Page 110 of Their Rejected Queen

A bath sounds nice.

“And go where?” Sofia asks. Her voice has gone shrill. “Did the pack master fuck any sense out of you?”

I can’t help but laugh. “Since when do you talk like that?” Sofia is a Lady of the court, but now she looks much more like a pack member with her corset leather embroidered with beads, her hair styled in braids, and an expression of fury on her face that says she’s not going to let me leave this tent without a fight.

“You’re not the only one who slept with your monster,” she admits. Her cheeks turn a rosy color, then she tilts her head, sending her new braids tumbling over her shoulder. “But I think the royals are much more compatible than the shifters.”

My eyes widen as I take a seat on the edge of the bed. “You slept with Renalt?”

She smiles, and there’s a glitter in her eyes that wasn’t there before. “Yes, but I don’t think sleeping with one of the hybrids is nearly as dangerous as it is with a shifter. My experience was… pleasant.”

I give her arm a little squeeze. “I’m happy for you, Sofia.”

Somehow, this isle suits her much more than it ever has me.

She offers me a soft smile. “He’s good to me. I know the Monster Games are frightening, and dangerous, but they’re also months away. We have time to prepare.” She glances over my battered body. “I need to show you something.”

She grabs a soft leather pouch from the ground and rummages through it, then pulls out a crystal that I’ve only seen in the Magic Sector.

“A channel crystal?” I ask, wondering how the hell she got one. “Renalt gave it to you?” I guess.

She nods. “This one is linked to the Monster Isle feed they don’t get at the Elite City. I can also pull up past footage.” She taps the side, and a ball of light floats between us. She deftly works the hand-motion gestures that turn off the live feed that’s currently broadcasting what look to be the training grounds in a different camp, and the image swarms to a few nights prior.

I watch the image of myself and close my eyes before Bianca’s body can appear. “I don’t want to see that,” I tell her.

“That’s not what I’m trying to show you,” she says, and I wait until she makes a sound of approval before I squint one eye open again. “There. Look.”

The screen shows Godric beating against a massive wall of pure black. It looks as if the road and sky simply end, leaving a solid void that the Alpha throws himself against.

“That’s Arwan’s ward,” I tell her. “They broadcast that part?” I wonder as my voice squeaks.

I sincerely hope the cameras couldn’t get inside.

When the ward drops in a puff of smoke, the shifter holding the camera tries to follow Godric, who bolts inside, but then the black wall slams up again and he crashes into it with a curse.

Sofia slides her finger across the crystal, speeding up the footage of the royals now conversing with battered-looking candidates in the meal hall. A feast is set up on the table, and I spot Sofia sitting with Renalt.

“Why are you crying?” I ask as I lean in and notice how she’s trembling in the image.

Sofia gives me a soft smile. “I thought Godric was going to kill you. He’d stormed off, and they had shown him disappearing into that void. The fact that your sponsor let in the pack master is a huge scandal. Everyone wants to know what happened in there.”

I glance at the tent flap. There’s no one there. No silhouettes of guards, but I sincerely doubt that Sofia and I have been left unprotected and unmonitored.

“There are Alphas surrounding us,” Sofia confirms as if she can sense the direction of my thoughts. “But they’re a few paces away from the tent, for privacy. Godric’s orders.”

I nod, relieved that we can speak freely.

“So no one knows what happened?” I ask, glancing back at Sofia, then I watch as the image continues to zip through the evening. Sponsors disappear with their candidates, Sofia included. She smiles as her image vanishes with Renalt.

“It’s obvious that Godric took advantage of you,” she says, glancing at my bruises. “But Arwan… Just watch,” she says as the screen zooms in on the dark wall again.

I don’t argue again about Godric taking advantage. While there’s the very real issue of the shifter heat, or the echo of one, that I experienced, I wanted Godric.

I still do.

When a silhouette appears, I discover Arwan carrying me out of the shadows. A massive wolf walks by his side.

Godric.