It was not Marie. Standing in front of Naiari was a tall statuesque girl with bright fiery hair that looked like a raging fire thanks to the light of the lamp which was behind her.
Naiari straightened up in her seat and noticed the sneer on the girl's face and wondered who she was, by the looks of her costly clothes and jewelry she was not a maid. In fact she looked more like an Amazon than a servant.
Naiari wondered if this was another of Kael's relatives who had come to show her displeasure while the girl continued to examine her and it made her feel uncomfortable.
"May I help you?" Naiari asked when the girl did not say a word and she rose her feet so that she did not have to crane her neck up to look at the girl who towered over her.
The girl laughed suddenly, a tinkling sound that showed her off perfectly pearly teeth.
"You would like to help me? A feeble human wants to help me, how rich." The girl said mockingly and took a step forward, her air intimidating and dangerous.
Naiari stood her ground and did not take a step back and fought against the urge to cower and her actions did not go unnoticed by the girl who smiled slyly while thinking.
'The human was not a weak pushover, good! the better to eat her up.'
"I only came to introduce myself to you seeing as I am very curious about the human princess." She said and she looked over Naiari and she seemed unimpressed by what was before her.
Naiari ignored the jab from the strange woman and wondered if the people in this kingdom held such disdain against humans then why seek to marry one? She focused instead on why the girl was here. It seemed that she was destined to be accosted by women who held grudges against her through no fault of hers.
"I am Althea, daughter of Lord Alaric Draven, head of the Silver Moon Vampire coven." she said then paused dramatically and added, " and lover to King Kael."
Naiari wanted to scoff and roll her eyes at Althea's words but she kept her face impression less while thinking to herself.
'So this is why she waylaid me? To warn me off her man?'
It was commonplace for kings to have harems filled with multiple women so she was not particularly shocked at Althea's announcement, truth be told she was a little irritated at the woman's insecurity and attack of her when Kael was the one responsible for whatever betrayal she felt.
As a bastard child, she had already faced some of the same treatment with Queen Elara and Princess Yvette, she did not look forward to experiencing more of such.
She frowned as she remembered some of the painful and humiliating experiences she had gone through, pain and fear rising at the thought of her own children going through the same thing in the hands of their stepmother.
She was in no way competing against Althea for King Kael's attention and in fact, she wondered why she would not get married to the king and put her out of her misery, then she would not be in this position in the first place.
"Oookay." Naiari said eventually, unsure what she was supposed to say and knowing that saying 'congratulations' would probably not go down very well with the vampire princess.
Althea misconstrued Naiari's awkward response and the expression of pain on her face as fear and she smiled cockily.
"You might wonder why the King would chose someone like you when I am already here." Althea tilted her head and watched Naiari.
'Why yes, it makes very little sense to bring me all the way to this place when there is already a woman vying for that position.'
"You see, very recently there have been uprisings from those pesky witches again and it has caused dissent across the realm and the ruling council have decided on a stupid peace mission to intermarry the races and that is why we are here." She explained at length and watched the befuddled expression on Naiari's face.
Everything made sense to her at that point, why else would a powerful and rich Lycan King want the daughter of a human king who was apparently losing his money? Her greedy father would have jumped at the chance to marry his daughter into such a wealthy kingdom.
Althea watched Naiari's face as she while barely containing the fury she felt.
The truth was that she was not Kael's lover, Kael could barely even stand her. However, from the very first time that she had met Kael she had immediately decided that he must be hers, he however had not given her an ounce of affection and instead of turning her off she had pursued him even more.
It did not matter to her that he was a cripple, his undeniable beauty and charisma were too much for her to fight and she had turned down multiple offers from prospective suitors while she waited for him. She believed that their union was a beneficial one to both their kingdoms.
That was why she had been aghast when she was informed that a bride had been chosen for Kael and it was not her. She had hurriedly come and was informed to her absolute horror that Kael had agreed to the union.
And now that she was before the chosen bride she wanted to scream and wreck everything in sight. She thought that maybe if Kael's betrothed had been someone else then she would not feel as resentful as she currently did but how could they chose this insignificant human girl over her?
It rankled her so badly and she wanted to drain this human empty. She watched the pulse at her neck and wondered how bad the backlash would be if she just grabbed her and sank her teeth in her flesh. Her father would protect her and this leech would be out of the way for good.
'It would be too late for them to do anything about it and it's just a useless human.'
She took another step closer to Naiari and this time she took a step back and looked up in alarm, sensing the danger.