- Strike At Breakfast
Jessamine
It took me years to discover the truth Neredia may be my home, but it wasn’t my mother’s. Or my father’s.
And my mother did an awfully good job at masking it. Though, I’d think it obviously from her wild, savage beauty, very much unlike the kind I’d grown around that it was pretty obvious.
Violet eyes, hair like the rising sun, olive skin–features that belong to those who worship the Sun Goddess those who live far beyond the borders that are now occupied by rogues
In Neredia, we worship the Moon Goddess. Our shifting processes are tied to the moon’s cycle. We may shift whenever we want to, but only under the moonlight are we at the peak of our powers as wolves.
I chuckle as I brush my hair back into my hands, pulling it up into a tight ponytail. We talk like I can classify myself as one of them. I don’t even
have a wolf
In Dawn, the Sun Goddess’s City, their shifting process is tied to the sun. In contrast, the moon’s energy renders them vulnerable and weaker, almost human
Dawn isn’t spoken of very much in Naredia. The previous Alpha King. Kier’s father, had tried merging the lands, but upon their refusal, he’d banned them from entering Neredia or having any type of relationship with us. We were not to speak of them or think of them.
Mother never did, but I found out on one of the many days I ran from home. I’d run and gotten lost, finding myself in a strange place. I’d found the answers I sought answers mother would never give.
And I buried them. For my sake and mother’s.
How did my mother know so much? How did she know every trick in the book when it came to getting under a man’s skin? How did she know the way their minds worked, and why did she teach me these things?
You must have figured it out by now.
It was the only way she knew how to live. So, she ught me how to survive, in the only way she knew how–to.
When I found myself in Dawn, lost and starving, I’d come upon a decade. old bounty poster with my mother’s face on it. Her lips had been cut in a daring grin and her eyes were wicked and entrancing. Clear as day. No sign of madness in them. But it had been the words under that had broken something in me.
Fifty thousand for the Queen of Whores.
Yes. Madeline Everhart, my mother, in her life before coming to Neredia, she lived as a lady of the night, in a renowned brothel, offering her services to only the richest men that ever lived. A harlot who was reverenced as a goddess. A woman richer than the Goddesses
combined.
And she had loved and been loved just as madly in turn. And she had
- me.
That is the part I know nothing of. Why she left, who she left with, why there was a bounty on her head, why she chose to have me. Who had been worth leaving everything behind for. Who had been worth starting over for.
Do I want Alpha Kier finding that out? No. It’d affect his decision. No one wants to marry the daughter of a…whore. Though, she was everything but that for me. She was my mother and I love her. In life. In. death. Forever.
I sigh, straightening my coat. My fingers tremble as I push them into
2.5
gloves. Today’s the Hunt. I’m trying not to be scared, but I can tell that even the maids who tend to my room can smell my fear.
There are weapons in my boots and a bow strapped to my back, but it will do nothing if they plan to kill me. There’s only so much I can do against Alpha females with malicious intents, and after the incident in the lake, I’d be silly to think they wouldn’t try to kill me again.
The sound of glass shattering snaps me awake from my reveries and I turn, finding the flower vase broken and the maid who broke it falls to the ground, muttering an apology as she tries to pack it up with bare hands.
“Oh, no,” I say, a little worried as I join her, crouching down to pick the shards. “It’s fine. I didn’t care much for–Ow!” I exclaim as a sharp edge cuts deep into my palm, burning a little.
“I–i’m sorry,” she cries, still reaching for the miserable glass.
“It’s fine,” I say, straightening from my crouch. “Don’t use your hands. You’ll cut yourself.”
She takes heed, hurrying over to grab the broom and clean up. I pull out the top drawer and take out a bandage, wrapping it around my bleeding palm. I scowl, tightening the wrap.
A few minutes later, I enter the dinning hall
Silent as my entry is, my presence provokes silence. My steps slow when I see Alpha Kier seated at the head of the table, head propped on his fist as he looks at Moira with a smile that should be mine only.
I suddenly don’t feel hungry anymore. My stomach feels queasy and my chest tightens with anger and nausea
At least, I’m not the only one glaring at them. Everyone else is. Hard not to when he’s letting her touch his hair and her ugly laughter sounds like plates breaking everytime he whispers something in her ear.
25
I pull out a chair slowly, even as my daze is trained on them. I let my expression smoothen into a cool and amused mask, even if all I want to do is upturn this table and hurl it into her face.
He’s doing this to rattle and shame me. Funny. You n’t share the shameless. Plus, I have plans in place for any such behaviour.
Katherine eyes me, whispering and laughing as she comments on how dry my hair looks and how I stink like horses. It doesn’t get to me. I know I don’t smell like horses.
I wait for a while, but I am not served breakfast. It is not surprising. I didn’t expect the royal seal to suddenly change my status. I don’t belong on this table, with these people. Not yet, at least.
“The servant waiting to be served. How ironic. Wonder what she did to get his seal,” Lady Keisha says, not bothering to hide her annoyance. Though, I suspect she is more vexed by the obnoxious pair at the head of the table and she’s only venting to take it out on me.
“She sneaks into his room at night. She’s a slut. Must’ve been great if he said she could have anything she wanted,” another, a red head, adds, tearing into her roasted chicken. What was her name again? Marion?
“So great he’s taking Moira to his bed now,” Keisha snorts, black eyes. shifting to me as I watch them, utterly bored. “What are you looking at?”
I smile a little. “Well, I was just wondering if your makeup was trying to hide the wrinkles, or if the cleavage was trying to distract from them. It’s quite the balancing act you’ve got going on there. A little more and he just might notice you.”
Katherine coughs to hide her laughter, and Marion is no better, bringing her glass of orange juice to her lips.
Keisha starts to retort, but I’m rising out of my seat, walking around to grab the bread since no one will pass it to me and maybe cause a little.
trouble, as it is what I am best at.
The basket is on Alpha Kier’s right. I pause by his left, leaning over slowly, letting my coat caress his hand. He takes it back swiftly, and as my fingers wrap around the food basket, his hazel green eyes still on the bandage around my hand.
His lips purse, but he says nothing, leaning back in his seat and far from me. I smile evilly to myself and make a show of being nervous. My hand twitches and so, I knock the glass of water beside Moira’s plate down, and it splashes on her dress.
I refrain from grinning as she jumps out of her chair, patting her gown down and cussing at me.
And my joy only increases when Alpha Kier reaches into his pocket to hand her his handkerchief to wipe her dress
Only to discover as he hands it to her that it is not a handkerchief.
It is a midnight blue, lacy thong, courtesy of Yours Truly.
Me
