Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“Oh, well…” Addie wasn’t sure what to say to that. She’d been hoping that the dashing ambassador would want to start some kind of relationship—why else would he have invited her here to Crimson Moon? But now it turned out that was a complete impossibility because he had taken a vow of celibacy to honor the Spider Goddess. It was all very disappointing.
“But I can lead you to the Room of Sighs where you can attend our Choosing Ceremony,” he continued. “Would you like to come?”
“Yesh—I mean yes, I would!” Addie straightened up and took a deep breath. She looked at Drago. “I’m going to attend the ceremony,” she said, speaking slowly and distinctly, hoping it made her sound sober. “It’s the whole reashon—reason—I came here.”
“You can follow along behind us as I walk the lovely Lssa Addison to the Room of Sighs,” Lx Sambla said to Drago as he tucked Addison’s arm into his own once more. “Beyond that, however, neither of us may go. The Room of Sighs is a females-only area—no males allowed. At least, not during the Choosing Ceremony.”
Drago's face was still dark but at last, he nodded.
“Well, if it’s females only I guess it should be all right.”
“It is—no male dares to step foot in that holy space during the Choosing Ceremony,” Sambla assured him. He turned his attention to Addie. “Come, lovely one—let us go.”
"Yes, let's." Addie smiled up at him. Though she was still disappointed that he was celibate, at least she still got to observe the ceremony.
She had no idea what she was getting into.
9
DRAGO
Drago clenched his hands into fists as he trailed behind the happy couple. He didn’t believe that fucking Sambla was celibate for one fucking minute. The male was a snake—he was too slick and smooth to be trusted, especially when it came to Drago’s Fated Mate.
Inside he could feel his Drake growling angrily. It might not have words but it had plenty of emotions and everything he could feel coming from it was negative. Anger, jealousy, the desire to rip the intruding male limb from limb…
Easy, it’s all right—I’m watching her! Drago told it. But the calming words he sent to his Drake didn’t help much. Only his iron will kept it from bursting out to bite the Vargan ambassador’s head off.
He followed Addison and Sambla down several stone corridors until at last, they came to an elaborate set of golden double doors at the very end of a long hallway. There were depictions of the same Spider Goddess with the humanoid head that he'd seen earlier on the tapestries. She seemed to be spinning a web that stretched over the whole sky or some shit like that—Drago didn't really have time to study the fucking thing.
Standing to one side of the doors were the three older women who seemed to be in charge around here. And lined up against the stone walls on either side of the corridor were around fifty young women, all wearing black dresses like the one Addison had on. They looked anxious, Drago thought—their mouths were set in tense lines and several of them were nibbling their lower lips and shifting from foot to foot. All of them were staring fixedly at the older women.
“Ah, at last,” one of the older ones said as Sambla brought Addison forward. “I’m so glad you’ve chosen to join us at last, young lady,” she said to Addison, who blushed bright red with embarrassment.
“We beg your forgiveness for our tardiness, Ls Prissa,” Sambla said smoothly, bowing. “We had a slight misunderstanding to work out before we could make our way here. Lssa Addison’s tardiness is my fault entirely so please don’t blame her.”
“Very well, Sambla.” The older woman looked somewhat mollified. “Well, now that we are all here, the selection process can begin. All of you open your mouths when Ls Tissa and Ls Hissa come by to examine your teeth.”
Drago had been watching when the older woman had examined Addison’s teeth during the feast. At the time he had thought it strange and invasive. But he knew better than to interfere with the native customs of a people Addison was studying unless whatever was going on looked likely to harm her. So he had just watched.
Now he watched as all the young women opened their mouths and the older ones inspected them. They seemed to be paying special attention to the upper teeth—the pointed canines where a Blood Kindred would have fangs. However, the Vargan girls didn’t seem to have anything like that—their teeth looked like Addison’s—at least as far as he could see.
But the inspectors seemed to see something different. When either of them found a girl whose teeth they liked, they tapped her on the shoulder and nodded to the front. Soon about twenty of the fifty had been sent to stand in front of the double golden doors—Addison and her shortest lady-in-waiting included.