Chapter 174 The ice queen command
The Ice Queen's Command
Millen's POV
My mood was sour after my parents visited. I stumbled towards the only place I knew I would get out all the pent up frustration and anger in my system.
The training yard stretched before me like a frozen battlefield. Steam rose from the bodies of fifty warriors, their breath visible in the bitter morning air. They stood in perfect formation, waiting for my command, and I could smell their fear mixing with the scent of sweat and snow.
"Again!" My voice cracked across the courtyard like a whip.
The beta in the front line hesitated for half a second and that was his mistake. I moved faster than thought, my hand closing around his throat before he could blink. Ice spread from my fingers, crawling up his neck like frost on glass.
"When I say it again, I mean immediately." I released him and he dropped to his knees, gasping. "Your hesitation in battle means death. Your death means weakness in my army. And weakness is not tolerated."
I walked down their formation, studying each face. Some met my eyes with determination. Others looked away like they couldn't bear to stare directly at me. The ones who looked away were the ones I watched most carefully.
"The Council thinks we are savages. They think northern wolves are too wild to be controlled, too barbaric to follow rules." I stopped in front of a young female warrior who had scars running down her arms. Battle marks from the last raid on the unrighteous packs. "Show me you are more than what they think. Show me you are wolves worth leading by the queen herself."
The training continued for three more hours than normal. My wolf was agitated, making me spend a longer time in the training room. I pushed them until their muscles screamed, until their wolf forms emerged without conscious thought, until moving and fighting became instinct rather than decision. This was how you built an army that could challenge the Council, even take over the whole world.
By the time I dismissed them, the sun had climbed to its peak and my own body ached from demonstration after demonstration. At one point my anger had gotten the better of me,I broke the arm of one warrior who thought he could match my speed. Reset it myself when he proved he could handle the pain without screaming.
That is to tell you how intense the training was.
"My Queen." One of my generals approached, bowing low. His name was Korvin and he had served my family since before I was born. "The prisoners from the eastern border have arrived. What would you have us do with them?"
"The usual. Strong ones to the work camps. Weak ones to the wall." I did not look at him as I spoke. The wall always needed more bodies to hold it against the wind. "And make sure they understand that mercy is earned through service, not given freely."
"As you command."
I left the training yard and climbed the stairs to my tower, feeling the weight of eyes on my back. Let them watch, Let them fear. Fear kept order better than love ever could.
My chambers welcomed me with warmth and silence. The fireplace roared with heat and for a moment I let myself feel the cold that lived in my bones. Being what I was, being what the prophecy made me, meant carrying winter everywhere I went.
The door opened and my handmaids entered without being summoned. They knew the routine. After training came the ritual of being presentable again, of washing away the sweat and blood and becoming the queen rather than the warrior
They worked in silence, drawing a bath that steamed with herbs and oils. I sank into the water and for once I let my eyes close, feeling my muscles slowly unknot and strengthen under the hot bath. One of them, a girl named Sera, began massaging my shoulders with skilled fingers that could send the best spa company out of business.
"The scouts report movement in the southern territories, my Queen," she said quietly. "The purple light has drawn attention."
"As it should." I rolled my neck, hearing it crack, this was old news to me.
Another handmaid, older and more cautious, worked oil into my hair. "There are rumors. About your brother. About what he has become."
My eyes snapped open. "What kind of rumors?"
"That he has awakened something ancient. That the mafia king has been restored through his power." She hesitated. "That he might be more than what we believed."
I laughed, the sound sharp and cold. "Milo is exactly what I need him to be. Nothing more."
A knock came at the door. Not the usual knock of servants or guards. This was different, A pattern, Three slow, two fast, one slow.
My heartbeat sped up.
"Leave," I commanded my handmaids. "Through the side door. Now."
They obeyed without question, gathering their supplies and vanishing through the hidden entrance that led to the servant quarters. I rose from the bath, water streaming down my body, and wrapped myself in a silk robe that clung to my wet skin like a living sin.
"Enter."
The door opened and a guard stepped inside. He wore the uniform of my personal protection detail, his face partially hidden by the helmet all my guards wore. But I knew him by the way he moved, by the set of his shoulders, by the way he closed the door and locked it behind him.
He removed his helmet and I smiled.
Where others saw a queen and her guard, we knew the truth, and what happens behind closed doors. His dark hair fell across his forehead as he crossed the room without hesitation. His mouth found mine with the kind of hunger that had nothing to do with duty and everything to do with the secret we had kept for months.
Our little dark secret.
I kissed him back, tasting the winter air still on his lips, feeling his hands slide into my wet hair. This was dangerous. This was forbidden. This was the one thing in my perfectly controlled world that I did not plan or manipulate.
"Millen," he breathed against my mouth, and I shivered at the sound of my name spoken without title or formality.
"Aldric." I pulled him closer, feeling his armor press cold against my body through the thin silk. "You are late."
"Training ran long." His hands moved to the tie of my robe. "I watched you break Torvin's arm."
"He deserved it for his weakness."
"You were magnificent." His tongue trailed a hot path from the base of my neck down to my collarbone, the hollow between my breasts. "Terrifying and magnificent."
I should have pushed him away. I should have sentenced him to death for daring to touch my innocence. But when he touched me like this, when he looked at me not as the Ice Queen but as simply Millen, I let myself be something other than what the prophecy demanded.
We moved to the bed and I took control immediately, pushing him down and straddling him before he could think to resist. This was how it always was between us. I commanded and he obeyed, but his obedience was willing, eager, born from desire rather than fear.
"The armor," I commanded. "Remove it."
He worked the buckles and straps with practiced speed, his eyes never leaving mine. Piece by piece the armor fell away until there was nothing between us but skin and want and the secret that could destroy everything I had built.
I kissed him again, slower this time, letting myself taste the moment. His hands found my waist. Making his way to my twitching pushy that was already dripping with wetness. My hips moved on its own like it knows what it wants, demanding for more.
I pushed him down, climbing him on shaky legs. A gasp escaped my lips, as I went down, impaling myself on his hard length that filled me up to the brim, just how I liked it.
Within minutes, wet sounds of skin slapping against skins and grunts filled the entire chamber, I clutched my breasts on one hand, while the other disappeared in between my spread legs chasing my climax like a crazed animal.
Here in this bed, I controlled the rhythm and pace of our joining. I was still queen but he was the only person in the world who saw past the ice to whatever remained of the girl I used to be.