Kaelen's POV.
The heavy iron doors of the throne room groaned open. A delegation of six men marched down the center aisle. They wore the ornate, shimmering blue silks of my homeland. At their head was Lord Varick, a man I remembered from Linus's fractured memories as my father's most ruthless hound.
Fenrir sat on the throne, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. I stood to his right, my arms crossed, wearing the black leather of the Iron Fang.
Varick stopped ten paces away and looked at me with a sneer.
"Prince Linus," Varick said, his voice loud. "You have overstayed your welcome. Your father is tired of this game. The marriage contract had conditions, and you have failed to meet them. We are here to take you back."
"Umm...no." I said.
Varick laughed, looking at the Iron Fang generals. "Listen to the little rabbit. He's spent a few weeks in the lion's den and thinks he's grown claws. Your Highness, you are the property of the Blue Moon Crown. You were lent to the Emperor to secure a border treaty. That treaty is void. Pack your things."
Fenrir leaned forward, his eyes turning a sharp, predatory gold. "Property? You stand in my hall and call my War Consort property?"
"With all due respect, Emperor," Varick said, though his tone was anything but respectful. "In the Blue Moon, Omegas are not consorts, they are assets. Linus is a flawed asset, but he belongs to King Alaric. We have three thousand men at the bridge waiting to escort him home. If he is not produced by sundown, it will be considered an act of kidnapping and theft."
"Theft?" I stepped down from the dais, walking toward Varick until I was inches from his face. "Let's talk about theft, Varick. Let's talk about the silver-laced toxins your King has been smuggling into the Iron Fang markets to sicken the Alpha soldiers."
Varick's eyes flickered with a brief moment of shock. "You're talking nonsense. The stress has broken your mind."
"Is it nonsense?" I turned to the court, my voice ringing out. "On the fourth of last month, Lord Varick signed the order to poison the wells in the Oakhaven district. He did it using the seal of the Blue Moon's secret police. He thought the records were burned. He was wrong."
"You have no proof," Varick hissed.
"I have the ledger," I said, pulling a small, blood-stained book from the folds of my cloak, a gift from the Master of Coin's private safe. "And I have the testimony of the three spies I caught in the kitchens this morning. Would you like me to bring them out? Or should we just discuss the massacre at the Silver Creek mines that you personally overseen?"
The nobles began to murmur.
"He's lying!" Varick shouted, reaching for the dagger at his hip.
He never got his hand on the hilt. Fenrir was off the throne and behind Varick before the man could blink. He grabbed Varick's wrist, the sound of bone snapping echoing through the hall. Varick screamed, dropping to his knees.
"You come into my house," Fenrir whispered calmly. "You insult my mate. You admit to poisoning my people. And then you try to draw steel?"
"He is the King's son!" one of the other envoys cried out. "You cannot do this!"
"He is not the King's son," Fenrir said, looking at me. "He is the Iron Fang's war consort. And as of this moment, the Blue Moon Kingdom is no longer a neighbor. It is a hostile state."
Fenrir looked at his generals. "Mobilize the Black Legion. I want every Blue Moon official within the city walls arrested by nightfall. Anyone who resists is to be executed for espionage."
"You're starting a war!" Varick gasped, clutching his shattered wrist.
"No," I said, looking down at him. "I'm finishing one. You can go back and tell my father that his weapon is pointed at him now. Tell him the bridge is closed."
Fenrir signaled the guards. They dragged Varick and his men out of the hall, their screams fading as the heavy doors slammed shut.
Fenrir turned to me and grabbed my shoulders, his grip tight.
"They called you property," he growled.
"It's how they think, Fenrir. It doesn't matter."
"It matters to me." He pulled me toward the side chamber, away from the prying eyes of the nobles. Once the door was shut, he pinned me against the wall. He was shaking. "I should have killed them all where they stood."
"We need them alive to send the message," I said.
Fenrir didn't listen. His hands moved to my wrists, pinning them above my head. "I'm going to mark you, permanently. I'm going to sink my teeth in until the bond is unbreakable. I want every King and every soldier in the world to smell my mark on your bones."
My Omega instincts were screaming for him to do it, to let the claim settle and end the uncertainty.
But my soul, the soul of Kaelen pushed back.
"No," I said, my voice straining.
Fenrir stopped. His teeth were a hair's breadth from my skin. He looked up, his eyes wide and dark with a primal hunger. "Why?"
"Because once you mark me like that, the world thinks I'm just an extension of you," I said, looking him dead in the eye. "I'm not your prize, Fenrir. I'm your partner. If we do this, we do it because we want to, not because you're angry at a dying kingdom."
"You're mine, Linus. You know it."
"I know it," I said, reaching up to touch his jaw. "But not yet. We have a palace full of traitors and a border full of fire. Don't let your temper win the war for them."
Fenrir stared at me for a long time. He leaned his forehead against mine, his breath ragged. "You're the only person who could stop me right now."
"That's why you need me," I whispered.
He let go of my wrists, his hands lingering on my waist. "Fine. But the moment the Blue Moon falls, I'm claiming every inch of you."
"I'll hold you to that," I said.
We walked back into the main hallway, heading toward the war room. We needed to plan the defense of Oakhaven, but as we passed the servant's entrance near the kitchens, a strange smell hit my nose.
I stopped. "Fenrir. Do you smell that?"
"Smell what?"
"Rainwater and pine," I said.
Fenrir's expression went from calm to confused in a second. "That's new."
"Exactly. " I said, drawing my short-sword. "They're already inside."