Page 10 of Bearing Secrets
“I state that they are unfounded.” He spoke the words strongly, covering up the shame he felt at lying to his kin.
“Then produce your mate!” Klebra snarled, breaking protocol.
Mutters from the crowd followed that. Kirell listened closely, trying to pick up on how the assembled crowd felt. It seemed that most were solidly behind him, but a noticeable-enough portion backed Klebra, sufficient to make him worried about his ability to proceed.
“Kirell?” The Queen said, gesturing at him while ignoring the outburst, though Kirell was confident his challenger would pay for it at some later date.
“My mate is not in the manor at the moment. I sent her into the city when I first felt uncomfortable with the tensions arising last week.”
A pin-drop could have been heard throughout the Throne Room as everyone held their breaths. This was the first reference to the coup that had been made.
“You have seventy-two hours to bring her here to show your eligibility,” the Queen said properly. “Do you understand?”
“I do, my Queen.” He came to attention once more and bowed low before accepting her signal of dismissal and marching out of the Throne Room, Kellas and Kedd close on his heels.
The doors were pulled open by guards and closed after him.
“I didn’t know you had a mate!” Kellas said after the heavy panels boomed closed. He clapped Kirell on the shoulder. “You keep some good secrets, Kire!”
“Yeah,” he muttered, not stopping as he headed back toward his quarters. “It’s a long story.”
It bothered him to lie to his friends, something that everyone had in short order after everything that had happened. So much mistrust was in the air, and now he was a part of it. The worst, however, would be if he couldn’t prove that he had a mate. Not only would it reflect badly on him, but he was sure the Queen’s political rivals would turn it around on her. She would be disgraced, no matter how hard she tried to distance herself from him. It would mean more upheaval at a time they could ill afford it.
Something is coming, Kirell. We must be ready for it.
The words of his Queen echoed in his mind. He had no idea what it was she meant, but if she was worried, then all of Ursa should be worried, including him. Kirell had to do his part to keep his House stable, no matter what it took.
“When are you going to bring her back?” Kellas asked, either ignoring or not picking up on the black mood Kirell was in at the moment.
“Soon,” he growled, lengthening his stride.As soon as I find someone.
He cursed the situation. Enlisting the help of the Hunter wasn’t an option either, because the last Hunter was dead and hadn’t been replaced yet. The Hunter was a Title Holder as well, like the Captain, but one that was imbued with the ability to help locate the mate of a particular shifter. It wasn’t necessarily a controllable power, more one that came when needed, a combination of the science that created the shifters, and the magic that inhabited the earth.
It would have beenreallyhelpful right about then, but Kirell had to do it by himself. He was on his own with no one to guide him, and that bothered him. He hated making mistakes, and now it felt like he was in the middle of a huge one. Finding his mate in less than seventy-two hours, convincing her of their bond, and bringing her back here to stand at his side was an impossible task.
If Kirell was going to produce a mate, he was going to have to fall headfirst into the lie he and his Queen were perpetuating.
He was going to have to fake one.
5
“I still can’t believe Jeremy came through,” she remarked as the Uber pulled up in front of Para.
“Well actually, he came—”
Natalia just ignored Loren. Even as best friends, that was more information than she cared to hear about. Knowing Jeremy was good in bed, with his fingers, mouth or dick, that was something she could handle. Even discussing favorite positions; that was all fine and well with her.
She didn’t need to know where Loren had let him finish in her quest to get them access to Para. That was information she would be perfectly happy not knowing and did her best to keep it that way.
“I can’t believe we never came here before,” she remarked as they gave their names to the bouncers outside and were shown inside after a quick pat-down—not that her outfit left many places to hide anything. The black bralette stopped just below her chest, and the high-waisted black jeans were so tight she’d been forced to wear a g-string, something she almost never did.
Loren had insisted it was how people dressed there, and when she got inside, she realized for once that her friend hadn’t been exaggerating. All the women seemed to be wearing some form of lingerie or another much like the pair of them, though she sucked in her stomach, self-conscious she wasn’t as slim as everyone else she could see.
“Let’s get a drink!” Loren shouted over the bass.
The place was crowded, but not so jam-packed that she had to turn sideways to move. They found a bar and she waited while her friend ordered.
“Here!” A tiny glass was shoved into her hand. “Do this first!”
