The Prince of Thieves had been invited to participate this time, but Varan had politely declined. His head was not where it should be. He’d been contemplating the diamond in his desk for the last week.
Varan rubbed his chin, feeling the scruff he liked to keep and watched the recorders zoom around the palace, the shots broken with a stream of one of the royal publicists talking over the footage, and then cuts to old footage from previous royal Games. Orion had been a beast the last time.
Something about the king’s illness didn’t sit right, but Varan didn’t have enough information to take a guess. Prince Ian didn’t allow servants in his lab and he was the only one with full access to the king’s files as well as his own studies. The bastard prince was too smart for his own good.
Most in the tavern didn’t serve in his court, but they were patrons and citizens who lived or worked in the area. He tapped his fingers on the metal of the table and watched his rogues as they blended in seamlessly to ensure safety and prevent unsanctioned pickpockets.
“Varan, are you going to glower all day?” Roxy asked, reaching to snatch a bit of food off his plate.
He grabbed her wrist and snarled. Varan was not in the mood to play or share. “Get your own.”
“Fine, you ass. I will,” Roxy snapped, yanking her wrist from his grip. She jerked to her feet and glared daggers at him the entire way to the bar.
Varan sighed and raked his hand through his hair, rolling his neck to ease some of the tension. Despite the frivolity of the Games, emotions were high and the atmosphere in Stella di Draga was tense. Everyone was on edge. The events of the morning had been a shock to the entire galaxy. It wasn’t only the sight of the Neprijat King up close and personal for the first time, but the events that unfolded like a rotten flower, oozing poison.
The second his wall-to-wall display had flickered to life on its own that morning – an utter, dreadful silence had filled his tavern; never had there been such quiet before. The Neprijat King made goose-pimples rise along Varan’s skin and the hair at the nape of his neck rose, like hackles on a wolf. The Neprijat male looked almost normal except those depthless, soulless black eyes. No, it was the way he spoke and how those black teeth glittered and shone like a feral monster’s. Each and every one of those teeth was sharp as a dagger.
For Princess Raena to offer up someone as innocent and helpless as Adelina to that monster, it had sickened him. Varan doubted she would have turned Adelina over to the Neprijat, but maybe if she was desperate enough she would have given in. Rage had boiled so hot Varan had nearly done something unforgivable.
To keep from committing treason he’d stayed as still as his patrons and rogues as they watched the events unfold.
Now he was about to change his entire life to save an innocent. Getting Raena to agree to let him marry Adelina would prevent any future issues. He felt guilty about it, but had he delivered a diamond days ago instead of hesitating, would she have even offered Adelina to the Neprijat?
Varan felt guilty for not bringing the diamond sooner. Nash was his friend. He’d just reached the border and was far away. But the bloke had asked him to keep Adelina safe…how was he supposed to do that without marrying her?
Would the Corinthian male still want Adelina as a wife? It wasn’t unusual to have multiple spouses, especially for a royal. King Orion’s father had three wives. But the culture in the Khara galaxy was so different. It was a tossup.
Roxy slammed a plate on the table and glared at him while she shoveled food into her mouth. The two had been friends since childhood and Varan was used to her impressive temper after so many cycles. But she was also the most loyal and trustworthy person he’d ever met. Once Roxy decided she liked someone that was it. She would die for them.
“Look, Rox, I’m sorry. It’s been a rough day.” It was a shit apology, but better than nothing. Varan couldn’t work up the energy to try harder when he had so much dumped on his plate.
The request to serve Princess Adelina had been one he’d gladly accepted. Hell, he’d offered almost anything when he’d first sent the transmission to her. Those sacred words spoke volumes. He didn’t regret it, but the rage had ridden him hard until he had to do something.
“Varan, we’ve all had a rough day. Eat some food, and maybe you’ll feel a little less bitchy,” Roxy said, jabbing her fork at his untouched plate.
He glared at the food, but ate a bite, and then another. Had he really had nothing to eat all day? After the council meeting was displayed for everyone to see and judge, Varan hadn’t had an appetite for anything but vengeance and blood. After the third bite he felt a tad more in control.
“I am most definitely not ‘bitchy,’” he grumbled.
“The bitchiest,” Roxy said, snorting into her food. “You’re a right snobby little princess when you haven’t eaten.”
“You still manage to out-bitch me when you’re hungry,” Varan teased.
Roxy threw her hair over her shoulder and looked down her nose at him, impressive really given how small she was. “Oh, we both know I’m the queen bitch.”
Varan flicked her nose and finished the rest of his food. Thank the gods for heated plates.
As he ate he contemplated the reaction he’d had to Raena’s offer to the Neprijat. It had been a surprise. The way the princess Adelina had fallen to her knees when the Neprijat King set his eyes on her had set off every single protective instinct he’d possessed.
As one of the most dominant in society, the instinct triggered hard. Only the royals were more dominant than he, and then only the ones who possessed the rosanera scent.
That instinct had nearly sent him running towards the palace, and he had no idea why. Perhaps it was the oath he’d sworn to her the night he found out she was a royal, perhaps it was that Varan knew she was still his friend Lina under all that princess nonsense.
Varan still felt that Princess Adelina was not Lina the thief. He couldn’t reconcile the two massively different people as one in his head. He’d seen it with his own damn eyes, but it was still impossible for him to believe – as if it had all been a dream…but he’d seen a flash of his Lina when he danced with Princess Adelina at her party, and she’d given him that grin he knew so well. The one that always warned him she was about to get him in trouble.
Lina had always been one he’d had his eye on. So many times over the cycles he’d asked her to join his inner circle and she’d always denied him, saying how she preferred to freelance. It never occurred to him to question her, because he could feel the truth in her words. She’d never once lied and the skill to manage that while keeping her other life a secret fascinated him. She was even registered in the jeweler’s guild and owned her own apartment in the third-circle of the capitol city. Varan had checked into her like he did all the people he considered for a position.