Ethan
I was avoiding Sharon. I rolled my eyes in disgust as I thought of her. I didn’t think that she was that annoying. What part of I was now married didn’t she understand? I had told Ava that we were just friends and she didn’t have to be jealous of her. Ava was trying to be mature about her presence and not flip out but I didn’t want to push her.
What was going on with her? What was wrong with her? What was wrong with me? Had I been wrong about her? When did she change or had I been a bad judge of character and she had always been like that? I was sure that she wasn’t that type of annoying friend or I wouldn’t have become friends with her.
What was the drama that she had done at the table while we were eating? Regardless of how close we were, she was a guest yesterday and wasn’t meant to sit beside me at the table. There was an arrangement to how we ate at the table. None of my palace officials would have sat anywhere to eat with me. As a guest, she was meant to sit at the far end of the table.
Even if she didn’t know of the protocol in the palace dining hall, she could have asked the maids who were always around for help where she would sit. I saw the maids trying to guide her to where she would sit but she had silently avoided them and sat close to me. She had found a way to make Rudolph give up on his seat as well by forcing him to be a gentleman.
I had to stop Ava last night from pressing her to give up on the seat. I didn’t want her to look like she was letting her get under her skin in the presence of the maids.
She was the queen and should maintain her standards at all times.
I was uncomfortable all through the dinner last night and also breakfast this morning. She had slipped into the seat beside me again, faster than anyone could sit and had acted as annoying as she had been the second time.
She had talked to me non-stop as if I was the only one on the table, blowing my ears off with what I didn’t ask of her. She had talked at length, touching me with her hands as she spoke. I didn’t have to feel Ava’s glare to know that she was angry. She had done the same thing that she had done at dinner at breakfast that Quinn had to ask her if she couldn’t talk without her hands making the gesture for her.
I had kept my smile to myself, knowing that Quinn was angry. Everyone was angry for Ava’s sake already and that was why I didn’t want her to act rashly. I knew that she would have people who would fight on her behalf even if she had sat only and watched.
Rudolph had glared at Sharon all through and the werewolves had pretended like she didn’t exist until Quinn had to lose it and ask her if she had a problem with her problem being still. I had been grateful for Quinn’s intervention, knowing that werewolves were as possessive as vampires were. Vampires couldn’t deal with other people around our mate and that was why I was angry at Sharon for doing what she did in the presence of my mate.
She had smiled and chuckled softly that it was a habit.
I had hoped to get through breakfast after seeing that she repeated her mistake at dinner the previous night. I had tried to make an excuse for her that she had misbehaved because she hadn’t seen me in a while but after seeing her do the same at breakfast, I realized that she had done what she had done on purpose.
I had sent a message to the others that we wouldn’t be eating together till Sharon leaves and told the maids to always take my food together with Ava’s own to our bedroom.
I hoped she enjoyed her meals alone and have more fun talking to my chair and touching it since she couldn’t do without moving her hands.
There was however one problem with my plans, I couldn’t avoid her forever. I had to go out to the field to check on the soldiers and some of the farmers. Ava had been tired after lunch and couldn’t make it out with me. I wanted to go and make it back to her as fast as I could. I had heard the maids talking of Sharon outside the palace taking a stroll and had gone out through the back of the palace, passing through the garden.
I was going to do the same for when I was getting back. I was going to do that for every time that I had to go out till she was gone. I was also going to reduce the number of times I had to be out.
I was walking through the garden, back to the palace, back to Ava when I heard my name. I went still in shock and my eyes rounded with horror as I recognized the voice. I didn’t have to turn to look at her to know who it was. If not that I was in a rush to get to Ava, I would have sensed her before I moved too far. Moreover, I wasn’t expecting her to be here.
She chuckled as she moved closer to me. “Are you here for me?”
I snorted. “Why would I? This is my garden.”
“I know but you hardly visit gardens. It’s either you are avoiding someone in the palace or you are here for me.”
I grimaced. I had forgotten that she knew that about me. “I’m not here for you.”
She smiled. “Then you must be avoiding something in the palace. What is it?” She chuckled. “Avoiding your officials?”
“Who do you think?” I said, giving her a pointed look.
Her eyes widened and she blushed as she realized that I was talking about her. “Me? Why?”
“Why do you think?” I rolled my eyes, already bored with this conversation but I knew that I couldn’t go without sorting it out.
Sharon was stubborn. She would follow after me to get the answer she wanted out of me if I didn’t respond to her and I didn’t want her to follow me to where Ava was. My dear mate was stressed enough with pregnancy symptoms, I didn’t want to add to it.
She smiled as she moved forward, her eyes lit up and her gait slowed as she walked towards me in a patronizing manner. “Do I make you uncomfortable?”
“You make everyone uncomfortable. You make my wife uncomfortable with your excessive show and that makes me uncomfortable.”
She placed her hand suddenly on my chest and smiled as she looked into my eyes. “How uncomfortable do I make you? Positively or badly?”
“Can there be anything positive about discomfort?” I snorted at her.
She didn’t seem annoyed as I hoped that she would be. She raised herself up on her heels and reached up to me, her eyes on my face as she moved forward. I pushed her away as I realized what she was about to do.
“What do you think you are doing?” I glared at her. “I’m mated.”
“And I know. Does the fact that you are mated stop me from wanting you? I want you, Ethan.”
“I’m mated.” I snapped at her, gritting my teeth as I repeated the words to her. I couldn’t believe that she was about to kiss me.
“Do you truly want your wife or you are with her because she loves you and there is no other woman you are closer to that you can become mated to when you became king?”
“Having a mate is not a criterion to being a king. I didn’t like Ava because of that.”
I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation with her. I was glad that my mate wasn’t there to listen to the nonsense that she was spouting in her mouth.
She snorted, still acting unrepentant. “But it secures your power as a king, more if you have a heir. Isn’t that why she is pregnant so soon? You only married your friend because she is in love with you and would be the best person to help you with your dreams as her love would make her gullible. You used her, you can admit it to me, Ethan. That is what I like about you. You are not afraid to go after your dreams regardless of who might be in your path.” She began to move closer to me again and whispered. “I think this makes us similar. You are just like me. Don’t you agree that we should be together?”
I hissed at her. “Don’t you dare speak trash of my marriage and insult my wife’s intelligence again? I love my mate and it’s never because of any hidden agenda. I love and respect her because she respects herself and is not like any of the slutty ladies out there, ladies who would readily throw themselves at me without thinking or knowing who I was. If you think I am as bad as you think, then you need to open your eyes so you can see the real me.”
I growled at her, my eyes flashing with rage. I didn’t think that I had ever been this mad with fury in my life, not even when the evil dark wizard had possessed me and I was misbehaving. How could she dare to soil Ava’s integrity right in my presence? I should have known she was up to no good when she had come yesterday and started acting all clingy around me.
I hissed at her and walked away, trying to control my anger before I lost it and gave her a slap right there. She looked at me like she couldn’t believe what she had heard and that made me more angry. What did she think that she was and what did she think that I was?
I felt annoyed that she could have thought I would readily jump into bed with her because she flicked some eyebrows at me. She had to have thought that I was that much of a loser. I felt sorry for Ava the most about what just happened. I couldn’t believe that she already warned me about Sharon being in trouble but I thought she was jealous and had told her to trust me more. I was glad that I didn’t break her trust in me and also realized that I owed her an apology.
“Guards!” I shouted the moment I walked inside the palace.
“Yes, your highness.” They said as they rushed to my side.
“Get Sharon out of the palace, pack her luggage out of the guest room she is in and throw her out to the borders.”
Sharon walked in and looked at me in surprise as she heard my orders. I didn’t look at her and walked past her, heading to the royals’ quarters to meet my wife.
She could find her back to where she came from if she got to the border. I hadn’t made a mistake with my choice of words because I was angry. People like her need to be thrown out of where sane people lived.
She was as much a dog and a weird vampire as the idiot who wanted my wife even though she was married to me.