70. LUCAS

I snarled as I pushed Angel gently behind me.

It should have been expected. We were waiting for her to make her move. I was ashamed to say that I let my guard down when Mother tried nothing.

She had a smile on her face that didn’t reach her eyes.

“What do you want?” Mason growled, not even bothering with formalities.

Mother moved to the front of them, the smile slipping right from her face when her eyes locked on Angel. I watched in satisfaction as the color drained from her face when she realized that Angel wore all three of our marks.

She hadn’t counted on all her sons marking Angel, that was easy to tell. All she had been focusing was on taking Angel out along with me. Mother never wanted me to take over as King because I wasn’t easily manipulated by her.

“You…” she breathed, eyes slowly darkening with anger. “You bonded her!”

“And legally married her,” I told her. “We were about to celebrate when you so rudely interrupted us.”

“You married a stranger without formally introducing her to us or your people?” one of the councilmen asked.

I stood straighter and took a step forward but a small hand on my back stopped me. Nate moved closer to my side and glared at them.

“Our people know about our mate, they have been introduced to her on numerous occasions,” he said softly.

“The well-being of our kingdom is important to us.”

“Bullshit,” someone called from the doorway.

I tensed as the fifth member of the council entered the room.

The man was a mess and he carried folders clutched to his chest. He stumbled, making a few folders drop to the floor in his haste to reach us. Bending he instantly grabbed it and hurried over to us, making sure to leave a wide berth between Mother and the other council members.

“Your Highness.” He bowed low, making more files drop to the floor. “I apologize for just barging in, but I couldn’t sit back and allow them to hurt your mate.”

“Hurt her?” Mason growled. “Explain.”

He hesitated, eyes darting to the council. They were all glaring at him.

I could smell the man’s fear, but he didn’t step down.

“They have been plotting with former Queen Dorothy to get rid of you and your mate so they can take over the kingdom again. They aren’t happy with how you have been taking care of things…or ruling the kingdom.”

It wasn’t a surprise. We were all expecting it from our mother, but not from the council members.

They were supposed to be on my side, helping me by taking over some responsibilities when I was too busy to take care of things. I trusted them. I thought they were loyal to me.

“I’ve noticed things,” he said softly. “So, I started looking at things more closely and dug deeper. I am certain that they have something to do with the portals.”

Mother growled and took a step forward, but Nate stopped her with a glare.

“You have no proof,” Mother snarled at him.

The man held a file out towards me.

I hesitated a moment before I took it.

It was filled with messages between various members of the council and of course, none other than my mother. The first few messages were short, but they got longer, with more details.

We had been looking in the wrong place for answers about the portals. The evidence was right in front of me even though there weren’t many details.

“There’s more, sire.”

Nate took the other files and looked through them.

His eyes darkened with anger. “Every problem…every fucking thing we’ve been struggling with is because of you. You’re trying to jeopardize your own son.”

“He should never have been crowned as king,” Mother hissed, pointing a shaky finger at me. “You took Nathaniel’s right away from him!”

Snarling, Nate took a threatening step forward and glared down at her. “We’ve had this discussion a million times before, mother. He never took anything from me! Lucas was meant to be the king and that’s why he was crowned.”

“He doesn’t know what it means to be king!” Mother yelled. “He rules with his heart and not with his head.”

“As it should be,” Mason growled. “If he ruled the way you had there would be nothing of our kingdom left! The people love Lucas, and they love Angel.”

“Shut up!” She glared at him. “You know nothing!”

“I know enough to be aware of the fact that a kingdom isn’t ruled based on fear.”

“Mason is right,” I snarled before she could speak again. “I’m disbanding the council. You are to be locked up effective immediately for the duration of this investigation.”

“You can’t do that!” one of them exclaimed.

“He can and he just did!”

I glared at Mason. His eyes locked with mine for a moment before he looked away. Colour flooded his cheeks as he turned towards Angel.

“Berk, is this all the evidence you have?” I asked the man in front of me. “Or are there more?”

“I’m still looking into things, but this is what I found so far, sire.”

“Xavier,”

He stepped out of the shadows where he had been standing.

“Please take these files to my office and make sure everything Berk has make it to my office.”

He bowed and gestured for Berk to follow him.

The moment they disappeared from sight, I turned back towards the others. “The guards will escort you to the dungeon. You will stay there and be treated as prisoners until this investigation is completed.”

I didn’t miss the way Mother tried to step back and away from the council members.

“The same goes for you Mother,” I growled, stopping her in her tracks. “You are a danger to our mate, and I’ve tolerated it for long enough. I will not sit around and wait for you to hurt her again.”

“You can’t do that! I’m your mother!”

She struggled, trying to free herself from the guard’s hold. My heart clenched, but I ignored the emotion flooding me.

“Lock her up,” I ordered.