Chapter 9 The Price of Crowns
Maya died in my arms exactly three minutes after the Council arrived.
I know because I counted every second, watched the light fade from her eyes heartbeat by heartbeat. Her last words were a whisper I had to lean close to hear: "Don't... let them... make you... like them."
But it was already too late for that. The Council Alphas didn't waste time on grief. They hauled Maya's body away like discarded trash and turned their attention to the real prize, me. The lost queen. The bloodline they'd thought extinct.
"Restrain the creature," the lead Alpha commanded, gesturing toward Ryder's twisted form. "Use the silver nets. We'll deal with it later."
"It?" I snarled, Maya's blood still wet on my hands. "That's your Alpha. That's…"
"That's an abomination," he cut me off coldly. "Whatever curse has taken him, he's no longer fit to lead. The position is now... vacant."
The way he said it, the calculating gleam in his eyes, told me everything I needed to know. They weren't here to help. They were here to collect their prize and eliminate any inconvenience.
Including the man who'd tried to protect me.
"You can't just…" I started, but another Alpha stepped forward. Marcus Blackwood, I realized. I'd heard stories about him. About the things he'd done to expand his territory.
"Actually, we can." His smile was all teeth. "Council law is very clear. A cursed Alpha poses a danger to all werewolves. The merciful thing is to put him down."
He pulled out a silver-loaded gun and aimed it at Ryder's thrashing form.
"No!" I lunged forward, but two guards caught me, their silver-laced gloves burning my skin where they touched.
"Careful, Your Majesty," Marcus said mockingly. "Wouldn't want you to get hurt watching your pet monster die."
The sound Ryder made when the silver bullet tore through his shoulder was inhuman. Part roar, part shriek, part something that made my bones ache. But it didn't kill him. It just made him angrier.
He turned toward Marcus with those black, empty eyes, and for a moment, I saw something that made my blood freeze. Hunger. Raw, desperate hunger for pain and fear and the life force of everything around him.
Marcus took a step back. "What the hell…"
Ryder moved faster than anything that size should be able to move. His claws, too long, too sharp, wrong, raked across Marcus's chest, tearing through Kevlar like paper. The Alpha's scream echoed across the garden.
"Tranquilize it!" someone shouted. "Now!"
A dozen darts hit Ryder from all sides. He staggered, roared once more, then collapsed face-first into the grass. His body began to convulse, shifting back toward human form, but slowly, painfully.
Marcus was on the ground, clutching his chest, blood seeping between his fingers. "That thing... it tried to drain me. I could feel it pulling at my life force."
"The curse is worse than we thought," another Alpha murmured. "We'll need to study it. See if it's contagious."
Study it. Like Ryder was a lab rat instead of a person.
"You're not touching him," I said, my voice low and dangerous.
The lead Alpha, Elder Kane, I remembered now, turned to me with patronizing patience. "Your Majesty, you're understandably emotional. But you don't understand the severity of…"
"I understand that you're vultures," I spat. "All of you. You let my family be murdered, let me be raised as nobody, and now you want to swoop in and use me."
Kane's expression hardened. "Your family wasn't murdered, girl. They were executed. For treason."
The words hit me like a physical blow. "What?"
"Your father, King Aldric, was planning to expose us. To reveal the existence of werewolves to the human world. He believed in 'integration.' Coexistence." Kane's voice dripped disgust. "We couldn't allow that."
My legs felt weak. "You... you killed them?"
"The Council voted. It was necessary for the survival of our species." He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Your mother tried to run with you. We caught her at the border. She begged for your life, offered to take poison if we'd let you live as a human, never knowing what you were."
"And you agreed?"
Kane smiled, cold and empty. "We lied. We were always going to kill you eventually. But children have a way of... disappearing. Accidents happen. We decided to wait, let you grow up, see if you'd manifest any of your father's dangerous ideologies."
The garden spun around me. Everything I thought I knew, everything I'd been told, was a lie. My parents hadn't disappeared. They'd been murdered by the very people now pretending to crown me.
"But you never showed any signs of rebellion," Kane continued. "You were weak. Submissive. Married to that fool Zane, living a quiet little life. We thought the bloodline had been... diluted. Made safe."
"Until now," Marcus added, still bleeding but managing to stand. "Until you started showing real power."
"Which brings us to our current dilemma," Kane said. "You're the rightful heir, yes. The bloodline demands it. But you're also potentially as dangerous as your father. So we need to make sure you're... properly motivated."
He gestured to one of his men, who dragged someone forward from the shadows. My heart stopped.
It was Mrs. Lora, the elderly cook who'd been kind to me in the servants' quarters. She was bound and gagged, terror in her eyes.
"Motivation," Kane explained calmly. "You'll take the crown. You'll rule as our puppet. And you'll never, ever consider exposing our world to humans. Because if you do..."
He nodded to his man, who pressed a silver blade against Mrs. Lora's throat.
"We'll kill everyone you've ever cared about. Starting with the servants who were foolish enough to show you kindness."
Mrs. Lora whimpered behind her gag.
"You're monsters," I whispered.
"We're survivors," Kane corrected. "And now, so are you. The question is: what are you willing to sacrifice to keep the people you love alive?"
I looked around the garden, at Ryder's unconscious form, silver darts still protruding from his skin. Maya's blood soaked into the earth, and then at Mrs. Lora's terrified face, at the Council Alphas watching me with cold calculation, waiting to see if I'd break.
"I need time to think," I said finally.
Kane checked his watch. "You have until dawn. Then we'll need your answer. Accept the crown and our terms, or watch everyone you care about die."
They dragged Mrs. Chen away, leaving me alone with Ryder and two guards. The night air was cold against my skin, but not as cold as the ice forming in my chest.
I knelt beside Ryder's still form. His face was peaceful in unconsciousness, but I could see the silver burns on his skin, the way his body still twitched from whatever the curse was doing to him.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, brushing hair from his forehead. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."
One of the guards snorted. "Touching. But that thing isn't your mate anymore. It's not even really alive."
I looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
"The curse. It doesn't just change the body. It eats the soul. Bit by bit, until there's nothing left but hunger." He shrugged. "Give it a few more weeks, and whatever made him human will be gone completely."
"You're lying."
"Am I? Look at his eyes when he wakes up. Tell me you still see the man you knew."
A chill ran down my spine, but I pushed it away. "There has to be a cure."
The guard laughed. "For a curse that old? That powerful? The only cure is death, Your Majesty. And honestly, it would be kinder."
I wanted to argue, to scream at him, but doubt was creeping in. What if he was right? What if the Ryder I'd known was already gone, consumed by whatever darkness lived in his skin now?
As if summoned by my thoughts, Ryder's eyes fluttered open. They were silver again, human again, but there was something else there now. Something that looked at me and saw not a person, but a source of warmth, of life, of food.
"Sienna," he whispered, and his voice was his own, but underneath it was something else. Something hungry.
"I'm here," I said softly.
He tried to sit up, winced, and looked around the garden with confusion. "What happened? Where's Renna?"
"She is gone. The Council is here. They want to make me queen."
He laughed bitterly. "Of course they do. And me? Let me guess, they want me dead."
"I won't let that happen."
"Won't you?" His eyes met mine, and for a moment, I saw the man I'd known. But then that other thing flickered behind his gaze, that terrible hunger. "Because I can feel it, Sienna. The curse. It's getting stronger. And when I look at you, I don't just see the woman I..." He stopped, swallowed hard. "I see power. Life force. Something I want to consume."
"Ryder, don't…"
"I dream about it," he continued, his voice hollow. "About draining you dry. About the way it would feel to have all that royal power flowing into me. And the worst part? I want it. God help me, I want it."
Tears burned my eyes. "We'll find a way to fix this."
"What if we can't? What if this is who I am now?" He looked at his hands, at the claws that were already starting to extend again. "What if the kindest thing you could do is let them put a silver bullet in my head?"
"Don't you dare," I said fiercely. "Don't you dare give up."
But even as I said it, I could see the truth in his eyes. The man I'd fallen for was disappearing, piece by piece, consumed by something dark and endless.
And somewhere in the distance, I could hear Kane's voice drifting from the mansion: "Bring me the contracts. And the silver collar. Our new queen is going to need proper... guidance."
Dawn was coming. And with it, a choice that would damn everyone I loved, no matter what I decided. The crown was waiting. But queens, I was learning, didn't rule kingdoms. They ruled graveyards.