Tiger's Strength by Kimberly A. Rogers

Author:Kimberly A. Rogers [Rogers, Kimberly A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-05-23T22:00:00+00:00

ΘΘΘΘΘΘ

Raina

I held my breath as the tension grew between the two Tigers following Baran’s cold analysis of Celeste’s character. They were so focused on each other that I still hadn’t been noticed. I also hadn’t pushed the door open wide enough to see inside. Even though I really wanted to at first.

Venetia finally broke the silence. Hugging an iceberg while wearing a bikini would have been warmer than her voice when she spoke. “None of that changes the fact that you chose poorly.”

“Raina was chosen for me. Therefore, someone must disagree with you,” came Baran’s equally cold retort.

I backed away from the door, not wanting my presence to make things worse. Or even cause irreparable damage. My heart twisted with the knowledge that every word Venetia had spat about my inappropriateness as a wife had been aimed at hurting Baran. And, he was already hurting or else he never would have made that cold observation about Venetia wanting him dead so she could start anew. I didn’t understand what was going on and that really bothered me.

Lost in my thoughts as I struggled to make sense of what I had heard and utterly failing, I was almost surprised that I even made it back to our room without mishap. I pulled the second photo album out and looked through it. Baran must have been in his teens when these were taken. A smile pulled at my lips, curving them without permission, as I found a picture of Baran in the midst of a gangly growth spurt, wearing formal court attire . . . including a coat with tails and a high top grasped in one hand. Then, I turned the page and paused on the picture of my Tiger when he was a young recruit. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen, maybe even a little younger, but he looked so proud as he stood next to his father. Baran was in formal recruit dress, a dark colored military tunic (probably blue based on my aita’s portraits) with black trousers, and there was a lightness around him that told me he was happy and proud and oh so confident. Badir stood in his formal military dress, the same as his son’s as far as coloring, but with gold braid stretching across his front to encircle the double row of gold buttons and gold epaulettes on his shoulders. He rested one hand on his son’s right shoulder, every inch the proud father.

I looked again at Baran’s face. He showed his emotions freely in that picture. But now . . . He could be so closed off, so guarded. He was even worse right now than he had been since our first breakthrough in February. I drew a shaky breath as the truth hit me harder than any Ursa could hope to . . . Baran had only closed himself off after I told him we could come see Venetia for Thanksgiving.

Venetia . . . I felt ill as everything that had happened, everything I had seen and heard, suddenly made horrible sense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.