The Street Rat And The Alpha

36

Xavier walked through the halls of the dungeon. Dingy and dark lit only by torches. His eyes glanced at the cells where prisoners cowered away from him. They knew him. They knew him more as a beast than as a man.

He stopped at a cell. It was nothing special, the usual thick cell bars made with material that even he could not break.

Slowly he walked inside. His eyes glowed with fire. Anger had already taken a fierce hold on him. His patience was running thin.

His eyes locked with the source of his troubles. He would not have had the argument with Lily if not for him.

The chained lycan smirked and that in itself was enough to set Xavier off.

In less than a second the man was hanging in the air, his back slammed into bricks. Bricks that had lines of cracking in them from that one forceful movement. Xavier's hand was clenched around the traitor's throat.

Xavier clenched tighter.

The lycan struggled, gasping for breath.

Xavier's lips turned into a sadistic grin. He could feel a locked away side of him beginning to resurface. The sadistic cruel side of him had developed during the wars. The wars where he was deemed a monster by the enemies. A monster who desired and thrived off of deaths and torture.

His mind was consumed with thoughts of torture. Tortures to be inflicted on the man.

He loathed those who inflicted harm on his queen. He would torture anyone who dared to. He would make them suffer—

"Xavier drop him!"

The king froze in place.

A shiver ran down his spine hearing her voice.

It was a complete shock to his system.

Why was she in the dungeon?

"I told you to drop him," she demanded.

Xavier felt fear as he slowly left his state of complete rage. She had seen it. She had seen him.

His fingers released.

The lycan dropped to the floor. He scrambled far away from the Alpha. His eyes were wide with absolute fear.

"That didn't look like interrogation," she frowned, raising an eyebrow.

"Maddy why are you here?" Xavier asked turning around to face his mate in her white nightdress.

"Do you take me for an idiot? I know suspicious behaviour when I see it. I don't like secrets. I'm honest with you. I expect you to be honest with me. Last night you dodged my questions and stayed with me just to placate me."

"Why did you come here? How did you find the dungeon? Why were you even allowed in?!"

"I came here because I didn't trust you. I followed you out the room this morning and I followed you here and I got in by threatening the guards," she said crossing her arms, holding a glare on him.

"You followed me and threatened the guards?"

"I also heard everything you said to Lily. It's funny that I actually believed that you would let me help you and be at your side! You are just using me like a doll or a trophy!" She yelled throwing her hands to her side and fisting them.

"Maddy I did it to keep you safe. I didn't want you to feel afraid."

"You didn't want me to feel afraid? What part of you torturing someone makes me feel less afraid? I was never afraid for myself. I was afraid of them hurting you! If you listened to me at all you would know that was why I wanted to run away. I don't care about dying. My life has always been filled with danger, death has always been so close that I just started to ignore it. Despite that, here I feel safer than I did on the street even with traitors and a giant target on my back. Why do you mistake me for a weak little damsel in distress?"

"Maddy I was just trying to protect you. I didn't want you to stress or feel pressured at all. Please I didn't mean to hurt or betray you by doing so," he pleaded with her.

"Go back to your interrogation. That shaking lycan looks thoroughly terrified enough to give you all the answers you need. Come and find me when your head is no longer filled with sexist notions," she said turning around and walking away.

Maddy glared at the floor as she walked. She had thought confronting him would make her feel better but it didn't. She hadn't heard him say what she wanted him to say. She wanted him to tell her that he would change. He would let her be his queen beside him.

She had expected better from him. The way Lily had first described mates to her was far too idealistic. She had made it seem like they were made to be perfect for each other. That was definitely some sort of made up fantasy their kind had developed. Obviously she was not perfect for him considering that she didn't want to go with his ideas on ruling.

'A queen should support her king... Madeline.'

The girl froze in the middle of the passage. Where had that come from? It sounded real but also in her mind.

She spun around to see only servants who bowed the moment the noticed her gaze. Their lips rang with the familiar, "Your Highness" and other sorts of titles that one would call a queen.

Her hands fisted in the material of her nightdress. She felt so tense and afraid suddenly.

Why was she hearing things? She was only close to two people. Lily and Xavier. Everyone else addressed her by titles and "Queen Madeline". No one other than those two were allowed to call her by name without her title and explicit permission, according to tradition. Tradition that everyone followed absolutely perfectly in such a place. Xavier and Lily only ever called her Maddy. They knew how her full name sickened her with its length and it's common use by nobility. So they rarely said it.

So who could have said such a thing out loud. Why did the voice sound so eerily familiar? Why did it terrify her and send shivers down her spine? Why did that voice make her think of rules and order and a young girl in a long poofy grey dress with pinned back hair and an emotionless expression.

Who would voice an option on what she could and could not do as a queen other than Xavier and Lily?

Her breathing increased pace.

Her hands started shaking.

She shook her head and the thoughts dissipated.

Maddy frowned. Her head was blank. When did she end up in the passage?

She shrugged.

"I must have lost track of everything around me," she sighed.

She was just walking blindly in rage from when she left the dungeon anyway.

A tiny part of her felt sad at the reminder of his inability to trust her. That tiny part felt all shrivelled up and cold. The rest of her was angry and was prepared to do whatever it took to make sure he saw her as a mate who could handle being his equal.

She believed that she deserved to be at least somewhat equal to him. She wanted to at the very least work by his side and have him tell her everything.

                       
A/N

Happy New Year!

Thank you all for your support for the about 6 months that this book has been in progress. Some people have not been very nice but to everyone else, your support has been amazing!

I am sorry about the slow pace of updates, I'm trying to figure out how I want the story to progress still. Just know that in three or four chapters something big is going to happen, although I am still writing it.

Quick question:

What is your favourite book?

(Mine is Alice in Wonderland)