Chapter 6 The Mute girl
The cool night air hit my face as I stepped out of the Moonstone pack’s suffocating Great Hall. Behind me, the sounds of chaos were just beginning. I could hear Leonard’s voice barking orders, the clatter of weapons, and the muffled protests of a man who was losing everything.
I stopped near the steps and turned to the carriage rider, Eren, who was waiting with the horses. My palace guards stood at attention, their shadows long under the flickering torchlight.
"Wait for me," I commanded, my voice cutting through the dark. "I have unfinished business to attend to."
Eren bowed his head quickly. "Of course, Your Highness."
I glanced toward the first carriage. Through the small window, I could see Aurora. She looked so small, wrapped in that heavy wool garment. Even from this distance, I could smell the fear clinging to her, but beneath the fear, there was something else—something ancient and sharp. I saw the raw scars on her neck where the iron collar had been. My chest tightened with a strange, unwelcome sympathy. I wanted to go back inside. I wanted to stand there and watch the light leave her father’s eyes as they stripped him of his title and his dignity.
I turned to head back toward the hall, but a hand suddenly gripped my arm.
"King Deacon, stop."
I looked down at the hand, then up at Calus. He was my second-in-command and my oldest friend, but at this moment, his face was tight with worry.
"Don't you think going back will be starting a war with the Moonstone pack?" Calus asked, his voice low and urgent. "What about the alliance? What about the deal we just made for the eastern lands? Are you really going to let all of that slide for a girl? Does she even deserve forty bars of gold? She is someone you will just abandon in seven days anyway, just like the others."
I didn't answer him with words. I simply stared at his hand on my arm until he felt the weight of my gaze. Slowly, he pulled his hand away.
"Calus, not today," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "I know I made a sudden decision. But I need to see it. I need to watch them strip that man of his title. I cannot believe he had the nerve to call himself her father after what I saw in there."
I started to walk past him, but Calus moved quickly, stepping into my path to block me again.
"I am sorry, I know I am trespassing. You can kill me for this, I will take any punishment you give," Calus said, his voice pleading now. "But listen to me. If you are going to abandon that mute girl the same way you did to your ninety-nine other mates, then give her to me instead. Or just use her as one of the palace maids. At least as a maid, she would be treated with respect. She wouldn't be a toy. You saved her just now. She feels safe for the first time in years, but when you reject her because the bond fails... the pain she feels then will be much worse than what she felt here."
I narrowed my eyes. The silence between us stretched for a long time.
"King Deacon, please," Calus continued. "Do not go back in there. If you don't humiliate them further, she will at least have a place to turn back to when you inevitably reject her. Don't burn her bridges before you even get her to the palace."
I looked toward the carriage again, then back at the dark entrance of the fortress. My jaw tightened.
"Fine," I said. "You win. But you are going back in there for me. You go tell them that if they try anything fishy—anything at all—I will come back. I will fish out every living thing in this pack and destroy it. They won't see me coming, but they will feel the end."
Calus let out a breath of relief and bowed deeply. "Yes, Your Highness. Your wish is my command. I will deliver the message."
He turned and hurried back toward the Great Hall. I stood alone in the courtyard for a moment. I didn't go to Aurora’s carriage. What could I even say to her? She was a mute. There would be no thank you, no explanation, no conversation.
I thought about the curse I carried. The Hollow King, a man who could never truly bond. But as I had stood in that hall, I saw things others didn't. When I looked at Aurora, I didn't just see one soul. I saw two spirits hovering near her. There was a woman weeping at her back, her face full of grief, and a young boy who watched over her with a protective, silent gaze.
It was the most surprising thing I had ever seen. When I led Aurora out of the palace, the older woman—the spirit—had bowed to me. She knew I could see them. Who were they? How were they tied to her? And her hair... that deep, striking red. I hadn't seen hair that color since my mother passed away.
I told myself it was just a passing attraction. There was no way I would find a true mate now. I would likely reject her on the seventh day, just like the ninety-nine women before her. That was my life. That was my curse.
I walked toward my own carriage. As I passed Aurora's, our eyes locked through the glass for a split second. I saw the tears gathered in her eyes, shimmering in the torchlight. I saw my palace omega inside the carriage, gently covering Aurora’s bruised shoulders with a clean cloth.
I didn't let my expression soften. I didn't have the right to pity her. I was the Hollow King, and I was more ruthless than anyone she had ever met.
I looked away coldly and stepped into my carriage.
"Move out," I commanded.
The wheels began to turn, grinding against the stone as we left the Moonstone pack behind, heading into the deep, uncertain dark of the road home.