The Beast And The Blessed

Twenty-Two: Natalie

Natalie’s P.O.V.

Even after a cold shower, I was fuming. I wanted to give Killian an earful and make sure that he understood just how damaging last night had been to our relationship… whatever relationship we had.

I knew he wouldn’t care, but that didn’t stop me. My first stop had been his office, but when I found that empty, I tried every common room that I knew of, including the gym and the training field. Yet, he was nowhere to be found.

It was like he knew I was on a warpath, and he vanished.

Although the rational side of my brain told me that he wouldn’t be scared of me, a human. Perhaps he was trying to save me from publically embarrassing myself further after I had shamelessly thrown myself at him last night. It was bad enough that the servants would be seeing the blood on the sheets from when his claws had punctured my hips and the proof that we had not been trying for the heir that the kingdom was expecting.

When it was discovered that I wasn’t pregnant and that I didn’t bare their king’s mark, I would be seen as a failure.

I stopped in the middle of the garden, glancing around the grounds and ignoring the eyes on me. There were hundreds of people that I had seen in the past hour, but none of them belonged to my alleged mate.

I turned to Tobias, lowering my voice even though there was no one in my immediate vicinity. “He is hiding. Is he not?”

My bodyguard smirked as he stared at me, refusing to give away any information on his beloved king.

I had the feeling it was where I would find him, but I really didn’t want to be right. To have him go there after the night we had together

door. I was terrified of what I may find, even more so when Tobias stopped several paces back

the hurt in my chest as I worked myself up to open the door. Would he be on the other side, sleeping in someone else’s bed? Would she be wrapped in his arms the same as how he held me

I whispered to myself as I grabbed the door handle. This was the one place I didn’t want to find him. It was the only bedroom I had seen him sneaking out of, but it didn’t mean it was the only one in the entire castle

he wouldn’t be asleep, but he wasn’t there. It was the woman lying in the bed that took my breath away. Her chest rose and fell slowly in

would. She was supposed

would have bright emerald irises staring back at me. There was no crown on her head, and she was wrapped up in a hospital gown with a blanket tucked around her. But she was just as stunning now as she was at the prime of her life

was a thickness in the air, a darkness that felt suffocating, and I knew that

than life.

I looked over my shoulder, not realizing that I had been moving closer to the comatose queen. The young healer who had

healed? How long has she been like this?” I didn’t want to ask the question that was at the forefront of my mind,

her soul has suffered a great deal with the loss of her mate. Even we cannot treat the soul.” She moved to the other side of the queen, Lillian

decades. She didn’t deserve this. She just wanted to be with her mate, but her body

at me before taking his place back against the wall. It was only seconds later that the familiar sight of the king rounded the entrance and stopped short as

and back to me. “Natalie, what are

was expecting, and stared at him in surprise. After this morning, I had. been ready

mother’s room,” I said, not answering his question but also not needing to. I still had a book full of questions for him that I knew I would never get

tone, and I looked to the healer from the