“I understand. It is only to be expected.” Onari checked the roster and the rooms that needed fresh wood and got to work. Her body was energized and it took all of her self-control to hold herself in check.
A few nobles had gotten grabby with her while she had been working in their chambers, but it was allowable for a maid to defend herself in the Regav palace. The nobles had quickly gotten the hint.
On her fourth haul, she noted that she was on the roster to refill the king’s rooms. She knocked quietly and waited. There was no response and she lifted the carrier again with some relief. She tidied the fireplace in the outer room and set the wood in place for a new blaze.
The bedroom was unoccupied as well so she quickly discharged her duty while breathing shallowly to avoid intaking the musk that King Iro had saturated the room with.
It was a subtle scent, masculine and enticing. Onari bit her lip and stood to leave, only to have the king emerge from the bathroom, a towel his only clothing.
“Good afternoon, Onari. What are you doing here?”
She held up the carrier. “I am setting your fire for his evening, Your Majesty.”
“The lads normally do that.”
“I was scheduled for it today.” She bobbed a short bow and kept her gaze directed toward his huge but elegant feet.
Funny she had never considered any part of a man to be elegant before, but here she was noting the charming turn of his toes.
“I will talk with Fortuna. None of the females should be hauling firewood. It isn’t seemly.” He took a few steps toward her and she tensed.
“Please, don’t mention it. If I had known you were here, I never would have come in, Your Majesty.” She was reminded, quite suddenly, that she had to take her medication again this evening. She had to be running low, but the moment that she went into heat, she would become much more visible.
The Lanar forces had moved their search elsewhere, but she didn’t trust that they didn’t have spies on Regav. She wasn’t going to be popping her head out if she could help it.
“I am glad you did. I did not thank you for your healing today.”
“It is nothing, Your Majesty. I was driving too fast and without due care.”
“On an unused road in the woods? Yes of course, it was all your fault.” He snorted, but she kept her gaze down.
He lifted her chin with warm, firm fingers. When her gold gaze hit his silver one, he blinked, then smiled. “Thank you for the healing.”
Her eyes widened as he leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss on her cheek. The roar of heat that flooded through her mortified her. His nostrils flared and she blushed furiously as she backed away without being dismissed.
The moment she was in the outer room, she ran for it.
Down in the servants quarters, she breathed heavily, a hand over her pounding heart. With trembling limbs, she sought out Mistress Welks.
“Last one, Onari. You will be on your own after this.”
Onari quickly took the pill and closed her eyes. She wished that she had been able to get more of the drug, but on short notice, Lira had only been able to lay hands on two weeks’ worth.
“You are no longer serving in the dining hall this evening. A dignitary from Lanar is here and we don’t need to push our luck.” Mistress Welks patted her cheek and gave her a thorough look. “We also need to touch up your roots. Your hair grows very quickly.”
Onari nodded. “Will tomorrow be fine?”
“Yes. I have an hour near lunchtime.”
“Good, I will see you then. I believe I am on butcher shop duty in the morning.”
“You are.”
Onari nodded and went to engage in the remainder of kitchen duties for the evening. She scrubbed, peeled, mashed and washed until her mind was numb and her body was tired.
Returning to the palace the next morning, she was shocked to be hauled aside by Mistress Welks. “What did you say to him?”
Confused, she babbled. “Me? Say? Nothing. Who is him?”
“King Iro. He has asked for you to attend him at lunch. He never has an attendant.”
Her body ran hot and then cold. “I ran into him with my skimmer, and yesterday in his chambers. He was coming out of the shower.”
“I don’t understand.”
Onari hissed, “He was running through the woods and I hit him with the skimmer. He was fine and returned to the palace. I arrived with the bruised vegetables. Then in the afternoon, I was preparing the fires and he emerged from his bathroom wearing nothing but a towel. I apologized I think, and ran for it.”
Mistress Welk chuckled. “Then he simply is curious. There will be no harm in you attending for a meal.”
Onari nodded and went about her preparations for lunch. When it was time, she checked her hair and the uniform of the palace in the mirror. She was exposing about half of the flesh of her body, yet all salient parts were covered.
She picked up the first dish and led the pack into the dining hall. She almost came to a complete halt, but kept going through sheer force of will. Her cousin was sitting next to King Iro and his offensive face and smug attitude was enough to set her teeth on edge.
As she approached, she heard Iro mention, “I find your obsession with inbreeding to be fascinating. It weakens the lines.”
Mekar sniffed, “Of course, you would think that. Your folk are well known for mating with any passing shifter.”
Onari could not believe the disrespect that Mekar was showing to the larger tiger shifter. He was not even speaking to him as an equal, but as a subservient.
“And your folk are known for locking your women behind walls and smothering them in public with mobile tents.”
“Our women have more potent pheromones than yours do, it is necessary for our peace of mind to keep them contained.”
Onari withdrew after serving the first course and waited for the king to signal the end of his meal.
She listened to their discussion of tradition and physiologies of their races, only moving forward to clear Iro’s plate and give him the next course. A runner was supplying her with the necessary platters and more than one noble gave her a long and assessing look.
Though Mekar looked directly at her four times, he never looked at her face, the little pervert.
Iro’s behaviour was more disturbing to her. He inhaled deeply each time she leaned forward and after a while, the very act of removing his plate started a thrum of arousal through her. By the time the dessert course arrived, she was almost quivering in place. The proximity to Iro’s scent was wreaking havoc on her ability to concentrate.
He seemed content to draw the meal out to ridiculous ends.
“Why are you pursuing your cousin? It doesn’t seem like she wants you in her bed.”
Mekar sighed and told the truth. “My cousin is the strongest psychic my people have seen for decades. Her mother was the last one and if my idiot uncle hadn’t killed her, there would have been more daughters to choose from.”
Onari’s blood turned to ice.
“Psychic? How so?”
Mekar took a gulp of wine. He was in his sixth cup. “She controls the seasons. When she is calm, everything is fine, but under stress, she can even call lightning down.”
Iro nodded. “Those worthy talents indeed. Any others?”
“Not that are documented.”
“I see. No wonder you want to get her back. Well, your folk have been over the palace nine times, the city twenty. She isn’t here. You would do better to concentrate your efforts elsewhere.” The steel in Iro’s tone came through, even to Mekar’s addled senses.
Onari watched the prince stagger to his feet and leave with his embarrassed guards in tow.
A murmur of amused tones rippled through the crowd and Iro finished his dessert. When his plate was clear, he grabbed Onari’s wrist as she reached for it.
He murmured to her, “We need to talk.”
She nodded and made her getaway while he got to his feet and left the dining hall.
Onari breathed deeply once she was out of his sphere of influence. The wind howled outside and she controlled herself once again.
Mistress Welks came toward her and eyed her with concern. “You don’t look well.”
“I am not. Is there a place outside the palace where I can hide for a week?”
“I can look into it.”
“If you would. I can’t pay you now, but I will as soon as I can be myself again.” She was trembling all over.
“I know the timing is horrid, but the king wishes to see you in his study.”
Onari concentrated on nodding. “I will go immediately.”
“You haven’t eaten.”
“Thank you, but I am not hungry.” She straightened her shoulders and went to meet her doom.
The guards at the entrance to his study stood straight as she passed them. They did not challenge her and that worried her in and of itself.
The outer room was empty, and when she knocked on the inner room, a voice answered, “Come in, Onari.”
She opened the door and at his gesture, closed it behind her.
She walked up to his desk and stood still, looking down at the rich wood of the desktop.
“Why won’t you meet my gaze?”
“It isn’t seemly, Your Majesty.”
“Seemly or not, show me those eyes.” His demand was implacable.
Slowly, she raised her gaze to his and the heavy pulse in her loins started again. “Satisfied, Your Majesty?”
He grinned, showing a hard jaw with an impish sense of humour. “Not hardly. I was rock hard after lunch and I told you what would happen if you aroused me again.”
She blinked and blushed. “I didn’t mean to.”
“Your scent does it. I have been catching whiffs of it for weeks, but could never find the female it could be traced to. I don’t seduce my staff either, so that has presented a problem until I looked through the palace files to find out that you are not actually my staff.”
She tried to play innocent. “What do you mean? I am a good worker, really I am.”
“And yet, you don’t exist and certainly don’t draw a salary. In fact, you appeared on the palace rosters less than an hour after a certain Lanar princess disappeared from under her guards.”
Onari raised one eyebrow, “Coincidence?”
“You are the missing princess.”
“I am not really missing. I know where I am. More like, the runaway princess.” She let a little more of her personality show in her eyes. His silver orbs widened and a grudging respect came into his gaze.
“Why the early winter?”
“Medication.”
“What?”
“I was on medication and froze my season, so the season froze. I am not sure how it works, but that is what happened.”
“What was the medication for?”
“To hold back my heat. It is why Mekar is so frantic to find me. He wants to breed me until there are dozens of babies in the royal family.”
“Certainly he would allow you time to rest between infants.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “There would be no infants. No babies, not for me. Just endless pregnancies and having the children removed and implanted in surrogates.”
His expression grew dark. “What do you mean?”
She let anger show on her face. “I mean that Mekar will come to me every time I am in heat, he will fuck me until I am with child and I will go to a doctor the next day who will remove the embryo and give it to another woman. And then it will happen again. And because I won’t carry a child to term, I will go into heat every freaking month. That will be my life.”
King Iro sat back in his chair. “What can I do to help?”
“Find me a place to hide. My body betrays me here. I will be sending out enough come-and-get-me pheromones to summon half your guard in a few days. I need to hide.” She dragged in a shaking breath. “I am sorry to inconvenience you. It was never my intention.”
He nodded. “Give me a few hours to come up with a plan, but first, you have to attend to a certain matter.”
Onari cocked her head. “What is that?”
“I told you, the next time you aroused me, you would have to do something about it. Now is good.” He gestured to his lap and she struggled with what he was asking of her.
In a daze, she came around the desk and he turned to face her. She dropped to her knees between his thighs and reached out to unsnap his trousers. His cock snapped out and she jumped a little, but soon got over being startled and leaned in to taste him.
The wood armrests of his chair creaked as he tightened his hands on them. The heat and flavour of him soon outweighed her confusion as to what to do. She lapped at the head of his cock, flicking her tongue into the tip and swirling it around. She gripped the shaft with one hand and placed her other on his thigh for balance as she sucked and stroked.
A rhythm came to her that felt natural and a pulse began between her thighs. She moved her free hand from his thigh to the join of her own and slipped her fingertips beneath her tights. She moaned and rocked against her own hand as she sucked and stroked faster and faster.
His groans took on a tempo that she matched and as his cock jerked in her hand, jetting his seed into her throat, she wailed as a wet rush of heat accompanied her own release.
Her scent and his thickened the air. She withdrew from his cock with a light pat, putting it back where she had found it. He was leaning back in the chair with his eyes closed, his hands turned to paws that had gouged the wood.
She rose to her feet and began to lick the fingers she had used on herself. His eyes snapped open and he gripped her hand in his. He pulled her to him, draping her across him while he licked her fingers and sucked each digit into his mouth, one at a time. Her trembling was uncontrollable by the time he finished and her heat was once again raging.
“You were going to work on my plan of escape, Your Majesty.” Her words were whispered against the thick cords of his neck.
“I have a place in the mountains. You can go there and hide until after your heat passes. From there, we will determine where you should go.” He was still licking and sucking at her fingers.
“Do you have the directions to the place in the mountains?”
“I will send you with a driver and plenty of supplies.” He continued lazily licking her fingers.
“When?”
“A few hours. Attend to your regular duties and I will come for you when it is time.”