Kain peered at the door. He wondered who it was that had thought it best to intrude into his private time. Whoever it was, the being had to be lucky he had received good news and not otherwise.
“Come in!” He called out while turning his back towards the door, to examine the weather outside more closely.
The door flung open, and a familiar scent greeted his nostrils immediately.
Lilies.
Erika.
“Father!” Her frantic cry echoed in the six walls of his hexagonal shaped study. Kain turned sharply to glare at her.
His tall and gallant daughter did not look very tall. She stood with her shoulder slouched, face buried in her palms as she cried.
Kain’s eyes scanned her slender frame in silence. He was not going to speak, he would allow her to conclude her theatrics, and he would only demand an explanation when she was done.
Erika raised her eyes to look up at her father. He stood away from her, dark eyes peering down at her as she wept.
She would have done anything, anything at all for her father’s embrace.
Her heart was heavy. She had lost hope, a sense of direction, and her will to continue anything at all.
What her eyes had seen…oh! What her eyes had seen!
“Father!” She coughed out, amidst her panting.
Kain frowned at his daughter’s hideous sight. Her mascara had been smeared by her tears, forming unwanted and ugly dark circles around her eyes. She sniffed her snot back into her nostrils, while fighting hard to catch her breath.
She appeared to have been chased by a ghost all the way here.
“Elora,” She cried out. “The king!” She continued, moving closer to him.
Kain stood stoic.
So that was why she was here.
Kain rolled his eyes, raised his hand to his forehead, and smacked himself. He could feel himself starting to drown in his pool of frustration and disappointment.
“Oh! For the love of…”He stopped to speak and opened his eyes to look at her.
“You had just one job, Erika! Just one fucking job!” It was his turn to yell now.
Erika had been giving him more reasons to doubt her paternity. A man as quick-witted and sharp-brained as he was could not possibly have birthed such a dimwit!
She must have inherited her stupidity from her mother, there was no convincing him otherwise.
His eyes darted across the room. He needed to rest his gaze on anything but the disappointment in front of him.
Once he set his sights on a half-empty bottle of strong gin on his table, his frown eased.
He started to match towards the table with greedy orbs, while his daughter continued to wail behind him.
Her mission to seduce the king had been really important to his course. If she could successfully bear the king’s child, she would be carrying in her womb, the heir to the Lycan throne, his grandchild.
With such a power and position – grandfather to the heir of the throne – he could strike a better bargain with the Elves, one that would prevent the occurrence of war.
Kain poured the content of the bottle into an empty tumbler beside it. He gripped the tumbler and raised it to his dry lips.
Believe it or not, he was a man who despised war and all its consequences. Kain Kurt was a man who preferred diplomacy.
He gulped the harsh content and frowned in reflex, from the sour taste of the drink. He hissed and banged the bottom of the tumbler against the table.
He believed in creeping from the back and hitting his enemies when, where, and how they least expected.
“No, father! You do not understand!” Erika cried out once more, earning his attention again. He had heard her mutter words but paid no attention.
Her urgent cry and the manner which she rushed to his side caused him to glare at her.
“I saw…I saw something.” She whimpered, eyes widened as she continued to pant heavily.
Dire curiosity started to eat at him. Erika could not have been hyperventilating in such a manner for no reason.
Just as she said, she must have seen something, something that had managed to uproot her from her feet and throw her into a fit of confusion, panic and terror. So much so that he could smell her panic from the moment she had stepped into the room.
“Speak girl.” He demanded in a hoarse voice that had Erika sucking in deep breaths to enable her to speak more fluently.
“Father, I saw… I saw the king and Elora, the slave girl, mating…on the king’s bed.”
As she stuttered, Kain corked his right brow in amusement.
“You saw them fucking?” He taunted.
She shook her head vehemently, a glaring sign for the word “no”.
The look in her eyes told him she had not found his attempt at humor funny, not in the least.
“No father!” She protested.
“I saw them mating!”
His amused smile dissolved into a faint frown.
“Mating is for animals, Erika. Whatever are you trying to say?”
Erika looked more at ease. She nodded, as though he had finally understood what she had been trying to say.
“The king and Elora were mating in their animal form, father!” She exclaimed.
The words hit Kain with a brute force that sent him staggering backwards, towards the table. He sought for his glass of gin and swooped the rest of the content down in one gulp once he found it. He slammed the empty tumbler against the table, then turned to her.
“What are you saying, Erika? Speak, and speak in detail.”
Grateful to have earned her father’s attention, Erika moved from his side to stand in front of him. She was still visibly in shock from what she had seen, but relaying the news to her father seemed to put her at ease.
“I went to deliver the potion to the king, just as you had asked. The one that would have helped quicken his desire for me. But I…when I…” She stopped to catch her breath, and Kain’s scowl deepened. She knew better than to stay silent for one second longer than she had done.
“When I got to the king’s chambers, I found them…Elora and the king, sprawled on his bed, making…making love. And right in front of my very eyes, father, they shifted into their animals!”
Kain narrowed his eyes on her, awestricken by her confession.
“Can you believe it, father?! I watch as the king turned to his Lycan beast and the slave shifted into her she-wolf! They mated, father! I swear I saw them!” Erika exclaimed, dramatically throwing her hands into the air.
Kain nodded absentmindedly.
No. He could not believe it, not yet. But if it was true, if she had really seen what she confessed to have seen…
“Ah. So they are mates.” He muttered to himself.
If they were mated to each other, it was another truth he could use against the king. At that moment, as he stroked his beard thoughtfully, Kain wondered if the king was aware of the rather…recent development.
If he was, he could only wonder about the step he would take. He could not marry her, that was certain. The kingdom would revolt against him.
He watched as Erika continued to blabber, but he was far too engrossed in his thoughts to hear a word that was said.
Did the slave girl know?
She must have figured it out. She was a wolf after all.
Kain hissed at the thought.
She must have started to develop plans to tell the king the truth, knowing the delicacy of the bond they shared, and how it bound them together. She must have started to get ideas already; the girl was too fucking bold for her good.
He dropped his right hand to his side and grasped his cane even tighter in his left.
He had to move fast.
First, he had to find ways to confirm of Erika’s story was indeed the truth. If it was, he would proceed to instigate a council meeting where the matter would be discussed by members.
Also, he would have to instigate a petition against the slave girl. One that would rile the king. Yes! Kain was looking forward to frustrating Rome.
“Father, aren’t you saying anything?!” Erika called out, her voice had finally stolen into his thoughts, but Kain only shrugged.
There was nothing to say, but a whole lot to be done.