Page 10 of Fae King's Secret Baby

She also sank back in her chair pensively, her pretty eyes shadowing.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I teased, setting my tumbler back down on the side table to reach for her hand again.

“I…” She cleared her throat. “I’m trying to understand why you called on me tonight.”

I grimaced lightly. “Am I keeping you from something?” I asked defensively. “You can go if you like.”

She shook her shimmering hair vehemently. “I didn’t mean it like that, Alpha?—”

“Can you do me a favor?” I interjected quickly. “Just… call me Nyx when no one else is around. This Alpha business…”

Her voluminous lips parted, but no words came out, and I offered her a taut smile. “It’s not you,” I reassured her. “I don’t particularly care to hear it from anyone, and if I have the choice, I’ll always go by my given name.”

“You don’t like being the king?” she asked, confused.

Below us, the cleaners fanned out in the main theater to begin shutting down from that night’s show, and I watched them as I tried to formulate my thoughts on the matter.

“It’s the highest honor in the land,” I replied lightly. “Who wouldn’t want to be the king?”

“I’m not sure I could handle responsibility like that,” Maren quipped uneasily. “Especially in the shadow of King Lucius.”

“Yes,” I agreed bitterly. “Dear old Dad did leave quite big shoes to fill.”

“What happened to him?”

This query caught me off guard, and my head whipped back toward her. She held up her hands and started to shake her head,as if she were going to take back the question, but I answered before she could.

“No one has a clue,” I laughed bitterly. “He just up and left one day.”

She blinked.

“That’s not the official story, of course. I believe my advisors spun it as some humanitarian mission gone awry or whatnot. But that’s not the truth.”

“Did he leave?” Maren pressed gently. “Or was he taken?”

My eyes became slits, her bolder questions beginning to bother me, but I reminded myself that I had opened the door to this. “There’s evidence that he left,” I grumbled, hoping that she would take the hint. “Some of his clothes were gone, a suitcase.”

Maren fell silent, and I wished I hadn’t let the conversation get so serious.

Abruptly, I rose from my spot and extended my hand toward her. She merely stared at it.

“Let’s get out of here,” I suggested. “You must have had enough of this place for one night.”

“Where are we going?” she asked, reluctantly accepting my proffered palm.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Let’s see where the wind takes us, shall we?”

I ushered her out of the balcony box, and she jumped as the Royal Guards fell into step behind us, marching in step at our back.

“Don’t mind them,” I told her genially. “You’ll get used them, eventually. Or at least you pretend to get used to them.”

I caught her sidelong look and smiled to myself as I realized what I’d said.

Will she get used to them, or is this just going to be a one-off for both of us?

Chapter 4

Maren

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