The Lycan King's Defiant Surrogate

"What is that?" I say, trying to reach through the fog of my mind. It's still so difficult to piece things together. To my knowledge, she is no doctor or nurse. She should not be touching those IV's, "What are you doing?" "What do you think I'm doing. Harper?" Nina says, laughing cruelly at my cloudy ignorance.

"I don't know..." Then, like the clouds suddenly parted in my mind, I'm overcome with a revelation.

Nina isn't here to help me, or to offer support, or to check on me because she's pack. Nina is trying to kill me!

Has she been poisoning me all along? Is she the reason I haven't been getting better?

But that doesn't make any sense. Yes, we certainly don't agree on everything about this place. She wants to climb up the harem ladder. I just want to go home: But I thought being pack gave us a special bond, a special connection that transcended this place. Obviously Nina doesn't feel the same connections to our pack that I do. We were never friends. We w anything.

were never bound by

Nina, like Veronica, only cares about moving herself up the ladder of power and influence, to hell with anyone who might come in their way.

I'm too weak to fight back. The best I can do is shuffle back and forth a little.

Nina You don't have to do this," I tell her. "I'm not a threat to you." I don't have any aspirations for power here. I only want to escape, to go back to my pack and be as near Samuel as I physically can be.

He might be tied to my sister now. Maybe our love would never be given the room it needs to develop beyond yearning from a distance, but even that slow torture would be preferable to this

"I only want to go home," I say.

"You think what you want matters?" Nina asks. "Your desires mean nothing compared to the whims that our King has for

you.

He jumped into that arena for you, Harper. That means more than you seem to understand."

Weakly I shake my head. "He would have done that for anyone be believe he owns. To him. I'm his property.."

"He's never done that before. Not with anyone, even the highest ranking harem members. You saw how he handled Veronica."

"If he treats me differently, it's only because he wants something from me..."

"Ah, yes,

the location of your child." Nina shoots me a glare. "Another reason to kill you. The first child should have been birthed at the harem with a harem member. For our King to gift you with that privilege is a rare error from our King that needs to be corrected." "I was never pregnant..."

"It doesn't matter, honestly," Nina says. "The end result will be the same after this kicks in."

The way she said, so calculatingly, with not even a hint of warmth in her voice, sends shivers through my veins. To her. I'm not a person, just a thing standing in her way. She'd cast my life side as quickly and easily as she would clean mud off of her shoe. Carefully, she aligns the needle up with the opening of the MProperty of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

ve my arm. Even if all I did was yank out the IV, I would be safe. But

If I don't do something now, I'm done for. I try to move my

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I'm just so tired

I feel like I have a thousand pound weight on my limbs, holding me down.

"H-help. I call, but even getting enough air to shout is exceedingly difficult. "Help!"

"There's no one coming to save you," Nina says.

Pressing the needle into the opening, she starts to squeeze the liquid from the needle into the tube.

In horror, I watch as the liquid starts to drip down through the tobe.

If I don't do something. I'm going to die!

Wildly, gathering all of my last reservoir of strength, I reach one hand up to my arm and start to tug at the IV.

Nina sees and before I can save myself, she swats my hand away. It drops down to the bed. I don't have the strength to lift it a second time. "Help...." I try once more.

Nina rolls her eyes. "So troublesome." Lifting her own hand, she covers my mouth. Now, even if I shout it won't matter.

The liquid drips down the line and finally into my arm.

The burning begins at once, and my heartbeat immediately kicks up. The monitors blare,

Someone notice! Someone come!

At this point,

even the brute of a king would be a welcome sight. He would save me, just like he did in the arena

I heard he even shifted. I wish I could remember...

My thoughts are getting hazy. It hurts to breathe.

Maybe it would be easier to succumb to the darkness. What has the light ever done for me, but take me from the people I care about and torture me

If I just close my eyes...

If I succumb...

No. I fight the feeling, forcing my eyelids open. I can't give up. Things are shitty now, but they can always get better. Samuel's still out there. If I just hold on...

Where is the King? Shouldn't he be protecting me?

My heart lurches in my chest. An alarm starts to scream at my bedside.

"Fuck," Nina curses. "Just fucking die already."

I hold on....

I can't die yet..

In my mind, I whisper for the one savior / know in this place.

My torturer. My jailer. My king.

Caleb...

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In yet another boring meeting, Caleb sits in a chair at the end of long table, while his advisors bicker back and forth. He's stopped listening long ago. This is a par for the course among them. They'll argue, trying to sway Caleb's opinion. In the end, Caleb will do whatever he wants to do anyway.

Things are proceeding as normal, until suddenly...

A sharp chill shivers up Caleb's spine. Immediately, he's on alert

Did someone just say his name?

He glances behind him sharply. No one is there. The rest of the room is empty and undisturbed. There is only him and his advisors sitting at this table.

What could cause this sudden tension within him, then? Why does he feel like he's under attack

Returning his gaze to the table, his advisors are still bickering except Tristan, at Caleb's right, who watches him now.

"Is

mething amiss, my King?" Tristan asks. The simple question startles and silences all the others in the room. Everyone now looks at Caleb.

Caleb sees the worry on his advisors faces, and that worry itchesat him, making him suspicious.

Are they the ones making him feel this way?

They could be plotting against him. They likely were. Hoping to undermine him so they could swoop in and claim more power.

A cold certainty fills him as his skin continues to feel pin-pricks of discomfort.

Something is actively going on. He only needs to uncover what

With a narrow gaze, he glares around the room, staring sharply into the eyes of each of his advisors. Many of them look frightened. If they are innocent, why would they need to be afraid?

"Tell me," Caleb says, hatred and suspicion bringing out the wolf in his voice. His words are gravelly and low. "Which of you are plotting against me this time?"