Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #3) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,128

snapped.

“No, I really don’t. I think I am better off taking the chance that you will not discover where my family is hiding. I don’t want that kind of future for you or me, Knox. If I marry you, I want it to be because you have buried your ghosts and chose me. I’d want it to be because I’m something you want for yourself, not your army or your kingdom.”

“Change your mind, Aria. Don’t make me into a monster that has to force your choice. You won’t like it any more than I will.”

“No, I don’t think so. I have to agree to marry you for it to be legal in the Nine Realms. I may be young, but I have read and been educated on the terms of unions for a very long time. A forced marriage isn’t binding or legal.”

“In that case, I have a wedding gift for you,” he snorted, moving to his clothes. The blood drained from my face, and my pulse beat deafeningly in my head until I felt it between my eyes. “I think it might change your mind about marrying me.”

I watched Knox dress with scenarios running through my mind at what his gift might be this time. Nausea churned in my stomach, threatening to empty its contents at the look of victory in his beautiful eyes.

Water dripped from my hair, drenching my dress. He’d given me a purity gown, made for a bride to wear the night before her wedding vows. Knox grabbed my elbow, pulling me with him as we exited the cave to greet his men, who watched us warily.

“Bring in her present. My intended bride has changed her mind,” Knox snapped, and I turned, taking in his men’s worried faces.

I shivered violently while Knox turned, studying me with a cocky smirk on his lips. Laughing sounded, and I narrowed my glare on Dimitri, who walked beside Killian and Brander, smiling. The blood drained from my face, pooling at my feet. The world spun around me, and my body trembled uncontrollably.

“Hello, Aria. Good to see he hasn’t placed you in chains at his feet yet. I’m certain that is changing soon, what, with your upcoming nuptials and all,” Dimitri stated, and it took everything I had within me not to vomit.

Dimitri was working with Knox. That meant he’d known where my family was this entire time. Knox had flirted, warning me he’d find Dimitri, and he’d know everything the moment we’d entered the Nine Realms. Tears swam in my eyes, and my heart clenched before my attention slid to Knox, who watched me with mirth dancing in his expression. This was going to end badly, and it was going there quickly.

“Say hello, Aria. You’re being rude to you old friend,” Knox chided, his mouth curving into a dark smirk that filled his eyes with an icy-chill.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“You’ve met the King of Wolves, haven’t you?” Knox asked, his eyes noting the paleness of my face as the coloring drained. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot to tell you I’d crowned him king before bringing his bitches home so his harem would be here when he and his men arrived.”

“You bastards,” I whispered, barely able to get the words past the swelling in my throat out.

“I told you. I’ve been planning this much longer than you have. Dimitri was already working for me when he entered town. I am the one who brought him back into Haven Falls, offering him a throne. All he had to do to earn it was get close to you and make your family think he was on your side. He got to you so easily, too, didn’t he?”

“All I had to do was look interested, and you fell right into that trap,” Dimitri said, clapping his hand on Knox’s back. “Oh, don’t look so sad, Aria. I would have fucked you if my King hadn’t marked you. You did help me, after all, by killing Fallon. I’d drugged him, giving him enhancers that fueled his need for the best match to breed with at the gathering, knowing it would be you.”

“You think Knox will honor his deal with you? You’re a bastard. I saved you from him!”

“No, you didn’t, actually. I was going for your sisters to catch them, needing to bring them back to Knox. The thing was, he never intended to murder Aurora. We only needed her to get you to play ball for our side. I was in that courtyard to keep her