After another grueling four hours, Sienna finally made it back onto her ship. Her shoulders ached from the endless performance she had just endured. After watching Lina try on the dress, she had been dragged to lunch, a delicious serving of good food, with tight smiles and veiled barbs.
Now that she was back to the world of sanity, Sienna thought she could finally breathe, but Mija slithered forward from the shadows, as if she had been hiding and waiting.
Her grandmother rushed over, two fox cubs in her arms that she thrust at Sienna. "You have two sick children, stop running around and rest with them."
Mija pushed grandma Byra back, waving the phone in her hand, eyes shooting accusations as Sienna. "Explain this." she hissed. The picture was unmistakable: a reporter’s snapshot of Sienna, the queen and Lina seated at an outside table of a restaurant, leaning close. All three won were caught mid laugh. To Mija, it was betrayal.
Sienna blinked at the image, her exhaustion sharpening into invitation. "So what? It was lunch, so I ate." She said flatly. But Mija’s voice rose, trembling with wounded pride. "Lunch with them! With the queen and the loud mouth of the lion tribe! And you didn’t invite ? After everything? After I gave you a sponge bath---"
"What sponge bath?" Sienna cut her off.
Before Mija could explain, a heavy hand landed on the snake beast woman’s shoulder, pushing her aside with surprising force. Lord Marius stepped into view. His presence in the corridor was like a storm cloud, his eyes cold, but softened at the sight of the cubs clinging to their mother.
"Enough," he growled. "This is not your mont white snake. I ca to speak with my daughter-in-law."
Mija recoiled, her forked tongue flicking in outrage. "Not my mont? She is my friend. I have every right--"
"You have no right to intrude when it cos to family matters." He snapped. His voice carried the weight of a command, honed from decades of leading the clan.
The two locked eyes, predator against predator, until Sienna turned, leaving them to fight their battle of domination. Whoever won, would just irritate her anyway. Mija hissed as Sienna’s back disappeared and she slithered after her. Lord Marius leaped onto the wall, crawling fast to outpace her.
He won,
Sienna could hear Mija muttering curses under her breath from the doorway, as she settled the children on a chair. Unimpressed, she looked at her smug father-in-law and crossed her arms. "I would love to be polite Lord Marius, but I am afraid that being polite to you will result in a visit from your wife monts later. She takes advantage of my niceness to you to squeeze into my house and other places where I don’t want her. So, let’s keep this brief so that you can get off my ship as quickly as you can."
The old fox sighed, shoulders sagging. "I ca to apologize. My wife..."
Sienna laughed, cutting him off. "Yeah, the elders have been calling my phone, telling about the eting she called and making sire that I know they do not share her opinions of ."
Marius sighed. His foolish wife thought the elders were loyal to her, forgetting the elders followed strength. Sienna and Elias were strong together, each in their own ways. They would kneel to Sienna before kneeling to his wife. He run a hand through his hair. "That’s why I am here. She was cruel, her words were poison. You did not deserve anything she said about you. I should have stopped her sooner."
Sienna’s gaze was sharp, unyielding. "You should have stopped her years ago. Elias keeps telling to ignore her, because he does. He apologizes whenever she causes problems. But I told him that I don’t bla him. It is not his duty to control his mother, it is yours, Lord Marius.
But at the end of the day, everyone is responsible for their actions. How long will you two keep apologizing for her? Tell , what do you see in her? What keeps you tethered to a woman that spits venom at everyone and puts her interests before the good of the tribe? You are a good man, how did you end up with a wife like her?"
The questions hung in the air like blades. Marius’s ears twitched, his jaw tightening for a long mont. Silence reigned. Then he said, voice low, almost mournful. "I see the woman she once was. Before she beca drunk on power, obsessed with perfection. She wasn’t always consud by bitterness. She used to be radiant, fierce and innocent at the sa ti. Ask anyone, and they will tell you about the old Cadelaria that stord a ho at night and dragged a man out by his ears because he had been seen around the city shopping for his secretary while his wife and children wore old clothes. She used to have fire, and I fell for that fire, although it has burned more tis than I can count. I can never forget the warmth it once gave."
Sienna tilted her head, skeptical. "So you cling to old mories while she demolishes everything your family built. While she ruins the lives of others around her. That’s not love, its stubbornness. It’s voluntary blindness."
He chuckled bitterly. "Perhaps. I prefer to think of it as loyalty. Marriage vows say ’for better or worse,’ this is our for worse phase. Foxes value loyalty, we don’t abandon our mates easily."
Sienna sighed, her expectation softening just slightly. "Loyalty is fine. But don’t expect to excuse her nastiness just because of your nostalgia. She is your mate, not mine. If she keeps attacking , sooner or later, I am going to defend myself in the way I know how. With pans or poison."
Marius’s lips twitched into a faint smile. "I believe you. And perhaps that is why I respect you, Sienna. You are not afraid to strike back. You already have council elders weary of you. I think Cadelaria is the sa, it is probably why she is fighting you even harder."
Mija hissed. "You respect her but your wife does not. Don’t birds of a feather flock together? Husbands and wives are often like minded. My cousin Aya and her husband have practically started looking alike."
Sienna shot her a glare. "Mija, this is not your place. I appreciate the support, but this is an in-house matter. Now say...if your tail were to slap my mother-in-law randomly and send her face first into a pie, I would not stop you. But my father-in-law is different.’
Mija’s eyes glead. "Pie and slap, got it." She saluted and slithered away in a hurry, leaving Lord Marius and Sienna worried about what she had set out to do.
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