Chapter 194: The Villain She Needed

Reign:

I pulled my phone from my pocket for what must have been the tenth time that evening, intending to check whether the matter I had been waiting on had finally been resolved.

Instead, I found a message informing me that Elara had already left the estate with her security team. That alone wasn’t surprising. The woman had looked ready to murder half the ballroom before the evening was over, and I wouldn’t have blamed her for escaping the moment she found an opportunity. What caught my attention was the person mentioned at the end of the message.

Esmeray Ashbourne.

I stared at the screen for a second longer than necessary before slipping my phone back into my pocket. Interesting. Very interesting.

I picked up the glass of whiskey I had been holding, considered drinking it, then placed it on the tray of a passing waiter instead. Whatever was happening between those two was none of my business... or, at least, that was what I kept telling myself.

Unfortunately, my wolf had a rather different opinion on the matter, and I wasn’t particularly interested in dealing with his temper in the middle of a ballroom full of nobles. With that thought in mind, I started making my way toward the exit, only to catch my father’s gaze from the corner of my eye.

Darren Valemont had always been exceptionally good at recognizing when I was about to do something he wouldn’t approve of. The disappointment that immediately settled over his face almost made me smile. He looked as though I had personally insulted every ancestor in our family by daring to leave before the evening officially ended.

His mouth opened, probably preparing to remind me of my responsibilities, but he never got the chance to say a word. Regent Ashbourne stepped forward, drawing everyone’s attention as she announced that Princess Argentis had been feeling unwell, so she had asked Esme to escort her back to the palace.

The room’s attention shifted instantly, whispers beginning to spread among the guests, but I didn’t bother staying to hear the rest of her explanation. A small, crooked smile tugged at my lips as I walked out. At least one Ashbourne had learned how to use political connections for something useful.

I had barely stepped into the hallway when my wolf’s presence flooded my mind, his displeasure rolling through our bond like distant thunder.

Why are your friends getting so close to our mate?

I released a quiet sigh, continuing toward the elevator without slowing my pace.

"They are our friends, not our enemies."

The response came almost immediately, sharp and possessive.

They are your friends. Not ours.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Of all the creatures in this world, I had somehow ended up sharing my head with one who could turn a simple disagreement over friendship into a territorial dispute.

"Whatever you say", I replied, refusing to entertain the argument.

My wolf growled, but I ignored him as the elevator doors slid open. I descended to the lower level, stepped out of the building, and headed straight toward the underground garage in the main house where my cars were parked.

The welcoming party had wasted enough of my evening already. I had an important matter to handle tonight, something that had required my attention long before Selene’s plan academy into action.

Unfortunately, refusing to attend Elara’s first public appearance as Crown Princess would have raised questions I wasn’t prepared to answer, so I had postponed it. Not like I actually intended to skip tonight’s party no matter how boring I found them. And now that she’s already gone, I intended to finish the important work.

I chose one of the black cars, settled behind the wheel, and started the engine. The garage doors opened and I drove out into the night.

For the next ten minutes, my wolf remained unusually quiet. But I knew better than to mistake his silence for surrender. He was simply waiting for me to acknowledge the question he hadn’t stopped thinking about since we left the ballroom. Eventually, I exhaled slowly.

"Fine. You want an answer? My friends will keep her safe."

His reaction was immediate.

We can keep her safe.

The contempt in his voice was so pronounced that I could practically picture him baring his teeth at the windshield.

We can protect our mate. We don’t need anyone else.

I couldn’t disagree with him. In fact, he was right about that much. We could protect Elara. We should protect her. And that was precisely what I had been doing ever since I had finally accepted the mate bond instead of pretending it was something I could ignore.

Her safety was my responsibility, and I had no intention of abandoning it. But there was a difference between keeping someone alive and helping them survive the world they had been thrown into.

Elara needed more than a protector who could stand between her and a blade. She needed people who could offer her comfort without demanding anything in return, people she could trust with the thoughts she refused to share with me, people who could help her put herself back together when the weight of her crown and the ghosts of her past became too much to bear.

My wolf did not appreciate that explanation. A furious roar thundered through my mind, rattling the edges of my concentration.

We can take care of her mental and emotional well-being ourselves! We don’t need other men doing it for us!

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, but my voice remained calm. "If we try to become everything she needs, we will hurt her far worse than she is already hurting."

His anger faltered, though it didn’t disappear. How?

I watched the road ahead, the headlights cutting through the darkness.

"Because she needs someone to stand against her, too. Someone who won’t always tell her what she wants to hear. Someone willing to make decisions she will hate, even when those decisions are necessary for her survival. The world she has stepped into is cruel, and it won’t spare her because she’s suffered enough already. Someone has to be the villain in her story if that’s what it takes to make sure she survives it."

My jaw tightened as I remembered the stubborn silver-eyed girl who would rather bleed than admit she needed help, who challenged powerful people without fully understanding the consequences and trusted almost no one with the pain she carried.

"As her mate, I have decided that if someone has to do that job, it will be me. Because if I don’t, who will?"

For a long moment, my wolf said nothing. Then, when he finally spoke again, his voice had lost its earlier fury, replaced by something that sounded almost dejected.

By doing this, we will push her further away. And it will allow other men to get close to our mate.

The smallest smile curved my lips, although there was hardly any humor in it. "Don’t pretend you aren’t aware of what’s happening between our friends and Elara".

Silence followed, but this time it wasn’t the silence of a beast refusing to listen. It was the silence of one struggling to make sense of something he couldn’t control. Finally, he muttered, It still doesn’t make sense. None of them have wolves. How can they feel anything for our mate?

That was the question I had been asking myself for weeks, and I had yet to find an answer. I had initially assumed that the others were interested in Elara because of her identity. She was the lost Crown Princess of Starfall, the last surviving Argentis, and a woman whose return had shaken the foundations of the kingdom. It was natural that the heirs of the great Houses would take an interest in her.

That was why I had revealed the mate bond to them in the first place. I had wanted them to understand that she wasn’t someone they could treat as another political opportunity, that there was a line they shouldn’t cross.

I had thought the revelation would be enough to make them keep their distance. I had been wrong. The events surrounding her car accident had forced me to reconsider everything I believed I understood about the connection between Elara and the others.

The fear, the desperation, the way each of them had reacted when her life was hanging in the balance - it had been far too intense to dismiss as simple concern for a princess or a woman they were interested in. Whatever existed between Elara and my friends was something none of us had properly understood.

I couldn’t explain why they were drawn to her, and I certainly couldn’t explain why my wolf seemed to recognize them as rivals despite their lack of wolves. All I knew was that the connection was real, whether we liked it or not.

And until I discovered what it meant, I would have to accept one uncomfortable truth - protecting Elara might require me to let other men stand beside her, even when every instinct in my body demanded that I keep her to myself.