Lilia’s POV
For the next three days, I turned myself into someone else.
Every morning I came down to breakfast on time.
Before Nathan left, I straightened his tie for him, rising on my toes the way I had as a child to smooth out the wrinkles.
At first he watched me with guarded eyes.
But on the third morning he ruffled my hair, as natural as if the old days had come back.
“Can I go to work today?” I kept my voice soft.
“I’ve missed too many days. Cora will start asking questions. And…” I lowered my eyes.
“If I disappear for too long, people will get suspicious.”
Nathan studied me, then nodded.
“The car will take you to the door.
Home before dark.”
”Okay.”
My hands shook while I did my makeup, but the foundation covered everything,brows thickened, cheeks darkened, lips a bloodless dusty pink, false lashes stuck on crooked.
When I walked into the tavern, Cora popped her head over the bar and winked at me.
“Lilia! You vanished again! Do you have any idea what’s sitting in your locker?” She grabbed my arm and hauled me to the front counter, pointing at the storage cabinet.
“Someone delivered it yesterday,said you’d left it behind in a car. And that,”
The locker door swung open and I froze.
Inside stood an enormous bouquet of roses, petals still beaded with water, the red almost too vivid to be real.
The note card carried a single letter: K.
I already knew who it was from.
Cora picked one rose out and waved it at me.
“Whoever sent these is courting you, isn’t he? How romantic.”
I dragged my mouth into an ugly excuse for a smile.
Courted by the Cursed King,a man who had killed more people than I could count.
Romantic indeed.
First the kiss, now flowers.
Had he recognized me as the witness from the forest that night?
Or was it just a whim?
Cora leaned in and dropped her voice.
“Who is he?
I feel like I’ve missed the biggest scandal of your life.”
“Do you… know Kael?”
The grin slid right off her face.
“Kael? The man courting you is Kael?” She glanced around before going on.
“I don’t know much.
But he isn’t from our Pack, and his standing is high all the same,even the Elders of Blackwater treat him with respect.”
”Why?”
”He stays out of the territorial disputes, but he controls the biggest port on this whole continent.
Lilia, do you understand what that means?”
I did.
If the whole region was a sealed bottle, then Kael was the stopper.
Whatever rotted inside was no concern of his,but anyone who wanted in or out had to answer to him.
Cora set the flowers down, her face gone serious.
“Being noticed by him is not a good thing.”
”I know.” I pushed the bouquet deeper into the locker.
“We’ve only just met. A passing whim, that’s all.”
Cora opened her mouth to say more, but customers were trickling through the door.
She snapped into her professional smile and nodded me toward them.
Carrying my tray, I walked into the main hall.
Warriors sat drinking around a round table, smoke and liquor thickening the air, empty bottles tilting in a heap, their talk loud and unguarded.
“When we see Kael later, watch your mouths.” The bald one at the head dropped his voice, fingers tapping the tabletop.
The man behind him muttered agreement.
“Is what we brought enough to satisfy him?”
”Of course it is.
Don’t be stupid.” The bald one glared at him.
“That man thinks ten layers deep.
One word out of place and this whole trip is wasted.
Everyone behaves.”
”Yes, boss.”
Head down, I set fresh bottles on their table.
“Hey ugly. Pour.”
I came back to myself and lifted a bottle to fill his glass.
The bald one seized my wrist without warning and yanked me toward him.
A scar ran across his face, from the corner of his left eye down to his jaw; when he grinned, the scar twisted with it, like a centipede still alive.
“Heh.” He licked his lips, his other hand sliding toward my waist.
“The pretty ones are out of my league, but an ugly one,I can touch an ugly one, can’t I? Face is a lost cause, but the dress is nice. Wonder if it looks better off.”
Every hair on my body stood up as his fingers found my waist.
One of the men behind him spoke up, hesitant.
“Easy, Alex. Dax got his ear cut off just yesterday. We’re here to make peace. Don’t start anything.”
Alex ignored him.
His other hand came up toward my chest. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
The bottle was still in my grip,and before his fingertips could land, I jerked back a full step and swung it into his face.
Glass shattered against his howl, amber liquor threading through the blood between his fingers.
He staggered back, clutching his eye.
A gash had opened at the outer corner, blood tracking down his cheekbone.
“Bitch! You ungrateful little,grab her! Grab her now!”
I turned and ran,out of the hall, down the inner corridor, flat out.
Behind me, crashing furniture and his roars tangled together, footsteps gaining.
The cut ear, the peace talks,if I’d understood right, the man they’d come to beg forgiveness from was Kael.
Which meant he was somewhere on this floor.
I picked a door,the man outside it looked like the Beta Kael had brought that night,shoved past him and burst into the room.
Then my collar snapped taut at the back of my neck.
Alex had me by the scruff, and he hauled me clean off my feet and slammed me into the floor.
My knees cracked against the boards, and the pain whited out my vision.
The conversation inside died mid-word.
I lifted my head.
Kael sat at the center of the room, black shirt cuffed to the forearm, the silver totem tattoo catching the light.
When his eyes found me, something dark dropped into them for an instant,then he leaned back until half his face was lost in shadow.
“What’s this?” His voice came from the shadow.
The bald one wiped the blood off his face and spat on the floor.
“My apologies, Alpha Kael. This Omega has the nerve to strike me,and she’s disturbed you. I’ll take her outside and deal with her myself.”
A short laugh, from nowhere.
Kael’s mouth curved.
He flicked a glance at the men beside him, and his voice slid back into that lazy drawl.
“No need. All of you, come in. I’ll deal with her myself.”
The bald one started to argue, but Kael’s Betas took hold of him and shoved him into the room with the rest.
I stayed where I was, kneeling.
Kael’s gaze traveled over my smeared makeup and the false lash hanging half off.
Then he raised his hand and crooked a finger at me.
“Come here.”