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.

to be right. To have him go there after the night we had together felt like it would be the final *to my already

way toward the infirmary and stopping before the mystery door. I was terrified of what I may find, even more so when Tobias stopped several paces back and took his stance against

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

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

open, so I knew 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 time with the machine next to her. The low beeping

I would. She was supposed to be

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

a thickness in the air, a darkness that felt suffocating,

than life.

behind me, and I looked over my shoulder, not realizing that I had been moving closer to the comatose queen. The young healer who had helped me with my ribs several days before stood in the doorway

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

the soul.” She moved to the other side of the queen, Lillian

led our country for decades. She didn’t deserve this. She just wanted to be with her

as Tobias raised his eyebrows 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

back to me. “Natalie,

at him in surprise. After this morning, I had. been ready to yell and fight with him until

mother’s room,” I said, not answering his question but also not needing to. I still had a book full of

here again.” He demanded with a firm tone, and I looked to the healer from the corner of my