Chapter 333: Pride and Panic

April

Giddy.

It’s a stupid word, unbecoming of a lady of such high stature as me... the future Luna Queen. Honestly, so is following orders and doing assignments for the king. Normally, I wouldn’t lower myself to do his bidding like a common servant, especially if it involved lugging around such an ugly bag that absolutely does not go with my gown.

But this is so much fun! And I’m positively giddy over it!

The bag is filled to the gills with money! Actually, I don’t know exactly what gills are or why they might be full, other than that they have something to do with fish. So, that’s a stupid expression to go along with the stupid word: giddy.

But that’s what I am!

I’d never even seen this much cash before the king had me follow him over to his personal vault and loaded up this Goddess-awful brown bag with most of his stash. The stupid old man didn’t even hide the combination from me. I repeated it like a hundred times in my head until I was out of there and found a pen and paper to write it down.

Now it’s mine! I can empty the geezer’s vault of money whenever I want!

Of course, I’ll wait for him to refill it first. After all, the money I have in the bag will serve an important purpose.

Oh, my Goddess, I’m giddy again just thinking about it. All I have to do is find all the guards who hauled that farmer girl bitch out of here and pay them off so that they never tell the prince. Well, them and the driver, whenever he gets back. I heard the king order him to drive straight to that bitch’s dirty old farm without resting, so he’ll probably stop off and sleep somewhere on the way back. That might take a while.

No matter. I’ll get to him then.

Right now, I have four guards to find. That lazy ass old man of a king wouldn’t just call them in the mind-link and have them come to the throne room. No, he said it was my problem if I wanted to keep this quiet, and it was up to me to track them down and bribe them. The asshole could have at least made this a lot easier on his future daughter-in-law.

At least he bankrolled it. Where would I get this kind of actual money? Whenever I go shopping, I use Daddy’s credit card. Everything here in the castle is free. I don’t need money at all.

But even though it’s far below my status to run around offering cash to guards, I don’t even care right now. It’s just so fun throwing around all this money, especially knowing that Zach will never find his little slutty whore. I doubt she told him where she lives. It would be an overwhelming embarrassment for her to tell the Crown Prince of Crystal Waters that she’s from a run-down, filthy farm where she probably scoops cow shit or something.

He will never, ever know!

He’ll have to marry me. He’ll have no choice. Once he’s Alpha King, I’ll be crowned Luna Queen, and then this entire kingdom will bow to me! I’ll make them give me all their jewelry. Oh... that’s a great idea! I’ll have the servants make me a swimming pool and then dump all the jewels from all over the kingdom in it, and I’ll float on top of it all, drinking champagne.

This is going to be so perfect!

Luckily, the greedy little guards easily agreed to my terms. I was careful not to let them see how much money I had in my bag, and I gave them each a lowball offer. They were all too stupid to haggle. Well, three of them were. I’m about to negotiate with the last one.

I find him in the hallway lulling about. Typical. I should report him and have him fired on the spot, but then he’ll run off to the prince and run his mouth. That’s exactly what I don’t want.

There’s too much of a crowd around here to bribe him in the open like this. “I’ll need to you to escort me to the gardens,” I tell him.

“Yes, miss,” he says, instantly following me. One day, he’ll have to address me as the Luna Queen. Oh, I can’t wait!

When I get far enough into the greenery where there’s no one around, I get his attention. “Stop.”

“Yes, miss,” he says, taking a sentinel position next to me.

I keep my voice low. “I understand you’re one of the men of highest honor who saved the prince from that awful harlot.”

“Um,” he begins, but after he thinks for a moment, he straightens, standing proud. “Yes, miss,” he says. “I made sure to follow the Alpha King’s orders and get her out of the castle immediately.”

“You did well, and we want to reward you,” I tell him, batting my lashes for effect. I’m sure it has an effect. “I’m afraid we must treat your mission as top secret. You are to tell no one about it. Here.”

I hand him several bills from my bag, and his eyes go wide before narrowing. “So, this is money to keep me quiet?”

“It’s a reward, yes,” I confirm.

“Well, then, I think you have a little bit more of it in that bag to ‘reward’ me with, don’t you, miss?”

It’s my turn to narrow my eyes. “Fine,” I say. It’s not my money. What do I give a fuck? “Here, take some more,” I say, piling money into his hands. “You’d better keep your fucking mouth shut.”

“Oh, don’t worry, miss,” he says, tucking it into his pockets, his pants, his shirt, wherever he can find to stash it. “I will.”

I can’t stand to talk to this common guardsman anymore, so I walk away.

He kind of pissed me off. But never mind. I’m still so giddy.

After all, it won’t be long before I’m the Luna Queen!

Zachariah

For the fourth time, I round the corner into the library. On any other day, I’d pause to let the scent of old paper and ink bring me a sense of nostalgia. I practically grew up in this room, one of the largest in the castle. The towering mahogany bookshelves that reach all the way to the ceiling, and the seemingly magical ladder that rolls along it, have always brought me comfort.

My mother instilled my love for reading, something my father rarely had time for. He preferred in-person briefings that, as he put it, “saved time.”

But I’m not here to settle into an overstuffed chair and pull out a book today. I’ve been everywhere in the castle, and so far, I’ve found no sign of Madeline. In fact, I can barely register her presence anywhere, which I should be able to do as her fated mate.

“Your Highness.” My senses come alert at the voice of her lady’s maid in my mind. “None of the servants had any idea where she is,” Ellie reports. “I’m back in her suite now, and she’s still not here.”

The ache in my gut drops like iron. “I’ll be right there.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I rush out of the library, skipping steps as I make my way quickly up the staircases leading from the ground floor to Madeline’s suite.

The door is wide open when I arrive, and Ellie is pacing frantically in the living quarters, wringing her hands.

I don’t blame her. Madeline’s scent has faded considerably since the last time I was here, a bitter reminder of her disappearance, as if I needed one. I close the door and step inside.

Ellie suddenly spins around, crashing into me. I have to reach out to keep her from stumbling. “Oh!” she says, then her eyes go wide. “Oh! Goddess, Your Highness, I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay, Ellie,” I assure her.

She gets her bearings, then plops into the nearest chair. “You didn’t find her?”

“I did not,” I confirm.

“I don’t understand this. Where could she be?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” I say. “Is there anywhere in the castle where she likes to spend time alone?”

“Yes, and I’ve been to all of them already,” she says, shaking her head. “Twice!” She looks up with a gasp. “You don’t think she left the castle?”

“I don’t think so,” I say with more certainty than I feel. “She’s my chosen breeder. I don’t think the guards would let her just walk out the gates.”

She looks at me with narrowed eyes and crinkles her forehead. “Is there some reason why she would want to leave?”

“Yes,” I admit, lowering myself down into the chair beside her. That lump in my gut is still growing, heavy and painful.

“Maybe you’d better tell me all about it,” she says, crossing her arms.

I’m not sure what makes me unload everything on Madeline’s lady’s maid. I don’t even know how close they are. But that’s exactly what I do. I tell her everything: the mate bond, the kiss, the horrible confrontation with April.

When I finish and look up, Ellie is staring at me with eyes like saucers. She’s not moving. I don’t think she’s even breathing.

“Ellie?”

“You’re... you’re her mate?!” She hops up and starts pacing again.

“Yes.”

“You... you just sprung that on her out of nowhere?!” she says with the same look plastered on her face.

“Yes,” I confirm. “She felt it too. But when April said all those things, she ran off.”

“Of course she did!” she hollers. “And where did April go?”

“April? I have no idea. Why?”

She lets out an exasperated sigh. “Why? Because the Alpha King will have a heart attack if he finds out you’re mated to a breeder!”

I hold her gaze for a moment while the realization sets in.

My father!

I rise and make for the door. “He has to be behind this,” I say.

Breaking into a run, I rush toward my father’s chambers.

I need to find out what the hell he did to my mate.