Rejected Queen by Meg Xuemei X.

CHAPTER 7

Tessa

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could move around, and my legs no longer felt like liquid, so I decided to return to the quarters I shared with the Hell Cat.

Loki’s crew had left us, giving us some privacy.

“You’re going nowhere,” Loki said. “The dome you stay in with that insufferable cat isn’t as safe as here. The witches will work together to bring down its ward, or the other contestants can easily ambush you in its surroundings.”

I narrowed my eyes. How did he know I shared the hidden dome with Snow White? She’d once informed me that Loki could get past the dome’s ward, but still, it troubled me that he knew more about my situation than I’d thought he knew.

Was Snow White Loki’s spy? She’d had a slip of the tongue and admitted she’d made a bargain with someone. And when I joked about not making a deal with the devil, she’d immediately fled, not wanting to dwell on the subject. Loki was the new devil now, wasn’t he?

“The witches know how to use a location spell to find you,” Loki continued. “Now that the witches, demons, and vampires have formed an alliance to take you down, the safest place is in my castle, where the dukes, Esme, and I can guard you. They dare not come here, and if they do, all the better. I’m more than happy to reduce them to burning coals so they can light my fireplace.”

“There’s no safe place for me in the end,” I said softly. “I’ve accepted it, and you might as well roll with the punches aimed at me too.”

“I’ll roll with nothing except rolling with you,” he said heatedly, and I blushed. “I’m not allowed to guard you in the trials. I need you to survive all of them on your own. But I will guard you in between, and you’ll accept my protection graciously. If not, I can be the worst stalker— a disaster for you—even if you can be my worst nightmare.” A mischievous light that shifted colors danced in his eyes as he probably remembered how we’d met.

“That wasn’t the best first date, for your information,” I said.

“I can’t change the past,” he said. “But I can make the future better.”

That was all that mattered, wasn’t it? And all of us deserved a second chance if we truly sought it.

“What you did before is none of my business,” I told him. “We won’t let the past set the tone for the beginning of our…friendship.”

His eyes sparked. “You know I want more than friendship.”

His thumb brushed over my heated cheek, and my breath caught in my throat. I hadn’t reacted to any male for a decade. And now, as my body awoke, it was doing a double take.

“I almost lost you,” he said, a haunting look shadowing his face.

He held my hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed my palm.

Pleasant warmth and delicious sensations waltzed to my nerve endings. I couldn’t help but shiver. I recalled how his avatar’s kiss had burned me into a bundle of passion and liquid fire. I wanted that again. I wanted the King of the Underworld to take me now, searing me with his flame and lust. And I was here, present with him, not hiding behind my avatar.

His sensual lips parted from my palm, and I nearly whimpered a protest, not wanting the cold to return. I was ice that craved his fire.

He gazed at me, a riot of emotions swirling in his eyes. “Will you stay?”

“I could use a guest room,” I said, a frosty breath parting my lips.

One did not turn her back on kindness.

“You’ll sleep right here,” he said, almost demandingly. “I’ll crash on the couch outside. I’m not letting you out of my sight!” Over my arched brow, he mellowed his tone. “I like to have your scent in my bed.”

A butterfly’s light wings fluttered in my stomach. The King of the Underworld was getting through my defenses.

“Esme will get your stuff from your dome.” He grinned at me. “Wear my shirt all you want. I prefer you to have my scent on you so no other male will dare to get close to you.”

So possessive. He acted on his instincts, even though he had no idea that I was actually his mate who’d travel through the worlds to find him.

Only there was a vast barrier between us. I shook my head. I didn’t want to think about the blood contract now.

“Your bedroom is too luxurious for me,” I said.

“I’m a king. I have standards.” He winked at me. “Eventually you’ll get used to my flashy style. You have no idea what kind of pressure I have to compete with the four demigod assholes. It’s like fucking high school.”

I nearly rolled my eyes despite the lingering pain in my muscles from being poisoned.

“Could you also have Lady Esme tell my cat that I’ll stay here for a couple of days, please?” I asked. 

He squinted at me. “Your cat?”

Then a sudden alarm shot through me. It might not be in my best interest to tell Snow White that I was here. If she decided to stay with me and demanded I read her dirty romances, I wouldn’t be in the right frame of mind to do that, not with Loki sleeping so close by.

Also, I’d sent her to escort Dux and Fayette to Marigold’s base so they could aid Mari and stay safe and be fed in the meantime.

“It’s a sweet cat,” I said.

Loki laughed and shook his head. “One day, I’ll get my hellhound back.”

Right, Snow White’s ex-boyfriend.

“I’ll let you refresh and rest,” he said after he stopped chortling. “The servants will bring you soup and bread. I’d bring you a feast, but Shayna said it’s best that you have a light meal for now.”

He brushed a kiss over my head before he made an exit. I nearly dragged him back to me, but I had things to do.

I removed my armor, shampooed my hair, and bathed myself in the king’s huge spring tub of gold and marble. Such lavishness. 

I was safe for now. I’d survived another trial. Yet a bleak feeling swept over me. My team and I had never had much comfort. We never stayed in one place for long, as we were on the run from the hunters.

We didn’t always get to wear clean clothes. Dust, hard roads, and dangerous forests were our constant companions. Most of the time, we didn’t crash on a soft, warm bed. My team never complained about the hardships and seemingly hopeless journey.

At seventeen, I’d become a first-class assassin, murdering for money, killing for my kingdom. Even so, the Jötunn and the bloodhounds never stopped hunting us. I had only Dux and Fayette left.

I shook off rage and grief and dried myself with a soft white towel, then I padded to a large closet. It was like walking into a wonderland. One could spend hours here just looking through the king’s wardrobe. I walked past several rows and picked a long-sleeve T-shirt. As I shrugged it on, the length draped to just above my knees.

When I sauntered out of the closet, seven different soups and a basket of bread and rolls waited on the table. I shut my eyes for a second to remember this. Loki was taking care of me. My mate was feeding me and providing me with shelter, and that knowledge warmed me.

Could I get used to this, a new life and possibly a new future? I ran my bottom lip through my teeth as I rethought my reality.

Do not fool yourself.

If I got too cozy and let my guard down, I wouldn’t make it into the final trial. But I’d started falling, as it was getting harder and harder to resist the seductive King of the Underworld, who had shown me more of his other side that no one else had seen.

He’d shown me his vulnerability.

I sighed. I shouldn’t think of him the whole day through. I had other things to do.

I crawled into the bed. It was too soft, too comfortable, and too big—a bed that belonged to my mate, a bed I could share with him one day or a bed I’d never visit again.

I dug my nose into the pillow, inhaling his scent of clean, powerful male, hellfire, and sandalwood, and let it wrap around me. Raw need and desire rose from my depths, igniting from the spark of ember the King of the Underworld had gifted me without realizing it.

I breathed in his intoxicating, comforting scent again before I rolled off his pillow. I wasn’t familiar with this version of me. Somehow, Loki had stripped away Tessa Morrigan, the merciless killer and icy maiden I’d gotten used to.

My mate made me feel like a real, red-blooded woman.

I rolled back into the pillow and curled up in the corner of the vast bed. My worries for my team rocked back into my consciousness along with my dread over the next trial. It wasn’t just that several clans would gang up on me, rallied under the banner of the vampire princess. Ragnarö’s hands might have reached Earth, and he might be coming. And as Esme had pointed out, even the Wild Hunt might have turned on me.

In the end, exhaustion won over and dragged me into a restless sleep.

Insistent, boisterous purrs near my ear jerked me awake.

I flashed open my eyes to find a fluffy feline face looming into my view.

Snow White perched on half of my pillow as she adjusted a red hat with white fur around the rim. I blinked twice.

“Is that—a Santa hat?” I asked groggily.

“Dux gave me this nice hat, and he didn’t say anything about Santa,” the cat said, her slitted amber eyes staring down at me. “It’s not easy to sneak into the king’s chamber. I see that you’re very comfortable here. But now it’s time for my payment. Now tell me the secret dirty romance between Snow White and her Seven Dwarfs.”