Chapter 3.

Feydre’s POV

I remained at the doorway, unwilling to go near the lewd scene on the bed. His eyes, one bright amber and the other a golden-yellow scar tissue from a wound that extended above his brow and down to his cheekbones, roved over me. Heart beating faster and faster, I watched them go from mild curiosity to puzzlement and then such anger that I flinched.

“It can’t possibly be.” He said in a tight voice that promised unpleasantness if whatever the ‘it was’.

“Step closer Girl.” He growled at me. Shaking from head to toe, the look on his face not inviting at

all, I took a few careful steps closer. He sniffed the air and then his anger morphed into rage.

In a flash, he rose, the naked girl on his lap thrown off in the process. I flinched at the sight of him before me, for he was naked too.

“Leave.” He thundered at her and she scrambled to her feet, grabbing her clothes and fleeing to the sitting room, one last lingering glance at me.

Once she was gone, his full, angry gaze honed in on me. One minute, he glared down as if still stunned by the audacity of my presence here. The next he was in front of me. I opened my mouth to say something but I never got the chance. A large hand wrapped around my throat, cutting off my air supply and lifting me off my feet. My eyes widened, watered. My arms flew to his hand as I choked and uselessly tried to pry him off to no avail, Garrick’s warnings drove out my head by my rising fear and panic.

I was suspended in the air for a millisecond and then I was slammed into the wall behind me, the remaining air I had rushing from my lungs as my back hit the wall, legs still dangling inches off.

“Who are you?” He fumed. He didn’t yell. Not really. His voice was just so malevolent, so menacing that it carried the full weight of his power without raising a decibel. Terror clawed at my insides and squirming did nothing but make the pressure on my neck worse.

“G─Garrick… I–I I…” I choked out, clawing at the thick, strong arm that pinned me around the throat and kicking my feet limply in his direction. I didn’t know what I intended it to do but the action seemed to anger him even more and his fingers tightened so firmly he nearly crushed my windpipe.

“P─Please…” I choked, feeling my vision blur at the edges. I was desperate for air but he would not yield enough to let me have it.

“Garrick!” He growled at my face, a lethal rumble like the eruption of a volcano, accompanied by intense heat—

“Sire? Alpha? Alpha!” I heard Garrick’s voice but I couldn’t see him. All I could see was that furious amber eye, glaring at me with such disgust as my vision slowly faded.

“Garrick! Why have you brought a human into my palace?”

“Please Alpha! She’s not a human! She’s the war prize from the Nostre pack! Alpha Pete’s daughter!” Garrick said in a rush, nearly tripping over his words.

Xaden’s nostrils flared, taking in my scent. I continued to choke and squirm, the only change in status being that my legs no longer dangled off the floor.

“She is no wolf.” He spat and my vision glazed over with black, be it from the lack of oxygen or the rush of tears to my eyes from the pain. Just when I was sure I would die by his strangulation, the pressure on my throat reduced slightly and I drew in a rush of desperately needed air.

“I know. It was a bit of a surprise to me when I saw her but I had no idea─” The King’s head snapped towards him and Garrick felt silent. I no longer bore the brunt of that gaze but I winced all the same. The hand released from my throat, injurious pressure finally easing and I dropped in a heap to the floor, coughing and gasping.

He turned and stalked to Garrick who kept his head bowed and his eyes averted.

“You, whom I appointed to liaise and organize with the Alpha of Nostre on the matter of my highly anticipated gift, did not know that the goods you procured for me was defective?” He hissed.

Garrick dropped to his knees. “Forgive me Alpha. I did not think to ask─”

“So what in the world did you do?” The King loomed over Garrick who this time, gave no reply.

“And you!” He bellowed, that blinding rage suddenly whipping back to me. Still on the floor, I flinched. In two long strides, he was before me again, looming dangerously, his nakedness somewhat distracting even in the light of his fury.

In a flash, he reached out, grabbing a fist full of my hair and pulling me to my feet. I arched into the action with a cry, desperate to relieve the rapidly building pressure on my scalp.

Tears watered my eyes when he flexed his wrist again and turned me slightly so he could glare directly into my face.

“Your father dared to fool me like this? Send me a wolfless creature and call it a prize? You are no prize? You are an insult!”

His thundered words chinked at my carefully constructed armor, the one I’d had for years to protect

me from the comments and sneers. From the derisive laughter as I passed. The overt and hidden insults. I thought this place, this man would be tolerable like my father with the added displeasure of some sort of sexual servitude. I could not have imagined how much worse he could be. Even though I’ve never felt safe where I grew up, I longed for it now. I longed for somewhere else. Surely anywhere was better than this hell.“Did you both think I would not care? You must surely have thought that I wouldn’t mind since you did not come to be a wife. You think the Lycan King has no standards for his whores?”

He growled in my face and when I remained silent, shook me by the hair. “Answer me!” He demanded and even though I didn’t know the question, I spoke, if only to reduce the pain in my scalp and stop my hair from tearing at the roots.

“No, my lord! Please… I’m sorry! I didn’t know! I didn’t know!” I cried frantically.

His displeasure was all blinding, or perhaps that was just the tears in my eyes. My explanation came out in a rush, my fingers clawing at the punishing grip of the hand in my hair, desperate for reprieve.

“I didn’t know you weren’t aware. My father didn’t inform me of this arrangement. All he did was tell me to follow your men and I did. Mercy my Lord.”

His eyes narrowed at me. “You did not plan this with your father?” His hands tightened again and I gasped, drops of colorless fluid that pronounced my misery trailing down my cheeks.

“I swear! I swear it my King I didn’t! I didn’t!” My breath hitched, my voice rising with panic. He glared at me for a moment longer and made a sound of disgust before turning around with me in tow, an action that pulled more screams from my lips, and then he flung me to the floor in front of Garrick’s kneeling form.

“What do you think would be the best way to handle this disrespect? Hm, Garrick? Pete Manning has not

fulfilled the terms of our treaty. I asked for a war prize from his pack. I did not think I needed to clarify that I wanted a wolf. If I wanted some humanoid creature I’d go into the human cities and pick one. You are fully aware of my… predilection for wolves so I cannot

understand how you allowed this to happen. I’m very disappointed in you.”

“My sincerest apologies your Majesty, I didn’t think he wou─”

“Silence!” He thundered and Garrick snapped his mouth shut, bowing his head in apology.

“Call that lily-livered bastard Pete and tell him that if he doesn’t have a better replacement here by tomorrow morning, one who is an actual wolf, I will raze his pathetic little pack to the ground, behead his puny little males and share his females amongst my soldiers.”

I shuddered at the threat knowing from the stories I’d heard, and my own experience just now that he meant it. Every single word.

“Either way I will get what I want and what I want is not some wolfless wench who might as well be human for all the wolf blood she’s got.”

He strode towards another corner of the room where the bar lay and turned himself a glass of dark brown liquor, cursing under his breath the whole time. Garrick hesitated, glancing at me still sprawled on the floor, gasping and clutching my throat before bracing himself and tentatively throwing forward his question.

“And the girl, Sire?”

A new explosion occurred. The Lycan King whirled on him, the glass in his hand shattering to several many pieces as he clenched his fist. He hardly seemed to notice, stalking towards us, full of angry intent.

“I don’t fucking care, Garrick. Throw her off a cliff! Give her to the men! Drown the bitch if you want! I don’t fucking care! Just get her out of my sight! Now!”

I tried to rise to my feet, but my shaky legs would not allow it. I stumbled once and would have stumbled again if not for Garrick’s strong hand that held my arms and pulled me up, wrapping my hand around his back and leaning my weight on himself.

“Alpha.” He said with a nod of his head and turned towards the door. With his help, I limped out of the Lycan King’s bedroom with none of the little pride, dignity, or sense of self-worth I’d had coming in. Now there was only pain and humiliation and wondering what the hell was going to happen to me now.