Chapter 20 - Locked Doors
Nathaniel Black
There she stood in the doorway of my bedroom, wearing nothing but her stern gaze. Her skin was tanned and her hair blonde, though I doubted that was her natural colour, the way it seemed to change with different golds and yellows.
“Go away Gina,” I sighed, not bothering to put my tablet down, the work I was doing too important.
“Where were you last night?” she said, crossing her arms and sticking her chest out at me.
“With my mate.”
Her glare flicked like a switch, transforming into shock. “What do you mean?
“I was with my mate Gina, and Jamie has pointed out to me it was a cruel abuse of power for me to abuse you in the way that I have. It won’t happen again.”
“No – it what my choice,” she said, as she grasped at straws.
“Gina, you are unmated, find your mate and relish in their unconditional love.”
“So where is the unconditional love of your mate? Where is she? I do not see her here willing to stand naked before you!” she said, nearly screamed.
I merely looked at her with pity, “Go Gina,” I said.
“No, I satisfied you last time. I, you finished, you seemed pleased.”
“That wasn’t your doing, that was, someone else.”
“Someone else? You mean that Wench, Alice?”
“Gina,” I said sternly.
She disregarded my warn, her eyes displaying her desperation. “So it’s okay to sleep with that wench because she’s mated? And where has your mate been for the last year? Were you rejected?”
“Gina, you will hold your tongue,” I hissed. “You will not speak ill of Alice.”
“The bitch is trying to get into her bed, she wants the Luna position, just as much as I!” She shrieked, likely waking the whole pack house.
Yet, I couldn’t help but laugh, a wholehearted laugh that shook my stomach, and yet I felt the irritation of my wolf lingering in my thoughts, he had differing opinions on Gina and was disgusted by the relationship we’d had.
I slipped out of bed and walked towards Gina, the colour now draining from her face, “My mate left me, because I killed her best friend, whose mate was a traitor. She had done nothing wrong, they weren’t even fully mated, and yet, I snapped her neck.” I let my thumb run lightly down her throat and I watched as she paled even more, taking a step back away from me.
I closed the space between us again and looked down at her, my eyes flickering black, “and Wench, you speak so ill of, is a dear, dear friend of mine. I will warn you strongly against crossing her, because my experience has found those who have crossed the white wolf find themselves scatter across the forest.”
“She’s the white wolf?” Gina repeated to no one but herself.
“Now, get out of my sight,” I spat, “before I banish you from my pack and these lands, before I make you the filthy rouge you ought to be.”
She shook her head and suddenly became aware of her nakedness, trying to cover her body with her arms. As she bowed, and briskly walked down the hallway and out of view. I turned and slammed the large wooden door behind me, and sauntered back into my room, and sat down on the edge of the bed.
I reached for the ring box and ran my fingers along the smooth black velvet that lined the exterior’s hard shell, the small silver clasp that held it closed. I opened the box and gazed at the set of rings, three in total. They were all made of white gold, the first with an opening and two small black gems marking the ends. The second sat in the middle of the three rings, a simple square diamond set so that it would sit flush with the first ring. While the third ring was fully encompassed in a halo of small white diamonds.
They were simple, and smooth, as to not disrupt or be impractical.
Like Alice, they were simple, unique and so disarmingly beautiful.
* * * * * * * * * * *
As my grandfather loomed in the doorway to my bedroom at the crack of dawn, I considered getting a guard permanently stationed outside just to avoid these visits that seemed to be a common occurrence.
His face was hard and ruthless, and he still wore the black armband around his right biceps, mourning the death of my father. He had passed three months ago, overtaken from stress of the uprising a year ago, he had fallen ill. Of course, it did not help that Alice had disappeared, my grandfather and father had barely spoken too me since we realised her lack of existence within the city, and my mother expressed the toll it had taken on her.
I don’t think my grandfather was truly sad of the death of my father though, as he’d always been a disappointing son, thus both of their expectations of perfection had been thrust onto me, of course by their standards, I’d fallen short by a long shot. He was really mourning the death of his reputation. A son who had failed and died, a son who had attempted to overthrow his nephew and been killed, and a grandson who let his mate, an extremely powerful weapon, disappear.
“I heard that you threw a naked woman out of your room last night,” he said, as I met his cold stare.
“What of it?” I sighed, leaning back against my headboard and lacing my fingers neatly in my lap.
“You need an heir boy, you’re going to be thirty in a few months, you should already have a child to groom to take your position.”
“I will not father a child with someone who is not my mate,” I shrugged.
“Then where is she eh?” he spat, his knuckles turning whiter than the hair on his head and his frown marks deepening. “Has she really been changed up in the dungeons with whole time?”
I chuckled, “what a plot twist that would have been.”
His brow fell further, “do you take this as a joke child? Is the lives of your pack a joke?”
“The only thing that is a joke, is your opinion.”
“What-” he began to roar, but I cut his words off as I stretched out of bed and walked over to him casually.
“What is a joke, is that I took your view as law, I did what you had raised me to do, I did what you had drilled into me and my father. Do you know what it earned me?”
He swallowed, as I let the Alpha strength roll off my body in waves, his age weakening his stubbornness and persistence against my command. But no longer.
“I had my own blood try to kill me, labelling me incompetent, before having my own mate leave me for the same ruthlessness that you had assured me was how you stop rebellions within your pack.”
He swallowed again and stepped backward, his jaw clenched, and I could physically see his body shake as he attempted not to bow his head in submission.
“So, I will not be lectured by you, and I will not be haunted by the failures of my father. The era of manipulation and evil that you have distilled upon this pack is over. It ends with me, and if it ends with no heir, then it shall end with no heir, may the blood line stop with me, and you shall die knowing, it was your fault.”
His gaze fell and his head followed suit, his mouth opened slightly before being jammed shut and he gave a slight nod.
“Now get the fuck out of my sight and stay out of my sight before I banish you from my pack.”
Author's Note:
Sorry this took so long! Hopefully you enjoy!
Also, I apologies for the state of the of the last couple of chapters, I have made a mental note to not write on less than four hours of sleep...
Also, I've kinda started planning for a book three? How do people feel about this?