It didn’t help. Punching walls never helped. But it was either the wall or someone’s face, and there was no one around who deserved it.
Yet.
I turned and stalked toward my office, murder in my heart. This was Vix’s doing. I knew it. The conversation she engineered, the way she positioned herself, the timing of Riley’s arrival. It was all deliberate. A trap designed to destroy my relationship with my mate.
I was going to exile her. Council member or not, political consequences be damned. She crossed a line that could not be uncrossed.
Vix wasn’t in my office.
The room was empty, dark except for the dying embers in the fireplace, the scattered papers on my desk, the chair where she’d been kneeling beside me with her hand on my thigh.
Ugh. I could still smell her perfume. It made me want to burn the chair.
I searched. Checked the council chambers, her quarters, the common areas where nobles gathered. She was gone, vanished without a trace.
Clever. She knew what was coming. Apparently even delusional stalkers had survival instincts.
I returned to my office, planning to send guards after her, when I noticed it. A note, sitting on my desk, placed precisely in the center where I couldn’t miss it. White paper, neat handwriting. Unremarkable in every way except for the words written upon it.
BREAK THE ENGAGEMENT OR SHE’LL DIE.
How dramatic. Whoever was behind this had clearly read too many novels.
But the ice flooding my veins said this wasn’t a joke. I read it again. And again. The words didn’t change. Didn’t make any more sense.
Break the engagement or she’ll die.Someone was threatening Riley.
My wolf exploded into pure, feral rage. I nearly shifted right there, bones cracking, fur trying to burst from my skin. Only years of training allowed me to force the transformation back. My hands were shaking and my vision had gone amber at the edges.
Someone was threatening my pregnant mate, and someone was going to die for it.
But first, I needed help.
I gathered my family. Not Thessa. She was with Riley, protecting her, exactly where she needed to be. But my parents, Patt, the people I trusted most in this world.
We met in my father’s private study. It was the most secure room in the castle, warded against eavesdropping, designed for conversations that could not leave its walls.
Apparently, even that wasn’t secure enough anymore. But one crisis at a time.
“What’s happened?” my father demanded. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Worse.”
I told them everything.
The pregnancy announcement. My mother’s hand flew to her mouth, eyes brightening with joy before my expression made her pause. The confrontation with Vix. How I’d been going over security documents, reviewing who had access to which areas of the castle. How Vix had appeared uninvited, knelt beside my chair, placed her hand on my thigh despite my immediate attempts to push her away. How the conversation she’d engineered, taken out of context, sounded damning.
“She asked when I was going to tell Riley about her,” I said, jaw tight. “I said I wouldn’t. Because there’s nothing to tell. Because Vix is delusional and I’ve never given her encouragement.”
“But Riley only heard...” my mother started.
“Riley heard me say ‘everyone knows about us’ and ‘Riley won’t change our relationship.’ Out of context. Without knowing I was talking about Vix’s obsession with me, not any actual relationship.” I ran a hand through my hair. “And Vix positioned herself perfectly. Hand on my thigh, kneeling beside me, laughing about Riley discovering ‘the truth.’ It was a setup. A perfect, deliberate setup.”
“That bitch,” Patt muttered.
Finally, someone who understood the situation perfectly.
“And then there’s this.”
