The Alpha's Temptation

"She is gluttonous!" Morava spat.

Eltanin growled menacingly.

"Please don't take it personally, Your Highness." Morava sucked in a sharp breath, as if very upset, and glanced at the documents on the table. "Even we didn't expect her to be so low. But, Your Highness, as a woman of royal pedigree, as a person who has been born and brought up in an environment that was full of games of thrones, I have a small piece of advice." She paused. The silence stretched for a few heavy moments. "You shouldn't have come personally to wage war for her. Coming over here for a sla—" she bit her tongue. "I mean Tania, wasn't the right strategy for a mighty king like you. You are the king of Draka and she is not even worth a grain of dirt…"

Eltanin's chest rumbled with a growl and Morava thought that he had agreed with her. She walked to the table and pulled the chair out and pulled it over to where she was standing. She sat down on it and continued. "Tania has become greedy. Every day, she threatens us in your name. She has asked for two trunks of gold coins. Honestly, you can take her, we are ready to give her two trunks of gold anyways. Do anything you want with her, but you have no idea how terrible she is. I even heard her tarnishing your reputation."

"Tarnishing my reputation?" Eltanin asked in a voice filled with resentment.

Morava nodded as her lips curled down. "She has been telling everyone that you kept her chained in your bedchamber and had sex with her in disgusting ways. Your Highness, Tania doesn't like you. She hates you so much that you can't even imagine. I have been asking her to stay quiet and not speak so lowly about the king. Besides, I even reminded her that it is not her place to stain the character of a king such as yourself. It pains me to no end. She is nothing in front of you, but she doesn't understand." Morava became quiet for him to react.

"Are you done?" he asked, his voice wrapped in a thousand shards of ice.

Cold sweat broke out onto her forehead, despite the winter, as terror crawled beneath her skin. But this was her only chance to speak as much as she could against the slave girl. So, she stopped herself from quivering. "Please take her away from here, Your Highness. My mother and father are really depressed. We don't want her."

"Then why hasn't your father handed her over to me?" Eltanin asked in the same cold voice.

"My father only wants her to heal well. Trust me, she has healed properly, but she is so avaricious that she doesn't want to leave the comforts of the room that my father has provided her. She keeps telling us that she isn't feeling well. There are maids and soldiers who attend to her. She has access to the finest silk and jewelry. Would you believe that she wants to take those silk gowns and jewelry with her?" Morava turned her gaze to the flickering embers in the brazier. "You don't know what a monster you have created…" her voice trailed off.

Eltanin raised slightly and turned towards her. "I still haven't heard your second condition."

There was a gleam in his eyes and she couldn't place what it was. "If I tell you her location, please take her out quietly. I will help you in extracting her from the palace, along with her trunks of gold coins. No one will learn of how she left. Both of our families and kingdoms will be happy. I will have saved the honor of my father and you will save the honor of the oppressed. You will become the hero of Araniea. All this will end peacefully. No soldiers will be hurt and a bloodbath will not take place." She paused and twisted the ring on her thumb. "My second condition is that if I tell you where she is located, you will have to promise me that you will marry me. I am the right woman to be your queen, I will be responsible for the avoidance of this blood bath." She sighed and lowered her head, as if ready for the sacrifice. "You can take any number of women after that. It wouldn't bother me."

"But it would greatly bother me," came a soft voice.

Morava whipped her head up with shock to look at Eltanin. However, the moment her eyes went to him, her stomach plummeted to the floor and her chest knotted with a different kind of terror.

Eltanin looked over his shoulder, as a smile curved his lips up. A woman's head and a naked shoulder rose from behind him. Her golden hair was like a halo around her. Her fingers slid to his chest and she rested her chin over his upper arm.

"Tania?" Morava gasped. Blood leached from her face and she felt her limbs going numb. How did she get here? Did father allow her? Goosebumps pebbled her skin. Has Tania already revealed everything to the king? Fuck. The bitch had taken the Draka king under her control? Morava just walked into her worst nightmare.

Tania raised a little more. She kissed Eltanin on his upper arm and a growl of approval emerged from his chest. "I am anything but greedy, Your High—" Another growl stopped her. She smiled. "I mean, Elty."

Her nickname for him made Morava almost tumble out of her chair.

He raised his arm and drew her closer to him by wrapping it around her shoulders.

"What would I do with two trunks of gold coins?" Tania sighed heavily. "Do you see those documents on the table?" she asked Morava.

Morava was bereft. Her tongue felt swollen just like her brain.

"They are the full map of the Pegasus palace. Eltanin already knew where I was in your palace," Tania said with a smile. "After all, it was him and Prince Rigel who had brought me here."

Morava was shocked. "What?"

---

After Tania had taken a bath, she was helped by the maids to wear a cotton nightgown. Since it was very dark, they tucked her into the furs of her bed, stroked the fire in the fireplace, and made her eat broth that was specially prepared by the cook under the healer's guidance.

Tania knew that every room in the palace had a secret tunnel that connected to the outside. She waited for the maids to leave, feeling better after the bath. However, she was also impatient, she wanted to meet with Eltanin desperately. So, as soon as her room was clear of any other activity, she tossed her fur away and started searching for the secret passageway. Her search didn't last for more than fifteen minutes, when she heard a big commotion at the otherside of her door. She leapt to her bed and had just covered herself with the fur, when Biham opened the door and walked in.

Tania held her breath as she watched the king coming towards her with a sparkle in his eyes. "How are you Lusitania?" he asked in a soft voice that was choked with pain. He sat on the edge of the bed, as Tania rose up and watched him with curious eyes.