Chapter 22: Sena - Fated to the Night King

Panic throttled me, and I thrashed, unable to breathe. I tried to grab hold of the shadows that loomed over me, but my hands were bound and I could do nothing to defend myself.

I opened my mouth, to scream, to beg, to plead. I didn't know which. All that mattered was no sound escaped me. The Alpha's power wrapped itself around me, a stranglehold I couldn't break free of.

"Sena," came a voice, firm, but kind. "Sena, please, wake up. Open your eyes."

Maybe it was simply knowing that I wasn't alone in the nightmare any longer that set me free.

My eyes flew open, breath filled my lungs in a gasp, and I was staring into the wide, frightening eyes of the Night King.

"There you are," he said, approvingly, and I had the strangest urge to curl up against him. To bury my nose in his neck and wrap myself in his cedar rich scent.

But I couldn't. My hands were still bound together, the silken cord doing no damage to my skin, but holding fast even as I struggled to break away.

"I've got this," he said, nimble fingers undoing the knots easily as the rope fell away. Released, I scrambled away from him, rubbing at my wrists as I couldn't believe that I'd been about to cling to the man who'd tied me up. In his bed.

Left me defenseless.

I snarled and my anger grew when he only smiled.

"I'd say that's a good sign. I'd rather have you fighting me than cowering in the presence of phantoms."

"Don't laugh at me," I spit the words, my voice rough and raw, as if I'd been silently screaming. And maybe I had. I didn't know anymore. Even though my Alpha was distant, it felt like I might never truly escape his power over me.

The Night King, Alkan as he told me to call him, held his hands up in mock surrender. "Not laughing. Just speaking the truth. I hate seeing someone tortured by memories. It's hard to win a battle against those. Better to focus on what's real and right in front of you. Defeat those challenges head on and you'll come out the winner. Every time."

"I wasn't ..." The words shook and I couldn't finish the denial I was desperate to use as a shield.

"You were. Denying it only lends it more power." He gathered up the length of soft rope and coiled it expertly as he stood, then stowed it back in the wardrobe he'd pulled it from last night. "Believe me, Sena, I've suffered through those same nightmare battles myself. Reliving them does no one any good."

He sat back down on the bed, facing me, but not bridging the distance between us. It wasn't what I expected.

"We should be honest, don't you think?" He ran a hand through his dark hair and then settled his elbows on his knees, leaning toward me. "You were sent here to act as my enemy. Whether that be by spying, stealing, or even staking me in the heart, it doesn't matter which. That was the plan, wasn't it?"

I nodded, not sure where this truth-telling was going to lead to.

"But I also sense that being viciously beaten and stripped naked, then dumped along the road so one of my patrols would find you is not exactly what you agreed to."

I hugged my arms tight around my middle, like I could somehow stop from breaking apart as his words brought the memory simmering to the surface again. His eyes gentled as he watched me, and I saw something that looked like compassion cross his face.

"I didn't think so." He waited, quiet tension building around us as he thought. My breathing evened out, my fear easing away a fraction at a time. His presence was more soothing than it should have been.

Finally, he spoke again.

"I propose a truce."

I stared at him in amazement. "A truce? We're enemies. By your own admission, the only reason I'm here is to harm you in some way. How could we form a truce when you clearly don't trust me." I tipped my chin toward the wardrobe, to where he'd hidden away the rope he'd used to bind me last night. Alkan looked back over his shoulder, then his gaze returned to me, his eyes alight with a different kind of interest.

"That was, I admit, a decision made in the heat of the moment. I was in need of rest, as were you. We weren't in a position to discuss anything, much less negotiate the terms of an agreement between us. Tying you up was expedient, if a bit rash."

Suspicion grew in the back of my mind. "I don't like being restrained." It felt like a powerful admission, but the thought had escaped me before I could stop it.

"Restraints can be fun, at times, in the right moment with the right partner." A wicked smile curved his lips, but he sobered when I glared at him. "A discussion for another time, perhaps. But for now, I propose that instead of enemies, we become two people who have complimentary needs."

"And what is it you think I need from you, exactly?" I made myself pull back; suddenly aware I'd been leaning toward him. There was something about him that made me want to close the gap, to draw closer. It felt dangerous.

Which made it even harder to resist.

"You are Stricken. The Silver Sickness is something you've carried for a long time. Danvers is a gifted healer. He could help you."

I scoffed, the Alpha's suggestion that the Night King held the answers we needed rushing back over me. "Helping one Stricken, when there are so many more out there who could benefit. It would be selfish for me to take what you're offering for just myself."

"Helping you could open the door to helping all those you worry about, Sena. The other Stricken, like yourself. If we find treatments that work, isn't that a benefit to all?"

He had me there. If I refused, I'd feel guilty. If I didn't, I'd feel complicit.

"And if I agree to this, to helping you, you'll agree to share that with the Pack?"

He replied without hesitation. "I agree."

"How do I know you won't go back on it?" I surveyed him, studying him for the signs of deception I'd learned all too well over the years. "How do I know you won't keep it for yourself after I help you?"

"We seal it. Just like the Vow Ceremony." When my eyes darted to the door, horror no doubt on my face as I thought about having to repeat that whole elaborate scene in front of his entire court once more, he laughed. "This would be between us. Sealed in blood. I will drink from you, and you will drink from me."

My wrist tingled at the idea of him setting his teeth into the vulnerable spot of skin once more. I wrapped my fingers around it and his eyes tracked the unconscious gesture.

"Drinking blood isn't something my people do." I objected, but it sounded weak. It felt weak, too. A token protest.

"Shifters hunt prey and eat it. There is blood involved in that process, is there not?" His logic grated on me, but I couldn't deny he was right. It wasn't all that different.

"And if I drink your blood, would that give you power over me. Some kind of control?" I hated the idea and it was evident in the way my voice gave out at the end.

Understanding settled over Alkan, and I wanted to hide from his knowing gaze.

"I've already tasted you, Sena. If I wanted to compel you to do what I wanted, I could have done that at any point in our conversation." My skin crawled at the idea, and I pressed back against the headboard, fear begging me to create distance even as some competing instinct I didn't understand tried to pull me toward him. I wanted to blame it on him, the compulsion he claimed he could use, but I felt nothing intentional coming from him. He was just there. And I wanted him to be there. To be closer.

"Would you feel more comfortable if I also swore to use no compulsion against you? To never use that power in any way, regardless of the situation. Neither to harm you nor to benefit you? Would that be an agreement you would accept?"

I thought about it, about what he was offering and the possibilities it offered. I scoured my mind for any other options, any other means emerging from this interaction unscathed, and I couldn't do it.

Which left me only one choice.

"Fine. I accept."

When he smiled once more, I was afraid that I'd stepped into a partnership I wasn't prepared to navigate.