Wanted by my sworn enemy

A promise

Lilorith pov

She watched as they called her 'Lady Zorya' and treated her as though she were a princess. The two guards were leading them to a private dining hall.

Since the feast to welcome the children of the previous Alpha king was still taking place. Lilorith couldn't argue with being brought into a place to eat. She was hungry after all.

Although she wasn't sure that the food would suffice her kind of hunger. She'd try to eat anyway.

Once in the dining room, they sat opposite each other at the large table. Lilorith couldn't even look her friend in the eyes anymore. How could it be that she had hidden another life for so long?

She nonchalantly received the meals the servant girl put in front of her. All those times she had gone on a vacation, she had come here. Everybody thought Zorya would go to a little hotel somewhere, to have a spa day. But no, she had been here. A whole she-wolf princess.

Zorya showed some slight discomfort at the way Lilorith peered at her.

"Please, leave us alone." She softly asked the servants and guards.

"The helpers can go. But we wouldn't be doing right by you to leave you with a stranger, lady Zorya." One of the guards spoke out as the two ladies left the room.

"Brielle, here is no stranger. She's a guest of mine."

They nodded and left them alone.

Lilorith picked up a piece of chicken from her plate and daintily nibbled it. She didn't even like chicken, but all food tasted like rubber at this point.

"Lilorith, I didn't mean for you to find out like this."

Lilorith swallowed and took a sip of the bitter wine from her cup. "You mean you never meant for me to find out at all." She picked up a fork and started poking at the mashed potatoes. "You were a spy, weren't you? Planted by the wolves to watch us in secret."

"I never chose this life, Brielle." Her voice had become a soft whisper. "I was only six when they put me through the same treatment you went through that day. On a regular basis, mind you." It made Lilorith's heart pulse as she spoke so sadly.

"You can't bring your trauma into this, Zor. The wolves are a cruel race, we took you in and tried to give you a good life. You should've cut them off!"

"It wasn't the wolves." Zorya stood up quickly, and her chair went to the floor. "It was my very own people. The angels. They were supposed to take care of me. But they mistreated me for who I am. Punished me for something I had no control over." Her voice hushed, as she quietly stated, "No one chooses to be a half-breed with no wolf and no wings."

"I didn't choose to be a half-breed either. But I did choose to be your friend. And friends tell each other these things. You should've told me, Zor. Are you suggesting I have no right to be angry with this betrayal?"

"What is there to be angry about? Are you gonna put me on your little revenge list like you did your mom?"

"You b***h," Lilorith mumbled.

"Oh please, grow up. I told you. You were too wrapped up in your perfect world and 'normal' life, getting an art degree while I was being used as a spy. You might hate Agatha, but she gave you a better life than most mothers do."

"Ugh, since when did you become the devil's advocate."

Zorya was picking up her chair while she opened her mouth to respond. Then the doors burst open.

"Zorya!"

"Uncle!"

She ran towards the heavy-set man as though forgetting everything and everyone else. Lilorith was left, seated at the table. Mouth agape and stunned to see her mother's unhappy face taking in the cute display of family members embracing one another.

It was something foreign to her. Lilorith was sure her mother had never hugged a person in her entire life, except for her father perhaps, but even then, she couldn't be sure.

What was the cursed woman doing there? How had she found her?

And what the hell was going on?

Would she punish her the way she did before?

But she couldn't possibly do that. Not with where they were. She wasn't the one in authority here. She didn't have to listen to the old woman.

Gael wouldn't allow her to hurt her that way. Wolves were a protective bunch, weren't they?

Then again, she recalled the day they first met, and he watched her get strangled by that strange creature.

His golden eyes were trained on her as she frowned at her mother. He walked towards her and sat down next to her. She glanced at him but he paid her no mind.

A servant came in with a plate of food to give him. Gael began munching away at his dinner as if famished. Without any manners, Lilorith might add, it made her frown deepen to know that this was apparently the man the heavens wanted her to belong to.

"Lilorith, come," Lady Agatha commanded.

Making Zorya and her uncle face her with disapproval for ruining their little reunion.

She couldn't lie to herself. She was very much still afraid of the woman, so she began getting up when Gael put a hand out to stop her.

Her mother noticed this. "Do not worry wolf. I won't steal her from you. I just want to talk to her in private."

"There is no privacy among mates, Agatha." The burly man with an arm resting on Zorya's shoulders announced.

Her mother eyed them. As though questioning the relationship they had with each other.

"They're not mated yet," her mother replied.

"Yet?" Lilorith heard herself repeat the word before she realized she had opened her mouth.

Agatha sighed. "You did this to yourself."

She spoke in Demon vernacular. A language Lilorith wasn't too familiar with. She could only understand so little of what had been spoken to her in her childhood.

"You always say that," Lilorith answered back in her native tongue.

"Because it is truthful. I tell no lie when I say this. Your grandfather himself had to come here to bargain for my presence. To see this joining through."

"No," she whispered under her breath. It couldn't be.

He never cared about the s*x demons. Never cared about her mother Agatha, and whichever way she chose to run her kind, they were insignificant.

Zorya gasped, "The Elder of demons himself?" Lady Agatha gave her an expression that told her she wasn't a part of the conversation, and she lowered her head in understanding.

"You are to be tied to that dog." She nodded at the man who had stopped eating and was now staring at his food. "Both sides have decided to agree on this, and so it will be done. You may have come here to spite me. But in the end, you have punished your own self. Your insolence and shame will be used for the glory of demons."

She quirked her thin lips upwards in what appeared to be a smile. The room was quiet. Lilorith simply had no way to reply.

Zorya cleared her voice after a moment of awkward silence. "Uh, I think I'll be calling it a night. See you in the morning, Uncle."

She gave the bearded man a check on his rough cheek and waved at Gael, who happily waved back.

Lilorith's heart skipped a beat.

Had she never seen him smile before?

She shook off the stupid reaction and watched Zorya scurry past her mother. Her arms folded, sending a death star everybody's way.

Their Uncle made his way to the head of the table and sat down with a huff. A servant girl came in the room with the largest platter of assorted meats Lilorith had ever seen.

He looked back at lady Agatha, "You might as well take a seat. This is how we eat. You should get used to it."

"I do not feed on what you wolves do." She turned around and stomped away as though she knew the Palace of a packhouse already.

"Where is she going?" Lilorith mumbled.

Gael was wiping himself up when he replied, "We've already shown her the room she'll be staying in."

"So it's true. We're being forced together?"

"Well, I'm sure it's just what you wanted."

"I never wanted to be stuck with a wolf."

The other man's knife and fork clanged together repeatedly as he sharpened his utensils, seemingly minding his own business.

"Maddex, please."

He raised his bushy eyebrows and huffed. "And here I thought I was going to have a peaceful meal." He picked up his platter and utensils, making his way out of the dining room and telling one of the girls outside to shut the door behind him.

Lilorith didn't like that. She wasn't claustrophobic, but being alone with him made her heart rate elevate.

It could just be the fact that she was so heavily irritated with her current predicament.

"I swear to fight this," she murmured, glaring up at him as he stood up. "I swear to fight you every step of the way."

"Sure." He turned away.

She grabbed his wrist. "Don't do this. Don't let them force us to do this, or I'll hate you. Gael, I'll hate you so much."

"Is that all?" He frowned at her indifferently.

"Well-" she began when he snatched his wrist away and bent down until their faces were so close their noses almost touched.

"Deep down, I already f*****g hate you. Coming into my life and messing everything up. Logic dictates I rid myself of you and send you away, yet the wolf inside me begs me to get closer, to protect... to fuck."

She looked away from him and the reality of his harsh words. "Do it then."

"Do what?"

"Get rid of me, or I'll get rid of myself. By any means necessary."

"Lilorith, Look at me," he growled.

When she didn't obey, he grasped her chin. His warm hold forced her to be drowned by his golden irises.

"I swear if you talk like that again, I'm locking you in my room." His voice softened as he mumbled, "You're my damn mate. I'll ensure no harm comes your way. I'll take good care of you no matter how much I hate you. I promise. Just make sure to stay out of my way."