Chapter 170: The Kingdom Needs The Queen

Ivy’s POV

Mate?

The word wasn’t mine. It didn’t belong to me. It came from somewhere deeper, rawer, feral…Nyxara.

Her voice thrummed through me, silken and wild, vibrating against my ribcage until I couldn’t tell if it was in my head or my bloodstream. Mate. Mate. Mate.

I staggered back, my hand gripping the edge of the desk as though the polished wood could anchor me to reality. My lips parted, but no sound came out at first.

“No,” I rasped finally, shaking my head violently. “Don’t you dare say that. Don’t you dare tell me he is…”

Mate! Nyxara howled again, this time with such intensity that my knees buckled. The joy in her tone was terrifying. She was euphoric, thrilled. While my stomach twisted into knots, she was clawing at the walls of my mind like an animal begging to be released.

Daniel didn’t flinch. He simply looked at me with that maddening calm of his, like he’d been expecting this all along. His silver eyes gleamed. “You feel it too, don’t you? That pull inside you? That fire crawling beneath your skin every time you hear his name?”

“I feel nothing!” I snapped, my voice cracking under the weight of the lie. “Nothing but dread. Do you hear me? Dread.”

Daniel tilted his head. “Then tell me why your wolf doesn’t agree.”

My chest heaved. My nails dug crescent moons into my palms as Nyxara growled in protest.

I think he’s ours, Ivy. He is ours. Do not fight me on this.

“No,” I hissed back at her, inside my mind. You don’t know what you’re saying. You’ve seen the dreams, the nightmares…he kills me, Nyx. He drinks me dry, rips me open, tears me apart. That’s what he does. That’s what he’ll do to us.

Lies! she roared, her voice echoing like thunder through the caverns of my skull. Twisted illusions meant to weaken you. He is strength. He is bond. He is everything we crave and you are too much of a pampered child to admit it!

My eyes widened at her venom. “Shut up. You don’t even know him!” I whispered, but my voice trembled.

Daniel’s gaze sharpened, watching me battle something he couldn’t hear. He stepped closer, slow and measured, as though approaching a cornered animal. “Nightmares,” he repeated softly. “Tell me, Ivy. What do you see in them?”

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to meet his eyes. “I see him. Leo Ashton.” His name tasted like blood in my mouth. “I see him sinking his teeth into me, draining me until there’s nothing left. I see his face smeared with my blood as he laughs. I see my own body lifeless in his arms.”

The words left me shaking, breathless, as if speaking them gave them new power.

For the first time, Daniel faltered. His jaw tightened. His silver eyes narrowed, then softened with something like pity. He was silent long enough to make my chest constrict.

Finally, he exhaled. “Then it’s exactly as I thought. A spell.”

I blinked. “What?”

He nodded grimly. “Someone doesn’t want you to meet him. They’re poisoning your sleep with fear, Ivy, feeding you lies until you can’t tell the difference between dreams and reality. They’re weaving terror into your subconscious so you’ll never take the step you need to.”

I let out a bitter laugh, though it sounded hollow. “A spell? That’s your grand analysis? Do you even hear yourself? You expect me to believe that my brain is being tampered with just so I don’t meet some ruthless vampire king?”

His silence was answer enough.

I curled my lips into a snarl. “Well, let me make this simple. I don’t care if it’s a spell, a curse, or just my gut screaming the truth. I don’t want to see him. I won’t see him. I don’t care if he’s a king or a god. He’s nothing to me, Daniel. Nothing but a nightmare I refuse to walk into.”

Coward, Nyxara hissed, her voice seething now. You hide behind your fear like a spoiled brat who’s never fought for anything. You dishonor us. You dishonor me.

I’m protecting us! I shot back, my hands trembling. You think I want to end up like those dreams? Dead? Ripped apart? You think I’ll hand myself over to him like a gift-wrapped meal?

Nyxara snarled, pacing in my mind like a caged beast. You think you are protecting us, but all you are doing is denying fate. Denying bond. Denying me.

Her fury surged, her voice laced with wild desperation. You may fight me, Ivy, but when you stand before him, you will know. You will yield. We both will.

“No!” I shouted out loud this time, startling even myself. My voice cracked like a whip through the office.

Daniel didn’t move, didn’t scold, didn’t press. He simply stood there, silent and patient, his sharp gaze fixed on me like he could see the war raging inside.

Nyxara whispered, softer now, like a lover’s plea. Mate.

I clutched my head, shaking it violently. My breath came in ragged gasps, my chest tight with fury and fear.

Daniel’s voice finally broke the suffocating silence. Steady. Firm. Unyielding.

“You can deny me all you want, Ivy. You can scream, curse, figh…even hate me. But sooner or later, you will have to face him. And when you do…” His gaze darkened, heavy with something I couldn’t name. “…you’ll realize none of this was ever a choice.”

Daniel’s words hung in the air like smoke I couldn’t escape. You’ll realize none of this was ever a choice.

My hands trembled, my pulse a wild drum in my ears. Nyxara whispered mate again, softer this time, coaxing me like I was the one who needed convincing. But I shoved her voice down, locking her away behind steel walls of denial.

“I don’t want to remember,” I said finally, my voice low but sharp as a blade. “Didn’t you say meeting him would unlock everything? My past? My memories?”

Daniel’s silence was answer enough.

“Then forget it,” I snapped, my throat tight. “I don’t want to remember anymore. I’m done. I like my head the way it is…quiet, clear. No shadows. No pain. No ghosts clawing at me in my sleep. Do you understand me? I don’t care who I used to be. I don’t care about him. I don’t want it.”

For the first time, Daniel’s calm cracked. His jaw flexed, his eyes hardening like tempered steel. “That isn’t an option.”

My heart stuttered. “Excuse me?”

His silver gaze burned into mine. “The kingdom is in dire danger, Ivy. You don’t get to bury your head in the sand and pretend you’re just some ordinary girl. You’re not. Your bond to him is the key to holding everything together.”

I blinked, utterly lost. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t care about kingdoms or kings, or whatever mess you people are tangled in. It’s not my problem!”

Daniel’s face was carved from stone now, all patience drained from his voice. He stepped closer, close enough that his presence pressed down on me like a weight I couldn’t shake.

“It is your problem,” he said coldly. “Because whether you want it or not, you’re at the center of it.”

My stomach dropped, the room tilting. “I’m not interested, Daniel. Do you hear me? I’m not going.”

His expression darkened, shadows carving into his features until the warmth I sometimes glimpsed in him was gone. “Then you leave me no choice.”

A chill swept through me. “What?”

His voice dropped to a brutal whisper, final and merciless.

“Either you walk into his presence willingly… or I drag you there unconscious.”

The silence that followed was suffocating. Nyxara purred in the back of my mind, thrilled. Finally.

But me? My blood froze.