Chapter 32
TAUREN
“Of course she is.” Dahlia grasps my arm. “Who else would she be?” Her tone is gentle, like she thinks I’m just refusing to see what’s in front of me.
But I know my sister. It’s been years, but I’d know her face anywhere. This girl, this child, is not my sister.
Fists clenched, I march towards her.
Her hair is light blonde like Maeve’s, and her features are sharp like mine. As I circle her, she twists her fingers together like Claren does when he’s nervous. Maeve used to do that, too. Claren learned it from her when he was a boy.
“Tauren…” Dahlia steps forward, but I can’t take my eyes off the child.
She has horns, even if they’re smaller than they should be for a girl of her age, so she must be a demon, but she smells like a human.
And woven between her likeness to Maeve is a likeness to someone else. Someone that makes my gaze darken.
“How old are you, child?” It can’t be. Maeve would’ve told us.
The girl just blinks at me, fidgeting with her blue skirt.
“You’re scaring her.” Dahlia steps between us. The girl hides behind her, gripping my wife’s arms with white knuckles.
I force my anger to settle a little. “I asked her a question and she’s not answering.”
“She can’t talk.” Dahlia scowls. “I told you that before, remember?”
My lips press together. I’m about to ask a different question when another voice fills the forest.
“Dahlia? You’re back!” Claren rushes past me.
I ignore the ugly jealous feeling inside me when Dahlia’s face lights up.
Before Claren can hug her, his gaze catches on the trembling girl, and his smile drops. “Who is that?” he mutters.
I already know, but I can’t bring myself to say it.
Maeve’s hair. Maeve’s eyes. Elheart’s nose and mouth.
“They had a daughter?” Claren breathes.
“A daughter?” Dahlia blurts. “But Elheart called her—” She stops herself, thinking. “Wait… Maybe he never actually called her Maeve. All this time I just assumed…” Slowly, she turns around to face her. “Is Lord Elheart your father?”
She nods timidly.
It’s like I’ve just been punched in the stomach. “Can you write, child?” I manage.
She nods again.
“Good.” I adjust my cuffs. “Once we return to the castle you can write your name for us and give us any information you have about your mo—” I feel ill, “about Maeve.” I glance at Claren.
“Have my men prepare the carriage for you and take the child with you.” It’s then I notice the two other women, a younger blonde clinging onto a dark-haired, scowling woman like her life depends on it.
“Take the strays, too. I’m assuming they’re something to do with my wife. ”
I glance at her, expecting to receive a grateful smile, but her expression is murderous. “Those strays are my sisters. Blossom and Eden.”
“Your sisters are here?” I sputter.
She nudges them towards Claren. “Go with them,” she speaks softly. “Once we get to the castle I’ll find you and we’ll figure out how to get you home.”
“You’re not coming with us?” the blonde squeaks.
“I…” I don’t like the hesitation in her tone. She whispers something to them, too quiet for me to hear, then passes them to Claren, who leads them with a kind smile towards the carriage.
Too bad for her, I’m not feeling anywhere near as kind. “What did you tell them?” I ask the second they’re gone.
“It doesn’t matter what I told them.” She lifts her chin. “Now, I’m assuming you have spare horses for us to ride back on. We won’t all fit in the carriage.”
Her bratty tone is so sweet, my mouth waters. “Have you forgotten your training already?” I walk towards her until her back is flat against a tree. Pushing up her skirt, my hand teases her thigh.
“Stop it.” The anger in her tone makes me pause. “Believe me, the last thing I want right now is that.”
I pull back to meet her furious gaze. Her lower lip is trembling. Shit. “Did something happen at the palace?” If Elheart laid a single finger on her, I’ll—
“You mean other than hearing about your lies?” she snaps.
“My lies?”
“Elheart told me everything.” She tries to push me away, but I don’t let her. “He said that you’re the reason your sister ran away. That you didn’t approve of their relationship. That you were jealous,” she seethes. “He didn’t steal her at all. She went to him herself.”
“Did he also change you out of your gown?” I hadn’t noticed until just now, but the gown I put her in this morning is gone, and in its place is a human-made gown in blue and gold. His colours. My grip on her thigh tightens.
“He didn’t, but…”
“But what?” I’m seconds from exploding.
“He…” Disgust pulls at her features. “He insisted on watching.”
That’s it. He’s a dead man. “Give me a list.”
“What?” she mutters.
Somehow, I pull myself together enough to soften my tone. “Give me a list of every man in there who hurt you, looked at you, or even breathed in a way you didn’t like and I swear to you, Dahlia, I will make them pay.”
She rolls her eyes.
“Do not test me, Princess.” I growl. “I’ll use cannons to knock the salt barrier down if I have to. Give. Me. A. List.”
She just laughs in my face. “You want a list. Really?”
“Yes.” My breath is ragged.
“Fine.” She glares at me. “The only people who hurt me in there were Elheart and you.”
“Me? How could I—”
“Because you lied!” She pushes me with enough force that I stumble.
“You told me that your sister had been kidnapped, when this entire time you’ve known that she ran away from you.
He said the salt barrier was to protect her from you!
” she shouts. “And somehow, even though I really don’t want to, I believe him.
Even Maeve, or Maeve’s daughter,” she corrects herself, scowling.
“She agreed that he was telling the truth. So I know—”
“He was.” My voice is hollow. “Maeve ran away because of me.” I’ve never admitted it out loud, but any weight I might’ve hoped would lift off my shoulders only sinks deeper into my bones.
“We argued the night before she left, and I told her to end things with Elheart.” The words taste bitter on my tongue, but I force them out anyway. “It’s my fault she’s gone.”
Dahlia blinks at me before averting her gaze. “I doubt it’s all your fault,” she mutters. “That old troll is a creep. I wouldn’t want any of my sisters to marry him either.”
A silence passes over us until Dahlia breaks it with a sigh. “There’s parts of this I still don’t understand, though.” She frowns. “How did you not know Maeve had a daughter? Surely you would’ve met—”
“Maeve has been gone for fifteen years.”
“Fifteen years?” she blurts. “Y-you made it sound like she’d only just been taken!”
“I was angry for a long time after it happened.” I squint at the sunlight through the branches. “I suppose I felt so guilty about pushing her away that I told my court she’d been kidnapped. In my mind, she basically had. Elheart knew I didn’t approve, but he took her from me anyway.”
“He didn’t take her,” she grumbles. “She ran away.”
“Yes.” My jaw clenches. “She did.” I drag a hand through my hair.
“My advisers wanted me to send an army to his palace immediately. Even with the salt wall, we could block food and supplies from entering the palace until Maeve was returned to us. It would be the easiest way to bring her back to us.”
“Why didn’t you?”
I laugh sadly. “Because I didn’t want to upset my sister anymore than I already had. So I told my court that Elheart had gone mad, that if we tried anything rash to get her back that he’d kill her.” I can’t meet Dahlia’s gaze. “All we could do was wait for him to come to his senses.”
“But really you were waiting for her to forgive you?” she asks.
I nod. “I didn’t think it would take this long.”
“Fifteen years…” She shakes her head. “But why kidnap me now? You’ve done nothing for all these years! Did something happen?”
“I have spies all over the realm,” I explain, turning back to her.
“I used them to keep an eye on Maeve for the first few months, but she soon realised what I was doing and had my spies exiled from the palace. Elheart sent a letter saying if they caught any more, he’d move his court and they’d go somewhere I’d never find them.
So I gave them their privacy. But when I heard reports of Elheart’s attendance at your father’s events, without my sister at his side, I began to worry something had happened. ”
“My father’s events?” Dahlia screws up her face. “You mean the auction last season? The one where he sold off Amaryllis to that awful prince?” She shudders.
“Yes.” I force down my disgust. “And when I heard he’d attended Princess Blossom’s ball, once again with the intention of purchasing a bride, I knew something must’ve happened between Maeve and him.
If they had fallen out of love, I wanted her back with her family.
No matter how much she may hate me for it.
So I offered you as a trade.” Stepping closer, I curl a lock of her hair around my fingers.
“I understand. I’d do the same for my sisters.” Hurt strains her voice. “I suppose that’s why you sent me over there today then? You hoped if Elheart had me then Maeve would leave the palace on her own accord—”
“Dahlia, you’re my wife. Let me make it clear that you belong to me as much as I am yours.
” I cup her cheeks, forcing her to look at me.
“I only sent you there because you expressed an interest in helping us, and I thought that maybe you could get through to my sister. Trust me, if it were up to me,” my voice lowers, “I’d have you collared in my bedchamber for the next year with clothing no longer a part of your vocabulary. ”
Her cheeks heat, but she shrugs me off her. “I’m going home with my sisters.”
Air rushes from my lungs. “What?”
“You heard me,” she huffs. “I may understand your reasoning now, but you still lied to me. I can’t forgive that.”
“You’ll have to, sweetheart.” I pull her against my chest. “Because you’re not going anywhere.”
“Stop it.” She squirms in my hold. “Let me go, Tauren.”
“Not happening.” Tossing her over my shoulder, I keep one hand on her perfect rear while I push through the shrubbery towards the clearing.
“Put me down!” She kicks her legs. The carriage has already gone, but Claren left Velvet tied to a tree for us.
It takes me seconds to position her writhing body into the saddle and hoist myself up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist.
“I can ride by myself,” she spits.
I chuckle against her ear. “And have you run from me again? I don’t fancy fucking you in another wolf den, unless you’d prefer that to our bed?
” I still haven’t punished her properly for running from me last time.
That’ll happen soon enough. I already have a cell in my private dungeon with her name on it.
“You’re not fucking me again,” she snarls as I kick the horse into motion.
“We’ll see about that.” I grin.
If Dahlia is upset about my lies. Fine. She’s allowed to be. But if she thinks I’ll let her go that easily, she’s forgetting who she’s married to. I’m a demon lord, with a whole castle full of monsters at my disposal.
And if it takes an army of demons to make her love me back. So be it.