The Alpha's Temptation

It was morning and Biham was sitting with his wife Sirrah in his antechamber, having lemon tea.

"It looks like Morava has finally persuaded the king to marry her. She has shown her strength that she can be a good queen by controlling her anger," said Sirrah. "I have only been getting good news from the Draka kingdom about her. People have accepted her and praised her a lot. They especially talk about how beautiful she is and that she would look lovely sitting as a queen on the throne of Draka. Alpha Alrakis is also satisfied with this arrangement. I think we should send the marriage proposal to Eltanin for our daughter as soon as possible. We shouldn't let go of this opportunity and hit the iron while it is hot." She was proud of her daughter.

Morava was a fine princess. Sirrah had known about her affair with Mizvah, but this wasn't her first indulgence. As a princess she had her needs and Mizvah had been her third affair. The soldier was loyal to her and Sirrah had planned out sending Mizvah as a dowry gift to Morava. These things were pretty common in royal palaces.

"It is a good idea, Sirrah," Biham replied with a smug smile. "I will send the information to Eltanin today myself." He had been sure that after Giada's incident, Eltanin was going to refuse his daughter's hand, but his daughter used her shrewdness and stayed back, disowning those two stupid girls.

Sirrah grinned. She started forming more plans in her mind. She was going to stay with Morava in the Draka palace and enjoy the benefits. She had heard that the palace was huge and luxurious.

A soft knock on the door made her snap out of her train of thought.

"Your Highness," the guard said. "Lady Ivy is here for an audience."

"Ivy?" Biham stopped drinking his tea as his brows furrowed. Ivy was with Morava. What was she doing here? And this was so sudden that he got up from his place. Ivy was also his spy and kept a watch on Eltanin's activities as much as possible. A few days back she had asked for some of the finest spies from Pegasii and he had sent four without asking any questions. She was supposed to return with Morava. Why had she come back to Pegasii so early, why had she left Morava unattended? Rage bubbled in his chest.

"Why is Ivy back so soon?" asked Sirrah. She had sent Ivy along with Morava so that she would stay and attend to the king if needed. Sirrah knew that kings needed more than one woman for their needs, so sending three more girls with her daughter was natural. If required they would shed their clothes for the king. However, the fact that Ivy had come back so soon was unsettling. She didn't know that Ivy was Biham's spy as well. "Has she left Morava behind and come back?" she asked Biham, feeling just as angry.

"I don't know!" Biham replied sharply. "We need to find out." He strode out of his bedchamber, tying his silk robe on the way.

Ivy was standing in the corridor that opened into his room. Wearing an olive-green gown, she looked anything but a spy. He motioned her to follow him to his library. Once they were in the library, she closed the door and waited for him to be seated.

"Why are you back so early?" he asked with narrowed eyes. "Didn't I ask you to stay with Morava and report back to me about his activities? This kind of direct disobedience of my orders is going to cost you your life," he growled.

Ivy bowed to him again. "Your Highness, Princess Morava is also back. She had to get out of the Draka palace as soon as possible and that is why we are here so early."

Dread warred with anxiety in him. "What has she done? Has she displeased Eltanin?"

Keeping a stoic expression on her face, Ivy said, "Princess Morava has abducted a slave girl  from the Draka palace."

"What?" Biham almost shouted.

If Ivy was shaken by his rage, she didn't show it.

"Explain to me the meaning of this!" Biham pounded his hand on the table.

Ivy narrated. "When we reached the Draka palace, Giada and Orna—"

"I know about that. Tell me what happened next!" Biham roared in agitation.

"Princess Morava was not happy with the king's behavior. He was only getting more distant from her. So, she asked me to keep a close watch on him. We suspected that a slave girl had gotten close to him to the level that she affected his decision in marrying the princess." Ivy stopped to suck in a sharp breath. "Our suspicions were correct. I asked for the spies to keep a stricter watch. We caught the soldier named Glenn. He was from the Orion kingdom. He was taking care of the slave girl. We followed him everywhere, but we never saw the slave girl. The king only became ruder and had even asked the princess to leave early. Obviously, the princess was very upset." Ivy pursed her lips.

"Did she kill the slave girl?" Biham asked, concluding that she had. No wonder she had to leave the palace. Eltanin had killed Giada for a slave girl. He couldn't imagine what he would do to Morava now. A shudder passed through his body.

"No, Your Highness," said Ivy. "The princess wanted to abduct the slave girl. We killed a guard and threw his body in front of the gardens of Alpha Alrakis's chamber. While the guards were set out on who murdered that soldier, we focused on King Eltanin's daily routine. My spies followed him everywhere. About two days back the king disappeared and so did Glenn. We don't know where they went, but the moment Glenn returned, we grabbed him. We tortured him so that he could reveal the location of the slave girl he was protecting, but he hadn't untill the end. However, just before he died, he said something about a rose garden." Ivy paused.

Biham was listening to all of it with his breath trapped in his throat. Morava had gone insane with her revenge. "And then?"

"There were only two rose gardens in the palace, we knew which rose garden Glenn was referring to. So, we killed him and threw him in the rose gardens that were behind the chambers of the king's wing. After that we waited for the girl to appear. Our patience was rewarded when she appeared. It was easy to abduct her." Ivy's lips curled in a smug smile. "And now the princess will exact her revenge on the girl. She will kill the slave girl and no one will ever know anything about her. It will be as if she never existed." Her chest filled with pride from completing her mission.

Biham rose to his feet. He strode over to Ivy and slapped her hard across her cheek. Ivy fell onto the floor as sharp pain stung her cheek. With her hand on her cheek, she whipped her head to look at him. "Y—your Highness—" She was shocked by his reaction.

"Are you fucking mad?" he shouted and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her head back.