Chapter 48

Aurora

I’m still bound by my wrists and my ankles, tied with ropes that have begun to shave blisters into my skin while I struggle to break myself free. Xander has grown tired of my attempts to rejection him. He’s added a tight fabric tie over my mouth, keeping me from even being able to mumble my rejection of this false Alpha.

He torments me at all hours of the night. I’ve gotten to at least skip my chores but I wouldn’t mind them now, tied up alone on my cellar cot, fighting my ropes while Xander is elsewhere, still prying through my mind and bringing me back to memories I wish I could I forget.

He enjoys when I had slapped Jaxson during my first day at the palace. He watches the anger fuel his brother but somehow still be so restrained on retaliating. I only know now that Jaxson had every right, and then some, to hit me back. I am more shocked that he hadn’t hurt me at all.

Xander then flicks to the moment James grabbed me in the palace hallway, holding me down with every intention of violating my body, inside and out, and yet the servant had swooped in with a silver tray and saved me. Xander jokes about having the young girl killed by what she did in protecting me.

He always uses the phrase, when I am king Alpha, and it drives my wolf mad. She wants me to shift, to let her take over and burst out of these restraints and run upstairs to kill Xander, or at least escape his grip. The only thing that keeps me here is how Xander has compete control of Luke. I can’t leave him behind.

He’s been taking over my tasks while simultaneously finding time to attack Xander and break loose from this hell. He doesn’t want to leave me behind, though, and that is where we both struggle in submission. I miss my best friend, I miss the feeling of feeling safe, without Xander crawling through my mind, but in an odd way; I miss Jaxson the most.

I’ve been given just as much access into Xander’s thoughts as he has into mine and the one thing that sticks out the most is how many memories of Jaxson as a young boy seem to haunt his young half-brother. Xander loathes Jaxson for many reasons but I see some of them now for myself. They intrigue me more than they should.

I see Jaxson with his brother, both of them young and playing in the courtyard. Xander tries to initiate a play fight with Jaxson but the sight of Vivian, Xander’s mother and the Luna at the time, catches both of their focus. She is berating a servant, a small, young female who looks unremarkably common.

Vivian strikes the servant, watching her fall at the heels of the Luna.

Xander bellows an infantile laugh but Jaxson only shivers, the sight bringing a small tear to his eye. He shakes his head and stops the fun playtime with Xander, the second prince perplexed by Jaxson’s newfound sorrow.

“Why are you going inside?” Xander asks, his stocky, prepubescent appearance almost innocent. “I thought we were going to play pack?”

“I don’t want to play,” Jaxson sighs, a little taller than his brother in this scene, but with lighter hair and brighter eyes. “I don’t feel like it anymore, Xander.”

The young wolf in my head feels at fault. “Why not?”

Jaxson looks distant. “Because I don’t think it’s funny when your mom hits the maids,” he says, shaking his head, refusing to look at young Xander. “My mom always said that we were to keep the commoners safe. She said we were no better than them and if we gave them respect, they would give us the same respect back.”

Xander is befuddled in thought, staring at the ballroom where his mother has since left, the young maid still bowing as blood falls from her bottom lip. Even in the memory, I can feel he is dull to the scene of second-hand pain.

“Well, it’s not my fault my mom hit her,” Xander says, shrugging. “So why can’t we play?”

“Because you think it’s funny,” Jaxson utters as he leaves the courtyard, letting himself inside the palace and walking away from his young brother without a second glance.

I’m pushed out of the scene, Xander obviously blocking me out of his head and it makes my stomach ache to think my prying has woken him up in the middle of the night. I pray to the moon goddess that he isn’t frustrated enough to come down to the cellar but I hear the door fly open seconds later.

The exiled prince finds my shirt collar within the darkness of the cellar and he throws me aside, onto the floor, my head hitting the concrete enough to make me blink back stars.

I don’t see his face, only hearing his voice, “Stay the hell out of my mind, whore,” he snaps.

I flinch, expecting a hit. Sorry, Alpha, I link in embarrassment, my mouth still tied shut.

I spot him through the darkness as my eyes adjust out of the memory, his nose tipped up in the air, drawing a long inhale. “I can smell your arousal.”

My heart sputters. Wh—What arousal, Alpha?

His boot slams into my side, my bones bracing for the impact but taking the brunt of the kick anyways. I gasp, turned onto my back, helplessly tied. He inhales again and I fear his intent, snickering a laugh as he takes in my apparent hormonal scent.

“Does seeing my brother kiss up to the commoners make you aroused, whore?”

I cringe, only slightly agreeing with that statement. It’s hard to express but seeing Jaxson’s leniency with my kind, long before he knew he would allegedly be fated to a commoner, does make my body warm with admiration.

Xander presses his weight over my legs, practically sitting on me now, his hand forcing its way into my waistband. I caw a cry, trying to wiggle from his hand but it’s useless. He is pressing his fingers to my sex, pressuring it harder than necessary, feeling my minor dampness.

I cough in shock, his fingers then sliding into my core, so deep that I curve back to avoid either hollering in pain and pleasure, both feelings extremely evident. Jaxson’s face is forced into my mind, his sharp cheeks and the gentle curve of his lips drawing me to relax only slightly, Xander coughing in shock when even I feel my sex puddle in more wet warmth.

“You still want him,” Xander gasps, yanking his hand out of my pelvis in such speed and roughness that I groan, feeling now the warmth in my sex mix with a little blood that assaults the smell of my arousal. “You commoner slut.”

I wince as the pain subsides, only when I give into the realization that even seeing Jaxson’s face so vividly turns on my wolf and I in a hint of ecstasy that is impossible to deny now. I turn over in shame, piercing my legs together tight as I try to hide it from him but Xander knows. He chuckles at the ordeal entirely, making me want to cry in utter shame.

“I can guarantee,” Xander starts, his entire body hovering over mine, his lips damn near grazing my cheek as he speaks, “that my half-mutt brother is already engaged in hot, fervent sex with another wolf. I bet he’s with Stella, the beta’s daughter, fucking her in your bed, without a second care of where you are, bitch.”

I wince, knowing he is using my own insecurities as ammunition. I regret him having access to mind just to save my life. I wish it wouldn’t have worked. But he toys with that power endlessly, picturing a scene in his head then throwing it into mine of Jaxson leaned back, taking the beta’s daughter on his lap and kissing her as deeply and sensually as he used to kiss me.

I rejected Jaxson; I already came to terms that he doesn’t care for me so why does it hurt so bad?

My heart shrivels to a meek pulp.

My wolf has seen and heard enough. She barks in my head, pushing Xander out, and forces herself forward without a hint of warning to tip Xander off in my mind. She shifts, breaking loose of all cares, and I relax in hearing Xander gasp aloud in pain when her claws breach and drag straight down his filthy, smug face.