To Mate an Assassin: The Lost Alphars Series, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

stroll around the property and three muscular, armed soldiers awaited her by the entrance checkpoint.
    “Good afternoon, gentlemen.” She stopped ten feet from the head guard, tipping her head in greeting, and innocently lacing her fingers behind her back.
    “This is private property, ma’am. Are you lost? Is there something I can do for you?” The head guard asked, wary but not combative. All the guards wore a simple uniform of gray T-shirts and black cargo pants. Easy to move in. Easy to fight in.
    “Why yes, sir. There is something you can do for me.” She hooked her thumbs in her belt loops and walked a few steps closer. “I have an appointment to meet with the Alphar.”
    “The Alphar does not have any appointments today, ma’am.” The plucky head guard confirmed this as an underling pushed a clipboard in front of his face so he could double check that fact.
    She nodded her understanding. “Oh, well, he is a bit late for the appointment. Three years late in fact. I thought I’d take some of the pressure off him and come to see what was keeping him.” She leaned her body forward slightly and lowered her voice, as if she were telling a secret. “You know how these new diplomats have trouble juggling their busy schedules.” The men looked slightly frightened as she returned to her upright stance with a wink.
    They stared at her, puzzled, before the head guard asked, “What is your name, ma’am?”
    “You can tell the Alphar the Incendiary is here to see him.”
    They looked at her for half a beat, then towards each other before breaking down into low chuckles and snorts. They were trying to keep their dignity about them, but not hard enough. She’d expected this but it was still somewhat irritating. She was a trained assassin and could take this group of soldiers out without much effort. Not a bad thought actually…
    “All right, lady,” the head guard said, dropping all formality and shooing her like some harmless pest. “You go run on home, now. The Alphar is a busy man.”
    “Oh, I’m sure. I’m sure.” She nodded in sympathy and understanding once more. “But you see, as Incendiary—” They laughed again so she politely waited until they were finished. “I am allowed an audience with the new Alphar when he takes over the seat of power. I understand you wouldn’t be privy to this fact as you are menial task soldiers.”
    “Okay, lady,” the head guard said angrily. It seemed as though his front-gate-guard status was a bit of a touchy subject. “We get it. You’re fuckin’ crazy. Now get outta here before I put you in a cell for the night.” He gestured in a shooing motion once again. She was going to break that hand.
    “Ah. But you do not seem to get it— What was your name?”
    “Robert,” he said with a sniff, bulging muscles tensing like a peacock fluffing its feathers.
    Cymbeline subtly loosened her stance. “Robert, you are going to let me into that compound.”
    Robert gripped his standard-issue tranquilizer gun and raised it to point at her. “Over my dead—”
    “Don’t say it,” Cymbeline said with a quiet yet lethal smile. “You don’t want to dare me, do you?”
    He snorted, glancing over at his laughing compadres with a cocky grin before turning back. “I dare you.”
    Kerrick slowly walked the marbled hallways leading to his office, his barefooted tread audible to his ears but silent as the dead of night to those he passed. As a soldier in The Mansion, and later as Riddan’s Captain, Kerrick had always felt discomfited by the hard stone encasing The Mansion. Shifters need to be in wide-open spaces, free to run and feel the wind rustle through their fur or feathers, or scales and what have you. The hard walls and stain glass windows depicting ancient battles had given him the impression of a cold and beautifully untouchable prison. It was grand and immaculate to be sure, but only a heart of stone could thrive within it. The least nourishing environment