I reached beyond her, picked up the bangle and she jumped, her head snapping to me.

“I am sorry, my golden –” she started to say but I looked at the merchant.

“I will take this for my Teetru,” I looked down at the bangles and quickly selected four more that would compliment my girls, “and these.” I held them up to the merchant, he told me the price and I turned to Teetru, slid the pouch from her frozen hand, dug in and pulled out coins.

Then I realized I had no idea what value they carried and thus ensued a back and forth with Nahka coming forward to make sure I didn’t get gouged as I paid for my gifts. Once the payment had been made, Nahka faded back and I took Teetru’s forearm and slid the bangle on her wrist.

“Beautiful,” I said, my eyes moving to hers to see her head tipped down to the bangle.

Then it tipped back to me and I saw something I couldn’t read shining in her eyes.

“You cannot –” she started.

“Funny,” I cut her off on a smile, “I just did.”

Then before she could say another word, I slid my arm around her waist and pulled her away from the table. Then I let her go, dropped the other bangles in the pouch and handed it back to her.

“When we get back home, you can give those to the girls. The green one is for Jacanda, the yellow one, Gaal, the pink one, Beetus and the red one, Packa. Yes?”

“Yes, my golden queen,” she whispered, I smiled, lifted a hand and squeezed her upper arm then I looked to my girl posse who were all huddled together admiring a bolt of fabric the color of violet shot with copper that Narinda was holding out.

“Let’s get lunch!” I called and when the queen spoke, everyone listened.

So we got lunch.

But, even if I was queen, we’d been shopping for hours and I knew my girls had to be hungry.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Attack

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 guy around, I would think it was ultra hot.

Boy, Sabine was going to get lucky.

“So, I advised she make a move and you’re going to have to watch for it,” I went on sharing. “It might be timid, shy maybe awkward and will definitely take some courage for her to do but she’s going to make a play, you’re going to need to receive it and take it from there… gently.”

“Right,” he grunted.

“I can’t stress enough that she’s still a little scared of you and her feelings. She’s not experienced. You’re going to have to teach her.”

The lip curl got bigger and he said low, “I can be a teacher.”

I bet he could. And he looked like he was looking forward to it.

Still, I cautioned, “A patient teacher.”

His lip curl spread into a smile.

“I can be a patient teacher,” he assured me.

Oh yeah. He was looking forward to that too.

Sabine was definitely going to get lucky.

I grinned up at him. Then I whispered, “Have fun, my protector.”

I moved to walk around him but he caught my bicep in his hand so I tipped my head back to look at him.

He dropped my arm as I noticed the smile had faded but intensity was deep in his eyes.

“Shahsha, kah rahna Dahksahna hahla,” he murmured.

“Lapay fahnahsan, kah jahnjee,” Be happy, my protector, I murmured back.

He jerked up his chin.

I moved around him and into my cham. As I moved in, Teetru was scurrying out. I smiled at her but she tipped her head slightly to the side in a weird way, not returning my smile, looking hurried and nervous and she left the tent with all due haste.