I can control my facial muscles, but I’ve failed at controlling my blood. My cheeks are hot.
“Hi, Mimi,” Stark tells her, his voice a low and rasping rumble. There’s genuine affection there, the sort I think I’ve only ever sensed from him when he’s with Cratos. “I’ve missed you.”
So. That’squaint. They have pet names for each other.
I really don’t understand why this is bothering me so much. It’sStark. We’re nothing to each other beyond protector and queen.
Does it have something to do with the mate bond? Perhaps Anassa and Cratos’s connection will always mean it’s uncomfortable to see Stark with another woman, to think of him as intimate with someone.
Anassa must have heard me think her name, because her presence lights up in my mind. “No,” she says with amusement.“I told you; I am fully shielding you from my love toward Cratos. This petty jealousy is all of your own making.”
It’s hard not to scowl.“Who is she?”
And Anassa, the bitch, just replies, “Someone important to him.”
“Choke on an elk bone.”
Stark folds his huge body—I swear the jacket’s seams almost burst when he pulls his seat out—into the chair beside Noemi’s. Immediately, Noemi leans closer to him, her graceful arms draped over the armrest. He leans in, too.
As servants bring out the first course, their heads remain bent together in quiet conversation I can’t quite hear.
I ignore the strange lump in my throat and focus on chatting with Nevah and Izabel instead.
Jealousy, Anassa said. As irrational as it is, I think she might be right.
But it’s so… stupid. I onlyjustescaped a disastrous relationship. I don’t have room to think of other men. The last damn thing I need is to develop something for a person whose wolf just happens to be mated to mine.
Someone who I don’t evenlike.
Besides, I don’t think I’d ever trust that my feelings were truly my own and not just my mind accommodating the entanglement of our wolves.
Bonds getting knotted up andmanipulatingme the same way…
Just, not again.
I’ve almost tricked myself into believing this, and then Noemi touches Stark’s arm. She says something quietly, and he smiles.
Oh,fuck, he smiles. It’s a real smile. A face-splitting, sun-coming-out, unreserved smile that makes him look younger. I’ve never seen him smile like that. I didn’t know hecouldsmile like that.
Siegrid clears her throat pointedly, and the smile slips from Stark’s face as he looks toward his mother.
“We have much to discuss, so forgive me for jumping directly to serious matters,” Siegrid says. “I have been discussing the Killian Valtiere situation with my Alphas.”
I bristle.Iam one of the Alphas. And I’m the queen. So why was I not involved in the conversation?
Does she not trust my judgment when it comes to him?
Siegrid continues, “It has been decided that Phylax Alpha Tormun will be tasked with leading a specialized hunting party to track down the former prince and eradicate him. They will head out as soon as possible.”
I have so many questions.
“We’ve already received intelligence suggesting that Killian is establishing a base in a western fiefdom. We have yet to—”
“If you’re going after him, I’m coming with,” I interject, the words coming out of my mouth before I can think too hard about them.
He’smine. Mine to hunt. Mine to kill. I won’t letanyonetake that from me.
Siegrid takes a casual sip of her emberwine. “Absolutely not.”
