The Alpha's Temptation

Giada bunched up her dress into her fists. Her fingers ached from how tightly she held the dress. She breathed in some courage and in a low voice thickened with anger said, "If it were my kingdom, the girl would have not only been thrown in the dungeons, but she would have been branded with hot iron, and then paraded around naked."

Eltanin remained quiet. One of the guards grunted in approval. There was no movement from anybody.

"The servant girl is of no importance in front of me." Encouraged, Giada's voice raised when she noticed Eltanin's silence. "I— I haven't come here on my own. It was Princess Morava's orders as well. Now that you are marrying her, you must fulfill her wishes. And she wishes the girl to be thrown in the dungeons and then hanged to death. And if you don't want that, she can be sent to a unit of soldiers on the border of Draka. They would do the needful!"

Fafnir had come by then and he stood against the door with his arms crossed across his chest. With an ominous look on his face Fafnir snapped his head in her direction. "Lady Giada, you are speaking out of turn. I suggest that you silence yourself."

"No, let her speak," Eltanin said in a cold, lethal voice. "Giada is our guest and has the right to speak her mind. She has a lot to say and I would like to hear it."

Fafnir's lips thinned and his hand went to grip the hilt of his sword.

Giada looked at Fafnir, her eyes becoming wide. "What I am saying is correct. If the servants can assault the nobles so openly, then this is not a place one can live peacefully. You must change your policies regarding the servants and treat them appropriately. You must punish them for such offenses. You cannot choose a servant girl over me," she swore, her face contorting and becoming red as she scanned the wolves around her. "All of you should know that Princess Morava will never allow such freedom. A servant is a servant, an omega without a wolf. Weak and useless. Of no importance to the kingdoms." She stared down at Eltanin with an accusation dripping from her eyes. "I demand that the girl be found. She was right here only a few moments ago and then disappeared."

Fafnir shifted in his spot and pulled half his sword out of the sheath with the way Giada spoke to the king. Giada flinched. Eltanin raised his hand to stop him. It encouraged Giada. She continued, "Am I supposed to believe that a servant girl who kicked me is more important than me?" She pointed at Eltanin. "Do you, the future husband of my princess, deny my right to punish her and choose the servant girl over me?"

"What I choose to do, is none of your concern," Eltanin spoke slowly. The air was so thick with tension that one could use a saw to cut through it. It was so suffocating that it was difficult to breathe. "And I choose my servants over you."

Giada lost it. She peeled her lips back. Her fangs elongated. "Princess Morava will be so disappointed in you. She would never choose a servant bitch over me. She would have seen her dead and buried twenty feet under the ground by now. This is how much she values me."

Tension escalated as her words hung in the air. A heartbeat later there was a whoosh of air as a dangerous growl emanated. Fafnir staggered back a little. The place where Eltanin was standing was now empty. Giada was no longer in the spot she was before. Eltanin moved like he was raising the horses of air. The next thing Fafnir had seen was Eltanin pressing his left forearm into Giada's neck. The guards froze when they saw how quickly their king moved.

"I am telling  you now, Giada, that you do not belong to this kingdom. You do not have  permission to order me around in the name of Princess Morava. You are nothing but an insignificant woman who chooses to ride on other people's coattails. I do not care about your opinion or your observations." Eltanin's face was merely a few inches from Giada's, whose eyes were wide with fear. "You should have stopped when Fafnir asked you to. In fact, if you had, I would have allowed you to walk out of the servant's quarters with your overinflated prestige. But what you did is considered treason. You whipped my servants, suggested that I should parade the servant girl naked in the crowd and throw her in the dungeons. If she was here, you would have used my guards to drag her to the dungeons and I would have never known about it." The thought of the guard dragging her made his beast claw at him on the inside.

"I—" Eltanin's right hand moved and in the next moment, he plunged a dagger into her throat. The dagger passed through her throat and pinned her to the wall. Orna's shriek filled the room as Giada's words ended in a gurgle. Blood sprayed all over his face and clothes. He let go of Giada, turned to the guard who was on his knees and sliced his neck. His torso fell to the floor, his blood sprouting like a fountain from his severed neck.  Gilda's body stayed speared on the wall.

Eltanin stepped back and in a cold, dead serious voice said, "Does anyone else have any suggestions?"

Not a word was spoken. Orna fainted. Eltanin leaned forward and tore a piece of her gown from Orna's body. He wiped his dagger with it as he walked over to Fafnir and said, "Send my apologies to Princess Morava." He strode out of the servants' quarters recalling his compulsion. The guards who had accompanied the women were drenched with fear and anxiety. Fafnir ordered all of them to be seized and thrown in the dungeons. Orna was lifted and taken to her room.

As Eltanin marched back to his room, he became anxious. His only concern was that Tania hadn't left. If she left, he would have to once again search for her and it wasn't easy to search for a little girl like her in a massive palace like this. When Giada had spoken about  branding her with hot iron and then parading her naked or sending her to a unit of soldiers on the border, his blood boiled. He wanted to wrench her head off her neck and feed it to the eagles. He wanted to gouge her heart out and burn it. She was a nobody and yet had the audacity to speak to him like that? And that too about the woman who was everything to him?

When he reached his room, he saw her standing by the window, facing the front gardens. A sigh of relief escaped his lips. She was watching the flowers that fluttered in the gentle, warm breeze. Hair escaped her braid and formed a halo around her face. Enraptured, he padded towards her and placed his hands on the ledge with his arms on either side of her waist, locking her in place.