Chapter 13
1127 Words
Scarlett’s POV
I knew I should have walked away.
After that kiss, after the soft way his mouth moved against mine like I was his perfect mate. I should’ve pulled back, maybe even pushed him off, reminded myself of everything he had taken from me.
But I didn’t do that.
Instead I foolishly let him kiss me.
Out in the open and I took it a step further and kissed him back.
***
He stopped hiding it.
What we were, whatever he felt, he stopped pretending like it was a secret.
The next morning, he moved with me into court.
I didn’t stand behind him or trailing with the servants.
No, I walked beside him.
Like I wasn’t a prisoner of war, like I was his equal.
And he didn’t say a word about it.
He just placed his hand on the small of my back, and guided me into the Meeting Hall like I belonged there.
Like I was something more.
The whispers between his Alphas were almost immediate, their guards stiffened and they exchanged glances at the marble table.
Hanna and the other concubines were there as well but they had gone to the meeting before Draco and were seated.
Her posture was too straight as her eyes burned with anger.
Draco sat down in his usual seat at the head of the table. Then he looked at the empty chair to his right.
The seat meant for his Luna if he could ever choose one.
“Sit,” he said to me.
It wasn’t a question and it wasn’t even a command.
It was a statement, an unsaid demand. It felt like we had done this a hundred times before.
So I sat.
***
The council meeting began, There were talks of border tension and trade imbalances.
Also some rogue packs had begun forming some sort of alliances, I listened in silence even as eyes were set on me from every direction.
I took a look at the other concubines. Apart from those that sat staring venomously at me, the rest were totally unbothered by the situation of the Kingdom.
Was that why Draco was beginning to favor me?
Then someone spoke up, dragging me out of my thoughts.
“She shouldn’t be here,” said a minor Alpha from the northern side. I didn’t know his name and I didn’t care.
“She doesn’t have a title here, no standing and her people have been wiped out for their wrong.”
Draco looked at him once.
That was all it took to shut him up.
“If she has anything to say,” he said slowly. “You will listen and her presence is not a courtesy. It’s law”
There was silence.
Then the Alpha cleared his throat and sat down, he looked away from my gaze.
I felt the atmosphere change, something had shifted. They would see me differently now.
This was not born from just affection.
He had just legitimized me in front of everyone that mattered in his kingdom.
He wasn’t just f*****g me.
He had given me power.
***
After the meeting ended, I pulled him aside.
“You know you humiliated that Alpha.” I said.
“I simply reminded them who their King Alpha was,” He replied.
“How?”
“This palace is mine and who I choose to have at my side is not up for debate or any of their business. As you heard, they’re failing miserably at their own business. They shouldn’t be putting their snouts in mine.”
I stared at him. “You’re going to put a target on my back.”
“You’ve always had one. Now I’ve just made it bigger.”
“Is that supposed to be comforting?”
He stepped closer to me, brushing his knuckles slowly along my jaw. “It’s the truth, and that’s more than a lot of people get from me.”
I slapped his hand away.
He caught my wrist again.
“You know how that goes.”
It was always the grabbing of my wrist first.
“I don’t want to be protected,” I said. “I don’t want to be your pet project. I don’t need pity.”
“You’re far from being a pet project.”
“Then what am I to you?”
He said nothing at first, he just stared at me. Like he was lost for words.
Then he spoke.
“You’re the first person whoever made me doubt myself.”
***
That night, he didn’t come to his bed chamber.
I sat there, with the candle light and silence, with my mind filled with confusion.
What was I doing?
What was I becoming?
This wasn’t the plan.
I was supposed to play his game, manipulate and gather enough information so I could get my revenge on him and destroy him.
That was my plan, my revenge plan for killing my family.
But instead…
I was…
No, he looked at me like I mattered. He kissed me like he meant it. He touched me like I was more than just a concubine to quench his s****l desire.
He trusted me.
And I hated how much I was beginning to like it.
Moana, Miriam, My father, My brother, Simon.
I whispered all their names like it was a prayer and a curse. Like something to bring back the hatred I had felt this far but their names just held their memories.
Hate had given way to something else.
Their faces were blurring.
And Draco’s voice, his hands. The way he said my name whenever he wanted me close and what his body did to mine.
That was more vivid.
It was like I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
Was I my father’s daughter?
Or was I Draco’s woman?
***
Two days later, the shift became impossible to ignore. We were talking in the main corridor and speaking softly.
Draco was explaining a flaw he had noticed in that Northern Alpha’s flank and I was offering a counter position on the route I’d seen on the map.
It felt intimate that we were discussing like this.
He even made a joke and I laughed. So did he… he actually laughed and i had to pause mid-step.
“You know you’re beginning to get into my head.”
I blinked. “How?”
“I used to think alone, strategize on my own but now, your voice is in my head and I think clearer when you’re around.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
So I didn’t say anything.
I just looked at him.
And he looked at me.
He leaned in and kissed me, without a care in the world.
- Writer
