The Alpha's Temptation

Emotions clogged his throat and he was half-afraid that he would start crying. Kinshra had suffered so much in his absence and he didn’t even know about it. It was not difficult to understand that with the help of the Nyxers, Sirrah had staged those battles for him only so that he would stay away from Kinshra. He couldn’t believe the depravity of his wife. She was absolute scum. Her viciousness topped that of Felis. How could a person be so evil that just to fulfill her endgame she could risk the life of her husband?

​ Biham rubbed his face with his hands, trying to hold his tears back. If he hated Sirrah till now, he abhorred her even more. She had sent him to fight against Nyxers just so that she could put Kinshra in so much trouble. Or so that she could call… Murel? He shook his head and got up. His mate had been wise enough to protect their only child and he couldn’t be more thankful to her. Because of her timely intervention he now had a legit heir of Pegasii.

Biham sat on the sofa. He just sagged on it, feeling so mentally exhausted. He hadn’t felt this shitty in all his life as he felt now. The Nyxers were a constant threat to him and his kingdom back then and he was always wondering about the best ways to keep them off. However as soon as Kinshra was gone, the Nyxers stopped attacking Pegasii. There were no coordinated attacks at least. Small attacks were always there, but that was nothing to worry about.

After Kinshra had left, Sirrah had told him that because of Kinshra’s dark magic, the Nyxers were attacking. Now that she wasn’t here, the Nyxers had stopped. Sirrah said that, “Kinshra is the harbinger of bad omen.” When in fact it was Sirrah who was the harbinger of everything omen. He truly wished that Sirrah was in front of him right now so that he could kill her slowly and painfully. Well, he was going to do that. He would ask Eltanin to transfer her to Pegasii dungeons.

The questions and the doubts crushed him. He knew that Sirrah had planned all this so that he didn’t stay with Kinshra, but when he fully understood what she did, it sickened him to the point that he thought he would actually become physically ill. “She was casting dark magic on you so that you break down and leave while…” he choked on his words as the weight of his words threatened to crush him.

Kinshra didn’t say anything as she sat there quietly, watching him with her soft blue eyes. He realized that her calmness was the best at that moment. He felt like a powder keg. Whatever Kinshra just said, lit him up from the inside. Anger and pity and helplessness warred inside him. He wanted to take care of his mate all his life, shelter her from all the evil of the world till they both aged and went to the Fade. But Sirrah ousted him in his wits. She used him for her endgame. The pressure inside him increased and he swallowed thickly. He took her hands in his and stayed like that just to calm his nerves.

Neither of them spoke for a long time. Then he said, “Why did you leave without telling me all of this?”

Kinshra’s eyes became misty. A tear rolled out. Immediately, Biham wiped away the tear from her face. “I am sorry. If you don’t want to answer that question, you don’t have to.” He hated to see her crying. It made him so weak on the inside.

She shook her head slightly. “It’s not that. I– I just feel so bad about it, about Lusitania…” She lifted her gaze and stared into his eyes. “Once you rejected me, I was extremely depressed. I had this terrible pain in my chest and seldom thought I would die. I was alone and the only person who was with me was Cordea. If she wouldn’t have been there with me, I would have… withered away to the Fade. She always encouraged me and pointed out that I have to think of my baby.”

“Sirrah never let me stay in one place. She ensured that I was hunted. She had given orders to the guards to kill me on sight.”

“No!” Biham protested. “I had asked the guards to put you in the dungeons.”

Kinshra chuckled humorlessly. “No… Sirrah had her battalion of personal guards. They were the ones after me. Fearing for the safety of my child’s life, I ran away. A week before my delivery I contacted my father to take me away. He asked me what happened. When I told him about my horrible situation, he became so angry with me and with you that he wanted to bring the fae army and destroy all of Pegasii, including you. But I stopped him.” She sucked in a sharp breath as goosebumps lined her skin thinking about how furious her father was back then. “I made him promise that he wouldn’t attack you because I knew that if King Ian’s army waged a war on Pegasii, all would be dead. All the innocents who didn’t know about the royal games.” She swallowed her saliva down her burning throat. “Instead I asked him to take me away with my baby and I promised I would never come back.”

Lord Krail had denied it vehemently.

“My father had control over all the portals of Araniea at that time. And that was why even if I wanted, I couldn’t open them and enter Vilinski. Now that I think of it in retrospect, if I had somehow managed to open it and got into Vilinski, I would have stepped into Sgiáth Bio. I would have given birth to Lusitania over there, alone… She wouldn’t have survived.”

Biham couldn’t stop himself now. The dam that he had been creating around his heart, shattered. He covered his face with his hands as tears poured out.