Chapter 85 Gilded Cage
❀ Maeve ❀
For the second time in my life, a supernaturally powerful, preternaturally handsome alpha male had his hand around my throat.
Both times because I was trying to assert my right to mark them.
I was truly cursed then. Not just by the rage, but by a disease eating away at bonds that should’ve been completed by now.
“Release me!” I hissed.
My claws dug deep grooves into his skin, but he didn’t flinch.
He looked at me with a mixture of pity and hurt.
What did he know about hurt?
“I can’t let you do this, Milaya.”
“Why the hell not!” Tears threatened. “I want this. You should never deny me anything, Nikolai. But all you’ve done is deny me ever since I met you.”
He flinched at that.
“I’m trying to protect you. You heard what the regent said—”
“Oh, bullshit!” I cried, my heart thundering. “You don’t want to be infected with the curse I carry, is that it? Am I less attractive to you now?”
Deny it. Deny it.
His brows furrowed sharply.
With a tortured expression, he pulled me into his chest in a tight hug.
His big hand covered my head as he whispered in my ear, “Don’t ever think, or say that ever again.”
“But it’s true. You’ll never want me now, and neither will Bastian. All he needed was a wolf mate. Now I’m probably half vampire, and cursed!”
Heated tears streamed down my cheeks, his shirt soaking them up on one side.
Nikolai tried to push me back to see my face, but I held him tighter.
Here I was, worrying about Bastian, when Nikolai was already showing signs of abandonment.
I couldn’t even fault him.
He held me right in return, and I relished it for however long it would last. It could be the last time.
“Listen to me. I’m never, ever going to give you up just because you might go feral and maul me in my sleep.” I felt him kiss the top of my head.
“You’re mine,” he continued. “Nothing changes that.”
I let him pull me back, my tears tapering as exhaustion crept over me.
“I just want to mark you, as you’ve marked me. To seal the bond and be reassured that you’re mine in truth,” I murmured.
He kissed my forehead, down my nose, my lips. His mouth was firm, soft, his tongue lovingly swiping over mine.
I sighed into the kiss, my limbs failing me completely.
In his arms I hung, while my mate petted me slowly.
When he pulled back, I blinked with confusion. His kiss had been such a sweet escape I hadn’t wanted to return.
“I’ve seen what the curse of wrath influenced Queen Lyssa to do during the war. If the stories are true, she was the least evil Crimson alive. Some even said she was kind.”
“She was,” I told him.
I’d seen her before and after her affliction. The shift had been swift. Brutal.
“She decimated an entire city almost single-handedly. In the middle of marching to IronWolf Pack, she got distracted with torturing the humans and wolves in Blackbridge. That’s why Mordane was able to catch up with her there. The stories are horrific. Even for vampires.”
I sniffled. “Why didn’t the Crimson royal family go rescue her? She was captured and tortured. She was the queen.”
I was noticing a disturbing pattern. Sometimes power didn’t protect those who held it. It only exposed them to harsher dangers.
“Her mother, your grandmother, died. It destabilized the crown. Insurgents rose. It was a busy time for Veilmoor, and rumors held that she was already dead.”
I pondered in silence.
“So how can I stop it? How can I get rid of the wrath?” I stepped back and wiped my tears with a shaking hand. “She was injected and might’ve been able to treat it. But I inherited it. It’s probably entwined so deeply I can never get rid of it.”
“We’ll find a way. I swear to you, I will find a cure.”
His eyes flashed with promise.
I sighed again, beaten by my plight, then turned and sat on the bed.
Nikolai sat beside me, his body curved over mine. His thumb cleaned a single tear from my cheek.
“Now I have two missions, and it gladdens me that they’re both in service of you.”
“How?” I asked, my voice small.
“When I destroy all of Queen Lyssa’s blood, you’ll have no contenders. You will be queen.”
My fingers shook. “But I don’t want to be queen.”
The title sounded larger than life. Larger than me.
His lips curved. “Oh, but you do. Remember commanding me earlier?”
I nodded.
“You felt it, didn’t you?” he purred. “That taste of raw dominion. Ascendance.”
I nodded again. The fear gradually faded at the memory he spoke of.
To be able to demand. To command. To rule.
I’d never have to answer to anyone anymore. And wasn’t the heady position of queen rich with advantages? Advantages that trumped the danger.
“I want that,” I confirmed, and his fangs glinted with pride. “But I’ll need your help.”
“Anything, my love.”
Excitement bloomed from the deepest, darkest parts of my heart.
“I still don’t believe all this. What if it was a mistake?” I murmured.
“The stone never makes mistakes,” he said firmly. “You’re what the kingdom needs. What I need.”
I bit my lip as I laid the trap.
“Then train me, Nikolai. Please. How can I be queen if I don’t even have my vampire side? I’m basically just a wolf with visions when she inhales blood fog.”
“I’ll train you,” he assured me. “I strongly believe your vampire half is the stronger one. Together, we’ll realize your power.”
I nodded at his enthusiasm, holding back the smile behind my lips.
Drawing him closer, I whispered, “That’s all I need. You beside me.”
After a truly soothing, empowering hug, he groaned as he pulled away.
“I really hate doing that.”
I giggled. “We could glue ourselves together. That way we’d never be apart.”
“I wish.” He stood. “I’ll draw you a bath. You need to rest, my queen.”
“I thought you said I’m not crowned, so I have no power?”
“With me, you’ll always have power.”
With that as a parting statement, he traced away. Soon after, I heard water trickling in the bathroom.
He’d traced just to turn on the water.
He traced back to me again, then gave a salute with his healed right hand.
Before I could comment on it, with a fangy smile, he disappeared for the last time.
I bunched the bedcovers in my claw-tipped fist.
My stomach tightened at his absence. I’d begun to crave the ability to trace.
Nikolai would teach me how by awakening my vampire side and showing me all there was to know.
Then I would simply… trace.
Back to Bastian.
To the northern sea… oh, wait. One could only trace to places they’d seen before.
To the market square then. To our former house in Blackbridge. To my favorite stream behind IronWolf Fortress.
All I had to do was be patient.
But could I manage it?
In a castle teeming with enemies, both family and not.
In a stately mansion that was my gilded cage.
The thing with cages, though—I never last within them.