Rejection on the Alpha #1
29

CHAPTER 29: Darkling Throne

For nine centuries, the Darkling family possessed a type of longing for their animalistic side, hence why he’s running with abusive blood, but that never is an excuse for the way he is now. Kade straighten after he inserts the serum in Reina’s neck, “This should make them more susceptible to reason too, under your command.” He explains to me. I find the carotid artery in Martin’s neck and insert a greater dose of nano bots, increasing its potency. Once I remove it, the wound heals like no other and I remove my hands from his form.

Fingers check my cheek, “Bad?” I ask Kade.

He shakes his head, “No, but the claws of the lycanthrope can contain DNA that you don’t particular want in your system. I saw what happened in the field, the tree.” He knew of the old king stopping the tree from being burnt to the crisp. For being an agent under the man, the scope of his capabilities were still so vast for me.

I nudge my eyes to our unconscious company, “They still might be able to hear.” I whisper.

“They won’t recall the next hour, kiddo.” He gives me a look of patience and wisdom while I lean against the seating of the car and take a breath, then another until I feel comfortable enough to know he’s right and that Martin won’t shoot awake and rip out my carotid artery in revenge. Surely he’s had enough, but who knows with the span the beast has.

As I said, he had generations behind him for loathing emotion and loving power and greed like no other family I’ve seen. A family a realm, and Darkling took the throne like broken souls on a hill with only graveyards in sight and ghosts as pickings for undead lovers. If only he’d chosen a ghost instead of me, I’d never even wish this on my worst enemy. Sticking close to a man who consists of bipolar qualities, a hitting streak and an abundance of arrogance, not the good kind, in his system. The head on his shoulders wanted a crown, would kill for it even.

Their the winning family of a series of tournaments for centuries and that gave them a title, and rumoured powers, like teleportation, but if Martin could accent such a power, then why was it that I could too?

I look back to Kade, “A part of me wishes he would die from this.” Does that make me the darker side of the moon? Does that make me the villain in this torrential life of pain and fear, but a livelihood I needed just to keep breathing too?

“It doesn’t make you a bad person to wish this upon a snake.” He explains to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me up to a seat.

“You sacrificed Charles?” I whisper, my question hanging in the air for a long moment. He nods, staring at me.

“I’d do it again too.” He explains, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pecking my hairline, he’d grown softer the time apart. I sigh and drop against him. I knew he’d must of done something to survive being overthrown by a vengeful Darkling who just can’t seem to handle a rejection from me, or the kingdom who clearly banished him before he could take a place wearing a crown.

“You knew.” I whisper.

Time chimes like the sad compositions of a violin and piano, it sung against my eardrums without ever truly being there. I look up at him, but his dark eyes are set on Martin, “You think you didn’t almost burn down my house a few times?” He asks me, raising an eyebrow.

I stare, “Why did I stop?”

He sighs, “Because you needed too, learning what you are at the time was as dangerous as putting you out in the rain with bloodthirsty vampires and telling you to just imagine none of them had fangs.” He was always not brilliant with metaphors.

“That doesn’t tell me why I stopped.” Stopped learning, and hence I stopped knowing what I was too young, after he took me from the orphanage—No, after he saved me from them, before placing me at the expense of Charles’ games. Like those games were made to prepare me for a world no girl or boy is ever ready for until it’s too late. Learn hard and fast, or not at all.

Not every council member was good, I could agree with but one small thing where Martin did what no one else would do. But he tried taking the good and the bad...don’t land a bomb where the good are present. Don’t light a fuse with the girl on fire.

Sacrifice such vengeance for another day, for a more reliable battlefield. For a battle you’ll know you’ll win.

But he didn’t. He chose a battlefield that was once my home and he turned it into a spectacle of itself. The way he turned me. A spectacle used for whatever dangerous beliefs he rebelled in and people stuck to the accord, they followed like lambs off to the slaughter. Kade stares for one singular long moment before he used his abilities to dissolve from my vision at once. The guard driving nods to me, the window back down while I sit down slowly next to a wolf I wanted burned alive. But the plan—as ever—was never simple. A simple plan would have been detected, tracked, traced and dissected, even in its simplicity and foolish capacity. I wasn’t foolish.

The wolf sniffed and jolted up next to me, only I had my eyes closed to the crisp, the scratch gone, and so was his memory of exactly one full hour, “How did we fall asleep?” Reina grunts out, complaining about having a sickly stomach. I blink my tired eyes and glance over.

Martin has his eyebrows pinched, hands rolling against each other, palms clenching closed while he looks at his knuckles, “Perhaps something in the air.” Robert mumbles, cuddling into her and closing his eyes, Martin turns to look at me.

He reaches over, “Did I hit you in your sleep?” He asks me slowly.

I shake my head, “No, how much longer is the ride?” I mutter, running my fingers through my hair. My lie wasn’t caught in any web of his, he leans back, his eyes scrapping the edge of the snowy black and white mountains. The rock formations at the very bottom were the size of caves, trees and structures that had to deal with harsh conditions, enough to remain standing where they did.

“It’s a portal. Less than half an hour and we’ll be within reach of the kingdom. Tonight, we ensure every civilian gets word. I’ve returned with what I need to fulfil my destiny and claim my throne.” He’s more cliche than a blood moon.

I stare at him, “You needed a mate to claim a throne?”

He traipsed his eyes to mine, they were in answer and conflict all at once, “Not only, but a condition enforced by many votes. I’m not fit until there is stability on these grounds, and you, My Queen, are just that. Stability. You should take advantage, here—you cannot fight me in ways you could before. Here, your every look my way will be examined to the finest detail. One slip, and I will show you what true punishment looks like.” Like everything else he has down was just child’s play and this, right here, this was the big leagues.

He can’t hold a woman down, so he’s abusive instead.

Because that makes logical sense.Not.

“The initiation won’t be long.” Robert murmurs.

I snap my eyes to them, “You said I’d have time.” They implied it wouldn’t be the second Martin struts through the doors of what I knew was a lost kingdom. The air, it felt different when the car rolled to a muddy stop in front of a village aged with the lack of life, like something from the in between. Life and death, it’s stuck in a time continuum of some kind. Mud and grime, horses for transport, food scarce with low medical care and henceforth, barely any people around. Martin gets out of the car. The wheels can’t move from their position, I follow him to the horses. Pausing at something against the back of my skull, like the ghost of a cold touch against my hair.

“I don’t have all evening.” A gravelly voice echoes and I freeze in horror as I look at the horse Martin moved in front of me.

“Did he just...” I trail off while Martin just gives me a monotonically blank look.

“Yes, animals can talk here. In case you haven’t noticed, you are one.” Robert nudges me, the horse is a brutal thing once I get on it. Martin clicks his tongue leading the group like he’s already wearing his crown. It’s nightfall, cold and dark when we roam the cobblestone streets towards a structure that looked like a stone prison if anything else. Martin moves with purpose, even on the horse while happy, cheerful music plays beyond the wooden doors of some sort of entrance.

Stables were on the side as Martin moves towards the first set of doors to the stone hallways where the lights were flames on the stone walls, paintings of old ancient wolves shaped like Vikings, even greater and larger than Martin. I tense in my attire. Feeling like I should be wearing some sort of tapestry, something far more suited to what I’m about to see.

The guards still where they’re standing, the Royal doors open and eight rows of people seated with feasts over every individual platter and enforcers by the dozens. But there, at the Royal table lined against black, blue and gold drapes behind it. It looked too much like Julius. Now I understood why.

He shaped Julius like it was here. Martin stood tall, dark and powerful as he eyed the pairs of silver eyes that were dancing like elves in their glistening eyes with goblets sloshing blood red wine and a dozen old folk in robes surrounding the two pairs of silver eyes. Arthur and Athena Darkling. The younger siblings and it was Arthur’s surprised silver eyes that looked both young and almost too...innocent. There was a girl next to him, she’s heavily pregnant. Athena, the sister looks like she could slay a thousand demons with the way she’s dressed, like a Princess with true claws, I almost applaud her. Martin rips into the eight guards that stand.

Punching the first one, his claws sharpen while Robert steps in, as does Reina, eyes like harsh rings of power as she and Robert act like a pair of evil twins, messing up that cheerful atmosphere and shits on it like thing one and thing two. I blink at that, at Reina kicking a cooked pig in the face and calling it mischievous. Wow, these two had no originality. Literally zilch.

Martin makes it to the front, bloody—like a demon of chains, ripping free from them. The old folk in robes all stand, feeling the threat just by seeing Martin alone. Martin’s enforcers, his highest ranks, his greatest allies...they all move forward. I stand here while Elias and an elemental I knew was just an ancient disappointment, they follow, moving in like dark death on the horizon as Arthur moves and Athena does the same, “Brother, you’re alive.” Arthur’s first words.

Before he burps and chuckles. His mate, the heavily impregnated female with gorgeous tan skin, dark hair and an aura of Aphrodite, she straightens in her seat and eyes the predator that literally looked like The Witcher after defeating some newly known beast of the underworld. I glance around the room, feeling like such a foreigner, I knew I was, but it felt different.

Athena dress of silver chains has me stilling as she moves down the steps. Eerily pale skin against a dress made of swords, spikes and all the sorts of things one wouldn’t see a wolf touch, she wore a neck holder kind of dress too, eyeing Martin with a blank look. Before I see her meet Elia’s eyes and she narrows her eyes then, “Elias.”

“Athena.”

Something in me bristled, they had history.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Arthur moves swiftly down the steps, holding an extra goblet, he smirks at Martin, “Here, puppy dog. You look parched, brother.” I’m literally staring at Damon and Stefan right now, had they been switched. Arthur was Damon secretly and Martin was Stefan after Klaus had his way with him.

Again. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Martin doesn’t grace Arthur with anything more than a hand around his throat, the pregnant mate stands up and all of a sudden, Martin’s grunting as her eyes penetrate his form with a tight precision, “Oh, you haven’t met my mate. It’s been that long. Nicolai, this is Eveline.” I blink, wow, Nicolai’s actually getting his arse handed to him.

Where’s the popcorn when you need it?

I glance at a maid holding drinks and grasp one, smelling purple grape, I thank her, taking a sip as I grasp a slice of bread in the other hand and blink when a swish of swords moves my way, I glance up into silver eyes. She surveys me like a hidden predator in a cave. Nicolai’s harsh gasp of pain echoes and I take a sip of my drink, while Athena follows my line of sight to her oldest brother, before Nicolai’s grunting stops and the apparently powerful mate to the throne released him from whatever trance she had him locked into.

Now I just wanted her power. Damn shame.

I look back at my bread, “Who are you?” Her voice was a mixture between bloodied daggers and ripped out jugulars...interesting.

I shrug at her, “Love the dress.” Is all I can think to say.

She doesn’t blink, moving from me. What a bitch, I give her a genuine comment and she deems me unworthy of a fight? Seriously? What has this world come to? And what is it with the Darkling thinking I’m not a threat. I mean, sure, she may be a five foot eight beauty with the ability to wear a dress made of weaponry, it doesn’t mean I’m irrelevant in this world, “Your banishment sixty years ago taught you nothing, brother?” Arthur was the joker without the green. Wonder if that made Aphrodite his Harley Quinn. Damn, I wanted to be Harley Quinn. If I just dyed my hair, I’d be a dead ringer.

Be your own person, Celestine. Be your own girl.

I roll my eyes at my subconscious trying to reason with me, “You have something of mine.” Nicolai’s deadly voice echoes.

Arthur looks at his attire, “Well, this shirt may look like yours, but I can assure you, I bought it a week ago from Royal eBay, fabulous place, you should try it. You can borrow my Royal membership card.” You know, since Martin doesn’t have one.

I almost choke on my wine with the giggle that erupts out of me.

I face away, almost crying with laughter, “My throne.” Nicolai does not give up.

Arthur sighs sympathetically, “Shame, the card would have been far easier to obtain.” This dude, my god.

Nicolai steps forward, up from his bowed position. The council members clearly working under the Darkling reign moves down, demanding silence in a court room of gasps, “The conditions were clearly stated.” One says slowly.

Nicolai smirks, “And I have that.”

“You have found your true mate?” Another questions solidly.

Nicolai raises his arms out, demanding attention like a pink flamingo in the night. Wow, what is in this drink, “Celestine.” My name, it’s tipped into a dark puddle turned into a midnight lake in seconds. It’s a tale of intangible events all locked onto the tongue of an arsehole.

Robert’s forceful hand moves me forward until I’m locked in front of Nicolai and those silver eyes, crazier than the devil yet he still didn’t know me as he grasps my fingers, weaving them in like a weeded vine against a meadow tree, he suffocates with but one grip, “My mate...Celestine Colton.”

It’s the eyes.

It’s the gasps.

It’s the shock and revelation on Athena’s face, she’s studying me after that split second where something akin to terror washed over those eyes and I could do nothing about it but see the council members still and stare. They look like the mixed emotions of Snow White’s dwarfs. Oh, there was something very wrong with the wine. Nicolai grabs the side of my neck, pulling hair aside to show whatever mark that makes Arthur growl with a goblet thrown to the floor. The floor that went from cobblestone to marble the closer it was to the Royal seating of the room.

“You’re lying.” Athena’s snake-like hiss is an ashen plague among us all. She’s in disbelief of it.

The council members.

One by one.

Bow.

They bow in unison to Nicolai while Arthur looks to Athena, she clenches her fists, staring at me like I’m the botch from hell while Nicolai raises my fingers to his lips, his eyes penetrating mine, “Meet your New Queen.”

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