Tatum looked at Aksana again. Blonde, pale eyes, plain, and curvy. He could see how she could play a spy. Whatever she did for Takoda, she was obviously betraying her own people in the process. For coin. For position. To be free from a life of slavery. The information she provided Takoda, she did so willingly, whether or not it directly harmed her people. She had completely turned her back on them.The knowledge irked him.“Good day, my lord.” She curtsied and looked him directly in the eye. He found her gaze unsettling, and her small voice didn't match her stature. “A pleasure.”He couldn't say the same. Instead, he nodded briefly and turned his gaze to his brother.“Same spy who informed you about the news from Yundum City?”“The very one,” Takoda snorted. “And she has a very interesting little story to share. Something you’d want to hear.”There was a strange note in his tone that triggered Tatum’s alert response. What now?A small wind caressed his exposed chest and back as sweat
Baka had woken up feeling awful.She wished she could say it was because she was so tired from the work she had done during and after the masquerade ball, but it wasn’t. Because that awful feeling came from guilt.Guilt over her growing interest for the masked man at the ball. Guilt over missing his laugh and charming charisma. Guilt over the fact that she replayed their electrifying encounter in her head so much that he had penetrated her subconscious and managed to slip into her dream like a thief in the night.And boy, was her dream scandalous. In it, the masked man was giving her a bath. Thoroughly. Teasing her soft spots. Whispering into her ears with his warm breath, making her tingle all over. She couldn't remember the last time she’d dreamt a dream that made her insides warm and had her wishing it was reality. Then she remembered Tatum and her guts tightened into hard knots. Was it possible to fall for two men? What had begun as a mild curiosity on her part had graduated in
There was a good kind of attention and a bad kind of attention. Baka firmly believed the one she currently faced was the bad kind. The very, very bad kind.As she took every step towards the throne room filled with acute tension, her knees buckled and her heart made giant leaps within her chest.She tried to train her eyes on her mother but her back was to her. She couldn’t see her face—wouldn’t, unless she stood beside her.Her mind raised as she tried to figure out if there was any other reason why they were gathered here apart from the one clouding her thoughts. It could have something to do with that one little secret her mother had refused to tell her about. Something about the late Luna queen. Or more specifically, the baby. But Tatum knew her mother was the midwife who had been present at his wife’s delivery. He had interrogated her about it.If that wasn’t the reason, it could only be one other thing. Baka looked at Tatum again, registering the look of betrayal in his eyes.
All eyes were on Tatum as Takoda and his guards waited for his decision. It was clear what they wanted him to do, Takoda had made sure of it. But he didn't want to see Baka or her mother dead. Although he felt betrayed over her purposeful neglect to tell him about her background, wasn't he also keeping her in the dark on a lot of things that directly affected her?He understood her reasons for keeping the knowledge of her background to herself. But that was her past. it wouldn't be fair to blame her for the sins of her father. Just like he didn’t want her to blame him for his father’s sins. He didn’t believe for a second that she had anything to do with Tia’s death. But could she have also been behind the failure of their crops? Was she working with The Judgement? Was she playing two masters?He couldn't think that of her. But she was the daughter of a renowned war criminal. She had no doubt picked up some skills. There was no telling what else she knew or could do.The new rebel g
After Tatum had said those words, he walked briskly towards the staircase and she followed after him. When they got to his living quarters, he slammed it shut and turned the key.The sun had begun to set as it cast a warm, orange glow into the room. Baka walked further in and stood just before his desk, her head bowed low. She could feel his gaze on her as he walked towards his desk and paused. The silence stretched and he didn’t say a word to her. Baka decided she wasn’t going to speak first. Let the awkwardness reign.He had just said he would use her as bait to catch the rebel group, and he had threatened to kill her mother if she went out of line. For that, he deserved to burn in the darkest pits of hell. “Could you not lower your head in front of me for a change? Am I just your king?” He was. Or at least he was supposed to be. But they had made things complicated. With much consternation, Baka looked up at him with cold eyes.“When were you going to tell me?”“Tell you what, m
The whole idea of the selection festival never did sit well with Baka. It required the female werewolves to compete amongst themselves for the male gaze. Whoever had the highest approval got to be the first to spend the day with the Alpha King.It was a patriarchal conquest. A fight for the King’s hand. For status and power. ]This time, the man was the prize.Some werewolf girls were trained from birth to be Luna Queens. She suspected the chosen candidates had gone through rigorous training, night and day on the hour. And now they were about to show their community what they’ve got and why it made them worthy of the title. Baka had never witnessed a Selection Festival, but she had no doubt it would be intense, if not utterly ludicrous .Preparations were already underway as the three Luna candidates went through a purification ceremony. Baka had no idea what that meant. She had heard Emily and Aja talking about it late last night while she had been trying to sleep.Emily had said th
It took them eight rounds to finish fetching enough water. Despite being a scandalous distraction, Eugene had been a great help, carrying the buckets to and fro. She had only had to carry one bucket during the entire ordeal.Carlton had finished cooking and had left her to tidy up the place. Aja and Emily were currently attending to their mistresses. Since Tatum wasn’t around, Baka focused on cleaning the kitchen.Eugene had offered to help her with the dishes and fetch more water for the rest of the residents at the palace to bathe. At first she had declined, thinking it would be abominable for him to be doing their chores for them.But he had threatened to annoy her endlessly if she didn’t let him help and in the end, she had reluctantly agreed. If she was being perfectly honest, she didn’t mind his company. Apart from what she would describe as their mild chemistry, they had great banter. And things like that seldom ever happened.“Why are you here with me and not outside with your
From the bantaba, Tatum could see quite a lot. While it was obscured by trees, nothing obscured the rest of the world from it.He had seen Eugene and Baka fetching water from the well in a manner that can only be described as too friendly. Jealousy had crawled up his gut and now resided in his chest in a simmering anger. There was nothing to be angry at, he knew. Yet Baka had never been so friendly with him. In fact, she had been rather cold the past couple of days.Why was it Eugene who got her to giggle and laugh like a lovestruck school girl?She had never once laughed in front of him, he realized. She wasn’t comfortable around him enough to let all her defenses fall. Her hackles shot up around him as tall as the sky. She may have let them down a little, but never all the way.Why was it Eugene she got to do that for? Did she like him? He knew he liked her, anyone with half a brain could see that. But was it reciprocal? He needed to know.“You look a world away, Brother,” came Tak