Lily glowered at him. "You want peace, but you're willing to threaten my people to get it. Willing to threatenme. I can see right through you,prince," she spat. "Despite your greatest intentions, you are far more like your father than you're willing to admit. It's delusional to the point of disgusting that you can't see it."
"I never said I wasn't willing to use violence to my advantage. Threats are a necessary tool."
"If you want me to trust you, I need to know what your endgame is. What are you planning for me? For the wolves once there's an alliance established between us?"
"You will be my wife, my queen. Whatever you ask for will be yours, and in return, you will bear my children and support my reign. As for your people, I have already discussed the specifics with your alpha. Trade will flourish. We will come to each others' aid when threats arise—"
"I know what you've promised my alpha," Lily hissed. "I want to know what you're after. What is therealreason you're going after this alliance? It's not because you're a wolf shifter. It's not because you don't want to repeat your father's mistakes. And it's definitely not because you've suddenly regained a love for the wolves you share blood with. So what are you after, Theo? Tell me that, and I'll be your willing bride. I'll do everything you ask."
Theo stared at her, his mouth opening but not finding words. She'd rendered him speechless with how easily she saw through his plans. For that alone, perhaps she deserved the truth, but he couldn't risk word about the goblin rebellion getting out. He needed to keep that under control, and the wolves couldn't learn about it, lest they think the goblins were vulnerable enough to cancel their pending alliance and attack.
He couldn't say anything until after the wedding was secured. Even if Lily said he could trust her, he couldn't. She was, after all, his enemy.
"There is nothing I am after beyond peace," Theo said.
It was the truth, if skipping over all the essential details. But as soon as he said it, he could see Lily closing up on him. She released the rope, the slight vulnerability in her expression draining away to a resolute mask of indifference.
"Then you have made your own bed, Theo," Lily warned. "I will marry you, but only because you've threatened to eradicate my pact if I do not. But do not expect me to be complicit otherwise."
Then she strode past him, down to the rope ladder, and descended from the tower without another look at him. From Theo's point of view, he watched her mop of messy red hair make progress down the tree, and then disappear into the winding pathways below.
Not telling her was the right call to protect his people. But he knew it was not the right call to establish any peace between the two of them.
It was possible, just like that, he'd closed off any chance the two of them would ever have of developing a real relationship.
Staring out at the swaying maple leaves below from his towering pine tree, Theo mourned what he lost. The possibility squandered.
And he promised he would make sure the sacrifice was worthwhile.
Chapter 5 - Lily
Howling broke through the night, and Lily shot up from her bed at the familiar sound. Her heart sang with just those long, simple sounds, the voice of her kindred. Her brother, Daniel, called to her from the darkness, and Lily surged to her feet, propelled by her wolf's eager response to another wolf from her pack being in close proximity.
A single candle illuminated the small room made inside a tree trunk, since the goblins didn't have electricity, at least nowhere that Lily had seen. She scrambled across the thick woven rug that covered the entire room, to the window on the opposite wall of the small bed. She tugged the strands that opened the leaves and branches hiding the window from outside, and she leaned out as far as she could to see where the sound had come from.
Was he here to save her?
It was pitch black out, but her wolf told her that it was approaching dawn, and all of the trees around her were just preventing sunlight from reaching her. Lily's mind was still cloudy from her short, fitful sleep. She'd hardly rested at all these past few days, ever since she'd been captured and Theo had reiterated his threat upon her pack if she didn't comply with the wedding she didn't want.
She knew he was up to something, but her time had run out. Even if she could have escaped and returned to her pack, she wouldn't have been able to bring them any information that would ensure their safety or proof that the goblins were planning to move against them.
And so Lily knew she had no choice but to follow through with the wedding.
But her brother's howl gave her hope she hadn't felt in days. Hanging half out the window, Lily threw her head back, letting her wolf's natural instincts rage from her throat. A mighty howl escaped her, telling her brother that she was there. That she was alive.
Begging him to save her, if he could.
Instead of Daniel's reply, Ryel's howl responded. His was just as energetic as Daniel's first had been, a holler of triumph, but the sound of it triggered a chorus of howls from four other wolves that Lily recognized.
The sound made Lily's heart fall. She withdrew back through the window, stumbling toward the bed, where she sat to brace herself against the rush of numb realization.
Her hope had come too soon.
Her pack wasn't here to rescue her. They were here on the morning of her wedding day to make sure she married the prince. To make sure that she became his prisoner on their behalf.
With a heavy heart, Lily had no choice but to accept her fate for the time being. She might not be able to escape her fate, but she wouldn't forget her mission. Whatever Theo was planning, she would uncover the truth, and she would make sure that her pack made it out alive of whatever came next.
It wasn't a sacrifice she wanted to make, but if she could at least do that, perhaps, at least, the wedding wouldn't be for nothing.