Page 170 of The Queen’s Shadow

With that disturbing thought in mind, I almost missed the arrow that suddenly shot through the trees. It was on a direct trajectory for Kasha’s fucking head and without her magick to defend herself she was basically a sitting duck.

My hand shot out and I snatched the arrow out of mid-air, snapping it in half in my fist with a snarl. I could feel Raven’s power build as she called her shadows around us to create a domed shield, ensuring we were protected from any more flying projectiles the K’aalpa-kah might have been planning on firing at us.

“Next asshole to fire an arrow will lose their fucking head!” I roared, stepping closer to Kasha, needing to feel like I had her covered despite Raven’s shield.

Several K’aalpa-kah warriors dropped out of the trees around us and I snarled at them as they moved closer, but the second they recognized who I was, they dropped to their hands and knees, abasing themselves before us.

“Forgive us, Rhoan. We didn’t realize it was you.” One of the masked warriors mewled, creeping closer to Raven’s shield. She glanced back at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Can I drop the shield?” She asked and I nodded.

“Yeah.” I said, turning my attention to the grovelling shifter on the ground. I toyed with the idea of killing him just for being stupid enough to not recognize his own Rhoan. Finally, I decided against it. We would need bodies in the upcoming war, killing my own warriors felt counterproductive.

See? I could be nice.

“Get out of my fucking sight.” I snapped and the panthers scattered into the jungle. I heard a familiar female chuckle, and my mood suddenly took a turn for the better. My sister dropped out of a nearby tree in her human form, grinning at us with a wild smile.

Physically, we were two sides of the same coin. We both had the golden eyes of our people with vertically slit pupils and slightly pointed canines. Her long, dark hair was just as thick as mine, though her bronzed skin was covered in ceremonial red and black tattoos, which was one way we differed. I hadn’t been around for the major milestones in my life that shifters usually marked with ink, so my skin was tattoo free.

Rhyalla had her mating bone that she had exchanged with K’yen last time we were here tied around her neck and was wearing her usual animal hide skirt and bandeau set.

“You let him live?” She asked before glancing over at Raven with a mischievous smirk. “What have you done to him? He seems to have lost his mind.”

I rolled my eyes as Rhyalla pulled my bonded into a tight hug, before turning to Kasha. She reached forward to hug her too, but Kasha stepped away, her eyes flashing with fear. Rhyalla frowned and dropped her hands to her sides.

“Sorry…” Kasha whispered, her face flushing red. The scent of shame rolled off of her, causing Rhyalla to glance back at me and raise an eyebrow in question. I sighed.

“A lot has happened since we last saw you. We’ll be staying here for a while. I can fill you in later, but I want to get Kasha set up and settled in first.”

Rhyalla’s eyes flit back and forth between Kasha and I and she pursed her lips before nodding.

“Of course. Let’s get you all set up with a tree house.”

“I’m not staying.” Raven said. “I have to head back; I was just dropping them off.

“Oh,” Rhyalla genuinely looked bummed about that, and I smiled. I liked that she and Raven got along, it made everything easier. Raven gave her a regretful pat on the arm.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. I need to take care of some stuff first.”

Rhyalla nodded. “Of course. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Raven tossed a worried look back at Kasha as she gathered her shadows around her to shadow walk back to The Dominion. “Take care of her.” She said softly, and I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or my sister before the shadows whisked her away.

Rhyalla shot me a concerned look and I shook my head.

“Later.” I growled and she nodded before turning to lead us the rest of the way into Olkuyrbe.

Rhyalla tried to keep the conversation light as we travelled through the settlement. Shifters waved and smiled at her as we passed. Being the stranger that I was to my own people, most of them peered at me curiously and gave me hesitant smiles, to which I forced myself to return.

That’s what nice people did, right? Smiled at each other and shit? I tried to imagine what K’yen did and how he might act when walking into the bustling heart of Olkuyrbe and snorted. Let’s be serious. I wasn’t that desperate to be liked. I was definitely not going to start imitating fucking K’yen.

“We’ve kept Rhoan House free for you. K’yen and I are staying in my old place, it’s more than enough space until we have cubs.”

I snorted. “If K’yen tried to move into Rhoan House I would have cut off his balls and nailed them to the front door.”

“We figured you would feel strongly about it, hence why we decided moving into my place was for the best.” Rhyalla laughed, rolling her eyes. I nodded in approval. It was bad enough that he married my sister. If he moved into Rhoan House where our parents had lived, I would have lost my shit.

We arrived at the large multi-tiered tree house in the center of the settlement that historically was reserved for the Rhoan and his mate. It was set high up in a large Kapok tree and was composed of three circular structures. We approached the rope ladder made from thick vines and polished wood and I gestured to Kasha to go up first. She glared at me, before silently grabbing the first rung and making her way up. I could feel Rhyalla’s curious gaze burning into me at how angry Kasha was. I ignored my sister and followed Kasha’s grumpy ass up the ladder.