The Alpha's Temptation

Taiyi and Alrakis walked to the dungeons. The guards were flustered to see them. Gordon came out immediately from his room.

“The spy—,” said Alrakis without finishing his sentence.

Gordon bowed to them. “This way, Your Highness,” he said and guided them to the spy’s cell.

When they reached his prison, they found the spy sleeping on the damp floor. Gordon whipped his iron rod on the thick bars and growled. “Wake up, Kypho! Alpha Alrakis has come to meet you.”

Kypho slowly raised his head. His back was still paining with the growth of the hunch. “I asked for the king,” he growled back. “I will not talk to anyone other than the king!”

Alrakis snarled at the disrespect. He closed his fists and was about to punch the bars, when Taiyi placed her hand on his shoulder to calm him. She knew that her mate was too protective of his family and he wanted to exact revenge on anyone who was remotely even attached to Menkar. “Please Alrakis. Not now, love.” He gritted his teeth, stopping himself from killing the man inside.

Taiyi stepped forward and said, “You do not disrespect us. If you do that again, I will take a few minutes to annihilate you. The king will come when he wants to come. We are more than enough for you.”

“What do you mean?” Kypho growled again.

“Consider it like this. The king doesn’t think that you are good enough for him to meet you personally.”

Kypho lunged at them and grabbed the iron bars. “You don’t know how much information I can give you on Menkar!”

Taiyi looked at her delicate fingers and said, “Then start speaking. Else we will leave and ask the jailor here to kill you. After all, our time is too precious to be spent on a criminal like you.”

Kypho let out a snarl of anger. He wanted to shake the bars and break them from their foundation and throw them at the goddess. She was so arrogant. “Taiyi—”

“That is Luna Taiyi for you,” Taiyi snapped.

Kypho grunted. After inhaling a deep breath to calm his anger, he said, “Luna Taiyi, what is the guarantee that you will pass this information to the king.”

Taiyi chuckled. “There is no guarantee.” She pointed her delicate finger towards him and waved it in a circle at his face. “Although we do know that you have had the same potion as your master had. And that is why you are experiencing these changes.”

Kypho’s eyes became wide with shock. “H—how do you know?” he stuttered, completely taken aback.

“Let’s cut the chase. Now what is it that you wanted to speak about?” Taiyi replied, sounding bored.

Kypho contemplated his pros and cons as he stared at the sea goddess. If he said everything he knew about Menkar, then chances were that they would free him. If he didn’t, chances were that he would rot in the dungeons for the rest of his miserable life. So he started. He started right from where he found Tania in the village with her fake grandmother to the time she was sent as a spy to Drako by Menkar. There was one piece of information he kept hidden. That he was only going to tell the king.

“Why did Menkar send Lusitania to Draka as a spy and that too to spy on Prince Rigel and not Eltanin?” Alrakis asked.

“It was because he knew about a prophecy that King Eltanin’s mate would be a girl with hair so pale golden that they would be almost silvery. And only the faes have that kind of hair.”

Taiyi’s lips lifted. It had been over an hour since the spy began to speak. She said, “There is nothing that we don’t know about. All of this we had already guessed. And the main reason is that Lusitania’s mother, Kinshra is here in Pegasii.”

Kypho was again flustered. “Then why did you listen to all of this with so much patience,” he said, disbelieving her. The sea goddess was cunning.

“Just so we know if we have skipped any minor detail, but we haven’t.”

Kypho’s mouth dropped to the floor. He stared incredulously at her and then at Alrakis. Suddenly, he said, “But I haven’t said it all!”

Taiyi raised her eyebrow. Now she was sure that the spy wouldn’t come up with whatever last piece of information he had with him. “We aren’t interested in hearing it.” She knew that he would demand for Eltanin.

“You may not be interested but that last part is a vital piece of the puzzle and I will talk about it to the king only!” Kypho hissed.

Taiyi shrugged. It was just as predicted. “Like I said, we don’t care.” Then she turned to Gordon and ordered, “Shackle the spy in your sturdiest chains. He will be executed in two days.”

“What?” Kypho shouted. “You can’t do that! I hold a very important piece of information!”

Taiyi gave a knowing look to her husband. His lips curled up in a smile and together they walked out of the dungeons with Gordon following them. Kypho screamed behind their back. “Stoppp!”

A soft voice from the side came. “Shhh… you fool. Jaka will wake up. She is sleeping…”

Furious as hell, he picked up a boulder and flung it at Nora. When it hit her, she shrieked and lunged at him. “I will kill you!” she yelled like a maniac.

—

Menkar’s caravan stopped to rest the horses and have food by afternoon. He ordered them to leave him in peace because he wanted to meditate. He also told them that he would take a bath before meditation. So the servants filled his bathtub with water from a nearby stream. After that they walked to a different spot a little further away so that they didn’t disturb him. As soon as they were gone, Menkar walked to his bathtub. He removed all his clothes and immersed himself completely in the water. He opened his mouth to gulp air.