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But I had amatenow, and one who clearly enjoyed everything I gave her.
“There’s not a single woman in this world or another who’d ever draw my gaze away from you.”
Ayla sighed.
The tree to our right was looking mighty appealing, but I forced myself to be good. Once Ayla’s curse broke, and we were out of the city, I could indulge in every fantasy I wanted, but it’d have to wait.
“Why is it your uncle is so obsessed with her, anyway? You mentioned it would get him in good with your parents.”
Well, a good way to make my blood cool down was to talk about court politics and my uncle’s vulture-like tendencies.
“Her lineage has a long history of both loyalty and healthy pups. Her family was stuck in their position in court for a couple of generations, and their rich farmlands supply a good chunk of the city’s produce. If my uncle got her in as future queen of Camdaria… well, I imagine her family would be incredibly grateful.”
“They’d owe him for life.”
“And multiple generations, most likely.”
Ayla wrinkled her nose. “That’s all so gross. It makes love seem so transactional.”
“Here, it is. It’s one of the many things I hate here. You can never take someone at their word or believe they’re doing something just because they want to. You always have to examine it this way, analyze how they’d benefit and how they’d trick you.”
“That’s similar to what Aodin said.”
I didn’t mean the growl filling my chest, but it happened anyway, and Ayla chuckled. “See? You can’t blame me for being a bit jealous of the woman your uncle is manipulating into your wedding bed when you’re getting all alpha over a diplomat I’ve already turned down.”
“You had to turn Aodin down?” I said sharply. I knew he’d flirted with her, but I hadn’t known he’d been so bold as to directly proposition her. If he’d been disrespectful…
“Relax, relax. He was just hitting on me, I asked him to stop, and then he did. It’s as simple as that. Besides, I don’t think he was serious. It just seems to be in his nature.”
“In his nature, huh?”
“Yeah. I do think he could be a good ally, you know, if held at a distance.”
“I will trust your judgement.”
“Thank you.” She let out a sweet little sigh I wanted to burn into my memory forever. “We should probably head back. As much as I’ve enjoyed this walk, I’m sure people are looking for you.”
“When aren’t they?” I said with a sigh. But she was right. “Do you think perhaps I could steal you away to my quarters sometime?”
She narrowed her eyes at me, but for some reason this just made me want her more. “How about you come tomyquarters, so I’m not the one who gets caught sneaking out of your room and has to get bailed out by your little sister’s attendant.”
“Wait, that happened?”
She nodded. “Yup. She knows about us now, FYI.”
That was…concerning. I loved my little sister, but as far as I knew, she wasn’t exactly the best at keeping secrets. She was just so happy to have someone to talk to.
“Good to know.”
I kissed her one last time—I was never going to get tired of that—before we returned to the palace. I wanted to walk hand in hand with her, our fingers intertwined, but I knew we couldn’t, especially as we got closer to the more populated areas.
There always seemed to be something preventing us from experiencing our fated matehood like we wanted to, whether it be the curse, or the politics of Merrik, and I was quickly growing sick of it.
But there was nothingtodo, at least for the moment, so the two of us returned to the palace proper, several feet apart, incognito.
That didn’t quite work out for us, however, because a few minutes after we entered, a desert cat jumped down from abanister above and landed right in front of us. I jumped in front of Ayla, snarling, only for the desert cat to shift into a small-looking attendant.
“Apologies, Your Highness, but I was sent to find Healer Everton.”
