Grounded By Love (The Giant Wars #2)(69)

Claira frowned. What had they done now to make him irritated? Every night it seemed to be a constant circle, and she was able to tell she wasn't the only factor. She was just the biggest one. Kaeldar had told her there had already been animosity between them, before she showed up on the scene.

As he led her away, she cast a last look behind her shoulder at where his parents were sitting. His mother sent her a smile, a wicked gleam danced in her dark eyes. They were definitely up to something. She just hoped it didn't have anything to do with killing her.

When his chamber door came into sight, she let out a heavy breath. She was almost to the one place where she felt any sense of security.

Kaeldar opened the large wooden door and ushered her forward, but she stopped short. Her eyes locked on the sight of his bed. She was able to feel his presence, as he stepped up behind her to see what had paused her in the doorway.

There in his bed, before them were two tall and beautiful rock giant women. One of them was skinny and the other was full of curves. Both of them hadn't even noticed they were being watched or maybe they did know they had an audience and didn’t care.

Claira couldn't believe it.

Each of them was playing with the other. Claira felt rude for staring, but was still too shocked to move or even blink.

Kaeldar recovered first. Pulling her aside he stepped into the room and barked. "Out! Now!"

The whip of rage in his voice jolted the women into attention. After a quick look to see how serious he might be, they jumped up from the bed and grabbed their clothing.

"If you decide she isn't enough, you know where to find us, Kaeldar." One of the women whispered, as she brushed by him, her naked breast grazing his arm.

Claira felt herself bristle.

As the women passed by her, the skinny one hissed down at her. "You will not hold his attention for long human. You don't have what he wants.”

Her accent was thick, but Claira heard every word loud and clear, and it didn’t thrill her.

"Get out!" Kaeldar barked, when he noticed the giant woman talking to her.

The women scurried out, closing the door behind them. Claira stared at the wooden door, wishing that hadn't just happened.

"Why?" She asked, as she turned around to face him. She was so bewildered as to why those women had been in his room.

A hand roughly scrubbed down his face, as he grunted and shrugged. "It must’ve been my father. He was telling me to give you your own room, while we were in the great hall tonight. He must have wanted me to agree so that I would’ve come up here by myself to find those females in my bed."

"Why?"

"To tempt me into accepting their favors. He must think they would be able to sway my mind away from thoughts of you."

"And would it have?" Claira’s voice trembled a bit.

"Of course not!" He stated sharply. He was clearly offended she could possibly think he would’ve done something like that to her.

Claira felt so foolish. Here she was hoping for a life with Kaeldar, while his parents were trying to come up with ideas on how to get rid of her. It explained the looks she’d been receiving from them at dinner.

They were confident they could sway him into getting rid of her.

How far would they go? She felt they would try to get her gone by any means necessary, even death, if they thought that was the only way to rid themselves of her persistant presence.

Pools of tears built up in her jade eyes. This was becoming a little too much for her. She escaped the villagers only to wind up in danger again.

Kaeldar came up beside her and wrapped his warm arms around her tiny waist. "Don't let what the females said bother you."

She shrugged, uncertain of how exactly she should feel. There was a lot for her to think about. Clearly, she was unwelcome and there was no possible way she was about to win any of them over.




Kaeldar didn’t enjoy the hurt in her sea green eyes, but all he could do was try to prevent her from getting wounded again. He felt such an intense feeling of helplessness and uncertainty.

She’d saved his life, and now he was returning the favor by putting her life in danger. Every second here was another second her life was under attack, but he couldn’t very well leave the castle unexpectedly. There would be questions, when he came back, and he couldn’t send her off by herself. They were a few days into rock giant territory.

But he also felt a sense of selfishness, because he didn't want to let go of her, period. He wanted her to be by his side for a lot longer, yet it looked like he was in a position where he would eventually have to set her free.

He squeezed her a little harder, wishing it was possible to be sure of her safety and her future. His father had gone too far tonight, and Kaeldar was sure it would only escalate.

When Claira stopped in the doorway, and he’d seen her eyes widen, he’d known something wasn't right. After stepping up behind her he also froze in place, when he saw the two rock giant females laying on his bed.

He couldn't contain his pure rage at the females and at his parents for setting this whole situation up. Had he really expected his parents to openly accept a human female? No, but he hoped he might be able to convince them about her healing abilities.

If his father, the king, accepted her, then the rest of the rock giants would accept her. Most of them took their lead by what the king and queen did.