Catriona didn’t look convinced. Her gaze lingered on my face, as if she could see the truth I was trying desperately to hide. Perhaps she even knew.
“Well,” Sorcha said cheerfully, oblivious to the tension. “I am hopeful of finding my Resonant. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be at the dinner tonight? We’re hosting quite a few of your mother’s allies who’ve come from all reaches of the planet. Many have already arrived.”
“Wait—already?” I asked, blinking. “How many are here?”
“Lady Kaelthra of the Zyr Council,” Sorcha said brightly, ticking the names off on her fingers. “And her mate, Lord Zyren.Oh! And Lord Lorient—that’s your uncle—and his wife, Lady Iressa. There are a few others, but I don’t remember all their names. But they’re unmated. Or their sons are. Most of them brought the whole family. I think everyone is curious about you.”
I stared at her, not interested in unmated males. I had a betrothed I hated and a general in my bed last night who was most likely my Resonant. I had more males than I could handle.
Except I definitely handled Addan the night before.
“They’re all here?” What the hell was the Zyr Council? It sounded like something out of a sci-fi TV show. God, it wasn’t fiction, it was real.
“Yes,” Catriona said. Her tone was more serious, the caution returning. “Time is of the essence. Your arrival will only remain a secret for so long now. There are spies everywhere, Paige. If we don’t act quickly, Queen Alienor will learn about you before we’re ready.”
Act quickly doing what?
The weight of her words settled over me. This wasn’t just a dinner. It was a strategy meeting. Every lord and lady sitting at that table tonight would be assessing me, deciding whether I was worth fighting for. Worth committing treason for.
The thought made my chest tighten and made me roll my shoulders back even more.
No wonder they wanted me to look exactly like my mother. I could be her twin in this dress. The hair. I looked almost exactly the way my mother did in that portrait.
Was I just a pawn to the Natosi family? A clone to get the people to accept a replacement queen? Or, an even more terrifying thought, were these people—Addan’s people, his family—responsible for my parents' deaths, for overthrowing hundreds of years of my family’s rule? Was I blind to their true intentions because all I could think about was the way Addan’s dick made me forget my own name?
I’d always heard that men thought with their “little head”. What if I was thinking with my vag instead of my brain? What if I was, right now, surrounded by traitors who wanted to use me to take control of the planet?
The only way I was going to find out the truth was to get inside Queen’s Castle and find cold, hard evidence about who murdered my mother. Just because Addan gave me mind-numbing orgasms didn’t mean his family, or their so-called allies, were innocent. I knew nothing about this planet. I’d just arrived. And, of the little time I’d been here, most of it had been spent in Addan’s bed. Or on top of his desk. Or on the floor. Up against the wall…
Jeeeez. I really was a horny wench.
A soft chime echoed through the room, and Catriona straightened, rolling her own shoulders back, brushing invisible wrinkles from her gown. “It’s time for dinner. Everyone will be waiting.”
I glanced at myself in the mirror one last time. The girl staring back at me looked regal, composed… powerful. But inside, my thoughts were anything but. Besides my I-now-rule-the-planet problems, I now had a guy issue. A double guy issue.
I was marrying a prince in a few days. Not Addan.
Yet Addan was my Resonant. Or at least, I thought he was. That was the only explanation that could explain why my body was in a constant state of arousal. Why all I could think about was getting him naked and inside me.
But what if his family really were the bad guys? They’d been so kind to me. So welcoming. But in truth, I knew nothing about them. Not really. I couldn’t tell Addan until I knew for sure. What if I claimed him and then discovered his mother was the traitor?
No. God, no. If I found out Queen Alienor was evil, and that Addan’s family was telling the truth, then I could tell him. But I had no way of knowing who was lying. Not yet.
Not until I figured out how to get into the palace and find the answers I needed about my mother’s murder. If Alienor was a traitor, and she suspected I was going to betray her, Addan’s life—my life—could be in danger. No way would she want to lose a queen for a daughter-in-law. She probably wanted to make sure the future heir to the throne was her grandchild. Her family line. She wouldn’t want to lose the power of being royal because I decided to claim a random general instead of her precious son. As long as she believed I would go through with the wedding, I should be safe. Trusted. I should be able to get inside the castle and access the security feeds that General Niemini and the others had been talking about. Figure out what the hell happened on this planet all those years ago. Figure out who betrayed my family and left a baby girl for dead.
Gah! I wasn’t cut out for all this royal intrigue. I felt like I was on a soap opera. What was I going to do if Addan’s family were the traitors? Marry the prince? Marry the guy my mother chose for me when I was born? Walk away from the man I was falling in love with?
If Addan was part of the plot to destroy my family—and now me—would I have any other choice? Great sex was great sex, but I would never be able to forgive him if he had anything to do with my parents’ deaths. He was older than me. I wasn’t sure of his exact age, but he was definitely alive—and probably already in the military—when I was born.
Dammit! No.
I didn’t want him to be one of the bad guys. But an entire planet was depending on me to be smart. To think with something other than my lady dick. And the truth was, I didn’t know anything about anyone on this planet. Hell, if I hadn’t seenmy mother’s portrait with my own eyes, I probably wouldn’t believe them about that either.
So, I couldn’t tell anyone Addan was mine. But that meant walking into the dining room and pretending I didn’t know he’d activated my resonance when all I wanted to do was push back his chair, straddle him, and then fuck him while he was eating his soup. Pretending I didn’t want him–and that fun fantasy–as much as I wanted to breathe. Pretending I wasn’t his.
How could I pretend? How could I ignore a physical need that was so… potent?
The thought made my chest ache, but I straightened my shoulders–again–and forced a calm expression onto my face.
