Chapter 52 No fool
Chapter 52: Asher
I managed to survive four days without dwelling on Scarlett. I avoided her and made sure the only female I saw and spent time with was Angel.
And even though my wolf felt suffocated, I forced it to live that way. Because it was going to be our new way of living soon anyway.
After the festival, I would most definitely not even remember that Scarlett existed in my life for the next couple of months.
By then this irritating need I felt inside of me towards her would fade and I could forge on with my plans without any restraint.
My thoughts were roaming over these points as I sat in my study, going over the reports and occasionally I glanced at Albert's preparation of the festival.
When he had mentioned it at first, I found it stupid because I feared what my heart would do on a day like that.
But after finding out that I could tweak it to my advantage, I couldn't wait for the day to arrive.
"My king," one of my guard's voices sliced through my thoughts.
I slowly raised my head from the papers in front of me and glared at his form at the doorway.
"Yes, what is it?" I asked, in a calm voice.
"The— there is a letter for you from..." The man suddenly looked pale and my eyes narrowed while waiting for him to complete his statement.
But words were suddenly difficult for him and rather than say it, he briskly walked in and placed the letter on my table.
I was going to reprimand him for his stupid behaviour but my eyes caught the sign on the letter. And I froze.
"What is this?" I growled.
"I— I... My king we don't know... It arrived this morning and we thought—"
"Leave!" I roared, my fingers already tearing the damned envelope open.
My heart was hammering hard in my chest as I pulled out the letter from the torn envelope.
My gut squeezed as I could already guess what it was, but I refused to believe it.
"Thank you for your invitation for the festival of love. Violet and I will be there..." I couldn't even finish reading the words as my vision darkened.
My fingers trembled as the implication of this shot through me like a burning piece of silver. If Axel and Violet came, it would be impossible to be apart from Scarlett...
How was I going to take the Aphrodisiac of lust and not look at her?
This meant, Angel couldn't be my date anymore! I had to use Scarlett!
"Damn it!" I cursed as rage pumped buckets inside of me.
All my plans could be ruined because of this one letter sent by—
My eyes narrowed as I quickly straightened the already squeezed letter and checked the seal.
It wasn't mine, which meant Albert didn't send this.
"What the fuck—" my words instantly stopped as I recognized the Luna seal of my own damned fucking land!
Scarlett!
Like a fucking tornado had taking control of me, I stormed out of the study and went straight to her room.
My boots thundered against the stone corridors like wall drums, aiming for one thing, Scarlett!
The moment I got there, I kicked the door open and my anger tripled as I set my eyes on her calm form sitting on the fucking bed, like she hadn't just ruined everything for me!
"How dare you, Scarlett?" I growled, throwing the letter at her.
Her annoyingly beautiful eyes moved from my fuming form to the letter now on the ground.
She slowly picked it up and as she scanned through, I saw the recognition in her eyes. And then she smiled.
"Is this why you are here roaring like a feral, my love?" Her sweet voice pushed my rage into maddening fury.
"Scarlett, how dare you?" I repeated, my body trembling violently. "Why the fuck did you do it? Who gave you the fucking right to send invites to my kingdom?"
She shrugged and dropped back to her position on the bed. "I am the Luna of this kingdom, Asher. Maybe not to you, but to the rest of the people and the realm... I think it's only normal that I do things like this. Right?"
Her response was like a whip to my already darkening vision.
I wanted to rip out her throat at that moment so bad, I didn't even realize it when I closed the distance between us.
"Even if I am stupid enough to let you exercise your duty as Luna, why the hell did you invite your fucking brother and Violet?"
Rather than shrink into herself in fear, she got on her feet and faced me, head on. "Because they are family, Asher. Who holds a festival and forgets his own household—"
"Scarlett!" I roared, grabbing her roughly by her upper arms. "You think this is a fucking game? You think you can manipulate your way into—"
"Into what?" She interrupted softly in a voice that stirred up the fucking wrong emotions. "Your heart... Are you scared spending time with me will make you admit that you—"
"Shit up!" I roared so loud, the walls in the room shook.
My heart was burning with such anger all I wanted to do was kiss that sharp mouth of hers till she was breathless...
I wanted to fuck her so roughly she would take days before being able to walk properly...
I wanted to— fuck! I wanted to kill her!
"You want to play dirty, don't you?" I hissed, my eyes flaring like a volcano. "I know exactly what to do to you!"
The irritating confidence she had dwindled but before she could speak, my hold on her arms tightened and in a blink of an eye, I yanked her out of the room.
"Asher... What are you— doing?" She stuttered. "Where are you taking me?"
But I didn't answer. Speaking was going to make me say the wrong things.
I continued dragging her through the corridors, taking the stairs to the lower levels until we reached the dungeons.
"My King!" The startled guards greeted me as soon as they saw me. But I didn't care about them.
I knew where I was going.
I walked past the guards to the inner rooms, moving past the usual cells till I got to the isolation chamber. The very room every criminal hated. The perfect punishment for Scarlett.
"Asher..." Her voice cackled as she realized where I was headed. "My brother is coming, we are supposed to be the perfect couple! You can't—"
Not waiting for her to finish spewing nonsense about her thief of a brother, I threw her into the cell and slammed it shut in one swift move.
"I can do whatever I want!" I growled into the tiny opening she had rushed to open.
"Asher, please I can't stay here... It's cold and I barely have a night dress on! Asher!"
My legs stopped as the image of the robe she had flashed in my mind. But a dark chuckle escaped my lips as my gaze met hers.
"Oh that makes it perfect. You will stay here with that thing on, until the guests you foolishly invite start coming!"
"Asher, that's almost two weeks away!" She cried out, her innocent confidence now completely gone.
"Actually it's just ten days," I countered. "A fair price to pay to learn how to mind your damned business!"
Without waiting for her response, I walked out of there, my mind already directing my rage towards the next target.
"Get Albert to meet me in the war room, now!" I growled at the frozen guards at the dungeon entrance.
"Yes, my King!" They chorused and I walked past them.
My fury was still pumping in my veins and I knew that if I saw Albert in this condition, I would probably do something I would regret for the rest of my life.
So like my father always taught me, I took the longer route to the war room, letting the walk calm my pulsing nerves.
But by the time I got to the war room, I was still mad. I slammed the door shut so hard, it cracked.
Yet Albert didn't flinch. He remained annoyingly calm. Too calm.
And for the goddess' sake, all I wanted to do was rip out that look from his face and throw it out the window.
"Asher, you asked to see me," he said with a bow.
My hand went to my mouth as I tried to find the best possible way to start. For I knew Albert, he was no fool.
In fact, I doubted he wasn't aware this would happen. And this thought vexed me even further.
So I went straight to the point; "Why did you let her send those invites?"
Albert raised his eyebrows, in what I could only describe as a feign surprise.
"It is her responsibility to do that. She’s the Luna."
"Oh don't fucking give me that shit!" I yelled, hitting my fist against the table.
"You know she is no fucking Luna of mine! She is a thorn in my side and you gave her a fucking dagger to stab me with! Why?"