“No,” he breathed, slowly craning his neck to peer over at me wide-eyed.
My little brother looked up at us in confusion and I swallowed hard. “Run,” I told Oslo and dropped his hand.
“Did you really think I would let you go?” Ansel’s voice boomed behind us both and then without any effort of my own, I turned around to face him.
As a dominant wolf, being controlled by another person was literally my worst nightmare. I growled, fisting my knuckles and snarling, but it was no use. He had complete power over me.
The broken-up crowd suddenly loomed behind Ansel, my brother Cyrus included and my gaze frantically searched for Eliza and Dorian.
Why weren’t they there? Did they try to fight the king and …
Relief rushed through me when I saw them waving Oslo over to them as they snuck worried glances at their new king. Oslo wisely bolted from my side and King Ansel let him go. A small mercy.
“I gave you what you wanted,” Axil growled beside me. “Let us go.”
Ansel’s eyes sharpened. “You think I wanted you to hand me my crown?” he seethed.
My heart raced in my chest and I pulled against the invisible force holding me captive to no avail.
“You should have killed me when you had the chance, brother,” Ansel whispered, and I growled.
Ansel’s head snapped in my direction and he grinned, sending a chill down my spine. The thing that scared me the most was that his eyes lacked humanity.
“You gave me your word!” Axil roared as pelts of fur rippled down his skin but he was forced to remain upright.
Ansel tipped his head back and laughed, a hollow and empty sound. “You were a fool to believe me.”
The new wolf king then turned to a line of Royal Guards and tipped his head to them. “Bring my brother and his lover to the dungeon.”
Axil and I shared a look. Axil appeared void of all emotion then, likely retreating into the dark memories in his mind of his two years in imprisonment.
This was bad, so bad. Could Ansel do this? He’d given his word in front of the wolven advisors. Yet they just stood behind him with their heads down. Was he controlling them too? If so, it was forbidden. The advisors kept the king from making bad choices: they were never to be controlled.
Eliza, Cyrus and Dorian all glared at Ansel as he passed and then my feet were thrust forward. I was like a puppet, putting one foot in front of the other as I followed the king. Eliza growled low in her throat as Ansel passed and he stopped to look at her. “Kneel,” he taunted and Eliza bowed her head and fell to her knees forcefully.
He was abusing his power. This wasn’t what the king’s magic was to be used for. It was to break up fights, and command troops in time of war so that we could fight as if we were one being. Not this.
I wanted to scream, I wanted to tell Ansel what a monster he was but I knew Axil’s life was in his hands, as well as my own, so I kept my mouth shut.
This was not how I expected this day to end.
ELEVEN
We’d been strung up like fresh kills, hanging from our hands in shackles with my feet barely touching the ground. A collar was cinched around my throat which then had a metal leash attached and bolted to the stone ceiling to keep us from shifting forms. My arms ached, my wrists burned and I’d never been more livid in my entire life. We’d been put up on display right in the large private dining room of the castle. We’d never even been taken to the dungeon.
Ansel was sitting at the head of the table with his wife, eating a decadent meal while Axil and I starved.
He was taking psychological warfare to the extreme. His wife was from Ivanna’s pack, a ruthless dominant who’d won her Queen Trials famously by choking the other girl with her bare hands. But they’d been married four years now, and no child? It meant the rumors of her being barren might be true.
“Let her go,” Axil growled to his brother. “Let Zara go, she has nothing to do with this.”
Ansel put down his fork and stood, walking over to where Axil hung on the far wall next to me. “Oh, she has everything to do with this, brother.” He looked back at his wife. “Something’s wrong with Jade. She can’t give me children. So, I’ll divorce her and take Zara as my wife. The moment she’s pregnant with my heir, I’ll kill you.”
My gut clenched at his words and fear seized me. His wife hung her head in shame and that’s when Axil went absolutely berserk.
He bucked against his chains and screamed and growled. The bolt in the ceiling that held the chains creaked and strained and fur popped out onto Axil’s arms. It broke my heart to see him so helpless.
Ansel tipped his head back and laughed, walking back to the table as Axil went insane trying to free himself.
“Axil,” I whispered and he stilled, panting. He looked over at me with eyes that were blue threaded through with yellow. I was speaking to man and beast. “Whatever happens, I will be okay,” I told him and tried to keep the emotions off my face. I knew he would feel responsible for this. Giving Ansel control of the pack again and all the power that comes with being a king might seem stupid now, but we couldn’t have known his brother would do this. He gave his word in front of every wolven present, including the advisors. A king was nothing if not a man of his word. Ansel was a coward in every way. Not strong enough to defeat Axil in a challenge fight, so he used the king’s power to control him and get what he wanted.
Axil’s jaw clenched, the veins in his neck bulging. “You will not be touched by him. I. Will. Kill. Him if he marries or beds you.”
He didn’t whisper. And Ansel heard. And he erupted into another laugh.
He’s insane. That was clear to me now. And his wife, our queen, was acting like the most submissive dominant female I’d ever met. She just sat there and said nothing, like a stuffed toy.
He’s controlling her too. The horror of that realization hit me like a punch to the stomach.
No.
He could cause a person to lose their self-control and he was doing that to her now. This was an insane abuse of power, yet, I was unable to stop it.
The dinner dragged on and I’d long lost feeling in my hands, my shoulders were numb as well. Any time my legs gave out, the collar choked me and forced me to stand right back up. I prayed we wouldn’t be made to sleep like this. Was this what Ansel did to Axil when he was younger? No. A person couldn’t live like this for two years. This was for show. This was for Ansel to prove he had all the power.
Just as King Ansel was wiping his mouth and had eaten his last bite, the doors to the dining hall opened.
I looked up, bleary-eyed and in pain.
A guard stepped in and cleared his throat. “My lord, you have three visitors outside who claim to be the queens of Thorngate, Archmere and Embergate.”
My heart beat wildly in my chest and I exchanged a shocked glance with Axil.
Ansel picked up his mead and took a long swig, letting the silence stretch in the room. “Send them in,” he stated at last.
Why would the queens of other realms come here, to Fallenmoore? If they had a message, they would send it with a courier. To come in person meant something was gravely wrong. Maybe something to do with that war meeting Axil had had. I’d never even asked about it, I’d been so consumed with winning the trials.