"Hey Lil," he said, his voice low and soothing. "You ready for tomorrow?"
Lily nodded slowly, trying to keep the trepidation from her face. She swallowed hard and forced a smile at her brother. "Yeah, I'm ready," she lied. "I just need to get some rest. It's going to be a long journey."
Daniel nodded thoughtfully, studying his little sister with concern in his eyes. "I can hear you pacing from downstairs, you know. Old house." He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "Do you ... do you want to talk about it?"
She shook her head. "There's nothing to talk about. My fate's already decided."
"No, it's not. You don't have to marry some stranger, our enemy, just to prove your loyalty to the pack."
"What other options do I have? You've seen the way everyone treats me. I've been a horrible bitch these last few years, and it's come to bite me in the ass. If I want to be seen and respected by my own kind, then this is the only way."
"You'll be giving up your chance at finding your mate. Is that really worth it to you?"
"I'm approaching middle age. No one likes me. I've burned all my bridges. Do you really think I have any chance of finding my mate anyway? If I do, it's not in Kaldron, and ... as much as I hate the place sometimes, it's still my home. Shouldn't I do what I can to protect it?"
"Not at the expense of yourself. You're about to sacrifice something that no other wolf would do so willingly." Daniel sighed and went to sit down on the bed. "What will you do if something goes wrong? Or if Theo finds out what you're trying to do?"
"I'll survive, like I always do."
"But it'll be different. We're not dealing with wolves and humans anymore, Lil. These are goblins. They won't hesitate to kill you if they think you're an enemy. You can't let yourself get swallowed up by this anger and resentment that burns inside of you. It will destroy you from the inside out, if the goblins don't do that first."
Lily bit back a sharp retort, knowing that there was some truth in what her brother said. She averted her gaze from Daniel, finding a pattern of dirt on the worn wooden floor to be incredibly interesting right then. How well her brother knew her heart. Until just an hour ago, Lily had every intention of going through with her original plan, but as soon as she'd been left to her own devices, her mind began to gnaw a worrying hole into her brain. All the doubts she'd suppressed until then came tumbling out, and now saying she had cold feet was the understatement of the century.
Finally, Lily went to sit on the mauve comforter next to Daniel. "Even if I ... even if I was thinking of finding a way of backing out of the wedding, how would it even be possible? The pack is relying on me to seal the deal. I wouldn't be able to stay here if I changed my mind. And then there's this." Lily lifted her wrist to shake the green symbols marking her as Theo's property. "It's not like I can make it go away."
"If you want to leave, all you have to do is say the word." Daniel's expression was set in a visage of determination. "Fuck the pack. What have they done for us? Even before the goblins attacked the first time, our family has always been outcasts. Just tell me you want to go, and we'll go. I'll protect you. Wolves, goblins, rabid fae, I'll fucking kill them for going anywhere near my little sister."
Lily's heart swelled with appreciation for her brother. If anything, she'd always been able to rely on him to keep her safe and stay on her side ... even when Lily's side had historically also been the wrong side. They were a team. They always had been.
With a determined glint in her eyes, Lily turned to face Daniel and said, "I can't go through with this wedding—it's not right. I made a mistake in rushing into it, and ... even though I thought I could force myself, I can't. It's too unlikely that I'll find out what Theo is up to before the wedding day."
Daniel nodded in agreement. "Then it's settled. I'm willing to risk leaving if you are."
Looking out the window at the sprawling forest beyond, Lily felt a fierce rush of excitement coursing through her veins at the thought of escaping and forging a new path forward with her brother. If she didn't surrender hope to Theo, there was a chance that she could still find her mate out there somewhere in the great beyond.
"We have to do this—we have to escape and make a new life for ourselves far away from here, where no one will ever be able to find us again."
Daniel took Lily's hand in his, his warm, calloused palm overtaking hers. "Then it's settled. We leave as soon as the town is asleep. You're going to be safe, Lil. I'll make sure of it."
She leaned against Daniel's shoulder, letting his steady, firm shoulder keep her upright. Everything was going to change the moment they left, and for the better. Out there in the world somewhere, she and Daniel would find the place they truly belonged in. She would escape the grasp of the goblin prince she'd promised herself to, even if they had to run all the way to Florida to get away.
So why didn't she feel relieved?
Why did Theo's sharp, blue eyes keep appearing on the backs of her eyelids?
Chapter 2 - Theo
The throne of his dead father was cold and restless beneath Theo's body. The goblins believed that whoever sat on the throne ruled their kind, but Theo had sat on this throne for three years, and it was his opinion that thethroneruledhim.
At least, it did right now, as his ass was sore and his head was worse off for the incessant bickering coming from the goblins settled around the fire below the dais. The discomfort made him irritable and less inclined to listen to the arguing voices. They shouted at one another so fitfully that they didn't notice how Theo nursed his piercing headache instead of listening to their crap.
"We should just kill her and be done with it," one goblin said, her voice high and shrill. This goblin was Bite, one of Theo's chief advisors. She liked to jump to violence often enough that he was thankful he hadn't made her a general. "There can't be no rebellion if there ain't nothing to rebel against!"
"No, we need her," another goblin, Snarl, countered. "She's essential to the plan. The warmongers will rebel whether the wedding happens or not."
"You're contradicting yourself! If they're gonna rebel anyway, what's she essential for, eh?"
The other goblins assembled around the fire in the center of the narrow tree hall murmured their agreement with Bite, although she was usually too gruff and bitey to win them over. Once, someone she didn't like tried to argue with her, and she bit their fingers off, creating a bloody mess of the throne room. Hence the name she'd garnered for herself.