“Wow. Just wow.”
“And there’s so much more… so much more I need to tell you… It’s not only the clan, not only my uncles and cousins. It’s the Council.”
“The Council.” Could this get even more complicated? Apparently, it could. “The Council of the Six Factions.” Blake nodded and Amelia saw she was getting ready to launch herself in new, probably even more twisted explanations. “Wait, just wait a second. And please put a shirt on.” She started pacing the room and Blake took the shirt off the floor and put it on. Without the cloth strips flattening her breasts, the vixen had a pretty nice cleavage. Amelia entered Blake’s personal space and looked her dead in the eyes. “There is something you need to tell me first: did you know about me and Seth?”
Blake cocked an eyebrow and smiled. “Yeah, he told me the same day it happened. Believe it or not, I’m happy for the two of you…”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Amelia raised her voice, then realized it was a bad idea as she didn’t know who might have been downstairs. Sometimes, Roman’s brothers stopped by to inquire about his health. “Are you guys out of your minds? How could you do this to me? Do you have any idea how guilty I felt? I thought I was betraying you, I thought I was cheating on my husband. I was disgusted with myself. I was ready to leave Alaska and suffer the consequences. Blake… is that even your real name? Do you realize just how fucking selfish you are?”
“I’m sorry… I’m really, really sorry, Amelia. I want us to be friends. Seth couldn’t have found a better mate, and I’m not just saying this.”
“You knew!” Amelia laughed hysterically and headed towards the door, intent on leaving the room. “Seth told you, but he kept lying to me. I can’t believe this!”
“I asked him to. The second you would have come to tell me about you two, I would have been forced to reveal myself, and I wasn’t ready. He only did what I ordered him to do.”
“Of course, of course…” Amelia opened the door.
“Please don’t leave. We have so much to talk about.”
“Oh, I’m done here.” She was boiling with anger. She felt betrayed, treated like an object. She was nothing more than a pawn strategically placed on a huge chess board. Ignoring Blake’s pleas, she left the room and slammed the door behind her. She needed to be alone, somewhere far, far away from these fucked up people. She needed to think.
END OF BOOK ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Best Friends
“My life is a joke,” Amelia whispered to herself. She slammed the door behind her and plopped onto her bed. “I’m a joke…”
She stared at the ceiling for long minutes, thoughts and images invading her brain, playing between her aching temples, mocking her. There was Seth, frowning and treating her as if she was nothing to him, the next minute his lips curling up into a smile, and his husky voice whispering in her ear how much he wanted her. His hard body pressed up against hers, his large hands caressing her flesh, claiming her… Then, the guilt. Blake’s kind eyes as he… she told her how unfair the system had been to the shifter brides… He, she, he… What was Amelia supposed to call Blake?
“A sick joke!”
This time she yelled. Tears made their way to the corners of her eyes, then spilled down the sides of her face and disappeared in her brown, disheveled hair. Her heart ached like never before. This was a different kind of pain. It wasn’t the pain she had felt when her parents were murdered in their sleep; that empty void which threatened to suck her in and feast on her small body until there was nothing left. No, it wasn’t that overwhelming rage against the killers, her own parents (“Why did you have to die? Why did you leave me?”), against the whole world. This time, it was the pain of having failed, of having believed she had things under control only to be mocked by reality. Amelia, the chess champion of Alma Venus Boarding School, had just been checkmated. In the most embarrassing, humiliating way.
She jumped off the bed and started pacing the room frantically. Blood was boiling in her veins, the tears had started to fall on the collar of her blouse, and her hands were shaking with the desire, the need to smash something to pieces. She clenched her fists and bit down on her bottom lip until she felt the taste of copper on her tongue. Her phone vibrated in her back pocket and she took it out with trembling fingers. It was Blake. The second she saw the name, she threw the phone on her bed and headed for the door. She couldn’t be in this house anymore. She needed to put as much distance as possible between her and the sick members of Clan Sylfur.
“Who do they think they are? Playing with someone like this… as if nothing else other than their stupid political machinations matter.” She ran down the stairs and out into the courtyard. “I hate them. All of them!” She threw the gate open and started towards the river. The cold night air was already making her feel better, clearing her mind and cooling down her heated body. Good. This was good. She would find an isolated spot on the shore, spend the entire night there, and come up with a solid plan. “Avelyn was right,” she thought. “This isn’t worth it. Shape-shifters are just playing with us. To them, we’re no more than the scum of society, orphans and abandoned children who are supposed to kiss their rich asses and thank them for giving us the oh-so-unique opportunity to bear their children.” She scoffed. “And to think I actually believed this bullshit… dedicated my whole life to becoming a good bride…”
She walked so fast that she reached the shore in half the time it usually took her. The chilliness had yet to affect her. Amelia was so angry and hurt that she had lost the ability to feel physical discomfort even though, in her rush to leave the mansion, she had forgotten to grab a jacket or cardigan. She stopped in front of the docks, then went west along the river. It was the first time she was exploring that part of Ekviknuna, but she didn’t have it within her to feel nervous about it. All she knew was that there was no way she’d g
o east, towards Seth’s cabin. She didn’t want to see him. Her body was dying for his embrace, but her heart pumped pain and anger in her veins every time she thought of his name or his face. If she hadn’t left her phone in her room, she would have known that Seth had been trying to reach her for the past half hour.
After putting a decent distance between her and the docks, Amelia sat down on a rock and wrapped her arms around her. After a couple of minutes of staring at the calm, dark river, she finally started to feel the cold creeping into her bones, making her muscles tense in an attempt to keep the body heat in.
“Shit!” Her voice rang awkwardly over the soft whisper of the waves. She had no intention of going back to the mansion, though. Not yet. Not before coming up with a plan to get out of there and make sure Clan Sylfur would never find her.
But Amelia wasn’t stupid. She was angry, yes, and she felt humiliated and betrayed, but she wasn’t so naïve as to really think she had a chance to back out of this mess now. She started crying softly, her shoulders shaking in time with her sobs. Whether she liked it or not, she was in over her head and there was no way out. None. Neither Blake, nor Roman would ever allow her to leave Alaska now that she knew their secret. She was too much of a liability to them. The game wasn’t over. The joke would go on for as long as she lived. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t get things right.
She sat on her small, pathetic rock for a long time, sobbing and shivering like the abandoned orphan, useless pawn that she was. In the morning, she’d stand up, climb back on the chess board and let the players move her around in the positions in which they needed her to be. She had no idea how much time had passed. Even though she was freezing and she could barely feel her toes, she couldn’t find the strength to move. When two big, warm arms wrapped around her small frame and pulled her against a wide chest, she didn’t even have the power to flinch, let alone pull away.
“Baby, come here. Shh… come here…”
Amelia closed her eyes and cursed herself for craving Seth’s sweet voice and strong body. Her heart started beating faster, and it wasn’t because of her anger towards him. Come to think of it, her anger and resolve had frozen along with her toes, fingers, and the tips of her ears. He pressed his lips to her temple, and Amelia melted in his embrace. She wouldn’t sigh or moan, though, and she wouldn’t talk. At least that much dignity she still had left.
Seth knew she wouldn’t say anything, and he didn’t expect her to. He had been calling her for the past hour, even as he had gone to look for her at the mansion, then at Elena and Aaron’s, on the streets of Ekviknuna and on the shore. Blake had told him everything, and for the first time in years Seth had actually yelled at his Alpha and told her how much of a dick she was, granted she didn’t have a dick.
He hugged Amelia closer to his chest, trying to warm her up.