The Wild Hunt (Downworlder Series, #1)

Chapter Sixteen: The Queen and The Empress

There were many sides of Octavia that were terrifying but I wasn't sure which was more terrifying. The Octavia that had sadistic glee glowing off of her entire form as we had watched the orange glows of fires from Doyen Revan's territory as the bombs she had planted exploded in the night air. We had watched his empire start to burn and Octavia had giggled as if happy. That was clearly terrifying but I wasn't sure if the stone faced, rigid statured Octavia was worse. Her eyes were empty and I shifted uncomfortably in my spot in front of her desk.

"Did you not hear me last night?" Her words were low and clipped and I hunched my shoulders forward. I was thankful that Ajax was forced to stay outside with the twins. I could only imagine the looks that Octavia would be getting from him. He was way too combative. I didn't understand how he could be an underling to a Doyen with his attitude.

"I heard you loud and clear. I'm not to leave the tower but I have been in these clothes for two days and I need some of my things." I felt terrible. I just wanted out of my stained and dirty clothes so I could feel almost living again. I knew I would cry if I were allowed to have a shower. There were somethings that I coveted and a clean set of clothes and a shower were at the very top of my current list.

"No." The word was clipped as she gave me a dark look that had me wanting to curl up into a tiny ball on her hardwood. "I seriously told myself that 'Hey, your favourite little mongrel was kidnapped because of you, let's be nice to her after she comes back because god knows what she went through.' but you are testing my patience." She pointed at me and the words gave me a bit of a jolt. I was her favourite little mongrel? She still had a murderous expression on her face but it bolstered me to know that in her own way Octavia might just have been worried about me.

"You don't understand, if I try and take off my clothes, Tarzan gets all hot and bothered and grabby." I had attempted that and as soon as my shirt had uncovered my midriff I had warm and rough hands touching my bare skin as a chiseled abdomen pressed against my back as he let out a pleased growl. Any one of the females on the street would have been ecstatic about the attention but he caught me so off guard that I nearly elbowed him in the face in an attempt to get him to let me go. At least Benjin's training had come in handy, even if Ajax had to catch my elbow gently, making concerned noises as if to remind me I had thrown my broken arm back at his face.

"The joys of mates." Her mouth twitched slightly and her dark eyes danced with amusement. She thought my situation with Ajax was amusing. I failed to see the amusement in it. Even Benjin's mouth had twitched after watching us interact. And by interact I meant me trying my best to keep him out of my personal space and having him be grabby with me.

"I stink." I did. It was bad and I needed to fix that. Stress sweat was terrible for it and I has stress sweated buckets in the past two days. I was fairly certain that if I took off my clothes they would be alive enough to walk away with the amount of bacteria that was probably growing on them.

"I know you do but you always do so its not new to me." She raised an eyebrow and I resisted the urge to make a face at her. Her energy had shifted to something less intense but we were still wary of her and not wanting to push our luck too far.

"This isn't funny." Not funny at all. Oh I knew everyone else found it hysterical but I didn't.

"Borrow some of my clothes." She waved her hand flippantly and I blinked at her in disbelief. There were a lot of things wrong with her statement.

"I would love to wear one of your eight thousand dollar Gucci dresses but I find myself... lacking." I gestured to my chest and my hips. I wasn't small in my mind but when put up against a woman who defined the words sensually curved, I was seriously lacking. It would have been a blow to my ego but I always reminded myself that I was better to look as I did because if I looked like her I could just imagine my ass getting stuck in more than half of the shortcuts I took. Or my breasts would bar me entrance to the other ones because they stuck out too much.