Hellfire Crown by Meg Xuemei X.
CHAPTER 8
Tessa
The Duke of Envy was a fabulous tap dancer, but I was anxious to get going.
“Do you know how I usually treat stalkers?” I asked.
“Assassinate them?” the duke enquired. He didn’t look afraid but eyed me with suspicion and interest.
The dukes were all tense whenever I was around their king ever since I’d been exposed.
I sighed. I could see the word “assassin” painted on my forehead in the duke’s dark eyes.
“What is your king up to, Leviathan?” I asked, and he blinked, since this was the first time I had used his first name. “Why did he leave his own party?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he said, not taking my bait.
His spotless and expensive leather shoes hit the floor in a rapid rhythm as he twirled around me in a half-circle, still blocking me. And he didn’t forget to flash me a grin to show that he was still friendly, despite his stalking.
“Take the edge off, Lady Tessa,” he advised. “Just loosen up and dance a little with me, and I’ll tell you a secret. C’mon, people are watching, and we don’t want the bad kind of attention.”
The duke’s fantastic dance had attracted a crowd.
Just great! Exactly what I needed!
Some bystanders mimicked the duke and tap danced as well.
Tip, tap, tip, tap. The beat pounded at my jumpy nerves.
The image of Loki leaving with Esme burned in my mind. It was like some kind of fever suddenly swept over me, and I was consumed with possessive jealousy. Suddenly I had to act like an obsessive fool who must find out what Loki and his ward were up to and why they had left in such a secretive fashion.
Yes, I’d learned more about the king and his relationship with everyone, and Esme had been Loki’s ward before she was his right hand.
Just then, the shifters migrated toward us. The pack had kept tabs on me and taken it upon themselves to guard me, especially after the massive black wolf had whisked me off into the sunset the other night. The pack was religiously devoted to the Wolf God and had marked me as their god’s mate.
Raina had tried to talk to me and probably saw this as an opening. They gathered around me and danced.
I threw the new alpha a look, and she snatched it up like she was catching a fish.
“I’d love to stay and dance a little,” I told Leviathan, “but I need to use the ladies’ room. Excuse me, Your Highness.” I extracted myself quickly.
Before the duke could put a stop to his dance and follow me, the shifters moved in all at once, dancing around the duke. Some moves were quite erotic and provocative. The wolf ladies knew how to move, I had to give them that.
When the duke finally got himself untangled from the circle and cursed darkly, I’d vanished from his line of sight. Smirking, I let my ice magic coil around me, making me inconspicuous.
Filtering the noises around me into the background, I slowed my breathing, quieted my mind, and concentrated on listening to the pulse of my mating bond with Loki.
I felt it leading me, like a faint beacon of light. I followed the glow until I reached the east wing of the palace. A swirl of stairs stretched in front of me. I hesitated for a second and ran up the stairs two at a time, not wanting to lose track of the king.
Then the trace of the king I felt through our mating bond faded. What did it mean? I frowned, but then Loki’s scent wafted toward me. I crept up, following his on-and-off scent and coming to the fifth floor.
The scent changed and mixed with something foreign, as if Loki was trying to mask his trail.
What was he trying to hide?
Jealousy stuck in my throat, and the wrongness I’d felt earlier slammed into my face. I snarled. I was taken aback by my irrational thoughts and behavior, but I kept venturing further to investigate. I needed to get to the bottom of this.
I wrapped my ice magic around me and crept forward, merging myself into the shadows along the wall.
A man’s rough groan of pleasure and a woman’s moan sounded ahead. I scurried across the winding hallway as fast as I could, turned the corner down a connecting corridor, and stopped cold.
In the middle of the corridor, Loki and Esme were tangled with each other.
Esme was half-dressed, her blouse dropped to her slim waist, to expose her ample breasts, and her skirt pushed up to her waist.
Loki’s large hands were busy cupping and fondling her breasts as he drove his massive cock into her.
