Chapter 81
Chapter Eighty-One
Eldrick
Eldrick’s ascension arrived on a cold and snowy day.
As was customary, the ceremony took place in the ascending alpha’s village.
With war sitting on the Vadon Mountain’s doorstep, minimal decorations dotted Lār’s largest hall.
Evergreen garlands draped across the tables while Drengr navy banners hung from the ceiling’s rafters.
On either side, the enormous fires crackled, warming the space and making more sweat prickle at the back of Eldrick’s neck.
He paced away from the gathered crowd, hidden in the front corridor. His pack buzzed with excitement, while all visiting alphas wore expectant stares. They would hold council and discuss preparations against Riven once the ceremony was over.
Eldrick exhaled, his pluming breath fading into the zigzagging flurries.
He searched the village, wishing his werewolf sight was good enough to spy Tovi all the way to the Void.
He’d received no updates aside from missives from Kade.
They’d left things so final the last he’d seen her, and yet, he turned back to the hall, his alpha chair calling to him.
Hooves pounded in the distance, and Eldrick snapped his attention outside Lār’s open entrance.
A traveling party arrived, but through the thick snowfall and under heavy cloaks.
Yennifer and Bétar dismounted first, leaving their horses with the nearest stableman.
As they climbed the fortress stairs, their hardened stares filled Eldrick with unease.
“What is it?” he asked.
His mind whirled with possibilities. Was someone he loved injured, or worse, dead? Had Riven stormed into Sorin?
Past his friends, the two other figures sharpened amongst the snowfall. Tovi dismounted from an all-white horse, regal in a fur cloak and purple ensemble. He couldn’t decide whether she was fit for battle or a throne.
Yet, someone else reached her side—a male Eldrick didn’t recognize at all. Pale, dark-haired, staring down at Tovi like he knew her.
“Who the fuck is that?” he growled.
Yennifer sidestepped, blocking Tovi from view. “That is Captain Flynn Seaver.”
Eldrick blinked. Captain. He didn’t recall Tovi using his full name, only specifying that he was a contact. Yet, her late friend Lou had made her disdain for him clear. Like some possessive mated male, Eldrick’s hackles rose.
“The pirate? Why is he here?”
“Aye.” Bétar grasped his shoulder, and it was remorse bleeding from the friend’s stare. “She believed she had no other choice.”
Choice. What in the stars above did that mean?
Bétar released Eldrick, entering the hall.
Yennifer opened her mouth, but no words came out. She thought better of it and followed Bétar without a word.
Before Eldrick grasped his bearings, Tovi marched up the stairs and left the supposed pirate by the horses. Her boot crested the last step, and Eldrick couldn’t hold back the bite in his words.
“Tovi—”
“I lost the army, Eldrick.”
He stiffened. Not only did Tovi’s news rock through him, but so did her eyes. They’d lost the life in them, as if something—or someone—had sucked the spring from their once magnificent green. She’d always been sharp, beautiful, and yet, she’d turned as cutting as stone. He hardly recognized.
“I . . .” He swallowed, trying to find solid ground in this unknown terrain. But his duty roared in the back of his mind. Riven. The war. Saving Sorin. That was his priority.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “How? Lady Anastasia and Bash swore—”
“Lord Oziel remains alive, and his army serves Riven.” Tovi sighed, eyes pleading. “Eldrick, there is something else we must discuss. It can’t wait. I found another way. I had to.”
Movement shifted behind Tovi. Flynn talked with the stablemen as the snow quickened. Eldrick’s heart hammered in his chest like a flighty bird.
“Why is he here?”
Tovi flinched, and moons, he was such as ass.
Eldrick reached for her, but she matched his step backwards, retreating. She clasped her hands together, and a ring glinted on her finger. A sapphire stone sat at the center of the gold band. It was all wrong. The color, the metal, the shape. It didn’t suit her, didn’t feel right.
His entire body turned taut. He fought his wolf, every instinct raging to kill the male twenty yards away.
Tovi followed his line of sight. “Flynn has a fleet large enough to face Riven’s army—”
“So, you agreed to marry him?” Eldrick hissed.
Tovi said nothing, and his world yanked out from under him. He leaned closer, and Tovi stood her ground.
“Have you already married him?” he breathed, crowding her space. A territorial flush fell over him. Hot. Angry. All-consuming.
“No,” Tovi said.
“When?” he whispered, shaking.
“Before . . .” Tears welled in her eyes. “Before the fighting starts.”
It was as if Tovi had pierced Eldrick’s heart with a dagger. Pain lanced through him. “Will you think of me when you consummate the royal marriage?” he asked, tone flat.
Tovi seethed, rearing towards him. “Don’t be so cruel.”
“How dare you?” he growled. “You’re the woman I love, and you come to my home, to my territory, to tell me you’re engaged, as if I should be happy. That is far crueler than hurtful words.”
“It secured me an army, Eldrick! It’ll give Sorin a chance,” she said. “I now have something to offer you and your people. I couldn’t risk the other alphas learning I’d lost forces following my banner. I did this to guarantee our alliance and your ascension—”
“Don’t you dare say this is for me, because that is a lie.” Eldrick raked a hand through his hair, pacing back and forth.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the scent of frozen pine and ice prickled in the air. The land raged alongside Eldrick.
He halted, his anger too much to contain. “You could’ve waited until I became Earl, but you didn’t. This is about you and your fear of us.” Eldrick shook. Bone. Muscles. Limbs. Down to his breaking heart. “Does he know what I am to you?”
Tovi stumbled back. Her loose strands of hair twisted in the snowy wind, and her lips fell in a delicate o.
Eldrick stood straighter, fisting his hands at his side. The flurries stung as they landed on his heated cheeks. “Does he know I’m your mate?”
“Eldrick.” A breath shuddered out of Tovi, and she blinked back tears. “Please. You have to understand I didn’t want this. I had no other choice—”
A light in Eldrick’s soul extinguished forever. “But you did. You’re so terrified of fate and the prophecy bringing us together, you chose someone else.”
“I’m far more terrified of failing my people, Eldrick.” Tovi gritted her teeth, nostrils flaring. “Would you walk away from yours? Would you turn your back on the werewolves?”
“You know I can’t.” Eldrick’s words shot out of him too quickly. They were like shards of glass shredding his throat.
Tovi snorted, and she peered up at the sky. She wiped away her tears before they fell. She was so pale, so different. Eldrick fought the urge to reach out and take her away from all of this. But that wasn’t who they were, was it?
Good leaders sacrifice.
His inner wolf snarled in his blood, retaliating against her earlier words.
Love and duty warred within Eldrick’s chest. He couldn’t see past his hurt, nor shake the itch crawling up the back of his neck.
The woman he loved—his mate—stood ahead of him, while his responsibility awaited him in the hall.
“The thing that brought us together will always drive us apart. Like you, I serve my people,” she said, turning to leave.
“Tovi.”
She paused, peering over her shoulder.
“On the battlefield, we will meet as allies. That is all. Now leave, and never set foot on my lands again.”
Eldrick turned away. He physically ached, like he’d ripped his heart out and left it on the step beside Tovi.
He no longer knew how to breathe, but he knew how to move his legs, and he walked away from her.
Walked, walked, and walked until he could no longer detect her scent and found his place at the front of the hall.
He let the cold bite his skin, let the horrid winter tighten his exterior.
Why not, when now he had a hardened heart?