Page 6 of Monsters In Her Head

Chapter 4

When I walked intothe female’s quarters, I told myself I wasn’t hiding from Ryu. I had to see Beautine and figure out what we were doing next for my training. We’d already started with some basic stretches and she showed me the different weapons. Now for some reason, I was itching to hit or cut something.

“That prissy bitch thinks she can just waltz in here and take our king?” Daylea griped with no regard for me sitting right there a few feet away, reading her lips.

Oh. Right.

“Shush,” the pale blue female drake sitting beside Daylea swatted at her. “You shouldn’t talk about the king’s mate like that.”

Daylea snarled, baring her teeth and claws at the other female. “She is not his mate.”

The blue one flinched back from Daylea. “She smells like it though.”

“That’s because she’s whoring herself out to him, nothing more.” Daylea shot me a nasty look.

I pretended not to understand seeing how much more she would dig herself into a hole. It would also help to see if anyone else had the same or worse thoughts about me.

If Aryn had been in there, she would have gotten pissed on my behalf and tried to shut the female drake up. Thankfully, she wasn’t there so I could see what was being said next.

“You’re just pissed off because King Ryu threw you aside after he caught you trying to fuck his brothers.” A deep violet drake scrunched her nose, adjusting the fabric in her lap. I didn’t know how she got her stitches so small with those claws in the way.

I peered down at the daggers in my lap, trying to figure out how to best deal with this. If all the females felt this way about me, then it was going to be a problem. I needed to have their favor because then the males would be easier to get on board.

Sure, Ryu could order them to go to battle for me. He was the king. But, I didn’t want them going to fight for me because they were being forced to. That wasn’t how you won a war.

Beautine sat beside me and finally said something to Daylea. “Regardless of your opinions of her, if not for the princess we would not know about the attack coming from Plumus. We need her kingdom as much as they need us.”

Daylea's nose scrunched up as she eyeballed me. “Not if she’s dead.”

Okay. That was enough.

Daggers in hand, I shifted to face Daylea completely. Using my hands to sign at the same time, I stated, “I am deaf. Not stupid. If you have something to say to me, at least have the courage to say it so I can understand you and not the cowardly, underhanded way of thinking I can’t read your lips.”

Daylea's eyes widened and mouth dropped open, her face paling at my words.

“I might be the king’s whore,” I gestured with smug satisfaction, “But at least I’m willing to do whatever it takes to save my people. What does that say about you?”

The other female drakes nodded around me in agreement while Daylea swallowed visibly, climbing to her feet and snapping at me, “I still don’t like you,” and then stalking out the door.

“Oh, how will I ever go on?” I called out to her, turning back to sharpening my daggers. I was used to women like her, always trying to get the upper hand on other women in any way they could even if it meant tearing them down.

“I’m sorry about Daylea.” Beautine rubbed her fist against her chest. I’d tried to teach her as well as a few other drakes how to speak in sign, those who were interested, Beautine had caught on far better than many of the others, even Tat. “She’s just upset that you have the king’s favor when he used to bed her.”

“It’s alright. I get it.” I waved her off and focused on my task. Learning to sharpen my daggers was one of the lessons Beautine had me working on before we got down to basics in the training ring.

You can’t learn to fight until you can learn to take care of your weapon, or something like that.

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