King of Clubs (17 page)

“I can’t believe you’re all mothers.” Awai looked to each of her nieces who beamed with pride at their children. “
Mothers
.”

Alice laughed and put her arm around Awai and squeezed her. “Just wait until you have cubs of your own.”

Alexi nodded. “I didn’t think I wanted to have children, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about my life. I love them so much, I can’t imagine life without my sons and daughter.”

Awai gave a half-smile but remained silent as she watched Ty laughing and playing with the cubs like a big kid himself. She remembered how much fun he had picking out gifts for his nieces and nephews and how he spoke of them with such pride. He would make such a wonderful father.

She had never planned on having children, but so much had changed. Could she give Ty what he obviously wanted—a family of his own?

Chapter Fourteen

Awai laughed as she and the cubs played hide-and-seek in the cherry trees. Her family had been at the palace for a week now, and she had come to love romping through the palace grounds with the children. She had even grown comfortable in her aunt’s role, and felt like she could manage the little buggers all on her own.

Everyone had gone into the village but Awai had offered to stay and play with the cubs, just to prove it—to herself, more than anyone. Besides, the Kingdom was well guarded, but she couldn’t help feeling a sense of dread after all the dreams she’d been having. She felt like it was her duty, somehow, to stay with the children.

Ty had stayed, too, but had been called back inside the palace on urgent business with Kir and Rafe. Ty had kissed her and promised to “rescue” her from all the children as soon as possible. Awai dearly loved all eleven of her great nephews and nieces, but regularly they fought and argued and pouted and threw temper tantrums, just like other children, so it was always good to have adult reinforcements around. Especially since there were
eleven of the little monsters—er, darlings.

The four youngest toddlers played in the middle of a group of cherry trees. Three of them rolled around play-fighting as young tiger cubs, while Johanna sat off to herself, snapping Awai’s whip the best she could with her little hands. Johanna had latched onto the whip from the moment she’d arrived at the castle. She’d refused to let anyone take it away from her, although she would let Awai play with her and the whip sometimes.

Blossoms and grass felt soft beneath Awai’s bare feet as she quietly searched for each of the seven older children hiding in the trees. Sunlight dappled the orchard, leaves waving and rustling in a balmy breeze. Her silk robe swirled around her ankles and her hair lifted from her face as she quietly made her way over the cherry blossom carpet to where she spied a small twitching tiger tail peeking out from around a
ch’tok
tree.

Very slowly she crept up on the child and then pounced on the tail. It was Jennifer, and the cub shifted into a little girl and shrieked with laughter. “You found me Auntie Awai!”

Awai kissed the two-year-old on the cheek and sent her to play with the other little ones in the middle of the orchard. It amazed Awai how much faster these children grew in comparison to Earth children. The cubs seemed more like five, four, and three year olds as opposed to being three, two, and one years of age.

Gradually Awai tracked down each child until there were only the two oldest, Lexi and Lance. The rest of the children were playing tag in the middle of the orchard. The sound of laughter, giggles, and shrieks filled the afternoon air. Johanna still sat off to the side, quietly snapping Awai’s whip and swirling it around like a snake in the grass. Awai grinned at the thought of Johanna growing up to turn this male-dominated society on its ear by becoming a Domme.

Awai eased between a pair of cherry trees when she spotted a white tiger’s tail. Surely that was Lexi or Lance, although she’d never realized that one had a tail so white instead of striped.

A twig snapped under Awai’s bare foot just as she was reaching for the tail. Then so fast, before she knew what was happening, the tiger whirled.

It wasn’t one of the children. It was a huge pure white tiger.

The one from her dreams.

The full-grown beast pounced on Awai, slamming her flat on her back and knocking the breath from her lungs. A slash of hair from one side of the beast’s face was missing, a jagged scar. Its eyes were wild and glowed a fearsome red.

Terror flooded Awai as she stared up at the menacing tiger whose teeth were bared. The fear was not so much for herself as for the children. The tiger pinned Awai by her shoulders and the big cat’s rear paws kept her from moving her legs.

Awai didn’t want to die, but it was more important that the children were safe. She did the only thing she could think of.

“Run!” she screamed. “Run to the palace as fast as you can.”

The tiger raised its head to look at the children who screamed and shifted to tigers and started to bound away, only to find themselves surrounded by a pack of enormous black and white tigers.

“Are you weretigers?” Awai asked, her voice trembling as she looked up at the white beast with the fiercely glowing red eyes. “Please let the children go. Kill me if you have to, but let the children go.
Please.
”

So easy…
Awai heard in her head—a feminine voice.
With the force of my mindspells it was so easy to break through the palace borders. Did my brother think he could keep me out?

The words entered Awai’s mind, just like Ty communicated with her when he was in weretiger form. The tiger raised her head and looked to the children who had been herded into a small group.

Then she backed away, freeing Awai, but standing close enough that with a single swipe of her paw she could rip out Awai’s throat.

I slipped through their nets so easily
, the tiger said in Awai’s mind
. I have powers none of you can comprehend. Nothing can stop me.

“You’re Mikaela.” Awai swallowed and pushed herself up to a sitting position. “Your brothers thought you died when you fell from the cliff.”

In the next moment the tiger shifted into a woman with wheat-blonde hair, a black leather jumpsuit and a whip clutched in her hand. Unlike the oil painting Awai had seen of Mikaela, this woman had a jagged scar running from her temple to her chin. It was dark pink against her fair skin, the only mar in an otherwise beautiful face.

The woman brought up her free hand and traced the scar. “This is what they have done to me.”

“Karn tried to save you.” Awai slowly rose to her feet, hoping the woman wouldn’t shift back into a tiger and attack. A tiger scared the shit out of her, but a woman was something she could battle. “Annie told me he lunged for you, but you slipped and fell to the rocks below. They thought you’d been swept out to the sea.”

“They were right…that I was swept out to sea…” She began running the length of the whip through her hands, slowly, surely, as if testing its strength, preparing to use it. From her own extensive knowledge, Awai knew a whip like that could flay a person’s flesh if used intentionally to injure.

“Please don’t do this.” Awai clenched her hands into fists. “Your brothers loved you so much. They still do. They want the sister back that they’ve always known and cared for. I’ve heard it from them myself.”

The red in the woman’s eyes seemed to fade and Awai could almost see blue as Mikaela said, “That was long ago.”

Awai chanced a step forward. “It’s never too late.”

Mikaela’s eyes flashed and glowed an even brighter red. “He—I want all of Tarok as my own.”

The children whimpered and Awai tore her gaze from Mikaela’s to see that they were nearly surrounded by at least ten enormous white and black striped weretigers. Instinctively Awai counted the cubs. Eight? Her heart leapt with terror. There should have been eleven. Lance and Lexi must still be hiding, and Johanna was missing.

“So, three of the cubs are gone.” Mikaela narrowed her eyes, and at Awai’s small gasp, the woman added, “I read it in your thoughts.”

She raised her head and said to the nearest weretiger, “Three of the cubs are hiding in the bushes.”

While Mikaela was giving the order, Awai heard a soft sound behind her, and then hard leather pressed into her hand. The moment she gripped it, Awai knew it was her leather whip. Johanna had brought it to her.

Awai reached for the memory of her subspace experiences, the many times she had diverted her mind to delay orgasm, and let her mind go as blank as possible to keep Mikaela from reading her thoughts and finding out that Johanna had brought the whip. Awai gripped the handle tight behind her, hoping that Mikaela and the other weretigers hadn’t noticed. “Please let the children go.”

Mikaela turned her red gaze back to Awai. “Don’t you understand? This is what we’ve been waiting for. A chance to end the Tarok way of life. To cut my brothers to the quick by destroying all that they hold dear. If we tear out their hearts, tearing off their heads won’t be far behind.”

Awai heard the words, but something wasn’t registering. Why was Mikaela talking? Why didn’t she simply attack? It was as though she was holding something back—struggling against a part of herself. And there was something more. Awai felt a distinctly male presence, yet Mikaela was clearly a woman, and she was Ty’s sister.

Her dreams of late merged with the moment, making everything seem so surreal. A white tiger cloaked in black. A white tiger at the end of a tunnel. A white tiger in a cage…

The woman straightened, her red gaze focusing on Awai. “You are different from the other females,” Mikaela said. “Stronger. Perhaps you will be kept and taken to Malachad once everyone else has been destroyed.”

Awai clenched the handle of her whip tighter. “Why?”

“Because it pleases—” She faltered as if struggling to form her thoughts. “It pleases me.”

Mikaela turned toward the tigers guarding the children. Awai was tempted to use her whip to rip Mikaela’s own whip from her hand. But what if the tigers attacked the children?

The woman’s voice grew deep, almost like a man’s. “Prepare to rid Tarok of its heirs.”

Each of the tigers shifted into men and women, clothed in black and each bearing daggers that gleamed ominously in the sunshine.

The children huddled in the center of the orchard, their small faces full of fear.

A tiger stepped from the orchard and shifted to a man. “The scent of two cubs leads toward the palace. I fear they have gone to warn the King. We best be done with these and come back for the rest.”

“Yes…” Mikaela gave a slow nod. “We will slay my brothers and their mates while they are grieving for their children.”

“Wait!” A woman’s shout echoed through the orchard. Mikaela raised her whip as Kalina burst into the small clearing, her hands held high, her dark hair streaming down her back, her black robes molded against her slender body.

“You wish to die with the children, sorceress?” Mikaela said with one eyebrow raised.

“The cards have finally revealed the truth.” It was obvious Kalina was slightly out of breath from running from the palace.

Mikaela smirked, her eyes glowing a more ominous red. “Truth? The truth is that you will soon be dead.”

“No.” Kalina lowered her hands and slowly walked toward the woman. “You are not yourself. For well over two decades you have been under the control of the King of Malachad, the true sorcerer behind all this hate and destruction of the Tarok way of life. He wants to rule over Tarok and Malachad and to do that he has used you.”

Again that flash of uncertainty in Mikaela’s eyes, then again replaced by a red haze. “I seek revenge on my brothers and my parents. That is the truth.”

As Kalina and Mikaela spoke to one another, Awai slowly eased toward the cubs and the men and women standing ready to slice the children’s throats. Awai was careful to keep the whip behind her back.

“You fight against this possession.” Kalina radiated an aura of power, her fire-ice eyes brilliant as she came within feet of Mikaela. “These
bakir
do not serve you. They serve the King of Malachad. If you told them to stand down they would not, because they would not disobey Balin, the true sorcerer.”

“I control Balin.” Mikaela shook her head, the scar across her cheek whitening as her features tensed. “The
bakirs
serve me and
my
will.”

“Your will is not your own,” Kalina said softly and extended her hand. “Touch me and you will see all that I have seen. The cards decreed it.”

With a scowl and a jerk, as if fighting herself, or fighting another force, Mikaela snatched Kalina by the wrist and dragged the sorceress closer.

Mikaela’s jaw went slack, her knees giving way slightly, as if she could barely hold herself up. Her body trembled and her expression became one of anguish and pain. Her eyes flashed from red to blue and back to red again.

The sorceress’s expressions mirrored Mikaela’s and her eyes filled with tears, but she did not break away.

The
bakirs
stirred and looked at one another, their daggers still at the ready. Clearly they were confused and didn’t understand what was happening.

Mikaela’s entire body shook and her face was contorted by expressions that flashed through her one by one—of pain, fear, hatred, joy, then back to terror and anger again.

“You are powerful, Mikaela,” Kalina said, her voice low but trembling. “You are so powerful that Balin needs you to do his bidding so that he can control Tarok. You have the strength to force him from your mind. Only you.”

Mikaela released Kalina’s wrist and clenched her fists. Her face contorted as she struggled to take command of her soul. Her body trembled and sweat rolled down her face.

The
bakirs
looked even more disturbed. Their uncertainty made it obvious they had never seen their Queen act in such a manner.

The red haze to Mikaela’s eyes flared then faded, leaving only clear, clear blue. “Who am I?” she whispered. “A beast. A foul beast.”

“You have not been of your own mind for countless years,” Kalina said softly, so that only Mikaela could hear. “This will be difficult. Long has the King of Malachad controlled you—since you were but a teenager, before you were wed to him. The fight is not over for your soul.”