The Pearl Heartstone (6 page)

She wore an outfit similar to the one Jorel commanded she wear. It hid nothing. Her skin was just as pale as Jorel’s, but the black stripes covering her body were smaller and thinner. She walked up to bed and pulled out a miniature knife. For a second, Ally thought the woman was going to kill her. But the woman reached up and sliced through the ropes.

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There was a loud knock at the door. The petite woman walked over

and pulled the door open wider. Two men came in carrying buckets of steaming water. They poured them in the empty copper‐toned tub in the corner of room then left.

“The prince requested a bath for you. He says you may be sore.”

The woman smiled at her as she went into a cabinet and pull out some towels and liquids. She poured one into the bath and pushed it around with her hand. A sweet, chocolate scent overtook the sex smell that had permeated the room. “Come on, the hot water will help.”

Ally wanted to hate the woman, but she couldn’t. “What’s your name?” Ally asked as she slowly stepped over the edge of the metal tub and sank into the warm water.

The woman smiled again almost seeming truly happy that Ally would speak to her.

“Fi’an.”

“Well, Fi’an, I hate to be rude, but why are you being so nice to me?” There had to be a reason. Did she expect Ally to let her guard down?

Fat chance of that happening.

“You will save my baby,” Fi’an said with a brilliant smile on her face. “You will give him a chance to have a true mate. A real family.”

Ally blinked several times before shaking her head. She had to have heard that wrong. “Excuse me?”

“Your dark skin protects you from our sun. Any children you have

with Prince Jorel will inject new blood into our kind. Our sons and daughters will be able to have cubs without fearing that they will die before their first month is up. Many of our couples decide not to have cubs at all. Without your kind here to breed with…” Fi’an shook her head as if to say that even imagining what could happen was too much.

She rubbed her stomach. “That doesn’t matter. The king has already decreed that your first‐born will be betrothed to my child. He’s been searching for a way to unite our families for years.”

Panic welled up in Ally. They were already planning the future for children she hadn’t even had yet. Children that could only be created one way. More mind blowing sex with Jorel. She was in the deep end here.

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The door shifted. It was the slightest sound, but both women turned toward it.

“That’s just the water bearers. I’ll let them know that we aren’t quite done yet.” Fi’an took a step toward the door, but Ally grabbed her and stopped her. Something wasn’t right here. Whoever was at that door didn’t smell like the men who’d been here earlier. And those men had knocked on the door. They didn’t just come in.

Ally saw the knife, and every cell in her body went on alert. She jumped out of the tub and ran to the door. Just as her hand hit the wood, the knife flew. She ducked then grabbed the assassin’s arm and pulled him into the room. With his free hand, he reached down and grabbed another knife, but she was ready. With a quick jump, she was out of his reach. Hand to hand combat wouldn’t work. She needed a weapon.

She heard a cry then the clatter of metal on the stone floor. The coppery twang of blood hit her nostrils. Fi’an. She seemed to go on autopilot. She ran over to where the woman laid, picked up the knife, and threw it. Just as her knife hit the man in the forehead, his knife hit her and stuck in her arm. Fucking great.

She bent over Fi’an, trying to see where the young woman had been hit. Blood coated her side.

“My baby. My baby,” Fi’an said as she pressed her hand against her side.

From the looks of her, she wasn’t that far along, so there was still a chance this wouldn’t affect her pregnancy. Especially if she got help right away. Every second counted. She grabbed Fi’an, picked her up, and held her tight. She sprinted down the hall. Several of the guards were slumped down, looking knocked out but not dead. So it seemed she was the only target.

The noise and revelry coming from behind the immense, ornate doors was more than enough to guide her. She shouldered them open and walked through the tables with her head held high. The noise seemed to stop instantly.

“Your highness,” she said approaching the dais where Jorel and a

couple who had to be his parents sat. “Next time you send an assassin to 41

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kill me, make sure he has decent aim.”

A scream went through the air, and a tigress jumped at her, knife at the ready. “What the hell did you do to my sister?”

Ally turned to the advancing woman who was a mirror to the one

in her arms—only stockier. “I am trying to save her. Do you want to fight or help?”

“Give her to me,” the female demanded.

“Are you a doctor?” Ally watched the woman’s eyes go left to right. “Then no.”

“Follow me.” The woman cut a path through the room and out a side door.

Ally didn’t wait to see what Jorel would do or listen to the whispers that seemed to buzz around the room. But she felt the heat of him at her back almost instantly.

“Tell me what happened.” The hard tone of his voice seemed to blame her.

“Don’t talk to me that way. You did this. You brought me here. You tied me to a bed where I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself.” Her fingers trembled with her anger and the fear she hadn’t let touch her until now.

“Tell me,” he insisted, grabbing her elbow.

He didn’t try to stop her. She would’ve kicked him if he had. So far, the tiny woman in her arms was the only person in the whole forsaken castle to offer her even the tiniest hint of friendship. Definitely more than he had.

“I was in the bath when they attacked. I defended myself and when

it was over, I went for help for Fi’an.” That about summed it up.

“That’s not it. You are leaving out the part where this knife hits you in the arm.” He touched the blade embedded in her arm.

“Don’t touch that,” she ground out as shards of pain raced down her arm. If Fi’an had been any heavier, she would have dropped her.

“So are you ready to tell me what really happened?” Jorel asked as they made their way into a medical room.

Ally walked over and set Fi’an down on the table. It didn’t take 42

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long for the doctor to come over. He ran a palm‐sized machine over Fi’an’s body.

“I can save her, but she has lost so much blood I doubt the pregnancy will continue.” Even as he said the words, he was moving to get things ready for the procedure.

The tigress that claimed to be Fi’an’s sister slammed her hand into a wall. She didn’t say a word. Didn’t growl. Just slammed her hand into the concrete wall repeatedly until the white of her hand was red with blood.

“I can remove the knife,” a petite nurse said, coming to stand between Ally and Jorel. “Please lay down here.” She led Ally over to another bed.

“I prefer to stand.”

“Lay down,” Jorel ordered.

Now she was definitely going to stand. Screw him. He put her in this situation, and now he wanted her to obey him. Not going to happen.

“Just do it.”

“But, Your Highness, if you stand more blood will—”

Ally grabbed the knife and yanked it out. She wasn’t about to stand here while the nurse tried to convince her. Now the nurse could do nothing but patch her up while she stood. The nurse came alive and grabbed something stop the bleeding. She put a paste on the gash and then a patch on top of it.

“No stitches?” Ally wondered aloud.

“No, we use an insta‐grow skin cream. It heals faster and rarely leaves a scar.” The nurse finished taping the patch to her arm then turned around to assist the doctor.

“Lady Fi’an will be okay. But she will lose the baby in the next few days. Lady Fi’on, I trust you will find her mate. I wish to keep her here at least until the cub passes.”

Fi’on turned from her sister’s prone form and walked out of the room without a word. Did the woman blame her for Fi’an’s loss? Ally walked over to the bed. The small woman looked even smaller. This diminutive woman who had been full of happiness and smiles less than an hour ago was now an entire a mass of pain. The physical pain from the 43

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knife wound would heal, but the loss of a child might be something she couldn’t bounce back from.

Someone needed to pay. And now it seemed she was going to have

to stick around long enough to make sure they did. The only question was how to keep from becoming pregnant with Jorel’s child.

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She stayed out of his reach as much as possible while they waited

for Fi’on to return with her sister’s mate. She could’ve done without seeing that scene. The love and affection that filled the room as Fi’an and her husband mourned the loss of their unborn child made her heart ache.

Every single second rang with a truth that showcased everything that Ally didn’t have. Had no hope of ever having. Not here, and not with Jorel.

When they walked into the room, she noticed that the door was slightly open. Would the body still be there? When they opened the door, she was relieved to see the body was gone, the blood was gone.

Jorel put a hand at the center of her back and led her to the tub. She shivered at the touch but refused to look at him. No way did she want to give him even the scant indication that she wanted him. She really didn’t want him. No, what she wanted was to be comforted by someone who cared about her. Not just meaningless sex. But even that was better than the loneliness eating at her tonight.

“I can do it by myself,” she said, shaking off his hand.

“Just get in the tub.” He stood next to her waiting. “If you don’t get in, I will put you in.”

And he would to, of that she had no doubt. “Whatever.” Ally stepped into the tub and sighed as the warm water seemed to drain away the stress of the day. She closed her eyes and, for the first time since the attack, didn’t see the fear and anguish on Fi’an’s face.

She was so relaxed she didn’t jump when Jorel dipped a towel 45

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down in the water and ran it over face. He bathed her slowly without saying a word. She bit her lip and held back a moan that seemed to bubble up from deep inside her. For the first time in a long time, she felt exhausted. She was tired, so damn tired.

“How did you kill him? He was a trained assassin.” His voice was

extremely soft. A tone she’d never heard from him before. It melted a bit of the ice surrounding her heart. Something she couldn’t afford to let happen.

“Where I come from, I uphold the law. I carry a gun, but I don’t need one to take care of myself.” She didn’t open her eyes to watch him.

That would be too much. Make this too intimate.

“But you are faster than normal, aren’t you?” he questioned, a bit too intense to be casual.

“How do you know that?” she asked, really tempted to turn and look at him.

“I encountered another like you. She wasn’t as fast. She didn’t fight. I doubt she could have survived what you did.” His voice was tight, as if he didn’t enjoy talking about this.

“Not every person needs to know how to fight where I come from.”

She didn’t try to ferret out any more information. She could just imagine what happened. More than likely, he’d tried to intimidate this other woman and found himself outsmarted. Any other time she would’ve gone for the jugular, but tonight she just wanted to sleep. To relax. To forget about everything.

“I’m really glad you do.”

It took her a moment to connect what he said to what they were talking about. Did he just say he was glad she survived? Was he? Was that just because he didn’t want to have to find another baby incubator, or did he really care what happened to her?

“This water is getting cold. I think it’s time we went to bed.” He reached under her arms and hauled her out of the tub.

The cool air was extremely chilly. She shivered as he wrapped a towel around her then carried her over to the bed. He set her down then quickly undressed himself. He lay down beside her, only the towel 46

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between his body and hers.

He reached out and pulled her into his arms. She tensed up, waiting for him to try something. She could feel his cock against her leg. It was hard, really hard. She tried not to think about it. He might be just waiting for her to pull away. Then again, he might be testing her. What the hell should she do?

Then she heard his even breathing. He was asleep, damn it. She was worried out of her skull that he was going to try to sex her up again, and he’d fallen asleep. She tried to twist out of his grip, but he just pulled her closer. Okay. She could just lie here. It might be a long, sleepless night, but just lying here was a better than what she’d feared.

It wasn’t long before she fell asleep. She didn’t dream, just slept until a heat seared though her thigh. It burned through her, making her so hot she woke up burning. Her breasts ached, and her pussy flooded with her juices. She turned toward Jorel, ready to scream at him or kiss him.