Page 53 of A Half-Blood’s Escape
"You made a promise!" Arianna's father said.
"Did I?"
I knew I didn't have the same power, as my father had had. He had enjoyed being king. I didn't. I wished I had never been chosen for that or rather born for it. I had many times wanted to abdicate, but every time I came up with the idea, the world seemed to find a way to tell me not to.I hadn't exactly promised them anything when it came to getting bound to Arianna. I just wanted them to stop bothering me. It was clear they had different expectations of me, and I clearly didn't meet those expectations, but I also knew this was a way to gain power. Arianna's father, Renly loved power more than anything. I could see it in his greedy little eyes.
"You shouldn't be with someone like her."
My wolf growled irritated inside me. No one offended our queen, but even if I felt the urge to kill him to make sure everyone got my message, I couldn't. The council had spent a long time getting the power they had, while I did nothing to keep the power I once had. I had never thought I would need it for anything. All these males here liked to run things. I liked to be left alone.
"She is my mate. It changes things," I said.
"It doesn't have to!" Renly said. "Many choose their mate."
"Because those people do not have the patience nor the need to wait for their real one. They want to climb higher and higher on the social ladder, and there is no time to wait for someone who might be their real mate. Let us not kid ourselves. There is a reason why so few find their other half, and it isn't because the Goddess thinks we are worthy of it," I taunted.
No one seemed pleased with me. They didn't like I called them greedy in an indirect way, but it was true. Barely anyone who sat at this table had a real mate.
"The king is right," Damon said.
People turned their eyes to him, and it was nice not having them staring at me for at least a little while. Ace had seemed tense the whole time though. He and Gabriel technically had a seat at the table as well, since they were hybrids, but none of them ever wanted to sit down among these people. So, he stood behind me a little to my right, watching everyone, making sure that if anyone tried anything, he would come for them. He was playing the bodyguard role, but I knew just one look from him, and these people would shit themselves. He just had that scary aura about him, that made people cower in fear.
"A real mate changes things and you know this," he said. "In the old laws-"
"We do not follow the old laws," Renly said, his fangs showing a little as he snarled at Damon.
"Maybe we should," Damon said.
Damon looked at me, and I could see in his eyes, that he was as tired of these people, as I was.
"She stays," I just repeated.
"No one will accept her," some other corpse said. "She has not been trained for this. She doesn't know the responsibilities of being the queen!"
The others nodded, and I sighed annoyed.
"I will train her," I said.
"It will take more than a few years. It will take a lifetime!"
"And once I mark her as mine, her life energy will be bound to mine, which means she will have more than one lifetime. At least if we consider how old she can grow," I said.
Lara had pointed out my slow aging to me and it just proved how little she knew, but once we were bound together through the mate bond, she would share my powers when it came to aging, and hybrids could easily live to a thousand years. I still had a few good hundred years in me.
"She will learn," I said.
"My sources say she tried running from you," Renly said.
"I would love to know who those sources are," I growled lowly.
It was no secret the old male had spies. People whispering in his ears, and whom he could make whisper in other people's ears, but I knew he wouldn't reveal them to me.
"She doesn't want to learn," he said.
"You think your daughter has what it takes?" I asked.
He straightened his back and nodded once.
"Of course. I trained her myself."
