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She wasn’t mine then. She wasn’t mine.
I don’t care.
“My beautiful one,” was all he could choke out as the tears started to leak from the corners of his eyes. He didn’t care if she’d allowed it or if it was legal. Jade didn’t like it. She didn’t want it. To him, that meant—the unspeakable. “I wish I could have been there. I would have taken you away sooner. I would have protected you from men like that, I swear it.”
“Ardol, God, don’t cry. If you cry—I’ll cry. And I’ve... I’ve never cried about it.” Jade pulled back to kiss his tears away.
“I don’t want you to live in a place where people make you feel like that, even if it’s not the same thing.”
“I’ll get over it. I’ll get used to it. He’s just one person. The rest of your family is probably very nice.”
He gripped her tighter. “I don’t know anymore, Jade. I don’t know. I can’t put you in a place like this.”
“You’re jumping ahead, baby! We haven’t met anyone but your dad. Besides,” Jade stroked his mussed fur back into a smooth coil, “if you leave here—you can’t rule this place. You’ll give this all up for nothing, for a couple of hurt feelings.” She gestured to the gorgeous rooms in the beautiful estate.
She’s wrong. I wouldn’t give it up for nothing. I’d give it up for her.
JADE FOUND HERSELF shunted off into the gardens that led between the Queens’ suites and the main house before the Regents arrived. Ardol wasn’t happy about it, but Arcai would not budge. This first meeting would be all Leopardines, and the human Queen would be mentioned so that they could gauge the Regents’ reactions to the idea of an interspecies union.
But the day was beautiful, and the gardens were like nothing she’d ever seen—so perfect and pristine. She felt like if she breathed out too hard, something would wither or wilt.
“My father-in-law will probably kill me then. Is capital punishment legal here?” she muttered.
A very stooped, elderly Leopardine Queen in a motorized mobility chair was her escort.
“My Queen, you would like to see the reflecting pools?” she warbled in a cracked, screechy mewl of a voice.
“Yes, Lena, I would love that.” Jade hurried to her side, but the elder Queen scootered away. Jade tried again. The same thing happened. “Is she avoiding me because I’m a human, or is this a cultural thing I haven’t read about yet?” she whispered to herself.
“She’s not avoiding you, she’s staying away from you because you are the Queen of the next District Lord and she’s just a servant. Lena’s our nurse because our mothers are dead.”
Jade whirled to find the owner of the matter-of-fact voice.
“Up here.”
Jade looked up into the branches of a twisted tree with white and green flowers sprouting all over it. In its midst, she could see four little Leopardines with their neat school uniforms of gray short trousers, white shirts, and green ties.
“Hi. You must be Ardol’s brothers.”
“Yep, his littlest ones.” One piped up.
Another added, “Half-brothers. Same father, different mothers.”
“I’m Kadin, that’s Baz, that’s Rayk, and Amar is the one who shouldn’t have talked but did.”
“Oh? Why shouldn’t you talk to me? I’m your sister-in-law.”
Four figures scurried down, and the littlest one, Amar, ran straight to her. “It’s because Father says we shouldn’t talk to grown-up Queens unless it’s at a social function or a meal. Their Kings might get jealous, and then they’ll make trouble for our district.”
“Ah. But... What if she’s your sister? Then no one could get jealous, because she’s your relative.”
“I think that’s right. We just don’t get to do it because our sisters are dead, too—or they’re in another district at school,” Baz, the second youngest if Jade had to guess by the size and pitch of their voices, agreed with her.
“I bet we’ll all see each other at dinner tonight. Do you have studies to attend to ?”
“No.” All four cubs chorused.
“Do you want to come to the reflecting pool with me?” Jade tried again.
