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Arlys’s voice is soft as he continues, his hands clenched so hard his knuckles are white. “So at the end of all of this, Darkheart could have her. We could end the marriage – which was our plan all along – and we can end the alliance.” Now, we’re both staring at him, and he gives a shrug that isn’t convincing. “We’re in this whole thing temporarily. Her purpose was to find a cure for the Illness. When she does, we can be done with her. Who cares what happens after that, right?” But his words aren’t convincing.
Drogo’s eyes are wide, and I can see the wheels turning in his head. I look away, my own conflicting feelings bubbling up. My stomach churns at the idea of letting Darkheart have Tara, of us ending our marriage to her, of us never consummating this relationship. Tara is interesting and funny and sweet.
She’s better than we deserve.
I’ve come to believe she just wants to add good to the world. That she is who she appears to be. She makes me laugh and stirs something inside of me that no one has before. I don’t know that I want to give her up, especially not to Garrick Darkheart.
Actually, I know that I don’t. But is there any reason we shouldn’t go with this plan? My thoughts start spinning and an idea forms. “Wouldn’t it be awful for our people if the witches and the bears were in an alliance without us?”
Something changes in the air. I swear, there’s relief in their faces. Have I given us an excuse not to lose our beautiful witch?
Arlys nods slowly, the slightest smile lifting his lips. “Yes. Catastrophic. We could be putting our people in much more danger. Saving them from the Illness is good, but that alliance would surely be our downfall in the end.”
So, we get to keep our witch bride? “What should we do?” I ask, looking back and forth between Arlys and Drogo.
They look as lost as I am, and for a while, no one offers a solution.
Prince Arlys sits slowly on the bed, realization washing over his face. “We need this marriage to be real. We have to tie Tara to us, and, as much as we don’t want to, we have to make an alliance with the bears.”
“Which means losing any chance at a real mate,” I say softly.
But, for some reason, I’m having trouble picturing any other woman but Tara. And when I think of finding a mate, there’s a tugging at my heart that I’ve never felt before, and I know exactly who it leads to.
Which makes no sense.
Drogo roars his anger. “This wasn’t a part of the plan. Why can’t we stick to the damn plan!” he thunders. “I hate all of them. When we do this and find the cure, we’ll just end up surrounded by our very powerful enemies. We’ll have given up everything–”
“For our people?” Prince Arlys asks.
That calms him. We are princes. We have responsibilities to our people. There’s so much of this we’re not happy about, but it doesn’t matter if it’s what’s best for our people.
I turn to Drogo, looking straight into his eyes. “What other choice do we have?”
Drogo slouches onto the bed next to Arlys. We stare at each other, no solutions in sight.
“We don’t have one,” Drogo finally answers.
And then another thought enters my mind. “A royal marriage is supposed to be consummated the first night…”
Without missing a beat, Drogo scoffs. “Oh, we won’t let that happen. We’ll let him believe it will, but it won’t.”
I want to ask him how exactly he intends to stop that from happening, but then I remember that we may not even have to get involved. If Tara refuses to have sex, no shifter in his right mind would force such a thing. Never. And Tara, our virgin, will refuse him. I’m sure of it.
That’s one less thing to worry about.
“So,” Arlys begins slowly. “We let Tara marry the bear, we make this a real marriage, and we go and end this illness.”
Silence hangs in the room. All our wheels are spinning as we search for something that the king might have missed. That we might have missed.
Finally, Drogo speaks, “Or we rid ourselves of one or both of them after we cure the Illness.” Drogo doesn’t lift his head, just stares at his injured hand.
It’s like the air leaves the room. He’s right. That is a possibility. The only one that doesn’t leave us tied to the witches or the bears.
It sounds so simple, but it isn’t at all.
TWENTY-ONE
Tara
