Chapter 54 55
MARIGOLD POV
The past few hours were hell.
The banquet had been a blur of poisoned wine, narrowed eyes, and the suffocating pressure of my own pulse hammering too loud in my ears. One slip—one squeeze of Gregor’s hand under the table—and the Queen had smiled.
Not politely. Not warmly. The kind of smile that said caught you.
Thank every star in the heavens that Prince Leon had been quick enough to take my other hand, shielding us in plain sight. Quick enough to play the devoted fiancé while Sugar stood behind me, mouthing a silent you’re welcome with all the smugness of a cat who’d just stolen cream.
But the Queen’s smile still burned in my skull long after we escaped.
By the time we reached the suite, I was holding myself together with threads. Gregor was pacing like a caged wolf, Leon leaned against the mantel like he owned the fire, and Sugar was perched on the armrest with her usual air of chaos disguised as helpfulness.
Leon broke the silence first.
“My mother doesn’t smile like that unless she’s already three moves ahead. Which means tonight wasn’t just about poison. It was about bait.”
I blinked. “Bait?”
Prince Leon’s mouth curved, but not in amusement. “The maids. The Queen’s always testing for cracks in the walls. Who talks. Who listens. Who delivers a tray where they shouldn’t.”
Sugar nodded eagerly, like she’d been waiting for this moment. “Exactly! You don’t bait a wolf with words—you bait the rats in the pantry. And if we agree to play along, we could flush out whoever’s been feeding her whispers.”
I tried to focus, but the weight of Gregor’s stare burned hotter than the fire. He hadn’t said a word yet, but his silence was louder than all of them.
Prince Leon went on, casual but sharp. “If we leak the right rumor—something juicy enough—it’ll draw the traitors out. We let them think they’re winning, until they hand themselves to us.”
My lips quirked before I could stop them. “You mean… set a trap for the Queen’s spies by turning her own game on her.”
Prince Leon grinned at me, like we were co-conspirators instead of reluctant allies. “Exactly, fiancée mine.”
Behind me, Sugar clapped her hands. “Finally, a plan I actually like.”
Gregor growled. Low. Dangerous.
Everyone stilled.
Leon arched a brow at him. “Problem, Alpha?”
Gregor’s jaw flexed, muscles straining. His eyes flicked—first to me, then to our still-too-close hands on the armrest. “Plenty.”
The tension cracked through the room like a storm.
Leon’s smirk deepened, Sugar bit her tongue (miracle of miracles), and I—too aware of the pounding in my chest—stood abruptly. “That’s enough scheming for one night. I’m going to bed.”
Leon, with all the gall of a prince who didn’t care about impropriety, rose too. “Of course, darling. Rest well. We’ll pick this up tomorrow.”
Sugar gave me a sly little wink before trailing after him into the hall, leaving me alone with the wolf still pacing the room.
The moment the door clicked shut, Gregor spoke. His voice was gravel and fire.
“You shouldn’t have agreed.”
I turned, hands on my hips, fury rising to match his. “And what exactly should I have done? Sit there and smile while the Queen-future-mother-in-law poisons me?”
His nostrils flared.
That stung, sharper than I wanted to admit. But I refused to back down. “Fine. The Queen. Who very nearly caught us tonight. And if Leon hadn’t been quick—”
“Don’t say his name like that.”
WHAT THE FUCK?
The growl in his chest rattled through me, but I lifted my chin higher. “Why? Because it makes you jealous?”
That landed. I saw it in the way his jaw clenched, in the way his hands fisted at his sides.
For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. Just two storms colliding, heat sparking between every glare, every ragged breath.
Then he stepped forward. Close. Too close.
“Careful, Marigold,” he murmured, voice rough. “Because one of these days, I won’t stop myself.”
And I—traitorous, foolish, heart-thundering me—wanted him not to.
And…
The way Gregor closed the distance wasn’t fair.
One second he was across the room, thunder in his shoulders, storm in his eyes. The next—he was right in front of me. Close enough that the heat rolling off his body wrapped around me like a second skin, close enough that I could feel the tremor in his breath.
“Careful,” he warned again, but his voice was already breaking.
I tilted my chin up, stubborn, breathless. “Or what?”
His eyes darkened, molten gold bleeding into amber, his wolf clawing at the edges of control. His hands braced against the wall on either side of my head, caging me in. My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Or I’ll forget who I’m supposed to be protecting,” he rasped. “And I’ll take what I’ve been fighting not to.”
And Goddess help me—I wanted him to.
“Then stop fighting,” I whispered, barely audible.
The growl that left his chest was primal, raw. And then his mouth crashed onto mine.
It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t cautious. It was fire and hunger and weeks of restraint snapping like glass. I gasped, and he swallowed the sound, lips claiming mine like I belonged to him already.
God, it was heaven.
Or maybe it was hell…but I couldn't deny how my wolf responded like it was the most natural thing to do.
I clutched at his shirt, dragging him closer, and he growled again, deeper this time, vibrating through my bones. His lips moved against mine with desperate insistence, tasting, demanding, devouring.
When his teeth grazed my bottom lip, I moaned—soft, helpless, traitorous. His body shuddered, his wolf pushing harder against the surface.
“Marigold…” His voice cracked around my name, half a plea, half a curse.
I barely managed a breath. “Don’t stop.”
He didn’t. His mouth trailed down to my jaw, hot, open-mouthed kisses that burned their way lower, lower, until his lips hovered over the vulnerable curve of my neck. My pulse fluttered there, frantic under his touch.
His fangs grazed my skin. Just a whisper, but enough to send sparks exploding through me. He inhaled, ragged, like he was drowning and I was air. My wolf was howling with joy.
One bite. One mark. That was all it would take.
“Say yes,” he growled against my throat, trembling with restraint. “Say yes and I’ll claim you now.”
Every nerve in my body screamed to surrender, to tilt my head, to let him sink those fangs into me and end the war raging inside us both.
I don't care anymore. We both need this…I need this.
“Yes…” The word slipped out, breathless.
He froze. His body went rigid, his lips pressed to my skin, his wolf howling just beneath the surface.
And then—
BZZZT. BZZZT.
What the fuck!
Not now!
The shrill buzz of his phone shattered the spell.
Alpha Gregor snarled, forehead dropping to my shoulder as his hands slammed against the wall to keep from shaking me apart. “Damn it,” he growled, voice hoarse with need.
I, flushed and trembling, clutched his shirt tighter. “You—you um, hould get that.”
The look he gave me when he pulled back could have set the castle aflame. Wild. Hungry. Unfinished.
With shaking hands, he fumbled the phone from his pocket and barked into it. “What the hell Zach?”
Zach’s voice crackled through the line, urgent. “Sorry to interrupt something, Alpha, sir, but the bait’s ready. Tomorrow’s council meeting—they’ll take it. We’ll have our traitor. And also the Black Fang was on the move.”
“Who ordered?”
“The Queen.”
Alpha Gregor closed his eyes, jaw clenched so hard I thought it might crack. “Fine. I’ll be there.” He hung up without another word.
The silence that followed was thick, pulsing with everything we’d almost done.
His forehead dropped back against mine, his voice raw, barely holding.
“This isn’t over, Marigold. Not by a long shot.”
And Goddess help me, I didn’t want it to be.