126. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
A vania
I’ve done it now. I think I just signed my death warrant. I pulled a knife on the King! I can’t even claim it was a crime of passion. I brought the knife up from the banquet hall and held it under my pillow for hoaras just waiting for my new mate to join me.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to argue with him in public, and that the only way I could make my demands clear would be when we were one-on-one, when I could take him by surprise. I never wanted to hurt him. I just wanted to ensure he listened to me.
I sat at the small table at the side of the room, then laid in bed, waiting for my new mate to join me. Part of me was terrified of what it would be like when it was just the two of us alone in this room. The other part of me grew angrier and angrier at his disrespect.
Did he have no care in the world about how worried and alone I was? I know he had to greet all his courtiers and advisors, but I’ve been alone in here for hoaras growing more anxious by the minima .
He didn’t want to be mated to me. That’s obvious. He didn’t speak to me during dinner and certainly didn’t seem happy when the priestess conducted our mating ceremony. Now that I’ve pulled a knife on him, I’ve given him the perfect excuse to either divorce or kill me. I’m an idiot.
He’s still as a statue, just looking at me, his beautiful golden eyes narrowed. Is he deciding how to punish me? Or how to kill me?
His expression changes as his muscles loosen and his lips tip in a smile. Thrusting his head back, he chuckles and holds out his palm. As his laughter gets louder, his smile widens.
“Give me the knife, little mate.”
He beckons with his fingers, his palm facing up.
“Give me the knife and tell me about yourself. You’re angry I know nothing about you? You should be. Let’s talk.”
I gently place the knife in his palm, then snatch my hand away as if I were burned. Is he going to punish me? Dear Goddess, I just attacked the king of the planet and now he has the knife. Have I lost my mind?
He sets the knife on his carved wood bedside table and lies back, elbow bent, head on his palm as he looks at me.
“Tell me everything,” he says, his gentle voice hiding the softest purr.
“Really? You’re not going to…” My voice trails off as I mentally enumerate all the awful things he could do to me right now, with rape being the least of my concerns.
“I believe we were just mated for life under the laws of the land,” he says casually. “That means we have all the time in the world for me to stick my thing in your body.” He chuckles.
All the anger that had been building in me since I was pulled from my mother and thrust into the hover-limo fades into the background of my mind. Taking its place is curiosity about the male who’s looking at me as if he wants to hear everything I have to say.
He pats my pillow. “Lie down and hold my hand and tell me who you are, little mate.”
We talk for a while, but I’m suddenly hit with a blast of fatigue. It’s been a long, eventful day. I don’t even notice when sleep overtakes me as I listen to him tell me about how lonely he was at boarding school.
T he room is dark when I awaken, disorienting me. After a moment, I realize Valeris isn’t in my bed nor in the room. The heavy curtains, which let in a sliver of light last night, are pulled closed. Did he do that to help me sleep late?
I’m not surprised he’s gone. He’s the King. I’m sure he has more important things to do than waste time with me. I’ll have to figure out how to summon Blanesse, find some clothes that aren’t last night’s fancy robe or this ridiculously scanty lingerie they forced me to wear. Then I’ll figure out how to make myself useful around here. I’ll never be able to sit around all day like a highborn.
The door presses open without a knock and I’m surprised that instead of seeing Blanesse’s slim form, it’s Valeris’s wide-shouldered body silhouetted in the doorway.
“You’re up,” he says, then kicks the door shut with his booted foot and sets a tray on a table on the other side of the spacious room.
“I brought you breakfast.”
It’s so dim in here I can’t see his face, but is there a smile in his voice?
He opens the thick curtains and midmorning sunshine streams in. When was the last time I slept this late, I wonder.
“Breakfast is served,” he says with a smile.
It’s surprising I can manage to look at his face, because I can see so much of his body. Well, not all of his body, but enough to stun me. Instead of the thick robes he wears on vids or at last night’s ceremony, he’s wearing silken pants that ride low on his waist. That’s it. Was he just wandering around the palace with nothing on but those flimsy trousers?
His torso is the most masculine thing I’ve ever seen. His pelt is darker than mine, even more golden. And thicker, although all that fur doesn’t hide the hills and valleys of his muscular chest or broad shoulders.
He carries his tail high and still, an indication of calm expectation. If I were standing, mine would be swishing low and swift, a tell that I’m unsettled.
Look at him in the sunlight. He’s beautiful. More beautiful than any male I’ve ever seen. And he’s in the same room as me. And he’s the king!
“Your clothes will be delivered shortly, but in the meantime…” He stalks to the bed, lifts the spread as he turns his head to give me privacy, and says, “Wrap yourself in this. I wouldn’t want you worried all through breakfast that I’m thinking about where to put my thing .”
Is the King of all Ton’arr teasing me? Now that he’s close, it’s impossible not to notice how handsome he is. I shake my head and get my thoughts back online as I slip out of bed and let him wrap the thick spread around me.
He pulls out the chair for me and removes the top of my dish, then sits and gets ready to dig into his breakfast. The fancy highborn king brought us both food instead of having a servant do it. I wonder whose idea it was to add the small, round crystal bowl with one perfect crimson pellum flower floating in it?
“I’ll always think of you when I see or smell one of these flowers,” he says around a bite of food, as if bringing me this flower was nothing.
Now I wish I hadn’t washed with mellara last night and had used the pellum -scented products.
Wait. I’m awash with so many thoughts and feelings. I’m in this abominable forced mating, living in the capital city instead of my little village. I was wrenched out of my mother’s grip and she wasn’t even allowed to attend my mating ceremony. I should be livid and have every right to be resentful. How, in the span of only a few hoaras , did I become thrilled with the idea that Valeris is acting nice to me?
“How about this?” I tease as I hold up a paring knife that came on my plate along with a nernia fruit. “What will you think of when you see one of these?”
His expression changes. Darn. Did I say the wrong thing? I thought he was over what I did last night. I feel my emotions tumble from lighthearted to fear.
“I’ll think,” he pauses, his voice deep and raspy, “about putting my thing inside you.”
My lids fly open wider as my mouth suddenly becomes dry as dust. Swirly things happen inside my body, especially below my waist.
I can no longer hold his gaze, but his has deserted me as well. He’s busying himself with the nernia , cutting it into perfect slices with the knife we’re both focused on. Spearing a piece with the knife’s tip, he reaches it out to me as a peace offering. When I lift my hand to grab it, he silently shakes his head and places it near my mouth.
Although it’s just a piece of fruit, when my tongue reaches out to snag it, it feels like our bodies are having a different, silent conversation that has nothing to do with the words coming out of our mouths.
The moment passes, and Valeris says, “I’ve got the day planned.”
My stomach squeezes at this. I shouldn’t care what he does today. We’ve already spent a lot of time together and we haven’t even known each other for a full day. He’s the King. I’m sure he has important business to take care of.
“As soon as you finish breakfast and freshen up, your clothes should start arriving.”
“You sent to my house for my clothes?” I interrupt. “How’s my mother?”
“No. The clothes I’m referring to are the ones I had half the seamstresses in the capital city stay up all night sewing. Surely, something they bring is going to be perfect for what I have planned for the rest of the day.”
“Go on,” I urge, even as the back of my mind wonders if he has something horrible in mind, like forcing me to study which fork to use for what course the next time we eat in the banquet hall. He didn’t sit next to me for more than a moment, but did he notice the place setting baffled me?
“Surprises, little mate. I have surprises planned.”
Somehow, my worries vanish when I look at his expression. It’s kind and happy and… indulgent. I do not doubt his surprises will be pleasant.
“I’ll have Blanesse attend to your bath and you two can sort out the clothing situation. Hurry. I’ve planned a lot of surprises.”
When did he have time for that?
Valeris
I’m intrigued by my new little mate. As petulant as I was yesterday, having to watch the outdated spectacle played out for all the world to see, I’ve changed my opinion. I’m going to give this mating a chance—give Avania a chance—before I relegate her to the east wing.
Perhaps she needed to pull that knife on me last night to wake me out of my stupor. I’m the King of Ton’arr. I have advisors for a reason, but I’m the ultimate arbiter of decisions. I don’t have to, as Mathene put it, breed my new mate within moments of meeting her. She’s obviously shy and untouched. I can’t imagine how it must have felt when my staff dragged her here and offered her up like a sacrifice to her king.
She may have been the one demanding it last night, but I, too, want to get to know her.