In the Flesh (30 page)

Another war…it made him nauseous.

“You forget yourself, General. Remember that you are speaking to your king.”

“I never forget it, but I’ll speak my mind regardless. I’m only valuable to Sari if I dedicate myself completely to her safety. No lies. No reservations.”

The monarch ran a hand through his blond curls and sighed wearily. “Why didn’t you tell me, Grave? All this time she was gone, you knew she was with him, didn’t you?”

“Not at first, but yes, later I knew. You’d released her from her contract. Your right to know anything about my daughter was severed by your own choice.”

The king growled. “She’s angry with me and hurt
that I released her without saying good-bye. We argued the last time I saw her. If I have a chance to speak with her, we could work this out.”

Grave choked on an incredulous laugh. “You don’t seem to comprehend the gravity of the situation, Your Majesty. It’s
over
between you. Forever. She’s in love and—”

“She can’t love
him
,” Gunther roared. “It’s not possible. She’s been with me for years. She has only known him for weeks.”

“Months.”

They both turned at the sound of Katie’s voice.

“But it took me only a moment to fall in love with him,” she said.

As she entered the room behind the Queen of Sari, Sapphire offered a reassuring smile to her father. Her glaive-hilt was held loosely but securely in her hand. The front of her
dammr
-suit was stained with blood, as were her hands. She saw the concern in her father’s eyes and shook her head, silently telling him not to worry.

“Katie.” His tone was wary. “What the hell are you doing?”

She lifted her chin. “I’m ending this, Daddy. Now.” Her narrowed gaze moved to the king.

The monarch took a cautious step back.

“The Crown Prince of D’Ashier was gravely injured tonight,” she said in a low, dangerous tone. “It won’t happen again. Leastwise, not by your hand, Your Majesty.”

She shoved the queen forward with the flat of her palm. “Tell him what you did.”

The queen stumbled, then regained her footing.
Shooting an incredulous glance over her shoulder, she pushed her silvery blonde hair out of her face. “I do not answer to the dictates of a
mätress
!”

“You may call me ‘Your Highness.’” Sapphire’s lips curved without humor. “On further thought, since you were the one who introduced me to my husband, I give you leave to call me ‘Princess Consort Katie.’”

The king choked. His gaze shifted rapidly from the queen to the general, then back to her. “What are you talking about?”

Her father nodded grimly. “Yes, Your Majesty, she’s telling the truth. About both the bonding, and the queen’s involvement.”

The king rounded on his queen, his face mottled with fury. “What have you done?”

The general hastily stepped between the two.

The queen’s shoulders went back, and regal hauteur covered her from head to toe. “Did you think I would do nothing and play the martyr forever?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” He lunged toward her.

Grave intercepted the attack, then continued to restrain the king as he fought to reach his wife.

The queen’s icy demeanor intensified, lowering the temperature in the room by several degrees.

“You’re a fool, Gunther.” She lifted an imperious hand when he opened his mouth to retort. “Listen to me,
for once.
I had my choice of suitors—rulers from larger, more powerful countries. You may find me lacking, but I assure you, other men find me beautiful. I could have been cherished. Instead I married you, because I wanted you.” Her brilliant blue gaze raked him from head to toe. “You remain
the handsomest man I’ve ever seen. The thought of sharing your life and your bed filled me with such excitement, I could hardly wait for our wedding night.”

The king stilled, staring at his wife as if she were a stranger. She laughed, a cold and bitter sound. “You look so surprised.”

“I assumed you hated me.” His gaze shifted away. “When I bedded you, you were stiff and frigid. Afterward, you cried. Why in hell would either of us wish to repeat the experience?”

“I was a virgin!” The queen’s fingers clenched rhythmically as if she longed to do violence. “And you lay on the bed and expected me to pleasure you like a concubine! I am a
queen
and
your wife
. You should have made concessions for my innocence. In my country, virginity is a prize revered. You detested it.”

Gunther flushed. He shot a beseeching glance to Sapphire. She crossed her arms and said nothing, did nothing.

“Don’t look at her!” The queen’s beautiful face contorted with hate and jealousy. She rounded on Sapphire, hissing pure venom. “I thought the prince would
kill
you. I was certain of it. How could he resist? You, the lover of his enemy and daughter to Erikson. Instead, he married you. The idiot.”

“I take offense to that,” drawled a deep voice from the doorway.

Sapphire pivoted to face Wulf. “You shouldn’t have come. It’s too dangerous.”

Wulf’s emerald gaze remained locked on her. His long legs ate up the distance between them.
“We’re going to have to have a long talk about obeying orders.”

“How did you get in here?” the king barked.

Wulf snorted. “As if anything could keep me out while my wife is here.”

“Guardian!” Gunther bellowed.

“I’ll kill you just as soon as look at you,” Wulf warned with deadly softness, “and leave here without a scratch on me. It’s your choice, but if I were you, I wouldn’t call the guards.”

The queen’s smile was spiteful. She glanced back at her husband. “I admit the outcome is not as I intended, but regardless, she’s permanently out of your reach.”

“You would have seen her killed, Brenna?” the king asked, clearly astonished by the thought.

“You have no notion of the things I’ve done to win your regard.”

As Wulf drew to a halt beside Sapphire, he wrapped his arm around her waist. She felt the combat readiness he hid beneath the casual façade.

“Care to explain to us how and why I ended up in my wife’s possession?” he asked.

The queen gave a brittle smile. “You’re stepping into the conversation belatedly, Prince Wulfric.”

“A brief refresher is all I require. I catch up quick.”

The queen moved to the dais and sat regally upon her throne. “After I realized my husband had no intention of sharing my bed, I understood that drastic measures were necessary. When the patrols reported a disturbance just across the border in D’Ashier, I dispatched several of my guards to investigate.”

“Without advising me,” the general muttered.

“I knew you had no knowledge of it,” she said, “and I hoped that my handling of the matter on my own would please Gunther. Tarin Gordmere was captured and—”

“You said nothing of this to me!” The king resumed his fevered pacing. His hands clenched into fists.

Brenna shrugged. “I intended to tell you. I thought you’d be pleased that I’d caught the bounty hunter, especially since his men offered me Prince Wulfric in exchange for his release. You had agreed to retire the
karimai
from her contract. I was thrilled, thinking this would be a new beginning for us, then I saw how distressed you were over her loss and realized you loved her.”

The queen settled back in her throne with both arms laid elegantly atop the armrests. “Until that point, I’d believed that luring you back to my bed was all that was required to win your heart, but your love for the
mätress
would never allow that to happen.” Her smile turned feral. “The solution came to me in the form of Prince Wulfric. He would rid me of the
mätress
and take all of the blame for her demise. I, of course, would console you in your grief.”

“You heartless, conniving bitch!” the king spat.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Wulf said. “It’s deviously clever, considering the information she had to work with. I can’t find it in me to be too angry, since the end result is my marriage.”

The king paused, his robes swirling to a halt around his legs. “You truly love him?” He directed his question to Sapphire.

“Yes,” she replied. “Very much.”

He winced. “Why?”

“Who can say how these things happen, Your Majesty? It was simply meant to be this way.”

“I thought you were angry with me for releasing you. I thought we could get past this and be together again. I love you; it never occurred to me that you didn’t feel the same.”

“There was a time when I wanted to love you,” she admitted. “But you saw only what you wanted to see in me and disregarded the rest.” She leaned heavily into Wulf, exhausted. “I wish our contract had ended amicably. Now thousands of people will suffer.”

“It’s nothing we can’t—”

“Nothing?”
Anger gave her strength. “Good men died tonight and I nearly lost my husband.”

“I didn’t plan the attack.” The king turned away and sat in his throne next to the queen. “I trusted the details to Gordmere.”

Brenna gasped. “Tarin Gordmere?”

“Yes. I hired the bounty hunter to find Sapphire.”

“He found me,” Sapphire said grimly. “He nearly killed me.”

The horror on the monarch’s face was clearly genuine. “That was never my intent! Gordmere was only to bring you to me, unharmed. I urged him to make haste because I knew Prince Wulfric had you. I’d hoped you would find it romantic that I would go to such trouble to rescue you. I knew nothing of the attack on the D’Ashier encampment until it happened.”

“You lie!” she accused him. “You insisted on the summit.”

“I thought Gordmere meant to find you without incident,” he protested. “I was attempting to distract Prince Wulfric. That was all. I would never hurt you. You must know that.”

“If you don’t want to hurt my wife, leave her alone,” Wulf growled. “Forget she exists.”

Gunther’s fingertips beat a rapid, agitated staccato on the armrest. “You say it so simply, as if I weren’t tearing my heart out and giving it to you. Imagine having her in your bed for five years, then returning her to me. What would
you
do? How would you feel?”

Wulf’s chest rose and fell in rapid rhythm. He glanced down at Sapphire, then his gaze swept around the room. It returned to the king. “We’re leaving.”

He gripped Katie’s elbow. “Did you get the answers you were looking for?” he asked her.

“I’m not leaving until everything is settled.” She looked at the king. “What will happen to my father?”

“Don’t worry about me,” the general answered.

“He’s in no danger,” the king replied, but the tone in which he delivered the pronouncement set her on edge.

Grave crossed his arms over his chest. “I won’t lead a war over this.”

“There won’t be a war.” Gunther ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “There are ways to cover this up.” He looked to Wulf.

Wulf inhaled sharply. “We’d have to withhold the information of what happened in the desert from our peoples. The fallen soldiers’ families would have to be misled. They’d insist on vengeance.”

“But the survivors will know,” Grave argued.
“They won’t understand why they’re being asked to hide the knowledge. Rumors will spread. We can’t contain it fully.”

Gunther waved his hand carelessly. “We have no other choice.”

“I hate lying to my men,” Grave raged. “They deserve better!”

Wulf turned his gaze to Grave. Neither of them said anything, but Sapphire sensed a silent communication flowing between them. Later, she’d question Wulf about it.

After a long moment, her father nodded. He came to her, wrapping her in a tight embrace.

“Come with us,” she whispered.

“I can’t.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “They’ll never let you leave if I don’t stay. I’m their new leverage.”

“What will you do?”

“Whatever I have to.”

She rose to her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “You and Mother aren’t safe here.”

“We’ll be fine. I can’t say more.” He crushed her to him. “But trust that nothing will come between us, Katie. Ever.”

She felt him stiffen against her and his breath hissed out between clenched teeth. Alarmed, Sapphire pulled back.

Wulf’s hand rested on her father’s shoulder. “My apologies, General,” he murmured, tilting his hand to Sapphire to reveal a tiny injector cradled in his palm. “My ring was damaged in the battle and has a sharp edge.”

A nanotach. Her lower lip quivered as she looked
at her husband, loving him more in that moment than she’d ever thought possible.

“I’ll take care of her,” Wulf promised.

“You damn well better.” Grave’s dark eyes were filled with warning.

Sapphire linked hands with Wulfric and tugged him backward toward the door, her glaive-hilt held at the ready in front of her. “It’s been lovely, but we have to go now.”

The queen smiled with pure malice. “Until we meet again.”

Chapter 22

Wulf stood in the darkness in his room, staring out the window at the sparkling lights of the city below. At the moment, everything seemed peaceful, but he knew the illusion was fleeting. Tomorrow was another day. More work to be done, alliances to be made.

Satin-skinned arms encircled his waist the moment before lush breasts pressed to his back. He wrapped his arms over Katie’s with a pleasured sigh, his cock hardening just from the touch and scent of her.

Her warm breath gusted across his skin. “We still have to find the person responsible for hiring Gordmere to capture you. I won’t be able to rest until I know who it is and what they want with you.”

“We can’t ever lower our guard around you either. The King of Sari is like a petulant child, and I’ve stolen his favorite toy. He’s the type who would prefer that the object he covets be broken, rather than allow anyone else to have it.”

Turning in her embrace, Wulf gazed down into Katie’s luminous dark eyes. His back blocked the light from the window and cast her beloved features
into shadow, but the lack of illumination didn’t matter. Her face was forever etched in his mind.

“As long as he lusts for you,” he continued, “the queen’s hatred will fester.”