Chapter 13 13

Chapter 13 13

Eudora’s POV

I stood frozen in the doorway, my eyes unable to look away from the scene in front of me. A beautiful woman stood with her arms wrapped around Oberon, her body flush with his in a way that spoke of familiarity. Intimacy. Something twisted painfully in my chest. How dare I? I had no right to feel this way. No claim to Oberon beyond a forced marriage and three days of purgatory, one in which we had not even consummated the union. He was my captor and my enemy. The man who destroyed my family. What did I care if some woman could touch him? The mate bond cared, that’s what. It screamed at the sight, making my chest tight and my hands clench into fists at my side.

Possessive rage. Mine, my wolf growled quietly, low in the back of my mind, but so deeply she vibrated in my soul. Ours. Marjah’s voice whispered beside me, “Who is that?” Stepping around the curtain, my cousin took it all in with sharp eyes.

“I do not know,” I managed, my voice sounding strangled even in my ears. “But she is incredibly comfortable with my husband.” The word was sour and foreign and possessive. Oberon stepped back from the woman then, and I saw he carefully kept his expression unreadable.

“Esmeralda,” he said, his voice without inflection. Discord twisted my stomach. The woman, Esmeralda, smiled up at him, eyes flicking in his direction every moment that she spoke.

“I came when I heard about the Ruminant movements. You know I would never leave you in danger.”

Yamal made a sound almost close to a cough, and it was still clearly a prod that he felt out of place here. “Sister, you should have sent word you were coming. ”

This was Yamal’s sister. And, apparently, from Oberon’s reaction to her, she was someone with whom he had a long history. “I did not want to waste time getting here,” Esmeralda replied, and her eyes did not turn from Oberon for even a moment. The other woman in the room beside me, Marjah, visibly tensed, her battle instincts picking up the emotions in the room. She muttered, “Jesus, she looks at him like she owns him,” one of the few vulgar oaths Marjah would ever mumble.

“Yes,” I muttered back, my heart heavy, “she does.”

I should leave. I should leave. I should turn around and leave before more people saw me standing here like a fool. My feet, however, would not move. Esmeralda’s view flicked over to me at last. Her eyes, brilliant emerald, assessed me with barely concealed scorn, looking me up and down as any rival would need to be.

“And I am sure you are the princess?” The way she reported it ma de it sound like an offense, as though it was minimal and utterly beneath her. I took a step forward, losing myself my little corner of this room.

“Actually, I am the queen, and you are?” The look she gave me was a twisted grin.

“Oh, honey. An old friend of your husband’s. Very close.” Her smile twisted to a grin that was much too amused. “Very close.” The subtext was clear. They had been lovers at a minimum; maybe they still were, for all I knew. I needed to keep my expression neutral, for the mate bond burned with jealous fire.

At this point, Oberon appeared to realize how the tension was growing between us. “Esmeralda has information on the Ruminants,” he rapidly interjected as he placed himself between us. “Information that can help us stop the attacks on our borders before they happen.”

“How convenient,” I said with fake sweetnessiness. “Maybe you could discuss it in private, then. You both appear to be fond of each other’s company. “

Before I could say something unforgivable. Before all this jealousy and anger inside me became something terrible. Marjah followed me right afterward but not before giving Esmeralda a detectable warning look, this narrow-eyed look that meant violence if she did it again.

Composure securely held together fell apart as I hurried down the hall. I needed air so far from everyone. “That woman,” Marjah muttered beside me. “Did you see how she glance at you? Like somebody who lay in her path like filth.”

“And she was his woman!” I whispered back. “I could tell from the way she touched him and how he recoiled but not too much or any real discomfort” Marjah slowed for the briefest instant before urging me forward. “What are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing,” I whispered back. “What can I do? I am nothing but the wife nobody asked for. What can I do?”\]How can I confront him on who he sees and what he does?And why should it feel as it hurt me legitimately he’s a God and I am? Marjah snagged me again.

“You are the queen, Eudora. Behave as one. Don’t let some bed buddy give you the satisfaction of making you feel minuscule or superfluous”

“But am not a queen,” I said “Not really. My crown is a dirty veil ”

We soon reached my chambers, and I was taken aback as a couple of servants began quickly, efficiently unpacking and setting up the other room for Marjah’s belongings. After thanking them silently, I sank into a chair by the window. Abruptly exhausted, the emotional whiplash of the day had completely worn me down. The way the faerie king had looked at me, like I was the galaxy, backing me against the end of his desk with lust burning in his eyes one moment, only for a beautiful fae woman from his past to appear and touch him intimately with practiced familiarity in the next.

“Tell me about him,” Marjah told me as the servants left, taking a seat beside me, “About what’s happening between you two.”

I confessed everything, then, too, the mate bond I was stuck with, the wedding night I could not recall, embarrassed by my own confusion; the intimate moments followed by cold distance; the hungry glances he gave me; the caress, the slap.

“He’s so confusing, Mar…” I told my cousin, finally, sheepishly. “One second I despise him for everything he has done to my family, the next I…”

“The next, you want him; the mate bond… it’s designed to drive you mad until you complete it.”

“But how am I supposed to want the man who wrecked my life?”

“Because he’s your mate; you’re husband… and whether you like it or not, that changes everything.” I touched my mother’s moonstone pendant at my throat inconspicuously, feeling the warmth it always gave and the little bit of power that I could not yet control.

“I don’t know what to do,” I whispered. The words slipped out before I could hold them back.

“You learn to be queen,” Marjah said firmly. “You claim your place. You do not let anyone, especially not some former lover, make you doubt your position.”

“I-but-” A sharp knock at the door cut me off. A servant entered, looking nervous under our combined gazes.

“Your Grace, His Grace the King requests your presence at dinner tonight. There will be guests.” I frowned.

“What guests?”

“Representatives from neighboring packs, here to discuss the Ruminant threat. The King wishes to present a united front with you as his queen.” The servant hesitated, then added quietly, “Lady Esmeralda will also be in attendance, as an advisor on Ruminant intelligence.” Marjah stood up immediately.

“Then we will make sure you look absolutely stunning. If that woman thinks she can waltz in and reclaim her place, she is about to learn differently.” As the servant left, I felt the first glimmer of fire in my belly. Tonight would be my first real test as queen. My first public appearance since the wedding, flanked by Oberon while his former lover watched. While representatives from other packs judged whether I was worthy. The mate bond pulsed with possessive heat at the thought of Esmeralda being near Oberon again. Perhaps it was high time I stopped running from the bond I’d done nothing to create. Maybe I should stop pretending it didn’t exist. I was going to be stuck in this marriage whether I wanted to or not. I might as well start acting like it. And Oberon, whether he was conscious of it or not, was mine.