Troy–Three Nights Ago
“Troy. So, you ca.”
As if I had a choice. Roro was the whole reason I was in this place, trying not to get struck by lightning or drown in the unrelenting humidity while Aaron was stranded on a beach in the Isles of Denali, enjoying a cool drink and tanning his nearly translucent skin on the soft, white sand.
I eyed Roro coolly as he neared, his cane tapping against the stone floor with each slow step in my direction.
“You look like your mother,” he said with a strange, slightly nacing smile. I bit the inside of my lip to stop myself from saying anything, willing myself to have a filter for the first ti in my life. “But I understand that you wouldn’t know her, would you?”
I swallowed, tucking my hands in my pockets.
“Ah, yes. That’s what I thought.” Roro finally reached the bars, sitting down on a stool. The action took most of his strength, and he was quiet for a mont as his heavy breathing returned to normal. “You know I’ve been up here for twenty years, Troy?”
I nodded, once, watching the man as he coughed into his fist.
“Ah, yes. Twenty years in this tower. Almost longer than that Alpha below us has been alive, did you know that? I’m sure you assud he wasn’t the man that put here, no, that was Talon. The half-wits father. Ethan’s Beta. Of course, King Jas was still in power then.” He looked away from toward the landing of the stairs, snickering. “Ethan. Ha! Tell , have you seen his girl? The daughter, what was her na...Maeve? Say, does she look like her mother? Do you know who I’m talking about—”
“She looks like Ethan, Roro.” I said bluntly, color rising in my cheeks at the ntion of Maeve’s na. In truth I only knew what Ethan looked like from the handful of portraits I had seen scattered around the castle, but the resemblance was uncanny. Maeve was her father’s daughter, the fair version of her father’s dark and brooding characteristics.
“Ah, so he speaks more than one word at a ti,” he laughed, a dry choking sound that made the hair on my arms stand on end. “I was told you didn’t start talking until you were five years—”
“I didn’t have much to say,” I growled, struggling to maintain my composure. I hadn’t needed to say much as a child, anyway, having grown up bouncing from island to island in the Isles, working on the ships for the pack of Poldesse that crept through the waters like ghosts in the mist. I was one of many orphaned or abandoned boys absorbed by the pack and used like workhorses.
But I was different. I had Alpha blood. I was a descendant of Roro. My mother was his daughter, Madalynn.
He chuckled. “So she looks like Ethan, eh? How unfortunate for the girl. Her mother was a real beauty at one ti. Ethan’s breeder, she was.” He paused, his beady blue eyes creasing with mirth. “And a sl*t.”
I was taken aback by this comnt and narrowed my eyes on him. “What are you talking about?”
He didn’t answer.
Roro peered at through the bars, his eyes cloudy with age. I wondered briefly if he could see very well at all now. “When do they co? The reinforcents?”
“A month, give or take,” I said shortly, watching his face fall and his eyes narrow.
“Ha! Damian has lost his grip on those wolves, hasn’t he? Insolent sod.”
“You realize what you asked of us, right? How difficult it will be to get you out of Valoria?” I sneered, stepping forward. I had heard of Roro, and had known we shared blood. That’s why I had been sent to Valoria when word of Ethan’s plans for the future of his family’s hold on Valoria trickled down through the trade route. His daughter was being used to bring forth a new heir, the breeder a man from his new alliance with the Red Lakes pack.
Aaron, that little bastard, the man who had been so willing to divulge a wealth of knowledge about Maeve’s family and their whereabouts but failed to ntion a massive injury he acquired in Maeve’s presence. That missing piece had almost blown my mission.
“Damian needs , Troy, in more ways than one.”
I was surprised by this comnt. Damien had been the Alpha of Poldesse for decades. He had been doing a fine job of it, too. He was a fair leader, but this Roro? Sothing behind his eyes rubbed the wrong way.
“Oh, he didn’t tell you, did he?” He laughed, a shrill sound that echoed off the stone walls. “Tell , what is your mission, exactly?”
“I—” I paused, watching as the man’s face stretched into a huge, sinister grin. “I’m here to facilitate your release. I’m acting as a spy for Poldesse—”
“Horace is the spy, boy!” He threw his head back in laughter, showcasing his white, straight teeth. He was in good health for a man of his age, especially for an ancient man who had been held captive in a dusty, cobweb-covered tower for two decades. He was being taken care of here.
He stopped laughing abruptly, narrowing his eyes at . nace flashed behind them as he stretched his mouth into another wide, deranged smile. “You’re here to be a breeder for the girl.”
“Well, yeah. That’s my cover.”
“No, Troy. You need to be successful. We need to break the chain. We must ensure that the child has your blood. My blood. The child will be our heir.”
I felt myself pale. I knew there was a chance I’d have to sleep with Maeve if the reinforcents didn’t show up in ti to cause their planned chaos and free Roro from his tower. I had been looking forward to it, actually, my skin prickling with warmth at the thought of her smooth skin and full lips, the way her breasts filled the fabric of her cream-colored blouse that I had stained with charcoal only hours earlier.
But in the event I had to fulfill the duties of a breeder, I planned on doing everything I could to prevent a pregnancy from happening.
“Why?” I asked, stepping toward the bars. “What need do you have of an heir? Damien is the Alpha now.”
“Damien is only Alpha in na, you fool. Don’t you see? Have you not been told of Rosalie and her witch blood? The sa blood that swims through the veins of her child? Maeve has the sa powers. The sa powers we need—”
“Healing powers? Why? So we can nd scratches and broken limbs—”
“There’s more to it. There’s so much more to it.”
“I will not allow her to get preg—”
He held his hands up to interrupt , his eyes narrowed into slits. “Don’t let her trap you with her powers of seduction, boy. That witch has no feelings for you outside of her own gains. She thinks you’re Aaron, does she not? What will happen when she finds out the truth—”
“She won’t. I’ll be long gone by then. So will you—”
He laughed, gripping the bars with both hands. “Oh, Troy, my child. My heir. You are just as stupid as your mother.”
I stepped away from him, hands clenched into fists at my sides. “Tell everything!” I hissed, shaking with fury.
“Do you realize how easily I could be freed from this tower, Troy? Horace has the very key to my prison. He’s been the advisor to the half-wit Alpha for ten years, ten years I could’ve been free of this place. Do you know why I remain? Why I rot away in the tower?” He let go of the bars and reached down, his back cracking as he groped in the dim light for his cane. He rose to his full height, leaning on the cane for support. “Ethan. Ethan is the reason. He and that whore unraveled my plans and destroyed my kingdom. He was supposed to be your father, did you know that? He was supposed to marry your mother and bind our packs together. But he chose the breeder and their spawn.”
“What does this have to do with Maeve? Why wait for your freedom until now?”
“Because!” he sneered, pointing to with his cane before bringing it back down with a thundering clap. “I wanted Rosalie. I wanted access to her powers. She was the key, you see, to a fortune beyond anything you could over imagine. A treasure beyond the scope of our world—”
“You’re mad! You’ve lost your damn mind—”
“Her blood can open doors, Troy. I lost my chance with Rosalie. But they had a girl child. The next White Queen. She is my key now. And the child she births will fertilize our family tree, paving the way for wolves more powerful than you can possibly imagine—”
“You’re delusional—”
“And oh, you are no re breeder my boy. No. When the reinforcents co and rid the pack of Ethan’s stain, putting Poldesse on its rightful throne... well, you will be my heir. You will rule as Alpha.”
“You’re going to wipe out pack Drogomor,” I said, my voice falling flat as my cheeks began to warm with a mingled sense of fury and desperation. “This was the plan all along, to wipe them out, to kill Ernest and his court—”
He nodded, his teeth glimring the yellow light.
I stepped forward, my head bent and shoulders squared. “Ernest and Maeve are innocent, Roro.”
“Maybe, but it’s of no consequence to . Ernest must die. So must Rowan, Ethan’s son. Once word of my escape and take-over of Drogomor is circulated, Ethan and his son will co to rescue their precious Maeve. They will never return to the North. I will bury their bones beneath the castle. I will make Maeve watch.”
“And what of her? Will you kill her like you so stupidly plan to do with the rest of the pack? You’re planning on starting a war, Roro!”
“Yes...” he smiled, his thin lips stretching over his teeth, “a war we will win... unlike last ti. Everything will be mine.”
This man was deranged, totally and completely out of his mind. I would be talking to Horace about this. I needed to get a letter to Damien as soon as possible.
“I won’t do this,” I said, turning away from him and taking a step toward the door.
“Oh, poor little Maeve, then.”
“What do you an?”
“I’m sure she’d rather have you between her legs than myself.” He sat on the edge of his bed, setting his cane on the mattress. “Although I can’t say I wouldn’t enjoy her screams—”
“You won’t lay a hand on her!” I scread, rounding on him. If we weren’t separated by the bars, I would have reached out and wrapped my hands around his throat, snapping his neck.
“Then do your job,” he spat, eyes glowing yellow in the candlelight.
“What’s going to happen to her?” I said, watching his face twist with mirth.
“The sa thing that should have happened to her mother. Once the child is born, I’ll have no use for her. She’ll be disposed of.”
“I won’t let that happen!”
“Then you’ll et the sa fate, Troy. You don’t have a choice.”
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