Page 79 of Witch Queens: Tales from Oz

I felt my core clench.

“We will have no further transactions, let me assure you.”

His smile stretched across his rugged visage and I knew that he could smell my want as well as sense my lies.

“Tell yourself whatever you want to, Mombi,” he stood and started pacing the room. “When did the problems start?”

I sighed before relaying to him that there had been relative peace for several months. But in the last few weeks, there have been stock missing from farms—mostly cattle. And then, there was the incident at the village tavern when a group of lionesses got into a fight and destroyed the place.

He listened to me quietly which I appreciated, but I could see the fire in his demeanor.

“Did you speak with Eric?”

Huffing, I answered, “Your brother is a grade A prick.”

Jake’s lip twitched, “Agreed. What did he say?”

“That it was all in my head. The pride would never dream of poaching from the villagers. That the fight had nothing to do with the lionesses, and that I was setting them up.”

Jake’s jaw tightened, “It would seem that Eric has turned into the leader I always thought he would.”

“Greedy, selfish, untrustworthy, stop me anytime you disagree!” I goaded.

“I will. Go on,” Jake’s eyes smiled at me. “You are doing fine on your own.”

“If you knew this, why would you leave him in charge of your pride?”

My temper was starting to flare. What had driven him to abandon me—wait, not me—them?

“My pride—interesting choice of words. There was a consensus that I was no longer fit to be King.”

My jaw literally dropped.

“The attack on the village that night was in retaliation for something I had done,” he cracked his knuckles. “I left because it was that or fight them all. I would have fought—no question—but they threatened harm on someone else. I was afraid that if I wasn’t successful, this person would die. And that, I couldn’t live with.”

“But,” I sputtered, “You came back! What’s changed?”

“The pride promised no harm would come to you or your people. We had a blood oath, and it is broken now.”

I knew little about blood oaths, only that by breaking one, it was punishable by death.

“What are you going to do?” I asked, horrified by the possibilities. “What if you have to fight them all? There are at least twenty that I know of.”

He looked me straight in the eyes, his dark brown one’s full of purpose. “I will do what I should have done all those months ago. I will fight Eric and anyone else that goes against my ruling. If that decimates the pack—so be it.”

I felt ill. I had no idea what to say or do.

“Who did they threaten?”

He looked at me, confused.

“You said that the pride threatened to kill someone. Who?”

He let out a deep breath, “My mate.”

I picked up the closest thing to me and flung it at his head. Sadly, it was only a stapler, and with his catlike reflexes, he easily dodged it. But I was pissed. How dare he kiss me like I was the last woman on earth if he already had a mate?

My tape dispenser came flying at him next, followed by a pen.

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