The Last

CALDWIN

“How dare you!” Mia screeched hurrying towards where Caldwin knelt on the marble floors. That bitch stomped in here like she owned the place, interrupting them, and then he had the audacity to somehow manipulate her Prince into behaving like an absolute fool. “I broke a nail! Do you know how ex-” Her voice was cut off by an abrupt choking sound as Cal’s hand wrapped around her throat. He had stood so quickly the movement was unfollowable. HE held the werewolf off the ground effortlessly with only his hand around her throat. His eyes burned crimson as she dug into his arm with her nails flailing her feet as she tried to reach anything to escape his grip.

“Get. Out.” His voice was nothing short of a direct order. The other women hurried out, none of them wanting to be on the other side of his ire. Within moments the room was cleared out beside the Prince and the werewolf whore. Caldwin looked to her now pathetically struggling in his grip. He could kill her. For what she did, she deserved it... but he couldn’t take the headache that would cause with her father being the current reigning alpha of the werewolf faction. He threw her down onto the floor and she scrambled away from him, blood spewing from her mouth as she coughed, perhaps he had been a bit more aggressive than he needed to be. Caldwin looked up from Mia as Rue came sliding into the room from a full sprint nearly taking the door off its hinges,

“Cal-Cal,” Rue gasped out of breath from running a very long distance, “Amira she-”

“Left,” Cadwin finished his statement for his younger brother, spitting out the word like it tasted bad on his tongue.

“You...You know?” Rue asked hesitantly finally standing up straight face falling, confusion and hurt flashing across his features. “What happened?” He asked before he caught sight of Mia on the floor, “Oh no...Oh no Cal you didn’t-”

“Of course I didn’t,” Caldwin roared at his younger brother causing the male to flinch away from his booming voice. Cal schooled himself shoving his emotions down, swallowing dryly, “but...It didn’t look good,” he admitted in a softer tone, his change of attitude the most of an apology Rue would receive.

The younger Prince nodded in acceptance although his heart still pounded in his chest. Cal had never hurt him, and on several occasions had even saved him from some of the harsher punishments, but when it came to Amira, he was an entirely different person entirely. Sometimes Rue didn’t recognize his brother at all.

“Well… Does Rollo know?” He had spent a bit of time with Cadwins friend recently due to Amira’s shunning of the whole palace. The guard was already pretty shaken up about how she was upset with him before, what on earth would he think about this?

“No,” Caldwin ran a hand through his hair beginning to pace back and forth across the marble floors.

“This is ridiculous,” Mia snapped sitting up with her back pressed against the wall spitting more blood out of her mouth, “What does this-”

“I’d watch what you say, Mia,” Rue cut her off as he watched Caldwins hands curl into fists. The werewolf huffed angrily but shut up for a moment letting the boys talk.

“So what’s the plan?” Rue continued, trying to keep Caldwin focused before he spiraled too far out of control.

“Plan? There is no plan.” Cal said, turning to face Rue. “This cunt ruined everything,” he snapped pointing an accusatory finger towards Mia, “she marched her whores in here and decided my disinterest was an invitation to try harder,” He snarled, pacing once more, hands clenching and unclenching as he moved. “She saw them all and has every right to leave. I told her long ago if that she wanted to go I wouldn’t stop her.” His anguished gaze met Rue’s, “There’s nothing I can do”

“Oh gods,” Rue breathed, rubbing his hands together, eyes shifting around Caldwins anxiety, beginning to rub off on him. “Wait wait, you promised you wouldn’t stop her, you didn’t say anything about Rollo and me right?” Caldwin stopped his pacing and crossed the room to place his hands on his younger brother’s shoulders.

“You’re a bloody genius Rue” he breathed, “The two of you go...as quickly as you can before mother stops you, I’ll stall.”

“On it!” Rue chirped and turned on his heel, sprinting off back into the hallways moving as quickly as he could to find Rollo.

“You,” Caldwin snapped pointing at Mia without even looking at her. “With me,” he commanded and swept into the hallway his dark power accompanying him like a rolling storm. Mia got up and scrambled after him, knowing better than to disobey at this point.

~

His mother was storming down the hallway, her husband and guards flanking her as she strapped her sword to her waist, for all the world looking as if she was going to go murder his mate herself. Caldwin swept around the corner, Mia hurriedly following behind, wiping blood from her mouth, and approached her murderous posse.

“Mother,” Cal stopped in front of her, cutting off her path out of the castle. Forcing her to face him,

“Son we had a deal. Now step out of my way, she chose her own-”

“I chose Mia, mother,” Cal spoke over her, suddenly getting the Queen’s attention as the woman finally spotted the werewolf cowering behind her son. The Prince’s voice dropped dangerously low as he went on. “You said, if I chose another to be my wife, then Amira could leave.” A soft hiss slipped past the Queen’s lips but she slowly straightened, eying her son with disbelief. Sensing her hesitancy Caldwin gritted his teeth and spit out words that he would never mean, but needed to be said.

“She came to me and offered assistance against the witches in exchange for a place by my side. When I saw her-” He swallowed and cleared his throat slightly, his acting was terrible, his mother could clearly see through his lies, yet she was smiling regardless. He was giving her exactly what she wanted. “-All those old feelings came back. So I agreed, and set the Princess free.”

“Is this true Mia?” The Queen demanded looking to the werewolf who now stood a bit more confidently by Caldwin’s side. She may be a sleazy whore, who served no one but herself, but Cal knew she was not stupid. As her hand slipped into his he nearly wanted to puke at the contact, but his face remained blank as she answered the Queen in a cheerful tone.

“Of course it is your majesty,” She chirped, “and I am so excited to be back here with you all again and join the family once and for all,” she gushed on, placing a hand over her heart in sincerity, “and might I say I found it so sweet that he let his mate go for me.” She wrapped her arms around him more, clinging to his biceps and looking up to his stone-cold face, “It must mean that he just loves me so much-” her doe eyes turned back to the queen and she flashed her one of her infamous smiles, “-Don’t you think?”

“Mhm, yes. I’m sure it does,” The Queen replied, eyes narrowing slightly displeasure not entirely erased from her features, “Very well then. Welcome back, Miss Mia.” She said with a decisive nod before turning to walk away back the way she came before pausing and turning back to face Caldwin. “Congratulations on your engagement darling,” she said with a sickenly sweet smile. “As my present to you, I will allow your mate to live. If she shows up on any battlefield to oppose us, however, I expect you will be the one to dispose of her?”

Dead silence fell in the hallway, no one dared move a muscle, Caldwin had no intention of agreeing to her terms, he couldn’t possibly imagine killing Amira, seeing the light fade from her beautiful eyes. The hurt and betrayal alone felt like a knife in the gut, but Mia dug her claws into his arm forcing him into a knee-jerk reaction.

“Yes Mother, of course.”

“Good. We’ll see you both at dinner then,” She said with a content smile and swept back down the hall from where she came. Once she was out of sight, Caldwin threw Mia off of him, into the stone walls earning only a small laugh from the female as she picked herself up off the floor.

“Don’t touch me again” Cal snarled turning away to walk off down the hallway himself, his retreating figure haunted by the sound of Mia’s voice calling,

“Whatever you say, future husband.”

~

Weeks past and there was no news of Amira. Rue had returned with no luck, their only chance laid with Rollo, and the longer he was gone, the more suspicious the Prince became. He was no fool, he saw the way his friend looked at his mate. He knew that bond ran deeper for him than it should. He’d postponed his wedding as long as he possibly could, but it still drew nearer with every day, the war was coming and alliances could not wait to be made.

Cal would give up every alliance in the world just to have Amira back. Simply being around her made his life better, it made his very soul happier and seemed to soothe every wound or ache he ever had. It was more than a sexual attraction and more than just the bond. They had slowly begun to get to know each other and she was so intelligent and stubborn, gods was she stubborn, and so much more… he couldn’t bear the thought of this being the end, couldn’t fathom living a life without her. Or more pressingly, a life with Mia.

“Do you think we should go with ivory and blush? Or should we use the royal colors?” Mia asked holding up color palates in front of his face.

“I don’t care,” Caldwin ground out from where he was seated swatting her hands away from his face. “Do whatever you want,” He said leaning back and looking up at the ceiling praying to any god that would listen to simply end his suffering.

Mia scoffed, clearly annoyed, but she knew better than to push the Prince on certain things. She knew Caldwin inside and out. More importantly, she knew how to make him bend to her every wish and command. Which basically meant after this wedding she was on track to being the ruler of the entire continent. Under her command, she would make the other kingdoms either join her rule or be destroyed as they did to Druha. She couldn’t wait for her wedding, but she had to make Caldwin play along or else none of this would be right. She couldn’t have her pretty Prince pining after another whore.

“You know fiancé, I was so surprised by your proposal, it was quite unusual, I never considered breaking one’s windpipe a formal proposal but I-”

“What do you want,” Caldwin cut her off already knowing where she was going with this line of blackmail. A thin smile pulled on her ruby red lips as she turned back to face him walking over to sit on his lap straddling his legs to face him. Their faces inches apart she leaned in and pressed her lips to his kissing him hands running down his chest and reaching for his belt. He stopped her then one hand lashing out to grab both her wrists yanking them above her head peeling her off of him.

“Don’t,” he snarled a warning. He put up with some of her forwardness especially in public when he needed to maintain face, but in private like this he hardly let her touch him. “What do you want,” he repeated sternly earning a pout from the werewolf.

“Why just to make love with my darling-”

“No,” he cut her off again and shoved her off of him, “that wasn’t a part of the agreement.”

“Well, what are you going to do when people start asking about heirs hm?!” Mia snapped at him, dropping her facade, anger, and frustration showing through as her eyes flared yellow.

“I have siblings,” Caldwin growled in return, checking his own temper to make sure his magic didn’t decide to take matters into its own hands. Her laugh was harsh and cackling and hurt his ears.

“That won’t work and you know it.” She laughed, “but you go ahead and think that for now,” she said walking away from him. “We’ll see how long that lasts,” she added before she walked out of his room and slammed the door behind her.