Page 128 of Chased By My Grumpy Alpha
His hands rise instinctively, magic flickering around his fingers as he reads my aura. The golden light plays across my skin for several seconds before fading away.
He shakes his head, petrified. “No,” he whispers. “There’s nothing. No magical influence at all.”
I crouch down slowly, my movements predatory and deliberate. My hand shoots out, gripping his jaw with claws that pierce his skin. Blood wells between my fingers as I force him to meet my gaze. When I speak, my voice is hushed, each word dripping with malice.
“The woman you kidnapped is my fated mate.”
The temperature in the room plummets. Frost spreads across the marble beneath us, and the witch’s breath comes out in terrified puffs of vapor.
He recoils at my words, shaking his head frantically. “No! That’s not possible! Lady Zari told me that the woman was the runaway bride from the Silver Stone Pack, that she was a latent shifter who was bewitching her fiancé. If I had known she was your mate—”
The next word dies in his throat as my hand closes around it. I lift him off the ground by his neck, feeling the delicate bones shift under my grip.
His eyes bulge as he claws at my hand, gasping for air that won’t come. I release my grip just enough to let him breathe.
“I didn’t know,” he wheezes. “I swear I didn’t know. Lady Zari said she was nobody. If I had known—”
“You would have done the exact same thing,” I finish coldly, “because you’re loyal to the Tashina family, not to the crown.”
The truth is written on his face, but he pleads with me anyway. “Please. If you spare me, I’ll tell you everything. I’ll help you get her back. I know what Lady Zari has planned. I know where they’ve taken her.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“You do!” The desperation in his voice makes it crack. “You do need me, Your Highness. The Tashina family has covered all their bases. They’ve prepared for every contingency. You’ll need a witness. Someone who can testify as to what really happened.”
An unsettled feeling churns in my stomach. “What do you mean?”
“Lady Zari is at the palace with her father. There’s a trial being held right now. She’s accusing your mate of treason, of using forbidden magic against the crown. She has witnesses. She has evidence.”
The world is suddenly very quiet around me. Even the bond in my chest seems to go still, as if Astra herself is holding her breath.
“A trial.”
“Yes. In the throne room. Before the King and his entire court. Lady Zari is claiming your mate used dark magic to seduce you, to turn you against your betrothed. She’s asking for the death penalty.”
The rage that explodes through me is so intense that every piece of glass remaining in the hallway completely disintegrates. The witch in my grasp makes a choked sound as my hand tightens involuntarily.
My mate is standing in the throne room right now, before my father, being accused of crimes she didn’t commit, by the woman who orchestrated everything.
And I’m here. Miles away. Covered in the blood of irrelevant servants while the real enemy presents her case to the crown.
“When?” The word comes out in a growl that doesn’t sound remotely human.
“The trial started an hour ago,” he gasps. “But they’ll draw it out. Make a spectacle of it. Lady Zari wants everyone to see her righteousness, her loyalty to the crown. She plans to torture her first.”
Seth steps closer, his face grim. “Lucian, if your father believes Zari’s lies—”
“He will.” The words taste like poison. My father trusts the Tashina family completely. Zari is his trusted advisor’s daughter, the woman he has been planning to see me marry for years. And Astra...To him, Astra is just a runaway shifter who defied his royal decree.
If Zari presents compelling evidence, if she has “witnesses” backing her story, he won’t even question it.
“We need to go,” Seth says quietly. “Now.”
I release the witch, letting him drop to the marble floor in a heap. “Bring him.”
“Lucian—”
“Bring him,” I repeat, already moving toward the estate’s grand entrance. “He’s going to confess everything before the court. He’s going to tell them exactly what he just told me.”
