Page 5 of The Hunted

And the man sitting in the chair?

Not much better.

“Yes?” Eryx asked from his smaller throne.

His father raised an eyebrow. A good sign, if there ever was one, of the man’s displeasure at Eryx’s lack of interest in a day and party that were meant to be for him. Or rather, his twentieth birthday celebration.

He wished he cared.

Except he didn’t.

The king tilted his head to the side, bringing Eryx’s attention to the man who waited just beyond the stairs leading up to the platform where their thrones rested. With the sky dark outside, and only candles in the ballroom of the estate house, it almost seemed like the dinner party had gone long into the evening.

It hadn’t.

It was only a little past midday.

The season, again.

Eryx stared at the man and woman, both well-dressed with jewels on their fingers and gold hanging from their throats, waiting for them to greet him properly as was custom. One of the servants of the house stepped forward with her head tipped down as to keep herself from meeting the prince’s gaze.

In a simple gray dress that didn’t showcase much of her figure or expose too much skin, one might think the woman was just a servant. Even he’d thought so at first glance. If not for the silver shackle around her throat that practically covered the entire delicate column and designated her a slave. Had her hair been pulled back, the spattering of shimmering scales at her temples would have given away her true breed as well. Sometimes, the mermaids blended in far too well with the rest of them when they walked on land.

The slave stepped up to speak. “Prince Eryx Bloodhurst of Atlas, the Lord and Lady of the house would like to—”

Eryx’s father was quick to quiet the slave with a slice of his hand through the air. “Return to your position—quietly and quickly.”

The slave did as she was told, but not before daring to defy the laws of the land by raising her head. Violet eyes—another sign of her heritage—flashed with indignation and anger. She spun sharply on her heel and returned to the spot behind the waiting man and woman.

“King Misael, your highness, I apologize for my slave,” the man spoke up, doing his best to look apologetic. “She sometimes forgets her place. Rather new, that one. Bought her from the last hunts.”

“That so?” his father asked.

“Yes, sire.”

Misael nodded, his sharp gaze slicing through the crowd to find the slave woman while he tipped his head back. The candlelight caught the jewels encrusted around the rim and pointed tips of his gold crown. “Bring her to my rooms later—I enjoy teaching them how to behave around the royal family.”

It wasn’t even a request. The king didn’t have to make those. All Misael ever had to do was point a finger, and he was given what he wanted. It was their way.

Eryx wasn’t much different in that regard, but he didn’t share a lot of the same interests. He didn’t find quite the same enjoyment in fucking and keeping slaves for sport like his father, and too many others, did. A bit too much work, honestly.

Mattue, the advisor appointed by his father to Eryx when he had been just a young boy—and also his uncle, through his father’s side of the family—stepped forward. Always waiting in the shadows for his moments.

“Prince,” Mattue said, hands clasped at the front of his closed fur cloak before he bent over subtly at the middle in some semblance of a bow, “the Lord and Lady simply wanted to give their greetings, congratulate you on your twentieth year, and thank you for allowing them to host you at their estate for this evening.”

Was that all?

All this conversation for that?

Ugh.

“Could have sent up a message through Mattue,” Eryx replied dryly. “No need for a scene.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the clear frown that pulled his father’s mouth down at the corners. He had a record of how many times he could displease his father in a day—twenty-two. Sometimes, he made a sport out of breaking said record.

It wasn’t as though his father would punish him. Eryx was the only living son Misael had left on Atlas. The youngest had been sent to their closest neighboring realm the moment he’d turned seventeen, married off to a princess of an unworthy royal family to keep the peace and continue their trade of slaves.

His other brothers?