Crave To Conquer (Myth of Omega, #1)(7)
Cailyn nodded. “Thank you, Emperor.”
As he stared at her, the feeling increased, expanding over every inch of her being. His hand twisted and began to close around her throat.
“Emperor, I really need to get started,” she said, forcing her voice to stay calm. “Is there anything else?”
His hand slowed, brushed down her neck, and then moved away. “No,” he said, his eyes running over her before turning and leaving the room.
***
The next morning, Cailyn asked the servant that took her lunch order for some extra parchment to be brought to the research room. If she had secured the job, the Emperor would no longer be watching her closely and she could get on with her plans. With the spare parchment, she began to copy information she knew the Mothers would be interested in: sightings of Omegas that hadn’t been recorded with them, an attempted collaboration between the Eastern and Western Lands to find them, the use of the Talent to try and locate them, and the progress made by the King of Ashens that had taken him dangerously close to the Omega Compound.
She spent most of the morning copying and adjusting the records and then reading some of the history of the Eastern Lands. She became so involved reading about the political structuring of the elusive Southern Lands, when she looked up, it was already past midmorning. She stood and stretched, then turned to sort the file into its place on the table.
The Emperor sat staring at her from a corner of the room.
She stiffened, her heart jumping into her throat.
They stared at each other for a long moment. How long had he been sitting there?
“Can I help you, Emperor?” she asked hesitantly, as her heartbeat calmed.
“No,” he answered.
She stared at him for a moment, unsure why he sat in the room. Surely he had come to speak to her? What had he seen and how long had he been sitting there? Did he suspect her?
“You may continue with your work,” the Emperor said after she’d been standing there for a while, his voice a deep rumble throughout the room.
Cailyn looked at the file in her hand, flustered. She’d forgotten what she had intended to do with it. After rereading it, she sorted it into its correct place on the tables and went back to the pile she had assigned herself for the day. She glanced at the Emperor and he still watched her.
For the rest of the morning, he remained in the corner, a silent, motionless, massive bulk watching her every move. Cailyn ignored him as best as she could but by midday, a frustration had built up. How was she going to continue with her real work if she was being watched so closely? This was worse than him visiting her every five minutes. Didn’t he have anything else to do?
She brushed off her hands and left the room, heading to her quarters. She needed to think without the presence of the Emperor, and she needed to eat.
Cailyn sat on a low, wide chair in the living room staring out over the city, munching the thick beef and cheese sandwich that had been laid out for her. At the rate she was going, it would take about a week to get the research room into any kind of logical order. So far, she had seen all kinds of random information; from the line of successors in each territory in the Western Lands to the various traditions and cultures seen in one city throughout the years. The Emperor surely liked to collect knowledge, even if he just dumped it in a room for someone else to sort out.
“This is what you asked for, for lunch?”
Cailyn jumped, her curse caught behind a chunk of bread in her throat. She spun around to see the Emperor peering down at her plate.
Coughing and spluttering, she moved away from him to spit out the food.
“This is not a suitable meal.” The Emperor peered at her plate disapprovingly. “No wonder you are small for a Beta.”
A slight fear gripped Cailyn as she tried to compose herself. She was small for a Beta because she wasn’t a Beta.
“You don’t need to eat frugally while you’re staying here,” he said. “I will ensure your lunch is adequate from now on.”
“This is my private quarters, Emperor,” she said sharply, her throat raw. “Why do you keep entering uninvited?”
“You left the research room,” he said, nonchalantly. “I came to see where you’d gotten to.”
“Am I supposed to clear my every movement with you?” she said, her voice tinged with disgust.
His gaze intensified. “Would that be a problem for you? I’m your employer.”
“I need a certain level of independence to do my work, Emperor,” Cailyn said, her annoyance creeping into her tone. “I know that’s not something you value, but in order to get the best out of—”
“What do you mean by that?” His eyes narrowed.
“I mean, I understand that you want everyone to be subservient to you but some of us are completely capable of doing a good job without constant monitoring.”
“This investigation is important to me and I will not leave it in the hands of someone who has come from Vamore, possibly with a hatred towards the Lox and their own agenda,” he said. “You can dislike it as much as you want, but it will not change. I want to know where you are at all times.”
Cailyn glared at him, but couldn’t argue with his logic. He wouldn’t know if Miss Lefroy was loyal to the Lox or not. She should have thought about that more carefully, and she would have—if she’d known she’d be working directly with him.