Chapter 0108
Chapter 0108
Kane
I’m not in the best mood after talking with Clark. As much as I dislike him, he is right about some things. Delivering awful truths has always been something he relishes in. Clark practically snickered as I left his suite, enjoying how his words affected me. I needed to go to my office afterward to get some work done and think about everything he told me. Hours pass by, and I haven’t gotten much work done. I’m worried about the war, the baby–everything.
It’s time for dinner, and the thought of being surrounded by the nobles exhausts me. I could make an excuse and not show up, but Emory’s sister, Lola, is having her first dinner in the castle, and I can’t leave them alone with the pit of vipers. Even with Opal and her terrible friends gone, the other nobles aren’t much more accepting of anybody they deem beneath them. I just have to suck it up and get through the meal.
I’m late, but nobody will say a word about it. There are perks to being the king. The meal starts when I arrive. They’re all seated when I enter the dining room, but they rise from their chairs and bow. It’s not untill take my seat at the head of the table that they sit down.
Emory is usually seated to my right. I have insisted on it, wanting to make sure she is close to me and away from the venomous whispers around her. It would be impractical for me to cut out the tongue of every person that says something mean about her, but the urge is there. My bad mood only makes the bloodlust worse.
To my surprise, Emory isn’t seated at my right. She’s seated at the end of the table next to my mother. Lola is there at Emory’s side. The twelve–year–old eyes the room from the large chandelier to the snooty
faces of the nobles.
I catch her gaze, and her silver eyes widen in recognition before she turns away. The last time I saw the girl was when her own father tried to sell her off as a feeder to pay his debts. I can’t blame her if she associates me with a bad memory. I still remember how she begged not to be taken away, and how she cried when Emory volunteered to take her place.
The two sisters clearly love each other. I am unfamiliar with the feeling as my relationship with my brother has always been complicated. Lex vacillates between being a nuisance and a rival. I have never been able to get myself to count on him like I would Rainier. He has always been too volatile to be fully
trusted.
I look to where Lex is seated in the middle of the long table surrounded by nobles he ignores in favor of his meal. I can still picture in my mind him being friends with Opal and her sycophants. All of them brought out the worst in each other by being petty and self–involved. And Lex fit right in, never bothering to ask himself if he could be better than that.
My brother looks almost lonely without his old friends around him. He’s not part of the nobility around him but not excluded either. Across the table, our mother is talking to Emory almost warmly.
I gesture for Rainier to move closer so he can hear me ask, “Why is Emory seated next to Mother?”
“Apparently, they ran into each other in the rose garden, and they spent the day together. They had lunch at the gazebo. And Queen Agatha insisted Emory and Lola sit on her end of the table.”
“All of this happened today?”
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+25 BONUS
Chapter 0108
“That’s what I’ve heard from the guards and servants.”
I eye my mother warily. I never had to doubt her motives before. She was a formidable figure during my father’s reign, helping him keep his power through her own machinations. She took a backseat in court politics after I ascended to the throne, preferring to give me advice when I ask for it.
What is she doing with Emory? Surely, she isn’t going to try and hurt the woman I love. My mother might not be the biggest fan of wolf shifters, but she helps maintain diplomatic relations with the wolf packs. And she hadn’t been happy with me when the war started with the Moonraker pack.
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