Page 7

CHAPTER FOUR

TALIA

T he building wasn’t much to look at. A nondescript warehouse conversion on the outskirts of Silvermist Falls, it bore none of the grandeur or imposing architecture I’d grown accustomed to in royal residences. Nothing declared it housed the future king of my people, not even a handwritten sign.

“This is it?” I asked Griffin, who stood at my shoulder like the ever-present shadow he was.

“According to our intelligence, yes.” His voice remained steady, betraying none of the exhaustion I knew he must feel after five days of tracking. “Shall I announce you?”

“No need.” I smoothed down my tailored jacket and straightened my spine. “I believe I can announce myself.”

Five days. Five hellish days of tracking my wayward mate while fielding questions from courtiers and soothing the anxieties of clan leaders who feared what Kaz’s absence might mean for our fragile new alliance.

Five days of enduring my father’s thinly veiled disappointment at my inability to ‘control my mate.’ Five days of pretending the burning ache beneath my skin wasn’t slowly driving me insane.

I’d spent the first day waiting for Kaz to return, assuming he’d merely stepped out to clear his head.

By the second day, I’d realized he had no intention of coming back.

By the third, I’d deployed my network of informants to track his movements.

And now, after following a trail that led from the abandoned Kadhan compound to this unremarkable building, I was finally close enough to sense him through our bond.

The relief was immediate and infuriating. My skin cooled, the persistent headache that had plagued me for days eased, and the knot in my chest loosened. My body recognized its mate was near, even as my mind seethed with indignation.

I pushed open the door without knocking.

The interior was as unimpressive as the exterior suggested: an open floor plan with a handful of doors leading to offices and a small kitchenette, while the far wall stood too close to the entrance not to conceal extensive warehouse space behind it.

Three pairs of gold eyes stared back at me, their expressions cycling through shock, confusion, and suspicion.

I recognized them from my files. Zane, the tall one with the shaved undercut, straightened from where he’d been removing weapons from a crate.

A slimmer male, Malak, stopped typing mid-keystroke.

And Rava, the princess-turned-runaway to escape my brother’s clutches, narrowed her eyes at me from across the room.

But Kaz wasn’t among them.

“Where is my mate?” I demanded, letting authority infuse my voice.

The silence that followed was absolute. Malak and Zane exchanged loaded glances before Malak asked very blandly, “Mate?”

He hadn’t told them.

The realization knocked the righteous anger right out of me.

I’d spent the journey to Silvermist Falls imagining Kaz boasting to his clan about claiming the throne and bringing together the feuding lines.

I’d pictured him smug and self-satisfied, celebrating his victory while I dealt with the political fallout.

Instead, he’d kept our mating a secret. Even from his sister.

What did that mean?

Movement caught my eye, and there was Kaz, frozen in a doorway. His dark hair was disheveled, as if he’d been running his hands through it. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, revealing corded forearms marked with old scars. His gold eyes widened at the sight of me, pupils dilating.

At least I wasn’t the only one affected.

Then his focus flicked to his clan members, and I saw something I never expected from the leader of the fearsome Kadhan mercenaries: uncertainty.

He shot me an almost pleading look, as if asking for discretion. I arched a brow, folded my arms across my chest, and waited. Let him explain. Let him squirm.

“Kaz?” Malak’s deceptively neutral voice broke the standoff. “Something you forgot to mention?”

Kaz stepped forward, jaw tight. “Talia and I were mated five days ago. By order of King Adron.”

By order . As if I were a package delivered to his doorstep. I bit back a scoff.

“So, you just... got mated?” Zane asked, incredulous. “Without telling any of us?”

“It wasn’t relevant to our operations,” Kaz said stiffly.

Rava made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. “Not relevant? You mated into the family that tried to destroy us, and you didn’t think it was relevant ?”

“It’s complicated,” Kaz said.

“Uncomplicate it,” Zane growled.

I watched their exchange with growing fascination.

This wasn’t how things worked in my father’s court.

No one questioned the king’s decisions so openly, or so bluntly.

Even his advisors couched their concerns in layers of flattery and deference.

But here was Kaz, a prince in his own right even if the Kadhans held no power beyond their fists, allowing his clan members to challenge him directly.

Part of me envied the closeness and freedom to speak their minds without fear. Another part resented it. I’d had to grow into myself in the shadows, learning to manipulate from the margins because direct confrontation would have gotten me killed.

“Adron summoned me to answer for Javed’s death,” Kaz explained. “I expected execution or exile. Instead, he proposed a solution—I would mate Talia, take the Fitsum name, and eventually assume the throne when he passes.”

“And you agreed?” Rava stared at her brother, then at me, her tail lashing behind her. “After everything Javed did to us? After what he made you do to me ?”

“I had little choice.” Kaz’s jaw worked with the effort to keep his voice even. “This honors the betrothals made to end the generations of fighting between our lines. The alternative was more bloodshed and death.”

The room fell silent again, the tension thick enough to cut.

I found myself studying each of their faces, noting the concern, the anger, the confusion.

They cared for Kaz, that much was clear.

And he cared for them in return—enough to accept a mating he clearly hadn’t wanted to protect them from further conflict.

It was... not what I had expected.

“What are you doing here?” Kaz asked, finally turning to me.

The abrupt question pulled me from my thoughts. I grinned like a cat in cream. I knew the extra drama I was lobbing into the room, but I didn’t care. Let him feel a fraction of the annoyance that had been building in me while he pretended not a thing in the world had changed.

“Oh, just enjoying my new role as caretaker of your social calendar. Honestly, darling, did you forget so soon you had an appointment with the king?” I pretended to check my nails for imperfections. “He is so very interested in an update on your efforts to locate the Cadum girl.”

The effect was immediate. Three pairs of eyes swiveled to Kaz, who looked like he’d swallowed something bitter.

“You’re tracking someone for Adron?” Malak asked flatly.

Kaz’s expression hardened. “It’s a separate matter.”

“Un-fucking-believable.” Zane’s tail lashed behind him. “Like your mating was a separate matter?”

Kaz’s shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly. “Adron asked me to find Leona Cadum. She’s missing from court, and her family believes she’s been abducted.”

“So let me get this straight,” Rava said, her voice rising. “Another young female from a noble family goes missing, and instead of considering she might have left of her own free will, the immediate assumption is abduction? And you, of all people, volunteer to hunt her down and drag her back?”

“I didn’t volunteer,” Kaz said through gritted teeth. “It was part of the arrangement.”

“So, you sold yourself twice over,” Rava said bitterly. “Once at the altar and once as Adron’s personal bloodhound.”

I felt a flicker of admiration for Rava’s boldness, even as I bristled at the words. So, I arched a brow and fixed her with a cool stare. “Surely you’re not foolish enough to think there would be no consequences for regicide.”

Rava turned to me with a bright, biting smile on her face. “I’m glad you know you are a consequence, sister .”

With that, she spun on her heel and stormed out of the room.

Malak and Zane exchanged glances.

“I should...” Malak gestured vaguely toward where Rava had disappeared.

“Yeah,” Zane agreed. “We’ll talk...”

He didn’t finish the sentence, just followed Malak out. The silence left behind wrapped tightly around me, Kaz, and Griffin.

“Thank you for that,” Kaz said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Truly. It’s not as if there is anything challenging to this new reality.”

“Challenging or not, it is,” I replied. “So, stop acting like nothing has changed and you get to carry on with your little... business. You have greater responsibilities now.”

I watched as he visibly swallowed back the retort I’d almost prodded out of him. Instead, he made a mocking bow and gestured toward a door at the far end of the room. “After you, Princess.”

I spared a glance for Griffin and gestured for him to wait for me. My bodyguard nodded once, but didn’t look happy about letting me out of his sight.

I swept past Kaz into what I assumed was his office and took in the sparse furnishings with a critical eye. A desk, some chairs. Boxes sat unpacked. No personal touches, nothing to indicate the man who occupied it.

I took the chair across from his desk with more confidence than I truly felt.

This was the first moment alone with my mate since we’d slept together.

I wanted to bathe in the anger and indignation that had carried me through the last five days, but all I could think about was how his mouth had felt on my skin, the way he’d made me beg?—

“You left,” I said without preamble as he closed the door behind us. “You fucked me, and then you left.”