THE GOLDEN QUEEN

Chapter Twenty-Five

Late that afternoon, when Bain escorted me back to my cham, I knew it was the changing of the guard because I saw Zahnin standing outside.

I smiled at him, he tipped his chin up at me but for some weird reason he watched closely, his head turning to do it, as Teetru scurried beyond him and into the tent.

Then he turned back and called loudly to Bain, "Do not go far."

I froze at these words but my neck moved so I could look back at Bain who was studying Zahnin intently. He gave a jerk of his chin to Zahnin then moved away. I watched him fade into the chams and turned back to Zahnin. Then I moved to him.

"Is something amiss?" I asked.

"I do not know," he replied. "But I am warrior. I am trained since five to trust my instincts and my instincts tell me something is not right."

Oh shit.

"What?" I asked.

"Again, my golden queen, I do not know. Let us just hope that my instincts are wrong."

"Are they ever wrong?"

He held my gaze. Then he grunted, "Me."

Great.

"You are safe," he announced and I focused on him. "Nothing will harm you. Ever."

The good news was, he sounded firm about that. Very firm.

I decided to leave it at the good news without exploring the bad partly because he sounded firm but mostly because he didn't look in the mood to continue that particular conversation. And when Zahnin wasn't in the mood to talk, queen or not, we didn't talk.

So I decided to change the subject to something he would wish to talk about.

I got closer to him and said quietly, "All right, my protector, this goes against all the girl club rules but for her sake and yours, I'm going to share."

He stared down his nose at me and crossed his arms on his chest. From my experience with Zahnin, I knew this meant I had his attention even though he likely had no clue what I was talking about at this present time.

"I had a chat with Sabine today," I informed him, saw his eyes flash but that was all he gave me before I continued. "Or, she had one with me."

I stopped talking and waited for his response.

He just stared at me.

Seriously, Sabine said he chatted with her but I couldn't believe it. I knew he had words, just not many of them.

So I laid it out for him. "You're in, Zahnin."

That got a reaction. He blinked in puzzlement.

"I'm... in?" he asked

I grinned. "In. In. In," I answered. "Whatever you're doing and whatever you did a couple of nights ago," I watched his body jerk slightly in surprise that I had this knowledge but again that was all he gave me so I kept right on talking, "she likes it. Like, a lot."

He stared at me but said not a word.

I sighed. "What I'm saying is, you were her first, that didn't go so well for, um... her so she has no idea what she's doing but she wants..." I leaned in, "more. She just doesn't know how to ask."

There it was. His eyes warmed and his mouth curled up slightly at the sides. He got me and what he got was hot. Way hot. If I didn't have the super hottest woman around, I would think it was ultra hot.