The King’s Tainted Mate
Chapter 25

"We can always try again." I stiffened as unwelcome hands accompanied by a seductive tone slid up my bare torso, leaving me cursing Rakon. Best friend or not, I was going to kill him for letting her in here.

"Not now Myrna." I stepped away from my eager wife and started to button up my garment. Her entire invitation was as unwelcome as her hands were on my skin and her presence in my study. After the news from the midwives, she'd cried her eyes out, but once those tears dried, she had been intent on having me bed her and giving her a child. Something I was unwilling to do even if my life depended on it, but she'd kept seeking me out anyway.

Dressed in one of those flimsy gowns, she'd discarded the cloak that had hidden it and was now freely flaunting all there was to see through it. But instead of being seduced, the sight left me ashamed of my questionable taste that had led me to r****h her the times that I had. "I have matters to attend to."

"I do not mean right now, but perhaps later when-"

How could one person be this clueless? "I said don't!" I caught her hands mid air as she sought to lay them on me again.

"When then, your majesty?!" She spat, arms folded across her chest.

Never, I wished to say, but I merely stared at her. It wasn't time yet to reveal my intentions towards her, but that did not mean I would spend my every waking moments before then with her wrapped up in my arms and me doing things to her that I only wished to do to my mate. My blood pulsed at the thought.

"Clearly you have no problem on the matter," Her gaze flickered to the area below my waist before looking back up. "So then why are you intent on avoiding me? Why won't you come to my bed anymore?"

Because it is not you I wish to have and this is clearly not your doing. A vision of my mate plunged me right back into the sea of want and need I had been struggling to escape since that kiss. As fleeting as it was, the sweetness of my mate's soft warm flesh and the desire it had awakened in me was forever imprinted on my soul. There was simply no way I would desire another after getting a taste of something so damn beautiful. If I was going to be pleasured by anyone, it would be her, no one else. "Will you now force your king to bend to your will?"

She sighed. "Forgive me, your majesty. But it's already been too long since I have been ravished by you, Elian and while I cannot force my king to do anything, a wife can surely invite her own husband to her bed, can she not?" She slid her gown down, barring her chest in invitation, but I merely watched her little display with disinterest. If she noticed that, she ignored it altogether and chose to keep singing her seduction song instead. "Will you touch me, my love?"

"Don't!" A growl tore from my throat and it left my chosen mate frozen with fear and her quest to bring my hands to explore her nakedness unfulfilled.

Her face pale, while her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, she muttered. "E-Elian? Are you rejecting me?" I hadn't yet, but my wolf clearly had and if she kept at it there was no telling what he would do and I wasn't so certain I would be willing to stop him either. "I told you that I had matters to attend to."

"Very well." She mumbled after staring at me a second too long. "I will leave you to it then." She gathered herself and came closer before reaching up and placing a kiss right where my mate's mark was meant to rest and smiled. "I do hope you enjoy your day, my love." Her happy tone brought a bitter taste in my mouth and the moment her form disappeared through the door, I summoned my best friend into the study.

"I thought I was clear when I said I did not wish to be disturbed." I growled at Rakon.

"She's your queen and you are more capable of appeasing her than I ever will."

"Appease?" I scoffed at that. "Wishing she could disappear through some magical portal and never return is more like-"

"Did you learn nothing from me boy?!" The door to my study flew open in a violent manner, revealing a very furious face.

"Good morning to you too father, mother." I all but spat. It wasn't my intention, but after the regrettable visit from my wife and the night I'd had, I was not feeling very hospitable at the moment.

"Good morning sweetheart." My mother floated in with her usual warmth and grace that swallowed up some of my tension and annoyance. "He didn't exactly have a pleasant night." My mother warned in the mind link which only meant, do not anger him anymore than he is."

"You will do well to remind him that I'm his king now." My mother's lips twitched and it was all I needed to rein in my temper.

"Rakon dear, why don't you come over here."

"Why, but of course, your majesty." As my mother and my best friend headed for the neat array of shelves filled with books that made for a mini library in my study, I turned to my father.

"Why don't you have a seat father and refresh my memory on this particular lesson I may have missed or forgotten." Skepticism clouded his eyes before opting to take the seat in front of my table.

"The lords-"

"Hmm, it seems I gave them too much credit than what is really due to them." I mused cutting my father off.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" He frowned and I was only too happy to indulge him.

"I knew they would run to you after that little council meeting, I did not just think they'd have chosen to whine so soon."

"Elian!" My father glared. "You do not wish to get on their-"

"I am their king!" I roared, surprising the older version of me. "And next time they insult me or wish me to lick their bottoms, I will not be this merciful." My father blinked as if I had just uttered the strangest thing. But as strange as it might have appeared to him, I was king now and it was time he and those wretched nobles acknowledged me as such. I simply refused to be belittled in any manner or bow to anyone.

"Well, that was...unexpected."

"I appreciate what every noble house signifies in Xatis, father, what I do not appreciate is every one of those heads thinking their little thrones back in their family home is as good as the king's throne."

My father sighed. "It certainly does feel like that sometimes, but son, that is a small price to pay to gain allies-"

"As small as it is, I am unwilling to pay for it, so they can shove every gift down their throats if they are meant to buy my loyalty."

"Throwing a banquet for the heir of Xatis was not meant to buy your loyalty. It was a gift."

"I know you are not that blind father.""

"Well, it doesn't matter now, does it? It's not like your queen will be birthing anything anytime soon." His bitter tone, shifted my gaze to his face. Worry was evident on it as it would any king when his family line was threatened into extinction by his son not birthing any heirs. "My queen might not, but perhaps someone else will." The words left my mouth before I could put a rein on them.

"And who is this someone?" Worry got replaced with confusion and something else that resembled disappointment. Whether he was disappointed in me, I did not care for it.

"My mate." I announced proudly even when I knew there was a possibility that the news might not be received as I wished.

"Y-You found your mate?" Deep emotion coated my mother's words.

"Yes I did, mother."

"When?"

"The day of my engagement." Both my parent's brows drew together in confusion.

"Then why in the world would you engage and wed a chosen mate?! Why would you trade a chance to birth strong heirs for nothing at all?" Not the words of blessings or expectation he'd sang when I wed Myrna but I understood father's reaction and to make him understand my decision too, I embarked on telling the regrettable tale.

"So let me get this straight." My father's eyes bore into mine, appraising me with his usual annoyance once I was done. "You did find your mate, only she was no longer pure, so you rejected her and chose a chosen mate in a single dumb breath?" Dumb was not how I would have described the events that fateful day, but hearing them from my father's mouth, they did sound rather dumb.

"Yes." I sat up straighter, clearly showing my every intention to own up to my mistakes.

"Apart from rejecting her, you also banished her?"

"Yes."

"But then she somehow showed up on the palace's doors, bearing your ring and your child?"

"Yes"

"By the gods!" My father's tone lost its annoyance, leaving me to relax an inch, but that changed in a heartbeat. "Do you not know that there are ways to be followed in such a case?!" I was aware, but at the time, they didn't concern me. But of course I wouldn't let that be my answer.

"I did not need some midwife telling me she was tainted. I saw it in her eyes. I knew she'd betrayed our bond." I mumbled.

"And you were the one to cause her to betray your bond. This is a disaster!" My father shot up to his feet, no doubt pondering on the political implications of my very regrettable mistake. "Are you sure she was, you know, pure when you-"

"Are you saying she's a liar?" I tensed at the accusation. I did not expect him to take the news that well, but to call my mate a liar was going too far.

"You are blinded by your bond son and you did say you were drunk that night. So how in the world are you sure she is not after something else?"

"You know damn well that I can handle my wine just fine, and if you wish for me to narrate the intimate details of how I deflowered that innocent maiden, I will."

"You have to forgive me son, but I had too ask."

"You could atleast trust your son."

"I do, but as I said, you are blinded by your bond."

"I am not-" My father raised his hand to silence me.

"What I mean is, you are so focused on your mate and the bliss that comes with the mate bond that you haven't stopped to think about what all this means. To your queen, Xatis, your enemies and perhaps even your mate." I had stopped to think, but perhaps not in the manner my father meant. Just because I had accepted her did not mean everyone would do so just as easily.

"May we see her?" There was longing in my mother's tone that she had never had for Myrna.

"That is the thing, mother. She wants to have nothing to do with me or you or Xatis." I couldn't help sounding like an unhappy child. "She believes I only want her for the sake of the child."

"Well you did reject her." My father scoffed.

"Are you?" My mother had an indecipherable expression on her lovely face. My answer was I wanted my mate. Not just her, the child too but I wouldn't be making such declarations yet. Not to them and definitely not when I knew that my father was about to politicize everything.

"I do not know."

"What is that supposed to mean?" My mother frowned.

"I have hurt her once before, so before I lay on her what I want, I wish to make this about her." My father gave me a cryptic smile that unsettled me.

"Perhaps not all is lost then son."

"How so?" I had a feeling that whatever spewed from his mouth would be something to sour my mood.

"This may not be as simple as I would like because Xatis has prided itself in keeping its word to its people."

"And what has that got to do with anything?" I hated it when father took on that ruthless politician's expression.

"Everything." My father's eyes sparkled as they did each time he was giving me some lesson about politics and as much as I wished not to listen to one right now, I let him speak.

"You see if a king cannot keep his word to his own queen, how are the people meant to trust such a one? A mistress, however, is something that can be understood and easily acceptable even among the noble houses, Xatis and even your queen." "Make her my prostitut.e, you mean?" My temper flared.

"From your narration, it's not something that she would fail to do. She has served you once before, hasn't she?" I sought to punch him for even thinking it, but someone broke into my mind link screaming. Only a few could do that. "Where were you last night?!"

"Liira?" She sounded every bit like a nagging wife and I knew why. Because of the council meeting, I hadn't spent my night in my grandmother's wing, making it the first time my mate had slept totally alone ever since I began slipping into her room after she slept. "Is Shyla alright?" I panicked as I flew out of my study without so much as excusing myself.

"She's fine, but she needs you." My heart fluttered. My mate needed me, for what I was not certain, but a stupid grin graced my lips anyway.

"Do not waste time here mumbling your greetings. Get in there and tend to your mate." Liira practically threw me into my mate's chambers the moment I got there.

The room was flooded with the rays of the bright morning sun, but I frowned at the many things that were out of place. Her beddings were scattered on the floor while her bed was littered with gowns as if she'd been changing in and out of them or searching for something. A vase lay on its side in one corner with its contents spilled over among other things. It was one huge mess and I wondered what had happened in here. I was about to mind link Liira to find out when I caught sight of Shyla. She stood quietly in front of her favourite window, staring out at the woods down below.

My wolf purred at the sight of her while I took her in with an appreciative look. She was perfect. Even with her long silky hair out of sorts, dressed only in her night gown and barefoot, she was still a dream. Did anyone wish to devour their dreams? Because I sure as hell wished to do just that with mine. Only the sight of her teary eyes snapped me out of that fantasy as she turned to face me.

"Are you alright?" Without a second thought, I rushed towards her, hands stretched out in invitation. Even as I did that, I knew I was in for a disappointment, but perhaps that was not to be had as my mate rushed straight into my arms and held on.

"Hold me, please!" Her grip tightened while my breath hitched. Had I heard that right? She wished to be held by me?

It turned out I had as she said it over and over again, much to my delight. It was the sweetest surprise that had me turning to Liira.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what is this?"

"Pregnancy hormones."