“Why are you sitting alone in the dark?”
Gaijryc cringed at the shrill sound of Iena’s voice. His jaw tightened and he downed the rest of his liquor. He didn’t want to be trapped alone in a room with her. He didn’t doubt she would attempt to seduce him again. “Because I enjoy it.”
She sauntered in, the light spearing through her transparent dress and displaying her figure. “Aren’t you going to offer a lady a drink?”
If I saw a lady in the room I would have. He gripped the glass and rose out of the chair, walking over to the bar and pouring a small glass of Crown. He handed it to her, not bothering to look at her. He felt her fingers skim over his before finally taking the glass.
“You know, Gaijryc, I don’t know why you have to be so distant with me. I could make you a very happy male.”
“I’m sure.” There was no feeling behind those two words, and he wanted nothing more than to leave the room and get as far as he could from her.
“You know I can smell her all over you.”
His head snapped toward Iena, his fists clenching as he stared at her smug expression. She smiled at him over the rim of her glass, taking a dainty sip of the whiskey. “What games are you playing, Iena?”
“No games. You covered her scent very well, and to be honest, if I hadn’t followed you and actually seen her, well, I wouldn’t have even picked up on her smell.”
“You followed me?” He didn’t bother trying to keep the rage out of his voice.
“Well, you have been leaving so frequently, much more than usual, and staying gone for so long. I was just wondering where you have been spending your time. I won’t lie, I was a little surprised to see that you have been bedding with a human, but then again, they do have their attributes.”
He stared at her, barely controlling the anger that was coursing through him. She looked at him with a smugness that made him sick, as if she had unlocked a monumental secret.
“You know, Gaijryc, if I told the Queen about your little trips to see that human female, she would hunt her down and kill her.”
“I warn you, Iena, if she is harmed because you felt the need to speak of it, I will make you wish you had died.”
She clicked her tongue at him, setting the glass on a table by the fireplace, the light from the flames piercing the crystal and casting a rainbow of colors across the polished wood. He watched the colors dance across her bare arm and wished it was the actual flames that licked at her skin. His eyes snapped up to meet hers as a wicked smile crossed her features.
“Now, Gaijryc, is that any kind of way to speak to your future queen?”
“You will never be my queen.”
She walked toward him, circling him as she ran a long, red painted nail across his back. “I won’t breathe a word about her to anyone—that is, if you mate me, make me the rightful queen of our kind.”
The sound of shattering glass bounced off the oak paneled walls of the living room, mixing with the sounds of the crackling fire. He looked down at his hand, shards of glass covering his skin, blood welling up from the numerous cuts the glass had made. He watched his skin, watched as his body pushed out the glass and knitted the wounds back together. After a minute, all that was left was drops of blood on unmarred skin. “Are you threatening me? I know you’re not threatening a member of the royal line.”
“Now, Gaijryc, wouldn’t you do anything for the one you love? You do love that weak human female, do you not? Of course you do. I can smell it all over you.”
“You truly are evil, you know that?”
Her laugh was like nails on a chalkboard. He gritted his teeth and stared at the fire as she continued to circle him, running her hands along his chest and back.
“I could make you a very happy male, you know I could.”
He wanted nothing more than to push her away.
“You know what they’ll do to the human female. I can smell how you have already claimed her.” She stopped in front of him and smiled. “I’ll even let you keep her as a pet, after we’re mated of course. You can do with her what you will but you must mate me first, give me a male offspring so that my position is secure.”
“Is that all you care about, Iena? Becoming queen?”
She eyed him, moving over to her half empty glass and taking a sip. “No, that’s not all I want. I’ve wanted you for some time, maybe not as strongly as I’ve wanted others, but still just the same. I could make you so very happy, so happy you will soon forget about that insignificant human you have hidden.”
He would never forget Helina. She was his heart, his very soul, and as much as he hated to admit it, he knew that if his mother found out she would kill her. He looked down at Iena, her blood red lips bright against the clear crystal of the glass. At this very moment he hated Iena with a furious passion, wanted to wrap his hands around her pale white neck until her bones snapped in half.