Jessamine
We lost.
Not the gamble. I won that. Only, the money got stolen and a huge fight broke out and Kier and I barely got out of the den with our heads intact.
My stomach hurts from laughing, and Alpha Kier isn’t having any of it. He glares at me as unties the noose from the trees. “I shouldn’t have listened to you. You almost got us killed.”
Rolling my eyes, I inch closer, letting him lift me unto the horse. “Tell me you didn’t have fun. You were cheering the mercenary way more than I did. Pretend all you want, but I know you absolutely loved every part of it. Especially the running part.”
He joins, sitting behind me, and it’s an effort to ignore the way our bodies are pressed together. “Not particularly.” His voice is hoarse against my ear and a delicious shiver runs down my spine.
“Liar.”
The ride back is unnervingly silent, but I wait it out. Never initiate conversations in this sort of setting. Let him make the effort. Let him work to learn even the littlest things about you. That way, he cherishes it, like a secret that only both of you share.
"You've never been approached by any male before? I assume you'd have caught the eye of many," Kier says after a while, breaking the silence.
The wind pushes back my hair, and I raise my hands to pat it down. "What were your thoughts of me when you saw me first? Three words."
A contemplative silence. "Odd," he says. "Insane. Witch."
I laugh a little. "That pretty much sums it up. Everyone thinks there's something wrong with me--"
"I never did say I thought this mixture was *wrong*," Kier cuts in, and I feel his fingers graze my skin a moment later, and my heart starts pounding with he puts my hand down from my hair, placing it against my thigh. "Let it be. I like it messy."
I bite on my lower lip hard to stop myself from cracking a stupid grin. I wonder if this means he's finally starting to feel something; if I've begun to make a dent in his heart.
"Why me?" he asks after a moment.
I tilt my head a little. Bad idea. He peers down at me, his hazel eyes flicking over every inch of my face, and they settle on my bottom lip as I whisper breathlessly, "It couldn't have been anyone else."
"That's a non-answer," he whispers too, his eyes never leaving mine. "Come to the Howling with me."
I blink. "What does it matter if I'm something other than an Omega--which of course, I am not."
He looks ahead, and tucks my head under his chin in a manner that's much too intimate for my heart to handle. "I'm drawn to you, and it's not your typical attraction. It hints at the possibility that we might be mates."
I sit forward, staring at the road. "The only way you can be attracted to me is if we're mates?"
"That's not... that's not what I meant."
I scoff, and for the rest of the ride, I don't speak to him again.
********
*Kier*
Jessamine doesn't take my offered hand. She jumps off the horse herself, solidifying my belief in the notion that women suddenly become independent when they're mad at their men.
I'm not her man. Or her anything.
She starts walking off, but she turns around to yank off her scarf from around my neck, and she strides off mumbling words too low for me to pick up on.
Handling Cerx and the noose, I hear approaching footsteps. Heavy and steady. "What is it, Dale?" I ask, handing the reins to the stable master.
"An emissary from Dawn," Randale pauses, choosing his words carefully. "Darrock, he calls himself. He's come as a last resort to negotiate the terms--"
A sharp growl silences him. "Negotiate? They attacked and killed my people without cause."
A bone in Randale's jaw jumps. "He denied any such action, and has accused us of breaching his borders, killing his men and setting his home on fire." Randale hands me a scroll. "It's all in there."
I unroll the scroll and my mood only turns sour. "Extradition? Tributes?" I rip the golden scroll in half. "Where is he, this emissary?"
"In the receiving room, waiting." I look up from the scroll, studying Randale. Only now do I notice the almost-healed bruise under his eye. "You got into a fight?"
He turns his head left, his eyes shifting. "It's nothing."
My feet hit the ground softly and upon reaching the hallways, there's a flurry of activities, maids and court maidens fluttering about.
"He has such scary red eyes," one whispers, running past me.
"They say he's a demon," adds another.
"He's as tall as the Alpha, and dreamy!"
"He has fangs! I wonder if there are cannibals in Dawn."
A woman carrying a pitcher and a tray of untouched food doesn't look where she's going and dunks the entire thing on my shirt.
The hallway goes quiet as I peer down at my shirt. The main falls on her knees, trembling and pleading. My gaze lifts from her to my shirt, and my jaw ticks. I've had a long day--a nice day that ended terribly because apparently, I'm terrible with words. I'm upset, angry, and at the end of my patience.
I step around her, stomping across the hallway, baring my teeth at the gawking bystanders, and it is more than enough to send them running.
"Kier, I need to talk to you," Randale says, catching up with me. "Lloyd is--"
I round the corner and stop short. Jessamine stands on her heel, arms crossed against her chest, glaring at a man I do not recognize.
He leans in too close for comfort, grinning, his tongue flipping out to caress his bottom lip as he looks at her like she's his next meal. "You won't tell me your name? Shall I call you Violet instead?"
"Whatever strokes your ego," she replies dryly, attempting to move, but he blocks her path.
"What are you doing here, princess? You're in the wrong kingdom."
A blonde brow arches. "I could say the same for you. Please move out of the way. I'm quite busy."
His hand rises, grabbing her chin.
I don't remember moving. One minute, I'm watching them, the next, I'm ripping his hand off her face. My arms wrap around Jessamine and my gaze fixes on the intruder.
Maroon eyes filled with mischief and an underlying current of animosity shift to mine and the man straightens, his grin widening. "You must be Kier."
I cock my head, studying him. I don't like him. "And you must be the emissary. How do you find Neredia?"
He shrugs, gaze dropping to Jessamine. "Interesting."
My fingers tighten around Jessamine's arm. "It's your first day here, so I'll disregard it. Lady Everhart is mine. Do NOT touch her again."
Amusement sparks in his eyes. "I do not see a crest or mark on her that makes her yours," he cooes, and for a moment, the air thickens with promised violence. He's pulling an aura. He's taunting me to gauge my reaction, and thus, my strength.
I smile a little, letting him see my canines. "If you wish to return to your king with your limbs in place, you will heed my words."
Our eyes lock in a silent battle, the air charged and heavy with unspoken threats. It is idiotic to let the enemy see what I feel for Jessamine, but I can hardly control myself. My claws are currently digging into her skin and the gums in my teeth are aching, expanding as canines lengthen.
The tension becomes palpable, and I feel Jessamine trembling from the amount of aura we're both throwing off.
The emissary straightens, looking away first, and he chuckles, raising his hands in surrender. "Of course."
My smile grows. "I'll join you inside soon. Randale will keep you company until then," I say, nodding in Randale's direction. He doesn't look pleased, and I'm sure I'll receive a query from him later.
The emissary bows slightly and walks into the chamber, Randale following behind him. Jessamine shrugs my arm off her the moment the door shuts. "Since when am I yours?"
"Will a mark suffice?"
Her eyes widen, and then they narrow, pinning me to the spot. "No. That'd be the same thing as a human proposing to a woman just to make her stop nagging him, or just so he can get in her pants. Don't talk to me like I'm stupid."
"Don't compare me to a puny human, and you very well know I don't think you're stupid. Fuck, you're the smartest woman I've met." I inch a step closer, tucking her hair behind her ear. "You also know I don't need to mark you to get you in my bed."
"There you go again, missing the point."
"What is your point, Jessamine, because I never seem to get it right."
Her cheeks redden and she blows out a hot, steamy breath, much like a dragon in a hissy fit. Only, dragons don't exist, and Jessamine's angry again. "Nevermind!" she yells, and silver shines in her eyes.
There it is again. That scent. I breathe it in sharply, clenching my fingers tightly as I let her walk up the stairs, oblivious to it. At least, now I know I didn't imagine it. Now I know it for sure. She's not wolfless, and I very well might have had my mate living in the same space with me for the past decade.