"I want to talk to you about something," I told Alpha Gavriel that night when we got back to his room. His hands were already under my shirt, unhooking the back of my bra.
"Hmmm? What is it?" he asked. My bra fell to the floor.
"I want you to release the last nine."
"No."
"It's not fair to keep them locked up forever."
"They won't be locked up forever, Mate."
Understanding hit me hard. "You're going to execute them?"
His hands gripped my ass and pulled me up against his hardness. "Yes."
"But they...but Kain is a child."
"A rebellious child who will grow into a greater threat in only a few years."
"But—"
He kissed me, probably in an effort to try to shut me up.
"He's only twelve," I said straight into his mind. His tongue swept through my mouth, making my nipples harden against his chest and heat build below.
"In ten years he'll be an adult nearly at the height of his powers with a desire for revenge. It's not worth the risk to Stonemason." He ran his hands down either side of my breasts.
"There are things more important than Stonemason."
"Not to me."
"Please, Alpha."
"No, and my decision is set on the matter. They die."
I wanted to push him away in retaliation, but I reminded myself of my goal to make him trust me. Instead, I sank into his touch, not even trying to stop my moans as he ran his hands along my body. The fact that my body betrayed me and liked what he was doing was the one upside to the miserable situation. I no longer saw a point in trying to fight it.
He swept me to the bed, and was on me in a moment, clothing discarded. His hand found my heat and he worked it to a fevered pitch until I whimpered before he entered me, riding me to his own completion.
Like always, we didn't say much afterwards, but at least I was getting used to it. The only way I was going to get any sort of affection was if his wolf took over, which rarely seemed to happen.
I fell asleep on my side, and let myself dissolve into troubled dreams.
—————
Over the next week I launched a campaign trying to convince my mate to let the other prisoners go whenever he was in my presence. His wolf seemed unconcerned about my antics, and the upside of his lack of emotion was that he never lost his temper, although he shut me down every time.
It was not until a date was set for the execution that I became really desperate. I was constantly nauseous with the pressure. I had two weeks to convince him, and it was clear that he would not be swayed by me, mate-bond or not. He had no love for me, so I could not use that to influence him.
I would keep trying, but it was probably futile. I could not sway his emotions any more than I could reason with him, because he believed his actions to be reasonable.
So I made my decision. I was going to find a way to release them myself.
—————
I spent a couple of days on careful recognizance before a plan began to form in my mind. With my increased freedom, I was able to wander the house. I began to know the beta female as I watched her perform the luna duties, and my compliance to my role and my increased care over shielding my thoughts combined to let the pack believe I was settling in. I still had a guard, but it was increasingly appearing as if it were for my own safety rather than to contain me.
And as I watched under the guise of familiarizing myself with my new pack, I discovered what I needed to know.
Because the prison was well designed to contain werewolves, there were usually only one or two active guards needed on duty at any given time. That meant I only needed to evade at most three guards, as well as my mate, and figure out a way to release the prisoners. The whole task seemed impossible.
My desperation was building as I looked for a way to release the prisoners from their cells. I visited my mate in his office, pretending to be interested in pack matters. With ten days left to go, I deliberately went into his office with another strategy, a new bit of information that I hoped might win him over.
Levenia was standing beside him, her hand moving down from his shoulder with the clear destination of his cock.
I stared at him, my eyes wide with shock that quickly shifted to anger. "How dare you?"
He looked nonplussed. "Levenia, leave."
She smirked as she walked by me, deliberately hitting her hip against me as she went.
I turned my gaze on him. "What the hell do you think you were doing? I've done everything you've wanted and you—"
"Relax, mate. It was not going anywhere."
"It looked like it was going somewhere," I snapped back.
"I would have stopped her."
I scowled at him. "It hurt me when you screwed her." How much worse would it be now that I had been intimate with him?
"I didn't screw her. I had no intention of progressing. Did you feel any pain?"
"No."
"I've no reason to go to her if I've got you. You're the most likely to produce my pups," he said.
My frown only deepened. "Oh, so I'm just the most fertile breeding machine then? How nice."
His eyes flashed gold at my words and I realized that I had probably pushed him far enough to get his wolf involved. That could either go in my favour or not. I bit my lip as he got up and stalked over to the door, closing it firmly before locking it. Then he came over to me, his wolf instincts firmly in control.
"You're not just a breeding machine, you're my mate."
I swallowed hard.
"I need heirs. But my wolf wants you."
He caught my lips in his own, but I turned away.
He growled at my resistance. "I'm doing what I can. I balance the security of the pack with an attempt to indulge you."
I forced myself to meet his golden gaze. I might never have another chance to reason with his wolf side. "I need you to let the rest of my former pack go. Then I can let it go." I swallowed, laying my final trump card on the table. "Once they're gone, I swear I'll never try to leave no matter how I feel or what happens."
His eyes narrowed. "You want to leave?"
"Only when I remember what happened to my former pack. If the nine die, I don't know how I'll ever get it out of my mind, alpha."
His voice was nearly a growl. "I won't release them, and you're not going anywhere."