Chapter 52
Gwen??
After what I just heard Tyler say, I didn’t hesitate to leave the training ground, telling him I will call on him next time as I had suddenly lost the zeal to train, to be replaced by an urgent need to speak to Ashton, hook, line and sinker.Têxt belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.
I stormed into the palace, ignoring the butler’s annoying pleasantries as I spun and made my way towards his study. I know Merit will still be there and Lud help me, I will do something drastic if she dared to stop me.
Without knocking, I grabbed the knob and pushed in, realizing then that the door was locked from the inside. My guts flared. I banged loud on the hard wood. “Open this door this minute, Ashton!” I knocked, pulled, knocked again. “I demand you open this door this mi_”
The door yanked open unexpectedly, resulting in me to stumble in as I lost my balance and hold of the knob. Merit once more barricaded the entrance, her body a wall on front in me. “The King_”
“Get out of my way!” My two hands connected to her midriff, sending her flying halfway across the room straight at the wall. I wasn’t expecting that. My mouth opened in shock, my eyes wide open. Where did that strength come from?
“How dare you, little bit_”
“Merit!” Ashton’s brisk voice rang in the room, returning back my senses. I flickered my eyes in his direction, recollecting what had brought me there. I will think about what just happened later on.
“She is not supposed to be here, Ashton.” Merit replied, using his first name without a single fear.
It irked me deeply. This shows the level of their intimacy and for her to display it in front of me, means she knew they will bear no consequences.
“Leave at once,” Ashton drawled lazily, sitting up from the chair, his eyes gradually travelling in my direction.
As she walked passed me, she gritted in a hushed tone, “today might have been your lucky day, bitch.”
I watched until she shut the door before I exhaled and faced Ashton-the fact that we were now alone in the room dawning on me. I cleared my throat, trying to remember the reason I was here in the first place. “Why didn’t you tell me about the human’s condition to see you?”
He grunted, picked up a glass containing a thick brown substance and swirled it in his hand as he regarded me intensely. His shirt was unbuttoned midway, revealing some of the dark strands in his chest region. It made me envious that he allowed another woman that wasn’t me to behold that.
“I already told you that matters about my Kingdom are none of your business. Why bother?”
My eyes bored holes into him, my hands itching to slap some senses into him, perhaps to restructure his brain and make him understand that as his mate and Queen, anything that concerns this Kingdom was as important to me as it was to him.
However, I was here for something significant and acting out of impulse and irrationality, won’t solve anything but make us banter and end in him trying to bully me more.
Just like his mistress.
I tried on a peace-enchanting smile. “I understand if you think so, Ashton… Still, involving me won’t hurt a thing. I feel ashamed when outsiders are the ones who tell me stuff I am naturally supposed to hear directly from you. Not to mention you hardly even took me to meetings.”
“That is because you are only my partner in name.” He slammed the glass on his desk, spilling some liquid over the papers strewed on it. I shuddered and stepped back. “You still don’t get it, do you?” He narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t belong here. And you thinking I will take you to places and showcase you to my people when your days here are numbered, is absolutely ridiculous.”
“Ashton…” I croaked, my throat becoming patched. I wanted to tell him that was unfair, but he ignored me and proceeded.
“You want to know why I didn’t tell you about their condition?… Well, it is because I don’t think you deserve to hear! Just like those humans who wants my head, you and your kind are no different!”
“I care about you, Ashton, you know that.”
“Liar,” he snarled and stood up abruptly, kicking his chair backwards. “Should I tell you the only thing you are good for…?” He approached menacingly, requiring I shuffle backwards until my back was against the door.
He appeared in front of me, his fingers fastening to my neck and tilting it to the side. He leaned in and sniffed my neck. “Just for fucking…” He husked.
I was melting, pooling like ice before his feet just the way he wanted. I knew it. But I didn’t want it. To be his puppet.
His tongue sneaked out and rolled along my neck as his finger tightened, cutting off air from flowing freely into my lungs. I panicked and grasped his hands. “Let go…”
“So, if you want to be useful to me,” he commenced his condescending statement, “go back to the room, bare yourself and ready for me to fuck you. Because as long as I live, and as long as you refuse to leave, that is the only good you will do for me.”
I didn’t mean to do it. Hell, I didn’t even know where the courage came from, but the next thing, my right hand connected soundly to his cheek, making him stumble away from me, his hand breaking off my neck.
I pushed off the door holding my neck and coughing repeatedly.
“How dare you?” He growled in front of me. That was when fear set in. I was intoxicated with fury that I finally acted out of impulse. Now, that it is done, I knew I was done for. My pulse quickened.
“I-I didn’t mean to do it.” I reached out to touch him and Ashton stepped back, his right hand to his cheek and his lethal eyes shooting daggers. “I swear it…”
“You are just what I thought you are. Everything! You are even worst than her.”
“I am not!” I shouted back. How could he compare me to someone I didn’t know? “Ashton…”
“Just get out.” He pointed at the door.
My feet shifted, unable to move. “What about the woman?”
“I know that’s why you came. You care about another more than you care about me. I know you want me to go so that I can be killed. But, you know what? If losing one member of my pack would save me from the trap of those vermins, then so be it.”
“There can be another way…”
He scoffed derisively. “You couldn’t even deny it.”
“Because I have no use to deny, Ashton. It’s all in your head, can’t you see it? I am sorry for hitting you but we need to join heads and think this through. We have to save her.”
“And have me killed?”
“No one has to be killed. What if they just want to talk? You might be the one overthinking it.”
He snorted out and indicated the door once more. “You are even dumber than I thought. Get out.”
Seeing as the discussion wasn’t heading anywhere, I nodded my head, twisted the knob and once the door opened, I took one last look at him and left.
If he wasn’t going to involve me in this, or think I am too dumb to urge for diplomacy, then, I will have to seek another means of reaching the humans.
That woman has to be saved. I will prove to him that I am not as dumb as he thinks and that werewolves aren’t horrible as he imagined.
…