Azor squinted then finally looked over his shoulder. His gaze landed on Jacob. “Why were you outside?”
Jacob clenched his jaw. “Checking the perimeter.”
Azor’s eyes formed into slits. “Unless my mate leaves, which should only be authorized by me, you will
not
leave the premises, ever. Understood?”
“Don’t talk to him like a child, Azor,” Tatiana interrupted.
He hit her with a glare. “I’ll talk to him however I choose.”
“He’s not your slave,” she said, through her teeth.
Azor barked out a mirthless laugh before he grabbed Tatiana by the arm, ushering her farther down the hall. “You will keep your mouth shut and go get dressed.”
“Azor,” Jacob warned, his voice low and threatening.
“Unhand me, you lumpsucker,” Tatiana growled.
He gripped tighter, his voice hard. “I can make things very difficult for you, Tatiana, if you don’t obey me.”
She laughed evilly.
News flash. It’s already unbearable.
“Like giving your female servant an air bubble over your own mate? Try again.”
Though her insult should have surprised him, Azor’s face remained taut and unchanged. “How is Xirene’s bubble any of your concern?”
“Maybe my hunch was right.” She pitched up her brow, ready to confront him. “Maybe I did hear
your
voice.”
Jacob’s fear floated over Tatiana’s nose, making her keenly aware he was nearby and listening.
“You better not be insinuating anything. Xirene has been a good and faithful servant for many years. She needs a dry place to mix her herbs. The bubble was the least I could do.”
“And me? What about my needs?”
He laughed. “I’ve met your needs, or don’t you remember earlier?”
She pulled her arm away and hissed. Beyond him tickling her tail with the dreaded feather worm, she remembered nothing.
“Actually, I don’t. You…” her mind whirred. The sour taste clicked. It was like the green seed Xirene had given her the first night. “You drugged me to sleep, so you could… leave? Go to her?”
“I did no such thing. And we did
do it
.” He recoiled as if making love to her was the worst thing imaginable. “How can you pin your inability to stay awake on me? It’s insulting that you can’t even remember.”
Disgust flushed through her at the thought of him mating with her when she wasn’t lucid.
She flung his arm away. Something in her snapped. At his words, his cruelty, at his lies. “You’ll never touch me again. I don’t care if you need a son to rule.”
With a whip of her tail, she pivoted and readied herself for a retreat through the porthole when he grabbed her wrist.
“I don’t need your permission to impregnate you.” He roughly grabbed her and pressed her against the wall, rubbing his groin hard against hers. “I could take you right here if I wanted.”
“You wouldn’t,” she whispered, horrified, knowing Jacob was right there, watching.
Azor scoffed, casting one glance over his shoulder. He let her go. “Of course I wouldn’t. I’m not an animal. Just know your place and get some clothes on.”
He pushed her aside and swam through the porthole to the second floor. Her chest heaved with adrenaline and she fought to relax her gills.
Jacob remained in the foyer, his grip tight on his trident, blatant concern etched on his face. She turned her face away, embarrassed, but firmly kept her backside pressed against the wall, her privates hidden from his gaze. She knew how immature she looked, first with accusing her servant of cheating and then getting caught in the nude as a human. She willed him to go away—leave her to sort out her feelings.
Jacob didn’t move. He watched her for a long time, finally extending his hand to her, palm up. Another invitation to leave, the second offer within twenty-four hours. She stared at it, then at the yearning in his grey-blue eyes. Should she go with him? Freedom could be just beyond the suffocating walls of the compound, just beyond Natatoria. He’d take her to her father, if she wanted, convert to human to escape Azor. Temptation rocked her. Then she gulped down a sip of water and leaned against the wall to think.
There were consequences and implications in taking his hand. After his reaction in Xirene’s room, she knew why he took the bodyguard job in the first place. It wasn’t just his loyalty to her father that fueled him. He’d developed feelings for her. It was the reason he never complained, never left her side, and hovered in the current now, offering her another chance to escape. And if she did go, she would condone his behavior—this treachery against the royal family, against her promise, against the rules. Alone, there’d be nothing stopping him from taking her as his. He’d be no better than Azor or the King who tried to steal her kiss days ago.
Besides, everyone would think her crazy to leave the Prince; give up the chance to be queen, and with her bodyguard, of all people—a scandalous crime. Labeled a cheater, she’d tarnish the honor of being chosen as a princess and abandon the kingdom when the mer needed her most.
Closing her eyes, she twisted Azor’s golden gift around her wrist. Though attracted to Jacob, she knew the longing from the promise would never rest if she left Azor. She hadn’t been able to even last a day—wild with worry the last time. But the laughter kept playing in her mind, chipping away at the hold over her soul. Though she didn’t catch them, she knew they were together. The thought of Azor choosing Xirene over her crushed her like a flower in a hail storm.
Too weak to decide on her own, she opened her eyes to Jacob, hoping he’d make things easy on her and just abduct her from this nightmare. She wouldn’t fight him. She’d go willingly this time.
However, when she opened her eyes, he was gone.
22
: : :
Gossip
Jacob lay awake on his bed in the barracks, his body exhausted but his mind a live wire. When Tatiana twisted her bracelet, he almost heard the lock of her heart slamming shut, and he didn’t stay for what was to happen next: to watch her swim through the porthole, to know she’d go toward Azor’s room, to hear her beg his forgiveness and offer herself to him. He’d rather die first. Proof he was wrong. Proof, even with Azor’s hateful treatment of her, she couldn’t break the hold of the promise.
But Azor had lied. His scent hadn’t come from the palace, as he claimed. Just swimming from that direction himself, they should have crossed paths. His deception made Jacob wonder. Had Tatiana’s worst fear been the truth? Did Xirene’s room have another exit?
But what baffled him was why Azor would jeopardize the crown and sleep with Xirene? Sure, he looked the other way when his guards toyed with the mermaid servants, but he’d never allow himself to do the same—not when he could spawn a child with the royal mark. He’d rather think Azor wasn’t capable of love. Tatiana’s kindness and compassion should be more than enough for any merman. Not to mention her human body—which Jacob just had the privilege of seeing. Instead, Azor chose to starve her of his presence, of his acceptance, for what? Revenge?
If only he’d followed Azor’s abhorrent stench to its location before the seas diluted it. Then he would have evidence, showing Tatiana the true animal that he was. However, he would have been too late. Jacob knew his presence prevented Azor from taking Tatiana against her will right there in the hall as a means to punish her. Carnal and brutal, he’d assert himself to show his power over her and most likely plant his seed. And if Jacob happened to witness that, he wouldn’t be able to control himself.
Tatiana’s reaction, though, saddened him. Unbelievably, even after Azor’s disrespectful threats and flimsy alibis, Tatiana remained submissive. Jacob’s faith had hit an all-time low. Where was the real Tatiana? The girl Jack couldn’t stop talking about? The one who he knew could be stronger than the promise?
In the silvery light of the morning, Jacob returned to the main room of the compound, ready to relieve Chauncey. He stretched his tail, working out the aches and pains. From the little sleep he did get, his body hadn’t restored itself. His skirt, even after cinching it up another notch, hung low on his waist.
The front doors were unguarded and a giggle from the kitchen told Jacob why. A quick flit of two entwined tails—the bright blue of Coralade’s and the dull grey of Chauncey’s—gave them away. As Jacob approached the kitchen, he saw Chauncey’s hands pawing her, practically mating with her against the worktable. Jacob shook his head in disgust, especially after knowing Chauncey had fathered three orphans in the past two months.
Where was Xirene? She’d never allow this abhorrent practice to happen right in her kitchen.
Jacob retreated out of sight, then cleared his throat before swimming into the kitchen. The two broke apart like opposite sides of magnets. The cloying stench of pheromones swirled thick around them.
“Yes,” Coralade said, while tying her apron. “Breakfast will be ready within the hour.”
“Good to know,” Chauncey grunted, then swam past Jacob with a cocky sneer. “Pretty uneventful night…”
Yeah, right.
“Thanks for taking my shift.”
“No problem,” he said with a surly smile and disappeared around the corner.
Jacob waited a beat before turning to Coralade, withholding his snide comments. She looked up at him, shooting bedroom eyes through her long green lashes. “Good morning, Jacob.”
“Where’s Xirene?” Jacob asked sharply.
“She and Shanleigh are at the palace picking up today’s rations. Is there something I can do for you?”
She wiggled her tail in rhythmic time. Her pheromones ignited in the water once again with the slightest hint of the mating dance. Jacob sculled backwards.
“Control yourself, temptress.” He eyed her warily. “I should have Xirene send you back to the palace for your indiscretions.”
She straightened up and stopped churning the water with her hips. “You’re one to talk.”
Jacob squinted in surprise. “Excuse me?”
Coralade’s wicked smile curved the corner of her lips. “Peeping in on the Princess.” She petted one index finger down the other and purred. “Naughty, naughty.”
Jacob’s jaw clenched. “Says who?”
“A little sunfish told me there was quite a scene last night.”
“You heard wrong,” Jacob said quickly, fanning the water to dilute her scent.
Coralade smiled in victory, then stiffened, her full attention at the doorway to the kitchen. Azor’s stench hit Jacob before he turned around.
“Have you seen Xirene?” Azor asked with concern.
Jacob flexed his fingers, still angered at the prior night’s events, and worked to remain straight-faced. Azor stared hard at Coralade, wrinkling his noise in disgust. He hit Jacob with a curious look before his pectoral fins flared.
“Well, have you?”
Coralade piped up first, pressing Jacob with a knowing smile. “She was up quite early this morning, from what I’m told.”
Azor’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have time for your games. Just tell me where she is.”
“Yes, Prince,” she said with a curtsy. “She’s at the palace, of course. Picking up food rations for today.”
Without another word, Azor blasted through the front doors. Jacob watched him, curious. Why was he in such need to find Xirene that he couldn’t wait for breakfast? He glanced back to the porthole, wondering about Tatiana, and saw no one.
With a quick flick of his tail, he moved to the front door and closed it in place. He turned to spy Coralade watching him with a bashful smile. She winked, then disappeared into the kitchen.
He stretched his neck and back in an attempt to be nonchalant while his insides churned. What bothered him wasn’t the impending awkwardness that would come once he saw Tatiana. It was Coralade. If she knew what had happened, everyone knew. And once Azor found out he saw her nude as a human, Jacob was as good as dead. Were the Dradux on their way to arrest him right now? Did he dare run?
He continued to watch the porthole, anxiety snaking through him. This wasn’t the first time he’d had a close call: first, when abducting the Princess from Azor after he stole her kiss and then rescuing her from the King’s assault. Had he run out of free chances?
At the sight of a purple tail at the porthole, Jacob’s heart lurched momentarily until Nicole emerged with an empty tray.
“Good morning.” She flashed him a cheery smile.
Jacob returned the sentiment, his pulse lowering to a normal beat. That hadn’t been the first time he’d mistaken her for Tatiana, their tails being so similar.
“Anything happen last night?” he asked curiously, probing to see if she’d heard the gossip yet.
“Last night?” Nicole’s eyes grew.
Jacob leaned forward. “Yes, with the Princess.”
“Oh.” She giggled, smoothing her free hand down her white skirt. “Nothing that I know of. After her night away in her family home, she must have been right exhausted. She’s been asleep ever since.” Nicole cracked a smile and winked. “In her room, no less.”
Aghast, Jacob sculled backward in the current. “What are you suggesting, Nicole?”
“Nothing.” She pressed her lips together, looking away. “Just in c-case you’d w-wanted to know her whereabouts, that’s all.”
Flustered, she flitted to the kitchen. Plates clattered against the counter. Jacob paused, eyeing Tatiana’s door from the porthole. Had she not gone to Azor’s room? What had happened after he left?
When the main door ground against the floor, Jacob’s body jolted. He palmed his trident, ready. He wouldn’t be arrested without a fight. But only Shanleigh swam inside with boxes of food in her hands. Jacob blinked, annoyed at his jumpiness, and lowered his weapon.
She quickly rubbed her tail up against the guard’s fin at the doorway, soliciting help with her delivery, and Jacob’s shoulders reclined against the wall. After that, the girls’ giggles and titters wouldn’t be contained in the kitchen during their preparation of breakfast. Curiously, though, none of them mentioned why Xirene hadn’t joined them or the events of last evening.
He looked up at the starfish on the ceiling, wavering in indecision. If only he could go back in time and wait before seeing his brother in prison. He could have prevented Tatiana from entering Xirene’s room and taken back his mistaken glance.