GRACEI couldn’t sleep.

Even with the hunting silence that filled the palace. My mind kept replaying the horrid realization that Damon knew more about me in the last twenty hours than I would have liked.

It’s a miracle he didn’t know about my father and I just by my thoughts alone.

Stiff sheets wrapped around my legs, my eyes had been glued to the pale ceiling as the sun gradually came up, casting shadows over surfaces.

I needed to be careful or I wouldn’t need a tongue to make my execution come faster. My thoughts would do it for me.

A knock broke the quiet. Forcing my body to sit up like spring.

Was it Damon!? I shook my head viciously.

I understood that the mate bond worked against me but what the hell? I shouldn’t be anxious meeting Damon, he was still my enemy.

Three soft raps at the door came at the door and for once I noticed the strangeness of the presence.

Damon never knocked, talk less of doing it three times in a row. I sniffed the air, my body alert and realized that indeed it wasn’t Damon at the door.

“Your highness?” A shrill feminine voice called from the other side of the door. A servant. Same one that had once helped me escape.

I pulled the sheets tighter around me and shuffled to the door, opening it just enough to meet the bowed head of a young maid. She kept her eyes low, but her voice carried the message clear enough:

“The king says you are not to leave your quarters this morning or talk to anybody. He doesn’t wish for… accidents.”

Accidents!?

Instantly my face scrunched up in disgust as the word stung worse than a slap. My throat tightened.

So despite everything that happened last night, he didn’t want me to embarrass him. Didn’t want the pack to know his new Luna couldn’t even speak, let alone stand tall beside him because he knew there was no allegiance where I was. Yesterday was proof enough that I was crazy.

The maid shifted uncomfortably, then added, “He said…he will send for the Seer to prepare you…”

I didn’t need her to complete the words because I already knew what Damon was insuinuating and a chill ran down my spine. My hands curling into fists.

He wanted the seer to prepare me for childbearing. The only real reason why Damon didn’t snap my neck in two last night.

I closed the door abruptly but my hands didn’t leave the door knob. Instead my grip tightened.

How dare he? Did he think I was some form of livestock that he could breed with ease?

The thought of carrying Damon’s pups, his blood in me…twisted my insides but instead of my wolf to join me in the repulsion I felt. She let out a guttural snarl at the back of my mind.

A warning.

I nearly laughed bitterly.

He is our mate. His pups should be ours. She said and I shook with a raging fever.

How dare she?

“No,” I snapped in my head, clenching my jaw even though my voice didn’t make it out of my mind. “Not his. Never his.”

You fight me? she growled, the bond between us stretching taut. “You shame us both by swallowing poison instead of fate” I spat unable to control the venom in my veins.

Her anger burned, hot and accusing, but I shoved her voice down, burying it deep until her howls faded into silence.

My heart pounded from the action. If my wolf was willing and the seer finds out, nothing I say or don’t say would matter.

I can’t let that happen and I can’t let the Seer touch me and not just for all the right reasons but because even if nobody knew about the widowsmite, he will.

My mind was in shambles. Yet I knew that if he was to find out, it was better to renew the dose of the widowsmite. At least, I could still win.

I smiled at this. I couldn’t wait to see the horror on Damon’s face when his seer tells him that I can’t sire any stupid heir because I had deliberately rendered my womb temporarily inhabitable.

I needed to get more. I had survived too much to become nothing but a vessel and not just any vessel, one for my enemy. If Damon thought I was insane, he had another definition coming.

Carefully, I pried the door open. Noticing that the guards that had always been stationed outside my door were no where to be found. I needed to thank that maid, if it weren’t for her how would I know that my guards were nowhere to be found?

The corridors outside were quiet. Dawn had barely begun so with experience from my lack, I knew it was only a matter of time before the kitchens stir. I had no way of cloaking myself in the fading darkness but luckily for me, I knew where the widowsmite was.

I ran to the kittens barefooted, the cold floor kissed the soles of my feet and I swallowed the shivers and tremors. I had barely gotten to the kitchens when I passed by the bathroom and Deja vu struck hard.

The mischief behind his eyes, the sour smell of hard liquor, the terror that passed through my bones when I realized he had locked the door of the bathroom.

My stomach clenched. If Damon hadn’t blown the door off its hinges, if he hadn’t saved me… I wouldn’t be walking now. I wouldn’t even be breathing.

But goddess forbid I thank him for his mercy and generosity. I’d rather have horse shit for breakfast.

I got to the kitchen and vividly remembered how I scattered different things out of the pantry to find it. My memory pressed me harder toward the shelves but I couldn’t throw things down. Not when the kitchen would bustle with life in a few minutes.

I shifted things until I started to see herb jars. I didn’t have to go far before I sighted it. Widow’smite. All I needed was one vial and I can replenish the dose everytime the seer comes along.

My hand shook as I reached. Was it this difficult yesterday?

I had nearly grasped it when—

“Who are you?”The voice was deep, rough and dangerous.

Goosebumps cascaded my arms and neck and for some reason his breathing fanned my neck. I jerked, heart leaping straight to my throat and spun around.

I lightly shrieked. How had I not noticed him when he walked into the kitchen? And why did he sound different?

Slowly, he walked out of the shadows and I frowned.

His dark hair fell messily across his brow, and his eyes were piercing and dangerous. A sharp resemblance to Damon’s that my throat went dry. My pulse skipped hard, I could see why I thought he was Damon for a minute.

I caught the faint lines of grey around his temples and something told me he was worse than Damon.

Who was he?

“I don’t think we have officially met, Seamus Croft,” he said smoothly, my eyes widened with the name.

Damon didn’t have parents or siblings. There was a rumor that Damon was so tight knit that his beta and advisor was his uncle. Could Seamus Croft be Damon’s uncle?

“You didn’t answer my question, girl,” he slurred in that same dangerous tone and his brows cocked.

My pulse slammed. I opened my mouth but nothing came.

All of a sudden the warning that Damon gave resonated in my head but my tongue froze, useless as always with the words locked behind silence.

Seamus tilted his head, his sharp eyes narrowing. “Not going to speak to me? Or… can’t?”

Heat burned up my throat. He was smart. His eyes trailed every part of me before gradually growing stiff. His mask dropped and I glimpsed something ugly behind that smirk of his.

His lips quirked, slow and knowing. “So it’s true. The king’s Luna is mute.” He said and my eyes blew open.

Shit.

Panic clawed at me. No one outside Damon’s chosen circle was supposed to know. If word spread… shit!

Seamus opened his mouth to speak but the sun was up now in full. My eyes caught the shadow of incoming people.

Without sparing a second glance, I bolted. My feet carried me past him, my shoulder brushing hard against his chest as I ran. The corridor blurred before I could reach my chambers and slammed the door hard then pressed my back against it, lungs burning, fists clenching the vial with every piece of life I had in me. I managed to stand up and tucked the vial in my pillows.

My heart hadn’t yet slowed when the door flew open. I jumped back in surprise to find Damon.

He filled the threshold, shoulders squared, eyes burning black. That fury from last night was still there and it sucked the air from the room.

“Grace.” His voice was a growl, deep and dangerous, each syllable clipped sharp.

My knees weakened, but I stood my ground.

His gaze swept me head to toe, noting the dust on my hem, the way my chest heaved like I’d run through fire. His jaw ticked once.

Then he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.