Leona pov

I couldn’t stop myself as I angrily wheeled into the palace, blood pulsing through my ears. The demeaning stares I received as I wheeled through the gates into the courtyard was no match for my determination to see the king.

He’d promised Fiona would not be dragged down by his cruel judgement against me.

If she had been down because of just me, I wouldn’t have been entirely pissed as I was because it was expected. But making the man she loved abandon her because of her sister and not keeping to his word?

Alpha Kane had stepped a new low that aroused my hatred for him.

“You cannot pass!” The guards guarding the entrance into the hall path ceased my movement, their pitchforks crossing an X to deter passing.

“I want to see the king,” I seethed, my knuckles white against the chair’s arm as I almost spilled out the words “I’m his mate.”

I had to remind myself that I wasn’t. That he’d rejected me. That he’ll rather have me die.

“You cannot see the King, Ms. Leona,” The blonde haired guard pronounced. There was only the faintest hint of sympathy in his eyes he didn’t act on as he stared at me. “You are not allowed to pass through to him.”

“Then tell him to come out to me!” I yelled, nerves pulsating with frustration. When they didn’t make even the slightest of action to allow me in or get Alpha Kane, I wheeled backwards, under the cascadence of the rays of sunlight, and

squinted as I peered up at the towering brick walls of the palace, my eyes searching for a window that could be his quarters or study room.

“Alpha Kane!” I screamed to the top of my voice so he could hear me, wherever he was on the inside. I ignored the faint gasps I caught behind me. “You play very dirty for a royalty, you know!”

“Ms. Leona—”

“You made a freaking promise to me, Alpha Kane!” I bellowed even louder, ignoring the guard’s attempt to break my riot. “How dare you lie to a disabled woman and citizen? Is this how shallow you get when things don’t go your way!”

“Ms. Leona!” The harsh bark of my name from behind me startled me, making my body jump as I recoiled the next statement I was about lurching at the old walls with the hope that so called King was listening. Wheeling my chair slowly around, I turned to see the very man that had torn my sister’s heart to shreds, marching his way towards me with a hand clasped around the hilt of his sword and a severely mean demeanor nabbed at me.

The Alpha’s sickingly loyal beta; Gilbert freaking Tamron.

“You’re causing a ruckus here, Leona,” he said, his gaze levelled me as he stopped

right in front of me. “Leave unless you want to be punished.”

“Punished?” I scoffed, bitterness clogging my chest. “for speaking out against the King’s unfairness towards me and my sister? And yet he would boast of this pack having fair political judgement —”

“If the King does not want to see you, it doesn’t warrant this...” He glared me over with a form of respite in his eyes. Eyes he once used to look at me with commendation and acceptance. “immature act of yours that would only lead you into more trouble than you already are in. Please, quietly leave, Leona.”

Maybe I had misinterpreted the emotion in his eyes to be respite, because they suddenly glazed over with discreet pleading, begging me to leave.

“Well,” I roughly tucked a strand of loose hair behind my ears. “I wouldn’t be here doing this immature act if your King had kept to his word. If you hadn’t decided that dumping Fiona all of a sudden because your stupid King’s judgement —”

“Stupid King?” The softer toned repetition of my words came from behind me, icing my words down my throat. But, following alongside trepidation, my rage intensified at the recognition of the voice.

When I turned, he was nothing short of a smug smile and masculine beauty that I refused to be affected by.

He was no longer my mate. I repeated as a mantra in my head, despite the gentle whimper Hera released on my inside, and the rejection pain she still nursed that I felt, as we stared at the all mighty Alpha Kane, watching him saunter out of the palace with an extravagance of confidence and determination in a blend of red floor length coat, a white undershirt, black pants, and a forever tousled yet appealing hair, towards us.

Why did terrible men have to look so good?

“You have no atom of respect, Leona Kazan,” He looked me over with derision in his eyes as he came to stand in front of me, his head cocking to the side like he was observing me. “Yelling on royal grounds, calling your King and Alpha stupid...you’re seriously asking for a death wish.”

“You promised that this wouldn’t affect Fiona,” I stated, tamping down the urge to yell and mindedly wishing I had a dagger I could use to tear away that nerve wracking smile from his lips. “but she was practically faced with rejection all day because of this and you made your favorite beta—”

“The King did not make me do anything, Leona!” Gilbert snapped, and I fought the urge not to pass him the deadliest of stares. Did he even know how much pain his abandonment had caused Fiona? “Stop this now!”

“If there was anyone you should blame, it’s yourself, Leona,” Alpha Kane said, crossing his arms and nabbing me with a stern look. “while I wouldn’t like to indulge in this conversation because it is a waste of time, I should clarify somethings before I grant you your punishment for impudence on palace grounds.”

Icy dread ran down my spine. Punishment? He might as well just slaughter me and hang my body up on a pole in the town center while he was at it.

He leaned closer, our faces only inches apart from each other. I gulped on nothing as his blue eyes peered at me, his scent working through my defenses. This was no help for me and Hera, yet I couldn’t find it in me to wheel my chair away from his proximity.

“I don’t make my people do things, Leona. And certainly not my favorite Beta,” His eyes went up momentarily to Gilbert. “but you have to understand that there are rules governing us werewolves, and the world itself.” His eyes dropped for a second to my mouth, and his lips stretched, making me cringe with discomfort.

He wasn’t going to...

He pulled away all of a sudden, drenching my entire body with a cold sweat that worked at my nerves.

Stupid, stupid Leona! Just because he glances at your mouth doesn’t mean he wants to kiss you!

“And while I might have led you to believe that I had made whatever sort of promise, the only reply I had given to your request on not making your sister a fellow outcast as you is that I had no intentions to do that,” he said. “I’m not so much of a wicked Alpha King to make her partake in the plight you brought on

yourself, but I’m not to blame when the people choose to cast a stone at her because of you.”

My nerves snapped. His smirk widened as he watched the infuriation cloud my face. He did not just...

“And you’re pissed by the fact that Gilbert here...” He had moved to the beta and flung an arm over his shoulder. “abandoned Fiona? Well, why don’t you tell her why you can’t be with Fiona, Gilbert?”

Gilbert’s eyes fell with despair, unable to meet mine. He was hesitant; somewhat ridden over by a sense of guilt, and then he huffed.

“The King’s unmated beta cannot mingle with a woman despised by the people. It taints the image of both the man, and ruins the king’s trust in him.” He responded.

I grimaced. “You’ll choose to serve this man and hold some ridiculous trust over your relationship with Fiona? I thought you loved her!”

“Of course he did,” Alpha Kane butted in. “but unlike you, no one has a death wish to go against their Alpha.”

Just how had I grown attracted to this egoistical, self-conceited jerk of an Alpha, adored and posed him as the perfect Alpha King almost all my life and had almost been mated to him without noticing how terrible he was?

And yet he joined the bandwagon of discrimination against Alpha Zane when he was clearly like him in more ways than one.

“You’d kill him if he decides to follow love?” I uttered with stark incredulity.

“He’d be killing himself, not me. It’s what the law says,” Alpha Kane replied, unhooking his arm from around Gilbert’s shoulder and leaving the man to stand

alone as he drifted closer. “just like you’re ruining your sister’s life with your stained reputation.”

I tightened my grip against the chair’s handle; blood pulsing with white-hot anger. “You don’t deserve the crown, Alpha Kane,” I seethed.

“Oh sure, I do,” he biffed. “I’m what this kingdom needs. Not like you’ll understand it anyway because you’re...” He ran his gaze through me with irritation. “dejected.”

Teeth clenched and unwilling to further this conversation with him, I wheeled backwards, meeting gazes with Gilbert. He immediately looked away.

“I always dotted on you for Fiona, Gilbert, because I admired how much you cared about her,” I said. He struggled to meet my eyes, but there was some sort of remorse in them. “Now, I’m rather disappointed.” What use was his love to Fiona if he couldn’t fight this man because of it?

If he could abandon her on first sight of danger, then he didn’t deserve Fiona. Not one bit.