The Alpha's Temptation

Tania stared at the tangerine soul stone. It looked as if it had gathered thick cream inside it. Her brows furrowed as Eltanin got up and sat beside her. She also  got up with the stone in her hand.

"This is weird..." she said, feeling confused.

"But are you feeling okay?" Eltanin cupped her cheeks in his palms and studied her.

"I am... fine," she replied, looking blankly at him. She wasn't feeling anything out of the ordinary.

He touched her forehead, her neck and then brought his hand to feel her heartbeat, as if to check if she had a fever, but everything appeared normal. "You must eat some food," he said after checking her. "You must be hungry."

She nodded.

"You should also start with Yunabi if you are up for it."

"I will!" she said, her voice breathy.

"Then get ready and we will go out and have breakfast in the dining room," he added.

"Yes!" she nodded vehemently. Both of their minds were occupied with the unusual behavior of the soul stone.

They took a bath together and Eltanin didn't let the maids come in to help him. During that time, his face and his mind had been etched with worry. When they both got dressed and came out of the room, the guards were shocked. No one had ever come out of the king's room, other than his father or sometimes Rigel. But a woman? At first, they stared at Tania and then when Eltanin glared at them, they immediately bowed to her. They surrounded the couple as the two started walking through the corridor to the dining hall. Eltanin opened his mind link with the guards and asked them to stay quiet about the fact that they had seen Tania walking out of his room. The guards bowed to him in unison and it surprised Tania as to what they were doing.

All of a sudden Tania realized that they had come out of his room together for the first time. She looked at him with nervousness as if asking what to do next. He blinked his eyes at her in order to assure her that she should appear casual, but she was far from casual. She rubbed the back of her neck. She whispered to him, "You should go ahead to the dining hall. I will join you soon."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because we haven't, as of yet, revealed our relationship. If people learn of it, they will gossip!" She didn't want to put him in a sticky situation. "What if they find out? What are you going to do?"

"I wasn't careful when I brought you out of the room," he said. "But let us just focus on the two of us. Everyone else can go to hell."

"What do you mean focus on us?" she snapped. "Aren't we doing that already? All you do is cuddle, cuddle and cuddle!"

"Stop talking about cuddling," he said with a sigh. "I will start with it here."

"Eltanin!" she scowled at him.

"What? A king can have a concubine. You can behave as my concubine," he said without an iota of shame.

"You're going to announce me as your concubine?"

"If you'd like."

"How many concubines can a king have?" she asked, her face turning red with anger.

Obviously, not getting the hint, he replied, "Normally, I have seen that the kings have a harem. The king of Aquila has about ten concubines, the king of Eridani has--" he let out an excited laugh. "He has more than thirty! Then--" Suddenly Tania stopped. She crossed her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes.

He stopped too, blinked twice to gauge her reaction and then realized his mistake immediately.

The guards around them sensed the tension in the air and all of them became stiff. Their king didn't know how to talk to a woman. Even if he wanted to treat the girl as his concubine, he had to say that she was special.

"What I mean is that kings have... concubines. That's all. But some kings don't," he blabbered. "I don't. Even though I could have. There were many who wanted to be--"

His guards shook their heads hoping he stopped talking.

"I will join you later when there is no one in the dining hall!"

He pursed his lips and gave a tight nod.

Tania bowed to him stiffly. She rounded a corner to the right, where the corridor ended while he went left, feeling anxious that she wouldn't join. However, she wasn't on her own. There were three guards following her, whom Eltanin had ordered to be with her.

He reached the dining hall where he found his father. Rigel had gone back to the Orion kingdom where his father had called him to see yet another one of the princesses. Eltanin knew that Rigel would be coming back to him. Why couldn't his father understand that Rigel was never going to marry anyone for as long as possible? He loved his indulgences. Sometimes Eltanin wondered if Rigel ever did find his woman, how would she be? He was certain  that the girl would be outgoing and just like him. Only that kind of a combination would work with Rigel.

"Where's Tania?" Alrakis asked in a low voice when Eltanin seated next to him. Alrakis barely remembered when was the last time Eltanin's cheeks pinkened. Was his son blushing?

"She will join when there is no one around. Maybe in a few minutes."

"In a dining hall with the king, how do you expect her to join then? Won't there be servants around you during all that time?" Alrakis asked, gritting his teeth.

"I know!" Eltanin realized it. He snapped his head to look at his father. "What do I do now?"

"Get her."

He was about to get up when he spotted Tania entering the dining hall. The servants stopped to look at her, bewildered as to who she was. She came and stood in front of Alpha Alrakis and bowed to him.

"Greetings from King Biham, Alpha Alrakis," she said. "I am Lusitania, Princess of Pegasii, younger daughter of my father."

The guards surrounding her whipped their heads to stare at her. They had been following her through the halls and corridors ever since the two emerged from Eltanin's bedchamber. And their king even suggested that she be his concubine? How could he say that to a princess?

The servants were shocked since they all knew that King Biham was healing in the Draka Palace, but none of them knew that Biham had a younger daughter. As far as they knew, Morava was his only daughter. Where did the new one crop up from? Was she an imposter? But that was highly unlikely. An imposter would never claim to be King Biham's daughter, especially when Biham was in the palace and certainly not in front of the most powerful king of Araniea, unless she had a death wish. She introduced herself so confidently that an excited murmur broke into the dining hall.

Alrakis' lips curled up in a benevolent smile as Eltanin blushed all the more. Why hadn't  he come up with the idea?

"Please join us, Princess Lusitania," Alrakis said as he rose to his feet. Eltanin was forced to get up for his wife to greet her.