My heart pulsed.
I loved him.
I knew that now.
Chapter 12
Ariana
I didn’t listen to a word that was said at dinner. Instead, I curled my arm around Magnar’s leg, relishing the feelings that cascaded through me after such a hard punishment. I felt like I was soaring, flying high above the clouds. My skin buzzed with electricity. His fingers scratched at my scalp and it took everything in me not to moan out loud at the sensation.
As the time passed, I slowly gathered myself, rebuilding the crumbling walls that Magnar had obliterated. Eventually, my frantic panting normalized, and my heart stopped beating so uncontrollably. A very deep and numb satisfaction pulsed through me and by the time the dinner was over, I was ready to go to bed.
Magnar finished working whatever deal he was after with Erik, and then he pushed his chair back and gathered me in his arms.
I was aware that Neegan was watching me. I met his eyes and within them, I recognized a certain curiosity. He’d realized that I hadn’t betrayed him and told Magnar about the poison. I’d protected him and he’d seen that.
With an exhausted smile, I winked in his direction.
He returned my smile with one of his own, only now he had a vested interest.
He’d fallen for my plan.
Perfect.
Now I only had to wait for him to make the next move.
“It was a pleasure, gentlemen,” Magnar said and without another second’s delay, he turned and left the room, taking me with him in silence. I closed my eyes and knew no more after that.
I slept until morning and when I finally woke, I found Magnar’s arms so tightly wound around me that I didn’t have the heart to wake him. Instead, I drifted in and out of blissful sleep and when he finally awakened beside me, I told him everything about my plan and what I had seen in Neegan’s study. It was just the two of us now, so there was no risk. There was no one watching or scrutinizing our every move. I explained that I had lied to protect the both of us, to keep the passages within the walls secret, but most important, to ensure that Neegan didn’t realize that I knew about the heart of his plan to kill Magnar and take the crown for himself.
Magnar listened without a word, his face tightening with concern at certain points of the story. When I finished, his expression was grim.
“I wouldn’t have been so harsh with you if I’d known any of this.”
“I know. But that was necessary. It needed to be real. For them.”
“I’m sorry, my omega,” he murmured.
“There is nothing to forgive, my alpha,” I whispered in return.
He was quiet for a long time and after a while, he finally cleared his throat.
“You and I will take him down. Together.”
It took several days for Neegan to seek me out. I had been watching him closely so when he shifted in my direction and cornered me in an adjacent hallway near my chambers, I’d been expecting it, but I let him think he’d caught me off guard. He’d grabbed my arm and dragged me off alone. I went along with it.
He released me and then suddenly shoved me up against the wall. I didn’t show him even an ounce of fear. Instead, I just leveled my gaze with his. I had to make him think this was what I’d been planning all along for this to work.
“Why did you cover for me?” he snarled suspiciously. “You could have sold me out in front of everyone there and I would have been as good as dead. Why would you do that?”
I licked my lips and cocked my head, tracing my eyes up and down his form like he had done to me many times before. I needed him to think I wanted him. If he thought I was his ally, I could learn a great deal from him.
“Maybe I want what you’re offering. I scratch your back and you scratch mine?” I proposed evasively and his brow furrowed.
“What do you want?”
“My freedom. You want the crown. I’ll help you take it, but in exchange I want to be set free,” I whispered.
“You surprise me, omega. I thought you were just a mindless little whore obsessed with her alpha’s cock,” he murmured thoughtfully.
I grinned, giving away nothing of what was going on in my head. With a careless shrug, I shook my head just a little and he smirked knowingly at me.
“I’m a little more complicated than that,” I murmured, layering a sense of arrogance in my voice. His cocky grin widened even further.
“You really want out of Kingsworth? I could make it worth your while after the crown is mine if you’d stay here with me,” he pressed, and I shook my head.
“I want to return to the wilds,” I lied.
“Do you now?” he replied.
For what felt like forever, his eyes remained locked with mine, searching for answers and finding none.
“You will need to be tested. I do not answer solely to my own desires, so they will want to make sure you aren’t a liability. You understand that, right?” he pushed.
“I understand,” I responded. His volley to secure the crown wasn’t just his own. There was more to his words than I knew.
I was going to find out what it was.
His grin widened.
“Perhaps before you go, you’ll thank me for granting you the privilege of freedom,” he muttered, dragging his fingers along the line of my dress until he was cupping my breast. With two fingers, he pinched my nipple lightly and I had to use everything in me not to recoil in blatant disgust.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” I taunted salaciously, and his smile grew twofold.
He relaxed his hold on me and took a step back. I breathed a small sigh of relief, refusing to take my eyes off of him.
“I look forward to working with you, omega,” he murmured
