by Leigh Walker
His dark gaze searched me. “I hope that you find this dinner fit for a queen.”
“You spoil me, Your Highness.” My heart skipped a beat. “I could get quite used to this, you know.”
“Ah.” His face relaxed into a smile. “Good. So could I. I imagine that dining with you every night would be a real pleasure.”
My heart continued to beat a bit wildly, but I smiled back. I wanted to ask him if he meant that, but I stopped myself. Patience, Tamara. “That would be lovely, wouldn’t it? We could discuss politics and manners and the nuances of what Elsa likes to eat,” I chided.
“Did I say pleasure?” He chuckled. “I meant pain, I think.”
“Ha-ha.” I accepted a goblet from a passing server. I was relieved to taste red wine rather than that blasted punch Mira had been serving recently. “This pinot is delicious.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Tonight is about you, my lady. I want you to be happy.” Rhys held his glass toward mine. “Cheers, Lady Layne. To us.”
“To us.” I wasn’t sure I could trust that he meant forever, so I vowed to live in the moment. The king often said things that made me believe that, in the end, he would choose me. But I wouldn’t know for sure until the bitter end.
I drank deeply from my goblet. To us, indeed. Every second counted. I wasn’t sure how many I had left.
Nan absolutely outdid herself with the meal. She’d prepared a plump roast turkey, complete with cornbread stuffing, roasted brussels sprouts, and fresh cranberry relish. For dessert, the servers brought out carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I moaned as I put down my fork. “I can’t eat another bite.”
“This is the best meal I’ve ever had.” Rhys raised his goblet, and a nearby server refilled it. “Nan needs some sort of award. I didn’t even know food could taste this good.”
I wanted to chide him about his werewolf diet and roasting squirrels over an open flame, but I couldn’t because we were being filmed. In some ways, I was afraid of the contest coming to an end, but in other ways, it would be a relief. Free speech was a beautiful thing. I hadn’t missed it until I had to mind my every word.
Rhys drained his glass and set it down. “Lady Layne, would you like to take a walk with me?”
I rose, grinning at him. “I’d love to. Although I’m not sure if I’ll be able to move after such a feast.”
“You can lean on me.” Rhys wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. “Would you like anything else before we go, my lady?”
I grinned. “I can only think of one thing, Your Highness.”
“Ah.” His eyes glittered as he pulled me closer. “There is something I would like as well.”
I put my hands on his chest. The problem with caring so deeply for him was that I could never truly know if Rhys felt the same as me. That made me feel vulnerable, something I despised. But sometimes I had to take a risk. I gathered my courage. “I’m so glad to be here with you.”
He brushed the hair back from my face, and his gaze locked with mine. “As am I, my lady. More than I can say.”
Warmth swelled inside me as Rhys lowered his lips to mine. First he kissed me gently, then with more insistence. His lips parted mine slowly, and I ran my hands over his powerful chest. The king sank his hands into my hair, pulling me closer, and I had the odd sensation that he was trying to pull me through him.
Duncan burst through the door. “Your Highness!” His cheeks were flushed as though he’d just run some distance. “I need to speak with you at once.”
“Cut,” Mira Kinney yelled. “Cut!” The crew quickly stopped filming, and she threw her hands up in the air. “What on earth are you doing, Duncan? Besides ruining my broadcast? I’ll have your hide for this!”
“Apologies, Mira, but I need to speak with the king.” His gaze sought Rhys’s. “In private.”
Rhys’s expression turned stormy. “Excuse me, my lady.” He immediately released me and followed his advisor out into the hall. I ran after them but stopped when I reached the edge of the dark corridor.
Duncan paced before the king. “We’re not off to a good start, Your Highness. She’s like a wildcat, I tell you. I had to gag her, but she still wouldn’t stop screaming. We need to do something, and fast.”
Rhys scrubbed a hand across his face. “I don’t want you to hurt her—not yet at least.”
Duncan stopped pacing and scoffed. “She’s a trader. We don’t exactly need to mind our manners!”
“Just hold on a moment.” I picked up the skirt of my gown as I ran so that I could reach them faster. “Are you talking about Maya?”
Duncan threw his hands up in the air. “This is official royal business. It’s not for you to get all in a huff about, Missus. The lady is my prisoner, and I’ll do with her as I see fit.”
“No, you won’t.” Rhys stepped forward. “She’s my prisoner, and you’ll do with her as I command you.”
I nodded at Rhys. “Thank you.”
He stared straight ahead, his jaw taut. “You shouldn’t be here, Tamara. I don’t want you to be exposed to this. It’s not your problem to worry about.”
I frowned. “It’s absolutely my problem to worry about. Maya’s one of us. She’s a contestant, and she’s here because of me.”
“I disagree with that summary, my lady. This prisoner isn’t your concern. Now please go. That’s an order.”
My jaw gaped as I headed back toward the dining room. He did not just say that. But he had—he’d ordered me away. Anger flooded me, hot and boiling, as I heard him giving Duncan directions. “You may not hurt her, but keep the gag on. We can’t have her screaming her head off, calling all sorts of attention to the dungeon. We’ve got enough to worry about at the moment.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Duncan said.
Rhys’s steps thundered behind me. “Tamara, hold on.”
I didn’t stop. I stalked straight past the dining room and headed for the stairs. “I don’t actually take orders from you, Your Highness.”
“We’re on a date,” he hissed. “The production crew’s waiting for us.”
“So command them to sod off.” I didn’t look back. “I’ve got better things to do.”
“My lady, stop right there.” When I didn’t, he sprinted down the hall after me and took me by the elbow.
“Let go of me!” I wrenched away from him.
He took a step back and held his hands up, as if in surrender. “My lady, please.”
I scowled at him. “Don’t ‘my lady’ me.”
“Fine.” His nostrils flared. “As King of the Realm, I command you to return to our date. And don’t be mad at me—that’s an order, too.”
I put my hands on my hips. “As a member of the royal court, I command you to stop ordering me around. If I’m mad at you, that’s my right. And if I refuse to return to our evening, that’s also my choice.”
He took a deep breath, and I had the impression that he was perhaps counting backward from ten before he spoke again. “Tamara, don’t be ridiculous.”
I lifted my chin. “Calling me ‘ridiculous’ is most likely the worst choice of action you could undertake, Your Highness. You might want to check your judgment, as it seems a bit off-kilter this evening.”
The muscle in his jaw jumped. “I am trying to deal with all manner of things, including keeping both you and my kingdom safe.” Rhys lowered his voice. “Now please, return with me to the dining room so that we might continue our date.”
“I don’t want to.” I stared up at him. “You need to understand something, Your Highness. If we’re to be in a relationship together—or heaven forbid, a marriage—I will only accept treatment as an equal. I might make for exceptional arm candy, but I refuse to be limited to such a ridiculous role. You may be ruler of the Realm, but I am standing right next to you. I have advice and an opinion on most things, including the fate of the girl you’ve dragged up here and taken prisoner allegedly on my behalf. I will not stand by as your puppet or your ma
nnequin.”
“No one, especially me, has asked you to be a puppet. What I have asked you to do is stand down when I’m giving an order to my advisor, particularly when I haven’t shared with him that you’re aware of the situation. Is that at least sensible to you on some level?”
“You could’ve told him I knew. You could have simply spoken up.”
Rhys sighed. “We happen to be under significant time constraints—and by that, I mean the date that we need to get back to before Mira goes on the warpath. Do you understand?”
I jutted my chin. “Of course I understand, but I still don’t like it. We aren’t talking about just one incident either. We’re talking about a lifestyle choice.”
Rhys’s brow furrowed. “I might’ve had too much wine, my lady, but I can’t make you out. What are you talking about?”
“I am talking about the fact that by the end of the week, you’re going to propose to one of us.” I started to pace. “How can I hope to be the winner if there’s a chance you might exclude me from important decisions for the rest of my life? What if you order me about like you did a moment ago? Am I supposed to be excited about that as my future? Life as the Realm’s queen sounds quite grim at the moment. In between worrying that you’re going to get shot full of silver on the battlefield, I’ll be relegated to a life on the sidelines as your placeholder of a wife. But then again, perhaps it doesn’t matter. I’ve got the contest to worry about. You might go ahead and choose Joely instead of me, and then all this will be moot.”
Rhys gaped at me. “You’ve got quite a lot going on underneath all that hair of yours. I don’t even know where to start.”
I stopped pacing and glared at him. “The feeling’s mutual.”
Rhys held out his hand. “Walk with me, my lady. I will try to make this better, at least in part.”
I considered escaping to my room but hesitated. “The show must go on, I suppose.”
His expression softened. “I suppose it must.”
I begrudgingly accepted his hand, and we went back toward the dining room.
Mira waited outside, tapping her foot and wearing a scowl on her face. “Are you ready to get back to work?”
“The lady and I need a few more minutes.” Rhys nodded at her. “We’ll be right back. I promise. And I also promise that we’ll make the episode lively. Won’t we, my lady?” He nudged me with his big shoulder.
“S-Sure.” As I was still quite mad, it was the best I could come up with.
Mira’s lips pursed into a thin line as Rhys hustled me down the hall. “Please don’t make me wait much longer,” she called after us. “I might get into the wine.”
“Go ahead. You deserve some.” Rhys didn’t turn around. “We’ll be back soon!”
A Chilly Reunion
I followed Rhys into the entryway of the castle then down the stairs to the lower level. It was pitch-black in the bowels of the building, with only the occasional torch giving off some brightness. “You might want to add some lighting down here. Humans can’t see as well as supernaturals, you know.”
Rhys nodded. “I’ll take care of it. But I hope you won’t have to visit the dungeon often. It’s only meant to be used in emergencies.”
“Hopefully having prisoners will be a rare occurrence for the Realm.” I was quiet for a minute as we crept down the hall. “What did you tell her?” He knew who I meant.
“The messenger said that she was being invited back to the contest. Maya believed it easily. She didn’t hesitate to return. It was only once she got here and Duncan told her that she was going to be punished that she started to act up.”
I stopped walking. “Well, I don’t blame her. That was a nasty trick, Rhys.”
He sighed. “I know it was. But I didn’t see that I had many options. What was I supposed to have him say? ‘Hello, Maya. Please come to the Realm with me so that we can throw your lying behind into the dungeon. You’ll be right next to your little vampire friend.’ I don’t think that would’ve seemed like an attractive offer. Do you?”
“She shouldn’t be here. This feels wrong, Your Highness.” We started walking again, and my stomach filled with dread. “Her crime doesn’t rise to this level.”
“As I’ve told you before, we can agree to disagree about that.” Rhys’s voice was firm.
“What if word of her kidnapping spreads? What will you say?” Terrible scenarios took over my thoughts. If King Black found out that Rhys had acted against one of his constituents without consulting him, he would be enraged. Because of her participation in the show, Maya was well-known in the settlements. This was dangerous territory, worse than I’d considered.
We reached the dungeon before I was ready. “Here we are.” Rhys took the keys out. “You might want to stay in the hall.”
“N-No.” My mouth had suddenly gone dry. “I need to speak with Maya. Hiding would be cowardly.” I braced myself as Rhys unlocked the door and we entered the small antechamber. Thankfully, the castle was new enough that even the cellar and its prison were relatively clean and dry. But that was the only good news. Once we’d gone in, we heard crying—a muffled, ugly sound—from inside one of the cells.
“Who’s there?” The vampire girl, the one who’d lured me out onto the grounds in the middle of the night, banged on the inside of her door. “I can smell you! Who goes there?”
“It’s Rhys.” The werewolf king’s voice was composed. “We are not here to speak with you, Jenny. We’re here for someone else.”
“I know it’s Maya next door to me! I heard them bring her in!” Jenny yelled. “And I can smell that other human with you—Tamara. Tamara, please! Let us out of here! Maya’s one of you. I don’t know what they’re going to do with us!”
“It’s okay.” As soon as I spoke, the wailing from the cell next to Jenny’s ceased. “Everything’s going to be okay. Maya, are you in there?”
A moan reverberated inside her room.
“She can’t talk, you see,” Jenny babbled. “That other wolf bound and gagged her. It’s not safe. She probably can’t breathe properly! He kept yelling, and he sounded as though he was being quite rough. You must check on her.”
“Open the door at once,” I commanded Rhys.
He shook his head. “Tamara, I don’t think this is a good idea. She’s fine. Duncan didn’t hurt her.”
Maya moaned again, and Jenny yelled, “I wouldn’t be so sure about that!”
Rhys cursed. He paused as he gripped the keys. “I think you should go wait outside.”
“And I think you should know that I’m not the sort of person who hides from hard things. Open the door, Your Highness.”
Without another word, he swung the cell door wide. Inside was a sorry sight indeed. Maya’s camel-colored traveling gown was dirty and heavily creased. Her long hair was mussed and knotty, and her dark mascara was streaked across her cheeks. Her hands and feet were bound together, and her mouth was covered with a tightly fitted gag.
I had no love for Maya, but seeing her in such a state made me feel ill. “Get the bindings off of her.”
Rhys did as I asked. As he worked to free her, Maya looked at him with sad eyes. When he took the gag off, she moved her mouth for a moment, opening and closing it as though her jaw hurt. Her skin was pale beneath her smudged makeup. Finally, she asked in a gravelly voice, “What have I done to deserve this, Your Highness? I thought that we were at least friends.”
“We were, my lady.” His big shoulders sank as he loosened the binds around her ankles. “But I’m afraid you’ve done some things that a friend would not do. That’s why you’re here.”
“This has got her mark all over it.” Her eyes filled with tears, and her gaze flicked up to me. “You’ve always hated me. This was your doing, Tamara.”
“That’s not true. Just because we weren’t close doesn’t mean I have any ill will toward you. I’m quite sorry to see you like this.”
“Oh, of course.” She laughed hollowly as her tears spilled over. “
I’m sure you absolutely hate seeing me in a rumpled dress, my reputation ruined, and the man I love disgusted with me.”
Rhys looked up at her. “I’m not disgusted with you, my lady. Not at all. I’m merely disappointed.”
“Disappointed why?” Her shoulders shook as she sobbed. “Tell me what I’ve done wrong, and I’ll fix it!”
Rhys handed her a handkerchief then gently sank down onto the floor, facing her. He sat with his arms around his knees. “It’s come to my attention, by way of the vampire, Jenny, next door, that you’ve tried to ruin the contest. It’s not something I can take lightly, I’m afraid.”
“I didn’t tell them anything. I held out as long as I could,” Jenny called from next door. It sounded as though she were crying too. “I didn’t talk until I had to, Maya. I swear.”
Maya didn’t answer her. Instead, she looked pleadingly at the werewolf king. “Whatever Jenny told you, it’s a lie. She’s a traitor and a thief.”
Rhys smiled patiently. “A traitor and a thief hired by you. You paid her to come to the Realm and spread lies to Lady Layne.”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “Please believe me—I’m innocent. My whole life, people have been doing terrible things to me because they’re jealous. Jealous of my beauty, jealous of my popularity. This is no different. I would never do anything to hurt you, Your Highness. I love you. All I want is to be your queen. I’ve been heartbroken since you sent me home. When your messenger came to me, I was so relieved. I thought you’d finally come to your senses.”
Rhys took a deep breath. “I am so sorry that you’re disappointed in the way the contest turned out.”
Maya stared at him imploringly. “It’s not too late for us.”
“I’m sorry, but it is,” he said gently. “I don’t care much for hurting people’s feelings. I never meant to hurt yours, but I had to send people home. Those are the rules.”