“But... I told her it’s not gonna happen.”
“You what?”The king’s eyes widen.
“You’re an idiot,”Sam says.
Taya nods to Selene and Dehlia.“Do they know?”
“Uh... I’m not sure. I’d imagine if Medein knows, she would tell her family.”
His Majesty bites the inside of his cheek, thinking to himself.“Then that’s their hidden agenda. They don’t care about Jay. They care thatyoudo. They want the alliance.”
My entire insides flip, and I can’t help the panicked word vomit that explodes out of me.“I can’t walk down the aisle with Medein.”
The king growls, snapping his jaws at me.“You’ll crawl to her on your hands and knees if I tell you to. A war with the covens will not happen.”
Whimpering, my wolf bares its neck. The king’s alpha command silences me as this outcome slowly crushes me.
“There is another offer we would be willing to consider...” Dehlia shouts in a singsong manner. Both she and Selene turn to Taya.
Taya’s looks side to side, then points to herself. “Me?”
Selene smiles. “You have anincrediblelight.”
Sam shoves Taya behind him and growls low.
“Very well.” Dehlia bows her head to Sam—a respectful gesture—but his glowing eyes and elongated canines show he might not be in a place to receive it. “Do you need more time?”
“Right now, I need the truth.” The king nods to me. “Is it Caleb you want?”
Caught, Dehlia’s lips upturn into a creepy grin, sending shivers down my spine. “We would find an alliance to be rather acceptable.”
“Why?”
Like a demonic doll, Dehlia responds sweetly, “Well that’s none of your business, but if you must know, we want a true, marital alliance with Bloodhound for when—well,if—anything were to happen.”
Her ominous response is a red flag.
The king squints his eyes. “What’s going to happen?”
But Dehlia just stares, smiling. “Tell you what, I’ll give you seventy-two hours to make your decision. At which point,wewill choose for you.”
“Your Majesty, this stays between us and those on a need-to-know basis. Regardless,Jayisnotone of those people.Thatis non-negotiable,” Selene says.
“Agreed,” the king says.
With a wave of the witch’s hand, they disappear and everything and everyone else returns just as we left them. Except no one seems to have noticed we were gone. Everything resumes as if time stopped. I slowly spiral into a mess of despair as the pressure closes in on me.
I crack.
I have seventy-two hours to prevent a war and protect Jay without telling anyone—especially Jay.
Jay jogs over to me, out of breath. “Hey, what’d you want to talk to me about?”
Chapter FORTY-FOUR
Jay
Irush him and jump into his arms, wrapping my legs around him, but he doesn’t return with the same enthusiasm. I dismount. “You’re not hugging me back. What’s wrong?”
