Chapter 44

Lewis POV

I watched from the back of the room as she danced with the mate of Lorellia. The queen had now been tasked with teaching not just the mate of the king but both Dylan and Carlos in the ways of being a royal, however my eyes were solely focused on Dylan. She was definitely getting better at dancing, and the more her confidence increased, the more beautiful she became, not that it was actually possible for her to get any prettier. I'd always found her alluring, but now she was almost irresistible.

It had been a day since that Carlos guy had been released from the dungeon and he was already being forced to learn how to dance. I suppose it was a good thing in a way, because now Dylan's dance partner had about as much experience as she did, and so ability wise they were very well matched.

I had to admit that they were matched in attitude as well. He almost has as much hatred for our kind as Dylan had. Only the goddess knows what the pair of them had been through in the past 5 years of the new world. However the way that Dylan handled herself was incredible. She remained calm, even when she was the most insulted, and hearing her defend me and my actions towards her yesterday was nice, even though she denied any sort of feelings I had for her.

Carlos had been right though, for some unknown reason, the other day when she grabbed me, my heart skipped a beat, and my cheeks took on a whole new meaning of the famous phrase 'red as a tomato.' Not to mention, I may have actually felt the bond, granted it was faint, but it was there. The little sparks that come from touching your fated mate began to flow through my hand, sending a warm and blissful sensation running through me. I didn't realize what I had done until it was too late, I had chosen my second chance, subconsciously Dylan had crept through the cracks of my heart and mended the wounds left by Iliana my goddess gifted soulmate. I didn’t even know how it happened, I just knew that she had stolen my soul and in time I prayed she would give me hers.

I didn't know how to combat this situation. She was my queen, the mate of king Josh and yet I wanted her. I knew she had been through so much, if she found out what I had done and that I had certain feelings for her I can't imagine she would be very happy, I am of course still a lycan and despite her learning that we really aren't all the same, she was still very apprehensive around me.

I have noticed that whenever she does anything remotely wrong around me or the queen or anyone really, she tenses up, almost as if she's bracing herself for pain.

I knew I could never do anything to hurt her, she goes through more than enough pain from the king alone, add on to the mental abuse the queen dishes out and I'm honestly surprised she's still so strong and functional. The issue is, if she is still tensing every time she missteps around me, then she doesn’t know I’d never hurt her. She still thinks of me as someone who could torment her.

"That, was the first time you we're actually decent." The queen spoke quickly as she walked over to the human pair. "Carlos, I said your back must remain ridged, but your entire body is far too stiff. Your body must glide across the floor with ease, not jolt around like you are made of wood." She then turned to Dylan and sighed before slapping her cheek hard. I jolted forward ready to intervene but moved forward less than an inch as I quickly remembered I wasn't at liberty to help her.

That poor girl gets slapped so often by so many people that she didn't even respond to the stinging sensation that must have been taking over her offended cheek, instead she just looked at the queen.

"The next time you look at your feet, I'll make you wear a posture corrector, injured or not. Do you understand? I am sick of telling you!" I watched as Dylan sighed but nodded her head, only to be met with another hard slap. "A good queen answers her superiors with words."

"A good queen doesn't have superiors to answer to!" She mumbled before her eyes grew. I too cringed knowing that her mouth was going to get her in deep water, not that she was wrong. A queen shouldn't have to answer to anyone, and I strongly believe Dylan would make an excellent queen.

It didn't even take a minute for Stewart, the queens personal attendant, to intervene, within seconds Dylan was on the floor with blood pouring from her lips. I swallowed hard, and allowed my claws to grow only to dig them deep into the flesh on my palms. I had to stand and wait, I had to.

I was tense as I watched the girl consuming my every thought. She spat a stream of blood out and winced dramatically, that punch must have severely hurt her. She then placed her finger and thumb into her mouth and with a small tug and a groan she pulled one of her back teeth out. She seemed shocked at first but quickly became quite calm as she threw her tooth across the room and spat again, sending the red liquid that was pooling onto her tongue splattering to the floor in a truly grotesque manner.

“You may very well become the queen, but to me, you are nothing more than a human, you will never hold power and you will never have support. You are a worthless, stupid little girl who severely lacks respect. If it were up to me, Josh would have you on a tighter leash than my sister has on her mate.” Her tone was venomous as she spat her words at Dylan who remained on the floor blood still pouring out of her mouth and now down her chin to her chest. The queen didn’t even acknowledge Carlos as she walked towards the main doors located directly next to me. As soon as she was close enough she turned to address me directly. “You are in charge of her are you not? See to it that she is disciplined accordingly. Make sure she knows her place.”

Upon the queens departure my claws slowly retracted and with it left the holes in my skin bleeding, naturally I was a wolf and would be completely healed by the evening however I knew I had to hide the small injuries from Dylan, who had now been picked up off the floor by Carlos.

“Fucking hell. Are you alright?” He didn’t waste a beat in pulling out his pocket square that filled the chest pocket of his regal suit and handing it to Dylan, who immediately rolled it up and placed it in the bleeding gap that was now located in her mouth.

“HmmHmm.” She hummed and nodded her head as she tried to stop the bleeding. She put pressure on the new wound by biting down hard on the rolled up cloth square and shut her eyes tight. “Did the whole tooth come out?” She asked through her clenched jaws and I ran over to where her tooth had skidded across the floor after she threw it. There it was clear as day, her now missing molar, the issue was, only the roots from her gums were visible on one side of the tooth.

I picked it up to have a good look, others may have squirmed at the sight but I just looked at it. There it was, the bottom half of the right hand side was missing. I looked at the poor girl and winced, she didn’t need words to understand what had happened, she nodded her head before throwing it back in a groan.

“I’ll take you to the hospital wing, the remaining section will have to be pulled out.” I said as I moved closer to her. She ran her hand through her hair in exasperation and went to speak, only the doors opened and in walked a member of the royal guard, Zackary, who was the assigned guard of Carlos, in his hands rested the two heavy set of restraints that the rebel was required to wear.

“You go, before that gets infected.” Carlos said as he looked in pity at Dylan. “I’ll be fine.” She nodded her head and scowled at Zack who walked past her and quickly began to attach the thick chains to her friend.

We both exited the giant dance hall and began to make our way silently through the halls. Upon entering one of the halls, she stopped in her tracks, her head met that of a portrait commissioned of the queen, she scowled and before I could fully comprehend what she was doing she growled out in anger and frustration.

With all her strength she grabbed one of the bottom corners and lifted it up causing the entire framed portrait to crash to the ground. It landed on the corner of the solid frame and instantly snapped it. Chips of it bounced off the floor as the rest of the frame hit the marble below our feet.

I’d never seen her so frustrated.