few times since coming of age, at balls or sporting events - once on a battlefield. He was a decent man, told a lot of jokes. He ran his pack like a business, delegating and pulling rank equally well. I liked him.

I spat into the running water from the tap and rinsed my toothbrush.

Jacob would turn over Grace if she reached their shores. Midnight Isle was a medium sized island an hour away from the nearest landmass. She would have nowhere to hide there.

I opened the door to my bedroom and noticed the freshly made bed, the plate of pastries and fruit, the cloche no doubt keeping a plate of bacon, eggs and potatoes warm. Ignoring the food and draining the coffee pot into an extra large mug, I carried myself to the wardrobe to dress for the day. Given Fallon's temper, I decided to dress as professionally as possible. Best not to invite unwanted attention.

I emptied the mug and grabbed a freshly pressed suit. Laying the suit on the bed, I lifted the cloche and scoffed the lot before worry left me nauseated. Fallon would want an update on Nova's case today. He refused to even speak with the girl until the investigation was basically finished. I didn't have an update to give him. He was going to kick that bacon right back out of me.

But the case was horrific - and the evidence was all there - there was no need to hurt Nova further because he was unable to control his rage and wanted to make a meal out of punishing me. I'd read the statements, seen the x-rays and read the doctors' notes. The girl had been physically broken over and over and over again since she was a baby. It was a miracle she was alive. I'd seen the note, covered in Nova's blood from her suicide attempt where Grace fully admitted to trying to kill her own daughter. The whole pack - every member of that pack, from the children to the alpha - had been complicit in the torture of a child. In any other time in his life, Fallon would have ripped the entire place apart, brick by brick, limb by limb. He would have turned the beach red with blood.

But no. He wanted a full investigation, no stone left unturned. He wanted written statements from the pebbles, the seagulls, and the sea itself. If he would only look at the bones of that girl in the centre of this....I watched her the day she woke up, watched her take in Doctor Owusu's words. It was like she was soulless, damaged beyond repair. Even Dax left Nova's room pale and unsmiling, unable to scrounge the smallest morsel of humour. I read Malcolm's statements about Nova's surprising strength and 'abilities' with thin interest - surviving as she had, it came of no surprise that the girl's wolf was keeping her strong. I'd dismissed the paragraph in his notes on first reading but kept returning to it.

Buttoning the shirt to the collar, I glanced at the report on my bedside once again. Why mention it, Malcolm. The young alpha had clinically laid out verbatim the conversations he'd had with Nova - which also kept niggling at me. Details of life long abuse were recounted as if they had been cataloging recipes - but the s****l assault she suffered at fifteen read more like a play - like Malcolm KNEW every detail personally. It jarred.

Surprising strength and abilities...

She surprised Dax, though he tried to hide it, when we'd seen the photos of what she'd done to Joe Hassan of White Fang - Dax knew him as a cocky little s**t, but even he didn't understand how a 40kg girl could brutalize a 6ft monster like Hassan...

Sir, came Verity's trill of a voice over mindlink. I scrunched my eyes - it was too early for Verity. Sir, there's a - an urgent call for you. May I please forward her to your private line?

I'm not in my office, Verity, I sighed. There was always a call for me, they were all urgent. Put them on hold, give me five.

Grabbing Nova'a file, my watch, phone and jacket, I swung myself down the three flights of thickly carpeted, winding stone staircases to the third floor, nodding to the guard posted outside Nova's bedroom door at the other end of the corridor. Looking at my desk, several hold calls flashed agitatingly on the desktop. Dropping down on the soft leather chair I reached for Verity through the mind link.

Line? I asked

Four, sir, she sang in answer.

I felt my wolf, Arran, snap his jaws, irritated at the high-pitched informality. Clamping the headset to my ear with my shoulder, I pressed four and began busying myself with putting on the leather strapped Holtzkern watch Fallon gifted me for my 21st.

"This is Beta Milo Ortado - how can I -"

" - Good morning, Beta!"

The voice on the other end of the phone was soft, accented, friendly, but unrecognisable.

"You've been looking for me I gather? I've been recuperating. It takes an awful lot out of you, teleporting across an entire kingdom, even if you are using third party energy sources!"

My body became instantly rigid, Arran statue still and attentive in my mind. "Who is this?"

"My name is Flora Bell, and I want to talk to you about Nova Blackwell. How is that little lamb doing?"

My hand silently moves to the recording mechanism on the desktop. The witch, Flora Bell, knows where Nova is. I mindlink Dax and in mere moments hear the near ghost-like movements of more and more guards filling the hall.

"Ms Bell. We've been trying rather hard to reach you. What is your interest in Nova Blackwell?"

"Oh by now you know my interests in Nova Blackwell, shifter," she replied. I had the feeling she was smiling on the other end of the call. "Margot will have told you - I must thank you, by the way. Your hospitality is much better than that of River Moon - threatened with a cell for simply being there..."

My eyes widened - my hospitality?

"What," I repeated, Aran's growl lacing my voice, "is your interest in Nova Blackwell?" I heard her sigh, the way an aunt or a teacher would when I was petulant as a child.

"Milo, Milo, Milo. I only want to see the girl put back together again, I - I've hurt her enough. I tried to save her - those wrists shouldn't have as much as a scar by the new moon. I need to speak with her, and you - but I need certain assurances."

"Such as?" Dax opened the door to my office from Nova's bedroom. through the doorway, I could see her sound asleep in the early morning darkness.

"Close the door - tell your man to sit down at the desk, and promise not to scream."

Suddenly - as if she'd always been there - a short, fat, graying woman walked up to the desk.

My heart leaped into my mouth as I shot to my feet, the receiver clanging to the ground. Dax was on her in a blink, but Flora Bell simply stepped to the side and - almost simultaneously, appeared to my right, where Dax had been a moment ago. He stumbled as his arms grabbed at thin air where the witch should have been.

"I said to sit at the desk, tsk tsk task," she shook her head.

"Now boys", she said, gently placing herself in the chair beside me, "you and I need to have a pretty serious chat with your King and how he could win his war - but first, I want to talk about Nova."