Free Her Forbidden Alpha by Tabitha Conall Page A

would’ve thought our peace talks could go so badly?”
    Killion didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. Killion, Cael and Jennalynn had all warned Darius against the peace negotiations. He’d listened, but ultimately ignored them, believing he could make it happen.
    He’d been wrong.
    Now they were all warning him against keeping Aislinn. Maybe this time he needed to listen to them. At least for a little while. “I’ll speak to the Elders. But it must be private. No one will know I’m talking with them and no one will know what they say. You understand?” It had to be that way. The worst outcome for him would be if they did have a way to break the mating and he wasn’t able to go through with it. If his people knew that, they’d abandon him.
    “Set it up,” Darius said. “I’ll go. But do it now, before I change my mind.”
    Killion clapped him on the back as he hurried toward the door.
    Darius hoped he hadn’t just made a huge mistake.
    ***
    As the evening wore on, Aislinn had to admit to herself that Darius wasn’t coming. At seven or eight, she’d been able to convince herself he still might stop by. By eleven o’clock, she couldn’t avoid the truth. He wasn’t coming. And even though he hadn’t promised he would, and even though she told herself she didn’t want to see him, she felt like he’d stood her up.
    She’d made good use of the time alone, gazing into the fire that Zack had had made for her and dreaming up and discarding one escape plan after another. Problem was, she didn’t have enough information. Stuck in this room, she didn’t know the layout of the castle, she didn’t know how many guards there were or where, she didn’t know how to disguise herself so she’d be unobtrusive.
    She also wondered if an escape plan would even help. If she wanted to avoid war, would it be better to let them finish the negotiations and hand her over themselves? Probably, except that Darius didn’t want to give her up. She’d planned to press him on all of that this evening to try to find out more, but he hadn’t shown.
    And what did that mean?
    And so she found herself at half past eleven gazing out the window into darkness. This wasn’t so different from her own home...not enough lights at night to keep the stars away. The waxing moon hung over the woods like a lighthouse. She’d always heard the werewolves turned into ravening beasts on the full moon. How many nights before that happened?
    She’d never felt more alone.
    ***
    The next morning, Darius walked with Killion from the castle proper to one of the outbuildings, the Chronicler’s Library. It was there that the so-called Elders lived and worked, and there that Darius would find out his fate.
    He didn’t want to go.
    More than anything, he wanted to turn around and run to Aislinn’s room. He’d fought with himself all night, wanting to go to her and knowing he couldn’t. If he’d gone, he would have claimed her and if he’d claimed her, any chance at breaking the mating would be gone. Problem was, part of him wanted it gone.
    The sun shone overhead, but the light seemed pale and stripped of any warmth. When they entered the Library, the light barely made it past the windows into the rooms.
    The entryway of the Library quickly opened into a huge room with high ceilings, filled with books. In addition to the normal contents of a library, this room held all the collected writings of the werewolves. He’d spent much time here as a child, learning his people’s history, particularly from before the Collision. But today, he and Killion passed through that room to a hallway in the back lined with small rooms that could be used for meetings. They entered the first of those rooms to find the Elder who had been assigned to speak to them.
    “Warner,” Darius said, reaching his hand out to the older man. Warner had been a friend of their father’s the entire time Darius and Killion were growing up.
    Once the three men had greeted