~HEARTS & FANGS~

44: FAIR GAME😎

This chapter is dedicated to

@TamarDigha7
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...44...

FAIR GAME😎

One of the empress candidates kept turning the platinum ring on her index finger. It was the ring of choice. The ring that would end whatever they were all there for, the empress candidates, positively or negatively, the empress contest. She stopped and set her left palm on the table afore her. She had come to the royal territory with only one goal in her mind, which was to be admitted into the emperor's harem, nothing more and nothing less. She had chosen to stick to that goal because of Princess Hera-Mera Dracon.

The woman was already betrothed to the emperor since birth, and then affianced to him by proxy as it was done in the land. The empress contest was just to fulfil all righteous, all protocols for the purpose of entertainment as the emperor's first bride, the empress had already been predecided and it was her and no other, Princess Hera-Mera Dracon of the Draco Kingdom. In actuality -according to Hera-Mera- empress contest or not, she was already the empress in the eyes of many. That is why she had not been greedy and had gladly settled for a spot in his harem. But, fate seemed to be on her side. A bagatelle -one trivial mistake- had cost Hera-Mera had position as soon to be empress. She had been rudely stripped of such title and nearly eliminated from the empress contest.

Now, it was all a fair game. All the seven ladies in the contest were now on an equal pedestal, competitors. She had now gotten greedy -or call it lustful. A place in the emperor's harem was now a lowly position to her when the empress spot was now open. She would never be a royal concubine if the situation had gotten to that. She wanted to be and would surely be empress -at all costs. That was the slogan of her clan, at all costs. They would rather die than lose, most especially to an inferior like the woman the emperor kept at his side.

Anyways, with Hera-Mera now out of the picture, becoming empress was not going to be a difficult task at all if she put in her best. After all, she had succeeded in holding the emperor's interest in her too. But, she could not actually go far with that and she suspected, no, she knew why. The reason was because of that filthy whore, the one who had the emperor wrapped around her little finger like an over chewed piece of gum. The one who had cleverly reduced Hera-Mera to what she was now by not fighting with her. She hated the lady. Why? She was young and beautiful and she also had the great emperor of Linamine at her feet. Oh what power she held! The lady was the cause of the long marks on her back, the ones which had yet to heal properly enough because of the Xhanai poison. She hated that lady and wanted her out of the picture. That lady was the only threat to her mission, the only obstacle to her becoming empress because of what use was it to become empress without the emperor's heart. The rest of the empress candidates didn't seem like competition to her. She would certes have her removed. But, she needed to do so subtly. It was all a matter of time.

She resumed what she had been doing earlier, twisting the ring on her finger. It was fast becoming a habit. It had been so since she stepped foot in the Linamine palace and she would like it to remain that way so as to not lose focus on her prize. It would spur her on. The absence of the ring on her finger would mark the end of her mission, a sign of victory for at the end of the contest, the emperor would choose a bride, the empress. He would do so by taking the ring on the chosen's finger and putting it on him, wearing it, forever or until he took another empress. Then, those not chosen would be selected and added to his harem. The once that were not chosen would be sent back to their clans by the elders. She knew not hoe that would feel, rejection and she did not want to know how it would feel either. It was all the more reason why she should do it would take, everything that she could do to make absolute sure that she became the empress. It was a matter of nothing more and nothing less.