Chapter 11 CHAPTER 11
Tessa's POV
Oh goddess. Oh goddess no.
My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I thought it might crack them.
Why is he asking me? Why did he put me in the middle of this?
I looked between them—Dmitri on his throne, dark and imposing and utterly still. Lady Kira standing tall and elegant, that sorrowful expression painted perfectly across her face.
She lied.
The realization was sharp. Clear.
She'd lied about everything. I hadn't been hysterical. Hadn't said I'd rather die than face him. I'd been quiet. Obedient. Following Meira like I was told.
Until Lady Kira had appeared.
Why would she lie?
But I already knew the answer.
Because the truth made her look cruel. Petty. And this—this version where she'd been trying to help—made her look noble.
And now he's asking me to confirm it.
My throat closed up. I couldn't speak. Couldn't move.
What do I say?
If I told the truth, I'd be calling her a liar. Accusing the woman who stood higher than anyone in this castle except him. The woman who could survive what killed everyone else. Except me.
I’ll be a primary target for her. She'll destroy me.
"Thea."
His voice cut through my spiraling thoughts.
"I asked you a question."
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
My eyes darted to Lady Kira.
She was staring at me. That sorrowful expression hadn't changed. But her eyes—
Cold. Sharp. Deadly.
They promised violence. Pain. Retribution.
If you say one word against me, I will make you regret it.
The message was clear.
My hands twisted tighter in my lap, nails biting into skin.
I can't. I can't do this.
"Thea."
Dmitri's voice was firmer now. Not angry. Not cruel.
Just... insistent.
"Answer me."
I can't!
Tears burned behind my eyes. My throat ached with the effort of holding them back.
Please. Please don't make me choose.
But he was waiting.
They were all waiting.
The silence pressed down on me like a physical weight, crushing the air from my lungs.
Say something. Say anything.
But I was frozen. Paralyzed between two impossible choices.
Lie and protect myself from Lady Kira's wrath.
Or tell the truth and pray he wouldn't let her punish me for it.
He won't protect you. Why would he? You're nothing to him.
Another tear slipped down my cheek.
Then—
"Thea."
His voice changed.
Softer. Almost... gentle.
"Look at me."
I forced my gaze up. Met those dark eyes.
And something in them made my breath catch.
Not anger. Not impatience.
Something else.
"I am not going to hurt you," he said quietly. Each word deliberate. Careful. "No matter what you say. Do you understand?"
I stared at him, not quite believing what I was hearing.
Is he... is he trying to comfort me?
"And I will know if you're lying." His gaze didn't waver. "I always know. So there is no point in protecting anyone with a false answer."
My heart stuttered.
He'll know. He'll know if I lie.
"Nothing will happen to you if you tell the truth." His voice dropped lower. "I give you my word."
His word.
The Lycan King's word.
It should have meant nothing. Should have been as empty as every other promise I'd ever been given.
But the way he looked at me—
Like I mattered. Like my answer mattered.
This is the man who nearly killed you.
The thought came unbidden, sharp and cruel.
The beast who tore you apart. Who made you scream. Who left marks on your body that will never fully fade.
I should have been terrified. Should have been too broken to ever trust him.
But right now, in this moment, with his eyes locked on mine and his voice stripped of its usual coldness—
He's asking me to trust him.
And goddess help me, some small, desperate part of me wanted to.
What do I have to lose?
Lady Kira would punish me either way. Whether I lied or told the truth, she'd already marked me as a threat. Already decided I needed to be put in my place.
At least if I told the truth—
At least I'd know if his word means anything.
I took a shaking breath.
"No," I whispered.
The word was so quiet I barely heard it myself.
Dmitri went still. "No?"
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to speak louder. "No, Your Majesty. That's... that's not what happened."
The temperature in the room dropped.
I felt Lady Kira's gaze sharpen. Felt the weight of her fury settling over me like a shroud.
No going back now.
"I wasn't hysterical," I continued, voice trembling but pushing through. "I was walking with Meira. Quietly. I didn't say anything about... about not wanting to come to you."
Keep going. Finish it.
"Lady Kira stopped us in the corridor. I didn't bow fast enough because I—I didn't know who she was. Meira tried to explain, but Lady Kira..." I hesitated, then forced the words out. "She slapped me. And said I was disrespectful. That I needed to know my place."
Silence.
Absolute. Suffocating.
I kept my eyes locked on Dmitri, not daring to look at Lady Kira.
Please. Please let your word mean something.
His expression hadn't changed. He just stared at me for a long, terrible moment.
Then he turned his head.
And looked at Lady Kira.
The air itself seemed to recoil.
"Is that so," he said softly.
And the quiet menace in those three words made my blood run cold.
The silence that followed stretched like a wire pulled too tight, ready to snap.
Dmitri's gaze remained fixed on Lady Kira, and I watched—unable to look away—as something shifted in his expression. Not anger, exactly. Something colder. More deliberate.
Calculation.
"Lady Kira," he said, each syllable precise as a blade. "You told me she was hysterical. That she claimed she would rather die than face me."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Kira's voice was steady, but I caught the slight tension in her shoulders. "That is what—"
"And yet she says that isn't what happened."
"She is lying." The words came quick. Too quick. "Your Majesty, surely you can see that she would say anything to avoid—"
"I asked you a question." His voice dropped lower, darker. "Not for your speculation about her motives."
Kira's lips pressed into a thin line.
"Did you," Dmitri continued softly, "stop her in the corridor? Strike her? Tell her she needed to know her place?"
"I..." Kira's composure flickered. Just for a moment. "Your Majesty, she was being disrespectful. She refused to show proper deference to—"
"That is not what I asked."
The temperature plummeted.
I hugged myself tighter, fighting the urge to make myself smaller. To disappear entirely.
Don't look at me. Please don't look at me.
But Kira did.
Her eyes found mine, and the message there was crystal clear.
Take it back. Recant. Say you were mistaken.
My breath hitched.
"She's lying, Your Majesty." Kira's voice turned sharp, desperate. "This... this wolfless thing is lying to protect herself. She was hysterical, I swear it. She's twisting the truth to make herself look—"
"Thea."
I flinched at the sound of my name.
No. No, please.
"Is Lady Kira telling the truth?" Dmitri asked. His gaze hadn't left Kira, but the question was clearly meant for me. "Were you hysterical? Did you say those things?"
My throat closed up again.
He said he'd protect me. He gave his word.
But Kira was staring at me with such intensity, such barely contained fury, that I felt it like a physical force.
She'll destroy you for this. You know she will.
Tears burned hot trails down my cheeks.
"I..." My voice cracked. "I wasn't—"
"She's frightened, Your Majesty," Kira interrupted smoothly. "Of course she would be. She knows what happens to humans who displease you. She's fabricating—"
"Silence."
The word cut through the room like thunder.
Kira's mouth snapped shut.
Dmitri rose from his throne.
The movement was fluid, predatory, and every instinct I had screamed at me to run.
He descended the steps slowly. Deliberately.
And stopped directly in front of me.
I tilted my head back, throat working as I tried to swallow my fear.
"Look at me, Thea."
I did. goddess help me, I did.
Those dark eyes held mine, and I saw something there that made my breath catch—not cruelty, but something almost like... patience.
"I told you I would know if you lied," he said quietly. "And I told you nothing would happen to you if you told the truth. Do you remember?"
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
"Then answer me one more time." His voice was so soft now it was almost gentle. "Were you hysterical?"
"No," I whispered.
"Did you say you would rather die than face me?"
"No." My voice broke on the word, tears streaming freely now. "No, I—I didn't say that. I swear, I didn't—"
"That's enough." He straightened, turning back to face Kira. "I believe her."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
Kira went absolutely still.
"Your... Your Majesty." Her voice had lost all its smoothness. "Surely you cannot—she is lying, she must be—"
"I said I believe her."
"But—" Kira's composure shattered like glass. "She's a… she's just a peasant girl who knows nothing of our ways, who has no reason to tell the truth when a lie would serve her better! Your Majesty, please—"
"Are you suggesting," Dmitri said with deadly calm, "that I cannot tell when someone is lying to me?"
Kira's mouth opened. Closed.
And then—
She realizes.
I saw it happen. Saw the exact moment she understood that there was no escape. No clever words or careful manipulations that would save her now.
Her face crumpled.
"Your Majesty, I—" Her voice broke. "Please, I only—I thought I was doing what was right. She was walking so casually, as if she had no fear, as if she didn't understand the gravity of—" A sob caught in her throat. "I was trying to teach her. To prepare her. I thought if she understood her place, if she showed proper respect, then perhaps you would be... less harsh with her."
Lies.
Even through my tears, even with my heart hammering against my ribs, I knew she was lying.
"I never meant to deceive you," Kira continued, her words tumbling over themselves. "I thought—I believed I was helping. That if I made it seem like she needed gentle handling, you would—"
"Enough."
Dmitri's voice was quiet.
Too quiet.
Kira fell silent immediately, her chest heaving with suppressed sobs.
"Do you know," Dmitri said conversationally, "what I do to people who lie to me?"
Kira's face went white.
"The only reason you are still breathing, Kira, is because you are a Lycan." He took a single step toward her. "We are few. Precious few, compared to what we once were. Every Lycan life is valuable to the survival of our kind."
Another step.
"If you were anything else—anything—I would tear out your throat with my bare hands for daring to stand in my presence and feed me falsehoods."
Kira made a small, choked sound.
"I would make it slow," Dmitri continued in that same terrifyingly calm voice. "I would ensure you felt every moment. Every heartbeat. Until you understood, truly understood, the cost of lying to your king."
Oh goddess.
My hands shook so badly I had to clasp them together to keep them still.
"But you are a Lycan," he said. "And so you will live."
Kira's shoulders sagged with relief.
"Your Majesty, thank you, I—"
"Do not thank me." His eyes were black ice. "You are alive because our species needs you. Not because you deserve mercy."
She swallowed hard, nodding.
"All this," Kira's voice turned sharp again, desperate, "for a her? Your Majesty, she is nothing—a mere peasant who will be dead in a handful of decades anyway. Surely you cannot mean to—"
Pain lanced through my chest.
A mere peasant.
Nothing.
The words shouldn't have hurt. I'd heard worse. Been called worse.
But somehow, hearing it now, after everything—
It hurts.
"What she is," Dmitri said softly, dangerously, "is not your concern. What you did is."
He turned away from her, moving back toward his throne with that same predatory grace.
"You will confine yourself to your quarters for the next month," he said without looking back. "You will not leave them for any reason except by my explicit command. Food will be brought to you. You will speak to no one. See no one."
Kira's face twisted with shock. "Your Majesty—"
"Additionally," he continued as if she hadn't spoken, "you will forfeit your seat at the high table for that same month. Your hunting privileges are revoked for six months. And you will personally deliver a written apology to Thea within the week."
What?
"An... an apology?" Kira's voice cracked with disbelief. "To to a wolfless peasant?”
"Yes." Dmitri settled back onto his throne, his expression carved from stone. "You struck her without cause. You lied about her to your king. You will apologize for both."
"I am a Lycan!" Kira's composure shattered completely. "I am one of the few of our kind left in this realm, and you would have me apologize to prey? Your Majesty, this is—this is madness!"
The air itself seemed to still.
"Are you," Dmitri said very, very quietly, "questioning my judgment?"
Kira went rigid.
"I... no. No, Your Majesty. I only—"
"Then you will do as you are told." His gaze could have frozen fire. "And if you ever—ever—lie to me again, Lycan or not, I will make an exception. Do you understand?"
Kira's throat worked. "Yes, Your Majesty."
"Good." He waved a dismissive hand. "Leave. Now."
She stood there for one more moment, her eyes burning with humiliation and barely suppressed rage.
Then she turned on her heel and stalked from the room, her movements stiff and jerky.
The door slammed shut behind her.
And I was alone with him.
Oh goddess.
My legs felt weak. My whole body trembled with the aftershocks of adrenaline and fear and something else I couldn't quite name.
He believed me.
He protected me.
The realization hit like a physical blow.
I pressed one hand to my mouth, trying desperately not to break down completely.
"Thea."
His voice was gentler now. Almost careful.
I looked up at him through my tears.
"Come here."
No. No, I can't.
But my feet moved anyway, carrying me forward until I stood at the base of his throne.
"You told the truth," he said quietly. "Even knowing what it might cost you."
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
"That takes courage."
My breath hitched. Courage?
"I know you're afraid of me," he continued. "You should be. But you chose honesty anyway." Something flickered in his expression—approval? Respect? "That matters."
A sob broke free before I could stop it.
"Thank you," I whispered. "Thank you for—for believing me."
He studied me for a long moment.
Then, so quietly I almost missed it:
"You're welcome, Thea."