Contracted to the Uncrowned King novel Chapter 43

Chapter 0043 

He scoffed. “I’m just trying to understand your hang–up on all of this. All that stuff you were talking about with Sophia before, this college deal… I get that you’re a good alpha, but the hold you have on Darkmoon is different than mine. I built Midnight. The fears you have about your people don’t exist in my territory.” 

I studied him. I didn’t bother to educate men often, but I did understand that Theodore had been… more sheltered than the average man, and as much as I hated it, he was in a position to do a lot more a lot faster than I was. I closed my laptop and turned to him, wondering where best to start. 

“You may have built Midnight, but you’re not that much different from me.” He narrowed his eyes. “You were born a prince. Yes, you went off to build your own pack, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are the former alpha king’s son. Your understanding of power is colored by that… and narrowed because you have no concept of someone else having absolute 

power over you. 

He blinked. 

“Your mother did.” 

He went still. “My mother… wasn’t… It’s not the same.” 

“I’m not saying that it is. I’m saying that thousands of women, millions of women, across the country experience that same helpless, hopeless, trapped feeling with me who are their mates, who aren’t their mates, who have a good deal with their fathers…” I watched the look of horror on bloom on his face. “Imagine if an omega had a job and a means to support herself. Would she have to rely on her father to sell her off to the highest bidder? If her purchaser got tired of her, would she be a rogue if she had the means to support herself? Even if her family blames her, would she be scraping by to survive if she could work?” I set my jaw. “Would she even be in the position if she had the power to chose who she mated with? If she had the choice not to be sold?” 

I shook my head. “So many factors that will ultimately decide a woman’s face have been removed from their control in our country. That’s the reality, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.” 

He leaned back against the carriage seat, his expression contemplative. “I guess I’ve never thought about it like that… my mother… is from beyond the border as well, and I didn’t study the law that closely.” 

“Imagine if she’d found refuge somewhere she could have gotten a job.” His eyes glossed over, and I softened my tone. “I imagine you’d be a very different person.” 

“…maybe.” 

I looked out the window and took a deep breath, thinking about the first time I addressed Darkmoon when my father started to fall ill. It had been my first move to do away with a 

1/2 

શ્વસનીય 

father’s right to sell his daughter, omega, breeder, or not, in Darkmoon. I made it hard for men from elsewhere to come in and take women from the territory. The number of women I’d saved from being trafficked over Darkmoon’s border rang through me. A memory buzzed at the back of my mind. I could see my father. I could hear his voice, but what he was saying I couldn’t make out. 

“We should be focusing on the meeting with Owen,” he said, glancing over my legs still on the bench. “You’re not exactly giving off loving vibes.” 

“You think finding your fated mate is love?” I asked, staring at him. “You really are a romantic, which is odd considering.” 

He winced. “Maybe I’m just hopeful.” 

“Or delusional.” He scoffed. “I’m not going to get involved with your family problems. Whatever resentments he has toward you and you toward him, you’re going to have to deal with on your own.”