He had been seduced by Haggoz that night. She’d thought he would be brutish and violent in his lovemaking. Demanding, arrogant, selfish…all the things she pictured in her head when she thought of a Werewolf. Instead he’d been a thoughtful, tender and exciting lover. He’d taken care not to hurt her at her first time and pulled reactions from Keanna that she hadn’t known she was capable of. Those first days flew by, a seemingly endless stream. There were long stretches of time that Keanna almost forgot why she was there. For the first few months, Keanna rarely went out of Haggoz’s luxurious home. Everything she needed was provided for her, of course. A private work-out room, a library, a music room, even a small theater where she could watch vids in English that Haggoz ordered for her from the Sechuan traders. Occasionally, if the weather was good, Haggoz took her for long walks on the city streets, looking in shop windows and watching the other Werewolf people they encountered, some
As the days continued to pass with no word from any FeRes operative, Keanna was able to almost forget for long stretches of time why she’d been sent here. Months passed and it was easy to simply drift along and pretend to believe the fantasy of being Haggoz’s pampered love slave. Haggoz told her that Prince Nikolai, who as it turned out, was one of Haggoz’s closest friends, as well as the heir to the throne, had married Akari Kingston and that the former colonel in the Federation army would be coming to live here in Werewolf Kingdom. It all seemed surreal, and for the first time it occurred to her that FeRes’ mission to stop the wedding had failed and that she might now be contacted very soon. Finally, it happened a few days later. Akari Kingston or the Prince’s Consort, as she was now known, arrived to a great deal of fanfare and attention. Keanna was at the palace the day she arrived and watched her enter. She was a very beautiful woman, and Prince Nikolai couldn’t
Perhaps a month or so after Akari arrived on the planet, Haggoz told Keanna they had been invited to a dinner at the king’s palace. By that time, she had been watching the consort for several weeks off and on. She had been told in the note she was passed to give her reports to Kingston's servants, a sour-faced older couple who had arrived when the Colonel had. Sje felt a little sad for the former colonel that the servants she surely trusted were FeRes plants. Keanna wasn’t sure why her reports were even needed since they were so much closer, but she dutifully managed to slip them the short reports she made out and waited for more instructions. On the night of the dinner, Keanna was excited. The prince and his new royal consort would be there and he would get a chance to actually meet Akari Kingston in person at last. She was unaccountably nervous as she got ready and her first time to meet the king and his family. Keanna had been a little surprised by Haggoz’s invitation to attend wi
Keanna made her way to the table full of wives and sat down near Akari, who seemed to be irritated about something. Beatrice more than made up Akari's bad mood, though, with a story about her youngest sons’ encocomilarge calunter with what they thought was a shaggy monkey that someone had brought into the palace, but who turned out to be a visiting minister of finance from the Kingdom of Cylor. The king’s most humble apologies didn’t mollify him in the least and he had left earlier in a huff. Keanna laughed uproariously at the story, and Beatrice had turned to smile and wink at her. Suddenly the mystery of the wink that Nikolai had given to Akari was fully explained. When the food was served, Beatrice took one look at it and raised her glass to her lips. She obviously didn’t like what had been served, and not only that, she began to join Akari in shooting dirty looks over at the other table. There the Werewolves seemed to be having quite a time among themselves, laughing loudly and
Haggoz had kissed her awake not long after they’d dropped off to sleep and left her, saying he needed to speak to the king on urgent business. He looked upset and wouldn’t tell Keanna what had happened, but rushed out, telling her he’d come back later to take her home. Keanna thought it would be a good time to look at the note she’d stuffed into her robe. She got out of bed to retrieve it and then read it once, and then couldn't believe what's in it shhe read it again to make sure she hadn’t made a mistake about what she saw. The note said that Akari Kingston would be kidnapped that very night. That plans were in motion and she was to stay away from the dining room for the rest of the evening. The last part was the worst, and she read that again and again. It said the prince would be killed, if possible, along with as many of the royal family as the operatives could manage. It was a horrible note, growing weary she slowly lower her self o
In a very real way, they were challenging the status quo. This arena had always been the province of Werewolf male warriors. Females and wives or even love slaves could come—but only as spectators during the games, and they never set foot on the field. Not since the old days when captives were allowed to fight for their lives and humans had a place on the field. If they failed back then, as they most always did, because of exhaustion, injury and unfamiliarity with the weapons, they were either killed or taken as love slaves. Actual wives, with their status as cherished family members, were never allowed to be on the field. It simply wasn’t done. Since they’d arrived, Akari had felt the enormous weight of disapproval being aimed their way as an almost physical thing. Had Akari and Beatrice not been royal consorts, Akari thought they might well have been summarily ordered off the field and carried out bodily if they refused to go. She glanced over at Nikolai again and caught him stand
He was stalking across the field, oil still coating his body. He had a determined look in his eye. And Akari decided to meet him in the middle and strode out with a confidence she didn’t quite feel toward the center of the ring. Crown Prince Nikolai, who had gotten there first, stopped and watched her approach. When Akari finally stopped in front of him, he looked her insolently up and down. “I don’t like what you’re wearing.” “You should talk.” Nikolai growled at her, and not in the sexy, playful way he was used to. The last time he’d made a sound exactly like that had been just after he’d rescued her from the FeRes terrorists that had kidnapped her. Of course, at the time, Nikolai hadn’t intended it to be a rescue at all. He’d been capturing her, the woman who he thought had betrayed him, and he had planned to make him pay dearly. The sound made Akari's temper flare. They’d had this same argument about the games several times now, and it was getting old. They had an agreement, bu
Haggoz watched the play of emotions on his prince’s face go quickly from shock to outrage. His mate’s reactions were more subtle, but she was just as startled as Nikolai. Haggoz suspected he was trying hard not to show it. He had noticed this tendency in humans before—a striving not to say something rude or bad-mannered to another person’s face in an attempt not to insult them, though humans thought nothing of saying the same things behind that person’s back. So different from his own people, who ranked honesty and outspokenness above everything else. Haggoz had been searching for some time now for something to help the prisoner, some way to break him free from what Haggoz thought of as a downward spiral. Perhaps this would be a way for him to provide a useful service to the man Keanna had wronged and still give Keanna some diversion. Perhaps it would be the key to restoring the fire that used to burn so brightly inside her. “That’s out of the question,” Nikolai said, angrily, turn