17. Thea
Chapter seventeen
Thea
The Autumn Court
I was never nervous. Never. Except for now. This test the Beast insisted on was ridiculous. Preposterous. Insane. It made my heart flutter with emotions. Raelin had indeed got our best singers into the throne room. I seldom used this room. It was too large. There were too many places people might hide.
The Beast stood by my side as I sat on the throne. On my other side, sat Melanie. Her disapproving glare was all I needed to see that she didn’t approve of this one bit. She didn’t approve of me choosing a mate at all so this wasn’t unexpected. Still, it would be nice to have her support instead of her disapproval every moment I strove to take the sirens in a better direction.
I imagined others would always see sirens as bloodthirsty, beautiful creatures who could sing men to their deaths. We were so much more than that. The Beast was chipping through my walls and seeing those things for himself. He was too astute. Perhaps that’s what I needed.
If fate sent him to be my mate, then who was I to argue even if sirens rarely mated? Mother would have approved of him. Father would have taken him aside and given him advice on how to handle a siren. I smiled at the notion of my gentle, loving father meeting my Rage Demon mate. His tempered violence matched my own.
“Who is first?” I called out to the waiting crowd.
They all shuffled nervously. Not one siren stepped forward.
I sighed. “Whatever happens here, I will punish no siren for the Beast’s behavior.”
A palpable relief surged through the room.
“The… we would like a singer for our ceremony. I will reward the one I choose today with a pouch of rubies.”
I whisper of excitement spread through the sirens. A young siren stepped forward.
“You would like to perform?”
“Yes?”
The Beast snorted.
“Next,” I snapped. “Either you want to perform, or you don’t.”
The young siren scampered from the room, tears glistening in her eyes. Another older siren I’d known since we were young children, a friend of Melanie, stepped forward. She was a siren I wouldn’t trust with my life. It was no surprise she’d stepped up to sing to lure my chosen mate away from me.
I nodded my head for her to proceed without giving her the satisfaction of calling her by her name.
She broke into a song so luring that I sensed every thread she weaved into the notes. The Beast stood unmoving, his expression was impassive to the effects of the siren’s voice. I gave his ears an inquisitive glance to see if he’d stuffed them with anything to block out the sound. Not that I saw. He said to trust him, so he wouldn’t place anything in his ears to stop the sirens’ sound from reaching him if he was endeavoring to gain my trust.
The siren finished and stepped back into the crowd. Another siren, who was just as beautiful as the first, stepped forward and burst into song. Her green gaze was intent on the Beast by my side as though she would lure him to her more by looking at him too.
The muscle in his jaw twitched.
Melanie leaned into my side. “This is the best idea. I can’t wait to see him lose his head when he succumbs to another siren.”
The Beast didn’t comprehend the severity of the consequences if another siren lured him away from me. Not only would it force me to kill him, but it would show me as weak. That my power was lesser. It would give those who weren’t happy with my rule a chance to overthrow me. I ran a finger over the staff in my lap. The smooth rubies soothed my turbulent emotions. I struggled to decipher if it was the thought of killing the Beast that made me so upset or the notion that I might lose my crown.
“He won’t,” I said with more conviction than I felt.
Trust him was what he wanted but trusting him with this was way beyond what he had in mind. My explanation should have been better to him before giving in to his demands. Damn him, I was the queen. I shouldn’t have let him push me into this because I was jealous my handmaiden saw him in all his naked, erect glory.
“Next,” I snapped when the siren ended her song.
Melanie smiled. “How many do you think he can withstand?”
I turned my head toward her. “Every single one.”
“Interesting. Want to place a small wager on it?”
“I’m not betting on my soon-to-be mate’s life.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You like him?”
“Liking him is subjective to the moment.” I rolled my shoulders. “When he’s giving me orgasms, I like him plenty.”
“I’ve said it more than once, you don’t need a mate for that.”
“Is it wrong to want what Mother and Father experienced?” I placed my hand over hers on the arm of her chair.
She blew out a breath between her pursed lips. “I suppose not.”
Another siren burst into song. Her voice was even more alluring than the two before her. I tilted my head, catching the exemplary notes she imbued in her song.
Melanie nodded her head at the Beast. “Perhaps you won’t get that with him, though.”
I risked a glance at the Beast. Sweat dotted his brow, but it was the only sign the siren’s song was affecting him. I longed to call a halt to the proceedings, but one after another, sirens sang for me and my soon-to-be mate. The Beast held steadfast the entire time, although I picked up on small twitches now and then from certain women. Hope flared inside my chest that perhaps I could trust him.
But how would I teach him to trust me enough to tell me his demon’s name? Then I’d have complete power over him.