Page 244 of The Queen’s Shadow

None of them were disputing whether or not he belonged. It was me they had a problem with, and they would never respect me if he had to fight my battles for me.

I may not know everything about shifters, but I did know that much. Daemons were the same. Everything was about power. You either had it, or you didn’t, and right now I fucking didn’t.

To say I had been shocked that Rycon had tried to declare me as Rhiannon was an understatement. I didn’t even know a daemon could be a Rhiannon. From my understanding, the titles were inherited. I would probably need to officially challenge Rhyalla in a community sanctioned K’alpa-Rhiannon or something, if it was anything like what K’yen and Rycon had gone through last time I had been here.

Rhyalla had seemed to already know about the whole thing and had been on board. At least Rycon had shared his plans with someone. I scowled.

For Origin’s sake. He was such an idiot.

I needed to talk to Rycon about what he expected from me, and ask if he had really thought any of this through. I just hadn’t wanted to do it in front of all those nosey assholes. Especially not in front of Anaya.

I tried to nap to kill time until Rycon returned, but found I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned and finally decided I would go for a walk to clear my head. I wandered around the community and stopped to play with some cubs who were kicking around Aiden’s soccer ball. After a couple hours, some females invited me to help with lunch and we got to chatting while they taught me how to make flower crowns out of orchids.

The day actually turned out to be pretty nice, and I found myself taking a bushel of orchids to the meadow and losing myself in the meditative motions of making the flower crowns that the females had taught me. After what felt like only minutes but must have been hours, I realized the sun was beginning to set.

I placed one of the crowns on my head and leaned over to peer at my reflection in the creek. I had been a slave nearly my whole life. I had never imagined much for myself, let alone being a queen of any kind, which is more or less what Rycon had asked me to be. None of this felt real, and I had a feeling Rycon’s impulsive ass would likely forget all about this the second another, more enticing female crossed his path.

I did look cute in a crown though. I giggled at my reflection, when I heard Anaya’s voice slither through the clearing. I whipped around to find the viper leaning against a tree, looking at me with murder in her eyes.

“Don’t get used to it you fucking slut.” Anaya hissed, and I frowned.

“Excuse me?”

She gestured to the flower crown on my head. “You think you deserve a crown? You’re nothing.”

I rolled my eyes. “Leave me alone, Anaya.” I moved to get up when she was suddenly in front of me. Fuck The Origin, she was just as fast as Rycon. Before I could react, she had her hand wrapped around my throat, tossing me into a nearby Kapok tree like I weighed nothing. Before I could utter a sound she had me on the ground and a hand clapped over my mouth.

“Weak bitch.” She hissed as I struggled beneath her. I gasped. Origin… She was fucking strong. I tried to call up my powers, and cursed internally when I found they were still just out of reach. I couldn’t get across the dam that was blocking them. I slammed against the block again and again, but it barely budged.

“You think you can keep someone like Rycon satisfied? You won’t even fuck him.” She plucked one of the tiny blades she had strapped to her leathers and tried to drive it into my chest, but it glanced off my armor. I smirked under her hand.

Nice try, dumbass.

“What the fuck?” She frowned, looking closer at my armor in curiosity. I guess she didn’t have too much experience with restructium. Finally she shrugged and held the blade against the side of my face. “Oh well, your head isn’t covered. You think Rycon will still want you if I cut up this pretty face?” My eyes widened and I screamed into her hand as she dragged the knife down the side of my head, from temple to jaw. I bucked under her desperately, reaching internally for my powers.

This crazy bitch was going to kill me…

“Rycon!” I screamed into her hand, but the sound was so quiet I wasn’t sure he would be able to hear it from the pyre. She laughed.

“Of course you would call for him to save you. Fucking pathetic. This is why you could never be one of us. You’re a weak, broken, little cum dumpster. You think I don’t know what you are? You’re one of Ash Nevra’s whores.” She spat on me, and I winced as her warm spit mixed with the blood dripping down the side of my face.

“The audacity of you thinking you deserve to sit next to him. Do you even know how to please him? Are you going to meet his needs? He’s a panther, he needs to hunt. Are you going to let him hunt you, little whore? Or are you too scayudd.” She said ‘scared’ in an exaggerated baby voice, mocking me.

I struggled against her steel-like grip again but she continued to hold the blade to my throat.

“Move again and I’ll slit your throat.” She snapped. “He doesn’t even call you by a nickname.” She laughed at me. “He calls me Needles. What does he call you, bitch?” I felt my eyes well up with tears, as the truth of her words crashed into me.

Rycon called everyone by a nickname. He had never called me anything other than Kasha. It felt stupid, but now that she had pointed it out, it hurt. She could see that what she had said had hit home. Her full lips curled into a sneer.

“I’m only going to say this once. I will allow you to live out of respect for Rycon, but when I let you go you better run back to whatever filthy hole you crawled out of and stay the fuck away from him. Rycon belongs with me, at Ironclad, not playing house with a used up, powerless, daemon that even the fucking brothels don’t want.” She pressed her blade into my throat to punctuate her point. A tear escaped and slid into the gash on my face, the salt stinging in the wound.

She was right.

Everything I had learned about shifters today, told me that I didn’t belong here. Shifters respected and followed those with power. I couldn’t even fight her off. I was no match, and if I stayed here, Rycon would need to fight my battles for me, forever. He deserved better than that. He deserved a true Rhiannon, and I couldn’t give him that.

“Nod if you understand.” Anaya hissed, and I did. She smirked triumphantly.

“Now be a good little whore and run. If I see you back here again, I’ll kill you.” Her smile turned even more sinister. “Though, that might be a quicker death than getting lost in the jungle.” She spat on me again and released me.