King of Darkness (22 page)

“Probably your power surged right before you passed out. Blew your wad, so until you recharge, you’ll be cooled down for awhile.” Lee also offered Thad a helping hand.

While Lee and Brayden each heaved an arm, Thad gave a final push to get himself vertical. Tyra continued to stare him down with disapproval all over her face. “Tyra, come on. Don’t look at me like that.”

Yet another fucking eye roll. “I’m sorry, little brother, but somehow you’ve gone from nice guy to asshole and straight on toward stupid in record time.”

He might have pulled off a snappy retort if he hadn’t still had two males holding him up like he was a sloppy drunk being escorted out of a bar. He threw his arms up. “I will get myself to bed, thank you.” He pointed a finger at Tyra. “You and I will talk later.”

With what energy he could muster, he attempted a confident swagger and pushed open the gym door, leaving them all to give his back the hairy eyeball. He had been a dick and a jackass, and he knew it, but he’d have to deal with the peanut gallery later.

As Thad slowly made his way back upstairs, he weighed his options of where to crash. Technically, he didn’t live in this house yet. Since his parents’ passing, he had continued to live in his own house on the property, not ready to officially move into the mansion that had been their home. Truth be told, he still wasn’t ready. But he was running out of reasons to put off the move.

There were several guest rooms. While he hated the fact, he had to acknowledge that he wanted to find Isabel and beg for her to soothe his aches as she had asked him to do before.

He finally stopped in front of her door, but his confidence waned. Perhaps Tyra had been right. Maybe instead of using the hard sell, he should back off a little. Give her some space. Handle things with more finesse.

Oh, who the fuck was he kidding? He didn’t know jack shit about finesse. He was used to females lying at his feet if he so much as snapped his fingers, women interested in nothing more than his title. He’d sure as hell never had one bolt from the room after sleeping with him. Then again, he couldn’t say for certain that he would have cared before if one had.

With one hand on the doorknob, he leaned his head against the door as another wave of nausea assailed him. He might as well face the fact head on: prophecy or no freaking prophecy, he was drawn to her in a way he couldn’t even put words to. She was unlike anyone male or female he had known before—gorgeous, independent… amazing.

Being with her had awakened feelings he hadn’t thought possible. She had argued that he didn’t know her well enough; he knew all he needed from the way holding her in his arms was so amazingly, achingly, perfectly right.

And the sex… heaven above, he’d never had that kind of chemistry with any female. He smiled slightly, thinking of how she’d slapped him. No one in the history of his kind would have had the guts to smack the king across the mouth like a disrespectful school kid. Thad wasn’t into the kinky shit, but he had to admit he’d loved that she had the balls to stand up to him that way.

He had already admitted that he was falling for Isabel. In a big way. That seemed like a misnomer, really. Not that he had much experience with this sort of thing, but once you realized you were falling in love with someone, wasn’t it already too late? He shook his head slowly against the door. Yeah, might as well admit it.

Thad Morgan really was in love.

To truly claim it, even if only to himself, lifted him up. It loosened the hard squeeze around his heart that had nagged him quietly since he’d first met Isabel and made him stronger. Somehow, he would find a way to work this out with her. Get her to hold on until he could court her properly. Show her how good it could be with him and how he could take care of her. Clearly, her life had been rather solitary, except for her friendship with Alexia, and he wanted so much to take care of her.

It was something he had desperately needed. He just hadn’t known that before now.

“Damn,” he whispered to the air molecules in the silent hallway. “Now what?”

From the moment he was born, Thad had been groomed for the position he was now to fill, yet he had always been too overwhelmed by the enormity of the role to take it seriously. He was ashamed to admit that he’d stuck his head in the sand and naively assumed that his father would continue to rule until he retired to the Council of Elders on his one thousandth birthday. In theory, Thad should have had another century to get accustomed to all of the responsibility that now sat squarely on his shoulders.

Part of him still secretly felt like the ten-year-old boy who had gleefully tromped up and down the hallways of this house, swimming in his father’s boots. It was time now to put on the big-boy pants and grow a pair. If he didn’t, Isabel would never trust him to take care of her. Nor would the rest of their kind. Then it would only be a matter of time before the race fell to its enemies.

He straightened from his pansy-ass lean against the door. Isabel was probably talking to Alexia. He would wait, but he still felt light-headed, and unmacho though it was, he wasn’t going to stay standing much longer. Had someone opened Isabel’s door while he was leaning there, Thad would have eaten the carpet.

He twisted the doorknob. He’d go in and wait, and maybe catch a few z’s while he was at it. Yeah, that’d be good.

Isabel smiled her best smile at the two seething males looming over her, even though she desperately wanted to flee for the nearest bathroom. Again. Because when in doubt, fake it.

The larger one was almost as big as Thad, but with beefier muscles and the face of a bulldog. He clutched a medium-sized cardboard box to his chest. The other male was smaller, with the handsome look of a vampire Ken doll and a wobbly smile. She hoped like crazy that she was doing a better job than this guy at hiding her nerves.

Ken Doll stepped forward. “Your Majesty—”

Isabel held up a hand. “Whoa, there. I’m not—” Okay, probably best not to correct everyone just this second, especially not with the angry bulldog-man right in front of her. “Isabel is fine. Please.”

Ken Doll nodded eagerly. “Yes, ma’am, thank you.”

Ma’am.
She supposed she could live with that.

“We sincerely apologize for taking your time, ma’am. Really, this is all just a misunderstanding,” Ken Doll continued.

“Misunderstanding?” Dog Man stepped forward, casting a heavy shadow over Isabel. “It’s
his
fault that my Lucy got pregnant!”

“Accident then,” Ken Doll said.

Isabel swallowed. “And Lucy is your…”
Don’t say mate. Please don’t say she’s your mate…

Dog Man straightened. “I raise and sell beagle puppies.” A shaking finger pointed at Ken Doll. “His brute Rottweiler got my Lucy pregnant, and now I’ve got these mixed-breed puppies I can’t do a thing with.”

Isabel placed a hand over her mouth. That poor beagle.

Dog Man placed the box in her lap. Inside was a pile of velvety, black-and-brown sleeping cuteness. Ken Doll was fidgety, and the reason was clear: Isabel could squeeze all of her dog knowledge into the tip of her nose, but even she could see from the markings that the puppies were part Rottweiler.

But really, this was what they were waiting to see the king about? She frowned. “And you needed to see Tha—the king about this?”

Dog Man sputtered. “My puppies sell for four hundred dollars apiece. I’ll be lucky if I can get a hundred each for these things. All because he can’t keep his dog inside during the day!”

Ken Doll hung his head with a sigh. “I’ve apologized. Rufus has a doggie door in case he needs to go out during the day. There was a weak spot in the fence…”

Isabel couldn’t keep the frown off her face. This seemed so trivial in the grand scheme of things. It would almost have been funny, had it not been for the two males looking like they might lock proverbial horns at any moment.

Isabel turned to Ken Doll. “Can you not afford to pay him the difference?”

Everything went quiet. Dog Man’s angry shifting from foot to foot ceased, and he turned to Ken Doll hopefully. “Could you?”

He hadn’t
asked
?

Ken Doll’s head bobbled. “I—sure, yeah. I could do that.”

“And,” Isabel prompted. “I assume you’ve fixed the fence?”

“Of course, ma’am. It’s just that, well, I didn’t know for sure that my Rufus was to blame until just the other day.”

Isabel swung her gaze back to Dog Man. “So if he pays you what you would’ve earned if they were purebred puppies, will that work?”

Dog Man nodded. “I suppose it would, yes.”

“So then what’s the problem?” The males had the decency, at least, to look properly chagrined. She handed back the box of puppies. “Listen, guys. I don’t really understand why you needed to see the king for something like this. You both seem like intelligent males. Surely you could have worked it out on your own.”

Dog Man shrugged. “The king always handles disputes.”

Good grief. Isabel sighed. Visions of Thad’s blue eyes, wide with worry that first time they spoke, danced in her head.
We
are
down
to
thousands, Isabel.
“No offense, guys, but I think the king’s energy would best be spent keeping our race alive, not dealing with petty stuff like this. All you had to do,” she gestured from Dog Man to Ken Doll, “was ask him for the money.”

“Yes, ma’am,” they both mumbled.

Ma’am.
Forty-eight hours earlier, Isabel might have laughed in the face of someone who dared to call her that. The two left amid a flurry of apologies and more “Yes, ma’ams,” and with each
ma’am
Isabel winced a little less. A few individuals in the line whispered, grumbled, and left, as well. Her spine straightened and her shoulders lifted. Was this what being queen was about? It didn’t seem so hard.

A petite female approached tentatively. She was lovely, with delicate features and sandy-colored shoulder-length hair, but she had the saddest face Isabel had ever seen. And considering the number of lost souls Isabel had met on the party scene, that was saying something.

The female extended a hand. “I’m Diana. I am so sorry to be taking up your time, ma’am. I just wasn’t sure who to go to with a problem like this. You see, I want to have a baby.”

Isabel’s head swam. Clearly, she had been a little too quick on the trigger with that whole “easy” business. “I’m not sure…” Seriously, what could she
say
to something like that?

Diana clasped her hand. “My mate is one of your soldiers.”

One of
her
soldiers? Yeesh.

The female continued. “I know our numbers are low because he’s out there fighting and training six nights a week. I want to be a mother, and I want to help carry on our race. Birad is too exhausted to try, even on his night off. He just sleeps. I know the ongoing battle is depressing him, but he won’t admit it. I was hoping maybe Thad could talk to him, soldier to soldier. Male to male. Maybe he’d be able to get through.”

Okay. Isabel worried her lower lip between her teeth. She didn’t even know where Thad was at the moment. Not to mention that things were still a little awkward, and seeking him out didn’t seem like a good ide—

Just then, Ivy breezed back in. “Here’s your coffee, Isabel. I’ll just put it over here on the bar until you’re ready to drink it.”

The
bar.
Isabel squeezed Diana’s hand. “Ivy, you don’t happen to have any red wine back there, do you?”

Ivy disappeared behind the marble-topped counter and, after a few clinking and sliding noises, reemerged holding what was probably a very pricey bottle of Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. “Will this work?”

Would it ever. It was an intense red. “Perfect.” Isabel grabbed the bottle from Ivy’s outstretched hand and put it into Diana’s. “One glass. One, okay?” The female nodded slowly and eyed the bottle like Isabel had just handed over a bomb.

“Trust me, this’ll work. Wait until the next full moon and give him a glass with his meal. Have one yourself, while you’re at it. Maybe you even serve it to him wearing nothing but your best pearls and some strappy stilettos. After dinner, put on some sexy music, shove him down on the bed, and spank him like the bad, bad boy that he is.” Diana recoiled a bit. “Or, you know, whatever you feel moved to do.”

The poor female’s eyes were wide as saucers. “Are you sure about that?”

Isabel smiled. She might not be sure about much, but
this
she had experience with. “Seriously. It’ll feel great. And if it doesn’t work, I’ll send Thad over there myself to talk to him.” Diana thanked her profusely and left. Isabel pushed aside the fact that she had, more or less, just committed to following up with the female at a later date.

Things got a little blurry after that. Most of the issues, though, seemed mundane and frivolous to Isabel’s way of thinking. Property-line disagreements were easily resolved by just telling them to split the damn difference, and a young female who’d been disowned by her parents for refusing an arranged mating was sent to Ivy to see about a job and a place to stay. When Ivy returned, Isabel was flipping channels and sipping her coffee, which was thankfully still a little warm. “Everyone’s gone?”