by A. J. Wynter
“You’re safe for now, but we need to talk about this Sergei.”
“How do you know anything about him?”
“I can’t explain it, I just know. That’s why I snuck in here, to warn you.”
“I can take care of myself you know.”
“I’m sure you can, but you may need some help with this one.” He continued whispering in a hushed voice as he pulled Kat closer to his nude body.
He too was thinking about the events of the previous evening, and the rush of adoration he’d felt running around with Kat. He had shown her his tiger form and she hadn’t freaked out at all. And she hadn’t thought twice when she’d realized it was him in the closet with her. Was his unique genetic makeup even an issue? How could she be so calm and collected after seeing him shift? He enjoyed the way her body felt, pressed against his. He felt a strong urge growing within him to protect this woman at all costs. The best way to keep her safe for now, was to remain hidden. He pulled back from her and slipped amongst the rich fabrics hanging at the back of the room.
Suddenly, the storage door swung open, and Sergei crashed in, fumbling around in the dark. He tripped on one of the oriental rugs, crashing down in a heap of swearing. Kat, in her shock, tried to distract him from seeing Daman and coughed loudly. Sergei’s eyes looked past Kat, as though searching for something else in the room. He seemed to be smelling the air. Her heart sank as her pulse quickened. There was no way he could miss a naked man in the room.
“Is that a tiger? It’s so ridiculous.”
She looked over her shoulder franticly trying to conjure up an explanation, but Daman was nowhere to be seen. Indeed, Sergei was looking at the large porcelain tiger.
“It looks nothing like a real tiger. And look at how its fangs are painted on. Whoever did this did a terrible job.”
“And you’ve seen tigers up close before?” Kat asked.
“Have you?” he replied, leaning in close to her, smelling her neck.
For an instant, Kat thought he was going to kiss her, but instead he nuzzled his face into the collar of her dress, inhaling her scent. When he looked up at her, she swore that she saw anger in his eyes.
"It's not safe for you in here, let's go," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her from the closet.
They heard her mother calling from down the hall. She glanced from Sergei to the porcelain tiger. Though Daman was nowhere to be seen, she was sure he was still lurking somewhere in the back hidden amongst the rich fabrics.
She smiled blandly at Sergei, slightly agitated that he had found her. She wanted to spend more time with Daman, and hear what he had to say about Sergei. But if she was being completely honest with herself, she felt drawn to both Sergei and Daman. She hated to admit it, but she was attracted to both of them.
There was a dampness growing in her panties and she was unsure who to attribute the wetness to; or was it both? She felt a warmth she had never felt before, growing in her abdomen, where both men had pressed up against her.
And with that she let Sergei lead her by the hand and into the tea room.
5.
When they entered the tea room, they found Natalia perched in a far corner, surrounded by maids. They were each fussing over her, ensuring she had every need fulfilled. She looked like a Queen from the Romanov era; with a prim and proper demeanor, and her hair styled in an outdated updo topped with a diamond tiara. Yet, somehow she managed to look beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Since she was a young girl, she had always thought of her mother as an ice queen, and today she certainly looked the part.
She was beautiful and warm in front of strangers, but could be incredibly cold and calloused when it came to Kat. There were whole days dedicated to learning how to walk properly, how to sit up straight, and how to hold a glass of tea. Whenever Kat screwed something up, her mother would rap her sharply on the knuckles with a light brown ruler. Though she used to cry over it when she was younger, Kat had grown used to it. She knew that if Sergei wasn’t in the room, her mother would surely be slapping her right now for running off with the heir apparent.
Natalia dismissed her ladies, then motioned for Kat and Sergei to be seated. She launched into a diatribe about how important it was for Kat to carry on the Emerald legacy. But Kat tuned her out, stuck in a reverie. All she could think about was Daman hiding in the closet. How had he gotten in there? There were half a dozen floors in the manor, and how did he get past the guards?
Kat snapped back to the moment when her mother revealed her plans for an animal print themed wedding, complete with live exotic animals.
“We’re going to have a tiger at the wedding?” Kat asked. “Mother, don’t you think that’s a little bit over the top?”
“No, I do not. If you had any sense of the importance and magnitude of these nuptials you would understand that this is how the Emerald family throws weddings. We are built on a foundation of wealth and the people expect lavish parties.”
“Where did you find a tiger?”
“Dear, your father has some local connections.”
“So where is this wedding tiger?”
“I'm not sure where they've got it chained up. But, trust me, if it misbehaves at the wedding, or rehearsal, I've given a standing order for the guards to shoot it.”
“Mother, you can’t just shoot a living creature like that” she shrieked.
Kat glanced over at Sergei, but he just shrugged. Why wasn’t he saying anything? It was inhumane to bring wild animals to such an event, and then to shoot the for being themselves – disgusting. Why didn’t he protest? She barely knew Daman, but she did know that he would never willingly hurt another creature unless for survival.
She felt disgusted with both Sergei and her mother. But as much as Kat wanted to leave the tea room, she knew it would disappoint her mother. Once the awkward teatime was over, she politely excused herself under the guise of a headache, and withdrew to her bedroom. She felt like two women, each at odds with the other. The bold Kat told her to find Daman and run away with him, while the other, more practical girl told her to give Sergei a change. After all, she had familial obligations to fulfil, and Sergei was to be her future.
The minute her head hit the pillow, she burst into tears of frustration. Her tears were interrupted by a strange rustling coming from inside her closet. The rustling got louder, and the door slid open. It was Daman, still naked and in human form, with his beautiful golden eyes and dark chest hair. She was careful to avoid staring at anything below his navel; she was still a lady, and a virgin at that.
“What are you doing in here?” she whispered, wiping away tears.
“I’ve been evading your guards for hours now!”
“How did you know that this was my room?”
“I can smell you in here. It smells a whole lot better than that party room. What kind of garish parties are you throwing here?”
Kat giggled, “my mother has a thing for masquerade balls.”
“Fancy, do you have a lot of these dress-up parties?”
“Actually, we do. My mother hosts them all the time. She’s obsessed with flaunting her status. It can be pretty ridiculous at times.”
He nodded, as if he understood. “So, Sergei is gone?”
“Yes, he’s gone for now. Do you two know each other or something?”
“You could say that.”
“What are you hiding from me?” she sighed, curious as to how the two men could possibly know each other; they were from entirely different worlds.
“I’ll explain everything in due time. For now, you have to help me get out of here.”
He walked towards her slowly, stopping when they were mere inches apart, and brushed her last tear away, "I hope everything is better now. No more tears.”
She looked up into his deep gold eyes, a wave of emotion rushing over her.
“Can I see you again?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll sneak out later. I’ll meet you on the edge of the g
arden.
She held his hands tightly, as if the tighter she held him, the longer he would stay. She noticed that Daman’s eyes weren’t just gold—they were flecked with shades of orange and brown. They reminded Kat of the ‘Tiger’s Eye’ stone. She used to collect them when she was younger, stringing them on necklaces and making them into earrings. She’d stopped making her own jewelry when she grew older, especially when she started receiving jewelry from other suitors. They gave her dangling earrings and rings as fat as swollen knuckles. There were necklaces studded with sapphires and rubies, and then there were the emeralds.
She had bracelets, necklaces, rings –a huge trove of jewelry, each one studded with an emerald. They were meant to signify her legacy and her future, but when Kat looked at them, she just thought of them as a burden. They were the heavy stones that would drag her beneath the ocean of responsibility, sinking her, if she let them. Each piece of emerald jewelry was a cross to bear. There had been twenty-seven suitors in total; twenty-seven men who had marched in and out of the manor, and in and out of her life. None of them had stayed for too long. It had started when she was eighteen, and hadn’t stopped since. She was now almost twenty-one years old, and still hadn’t found a man she felt comfortable marrying. But now it seemed she was out of time, and suitors.
Why wouldn’t her parents let her marry for true love? Her mother had. Interestingly enough, her father had allowed Kat to say no to all of the previous suitors, likely because he hadn’t come from royalty himself. He had been introduced to this life through his marriage to Natalia, and he hadn’t grown up with the same set of rules and standards that were now being forced on Kat. He didn’t seem to care who Kat ended up marrying, but was pushing Sergei for some reason.
They slipped out of her room, peering both ways down the hall before running to the front door. Hardly anyone ever traveled to the front of the palace, and Daman had a better chance of escaping that way. Only six staircases stood between Daman and his freedom.
For him, he’d always known what it felt like to be free. He could come and go as he pleased, and he didn’t have to stay in one place for too long.
But Kat, she’s the heiress to a fortune and a legacy. Is it possible for her to live a life free of glamor and obligation? he wondered as they slunk through the expansive hallways.
“Tonight at twelve?” she asked, grabbing his hand just before he slipped out the massive front door.
He sighed and held her hand. “I’m sorry. I can’t”
“What could've come up in the last five minutes?” she whispered sadly.
Daman hated having to reject her, but it was for the best. He had had a long time to think while stuck in the closet. Despite the longing he felt for her, Kat needed to forget about him. She would have a better future with Sergei, even though he was dangerous. Kat needed a suitor approved by her parents.
“Goodbye, Kat,” he said, looking into her eyes one last time, before bounding off across the lawn and into the woods.
“Goodbye,” she whispered, tears spilling over her eyelashes.
Kat spent the rest of the evening wracking her mind and analyzing those last few minutes with Daman. What could she have possibly done wrong? She must have done something to make Daman bolt like that. Were her tears too much?
Another more mortifying thought came to her mind. He was a tiger shifter. What if he could smell the desire on her and he didn't want her the same way?
Kat never felt badly about lying to her mother, but she did feel a little bit of guilt that she’d lied to Sergei about having a headache.
Kat was new to rejection. At first, she wallowed in sadness that Daman had left and turned her down. Then she got angry. She was a princess. She needed a prince with a backbone. Her thoughts quickly swung back to the arrogant suitor she had sent away.
6.
“Mother, I'm going for a swim.”
“Yes, but take Sergei with you. I don’t want you swimming by yourself, especially when your father and I are out.”
Kat’s jaw dropped.
“Sergei? He’s still here?”
“Of course he is. And he will remain here in the palace for the next month while we prepare for the wedding.”
Excusing herself so quickly clearly wasn’t seen as a rejection of him.
“What room is he staying in?” she asked, curiously.
“For heaven’s sake Katerina, have you forgotten everything already? We always put the suitors in the reading wing.”
Her mother stepped closer and placed a warm hand on her forehead. “Do you have a fever? Maybe you shouldn’t be swimming.”
“I’m fine, Mama. I’ll go ask Sergei to be my lifeguard. When are you and Papa going to be back?”
“After the sun goes down. We’ve got to meet with someone from the military, an old friend of your father’s. It might go pretty late, but I already gave the cook your dinner order.”
She kissed her daughter on the forehead before sashaying down the hall. Her mother was regal and Kat had always found her walk so pompous. Kat tried mimicking her mother’s footsteps, swaying her hips from side to side. She was so focused on her mockery of her mother that she didn’t notice Sergei watching with a bemused look on his face.
“You look like a penguin,” he said, startling her. She yelped and practically jumped out of her skin. She turned and smacked him in the chest.
“You’re so rude!” she exclaimed.
“I’m rude? You aren’t exactly the nicest host I’ve ever met, if you know what I mean,” he said.
She scoffed. “Well, I don’t have to be nice to you if I don’t want to. I’m sure there are plenty of other suitors out there who would jump at the chance to marry me.”
“Not likely, princess. I’m your last resort. Everyone knows that your mother is all out of options after me. She’s trying not to act like it’s a big deal, but if we don’t get married, then the Emerald legacy is in trouble.”
“What are you talking about? You’re lying,” she bemoaned.
“Of course she kept this from you. You’re her only daughter! She probably wanted to keep you safe from this news. Why do you think she’s going out tonight?”
“They’re meeting my father’s friend. He works for the military.”
“Right. They’re meeting to try and figure out your options. She needs to know if the laws of the land allow you to inherit without a man by your side. We still have some pretty primitive rules when it comes to the inheritance of such large parcels of land and property. If you ask me, I’d say it’s risky.”
Kat shook her head, feeling overcome by chills. “I can’t believe she wouldn’t tell me. This whole time, I thought everything was fine.”
Sergei shrugged, as if he could care less about this deeply impactful news. “What about that swim?”
She looked up at his cold face, searching for something she could empathize with. Though his irises were jet black, she noticed he had flecks of gold in them. They were hard to notice at first, and were really only visible in the afternoon light. She noticed that his hair also had subtle brown streaks in it, providing a slight contrast to the blackness. He reminded her of Daman in many ways, with an almost animal-like quality to his features.
“Fine,” she said, snapping back to the present. “Let’s go swimming.”
The pool was shaped like a raindrop and its tiles were hand painted with tangles of green leaves, which Kat had always found odd as it gave off the appearance of algae. Her mother thought it made the pool look dirty, but Kat thought it brought particular warmth, and reminded her of the depths of the ocean. She liked it more than the cold, sterile blue pools typically found in palaces. The patterning of the leaves reminded her of whales—great beasts covered in algae and other types of plankton. Swimming in the pool, pretending to be a mermaid in the deep ocean, had always made her happy.
Outside, the sun was hanging high in the sky. Its rays beat down upon their backs, causing them to drip with sweat.
They walked to opposite sides of the pool, Kat at the shallow end and Sergei at the deep end.
“On the count of three?” she asked.
“One…two!” he shouted, jumping in cannonball style and creating a huge splash. What a clown. Despite herself Kat couldn't help but laugh, and dove under, her body cleaving through the water in a clean arc.
Kat wore a white one-piece bathing suit with a deep v neckline that showed off her ample cleavage. It made her feel more confident to flaunt her body when it could be hidden under water. The white bathing suit also gave hints to her femininity, as her rose tinted nipples got hard in the cold water and pressed tightly against the fabric, as if begging to be freed.
Sergei wore a pair of swim trunks that didn’t leave much to the imagination. Kat was tempted for a closer look, and kept stealing glimpses when she knew she wouldn't get caught. His manhood filled out the bathing suit significantly, making her wonder if his excitement was the result of her hard nipples. He looked huge, as if the cold hadn’t had any sort of effect on his member.
Suddenly, she remembered something he had said yesterday that had caused her pause.
“Hey, Sergei,” she called out to him. “Why did you say it wasn't safe for me to be in the storage room?”
He smirked and dove under the water, swimming long, slow strokes until his hands met her thighs. He emerged from the water and brought his face close to hers.
Was he going to kiss her? She held her breath and realized that she wanted him to.
Instead, he leaned his mouth close to her ear—so close she could feel the warmth of each breath. “I know what he is, because I'm the same.” With that, he took her ear in his mouth and sucked long and hard on the lobe, before diving back under water, returning to the other end of the pool.
Confused and unsure if she had heard correctly, she dove underwater to meet him in the deep end. She held tightly onto the edge of the pool, her arms high behind her, as he treaded water next to her.
