“Yes, My King! Fuck me harder!” the woman screamed.
“You dirty whore. You like that, don’t you? Being fucked by your king,” Ryder purred. “Come for me, you filthy little slut.”
I stood there in shock, a silent scream held in my throat while he continued to fuck her. The sound of his flesh meeting hers in ecstasy echoed in my ears as her screaming turned into incoherent babbling. She cried out her release, and he chuckled darkly, turning her in his arms before he sat in a chair, staring into my horrified gaze.
“Synthia,” he whispered with a wide, panicked look as guilt covered his face.
I turned, running from the room with tears streamed down my cheeks. I could hear Ryder bellowing my name, but I ran blindly. Everything inside of me screamed in denial, trying to convince my heart that my eyes had been wrong. The sob exploded in my chest as I rounded a corner and slid down the wall. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be, not when everything depended on us working together to end the war.
How could he do this? How could the man I loved more than I loved myself be in there with another woman? I held my hand over my mouth, pushing myself up the wall to make it to my room. People stared at me, whispering as I moved through the stronghold. Tears blurred my vision, and I ignored those who called out my name as I passed them. Ristan stepped out of a room, staring at me before he moved to walk with me.
“Flower, what is it? What happened?” he asked, studying me while I shook my head. When I didn’t speak or answer him, he grabbed my arm. “Are you okay?”
“How long?”
“How long what?” he countered carefully.
“How long has he been fucking other women?” I shouted, causing everyone around us to stop and peer in our direction.
“What?” he asked with concern burning in his gaze. “Synthia, Ryder wouldn’t do that.”
“No? I just came from the feeding rooms where I watched him fucking some whore! I saw it with my own eyes, Ristan.” A sob racked through me as wind gushed through the hallway. Outside, thunder rumbled, and lightning crashed close to the stronghold. “Tell me you didn’t know that he was in that room.”
“Ryder wouldn’t cheat on you, Synthia. He wouldn’t.”
“Tell me he isn’t fucking that whore!”
“You need to calm down,” he countered.
“I need to leave,” I replied, moving to do so when Ryder rounded the corner, dressed in all black, staring at me through an angry glare.
“You’re not leaving,” Ryder snapped.
“No? You think you can stop me?”
“I think you’re my wife, and you are staying.”
“I don’t think so, bastard.”
“I’ve had our children moved from the Blood Kingdom. If you wish to see them again, you will stay here.”
Bile pushed against my throat as I peered into eyes that watched me with something dark swimming within them. I stepped back, turning on my heel as the entire Elite Guard stood around me, blocking my path.
“Move,” I demanded, watching as they peered over my head for Ryder’s approval. Whatever they saw made them step back, letting me pass through their ranks, surveying me carefully, as if I’d attack Ryder in retribution.
At the opposite end of the hallway stood the female that had been with Ryder. Her hair was dripping with sweat, and a smile covered her mouth as she watched me approaching her.
“You didn’t think you’d get to keep him all to yourself forever, did you?” she chuckled.
I grabbed a handful of her hair, slamming her head into the wall as Ryder watched me. She slid to the floor slowly, and I followed her to the ground. There, I smirked through the tears that filled my gaze.
“You can have him, because I don’t fucking want him anymore,” I whispered thickly. Standing, I glared at Ryder. “You and me, we’re done, asshole.”
“We’re done when I say we are done, Synthia. Go to your room and don’t leave it unless I say otherwise.”
Chapter Fifteen
I surveyed the guard collecting supplies to add to the war wagons. The stronghold was silent tonight. Not a single sound reached me in the tower. I’d warded my room to keep Ryder from entering, or anyone else for that matter. He’d fucked another woman, and that ruined us. Moving the children and hiding them from me had destroyed anything I might have felt for him. He’d tried to enter my room several times this evening, and yet all he’d accomplished was tearing down the entire wall, still unable to gain entrance. I was safely sheltered within the wards, never facing him or acknowledging his presence.
My stomach churned with the uncertainty of my future. The betrayal stung like nothing I had ever felt before, leaving a foul taste in my mouth that hung on the tip of my tongue. Currently, Ryder paced outside of the wards, demanding entrance into the room we’d once shared as I continued to ignore him.
Memories flooded my mind, replaying all the times he’d shown me how much I’d meant to him. Had I missed it? Had there been signs of his cheating that I’d failed to see? There were several nights he hadn’t come to bed, but I’d trusted him. We didn’t have issues with our sex life, none.
The war and the endless planning had made it difficult at times to find a spare moment alone, forcing us to get in a few quick bouts of sex when the opportunity for it arose. I’d always made sure to feed him well, filling him with power so that he was at his strongest. He shouldn’t have needed a feeder.
“Pet, let me in,” he snapped.
“Go to Hell,” I whispered brokenly. Ryder sifted in front of me on the balcony, and I stepped back, moving far enough away that he couldn’t reach me.
“Let me in the room,” he growled, studying me carefully. His hands pushed against the wards, and I watched as he pulled them away, covered in blood. He exhaled, lifting star-filled onyx eyes to mine. “We need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you. Go tell your dirty little slut whatever urgent matter you need to get off your chest. I’m certain she’ll be a good little whore for her king and listen to whatever you want to say. Me? I don’t care. There’s nothing you can say or do that will fix this situation. I deserved better from you, so did the children.
“You were supposed to be my forever, and now it’s gone. We’re done. The only way you’re keeping me here is by hiding them from me, which you knew. Us? That part was over the moment you chose to fuck someone else. I told you I’d never share you. I don’t care if she was merely a meal, or whatever she was. I hope she was worth it, Ryder.”
I turned away from him, moving to the bed and stripped out of my dress, uncaring that his men inspected me from the rubble of the destroyed wall. I couldn’t care less who watched me strip to my birthday suit and crawl into bed. Every part of me ached with Ryder’s betrayal. I curled into a ball, pulling the blankets around me, closing my lids tight to block out their intrusion.
“Don’t do this, Syn,” he uttered.
“Fuck you, Fairy. You did this. You did this to us,” I said thickly.
“I love you,” he whispered hoarsely.
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have fucked someone else.” I turned to look at the guards, and they were gone. “What’s the matter? Afraid someone might see what you threw away for some dirty little slut? Tell me, Fairy, does she get off on you calling her that as you take her?”
The feeder looked like Claire, and the thought that he’d been with and sought out someone who resembled that woman burned. She’d been the woman I’d watched him within his mansion, long before we’d become a thing. Then, Claire had tried to have our unborn babes and me murdered. My pride was torn apart, but the thing I hated the most was that I kept asking myself if it was my fault, if I’d failed him somehow.
“Didn’t I give you enough of me?” Tears slid down my cheeks as I studied his face. “What did
I do wrong?”
“You did nothing wrong,” he uttered. “You’re perfect.”
Sitting up, I stared at him through angry eyes. “Then why were you with her? Why did you fuck her?”
“It’s not that easy, Pet.” Ryder shook his head, but his expression was cold and resolved.
“It’s not that easy? Don’t wordplay me. I want to know what I did or failed to do that sent you seeking out another woman. If I’m so fucking perfect, then why were you with her?”
“Leave it alone,” he warned.
“Where are my children?” I countered, staring him down as he studied me.
“They’re safe. You won’t leave me as long as I have the children.”
“That’s your plan? Hold my children against me? Until when, Ryder? Until they’re old enough to realize I’m your fucking hostage?”
“Until I fix this,” he growled.
“We cannot be fixed! You can never fix what you’ve broken between us. You cannot ever undo what you did. I will never lower myself to be yours again. Do you hear me? I will never fuck you again. I will not play wife to a cheating bastard who uses our children as pawns to keep me here. I trusted you with my heart, and you crushed it the first moment I let my guard down.”
“You will let me into this room, Synthia, or I will send my men to collect everyone you care about and love. Do you hear me? Let me in, woman.”
I laughed soundlessly, wiggling my fingers to remove the wards. Ryder moved swiftly toward me, stopping at the bed, staring down with a worried expression. His hands fisted at his sides, clenching and unclenching as he continued to stare at my naked form. Slowly, he crawled onto the bed, catching me as I moved to sit up and slip away.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed, holding my hand in a fist as he pulled me in to his arms. He didn’t strip. Instead, he held me against his chest, stroking my hair like I was some distraught child he was trying to calm down. “Stop,” I whispered, hating his touch.
“I love you,” he murmured against my ear, holding me in his arms until I couldn’t move away. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you here, you know that. You’re mine, created by Danu for me and me alone. You’re my wife. Stay with me, Syn. You cannot leave here. Faery needs you.”
Faery needed me, not he needed me…or wanted me.
I stared out at the open balcony, looking at the stars as they shot across the endless sky. Ryder’s earthy scent filled my nose, and I inhaled, drinking him in, memorizing it before I tried once more to push away from him. His lips skimmed over mine, and I didn’t kiss him back. I didn’t respond.
Leaning me back on the bed, he began kissing my face before his hand moved between my legs, touching and rubbing my apex. His motions were frenzied, trying to make me respond to his touch. I was so mentally unavailable that I just laid there, unresponsive as he tried to coax my body to life.
“Get off me.” I stared emotionlessly into his eyes. “Go back to your feeder, because I am not accepting sloppy seconds. You will not have me hours after you’ve fucked another woman. You didn’t schedule an appointment, which you will need to do, according to horde law, if you wish to bother the queen in times of unrest. Do you intend to break the law?”
“I’m king, Synthia.”
“Do you plan to rape me, then?” I whispered, looking at his darkening gaze in question.
“You think I’d have to rape you? Your body was created for mine. You may be void of emotion for now, but you will respond to me eventually,” he warned, pushing his fingers into my body, watching my back arch to accept what he gave. “See, your body knows that you are mine. Put me on your schedule for tomorrow, wife. I plan to use your sweet flesh to refuel before the celebration of the impending war, which you will attend, so see that shit is on your schedule too. You may have free roam of the stronghold, but stay the fuck out of the feeders’ lounge and away from my dirty little slut. I have instructed her to stay away from you in return.”
“Whatever, Fairy. Take your fingers out of my cunt and shove them up your fucking ass. I’m exhausted, so unless you plan to rape me, get the fuck off of me,” I hissed coldly. When he finally removed his hand, I used my magic to glamour on thick wool leggings and an even thicker gown. Turning over in bed, I stared at the wall, or what was left of it, as silent tears slipped down my face to wet the pillow.
“I love you. Remember that, Pet.”
“Yeah, sure you do. Leave, you have your own room. Get the fuck out of mine, asshole. King or not, this is the queen’s bedroom, and she doesn’t fucking like you anymore. Now leave me alone, you’re bothering me.”
Chapter Sixteen
I left the castle at dawn, easily escaping my captors. I searched Faery for any sign of trespassers that I could kill, finding plenty of mages randomly placed in the weaker parts of Faery. I’d slaughtered more than my fair share before the alarm on my arm alerted me that I was late for the ceremony. I wiped the blood from my blade on one mage corpse and bent down in a pool of water, washing blood and dirt from my face before standing to sift into the courtyard of the stronghold.
Couples decked out in their finery stopped to stare at me as I entered through the hallway. They murmured behind their hands as I passed, noting the guards set every few feet within the hall. At least Ryder hadn’t forgotten to secure the fortress while he’d been busy banging worthless bitches.
I walked through the main entrance of the throne room, studying the faces of the guard as Ryder took in my blood-coated jeans and leather jacket. I had secured my hair up behind my head in a tight ponytail, now blood-red from the arterial spray I’d showered in today. Men and women stopped talking as I passed, gaping at my wardrobe while I made my way to the raised dais where Ryder glared at me through narrowed slits.
At the throne, I turned, gazing out at the crowd, who surveyed me warily, waiting for me to say something. I snorted loudly, taking my place at Ryder’s side.
“You are not wearing your crown, Pet,” he hissed.
I wiggled my fingers, materializing a crown of blood-red rubies to match the blood covering the rest of me. I turned, staring at Ryder as he took in the damage to my face that was slowly beginning to heal. One mage had gotten a lucky strike before I’d removed his head. I’d been fighting three others, wanting them to hurt me so that the physical pain would lessen the emotional pain within me.
Ryder reached over to touch me, and I recoiled from him. He didn’t stop, lifting an ear from my shoulder and tossing it away from us.
“You’re late,” he stated coldly, turning heated eyes to the crowd.
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“You’ve kept the entire court waiting on you, My Queen.”
“And? I’m the queen, aren’t I?”
“Act like it then.” Growling, Ryder stood to address the crowd, welcoming them to our home for a night of celebrating before the upcoming war. When he finished, he retook his seat beside me while the bard told stories of ancient battles won by the horde and the old kings.
Ciara’s eyes caught mine, and the worry dancing in them made me pause. I surveyed the other women, finding them all inspecting me as if they thought I would explode at any moment and ruin their little party. Olivia looked terrified. Her gaze studied me. There was sadness in her eyes that I didn’t want to explore. Everyone was staring at me, waiting for me to do something inappropriate. The guards around the throne held their hands ready on their weapons. I’m guessing they would cut me down if I so much as breathed wrong.
“You will join us for the feast, preferably in something black. Go wash up and get the brain matter out of your hair. We wouldn’t want our guests to lose their appetites because of the queen’s lack of giving a fuck during her breakdown. Would we?” he mocked, loud enough that the crowd heard him.
“The queen was out murdering mages, which is more
than the king was doing. The only thing he’s murdering lately is a bunch of worthless pussies. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to change into something less…bloody.”
Once in my room, I eyed the vanity before moving to the mirror, studying the blood and gore covering my lithe, well-muscled frame. My head tilted, glaring at the cut that ran from one side of my cheek to the other, blood dripping down my face.
The dress I chose to wear was silver, with sequins spread out through the design. The deep V-neck exposed an ample amount of cleavage, and yet not enough to be considered inappropriate. It was backless, stopping right above the twin dimples at the base of my spine. I didn’t bother with makeup or cared if I looked exactly how I felt: exhausted. I fixed my hair into two large braids, wrapping them around the top of my head before setting the crown onto the middle of the simple hair design.
I walked down the hallway, noticing several people arguing and bickering. It seemed like everyone was fighting or quarreling as a result of being cooped up while we prepared for war. Entering the lavishly decorated banquet hall, I paused, quietly studying the crowd as they spoke to one another, most likely about me. They’d probably started taking bets on how long it would take for Ryder to break me.
Obviously, they’d forgotten who and what I was. While I would do nothing to endanger my children—not that I thought Ryder would harm our babes—I had no plans of cowering or playing bitch to the king, either.
“Syn.” Zahruk grabbed my arm and stared into my eyes. “Not everything is as simple as you think it is. You told me nothing was black and white, remember that.”
Embracing Destiny Page 13
