Chapter 141 no idea what's coming
CHAOS.
I’d been pacing this room for hours and I was about three seconds away from putting my fist through the wall.
Back and forth across the expensive carpet. Back and forth until I’d probably worn a permanent path into the fibers. The guard who’d been assigned to babysit me was still standing by the door, and he looked like he was about to shit himself.
Good.
My entire body felt wrong. The wolfsbane they’d pumped into my neck was still working through my system, turning everything sluggish and muted and weak. But it was burning off. Slowly.
Way too fucking slowly for my liking.
“You need to calm down, My Prince.” The guard’s voice cracked on the last word.
I stopped pacing and turned my head to look at him.
Whatever expression was on my face made him snap his mouth shut so fast I heard his teeth click together. He went pale and pressed himself harder against the door like he was trying to melt into it.
I went back to pacing, trying to breathe through the rage that was building in my chest like a living thing. The wolfsbane was maybe seventy percent gone now. I could feel it. Could feel my strength trickling back in drops and drips when I needed it to flood back all at once.
I could feel my wolf scratching at the inside of my skull, trying to claw its way back to the surface after being forcibly shoved down.
But it still wasn’t enough.I needed to be at full strength before I could do what needed to be done.
Because I was going to find Merrielynn.
I was going to rip through every guard, every locked door, every obstacle between us. And I was going to get her out of whatever hole they’d thrown her in.
Anyone who tried to stop me was going to regret it.
The bond between us was there. Existing faintly, barely a whisper under my skin because of the wolfsbane still suppressing it. But I could feel it. Just enough to know she was still alive.
That tiny thread of connection was the only thing keeping me from completely losing my mind.
The wolfsbane was blocking most of it. I couldn’t feel her emotions. I couldn’t sense what she was going through or if she was hurt. There was just this vague awareness that she existed somewhere,and her heart was still beating.
It wasn’t enough. Not even close.
But it was all I had right now.
There was something else buildingwithin metoo. Something new that I hadn’t experienced before the bond completed.
This fire underneath my skin that had nothing to do with my wolf.
An overwhelming, primal need to get to my mate right now and protect her before something worse happened.
The mating instinct had kicked in full force.
Was my father planning toreallykill her?
The question had been circling through my head for hours. I knew Merrielynn wasn’t dead yet because I could still feel that faint pull of the bond. But what was he doing to her? What were his plans? How much time did I have?
The door opened without warning.
My father walked in like my thoughts had physically summoned him into the room.
I moved before I could think about it. I closed the distance between us in three long strides and got right in his face. “What in the name of the fucking goddess do you think you’re doing?”
My father didn’t even flinch. He held up one hand toward the guard still plastered against the wall.
The guard practically tripped over himself trying to get out of the room. The door slammed shut behind him.
I was vibrating with barely contained violence. “Where is Merrielynn?”
My father’s hand came up and he shoved me backward. Hard.
I stumbled a step before catching myself. It took everything in me not to lunge at him again.
“The girl is being prepared for what awaits her,” he said. His voice was completely calm. Level. Like we were having a casual conversation.
“You touch one fucking hair on her head and I swear I will—”
“You’ll what?” He cut me off, his eyebrows rising in this condescending way that made my blood boil. “What exactly are you going to do, Cormac? You’re an unmated male. You don’t have the strength or the authority to challenge me on anything. You’re powerless here.”
I froze.
Unmated male.
He didn’t know.
My father had absolutely no idea that Merrielynn was my mate. He had no clue that just last night we’d marked each other and completed our bond. That she was mine and I was hers in the most permanent way possible.
The realization crashed over me and I had to work to keep my face neutral.
I forced myself to stay quiet. Forced myself to swallow back all the things I wanted to say.
Let him think you’re weak, Cormac. Let him think he’s won.
My father clasped his handbehind his back andshifted into lecture mode. The voice he always used when he thought he was imparting some great wisdom.
“You need to understand your position,” he said. “You’re not just my son anymore. You haven’t been for a long time. You’re the Crown Prince of this realm. The future King. And that title comes with responsibilities that are far more important than your personal feelings about some girl.”
Some girl?
My jaw clenched so hard it hurt but I didn’t say anything.
“Love is a fickle, childish notion,” he continued, still pacing. “It clouds your judgment. Makes you weak. Makes you vulnerable to manipulation. You cannot afford to be any of those things when you’re meant to rule over thousands of wolves.”
My hands were curled into fists at my sides. My nails were digging into my palms hard enough to draw blood.
“The girl has to die for her crimes,” my father said, stopping his pacing to look directly at me. “She killed your sister. She killed the Alpha heir to the Bronxe pack. There must be justice served. The people demand it.”
"Lorelai was an accident,” I forced out through clenched teeth. ”She didn’t kill Valtor and you know that.”
“It doesn’t matter what I know.” He waved his hand dismissively. “It matters what the realm believes. And they believe she’s dangerous. They want blood for the blood that was spilled. I’m simply giving them what they want.”
A plan was forming in the back of my mind. Slowly taking shape.
My father was being overconfident. Arrogant. He thought he had complete control over this situation because he believed I was powerless. Because he thought I was just some lovesick unmated male with no real strength to back up my threats.
He had no idea what was coming.
I could use his arrogance against him.
“Where are you keeping her?” I asked. I made my voice sound tired. Defeated. Like I’d finally accepted that there was nothing I could do.
My father studied my face for a long moment. I could see him searching for any sign of deception. Any hint that I was planning something.
Then something that looked like satisfaction crossed his features. Like he thought he’d finally broken through to me. Finally made me see reason.
"Don’t loose any sleep over her," he said, walking toward the door. ”She’s being prepared for her execution. It will take place at noon tomorrow in the main palace square. A public display so everyone can witness justice being served.”
Noon tomorrow.
Less than twenty-four hours.
He pulled the door open and stepped through into the hallway. Then he paused and turned back to face me one more time.
“And I’ve made special arrangements,” he said slowly, deliberately letting each word sink in, “to ensure that you can only leave this room when your girlfriend is six feet underground.”
The door slammed shut behind him.
I heard the heavy sound of the lock clicking into place.
I stood there in the middle of the room, just breathing. In and out. Trying to process what he’d just told me while fighting back the urge to start destroying everything in reach.
It was hours later when I felt that last traces of wolfsbane finally burning completely out of my system.
My strength came flooding back all at once. It hit me like a tidal wave, rushing through my veins and filling every cell in my body. My wolf surged to the surface, fully present and fully furious for the first time since they’d injected that poison into my neck.
And the bond with Merrielynn blazed to life.
Not fully. The wolfsbane had done too much damage for it to come back at full strength immediately.
But it was there. Stronger than the whisper it had been. Strong enough that I could feel the pull of her.
She was underground, several floors directly below where I was standing. Somewhere east.
The dungeons.
I turned and looked at the locked door. At the expensive furniture scattered around the room. At the windows with their decorative bars that were meant to look pretty but were actually reinforced silver.
My father thought he’d trapped me in here. Thought he’d neutralized the threat I posed. Thought he’d won this gamehe’d been playing since the moment Merrielynn came back into my life.
He had absolutely no idea what a fully bonded, mated male was capable of when his mate was in danger.
A smile spread across my face when it hit me.
My father would have pumped full of enough wolfsbane to keep me unable to fight till he’d executed Merrielynn.
But I wasn’t just an unmated young fledgling anymore.
That’s why the wolfsbane was out of me so quickly.
The fact that Merrielynn and I marked each other... was going to save her life.