Chapter 9: For the Love of Everything Unholy

**Coal**

I didn't want to know the answer. In my heart, I knew I didn't. But I *needed* to know the answer.

She sighed, and shook her head, "I don't know. I hadn't considered what I would do if I found you, I thought I'd taken every precaution to make sure this didn't happen, to make sure I didn't hurt anyone. But I guess when I was fending off Carson and Gabe I must have put too much into the spell and accidentally took from the charm. You shouldn't have been able to smell me at all."

I winced. She really didn't want me.

"If you don't reject me I won't be able to move on," I whispered to her.

"And neither will I," she responded.

I clenched my jaw, trying desperately to ignore the pain that my wolf was in and the pain that was starting to bloom in my chest, "why do you despise the bond, Raegan?"

"It's just another thing that took away my free-will. I could have chosen you by myself, but I'll never have that oppurtunity now. You'll forever be my True Mate. The one person designed to be perfect for me in every way, including in the genetic makeup that you would pass on to--" She cut herself short, and made a strange throaty sound as she buried her face into my neck.

"Pups," I finished for her. My stomach turned, and I felt her anxiety slipping through our bond distantly. "Is that a bad thing? You could still chose me on your own, chose not to reject me formally or... or leave me."

She paused, seeming to mull my words over, and then something between a sigh and a whimper left her lips, "without the bond would you have given me a second glance?"

I pulled back from her and looked at her intensely. I swallowed, and nodded. I believed I would. The Council of Elders was intent on seeing me mated with at least one pup by thirty, and now that I was twenty-five I knew they'd start pushing for a chosen mate. I'd have run into Raegan over the course of the conference anyways, and I had no doubt in my mind that I would have been taken by her.

She was easy to be taken by. Without the sparks, or her intoxicating scent, I would have at least been interested in the gorgeous woman currently straddling me in front of a fireplace.

"You're just saying that," she sighed.

"No, I'm not." I shook my head, "I don't know you, hell, I don't even know how old you are, but I know that you're charming. You fought off three grown male wolves on your own, that alone would have been enough to make me interested. Not to mention the way you handled the potential political ramifications of detaining Kai. And fortunately, I was in the right place at the right time tonight. Running into you would have been inevitable there, and forming some kind of political alliance with you would have been necessary after a scene like that, if not just to save my ass from looking like a man preventing someone from marrying who they want, then to save your ass from the scrutiny of the Wolf Kingdom at large." I pushed a curl out of her face and tucked it behind her ear, "I don't know if you've noticed, but the wolves in this kingdom are kind of judgemental assholes," I chuckled.

She scrunched her nose, "so you're saying you'd have been interested in me politically?"

I nodded, "not knowing anything else about you kind of makes it hard to judge if I would be interested beyond that straight out of the gate."

She clenched her jaw. Then she grunted, and got off of me and sat back behind her plate. She started to eat again, stuffing her face quietly while staring at the plate angrily. I smiled a little, and ate my own plate of food in silence as well.

When she was done, she set the cutlery on top of the plate, and sat back, propping herself up on her elbows, "political interest is better than no interest, I suppose," she said finally, "and I know I would have been... *interested* in you," her eyes raked up and down my body, and I couldn't help but blush a little at the way it made me feel. "Not to mention that an alliance of sorts is the reason I came to the confrence at all."

"How do you mean?" I asked, taking the last bite from my plate and then setting the cutlery down on it in the same manner she had.

"I have people inside of Alpha Kai's supporters who feed my information on his courses of action. They do it so that I can avoid him at all costs, and when I was told he'd be here I knew that he was going to try something to sway the people. I figured it would be challenging you for the crown, but now I know he was luring me out of my pack so that he could make me his mate. If he had a mate when he challenged you the people would want him to win more than they did now, because he could ensure a future line of succession right then and there. There's a chance he would have waited until I was with child before challenging you at all just to secure that support entirely." She grimaced, and shook her head a little, "but either way, I knew he was up to something, so I came here to swear my fealty to you in front of as large of an audience as I could get. It would show the changing of tides in power. The Promised of the Former Prince Swears Fealty to New King Amidst Political Turmoil." She said as if she were reading a headline. "It would have ensured you stayed on the throne at least a little longer, and if Kai succeeded in anything he wanted to try with you, he wouldn't have the backing of the court."

I bit my lower lip. "How long had he been looking for you?"

"He knew where I was," she said, "he just can't get past Stone Moon's patrols. Shawn took extra precautions to ensure my safety when I finally got home, and my mother had Morgan and I help set up a ward that would alert the three of us if he ever stepped onto pack lands."

I nodded, and swallowed. She looked up into my eyes. My heart stopped for a split second when I saw her's. I don't think I'd ever get used to that feeling.

"I still want to swear my fealty to you," she said, "I want to do it before the conference ends, and... I'd like to keep that we're mates under wraps for now."

I shook my head, "no can do," I pursed my lips, and my wolf growled internally, not liking the idea of people not knowing she was ours.

*Not ours.* I said to him.

He huffed at me, and rolled his eyes, *ours.*

I groaned, and pinched the bridge of my nose, "people are going to notice the guards that I have to send with you. They're also going to notice the fact that you're on my floor."

"So send me back to the guest floor, and don't put guards around me."

I raised my eyebrows at her, "really? Do you actually think I'd agree to that? Letting my mate stay on a floor full of unmated Alphas, Betas, Gammas, and vampires? Or letting my mate walk around a palace crawling with danger without guards?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, "I can take care of myself. I don't need a babysitter."

I nodded, "that you can, but you can't watch every entry way and every crevice of a room with just one pair of eyes. What if Beta Carson went back to Kai's supporters and is rallying more wolves as we speak to come and retrieve you and the Prince?"

She growled at me, and her eyes flashed black, "Carson wouldn't."

"You don't know that for sure," I said, raising my eyebrows.

"I do," she said sternly, her eyebrows furrowing in anger.

I clenched my jaw, "just because he told you that he has your best interest at heart, doesn't mean he does. He still supports the Prince, that should be enough to tell you that you can't rely on him to keep his word."

Just as I finished speaking, she lunged at me, and tackled me backwards to the ground, her knees on my thighs, and her hands pinning my wrists at my sides.

"Carson is a man of his word, he would *never* have agreed to what the Prince did tonight if he wasn't under duress, *enough.*" She snarled, hovering inches from my face.

I swallowed, and looked at her lips. We were incredibly close, and sparks danced everywhere she touched me.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked her, raising my eyebrows as I forced myself to look back at her eyes.

"Yes," she huffed, glaring at me.

I pursed my lips, "fine, if you believe he wouldn't betray you, I'll take your word for it. But you're not moving floors, and you're going to have guards on your person whenever you leave my floor. No arguing."

She rolled her eyes, "no."

"Yes."

"No."

"*Yes.*" I snarled, and pulled my hands free from where she pinned them and sat up, pushing her back to sit on my lap and move her knees to either side of my hips, "we won't tell people we're mates if you truly don't want to. I won't make you do anything that makes you uncomfortable." I said and rested my hands on her waist. She opened her mouth to protest, and I shook my head, adding, "if the thing I'm asking you to do is for your safety then it doesn't count. I'd rather have a safe, mildly uncomfortable mate than a kidnapped unsafe distressed mate."

"You do realize you're keeping me in a tower in your palace against my will?" She raised her eyebrows.

I hummed, and started to play with a strand of her hair, "safety."

"Kidnapping."

"I never said you can't leave this floor," I shrugged, "I just said I want you sleeping on this floor."

She frowned.