A Werewolf’s Seduction - Chapter 98

Talia wanted to ask Mother what she meant. She sensed that there was far more to the story than what Mother was letting on, but she left it alone.

Mother seemed reluctant to share and she was not going to pick at scabs that were still healing.

Sibyl took a deep breath and heaved a sigh.

The weight of the terrible responsibilities of prophetess showed clearly on her face and the bearing of her thin frame.

“It is a huge blessing that the Alpha King is your husband, Daughter. He will be able to protect you against those who wish you harm.”

“But!” She narrowed her eyes. “If he ever betrays you, I will rip his heart out and feed it to my owl!”

“Mother,” Tarot laughed gently, trying to defuse the sudden anger that flared up out of nowhere.

“I’ve seen how Brother treats Sister. He’s very gentle with her, very loving.”

“Yes. That is why we need to continue to do what we do.” She took a deep breath. “We need to keep this place a peaceful, bountiful haven for our children to live in comfort and happiness.”

She looked at both her children with deep love.

“And so we carry on, silently and stoically, hoping to make a difference in the world we live in so that our children can benefit from what we know.”

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Morning came with both Tarot and Sibyl still within the King’s Palace.

They had been given their own set of designated rooms as well as permanent golden passes to the palace.

Talia had been very clear with the attendants that her mother and brother needed to be able to come and go through the palace as they wished since they were no less than her immediate family.

That night, after looking in on Devin, Talia had gone to sleep in the huge bedroom by herself once again.

They had made brief mental contact to say goodnight but other than a quick mental kiss, there was not much time for him to say much to her.

He was still busy in the Advisory chambers with his group of advisors and it didn’t look as if he would be able to end the endless meetings for awhile.

She wanted to tell him what she had learned during the hydromancy scrying lesson, but she wanted to tell him that they were pregnant in person, not as a quick mental footnote.

By this time, Talia had gotten used to the fact that Cedric was a workaholic.

He had taken up the reigns of a kingdom that had been left to go fallow for so long that there was a mountain of work to burrow through.

He had warned her of what they were getting into and she understood his need to regain control of the kingdom.

Without further ado, Talia buried herself within the sheets and comforter and promptly fell asleep.

By the time the sun began to creep above the horizon’s edge, Talia woke up to find Cedric lying beside her, fast asleep.

He looked exhausted, even in his sleeping pose, so she did not want to awaken him. Talia snuggled back under the warm covers and went back to sleep. Whatever she wanted to say would have to wait until later on that morning.

At that very moment of the early morning, Sibyl was inside her bedroom.

She was seated cross-legged on the thick rug in front of the large glass double doors staring out into the courtyard with the large birdbath.

The first lesson had gone far better than Sibyl had hoped. As she predicted, Talia was a natural, having figured out the art of hydromancy scrying with hardly any pointers.

What she hadn’t expected to happen was a mental touch coming from the man she had thought she’d completely removed from her life forever.

King Jero of Betaluse.

He wasn’t just the king of a neighboring kingdom. He was also her children’s father.

‘What do you want?’ She gave a mental hiss at him.

‘I want to know why you have taken my daughter away from me for the entirety of her life. Is that fair?’

‘Life’s not fair. I had to get used to it. You should also be accustomed to that bitter truth.’

‘I’m not talking about being fair to you or myself, Woman.’ King Jero sniffed. ‘I’m talking about being fair to our daughter. She has a right to know who her father is.’

‘The father who abandoned her? Absolutely unacceptable.’

The King gave a heavy sigh. ‘How could I abandon a child that I never even got a chance to meet?’

‘She was inside of me. You rejected me. That meant you rejected my daughter also.’

King Jero harrumphed. ‘I never abandoned my daughter and I never rejected you. We had disagreements and you left before she was even born. When you returned to Faria, she was not with you!’

‘You should have thought of that before you abandoned the child’s mother.’

‘Will you stop with that? I never abandoned you! We even reconnected briefly years later and that’s how Tarot was born.’

Sibyl scowled. ‘I don’t want to rehash all that. It’s all in the past, so just leave it in the past.’

‘No. We absolutely must talk about it. My daughter is now the Queen of Faria. That is a very big deal.’

‘Why? So you can take advantage of her the way you took advantage of me?’ Tears began pouring from Sibyl’s eyes.

‘I never took advantage of you, Sibyl.’ King Jaro sighed. ‘You knew when you first met me that I could not make you my queen. I was already married.’

‘You should not have pursued me if you knew that it was an impossible situation.’

‘Sibyl,’ King Jero sighed. ‘The situation was never impossible. I am the king of a nation. You couldn’t be queen because that position had already been taken, but you would have made a stunning beloved Consort.’

‘I did not want to be a kept woman. I wanted marriage and a husband who would want only me. That’s not too much to ask for.’ She was truly crying at this point.

‘A king’s consort is not a kept woman. She is a legitimate wife of the king.’ He reiterated as he had countless times in the past.

‘I’m not interested in being your consort. Not then. Not now.’

He sighed. It was like beating his head against a wall.

He had hoped that enough time had passed so that they could discuss the situation regarding their children in a calmer manner, but it looked as if this discussion would never end with a good resolution.

‘I’m not asking you to be my consort at this time, Sibyl. You have your life to live and I respect that. I just want to see both my children again.’

‘No.’

‘Sibyl, you can’t prevent me from seeing my fully-grown daughter. I’m a king of a neighboring nation. All I would need to do is to contact her husband to request a hearing and they would roll out the red carpet to my carriage.’

Sibyl was silent. She knew that it was true. Her children would one day meet with their father, no matter how much she tried to intervene.

‘Do what you want.’ She threw back at him, her voice heavy with hopelessness.

As she cut the mental connection between them, Sibyl stood up from her seated position and opened the doors to the courtyard.

The air was fresh and the sky was bright. The day had just begun.

HOOT HOOT—HOOT.

Her hoot owl greeted her with its calming presence.

“Yes Zero, I’ll be alright.”

HOOT HOOT—HOOT.

She looked down at her bare feet, standing on the snow-covered stone pavers.

“Yes Zero. I know I have no shoes on.”

HOOT HOOT.

“Fine. I hear you. I’m going inside now..” She sighed and walked back into her bedroom.