Chapter 5 His Mate

The moment the horse skidded to a halt in the inner courtyard, Lucian dismounted and dragged Evangeline off the saddle by her chains. Her boots hit the cobbled ground hard, her knees buckling slightly under the body weakening magic of the iron cuffs. 

"Walk," Lucian ordered, tugging connecting chain in his fist, causing her to stumble forward a bit.

"Go to hell," she muttered, digging her heels into the dirt the more he pulled her forward.

Lucian didn't bother arguing. He simply tightened his grip on the iron link and hauled her behind him like a piece of luggage. He pulled her up the grand stone steps and shoved open the doors leading into the main estate. 

Warm air hit her face the minute she was let into the building, revealing servants dressed in dark liveries as they bowed low as Chief Enforcer passed them by. 

As they walked, all eyes fell on Evangeline, who was bruised, covered in mud and pine needles, yet glaring at everyone with open defiance.

Whispers broke out around them as they all stared her down with different hints of emotions on their face as they tried to comprehend what was going on. 

"Is that a human?" a servant girl murmured from the far edge of the wall, her eyes tracking the woman with wonder.

"Look at her face... she definitely tried to fight him," a guard whispered, his hand resting nervously on his sword hilt.

Lucian ignored them all, keeping his stride fast and relentless. He dragged her past sweeping staircases, dark tapestries, and arched corridors, heading straight for the high tower at the rear of the fortress. 

"You're making a mistake, Lucian," Evangeline called out, struggling to keep her footing at the same pace with his when he naturally walked much faster than her. "You think locking me up makes me harmless? Ask your arm how harmless I am." 

Lucian didn't respond until they reached the top of the tower spiraling stairs. He stopped in front of a large iron-reinforced door, pulled a brass key from his coat, and unlocked it. 

Without a word, he shoved her inside. Evangeline stumbled across the furry rug in the centre of the room, barely catching herself before she face planted unto the floor. 

"Your new quarters," Lucian said, standing in the doorway, his tall frame blocking the light from the hallway. 

"What is this? This nothing but a cage," she spat, turning around to face him, red in the face with barely contained fury. 

"It has a bed and a fire," Lucian countered frankly. "That makes it a luxury compared to the stable shed you were sleeping in." 

"Unbind me," she demanded, raising her chained wrists toward him. 

Lucian gave her a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes. "Not a chance."

He stepped back, pulled the door shut, and turned the key. The loud click of the lock sounded like a final judgment echoing through the quiet room. 

"Lucian!" she screamed, rushing forward and slamming her chained hands against the thick wood. "Open this door!" 

Silence was her only answer. 

Evangeline backed away from the door, breathing heavily as she took in her surroundings. The room was undeniably lavish, there was massive four-poster bed draped in dark silks, a stone fireplace roaring with fresh timber, and a small wooden table bearing a tray of roasted meats, white bread, and fruit. 

She ignored the food completely, stepping right past the table to scour the room for an exit. 

She checked the walls, feeling along the granite stones for hidden latches or loose blocks but there was nothing. She moved to the grand stained-glass windows at the far end of the room, but iron bars were bolted directly into the stone frame on the outside. 

Evangeline pressed her face against the glass, looking down. The tower outer wall dropped straight down into a very sharp looking jagged cliff face that tumbled a thousand feet into a roaring, frozen river canyon. 

"No way down," she muttered, her breath fogging the colored glass. 

Refusing to sit still, she began to pace. Back and forth, back and forth across the rug like a trapped, frantic animal. Her wrists throbbed from the iron bindings, and her mind churned with a hundred different ways to murder her uncle, Garth, and the Chief Enforcer who had locked her in this cage disguised as a room. 

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Deep down in his private ground-floor study, Lucian sat behind a large desk, bathed in the dim red glow of a dying hearth fire. 

A half-empty bottle of dark rye whiskey sat beside an open glass tumbler. 

Lucian stripped off his black leather coat, rolling up his left sleeve. On his forearm, right where the girl had driven her makeshift iron nail, was a small, neat puncture wound where dried blood ringed the skin. 

It was a tiny injury, barely deep enough to require a bandage for a warrior of his stature. Yet the skin around the mark burned with a sickening, addictive heat. 

"Confound it," he muttered, pouring himself another three fingers of whiskey and tossing it down his throat. 

The alcohol burned his esophagus, but it did nothing to dull the pulse in his blood. Every time he closed his eyes, he didn't see the war maps or the pack council's faces. He saw gray eyes flashing with unyielding hatred. He felt the sharp, intoxicating spark that had shot through his veins the moment his hands had clamped around her waist on the mountain ridge. 

There was no denying it. It was a dormant mate-bond. That human servant… was his mate.

"No," Lucian growled to the empty room, slamming his glass down so hard the glass cracked. "She’s a human. A wolf-less defective." 

An Alpha of his rank could not be bound to a human outcast. It was an insult to his bloodline, a fatal weakness his enemies would exploit the second they caught wind of it. 

He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling as the strange, magnetic pull pulled at his chest, drawing his awareness upward, straight toward the high tower room where she was pacing. 

He poured another glass, determined to drown the feeling till he could no longer think of something so vile.