UNWANTED

CHAPTER 11 - P58.4 - LIZAVETA

I was starting to actually like the guy the moment he asked me his question. Before the words left his mouth, I noticed the sky was clear, that the wind was cold, I was in the moment for a few seconds before he slammed me back to what I was avoiding. Theo was calm about it, collected and firm, as if asking me if I was a murderer was as simple as asking me my name.

That was when the roar of my cat pierced the silence of the woods, followed by the reverberating pounding of her claws on the wet ground.

"Stay still." I whispered to him, forcing my muscles to relax from the stance I took to punch his teeth out. If he did something stupid, he would be catnip.

"What's going on, your imperial highness?" He said, the shake in his voice reminding me that the cool exterior of the first son of Antarctica was all an act. In the face of a monstrous albino tiger, he was nothing but a mouse.

That was when Jazzy reached us, stopping only from her sprint when she saw me, her face in a snarl, her eyes no longer enchanting. I shook my head at her. She looked at Theo the way I looked at lettuce, with full hatred but with every desire to consume.

"Sit, Jazzy. I'm okay." Somehow, she sensed my distress and ran to me. "Don't turn around, mister Velez." I said that only to keep him from having a heart attack. Her maw was bloody from her hunting, and her claws gleamed red... she still looked hungry.

"Those things should be in cages." He clenched his jaw, his whole body taut, his hormones telling him to run.

"You've insulted me twice today already, choose your next words carefully before my guards come." I looked him in his cool sealike eyes, giving him as much ice as I could.

He flung his brunette head backward to look at Jazzy. She snarled. "Choose words carefully? Advice we both need to take from where I'm standing. I don't need this stupidity."

Check mate. "Oh, but you do. My council... they send me your eye color, hair color, interests... but I'm keener on information my friend gave to me this morning regarding how your mother has embezzled two billion Antarctican Pesos in the past year alone to fund her campaign for re-election, or how you managed to buy a fighter runner without an actual job." Raza called me earlier this morning to warn me while I also told him to do some masonry on my brother's tomb as queen Aridni would be visiting the crypts today. Truly, I hoped Raza's warning was not needed... a pity. "It would be a pity if I slipped and said something stupid about those things."

He was back to his persona again. Calm like a dead sea. I've already seen through it once, and that was enough. "I can tell everyone everything I know."

Playing your last cards, sir?

"But what exactly do you know? You don't have proof though, do you? Or else you wouldn't have asked me."

"A little whisper in someone's ear is enough to take a new empress down." He was right.

"You don't blackmail me in my own country."

"I have diplomatic immunity in Eurasia, you can't do anything." He smirked. Ass.

I held his gaze for a little while and stared at the sky again. It was so clear. This was annoying him now. "Jazzy."

Slowly, my tiger walked to me, each step silent. She never took her violet eyes off the cunning first son. She looked so ready to go for his carotid. Just when she was in front of me, I touched my head to hers. We were both so close to Theo, I was actually waiting for him to piss himself. "I'm okay. You can go hunting now."

She grumbled a protest.

"I'm safe." And I was. I rarely was ever in true danger.

The moment she left I stared at the snake again. "Are you sure about that?"