Chapter 64 I never want to see Amarien again.
"It's me, your highness," Catherine stepped out of the shadows draped in white like a ghost. I had no idea how long she had been there.
Had she watched my shameful rage fits? I turned my back against her, resuming my gaze on my father. I felt her staring, burning right into my back. Yet I wish she would go away and leave me be.
"I heard the noise. I was worried about you…"
"I don't need your worries, Catherine. Mine alone is good enough for me."
Catherine pulled close to me so fast, it felt like she floated in the air. "Oh, don't be worried, your highness!" She wrapped me in a soft embrace. "Alpha Theron will never be able to conquer our people. You are our hero; you defeated him once. You'd surely do it again."
My gaze narrowed at her. How did she know I was thinking about Theron? I turned away from her again.
"My reign will begin with wars. It irks me that this crown can't move into someone else's head."
Catherine laughed as if I had just told a joke.
"What's funny?" I spat coldly.
She stopped laughing and looked up at me with a hint of surprise, like I was missing something.
"Can't you see that's why I'm here?"
"Sure, Catherine. How befitting it will be to hand my throne over to a strange Princess of the West," my voice dripped with heavy sarcasm.
Catherine laughed again, this time shorter. "I want nothing to do with your throne, your highness. I want order in the human land as much as you do." She clasped her hand in mine. "You should understand by now that you and I share the same interest. We both want the same things." She leaned in and whispered. "We are perfect for each other."
"A woman once told me that. Look where it got me." My eyes lowered to my father. I fought tears in my eyes. "He killed himself to save her. The old fool!.
I heard Catherine spit a word beneath her breath. When she saw I had turned to her, she straightened and smiled. "Amarien is a rare kind of woman: a woman with so much power."
"How did she get me like this?" I muttered to myself rather than Catherine, but she heard me and responded.
Catherine's eyes lowered to my father's corpse in sadness. "It hurts me that she succeeded with her first victim."
I shut my eyes trying not to think about the flash of imagined thoughts in my head.
It was Theron holding on to Amarien as if she were something he owned. I suddenly felt sick.
Catherine leaned in when she saw me bowing my head. She must have thought I was shutting her words out of my head, but despite talking in whispers, she had never been more inside my head than now.
"Listen to me, Daevir. The only reason Amarien was in your life was because she was an agent sent by Theron. She is nothing but his messenger. Why do you think she insists on keeping you close to your werewolf form? She wants you deeper into the werewolf side so she can make you the enemy of your people and a friend of Theron.
She wants you to be just like Theron fashioned in his image. Heck! Even make you bend the knee to him. This was their plan all along as she wraps you up in her pinkie, making you think she loves you when all she had been doing was using you."
Catherine scoffed.
"And see, she's winning! The charges against her had been dropped, and Amarien couldn't be killed by the Empire anymore. All because she had sunk her claws right into your father's heart, blinding him from fighting for her till his death.
Amarien has been condemned to die a natural death like the rest of us all. She is winning again. It's only a matter of time before she crawls her way to your heart, like she did your father, and presents a tear or two to you. You will fall back to your knees pleading for her mercy and forgiveness. You would love her again more than you once did, and then she'll work you back where she's always wanted to be, right as Theron's side to reign beside him as his beta, his inferior.
She will have you condemn our race to inferiority and darkness. The werewolves will drink our blood and make a show of us. There will be nothing left of us all."
Catherine stopped as if to catch her breath. But she wasn't done.
"Amarien will be glad to see it all burn to the ground while she curls up on Alpha Theron's arms as his wife: His Luna: The enemy of our race!"
Silence fell into the room. A very deep, heavy silence. Much heavier than staying alone with the man I murdered slowly.
Catherine was waiting for me to say something. Her blue eyes sort mine hungrily.
I refused to match her eyes. Refused to think about it.
"Its a relief to know Amarien wasn't beheaded." I spat bluntly.
Catherine's gaze dropped.
I turned to her, watching disappointment drop down her eyes. "But I never want to see her again." My arm held Catherine's chin.
She smiled. A happy smile that reached her eyes.
Such smiles from Amarien once comforted me. But right now, as I gaze down at Catherine. I felt nothing.
The void was sucking me up. But I knew one thing must be done.
I must get it done as soon as I'm released from this chamber.
It's dreadful, I know.
But I must meet with Theron face-to-face again.