Hate or Love

Game of Words

Victor almost dragged Lady Irene from her forearm as soon as he closed his mate's bedroom door, so she wouldn't overhear their conversation. "Is he here?" He questioned impatiently. It wasn't in his nature to not act calm and collected, but he had been interrupted from everything he was planning to do and say to Estelle, including confessing to her, so there was no use beating around the bush with a matter as important as her safety.

"Lord Walton just came," Irene answered. "He told me he's waiting for you in the dining hall, where the feast will take place."

Victor narrowed his eyes at her in confusion. "Only this? He didn't say anything else, you didn't notice anything else?"

She shook her head, not getting his point. "No. He looked completely normal to me. Not at all like he'd be contemplating anything against you."

Victor groaned in frustration. "Then why did you insist it was important?" He demanded, his voice rising, showing all his frustration he now felt inside. "I literally thought he had come invading my court."

Once again, Irene looked confused at his outburst. "But Victor, you were the one who told us to notify you the first second he stepped foot inside our court."

Suddenly, he was about to snap and break something against the wall to let all his frustration out. Irene was right, he had ordered them exactly this, but he had been so close, so so close to making his mate accept him and that had all flied outside the window now, for something as unimportant as Walton wanting to meet him.

"Yes, because I was afraid he'd get to my mate first and do something to her! I could protect her just fine while I was inside her room," he finally explained, upset at everything that was going on right now.

Maybe everyone had forgotten, everyone had called it a mere accident, but Victor hadn't. And he wasn't that much of a fool to believe Estelle being shot with an arrow from one of his own archers was really a simple mistake. Although none of the archers had really admitted everything, no matter the tortures to make them talk, he was convinced that was all planned out, a way to get to him.

And was there a better was to get to him but hurting his mate? At the end of the day, Estelle was the only one who couldn't understand how deeply, desperately, foolishly in love he was with her.

So, no matter how much he had tried, investigated, using both his trusted people and his magic powers too, everything led back to Lord Walton. The old elf was the only one who could want revenge against Victor for humiliating and almost murdering him in front of other nobles, and after watching the way Victor had claimed Estelle in front of everyone, it was only logical to want to protect her from him.

That was why only a few people, his most trusted ones, including Irene knew about his strong doubts and plans on keeping all eyes on Lord Walton and never once leaving him alone, especially with Estelle.

Lord David was a suspect in conniving with his father too, but if that was true, Victor would deal with him all by himself. It would be his biggest pleasure to make the other young elf suffer if he ever even came close to Victor's mate.

"It's all about her, isn't it?" Irene's voice brought him back to realty, and it took him a second to make sense of her question. She looked angry, but hurt as well.

"Yes, it is," Victor simply answered. He could have smoothed it a bit for her, knowing she probably had feelings for him, but the last thing he wanted was for Irene to create illusions in her head for things that were never going to happen. There was no good way to reject someone that had been in your bed, for a few nights, only because she looked just slightly like the woman you were in love with. "Everything is always going to be about her, Irene. Always. I'm sorry if you couldn't see that before."

Without waiting for an answer, he turned his back and left. Victor still wanted her to be one of his trusted people when he was crowned King in his ceremony, especially when they were such few of them, but whatever lie she had convinced herself to believe, she had to come out of it first.

Victor made eye contact with Lord Walton, who had been waiting for him, and his powers almost got the best of him if he hadn't learned to control them well. Just the thought that the man in front of him had probably tried killing his love made him see dark.

"My King."

Victor noticed the way Walton bowed down in front of him and called him his King this time, differently from the other time when Estelle had had to cut in and demand the respect Walton should have shown since the beginning.

If this was his way of trying to gain Victor's trust, he was surely being a fool.

"Lord Walton." There was no trace of forgiveness or oblivion on Victor's voice. It was cold and hard as ever. Emotionless, just like everyone knew Victor to be. Everyone but Estelle. "I see you have come to join us tonight." He let the sarcasm drip from his lips, reminding Walton of the promise he had made to him if only the Lord didn't bow down to his King.

"I could not turn my King down, now, could I?"

Victor raised his brows, surprised at his bravery. "Not that you had a choice, if I remember correctly." He chuckled in irony. 

But instead of being upset, Walton looked away. "The truth is, I underestimated and clearly undervalued you as our next Leader, Victor," he admitted, confusing Victor all of the sudden. "Maybe because it felt like you showed up out of nowhere and stole the throne, maybe because you didn't grow up in court and no one knew about your existence, I don't know, but except of your looks, I wanted to believe you were nothing like Evander."

If this was a game of words or not, Victor couldn't tell anymore. "And what was the result of that?"

"The result is that you're similar to him in some ways, and different in some others. He was Lord of The Council of Peace, yet you're more ambitious than him."

"I don't see how that's a bad thing," Victor said, almost arrogantly. "Don't you want an ambitious King?"

Walton smiled briefly. "We want an ambitious King that knows his Lords' and Ladies' places as well. You can't come around threatening to kill us if we don't agree with your ways of ruling."

The hands behind Victor's back curled together, almost itching to let magic flow out of them. "Except, I didn't threaten to kill you because you opposed me. I did because you thought you could offer me a deal of marrying my mate with your son, like she wasn't destined to be mine."

This time, it was Walton that narrowed his eyes at him. "Destined or not, Princess Estelle isn't going to be yours, Your Highness," he said, matter-of-factly. "Me and your other Lords won't allow that to happen."

Victor gritted his teeth together, closing his eyes for a short second to keep himself on check. "And why do you think you have the right to demand with whom I get to be?" Although he kept his calm, his voice was even more threatening this time.

"Of course we do, we're talking about our Queen here!"

Victor smiled bitterly. "You keep comparing me to my father, the most loved and respected King of our history, but did you demand from him to not marry a woman from the lower class when he found out my mother was his mate?"

Walton looked surprised at first, but then he gained his composure. "Queen Vivienne was an elf at least, and she certainly wasn't the daughter of the one that murdered King Evander's father."

Victor made sense of the words first. The problem was that Robert had killed his father, and Estelle was his daughter? Didn't that made Walton even more of a suspect that Victor first believed? "Oh, so Estelle isn't that murderer's daughter when it comes to her marrying your son, right?" He mocked, seeing the way Walton had been caught and didn't have an answer to that. "We aren't responsible for our parents' actions, Lord Walton. Just like David might not be responsible for yours." He looked straight at the older elf's eyes as he spoke. "Princess Estelle will be our Queen when the time comes and there's no creature in this world that will change that."

Just as he finished the words, his guests started entering the hall, one after the other, bowing down to him in respect as they passed by.

"Then where is your Queen, Your Majesty?" This time it was Walton's turn to mock. "Because I don't see her standing by your side, where you say she belongs."

Victor couldn't hide the way his words hit where it most hurt. But just as he tried finding a suiting answer to what Walton had said, all his senses knew she had walked inside, and almost unconsciously he turned to look at her.

His heart slammed against his ribs. She looked so damn gorgeous in that lilac, siren-shaped gown that showed her soft curves perfectly. It made him want to drag her outside and go finish what he couldn't earlier.

And there was something inside him that was more hopeful than ever that he would prove Walton wrong. That his beautiful wolf mate would walk to him and stand by his side just like Victor had tried convincing her to when he told her he wanted his Court to see her as their Queen.

However, for only a brief second, their eyes met, before she averted them away coldly, and instead of walking to him, she walked to her older brother instead, giving him one of her perfect smiles.

Victor looked away, hurt.

Had they perhaps, even after what went on between them, gone back to how they were before, once again?