After dinner, Serena invited Emily to her bed chambers for girl talk as she said, and Emily was only too happy to go with her. Among every damned woman present at dinner, not one was anything more than civil with her.
Serena, on the other hand, was simply lovely.
“Why do I feel like I am such a nuisance?” Emily voiced out her concerns as soon as they were in the chambers.
“You’re not, dearie,” she assured her.
“But each time, Theo has to come to my rescue… it just doesn’t feel right,” Emily then muttered as her eyes stung with tears. “If he had been mated to someone with the same standing as him, I bet he wouldn’t be so troubled.”
“It has nothing to do with you, dearie, and everything to do with the court’s despicable ways,” was the princess’ response.
“I don’t think they like me,” the eighteen year old then uttered on a sigh.
“Yet,” Serena said suggestively as she wiggled her eyebrows. “You have to understand that to fit into the court, you must show that you couldn’t care less whether they like you or not. You cannot please everyone.”
“True,” Emily conceded. “But still.”
“Theodore, for example, inspires fear and respect more than he does love and admiration,” she told her. “Liam, being more lenient, is more popular with the ladies than he is with the men, I’d say.”
Emily gave her a pointed look, “Both your brothers are womanizers. Don’t deny it.”
“Oh, they are,” she nodded at her enthusiastically. “I remember once, not too long ago, a young duchess was hanging on Theo’s every word, but he didn’t give her the time of the day… until poof, one day, we could hear her screams all the way in the gardens. He had grown tired of her pursuit of him, he said.”
Emily all but growled out a “Lovely.”
“I see that jealousy brings out the beast in you,” Serena observed pensively. “We should get you to turn soon. It’ll be easier for you to basically feel when something is amiss.”
A pause and then she said, “Theodore basically fucked the entire court.”
At that crude statement, Emily’s eyes stung as they probably flashed red, and she hissed at the princess, “Enough!”
“I was only exaggerating,” she then tried to appease her. “He only bedded about half the celibate women of the court, I’d say.”
“Serena, I would really appreciate it if you stopped it at once,” Emily told her earnestly.
“Okay,” Serena agreed readily as she raised her hands in surrender. “I just thought you should know that Theodore is fancied by many. And that, dearie, can be a major problem for you.”
“He’s my mate,” Emily let out angrily, putting emphasis on the my part.
“You are. And he seems to adore you too. That’s bound to create envy. Just be careful.”
Emily nodded.
Some chitchat later, and Emily was ready to hit the bed, exhausted as she was from the day’s events.
“Let me accompany you,” Serena offered in a sweet tone.
“Sure,” Emily all but sighed, seeing as she couldn’t even wander the palace alone.
They made small talk in the corridors, and it wasn’t long before they reached her and Theo’s bed chambers.
Emily could hear a woman’s voice from outside, and the blood froze in her veins.
“Your highness, maybe you could reconsider?” She was saying in a sultry voice. “I was sent here to please you. It is my job. The princess you seem so fond of isn’t of much help in appeasing your beast.”
“What are you implying?” He asked in a cold tone.
“A sated dragon is a cool dragon, and isn’t easily riled up,” she went on sweetly.
“Are you saying I am irritable?” He deadpanned. “Those nobles deserved what they got.”
“Your highness, I am more experienced than she probably ever will be. I can please in ways she cannot,” she changed tactics, it would seem.
“How presumptuous of you to believe you can do a better job?!” He exclaimed in a scornful tone. Then in a softer tone, he said, “Come here, dorogaya.”
Emily’s heart ached. He was contradicting himself. Why would he defend her only to beckon over and call this despicable woman with the same endearment he did her?
“Not you, foolish woman,” he growled. “I am talking to my mate, my rightful partner, who is standing behind the door.”
Emily stood there, rooted to her spot, as heat engulfed her again. Serena gently pushed her forward, and she realized right then that her mate wasn’t a cheater even if he had previously been a womanizer.
She walked inside with a grace that almost felt foreign, head held high, and she almost screamed when she saw one of the nobles on top of the bed they shared.
“Off the bed, you go,” she told her in her best frosty tone.
“I beg your pardon?” The woman sneered. “I am here for his highness’ enjoyment. You do not get to order me around.”
The woman was in nothing but her lingerie, and yet, Theodore’s eyes were focused solely on Emily.
“I am his mate, you see,” Emily shrugged. Then, her eyes shifted to her mate and she said in a sweet tone, “Lover, are we not making love today?”
“Do not tease me so, dorogaya,” he told her gruffly, and she started to smell a faint but distinctive musky smell – she guessed it was that of his arousal. “You know my answer to that.”
“I want the sheets to be burnt,” she told him calmly and he nodded in agreement. Then, she closed the distance between them, and cupped his face before she demanded, “Whose woman are you?”
There was a faint smirk playing at his lips when he answered simply, “Yours.”
“Excellent answer,” she told him teasingly. “Now, kiss me,” she instructed smoothly, “tear this apart,” she pointed at her gown, “and let the palace know who I belong to.”
Her teasing backfired for they started kissing, uncaring of the audience they had.
Thankfully, Serena grabbed the shameless noble who had thrown herself at Theodore and escorted her out, saying, “That should teach you a lesson to remember, Camille. He is hers.”
Emily smiled into the kiss, and it wasn’t long before she was bent over, facing the mirror as he took her from behind and made her scream in pure ecstasy.