by Meg Xuemei X
So Marrok had expected me? Then why the heck had he gone hunting while I visited?
Antonio bowed slightly. He’d never paid me such reverence before, though he’d never been rude to me either.
“If King Marrok isn’t around, I have no intention of lingering,” I said, the words ‘King Marrok’ sounding amusingly ridiculous on my tongue. “When he returns, he can come to the Witch Tower if he wants.”
“Would you put me in a tough spot, Kaara?” Antonio asked, applying the tone of we-used-to-fight-together. “He’ll be furious with me if he learns later that we failed to make you comfortable here.”
“I’m comfortable,” I said. “But I’m not going to stay here for a week just to wait for him.”
“It won’t be that long,” Antonio said. “He should be back soon. I’ve sent a backup team to track him and tell him that you’re here. In the meanwhile, have a drink in our bar. You do know we have a bar here, right?”
Both my escorts widened their eyes and looked at me with longing. I sighed. I needed a drink, too, after this dusty journey and hearing the wolves howling for hours. Last time when Marrok had asked me out, he’d mentioned a glass of fine wine.
“What do you have?” I asked.
Antonio grinned. “Come and see.”
He led us toward a flat building. Through the glass door, I could see weightlifting gears among other fitness equipment.
“You have a gym here?” I asked incredulously.
“We’ve been around the block long enough,” he said, “almost as long as the bloodsuckers. It isn’t just surviving for us anymore.”
Or they would end up mad like most exiles.
But for us who lived in the Witch Tower, it was all about surviving.
“You do know one day,” I asked quietly, “and the day would come sooner than we know, this planet will blow up in smoke and flame?”
“We live in the moment and make the best out of every second,” Antonio said. “So even when the fire and ashes swallow this planet and us, we’ll still go down with our best selves. That is my king’s motto, and we’ve all learned it by heart.”
No wonder the wolf clan remained on top. They had a strong leader.
Pride swelled in my chest.
After a few more turns between buildings, we heard violins floating ahead.
“Music!” Pattern said blissfully.
“It’s not live music,” Antonio said with a shrug. “The bartender opened the enchanted music box to impress Lady Nightshades.”
So every shifter knew I was in the Keep after the three wolves had howled.
“It’s the same song playing over and over,” Antonio complained.
“I’ll listen to it over and over for a thousand nights,” Pattern said. “And a bar? I’d give up an arm—no, a pinky—for a drink.”
I was certain if the wolves recruited him, he’d abandon us on spot.
We approached a red wooden house in the center of the square.
Antonio sent me a sidelong glance. “You don’t look too impressed.” Then he chuckled. “You don’t look that impressed with my king either. That secretly pissed him off. He expected you’d pull his strings harder than any female could, but he was ill prepared that his mate resisted him at every turn. No woman has turned him down.”
“I didn’t set out to piss him off,” I said. “I’m not petty, but I do have principles and standards.”
“Your Royal Highness thinks my king and all of us are savages,” Antonio said in a mocking tone.
I sympathized with his struggle. I’d been the Kaara whom he’d always dealt and been wary of for nearly three years, and then overnight I grew two heads and turned out to be his king’s destined mate.
“We all have to be savages in order to live another day,” I said as I read the sign A Wolf’s Howl & Dream on the red bar’s wooden door.
I almost chuckled. Who would have thought the wolf king was actually a dreamer?
But if the dreamer didn’t show up in two hours, I’d leave. I didn’t have the whole day.
A Wolf’s Howl & Dream had a long bar, wood, and brass. Oil lamps hung from the half-enclosed high ceiling, lighting the bar. Old paintings adorned the walls.
The atmosphere immediately brought back nostalgia of the old days when my princess and I had frequented the empire’s most notorious bars in disguise.
I eyed the variety of liquor bottles on the shelves.
The wolves were resourceful, trying to enjoy every moment they could on this godforsaken planet.
A melody emitted from a small automated musical box. A tiny, lithe ballerina twirled on the small stage of the box. It was surreal to hear a piano again, even if it was a recording, made happen by magic.
The bar was half occupied. The patrons were all male shifters in their humanoid forms. At my entry, everyone quieted and stared at me. My companions and I had to be the first outsiders who had come so far and stayed alive. Antonio glared at them in annoyance, and the shifters resumed their drinks. Yet they hushed their conversations, so they could hear ours.
I settled at the bar.
The bartender was an older shifter who wore a pair of gold earrings.
“Whiskey, spirit, or local brew, my lady?” he asked.
“What’s your house special?” I said.
“Fuzzy Devil.”
I blinked. Who in their sane mind would want to drink something called Fuzzy Devil?
“What is it?” I asked.
“A cocktail Lou blended. He named it after his late hell cat.”
“Just whisky, dry,” I said.
“Your loss,” Lou grunted, poured me the drink, before sauntering to serve my escorts.
I took a drag of the booze, and my throat burned. I liked the fire.
“How’s it?” Lou asked.
“The wolf pack lives in sin,” I murmured.
Lou laughed, but Antonio stared at me, shook his head, and drank water from a mug.
The pun was lost on him, and I swallowed a bar joke that I used to tell in Lithuaria. Antonio wouldn’t get it anyway. Now as I recalled, he’d never displayed any sense of humor.
Marrok, on the other hand, was hilarious.
“How did Marrok become a king?” I asked, putting down the shot on the counter.
“He inherited it,” Antonio said. “He’s from the most ancient royal bloodline.”
“Don’t shifter alphas rise by challenging and killing former alphas?” I asked.
I didn’t know exactly how the pack’s hierarchy worked, though I’d gleaned intel here and there and took a guess. I’d only learned of the existences of shifters, vampires, undead cannibals, and winged Furies among others after I’d come to this planet.
“No one dared challenge Marrok,” Antonio said. “He’s the strongest among us all. There’s no contest.”
“How did he end up here then, if he came from the uncontested, long royal bloodline?”
Antonio gave me a sullen look, his mug half empty. “Our pack fought a larger leopard shifter pack. We lost the war because we were betrayed. The king’s cousin wanted the throne. The usurper poisoned the king and queen—Marrok’s parents—and kept our back door open for the leopards. My parents were slaughtered in the riot as well.”
“And the survivors escaped to this planet?”
That might have been the only choice for them. Who in their right minds would chase the remnants of the shifters to Pandemonium? Then again, an Eshmaki had come to assassinate Fia, so it was possible that the leopards and Marrok’s uncle would send an army to root out Marrok, the last of the royal bloodline. Though the army wouldn’t have a fat chance surviving a crash on the arena and then having to fight through the savage clans.
“We were banished,” Antonio said. “Shifter law won’t allow anyone to slay the younglings. If they killed Marrok, other shifter packs would go after them. And the rest of the wolf pack wouldn’t follow the usurper. So our enemies dumped us—all children who were loyal to the throne—to
Pandemonium and promised that the punishment would be worse than death.” He pointed at Lou. “He was the oldest among us. When we were exiled, he was one month short of sixteen, so they couldn’t execute him.”
I drew a cold breath, my heart going out for my wolf. “How old was Marrok when he came here?”
“Seven,” Lou said as he polished a glass.
Being exiled to Pandemonium was indeed the worst punishment. Marrok and his loyal pack were only prolonging their death sentence. After their generation, there’d be no more wolves left.
I could tell them that there was a chance to get out of here, but giving people hope was also dangerous. I had no evidence whatsoever to persuade them, and even my faith had been fading every day the damned Angel didn’t fall.
The wolves had only been children when they’d first crashed here. How had they survived? Tough criminals were killed on a daily basis.
My questions had to be written all over my face, since Antonio and Lou’s were shining with pride.
“His Majesty stepped up and took command immediately,” Antonio said.
“At seven?” I asked.
“He was a brilliant strategist. He was ten times better than any adult,” Lou said, pride sparkling in his eyes. “His Majesty led us to become the most powerful clan here. The wolf pack lives long and prospers!”
“The wolf pack lives long and prospers!” the rest of the shifters in the bar echoed, clinking their glasses, and taking a drag of their drink.
Otsana and Pattern also clinked their glasses and drank eagerly.
“I don’t think you came here for a history lesson, Kaara,” Antonio said. “Is your visit personal or business?”
“A little bit of both,” I said, glancing at the bracelet on my wrist. “Does Marrok always go on long hunting trips?”
“No,” Antonio said.
I sighed in resignation. The shifters were all tight-lipped, except their alpha. Marrok probably didn’t talk much either, but with me, he was different. He had to charm me to get laid, didn’t he? I didn’t like fucking mutes. I secretly liked dirty talk.
“Akem won’t appreciate aliens hunting his animals.”
“Marrok went hunting for the vampire,” Antonio said.
I winced. They also ate vampires? Stars!
“The one who bit you,” Antonio added. “The vampire tasted your blood, so he would hunt you soon. Marrok must take out the threat first.”
I swallowed. “He went to the vampires’ territory?”
“That’s the only way,” Antonio said.
Fear pumped into my heart. Marrok went there for me. What if he perished? What if I never saw him again?
“I didn’t ask him to do that for me,” I said as pain and anger throbbed in my veins. “I could have handled it myself. I was going to handle it.”
“You’re his mate,” Antonio said simply.
“How many shifters did he take with him?” I asked.
“Two.”
I narrowed my eyes to slits. “Two?” My hands balled into fists, ready to punch Antonio and every other shifter. How dared they let their king into the bloodsuckers’ realm practically alone? Where was their fucking loyalty? Hadn’t Marrok given them a chance at survival?
“I volunteered,” Antonio said, not caring much about the dark fire in my eyes, “but my king turned me down.”
Blood drained from my face, and my body went cold. He’d gone on the hunt for my sake, but had he ever considered what it would do to me if he didn’t make it? I would kick him in the balls to teach him a lesson if he returned. If he returned? No, he had to return. When he did, I wouldn’t kick him. I would let him do whatever he wanted with me.
Make it back, please, I begged.
“He refused to take the army with him,” Antonio murmured. “It’s personal for him.”
Marrok had wanted to spare his army.
“His Majesty always has a sound reason behind his every decision,” Lou said, eyeing me as he filled my shot. “He’ll be fine. He’s the strongest shifter in thousands of years. The two wolves he took with him are the finest. An army won’t get the vampire, but the three of them will. They’re moving shadows.”
I didn’t care about Marrok’s reason and confidence. Vampires were creatures of shadow! I didn’t care that his men were trying to convince me he’d be fine. I was going after him.
I rose from my seat. “Could you spare a shifter to help me track him down?”
“Kaara, if we ever put you in harm’s way—” Before Antonio could finish his sentence, the door to the bar flung open, and a gorgeous, brown-haired woman charged in.
Filing after her were three other women wearing identical, pissy looks on their faces.
Antonio tensed beside me, as did everyone else in the bar.
Their reactions and the three female shifters backing up the lead woman could only mean one thing—she was, or at least used to be, the queen bee.
Her hazel eyes fell on me like a pair of knives. Her consciousness had no room for anything else but jealousy and red-hot hatred, and they promised violence.
Chapter 15
The knockout had to be Marrok’s former lover. Maybe she was still his, judging from her bad attitude.
I’d never asked Marrok for commitment, but he’d demanded absolute fidelity from me. If she was still his woman, I’d make him eat mud, King or not.
The woman, armed with an axe, halted in front of me. “So, you’re the one who left her stench all over Marrok.” She had a husky voice that could be sexy if she refrained from adding meanness into it. Any woman who carried an axe was both hot and scary.
All other shifters called Marrok ‘His Majesty’, but this woman seemed to have earned the privilege of calling him by his first name.
The bar became deadly quiet and heads turned to us.
This was all very annoying. I’d come a long way to look for Marrok, in the hopes of getting laid properly since I no longer needed to worry about being knocked up—thanks to Fia—before returning to the Witch Tower. That was all I wanted. Now I had to deal with his former lover, instead of riding waves of orgasms.
I wasn’t a stranger to a bar fight, but I had no intention of starting one today. I was more than anxious to go find Marrok and aid him. After I made sure he was alive, we could solve the issue about past lovers like two adults.
Were all the women staring me down his mistresses?
Stars! The wolf king’s sexual appetite was insatiable.
Fury formed a ball in my stomach.
From now on, he could fuck himself or whoever else for all I cared, but he wouldn’t get a piece of my ass again.
I used my empathic ability to lock the bitterness, dread, jealousy, and black rage away, as if they were someone else’s.
Pattern and Otsana bared their teeth, even though they weren’t wolves. They rose to their feet, hands moving to the hilts of their swords. Their message was clear: We’ve got your six, Kaara. We’ll bring down the axe bitch and any of her fucking allies.
I gave the four women a quick evaluation.
“Daciana!” Antonio warned.
She ignored him. “I’ll wash away your stink from him and replace it with mine tonight.”
I turned to her and asked in a straight face, “You mean to replace it with your stench?”
“How dare you!” she shrieked, nostrils flaring.
“I dare all sorts of things, and you might not have the mind to sort them out,” I said, letting a cold, mocking smile tug up the corner of my lips and fanned at my nose. “I hope your king will appreciate your odor if you can—what did you say—replace it with—” I turned to my companions. “Hey, do you think I smell?”
“Yes!” Otsana said. “You smell like sweet peach.”
“More like the lemon pie I had in my home planet,” Pattern said.
Did he mean I smelled sour? I would have to set him straight after this was over.
“Whore!” Daciana spat.
“Back off
, Daciana,” Antonio said.
“She insults me and you tell me to back down?”
“Don’t do this,” Antonio said. “Just walk away and we’ll forget what happened here.”
“It’s either her or me,” Daciana said, her hatred-burned eyes gluing to me the whole time. “I challenge you to a death duel!”
“What kind of planet did I fall to?” I murmured, more to myself than to anyone else. “I constantly have to fight for food, water, and shelter. And now I have to fight for the right to fuck a man?”
The shifters in the background roared with laughter and some almost choked themselves. They now regarded me in a different light, and all of them looked on with excited anticipation.
Who wouldn’t want to watch two women fight over their king?
Daciana was taller and broader than me. The axe would look ridiculous in my hand, but she wielded it like a professional killer. Of course, she was one. Anyway, it made her appear more than cool. As a wolf shifter, she also possessed super strength.
Without a doubt in her mind, Daciana believed she could cut me down like a ripe cherry.
I drew my angelblade, and it flashed a menacing light.
Yes, baby, it’s playtime again.
The angelblade never tired of maiming and slaying.
“Death duel? That sounds fun,” I said.
After handling her, I’d go for Marrok. No one would be able to stop me. And perhaps Antonio would help me track him. No matter how his women or former women treated me, I couldn’t stand to see Marrok perish.
“Any time,” I said. “And I’m more than happy to oblige you if you want it to happen right here.”
A few cheers sounded from the north corner.
“Whore!” Daciana screamed. “Think you’re funny just because you opened your legs for Marrok?”
“I’m funnier with my legs closed.”
Deep laughter bellowed through the bar. Daciana and her minions glared at me with venom as if I’d personally slapped their grandmother.
Antonio shook his head and glanced at me strangely. It was the first time he was seeing this playful side of me. In the past, he’d been mildly guarded with me because I’d tricked him a few times and made him give up a small share of his raids, but I’d always informed him of the food sources and let his men do the heavy lifting while me and my team played the role of the sidekick.