King of Diamonds (15 page)

He’d left his kingdom to meet in Hearts to strategize with his brothers, Jarronn, Ty, and Darronn. The trip to Hearts was two days long by
jul-
back, and at least three if one was to go on foot. But to travel the moors in such a manner was foolhardy indeed.

Karn knew he should have taken Annie, but he needed space and distance. Both Alice and Alexi had been furious with him, and he’d been sure to guard his bollocks before informing them that Annie was at Diamond Hall. In just days, along with their mates, the sisters would arrive in the Kingdom of Diamonds to reunite with Annie.

And to witness Karn’s and Annie’s joining as King and Queen.

He couldn’t help but care for Annie. Her gentle ways, how she blushed so easily, her desire to please him, and how she so easily interacted with his people and truly appeared concerned with their welfare. His subjects were enamored with their future Queen, and Karn had to admit that he was, too.

But love…no.

His gut twisted as he remembered the look on his kitten’s face when she overheard him talking before the sharing tea. He did not like that he had hurt her, but what was done was done.

No matter that he cared for her, he would not allow himself the mistake of falling in love with her.

When Karn finally reached Diamond Hall, he left the
jul
with a stable hand and strode toward the mansion. A queer feeling settled in his gut, but he pushed it aside. Right now he needed to bury his cock in his woman, to fuck her again and again. He’d dreamed of sliding into her quim, of suckling her lovely nipples and tasting her folds and bringing her to orgasm after orgasm.

He hurried up the stairs and almost trampled Beya when he hurried down the hallway. “Pardon,” he said, never stopping in his desire to be with Annie.

“Sire,” Beya said as he opened his mate’s door. “I must—”

“Not now,” he said in a curt tone and entered Annie’s room.

She wasn’t there.

Her warm vanilla scent still lingered, mixing with the smell of
ch’tok
logs burning in the hearth. But his senses told him something wasn’t right.

Beya appeared beside him, but he ignored her and charged through the adjoining doors to his room. Immediately he saw the portrait across the room, sitting on one of his clothing trunks, the back braced against the wall. Annie’s collar lay on the trunk, beside the portrait.

His steps faltered as he walked toward the painting. When he reached it, he dropped to one knee. Time stood still in that sharp, clear moment while he couldn’t take his gaze from the portrait. His chest ached with a fierce and sudden pain and his heart pounded against his ribs.

Annie’s heart and soul were obvious in every stroke, and in her signature. She had painted him whole and full of color…she had seen him in ways that only a woman who loved him could express. He rubbed at his chest to chase away the ache, the same chest that Annie had so lovingly captured in the painting. The savage yet faraway look to his eyes, the firm set of his jaw, the sense that he was coiled and ready to spring with a mighty roar.

Yet in his eyes she had shown the caring that he tried to forever hide from anyone who knew him. The love buried just beneath the surface that he had always kept hidden.

He had managed to hide from everyone…from everyone but Annie.

Thoughts of his mother and her art returned to him in wave after painful wave. It had meant the world to her. Every time she painted a human subject, it was only of the people dearest to her heart.

No matter that he had done all he could to keep Annie from falling in love with him, no matter that he had kept himself at a distance, she still loved him.

And even though she loved him, she had left him. Every fiber of his soul told him she was gone. She had taken the few pieces of her heart he hadn’t broken with his pride-cursed arrogance, and she’d fled.

Annie had left him, his kingdom, his people, and the only truly safe place in all of Diamonds because he had refused to admit the truth.

And what is the truth, my son?

Karn heard his mother’s even, melodic voice, ringing from his memory like a warm spring breeze. He had never been able to lie to her, and he wouldn’t now, not even to her memory.

Especially not now, when an honest answer might be his only route to salvation.

The truth is I love her.

The realization punched his gut harder than any enemy, stabbed him deeper than any blade.
For all my blustering and damned fool games, I love her. And somehow, I must tell her, and try to mend the gentle heart I broke
.

“She is gone, Sire.” Beya’s voice faltered. “Just as you arrived, I discovered it. I intended to set the guard out to find her.”

“No.” Karn picked up the collar Annie had abandoned beside the portrait and clenched it in his fist. He got to his feet, his jaw set with determination as he set the collar on his bureau. “I will find Annie. And I will bring her home.”

Chapter Ten

Annie cuddled Abra beneath the traveling cloak as she slipped through the thick mist. She carried a torch she had “borrowed” from the steps down to the doorway leading to the ocean. After retrieving the torch, she had hurried back upstairs and slipped out the front door without being seen.

Phantom shapes appeared and disappeared in the fog, setting Annie on edge. She’d packed away her glasses since they’d be useless in the rain, and the shadows were gloomy and foreboding.

The pack at her back hung heavy with food she’d taken from the kitchen, and the dagger strapped to her side made her feel like an old West gunslinger. Except of course she didn’t really know how to use the dagger, and likely she couldn’t hurt a thing with it, but she felt better just having the weapon with her. No doubt it would be ideal for cutting chunks of cheese and apples.

At least the rain has let up.
Mist dampened her cheeks and hair reminding her of San Francisco weather. After wearing primarily miniscule sheer dresses over the past weeks, her jeans and T-shirt felt strange, uncomfortable even. Mud weighted down her doeskin boots.

Annie realized she actually missed padding barefoot through the mansion and wearing those next-to-nothing dresses. She even missed her collar.

For Karn. I loved wearing the dresses and collar for him. Even the nipple rings.

Just the thought of Karn made her heart ache, but she would not allow herself to regret a moment of her time with him. Even though he wouldn’t or couldn’t fall in love with her, their time together had been special and she would never forget him.

Likely she would never love another man.

From beneath the cloak Abra shifted and gave a muffled
“Mewl
,
”
as if telling Annie that she loved Karn, too.

Her steps slowed and she wondered if she was doing the right thing by leaving. Should she have stayed and accepted whatever piece of Karn’s heart that he was willing to give?

Annie pushed thoughts of her former lover away to focus on her journey and locating her cousins. Once she found Alice and Alexi, her mind would be free of worry and she could make a decision about her future.

While she passed the outskirts of the village, the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer rang out across the night. She caught the smell of fresh bread from the bakery, mixing with the salt and brine smell of the ocean. The ever-present sound of crashing waves was a discordant reminder of home, yet tonight it was not soothing like the ocean rimming San Francisco had always been to her. The closer she got to the cliffs, the louder the sound was, and the more unsettled she became.

To avoid as much of the moors as possible, Annie had decided to work her way northeast along the cliffs, and then alter her course so that she was heading toward Hearts. She’d learned a lot from Aleana over the past week, and felt confident that even on foot she would arrive in Hearts within three days.

When she reached the cliffs, Annie paused and peeked over the rim to the jagged rocks below. Waves crashed and pounded the shore over and over, a fierce battle of water and stone. Annie shivered and moved away from the cliff’s edge.

She paused and stared at the warm and welcoming lights of the village.

It would be so easy to turn back.

Again she wondered why she hadn’t waited until morning to set out, and again she couldn’t answer the question. She had felt compelled to leave, as if everything depended on it. Her life, the twins’ lives,
everything.

A few sprinkles landed on Annie’s head, her cheek, and even the tip of her nose. Soon a steady drizzle drenched her hair all the way down her braid. All the parts of her body that were exposed outside the cloak were quickly soaked from the rain. A chill seeped into her skin that the cloak and Abra’s warmth couldn’t begin to dispel.

A chill that seemed beyond the cold of the rain, beyond the blast of frigid air rolling off the moors.

Annie stood as silently as possible, listening into the night, hearing only the sound of steady rain and the ocean. But every fiber of her being told her she wasn’t alone.

Something else was out there.

* * * * *

Without a backwards glance at Beya, Karn shifted into a tiger, opened his bedchamber doors with his magic, and bounded through to find his bride. His paws made no sound upon the tiled floor as he rushed through the mansion. Long before he reached the front doors, they swung open, and then slammed shut once he passed through.

His keen weretiger senses immediately caught a hint of Annie’s vanilla scent and her woman’s musk. Why hadn’t he noticed it earlier? Likely he had been too absorbed in forcing back his feelings for his mate rather than facing them and acknowledging his love for her.

Her perfume grew stronger as he rushed through the moors, toward the cliffs. Familiar evening noises filtered through the misty night along with the ever-present roar of the ocean. Rain began to fall, masking Annie’s scent only slightly.

But in the next moment a powerful stench invaded Karn’s senses.

His gut twisted and he doubled his speed. The king
shelenna!
Night be damned but of all the beasts that haunted the moors, he was by far the most dangerous.

He should not be out of his winter hibernation yet, not ‘til spring.

By the skies, what woke him?

Karn neared the cliffs when he saw the hideous man-sized two-headed beast.

And Annie was only feet away from the king
shelenna
.

Trembling with intense fear, Annie dropped the torch on the wet ground. It continued to glow, lighting up the night and the hideous beast in front of her. The monster was at least seven feet tall and its two heads bobbed up and down in the rain, both shark-toothed maws open wide. Its six eyes burned a furious red and the fists of its four hands clenched and unclenched.

Annie fumbled with the dagger beneath her cloak and managed to jerk it out of its sheath. The beast’s stench alone nearly drove her to her knees—a stench like rotten meat and a backed-up toilet.

As she gripped the dagger in her fist, her eyes locked with the beast’s. Annie’s entire body stiffened. All her muscles turned to ice, and even her thoughts seemed frozen. She was unable to move, unable to decide what to do. She clenched Abra tight in one arm and gripped the dagger in her other hand. Her heart pounded in her ears and her body shook from the rush of adrenalin.

The beast put her in mind of the Grendel, but she was no Beowulf.

At her back was the cliff with the tremendous drop to the rocky shore below. In front of her the two-headed beast. To each side was the small clearing and then the moors beyond. If she darted to the left, would the monster lunge at her? Would she be better off waiting for the beast to reach her?

Abra squirmed, struggling to free herself from Annie’s death grip. With a
“Yerowl!”
the cat broke loose, tore across the small clearing and vanished into the grassy moors.

“Abra!” Annie shouted. A fresh wave of fear rushed through her for her feline friend.

The monster paused, now maybe ten feet away from Annie. Three of the beast’s red eyes tracked the cat while the remaining three stayed focused on Annie.

Annie held up her dagger and braced her feet in the slippery mud. Likely she would meet her death now, but she wouldn’t give up without a fight.

The monster took another step forward. The coppery taste of terror filled Annie’s mouth, and despite the rain her skin flushed hot.

The beast roared so loud that Annie almost dropped her dagger. Her ears rang and her knees went weak.

Earth rumbled beneath her feet as the monster charged.

Annie stumbled back a step, her dagger held out before her.

A flash of white tore in front of Annie and slammed into the beast.

Karn’s fury was so intense that his vision blurred and turned to red. He lunged at the
shelenna,
throwing all his weight against the creature. The
shelenna
roared even as he crashed to the ground, landing flat on his back in the mud.

His talons sliced through Karn’s fur to his flesh. Karn’s claws and teeth ripped into the
shelenna,
tearing through the beast’s tough armor-like skin. His four arms shoved Karn away, tossing the tiger into the moors. He landed on all four feet and threw himself at the creature that had regained its footing.

No matter Karn’s fury, the
shelenna
was an opponent that would normally take several weretigers to bring down.

But Karn would never give up. He was determined to best this creature and save Annie.

Cold fear washed through Annie as she watched Karn battle the horrid beast. The torch lying on the ground clearly illuminated the two figures fighting and slashing at one another with their tremendous claws. She clenched her dagger, wanting to help Karn, but not knowing how. She had no experience and she was more likely to hurt him than she would the monster he battled.