- Taunt Him
Kier
I despise myself the moment I realize what I have done. The hall is so silent, one could hear the sound of a pin drop.
Randale stares at me with surprise, not bothering to pe the blood dripping from his broken nose.
I raise my gaze from his face to every single man who defers to me in the hall. They all have one question in their disapproving gazes. Why?
My fingers clench around Jessamine’s finger tightly, against my own will. I have lost control of my body, moving against my will.
I found her note under my door, covered in her scent. Let’s talk. Training hall. — JH.
I was well on my way to light it up when I say the scrawling behind the note. I’ll consider letting you take me on your table if you come.
I burned it anyway, trying to resist its lure, but I couldn’t stop myself, couldn’t help myself. I would call it curiousity, but it is more than that: something primal, untamed, and insatiable stirred within me when it
came to this woman.
A yawning pit of hunger, so raw and savage that my visit to the tavern. last night and three long hours of drive hard into Rebecca, the tavern owner, in every position I could did absolutely nothing to quench it.
Why?
The answer comes to me as I stare back at Jessamine. It’s her eyes. Eyes that seduce. Eyes that bewitch. She’s a fucking witch and I’m her prey. For the first time since father died, I feel true fear as intense violet eyes narrow at me. A fear that Jessamine Everhart has a power over
- me.
I will visit the Goddess’s temple tonight and pray; pray that she breaks the spell Jessamine Everhart has placed on me.
The lady yanks her hand out of mine. “He was only teaching me, which shouldn’t bother you since you have made it clear that you do not care if I live or die. You didn’t need to hit him. Why did you? Because you can?”
I force my gaze to Randale, my friend of many years who I have hit for no reason, driven by irrational jealousy. Jealousy? Over a woman I have no claim to?
Why did you? Because you can? Her words penetrate deeper than any blade, cutting past flesh and burrowing into the very core of my soul.
It takes me back several years ago—a time when I was but an angry, little boy who burst into his father’s chambers, consumed by rage. “Why did you hit mother? Just because you could?”
“Randale,” I start to apologize, but he bows his head and he drops on one knee.
“I overstepped with the contender, as opposed to the rules. I will accept whatever punishment you give.”
I understand why he has done this. A King is never wrong, Father. had said to me the eve before his execution. It wasn’t pride. It was precaution. Doubt yourself and those who follow behind you begin to doubt you and themselves. One misstep and the fat line between respect and disregard starts to blur.
Nodding, I pull out a handkerchief from my pocket and hand it to him.” Have the doctor examine that. Carry on.”
I turn around, folding my hands behind me. “Follow me, Lady Everhart.” There is no room left for argument and I walk past her quickly, eager to get away from the hall that now has an image I’ll never be able to get
out of my head.
Jessamine and Randale. She looked at him with want and need, and I
could’ve sworn I smelled her desire for him. She leaned in, those lips so damned close to another man’s mouth, and I had forgotten who Randale was in that split second. I had forgotten who I was and become someone else.
The maid’s Alpha.
1 lead her past door after door, not bothering to return the greetings of the members of my court, as well as the few contenders who watch us with keen interest.
When she sets foot into my study, I pull her in, locking the door behind
her.
She sucks in a sharp breath when I brace my hands on either sides of the wall, trapping her beneath me. “You did that on purpose.”
Her eyelashes are dark—the darkest I have seen on a woman, and when she blinks, they caress her high cheekbone. “Yes.”
“Why?” I whisper, slowing my breaths as the scent in her hair wafts to my nostrils.
“I merely wished to help you,” she responds, her gaze fixed on my chest area. Her fingers, delicate but fierce, grasp my shirt, pulling me closer. She bites my jaw, and a low growl escapes me. “You feel it, don’t you?”
Her cold fingers snake underneath my shirt, stopping a few inches away from my pounding heart. “The rush and heat in your blood. The tightness in your chest; the burning ache of desire. Savages, we wolves. We pretend to be cultured and civil when it is the last thing we are.”
Sharp nails dig into my skin as she kisses my neck. “I wanted to awaken that in you. Around me, you do not need to pretend to be what you’re not. You do not need to be civil. You want, you need, you are
insatiable, untamable, yes?”
Forget praying at the Goddess’s temple. I’ll have the entirety of Neredia go on a dry fast on my behalf. Perhaps, the Moon Goddess will take pity on me then and severe whatever leash it is that connects me with this
woman.
“Yes,” I find myself whispering into her hair, sr “ng deeply. How can
one smell so exotic?
She trails her lips across my jawline, her voice a seductive murmur. Only I can sate your longing and soothe your ache, yes?”
It’s a song. The lilt in her voice, it’s an enthralling song. Witch is not the right fit. She’s a siren, luring me to my death. I should flee. I will, but not now. Now, I want to hear her sing
“Yes,” I say. Anything to make her hands never leave my skin again.
She taunts with a flick of her finger on my nipple, sending desire surging through me. She knows how to push my buttons, and she’s doing it with finesse. “Do you mind the taste of temptation, Alpha Kier?”
“No,” I exhale sharply when her hands find my belt buckle. My fingers tighten into fists and it takes all of my strength to grab her wrist and wrench it from my body. “But I should”
She chuckles, letting her hand slip from mine. I like it when you resist.” She closes her eyes and releases an exotic purr as she wraps a lock of my hair around her finger. “Your eyes, they’ve changed ”
My gaze rises to my hand and I am taken aback when I see my nails have become claws Zephyr I grunt, phasing to the far end of the study with speed.
I’m struggling to regain my composure, to force Zephyr back in, to fight against the changes she’s provoking in me. It’s unsettling, to say the
least
She approaches the desk, and just as she starts to seat, her brows furrow, landing on a scroll and a portrait. “Is that…,” her voice trails off.
I run, but she’s faster as she snatches the scroll from the table, her violet eyes darkening as she reads through. “Why do you have a sketch. of my mother? And this,” she whispers, raising the scroll. “What is this?”
My jaw clenches. “I had to know more about you-”
“You could have just asked, rather than dig up things that are long dead. And buried. Things you do not wish to know. Things that do not concern you!” she seethes, ripping the scrolls in half. And the portrait, she laughs at. “A very terrible drawing, this one. This isn’t what my mother
looked like.
It’s the most rattled and disturbed I have ever seen her. Anger makes her bristle and her words are light, faint, yet heavy. When she speaks the word mother, there is reverence and loathing in her eyes. Love and the ugliest type of hatred. How can one feel such strong things for one person?
I need to push. I need something. The woman is an absolute mystery. All Randale could dredge up from her past was her mother, whose past was equally as shady and empty. No husband. No tutors. No friends. She just came into existence one day, and before then, no one knew of her. Or her daughter who stands in front of me, eyes burning bright with pain I can’t begin to comprehend.
Not now. Not ever.
I step forward, taking the portrait out of her hand before she can rip it too. “You are a contender, for the place of Luna by my side. An investigation on your life is required.
She snorts angrily. “And what results did your investigation bring?”
I raise my chin, staring her down. I won’t tolerate insubordination.”
© +25 BONUS
Watch your tone.”
A dark brow arches. “Have I ever?”
Her challenging spirit is both infuriating and rivetting. I can’t scare her or compel here. There’s no need arguing with her. “Why can’t I find. anything on your father?”
She laughs, even as silver lines her beautiful, devilish eyes. “I didn’t give you permission to look into my life.”
I let the hold on my aura go, dominating and filling the room up with it. One menacing step forward and I growl, “I am your Alpha. Your King. I do not need permission. I take what I want, when I want it.”
She stares up at me, something flickering in her eyes. Not fear. Definitely not fear, because Jessamine Everhart lacks the ability to feel
fear.
My head tilts a little and I frown when I say her name again in my head. Jessamine Everhart? “Why do you use the initials JH? What does
H mean?”
“Everhart was my mother’s last name. My father’s name was Nathan
Hunter.”
“There are no families with the name Hunter in Neredia.”
“That’s because my parents were not from here, Alpha.” She turns away, heading out the door. “I’m Jessamine Everhart. My parent’s lives were theirs. This is mine, and that is all there is to know about me; all that I am and have. My name.” Her fingers grasp around the door knob.” Ever heard the saying, Ignorance is bliss?”
