Chapter 192

The morning had been peaceful, deceptively so.

I had taken Levy with me to visit Mirena and Rhonda, needing the comfort of female company after the tension of the celebration, the weight of Khemari’s eyes still burning against my skin like a brand. Mirena’s daughter, Mira, was a sweet child, perhaps six in human years, with her mother’s dark hair and her father’s kind eyes. Rhonda sat with us, her kids with their fathers. She and Mirena together formed a wall of quiet strength that I desperately needed.

Levy and Mira had taken to each other immediately, disappearing into the garden to play some game involving shells and elaborate rules only children understood. I sat with Mirena and Rhonda on the porch, drinking tea that steamed in the cool morning air, trying to pretend that everything was normal, that the golden eyed demon was not sleeping in our village, waiting.

"He asked about you last night," Mirena said quietly, her hands wrapped around her cup. "After you left. He wanted to know your name, your lineage, how many mates you had, where you came from."

I set my cup down, my hands trembling. "What did you tell him?"

"As little as possible," she said, her eyes dark with worry. "But Khemari has ways of finding things out. He always has. He is... persistent."

"Predatory," I corrected, my voice bitter.

"That too," she agreed.

The children laughed in the garden, Levy’s voice bright and clear, Mira’s higher pitch joining hers in harmony. I smiled despite my fear, listening to my daughter play, grateful for this moment of normalcy.

Then the air changed.

I felt it before I saw it, a shift in the atmosphere, a heaviness that made the birds go quiet. Mirena stiffened, her cup freezing halfway to her lips, her eyes widening with alarm.

He was here.

Khemari emerged from around the corner of Mirena’s home, his golden eyes scanning the garden with casual entitlement. He moved like he owned the ground he walked on, like the air itself should part for him.

He was looking for Mirena, I realized. His cousin. The family tie that had brought him here.

But then he stopped.

His eyes found the children, found Levy and Mira playing in the dirt with their shells, and something changed in his expression. A sharpening. A focus. He tilted his head, studying them, and then he smiled.

That smile. Predatory. Assessing.

He walked toward the children, his movements slow, deliberate, and I was on my feet before I could think, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Levy," I called, my voice sharp, too sharp. "Levy, come here. Now."

Levy looked up, her black hair falling across her face, her dark eyes confused. "Mama?"

"Come here," I repeated, holding out my hand, trying to keep my voice steady, trying not to show the terror that was clawing at my throat.

Khemari reached the children before Levy could move. He knelt, his golden eyes level with theirs, that terrible smile still curving his lips. "Well," he said, his voice smooth as silk, warm as honey, and completely false. "Who is this pretty little thing?"

He reached out, his fingers brushing Levy’s hair, and I saw red.

"Don’t touch her," I said, my voice low, dangerous, every protective instinct I possessed screaming to life.

Khemari looked up at me, his eyes widening with mock surprise, then delight. He stood slowly, unfolding his tall frame, and turned to face me fully. His gaze swept over me, assessing, cataloguing, and I saw the moment he connected the dots, the moment he realized who I was.

"Oh," he said, his voice rich with satisfaction. "So you’re this pretty little girl’s mother. That’s why she’s so pretty."

He took a step toward me, his nostrils flaring, his golden eyes burning. "I wondered," he continued, his voice dropping to an intimate murmur, as though we were alone, as though there was no one else in the world. "I wondered who could produce such a beautiful child. Now I see. The mother is even more lovely than the daughter."

"Khemari," Mirena said, her voice tight, stepping between us. "Cousin, you came to see me. Let us go inside. Let Krys take her daughter home. This is not the time."

She tried to guide him away, her hand on his arm, but he shook her off with a casual violence that made her stumble. His eyes never left mine.

"Not yet," he said, his voice still warm, still pleasant, but with an edge of steel beneath. "I am enjoying this conversation. I want to know more about this... Krys. This mother of beautiful children. This woman with six mates and still room for more, I think."

"There’s no room," I said, my voice shaking despite my best efforts. "I am very content with my six mates."

He smiled wider, showing teeth. "We shall see."

"Move away," Levy said, her small voice cutting through the tension like a knife.

We all turned to look at her. She had stepped forward, placing herself between Khemari and me, her chin lifted, her dark eyes fierce. She was trembling, I could see, but she did not back down. She did not flinch.

"You’re making my mother uncomfortable," Levy said, her voice clear and strong. "And I don’t like you. Move away."

Khemari’s smile faltered, just for a moment, surprise flickering across his perfect face. Then he laughed, a rich, delighted sound that made my skin crawl. "Brave," he said, looking down at her. "Brave and beautiful. Like your mother. I like that."

"She told you to move," a new voice said, hard as stone, cold as winter.

Eryx.

He was running toward us, his feet barely touching the ground, his silver eyes burning with a fury I had never seen in him before. He reached my side in seconds, placing himself between Khemari and my daughter, his body rigid, his hands clenched into fists.

"Eryx," Khemari said, his voice dripping with condescension, recognition flashing in his golden eyes. "I heard you are brothers with one of her mate. are you perhaps her mate as well?"

"I’m not her mate," Eryx said, his voice steady despite the rage I could see shaking his frame. "But you’re making her uncomfortable. You’re frightening her daughter. Step back."

"Or what?" Khemari asked, his smile returning, predatory, eager. "You’ll fight me? What are you? A guard dog?"

"I’ll do what I have to," Eryx said, his voice dropping to a growl.

Khemari laughed, spreading his hands wide, his posture shifting into something that looked like a fighting stance, loose and ready. "Come then," he said, his voice bright, almost cheerful. "A friendly spar. To see who is stronger."

He moved, faster than I could follow, his hand striking toward Eryx’s throat. But Eryx was ready, blocking the blow, his own fist flying toward Khemari’s jaw. They clashed, a blur of motion, and I heard Mirena scream, heard Levy cry out, felt the air itself shudder with the force of their collision.

But I felt it. That distinct evil, that wrongness that radiated from Khemari like heat from a fire. It wasn’t just arrogance, wasn’t just narcissism.

"Eryx, no," I said, my voice rising, desperate. "Don’t. Please. He’s not... this isn’t..."

Eryx heard me. I saw him hesitate, saw his guard drop for just a moment, and Khemari struck, a blow to his ribs that sent Eryx stumbling back, gasping.

"Khemari!"

The voice cracked like thunder, absolute, commanding. Darius.

The tribe leader appeared from between the trees, his face dark with fury, his power flaring around him like a visible storm. He strode toward us, each step shaking the ground, and I saw Khemari’s confidence waver for just a moment.

"Enough," Darius said, his voice low, deadly. "You will not fight here. You will not threaten my people, my family, in my territory. Step back, cousin. Now."

Khemari held Darius’s gaze for a long moment, the air between them thick with tension, with unspoken threats that seemed to make the very atmosphere heavy and difficult to breathe. Power radiated from both males, Darius’s righteous fury warring with Khemari’s corrupted arrogance, and for a heartbeat I thought they would come to blows, that the violence Khemari had barely restrained would finally break free.

Then Khemari smiled.

The kind of expression that might have charmed the unwary, that had probably opened doors and hearts and legs across the southern territories. But I saw it for what it was. A mask. A predator’s baring of teeth before the killing bite.

He stepped back, spreading his hands in a gesture of surrender that was no surrender at all. His posture remained loose, ready, his weight balanced on the balls of his feet. He could strike again in an instant, and we all knew it.

"Of course," he said, his voice smooth as honey, pleasant and warm as though we were old friends sharing a joke. "A misunderstanding. I was simply... admiring. Getting to know the locals. No harm done."

His eyes found mine as he spoke, and the warmth in his voice did not reach his gaze. Those golden eyes, molten and inhuman, burned with something that made my stomach clench, made my breath hitch in my throat. He was looking at me the way a starving wolf looks at a wounded deer. The way a collector looks at a rare prize. The way a conqueror looks at territory he has already marked as his own.

He turned fully to face me, dismissing Darius, dismissing Eryx, dismissing everyone else in the world as though they had ceased to exist. His eyes, those burning golden eyes, locked onto mine with a promise that made my blood run cold, that froze the marrow in my bones.

This isn’t over, those eyes seems to be saying. I am patient. I am relentless. And I always, always get what I want.

He bowed, mockingly low, the gesture exaggerated, insulting in its falseness. And as he straightened, his lips curved in a smile that was pure threat, pure possession, pure dark promise.

"I will see you again, lovely Krys," he murmured, his voice carrying only to me, intimate as a lover’s whisper, obscene as a violation. "Soon."

Then he turned and walked away, following Darius, his laughter trailing behind him like poison smoke, like a curse, like the promise of storms yet to come. His sea lion pod fell into step behind him, dark shadows moving in perfect, predatory synchrony.

I stood there, shaking, my arms wrapped around Levy so tight I feared I might bruise her, but I could not loosen my grip. I needed her warmth, her solidity, her innocence to anchor me against the darkness that Khemari had brought into our midst.

Eryx gasped for breath beside me, one hand pressed to his ribs where Khemari had struck him, his face pale with pain and fury. Mirena was pale and trembling, her hands clutching her daughter, her eyes wide with the knowledge of what her cousin was, what he was capable of, what he would do given the slightest chance.

Rhonda had left with Darius, seeming worried about her partner being left with that maniac.

And I felt it. Even after he had gone, even after his footsteps had faded and his laughter had died away, I felt the touch of those eyes still on my skin, crawling over my body like invisible hands.

My skin crawled, every nerve ending screaming with revulsion and terror. I wanted to scrub myself raw, to wash away the feel of his gaze, to burn the memory of his smile from my mind. But I knew, with absolute certainty that settled in my gut like lead, that this was far from over.