I’d thought her treachery was just for me, but it went beyond it to my children. She wasn’t just insane, she was delusional. While I had been with Danu, Claire had been treated to one of Ryder’s little nap sessions and would never remember the interrogation she had gone through with Ryder and Zahruk. Just as Ryder had done not too long ago with me, he and Zahruk had gone rummaging around in her mind so she was fully unaware that her dreams and plans of treachery had been ferreted out and documented. She now held no secrets, and she had no clue of it.
“I’m a woman who desires you, yes, my King,” she said saucily. I could only see her back, but even I could tell from the smacking of her lips that she was laying the lust on thick.
“Is that all?” Ryder asked with his body held stiffly, unmoved by her declaration.
“I’ve served you well, many times, and plan to do so now that the Blood Princess is no longer in attendance to serve my liege’s many needs. I’ll even watch over your children and love them as my own,” Claire continued.
“Is that so?” Ryder asked coldly.
“I’d do anything for you, and anything to have you. I have never hidden my desire for you, and I’ve done everything to please you,” she went down to one knee. “My sister failed to draw your lust, but I’ve had it many times. I can give you what you need and crave unlike Abiageal,” she said with full confidence. “And unlike the Blood Princess who fought you and thought to betray you. I would never turn you from my bed, Sire.”
I’d never betrayed him. Kept shit from him and omitted the truth out of fear of him wanting me for power, sure. That I was guilty of, but it hadn’t been a betrayal.
“What part did you play in the treachery that occurred in my castle?” he asked and I watched as her spine stiffened and she grew nervous.
“I…I don’t wish to speak of it, for I know I overstepped in my ambitions, but the end result is as I wished it, Sire. I have you and I hear you have obtained your children.”
“Was it your intention for me to find them at all? Or were they supposed to die with their mother?” he continued and even I could see the anger burning in his eyes from my vantage point.
“Ryder—”
“I am your King, Claire. You do not address me as anything but my rightful title as the Horde King,” he sneered.
“My King, I only wished for her to go away and didn’t care how it happened,” she said in a soft voice, as if she was hoping he’d understand.
“You gave her to the enemy while she was heavily pregnant with my children, and you hoped that by doing so, they all would perish and that in my grief I’d come to you to feed.”
“She’s gone. I see no reason to speak of this now,” she responded defensively.
I smiled and started down the aisle, shedding my glamour as I went. I heard the inner thoughts of her as I did so, wondering if this was one of the gifts Danu had mentioned I’d be plagued with. To me, it was a valuable asset; I just needed to figure out how to turn it on and not just have random thoughts coming to me out of nowhere.
“Why does he even care? I gave his bitch away to be killed, and her brats should have died too! They promised me they’d all die. That I would have the King in his grief, even Dyson said he’d be forced to feed and I was the only one left who he would take from the pavilion. I’d kill his whore myself if the bitch was here!” Claire was talking shit in her head when I approached her. She’d planned the murder of me and my children in hopes that she could replace me and give him more babies.