This time Andrivete’s smile was genuine as she wrapped herself in a similar cloth. “My lord husband tells me every morning.”
“And what do you say back to him?”
There was a pause as Andrivete’s expression grew downright feral. “That he was the one who chose to marry me despite my father calling me‘defective’and I fully intend to hold him to his marriage vows.”
Andrivete must have seen my shocked look because she burst out into a hearty laughter that bounced off of the low ceilings of the bathing cavern. “Do not worry, your majesty, Kay loves it when I speak to him in such a manner. Never have I met a man who enjoys a woman telling him what to do more than my lord husband.”
I had only known the couple for maybe an hour, but I was very quickly learning that their dynamic was not typical for this time. It was clear that, if there were pants in this relationship, Andrivete wore them while Kay gleefully accepted his wife’s domination.
They would have loved the future, I had a feeling they would have fit right into the BDSM community.
“Should you be telling me this?” I asked as I wrung the excess water out of my hair. “Won’t Sir Kay be upset?”
Andrivete snorted. “No, he will not be upset. The man has no qualms with telling every listening ear about how much he allows me to boss him around. Not a soul would dare try to tease him for fear of meeting the sharp end of his sword.”
Huh, I thought as I let her help me into the pale pink dress that she had borrowed from one of the other ladies in the castle,maybe the stories weren’t so far off about Sir Kay.
“Mother! Mother!” a young girl burst into the bathing rooms, her twin plaits flying behind her head as she nearly slipped on the wet floor in her haste to get to us.
“Lyorre, you must know better than to run like a stray filly in the bathing rooms, what have I told you a thousand times?” Andrivete scolded the girl as she finished dressing herself. “Not to mention that you are behaving incredibly rudely in front of her majesty.”
Lyorre’s green eyes widened as she glanced over at me as if she hadn’t realized I was sitting on one of the low stools that lined the craggy wall.
I gave her a little wave which sent the girl into yet another frenzy as she quickly curtseyed and nearly slipped again in the process. “I Lyorre, daughter of Sir Kay, greet her majesty the queen.”
There was that ceremony that I hated again, but I knew if I asked her to call me by my name that Andrivete would throw a fit, so instead I just smiled. “It is very nice to meet you, Lyorre, now what has brought you running in here in such a state?”
My words seemed to remind Lyorre of her purpose and she shot straight up from her curtsey and whirled around to her mother again. “Mother! Father sent me to find you and tell you that the king and his men have been spotted on the hill! They are back!”
I was up before she could finish and hurrying for the door.
“Your majesty, you are not wearing shoes and your hair is still wet!” Andrivete called after me but I ignored her, skidding into the hallway.
Somehow, Lyorre’s words had made me realize that Icouldin fact feel Arthur’s presence down the previously silent bond again.
And not only that, I could also feel that he had been hurt.
Chapter Nineteen
“Castle Camelot is in the distance!” one of my men called as the rest of us took up a chorus of cheers at the gleaming sight of our home in the late evening light.
I kicked Llamrei into a gallop, my soul burning with the need to return to my home and the omega that I could now feel on the edges of our shared bond.
The past few days had not gone to plan by any means of the word—the number of Saxons filling the countryside was concerning as were the burned out villages nearly every step of the way back to Camelot.
It almost looked as if they were creating a path right up to the walls of my castle and the village surrounding it and such things did not sit well in my chest.
They were sending a warning.
It was their twisted way of telling me that they could attack my kingdom and my people whenever they wished and spread their Saxon scourge throughout the rest of Logres whenever they so pleased.
Merlin, who still seemed as weak as a lamb, had supported my men as best as he could, but we were still returning with less men than we had left with weeks ago when I set out on what had seemed to be a fruitless journey to the quorum of kings.
As my horse drew closer to the village surrounding Camelot, I felt awareness tingle along the bond that I shared with Guinevere.
Mine, mine, mine, mine,my inner-alpha rumbled, awakening from the slumber that I had forced it into during the many skirmishes over the past few days.
The brute strength my inner alpha offered me was both a benefit and a detriment—benefit as it allowed me to raze through Saxons as easily as breathing, but also a detriment because the alpha rage that came with it often tunneled my vision and made me reckless.
