Our Fatal Failings (Twisted book two)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Grimly, the man speaks again. “It’s very possible, unfortunately.  The man can attest to the fact he tried to bite the girl. Mark her to be more specific. She let him live.”

“It was her shock. She would’ve killed him if she could.”

“But she didn't. She just turned and walked...ran away, but his accounts. Does that not speak to the rule of the preservation of mates?”

I purse my lips tightly. It could be true. Even without knowing it, a mate wants to preserve their mate, to know their mind. To find them. That’s why Imani was on Wolfsbane and I still sought to learn her secrets. It’s why she wanted to shoot me but she couldn’t. It’s just our nature and it might be why this girl let him live. “Did he mark her?”

“No, the girl dodged his advances and ended up with a scar on her arm.”

My Beta takes the file from me and scans it over quickly, but ultimately says nothing. The choice is mine and mine alone. It always is. To the determination of all my personal relationships. I shake my head. I can’t think about it now. 

“Does our enemy know?”

“The girl was a witch. There’s no way they did not find out. They might use the girls to lure out wolves to be killed.”

My head spins. “Yes...that is a problem.” Taking in a deep breath, I speak again. I won’t leave the room without coming to a conclusion. “Gather up as many witches as possible. Put them in shared lodging and start a draft. A mating draft. That will stop the swell of numbers going to the resistance. Make the place inescapable and don’t make me say that twice.”

I stand to leave but my Beta touches my shoulder. “There’s more.”

Irritated, I toss him a harsh look. “What else do you have to tell me?”

“The Queen was spotted caring for the wounded, running across no man’s land, collecting fallen witches.” I pale. She could easily die there, either by friendly fire or my own. “And she’s visibly pregnant, heavily pregnant.”

The word shocks me, burns me deep in my bones. I sit back down, no fall back down. My vision goes spotty as I reel myself in. “What?”

The men in the room glance at one another. “A healer analyzed an image and decided she must be twenty-eight weeks along.”

I blink a few times. That means she got pregnant during her heat. I intended to give her a potion to prevent the pregnancy, but she left before it was over. A bitter taste bubbles in my mouth, thinking of her departure, but I brush it away. It doesn’t matter now. 

“And you suspect she has plans to...keep the child?”

“She’s almost seven months along. I’m not sure if it was out of fear of your wrath or hope for your mercy, but we presume she’s having the child.”

I want to laugh at both those suggestions. She’s having that child in spite of me. That’s why I felt the motherly warmth. She’s resigned to keep it. She doesn’t even care if it’s mine. I’m not sure how to feel about it. I’m not sure what it means for the two of us. 

But the prince or princess has to get back to the castle. “Issue a new order. The Queen is to be returned and heirs are to be raised in the capitol, always. Anyone who aids the queen in her hiding will be declared a traitor.”

“And what will the Queen be?” 

I turn to the old man who said that. “She will be returned to me of course.”

“She must be a traitor also. The woman deserves a hanging death for what she’s put this kingdom through.”

My shoulders rise, my hackles too. I can’t help it--any threat to her feels like a direct attack, even after all she’s done. “She’s my mate, my Queen and she’ll be the mother of my child in two months.”

“She’s second in command to the witch twins who are actively challenging the legitimacy of your throne!”

“What do you suggest I do? Go against the laws of nature and kill the woman I love!”

The man’s eyes were smoldering. “If you are so blessed by the moon goddess, she will give you another, a better one.”

I stand up, blood boiling. Voice low, I speak. “She is my mate so she is a divinely appointed Queen. That would be going against natural law--killing her--because of this fact. But I am concerned about treason. Don’t mistake me for a weak King. So before the sun sets. You’ll hang.”

The room is filled with stark silence. The man blinks at me a few times, smiling weakly before paling. He thought I was joking. “Sire?”

“To suggest putting the Queen to death is a crime. To demand it is treason. You’ll hang. Leave this room and there’ll be guards waiting for you.”

“You can’t-”

“I can.” My volume grows. “I am King, my word is law. I won’t be undermined, I won’t be humiliated by the men I’ve conquered then asked to advise me. You’re under my foot, you shouldn’t have forgotten it.”

I leave. By nightfall, that man is hanging from a tree, his widow crying, his daughters silent. In the low blowing night, I know Imani would scorn this. I can almost feel her eyes scowling. I didn’t do this for her, she’d say. 

I did this for me.