Chapter 19 Wen
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Wen
I froze.
Completely, utterly froze.
Wedding?
The word echoed in my head, bouncing around my skull until it was the only thing I could hear. Not the murmurs of the nobles. Not the shuffling of feet. Just that one word on repeat.
Wedding. Wedding. Wedding.
Next to me, Sorcha went rigid. Aurion cursed under his breath. “Fuck.”
Mal looked up at me across the room. His eyes found mine instantly, and I saw panic flash across his face. Pure, undiluted panic.
What. The. Fuck. Was happening?
The woman was clinging to him with a smile plastered on her face as she talked about a wedding that apparently existed.
Tears gathered in my eyes, hot and stinging. I blinked them back furiously.
I was not going to cry. Not here. Not in front of all these people who already looked at me with contempt or curiosity or pity.
Mal took a step back from the woman. Said something to her in a low voice that I couldn’t hear. His expression was tight, controlled. The Wolf King mask firmly in place.
But through the bond, I felt his distress. His desperation. His need to get to me.
I didn’t care.
I turned to Sorcha. “I’m going back to the rooms. I remember the way.”
“Wait, it’s dangerous-” Aurion started.
But I was already moving. Already pushing through the crowd toward the door. I didn’t want to hear explanations. Didn’t want to see Mal or that woman or any of these people. I just wanted out.
Luckily, everyone was too focused on the drama unfolding in the center of the room to pay attention to one human slipping away. I made it to the hallway without anyone stopping me.
I turned left. Or was it right? Fuck. The corridors all looked the same. Stone walls. Torches. More stone walls.
I kept walking, trying to retrace the path we’d taken from the secret passage. My vision was blurry. My chest was tight. My hands were shaking.
So stupid. I’d been so incredibly stupid.
Of course he had a fiancée. Of course there was a wedding planned. He was a king. Kings had political marriages. I’d read enough fantasy novels to know that.
But he’d never mentioned it. Never told me. Just dragged me through a portal into his world without warning me that-
I slammed into someone.
Hard.
Strong hands grabbed my arms to steady me. I looked up into the face of a guard, tall and broad with a sneer already forming on his lips as he stared down at me with obvious disdain.
“What do we have here?” His voice was oily. Mocking. He leaned closer, sniffing at me like a dog. His nose wrinkled.
I tried to pull away. “Let go of me.”
His grip tightened. “I don’t know you. What are you doing in the royal wing? You smell... wrong. What are you?”
“None of your business. Now let go.”
“I don’t think so. The king has been gone for weeks. Strange things have been happening. And now some creature is sneaking through the halls?” His sneer widened. “I think the council will want to question you.”
Panic flared in my chest. I twisted in his grip, trying to break free. He just laughed and pulled me closer.
“Let go of me!” I brought my knee up hard between his legs.
He doubled over with a gasp. His grip loosened.
I wrenched free and stumbled back. My heart was pounding. Adrenaline flooding my system.
The guard straightened slowly. His face was red, furious.
“You little bitch-”
“Little mate-”
I froze.
The voice was in my head. Actually in my head, not through my ears but somehow directly in my mind.
Was I losing it? Was the stress finally making me hallucinate?
The doors behind me slammed open and I didn’t have time to process what was happening because suddenly the guard was raising his hand to strike me.
“What the fuck do you think you are doing?”
Mal’s snarl was pure rage and alpha dominance that filled the entire corridor with menace. The guard actually flinched backward, his hand dropping.
Then Mal was there. He moved faster than should have been possible, inserting himself between me and the guard with a violence that made my breath catch.
His fist connected with the guard’s face and I heard the crunch of breaking bone.
The guard flew backward from the force of the blow, his body hitting the opposite wall before crumpling to the floor in a heap.
My legs went weak. I’d seen Mal fight in the challenge room, but that had felt choreographed somehow. This was raw violence. Protective fury that made my hands shake.
“Are you okay, Wen?” Mal’s hands were on my arms immediately. My shoulders. My face. Searching for injuries with gentle fingers that contrasted sharply with the violence of seconds ago. “Did he hurt you? Are you-”
“I had it handled.” I shoved his hands away. “Leave me alone.”
“Wen-”
I tried to walk past him. He blocked my path.
“Wait. No. Let me explain. It’s not what you think-”
“I don’t want to hear ANYTHING from you, Malachar.” My voice came out sharper than I’d intended. Louder. “I just want to sleep. Maybe when I wake up, this nightmare will be over.”
Through the bond, I felt his sadness crash over me in waves. His guilt. How terrible he felt about everything.
I didn’t care. Fuck him. Fuck all of them. Fuck Lytopia and portals and fiancées who showed up announcing weddings.
“You will be staying in my chambers,” he said quietly. “And before you argue, I will be sleeping on the floor.”
“I don’t even want you in the same room.”
He flinched as if I’d struck him. “I will sleep in the bathroom, then.”
“Fine.”
“Come. This way.”
He led me through the actual halls this time instead of the secret passages. The corridors were wider here and grander, with high ceilings that made me feel small. Actual chandeliers hung overhead with real candles providing flickering light.
We reached a set of double doors that were huge and ornate, with guards standing on either side. They bowed when they saw Mal and he pushed the doors open, gesturing for me to enter first.
I walked in and my feet stopped moving of their own accord.
The room was gorgeous. Massive. A four-poster bed dominated one wall, large enough to fit five people comfortably.
Windows looked out over the mountains in the distance.
A fireplace crackled with actual fire. Rugs covered the stone floor.
Furniture that looked hand-carved and expensive filled the space.
“These will be your quarters,” Mal said from behind me.
I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice. My throat was tight. My eyes were burning again. I walked to the bed slowly, my legs feeling like lead, and climbed onto the mattress. Lay down face-first in the pillows that smelled subtly like him.
I expected him to leave, to give me space. But I heard him shift behind me, heard his breathing. He was lingering in the doorway.
“Please, little mate.” His voice was closer now. Desperate in a way that made my chest ache. “She is not my fiancée. There is no wedding. Amaia is the council’s favorite to be queen and she is delusional. They have been pushing the match for months, but I never agreed. I never-”
“Leave me.”
The silence stretched between us. I felt his hesitation through the bond. His desire to stay. To fix this and make me understand.
“Yes, boss,” he whispered.
I heard his footsteps move away from the bed and pause at the door. Heard the soft click of the handle as he opened it.
The door closed with a quiet finality that somehow felt louder than if he’d slammed it.
That’s when the dam broke.
I buried my face in the pillow and sobbed. Ugly, messy sobs that wracked my whole body and made my chest hurt. Tears soaked the expensive fabric beneath my cheek. My nose was running. My throat burned from trying to stay quiet.
I cried for being dragged here against my will. For being thrown into a world I didn’t understand with rules I’d never learned. For watching Mal fight for his life while I stood helpless. For seeing that woman throw herself at him with casual familiarity.
But underneath all of that, buried deeper than I wanted to admit, I cried because I was tired. Exhausted down to my bones from always being the one left behind. From people choosing to leave. From feeling alone even when I was surrounded by others.
My parents had left me. My grandparents had died and left me. Now Mal had dragged me to another world where I was completely isolated and apparently he might have a fiancée waiting in the wings.
Everyone left eventually. Everyone.
The sobs continued until my body physically couldn’t produce more tears.
My eyes were swollen. My head was pounding with a vicious headache.
I rolled onto my back with effort and stared up at the ceiling.
The carved beams running across it. The way the firelight created patterns on the stone that shifted and changed.
What was I supposed to do now? Just stay here in this castle? Play queen to a wolf king? Pretend I belonged in this world?
I wanted to go home. Back to my bookstore with its familiar smell of old paper and coffee. My apartment above it with the creaky floors and the shower that never got quite hot enough. My friends who texted me memes and showed up with wine when I needed them.
My life.
But the portal was unstable. And Mal had a kingdom to secure before he could leave. And I was stuck here in this beautiful prison with nowhere to go.
My eyes grew heavy despite the turmoil in my chest. The exhaustion of the day caught up with me all at once. I fell asleep still wearing my clothes. Still lying on top of the covers. Too tired and too emotionally wrung out to care about comfort.
***
I was seven years old.
Standing in the driveway of my grandparents’ house, clutching my stuffed rabbit and watching my mother’s car pull away.
“Mama!” I screamed. “Mama, come back! Please come back!”
But the car kept driving. Didn’t even slow down. Just disappeared around the corner and took my world with it.
“She’ll be back, sweetheart,” my grandmother said behind me. Her hand was on my shoulder but it felt too light and uncertain. “She just needs some time.”