I woke in a daze. At first, I couldn't figure out why everything was black when I tried blinking, until I realized my eyelids were almost glued shut. After I managed to pry them open, I tried to move my arms but they felt heavy. I groaned at the pain that coursed through my limbs as I moved slowly, the sights around me settling enough for me to see where I was.
The pack infirmary was a small building just outside the pack house, with rows of beds along either side of the long room. I was lying on one of them, a fresh set of clothes covering my body that I knew I hadn't been wearing before. But before what? What happened? I could hardly remember...
"Rhea?"
I blinked again, turning my head in the other direction, and froze when I saw the Alpha King sitting beside my bed, watching me curiously. I couldn't see any other emotion in his eyes; no recognition that he had been worried about me, or scared for my life. Disappointment rose in my throat, but I tried my best to push it back down.
"What happened?" I croaked, giving up on trying to move and just laying back down.
"You were attacked. The wolves were from an unknown pack, but definitely not your own. They surrounded you. And you-"
"-I defended myself," I interrupted, my memory coming back to me in floods. I remember the wolves. They cornered me, surrounded my wolf, and when I shifted back into human form...
"Who are you?" The King questioned, looking at me intently. I felt a sudden spot of anger rise in my belly at his words, knowing exactly to what he was referring.
"What, so you can turn around and say you do want me if I turn out to be powerful or important?"
He looked taken aback by my words, blinking as he registered them. "What? Please, stop being ridiculous. If you saw what I saw..."
"I was there too," I snapped. "I know what happened. And your guess is as good as mine, your Highness."
He pursed his lips in an effort to hold back a retort, instead raising a brow indifferently.
"James," he said eventually. "I've called you by your name enough. You can call me James."
"Tell me, your Highness," I continued, ignoring him blatantly, "what were you doing in the forest anyway? How did you find me so quickly?"
"The bond," he replied simply, not tying any emotion to his words. "It told me you were in danger, so we came to find you. I have my people studying the wolves that attacked you to see where they came from. I can't risk endangering anyone else's lives."
I swallowed another bout of disappointment and pain at the stab of his words, coming closer and closer to the realization that there would be no future between us, regardless of the fact that he had said he didn't want to reject me. It would make things better for me, than to have to keep putting up with his hurtful words and emotionless opinions.
Just as I opened my mouth to speak, I heard someone else enter the building, and my heart clutched in my chest when I saw who it was.
Shit.
"Rhea, you're awake," Ethan exclaimed, moving over to the other side of my bed. When he saw James, he stumbled and froze on the spot, his eyes flickering between us. James rose to his feet slowly, and I could feel the heat of his gaze from where I lay as he glared down at Ethan.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice suddenly deep and dangerous. Ethan looked at me and then back at the King. I, however, had just stopped moving. It was like I forgot how to breathe, or think.
"I'm... her mate," he said finally, quickly looking at me again. When I didn't offer anything but a dumb stare in return, he turned back to the King, whose expression was one I couldn't read.
"This is the one?" James asked me, pointing at Ethan. I would have laughed at his tone if I weren't frozen in time.
"What do you mean?" Ethan shot back, looking severely offended. "What has she said about me?"
"That you are no longer mates," James replied coolly, keeping his gaze even but cold. "Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?"
James lifted an eyebrow. "Are you asking me, your King, why I am here?"
Ethan paled slightly. "No, I'm-"
"Both of you, get out!" I suddenly exploded. Both men turned to me quickly, surprise filling their eyes. I myself was surprised at my outburst, but their voices were getting too much for me, and my head was beginning to pound. "Now!" I added, pointing at the door. "I need space! And time! Fuck!" I clutched my arm to my chest as a shot of pain echoed through the limb, and I threw my head back against my pillow with my eyes screwed closed. When I opened them minutes later, both James and Ethan had vanished, and suddenly I let out a deep breath of air that I didn't even know I had been holding until that moment. My heart thudded in my chest and my head pounded in my skull, while my entire body shook with pain as I was still going through the healing process.
Why was everything suddenly so different in my life?
Days later, when I had healed enough that I could now walk and move around, I left the infirmary and headed straight to the pack house. After the King's words with me about who I was, I was suddenly curious myself. I couldn't let anyone know what I was doing, but if I could get a little information from a few people, I would be able to figure out what actually happened with those wolves when I turned back into my human form.
The first person I went to find was the Alpha of the Silver Moon pack, Ethan's dad. He didn't like me just as much as the next person, but I knew he would be honest with his answers.
"Rhea, I see you have recovered."
After I stepped in to the main hall, I looked up and made eye contact with none other than King James, who was looking at me with a hint of amusement in his eyes. He was standing with Alpha Turner, who had his eyes narrowed at me, as if he couldn't understand why our King cared so much about me, a lowly slave.
"I am, your Highness," I replied stiffly. "I should like to thank your attendants for helping bring me back that day."
"I shall deign to let them know."
I nodded again and turned my attention to Alpha Turner. "I do apologize for the interruption, Alpha Turner. But I was wondering if I might have a word?"
Both men looked surprised to say the least. But James wouldn't let their secret come out like this, and Turner wasn't going to disregard the needs of one of his pack in front of the King. So he nodded, murmuring his apologies to the King who left the room with one final glance at me. I avoided his gaze, instead keeping my eyes trained on Turner.
"Right, what's this about Riverwood?" Turner snapped as soon as the King was out of earshot. "This better be important."
"I want to know where I came from before you took me in here, Alpha," I explained honestly, a frown creasing my brow. "I have the utmost gratitude to you and the Luna for taking me in and providing me with food and shelter, truly. But questions have been coming up lately that I haven't been able to answer because I don't know where I actually came from."
"Nowhere special," Turner muttered, his body language revealing he would rather be anywhere than here with me having this conversation. "Found you in the woods as a young pup all by yourself, covered in blood. Rogue wolves probably got your parents. Why does any of this matter?"
"What woods did you find me in, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Somewhere along the border between here, Gold Lake and Dusk Light."
I frowned. "The Royals? What was I doing there?"
"Why don't you ask your King?" Turner growled, finally giving up on the conversation and turning to stalk out the room. "Menial! Waste of time..."
He kept mumbling as he left the room, leaving me standing there with more questions than I had before. I couldn't go to James about this, there was no way. Who else would know?
I made my trek back towards the infirmary, praying to the Moon Goddess herself that the pack doctor had more answers for me than the Alpha.
"Drew!" I called as I meandered into the infirmary again. He looked up from his table in the back and smiled, waving me over. He was quite handsome, in a messy, practical kind of way. His smile was crooked but still enough to send shivers down one's spine, and his body was not huge, but nicely toned. He had curly dark hair that hung over his eyes all the time, so he was constantly flicking his head back to get it out of the way. I'd told him multiple times he ought to cut it, and it would make it easier to work, but he disregarded me every time and said looks are more important.
"Recovering okay?" he asked as I approached him. I shrugged in turn.
"Still a little sore, but mostly fine. Hey, can I ask you a weird question?"
"No such thing in my line of work," he murmured as he turned back to some sort of experiment or something he was doing on his desk. "What's up?"
"Do you remember anything Stevie might have mentioned to you about the day they found me out in the woods?"
He frowned as he seemed to be pressing his brains to remember.
"I was found on the border of Dusk Light and Golden Lake," I added quickly.
"Yeah, maybe? I can't remember too well, but... I feel like there was an attack that no one really likes to talk about. You could've been caught in the crossfires, or belonged to a family in Golden Lake."
"A noble family? Me?" I blinked in surprise, but Drew only smirked.
"As opposed to Dusk Light, the royal family? You certainly didn't come from Silver Moon, that's for sure."
"Do you know much more about this attack?"
"I think it was when the Royals were taken over by Dusk Light. The Royals that were in place before Dusk Light were apparently hunted down and killed, every last one of them. Dusk Light inherited, because they won the challenge between all the noble packs, but I don't know too much about what actually happened before that. All I know is that Dusk Light have been the Royals for a little while now, but definitely not our entire lifetimes. James took over as King when his dad died a couple years ago, and that's that." He paused, glancing up at me again through his curls. "Why are you suddenly so curious? You planning on leaving me to find your destiny or something?"
"Believe me, I don't want to," I replied, but my voice came out in a murmur. "But I think I might need to go on a small vacation to help me find out."
"A vacation? Turner would never let you go anywhere."
"I plan to take this up with someone a little higher up than our Alpha."
Drew blanched slightly. "Why do I have a bad feeling about whatever you're about to do?"
I smiled sadly at him, leant forward to kiss his cheek and turned to leave the infirmary. "Thanks for the help!" I called over my shoulder as I shut the door behind me. I knew exactly where to go from here, thankfully, as my stupid mate bond never let me go a second without knowing exactly where my mate was at all times.
I found him outside the pack house, down by the training arena where we first officially met. He was watching one of his people sparring with one of Silver Moon's, both wolves sneering and snapping at each other with their sharp teeth and mean snarls. I approached quietly, but he knew I was there. I came up to his side, crossed my arms over my chest and watched with him in silence. After a few moments, I opened my mouth.
"I want to accept your offer of hospitality."
His head whipped around to me so quickly he looked like it could have snapped off in an instant. I bit back a small laugh, trying to remember why I was doing this. If I wanted answers, there was nowhere better to get them than the source of all the drama itself. Surely the King's castle would be bustling with secrets waiting to be uncovered. I would certainly be one myself, but I was willing to overlook that for the time being. It would only be for a small while. Just until I figured out what was going on.
"Why the sudden change of heart?"
I raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought you'd graciously accept, not accuse my motives," I shot back defensively. He hesitated, glancing back at the wolves fighting before us before he answered me.
"Fair enough," he murmured. "I must say, I'm pleased you've come to this conclusion. Whatever made you decide, I'm glad of the outcome. You understand the importance of your identity remaining hidden?"
"I understand," I replied through clenched teeth. "But I will not be a slave to your demands. I will do as I'm told and remain anonymous, but that is all I owe you."
He frowned at me this time. "I would never- that is, you..." He paused for a moment, trying to recollect his thoughts. "I should think you owe nothing to no one, Rhea. Least of all me. You have nothing to worry about from me or my people."
I bit my lip, feeling like a bit of a jerk. Not everyone was like Ethan. Not everyone was Ethan. I couldn't assume James was going to be the same.
"Okay," I said awkwardly, my eyes falling to my feet quickly. "Good. Thank you. When do you leave? We leave, sorry?"
"My business here can be concluded another time," he answered, turning his body to me and giving me a small smile. It knocked the breath out of my chest; it was the first time I'd seen him smile properly, or even remotely, and it was at me. I felt like swooning. "We can leave immediately. I sense you have already packed?"
I blushed immediately. "I am," I admitted bitterly, "but I didn't assume- I mean, I was going to go... somewhere else..."
James nodded, his smile seemingly widening, but he didn't say anything. I nodded back, trying not to think about how red my face probably was, and turned on my heels to race back to the pack house. It didn't take me long to make sure everything was organized and I was ready to leave, but when I stepped out of my room for the last time... the only thing I felt was pure happiness. And I couldn't figure out exactly what had caused it.