Chapter 137
RYKER’S PO.V
I knew that I had her right where I wanted her. It didn’t take long for me to realize that she was a narcissist and chalking up her ‘achievements’ to luck would have been enough to pis s her off. There was nothing she would hate more than being told she wasn’t smart enough to come up with a plan or smart enough to execute it properly.
“I suppose I could just tell you everything that happened but I don’t see the fun in that,” she mused aloud as I took the seat in front of her. “All I will say is that you are one difficult man to catch unaware. I suppose it should be a thing of joy that you have eyes for only your mate. There are a lot of men who I cannot say the same for.”
“Why did you do this?” I asked and she shrugged. “There has to be a reason. You wouldn’t just get up and try to ruin lives. It isn’t just my life that you’re playing with here.”
“Did you ever consider that maybe I was just bored?” she shot back and my brows furrowed. “You are a very handsome man, your majesty, you don’t even realize the number of maids who wish for a moment with you. Apparently it is a rite of passage for kings and princes to have many mistresses but you have religiously stayed by your mate. It is as endearing as it is annoying. You were a challenge that I wanted to conquer and conquer I did.”
She smirked and I saw the evil glint in her eyes. I knew she wasn’t telling the complete truth but there was some iota of honesty in her words. She truly did see me as a challenge but whether or not she conquered me was yet to be seen.
“We didn’t have sex,” I stated simply and she pursed her lips.
“Even inebriated you wouldn’t go against your mate. You called out to her a few times and when you realized I wasn’t her, you wouldn’t touch me but do you want to know the beautiful thing about the body?” she asked and I hesitated before nodding. “Our bodies are just a bunch of nerves and it doesn’t matter if you want it or not, certain things can happen. It wasn’t exactly hard to get you in the mood.”
“That’s a lie,” I cut her off. “You have a tell when you lie and you are lying right out of your teeth. Why don’t you tell me what really happened and how you got me to be so out of it?”
She looked pis sed at the fact that I had called out her bluff. She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to look at me again. The thing was, I was done playing her game.
I was done doing things her way. If she wanted to come into my home and mess things up, I was going to make sure that she answered to me.
“I think I’ve given you too much credit so let me make this clear,” I sat up straight as I spoke. “You can either give me truthful and honest answers or you can rot in the dungeons for the next two weeks after which it will be proven that you are not pregnant and a liar. When that is sure, I will make sure that your execution is a public affair and best believe I will get off on that.”
Her eyes burned with rage but she knew I wasn’t bluffing. I didn’t give a shi t what the elders wanted or what the people would think. I would have done it in a heartbeat and she knew it because she let out an exasperated sigh.
“Fine,” she mumbled. “Herbs are very easy to acquire in this part of the world and if you mix the right set of herbs, they can do wonders. Getting you into the room was the hard part because I had a very small window before you became unconscious. I had to feed you some bulls hit lie about taking you to the Queen before you agreed to go with me. The rest they say is history.”
“What happened? I don’t need a summarized version. I need to know exactly what you did.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t play the victim card, it doesn’t exactly look good on you. You will find out exactly what happened in two weeks when I turn up pregnant with your child.”
“If you are pregnant, it will not be mine.”
“But that’s the thing,” the corner of her lips turned up. “No one except you and me will know that.” She stood to her feet and brushed off invisible lint from her dress. “I suggest that you start telling your daughters about their new brother or sister coming along. Is that smart enough for you, your majesty?”
“Get out,” I ordered and she made a show of bowing mockingly before walking out of the room.
I ran my hands down my forehead in frustration. I was left with more questions than answers but I knew one thing for certain, we didn’t have sex. If we did, she would have been gloating about it. That meant there was something else that spurred her to come back here. She had another goal in sight and she planned to use the next two weeks to achieve it. I wasn’t sure what it was but we needed to keep an eye out for her.
I mind linked the guards to stay close to her at all times and make sure she didn’t leave their sight. I wasn’t willing to give her the chance to f uck another man and pin it on me. I got guards I could trust with my life- Steven and Kevin. Once I was sure that they were with her, I mind linked Christine and Camilla. They wasted no time before arriving in the room and I gave them a quick breakdown of everything that happened.
When I was done speaking, Christine cleared her throat. “What do we know about her so far? She said she had an uncle in another pack, right? Perhaps if we got a hold of him then we would be able to find out some more about her. That might help us get some insight on her and what she might be planning.”
“I sent a letter to him a few weeks ago. I didn’t get a response. Is it possible that she gave us a wrong address or name?” Camilla asked and although I didn’t want to admit it, I nodded. “Well, we can’t count on her to give us the right one. Why don’t I go to the pack? I could ask around by myself. Maybe I can get a good answer.”
I loved the idea but I didn’t want her out of the palace. That seemed like exactly the kind of thing that Alara would take pleasure in. It would also look bad in the eyes of the people so I shook my head.
“I could go,” Christine offered. “No one would even notice my presence. I can take a horse instead of a carriage and be in and out in three days tops. It is a better option than sending the Queen. We don’t want to appear like we are panicking and that is exactly what it will look like if you leave.”
Camilla thought about it for a second before nodding. “Fine, I’ll get you a copy of the address from my office. Even thought it might not be a real one, it will be a good place to start.” Once Christine agreed, she turned to me. “Now, for the most important question, why you?”
“I have been asking myself the same thing for a long time. I don’t know her and she doesn’t know me. it seems farfetched that she would just develop a crazy attachment to me out of boredom.”
“Are you sure that you have never seen her before?” Christine asked and I nodded
“I am absolutely positive. I never forget a face. I don’t know her. Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with knowing me in the/past. We need to keep a close eye on her. She is planning something big and until we know what it is, we cannot be caught with our pants down.”
“I’ll talk to some of the maids as well and see if they know anything,” Christine suggested and I thanked her. “We will find out what it is, sooner or later.”
Once we had smoothed away the parts of the plan that needed smoothing over, Christine left leaving Camilla and I alone. I searched my mate’s eyes for any signs that she was upset with me but there was none. She had told me that herself a few times but I still couldn’t stop myself from looking out for it.
“You can stop analyzing me, Ryker,” she spoke without looking up. “If I was pis sed about this, you would know. In fact, you would have been the first to realize it and I would have probably been on her side.”
“You would?” I asked and she finally looked up at me.
“If I thought for even a second that you had sex with her and she could be pregnant, I wouldn’t send her away. I wouldn’t want to rob her child of the opportunity to grow up with its father but as the case it, I know you didn’t so it doesn’t matter now. The more time we spend talking about this, the more she wins. That is what she wants. She wants to tear us apart and you are letting her.”
“I feel like I failed you,” I admitted. “I let her into our lives somehow. Maybe if I were more careful then she wouldn’t have been able to drug me.”
“We already had one enemy in front of us and we had Damien acting like a hormonal teenage boy. We didn’t know to look for another within our walls. That is not your fault.”
She stood up from her chair and made her way over to me. I expected her to take the seat next to me but instead, she sat directly on my lap. My hands wasted no time before banding around her waist and she stroked the back of her hand against my cheek.
“Never forget who the real enemy is,” she whispered. “You can hate yourself after she is six feet underground where she deserves to be. Until then, I need your head in the game. I can’t do this without you.”
