59. Nyx
59
Nyx
“Former,” I say, my head reeling. What in the hell are you doing here?
“Her pack alpha wasn’t authorized to breed her, let alone sell her.” Aiden’s arms cross over his chest, his hip jutting out while his stance remains rigid. “The transaction was against pack law and therefore she must be returned.”
I don’t move. Nor do I breathe.
Raine was never supposed to be a breeder.
I remember her cowering before me when I came to collect her. How scared she’d been and the scent of her fear burning my nose when I pulled it deep into my lungs. The way her pack alpha, Daniel, had conducted himself, and how woefully disorganized the entire event had been.
No dowry. Nothing but the clothes on her back. Her intense struggle to understand that none of the members of my pack were out to get her.
Daniel sold her to get rid of her. He sought out the highest bidder, most likely hoping that the rumors about me were true and Raine would meet her end by my hands, or worse. Did he hope I would torture her endlessly?
I’m sickened to my core.
“I see.” My voice is rough as I speak; it’s hard to push back the emotions brewing just under the surface.
My regret for not going back there and slaughtering her entire pack is now here to bite me in the ass—to show me that I was right in knowing how corrupt they all were. Raine’s kind nature, her much too big heart, had held me back when my instincts were telling me otherwise.
The sweet way she told me not to bother. I should’ve presented it to her as a gift, instead—her pack alpha’s head on a platter, and asked for forgiveness instead of approval.
Aiden clears his throat, shifting slightly on his feet. “Her mate is requesting her return.”
Glancing around at the enforcers behind him, along with the lone female, no one moves to step forward.
Interesting.
“And he is where?” I say.
Aiden shifts again, clearly uncomfortable. “Does that matter? I’m here to collect her to bring her back to where she belongs.”
For some reason, his words trigger me. A deep dark feeling settles in my stomach and blooms slowly through my veins. I sit with it for a moment, letting it fill me until I finally realize that it’s true, unadulterated rage.
Raine’s mate—a coward not worth his weight in salt—is only now staking a claim on her when before, he couldn’t be bothered to properly care for her, let alone ask her to stay with him to raise their child together.
And instead of coming here himself to ask me to give her back, he’s sent his fucking alpha king to do the job for him.
In the hope that I, another alpha king, will bend to the will of my equal.
I huff out a laugh, the sound growing louder as reality sets in on how truly ridiculous this all is. Raine had it so horribly before I came and got her, and now these people want to take her back to all of that?
Absolutely not. I’d rather lay myself on a bed of hot coals and let my skin melt from my bones before I ever let any of them even lay an eye on her ever again.
Your Grace… Wren’s voice tingles in the back of my head at the same time that I double over, not being able to help myself.
Honestly, when I chase this pack away from my lands, the first thing I’m doing is going back to Andromeda and finding Raine’s mate. I’ll delight in skewering him.
“I don’t find any of this very funny.” Aiden’s perturbed voice causes me to laugh harder.
To think that this alpha has no true idea how any of his packs run—selling illegal breeders, treating pregnant females as worse than cattle. Hell, treating her poorly before that. How can he call himself an alpha king?
I’ll admit, I am a harsh ruler, but my hand seems like nothing compared to his careless one.
Catching my breath and sobering up, I finally straighten to my full height in order to wipe away the tears that have collected under my eyes.
“If you think,” I say, focusing back on him, “that I will ever let you step foot past that territory mark and into my packlands in order to fix something you fucked up, you are truly out of your depth.”
His arms drop to his sides, shoulders bunching up toward his ears. Behind him, one of his enforcers lets out a low growl.
Stepping back from the territory line, my shoulder brushing against Wren’s while I usher him backward, I say, “As much of a shame as it is to be meeting you under these circumstances, I wish you well on your journey home.”
My beta is reluctant to move, even with my insistence. It seems he’s not as trusting as I am that my young counterpart will behave and leave like I’ve requested him to. While my knowledge of Aiden is practically non-existent, I knew his father quite well.
We clashed on many things, leading to a contentious relationship. He was old and stuck in his ways and didn’t receive the news of a very young heir stepping into the role left after a bloody battle very well.
“I’m not leaving until she comes home with me, Calloway.”
I wave my hand at him dismissively, turning my back and heading for the trail leading down into the valley. “Then you will be waiting there for the next century, because it won’t be happening.”
“There has to be some price.” His tone is desperate enough that I stop in my tracks to listen. “Whatever it is, I’ll get it and bring it to you. Name your price.”
My wolf coils within me.
An offer such as this comes rarely, if ever, from another equal. We are both in a position of high enough authority that all who answer to us with bow if we so ask. The offer of getting me something in exchange to correct a mistake is tempting.
Too tempting for me to pass up.
“Her mate,” I say, slowly turning back to him.
He blinks in astonishment.
“I want you to bring me her mate.” So that he can kneel at my feet and beg for his life before I behead him.
Aiden blinks twice more before his expression steels again. “ That’s what you’re asking for?”
“Yes. Bring him here so that he can ask me himself.”
To him, the request may seem outlandish. What he doesn’t know is that I want to stare that male in the eyes as he tells me how much of a mistake he made in letting Raine go. How he regrets letting his pack alpha sell her illegally to an alpha rumored for his cruelty.
I want to watch as that male drops to his hands and knees and begs me right before the light leaves his eyes when I punch a hole through his chest and rip out his still-beating heart.
Would it be too macabre of me to present it to Raine as a gift? Perhaps that could be her pushing gift. Daniel’s head will simply be an added bonus. Perhaps a one-month gift after the child is born.
Aiden nods slowly. “And then you’ll give her back?”
“Sure,” I lie. “Once Raine properly identifies him.”
He grimaces.
I smirk back. “Come back here once you have him, and then we’ll have another discussion.”
With that, I turn back around and head onto the trail, both Wren and my patrol unit following me. All of them are tense, their nosy emotions buzzing around in my head like flies. Typically, we are not negotiators. My tactics usually end in brute force and bloodshed.
Here though, I need to be delicate in how I handle things. Especially if it means I get to have Raine’s tormentors finally see justice.
“Calloway,” Aiden calls to me.
I stop and look over my shoulder once more at him.
His hesitation is obvious, even if it’s only for a split second. “Tell me…is she still with child?”
I hold back from asking why he’d care. Perhaps that had been the stipulation in coming to get her—a child born in my territory would retroactively be mine to keep, no matter where the mother came from.
Perhaps Aiden isn’t in the business of losing any of his own future soldiers. What kind of king would he be otherwise?
“Come back with her mate and I’ll give you an answer,” is all I say before leaving him and his pack behind.