Cadens POV

"What have you done with my mate? I smell her scent all around you, dammit! Where is she?" I roar. Did he dismiss the punishment he received hours earlier? Commander Togen and Jason won't hesitate to dish out a cruel beating.

Nodding my head, Commander Togen holds the bastard up by his throat.

"I will not ask again, traitor. Why do I smell Claudia's scent clouding around your body?"

Chocking he spits out, "Why do you think Caden? She came to warn me of your tempter tantrum." Trying to laugh he kicks Togen in the gut. Without his rank, the traitor has no strength. His kick feels like a pin prick.

"She wouldn't. Claudia is my mate, she wouldn't go behind my back," I snarl. Nodding once again, Togen drops him to the floor. Slamming his head into the concrete a sickening crack echoes the moldy walls. "I've had enough of your lies."

"I'm not lying you bastard," he coughs, blood trickling out his mouth.

"Yes you are dammit!" fisting my hands I take deep breathes. I can't cause him harm. Oh how I crave to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze until the last sliver of air releases from his lungs. If only he didn't have a blood bond with my sweet Claudia.

Shaking my head I force my paranoia down. She bared her heart and soul to me up in our bedroom. She loves me. There is no way she could have passed me on my way down here to betray me. To be with this piece of trash.

But isn't that what I did? I left her to kill him. I left here moment after I finally get time with her. How daft could I be?

"See for yourself. Have one of your goons check up on her. Is she in your room or did she run to me when she realized you were planning on having me killed?" He taunts. I won't fall for his trickery. He wants to get under my skin. Prompt me to wound him, causing me to harm her in the process.

Not risking it, I mind link with Andrew, the guard I posted at our bedroom door. "Has your princess left my bedroom?" I demand.

"No your highness," he responds promptly." Though it has been eerily quite Sir."

Worry bubbles up inside my chest. She has to be in our room. The scent lingers from his time near her in his room. That is it. It has to be. Squeezing my hands together, I force myself to focus.

"She would have had to pass me to enter the dungeon." Turning away I kick up the dirty hay.

"How do you believe she snuck around the castle grounds?" He prods arrogantly, spitting out blood. My hand twitches to punch the sarcastic smirk right off his face. The bastard will not win this round.

"Andrew, I give you permission to enter my room. Knock first," I command. If she is in bed, I would punish him for seeing her nearly naked. Her body is for my eyes only.

"Of course your highness," Andrew reply's respectably.

"Not mind linking her are we?" He taunts.

"Commander!" I bellow. Pacing I listen to the bastard's grunts as Togen teaches him a lesson. No one betrays the crown and lives to tell.

If I mind link her and she is in our room, it will only set us back further.

"My Prince, the Princess is not in your room. I repeat, the Princess is not in your room," he declares with worry.

The blood drains from my face. She left me. It's happening all over again. No...no I can't live like this. I have to find her. She couldn't have left me. I love her.

Falling to the floor, I grip my hair and roar to the ceiling. Eyes turning black I feel how desperate Marcus is. He is furious at me for leaving her all of a sudden to hunt the traitor down. Once he is disposed of, I will no longer have to worry of him getting in between me and Claudia.

"Baby, where are you? Please come back. Don't leave me again. I can't lose you," I beg. Tears breaking my eyes. Pushing I try to force my way into her mind. No luck. "Please sweetheart. Any sign you aren't leaving me for good will do. Do you need time to think? Is that it? I'll give you time, please just don't leave me."

Nothing, not even a peep from her soothing voice.

At the thought of losing her completely my chest tightens, lungs squeeze out less air. Coughing I grip my chest.

"Caden? Are you alright?" I hear Jason urgently question.

Ignoring him, I stare the traitor down. "Where is she you prick?" I've never wanted to kill another being more than I do at this moment. How the fates continue to screw me over.

"Didn't I inform you a few moments ago that she came running to me?" His gloating is getting on my last nerve.

Nodding to Togen, he treats the traitor to a few more punches.

"Where is she now?" I holler. The tingling in my fingers intensify. Itching to beat the living day lights out of the piece of trash.

"Tisk...tisk my Prince. She has every right to run from you and you're whoring around." Laughing he holds his stomach in pain.

"I wouldn't have slept with other females if you would have manned up and done your damn job as my best friend and the Commander of the guard! You should have told me!" I bellow with fury.

"I promised I wouldn't."

Togen harshly pulls him up to his feet. Getting in his face I snarl. "How could you betray me all these years? You damn well knew I was looking for her. Do I mean absolutely nothing to you?"

"You're my Prince of course you do," he answers sarcastically.

"Dammit Nik, that isn't what I mean and you know it," I yell frustrated. "Give me the answers I need. Why did you do it? Why did you give me hope knowing you were hiding her?"

"Why wouldn't I do it? She gave me half her blood, knowing it would weaken her for weeks. She risked her life for me. A young man who she barely knew." Spitting more blood out, he stares me down. His eyes glosses over with pain. "You and Jason were my friends and both denied giving me blood. My best friends couldn't have cared less if I lived or died."

"I wasn't asked, neither was Jason. All we were told was that your mate was murdered and a small girl donated her blood to you." Stepping back I glance at Jason. He had stayed quite.

"He is telling the truth Nik. We weren't told until after she helped you. If I would have known sooner, have no doubt I would have given you mine. You were my brother. Now-" Looking him up and down he sneers. "-Now you're a traitor."

"Have the guards found her yet Jason?" My heart sored it hope. She wouldn't have left the kingdom. Would she?

Shaking his head no, I feel my body drain. I can't go through this again. Searching with false hope.

"Do you know she nearly rejected you once she woke up from nearly drowning to death?" Sucking in a horrifying breath I search his eyes for the truth. "She loved you unconditionally, you know. That night utterly broke her. She became the walking dead. I knew it was the right decision to keep her alive and hidden." The lone tear on his face doesn't go unnoticed.

"Why didn't she?" I question with anxiety. I pushed her to kill herself. My own mate. Dropping to the floor, I feel my body sag. What have I done?

"I told her I would cut our blood bond if she rejected you. If she wanted to be connected to me, she had to promise she wouldn't reject you unless you physically harmed her. I personally didn't want to lose the only bond I had. She became my little sister. But your family took me in after my parents were murdered. You became my brother. I couldn't sit back and watch her reject you. Yes, I kept her secret. I knew when she turned eighteen you would find her."

"You would have broken your bond with her for me?" I question astonished.

"Of course not you idiot. I doubt there is a way to break it anyways. Just the thought of it happening made her promise not to reject you."

"By keeping her secret you knowingly became a traitor."

"According to you, yes. According to Claudia, I was being her big brother." Shaking his head he sag's against the metal bars behind him. "Once you learn to respect Claudia and get to know her, you will understand my faith in her."

"I respect my mate," I snarl.

"If you did, you wouldn't be down here with me right now. Instead you would be upstairs listening to her speak of the past. Of how she would cry herself to sleep in either Taylor, Theo or my arms because you walked right past her with a whore on your arm. Or how you looked directly at her and saw nothing, as if she didn't exist to you."

"I never saw her. She had no scent until I marked her. Even then I am the only one who can smell her delectable scent of cinnamon."

"You knew it was her when you barged into my bedroom without her scent present. Stop making excuses Caden. You cheated on your mate for years. You knew she was watching and you didn't give a shit!"

"Commander, chain him to the wall. Everyone get out," I order without looking at them.

"My Prince-"

"I gave you an order Commander, do not make me order you again," I snarl. Just because I'm a damn prince doesn't mean I can't take care of myself. He is locked up for crying out loud!

Pacing the cell, I wait until I hear the door click shut. "When I bedded those women I would picture myself gazing up into her beautiful eyes. Wondering what color they were. Each night a different color. After a few years the feeling of her skin vanished. I tried to remember what it felt like for those split seconds. No one ever came close." Sitting down, I lean my head back. "I guess that's because it wasn't her."

"You broke her heart Caden," he says solemnly.

"I know that now." I said roughly. Tears were building up. I'm a screw up. Why can't I do a damn thing right?

"I hope so for both you and her. She is my little sister Caden and I won't see her in pain any longer. If you decide to pursue her, you better fallow through. No whoring around behind her back, because I promise I won't stop her if she leaves you."

"I promise. Those days are over Nik. I have her now. There is no need for another." Smiling, I decide once this whole mess is taken care of I would treat her to her first date. Or rather her first date with me.

"I will hold you to that Caden."

"Nik, what she said in those letters. Is it all true?" I question with hope.

"I believe those letters became sort of like a diary to her. She would write what transpired during the week. Sometimes she would come to one of us and ask if it would be alright to write a certain detail down for you to read. If it was too personal. I think she was afraid of scaring you away."

"I didn't know about the letters Nik. I swear I didn't. If I had known, things would have been completely different. I would have searched for a female with black hair instead of brown. She said signed the letters with a capital C and she said she has one older brother. I would have found her."

"I know. You wouldn't have been able to fake your reaction to the first letter you read and the few hundred afterwards." Groaning, he shakes his head. "This is an utter disaster Caden. She believed you to know about the letters and still continued on with sleeping with other women. She thought you did it in spite of her leaving you at your fourteenth birthday ball."

"What?" How could I have cause her so much agony? Not caring that Nik is watching I let the tears fall. "No. I would never insult her like that."

"I figured." Silence rained down around us. I came down here to have the bastard killed, instead I'm sitting here crying my heart out to him.

"What are you going to do to Jessica?" He sneers with hatred. Murder clear in his eyes.

"She will be tried at the same time as you. Of course she threated a servants family's with death. Holding evidence in hoping to become queen will not earn her points in the eyes of the people."

"They will demand her head. No wolf will take kindly to her trying to run off their Princess." Throwing his head back in laughter, I look at him oddly. This isn't a laughing matter. "If only we knew it was her. The four of us would have ended her, not in a nice way either."

"How do I go about her trusting me Nik?" Knowing she has a vibrant past pushes me to find out more about her.

"Let her go at her own pace. Do not rush things. She is a servant Caden, not a born princess. If you throw her into the grooming process and show her off, she will freak out and run. Give her time to get to know you. Take her out on a few dates. Treat her as if you're not a prince and she a princess."

"Do I spoil her? Buy her gifts?" Shaking my head I try to calm my racing heart. Wiping the last tears away, I force myself to be strong. I'll make our relationship work. I need to, to stay sane.

"To a point. Remember, she wasn't raised with abundance of items. If you buy her expensive gifts, she will feel the need to return the favor. Though she knows she won't be able to with her low income. Knowing that, it will cause her to feel ashamed and unworthy. The difference between you two is that you were given everything as a child, as she has had to work on her hands and knees to gain what little she has," he clarifies.

Nodding my head I try to trap all this new information up in my mind.

"She will trust you Caden. It may take a while, but in the end if you prove to her you only want her then she will become all yours." Laughing he shakes his head. "I've been jealous of you since the day I learned she was to be yours. Honestly Caden you do not realize how lucky a man you are to have her as your soul mate." Staring me in the eyes I feel a cold shiver slitter down my spine. "I will warn you once Caden, you harm her and I won't hesitate to slice your throat while you're sleeping."

I believed him too. He knew more about my own mate than I did. Sadness enters my heart. I deserve all this. Everything that comes at me now is all my fault.

"I pray I can keep my temper down. You know how I can get when I feel threatened. If I see another male near here, I don't know what will happen," I utter desperately.

"Taking in a deep breath is the first thing you need to do. Once you've calmed down to think straight, remember she has waited eight years for you. Eight long years of not dating or glancing at another male. Have faith man. She loves you. Or at least she will, given you don't kill me that is." Smirking he places his hands behind his head, leaning against the bars. "You do know you can't kill me right? I mean she freaked out once she saw me grimace in pain."

The bastard knows he's right too. Rolling my eyes I stand up. I despise when he is right. "You will be tried for treason Nik. Though I believe the future Queen will have a few words on your behalf. I can only hope she doesn't throw the rejection card on top of the pile. She will surely get the councils heart rates racing."

"I understand. I will face the consequences of my actions."

"This doesn't mean I forgive you Nik. You betrayed my trust." Leaving the cell I turn back to stare him down. "Maybe once I've mated and married Claudia, our friendship may try to heal. Until then I do not want to see you."

Turning my back on him I head up towards my bedroom.

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Authors Note: Thank you for reading. 

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Chapter Questions: Did Claudia stay to hear their talk?

Will she race back to their room to speak to him or will see sneak back in to see Nik?

P.S. Next chapter is going to be drama ;)

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