Winning the Legend by B. Kristin McMichael Read Free Book Online Page A

flame to a moth,
beautiful, but deadly. Andrew growled as someone set their plate at
her table.
    “I was hoping to join you,” Rhys said.
Arianna placed a hand on Andrew’s leg under the table to calm him
down. “Is this seat taken?”
    “No,” Arianna replied before glancing down
so that she would not smile at any of them accidentally. Her happy
thought had nothing to do with the men, but rather the
situation.
    The men were all vying for the empty spots
around her now. All Arianna thought of was the childhood game of
musical chairs. Everyone walked around chairs, and when the music
stopped, you’d have to sit down. Arianna was trying not to giggle,
as it was about to turn into a game of who could snag the last
three chairs. Arianna had to hold back from humming to herself,
sensing the men around her. Andrew wasn’t as amused, even though he
got the gist of what she was thinking.
    ‘Do you know how hard it is
for me to not jump up and rip the throat out of each and every man
here?’ Andrew complained as he stabbed at
his own pancakes. Having company at their table wasn’t helping his
already bitter mood.
    ‘Three weeks,’ Arianna pleaded, drinking her orange juice to
help ease the giggle that was going to come out if the men kept
eyeing the empty chairs at the table.
    ‘Three weeks of
hell,’ Andrew muttered and finally began
eating instead of just killing his pancakes. ‘And I’m not the only one thinking that.’ Andrew nodded across the room where Devin watched Arianna’s
every move and the men circling around her. Devin was almost as
close as Andrew to losing it.
    “Any hints of what’s to come?” Rhys asked,
trying to start a conversation with Arianna and break her away from
her silent conversation with Andrew. Andrew wasn’t in a position of
power within the baku clan, so very little was known about him by
the other men. The most they deduced was that he was her personal
guard.
    “Any chance you guys could all just go back
to where you came from?” Arianna replied, a bit resentfully. Small
talk with any of the competitors was going to be hard to handle,
even if they were coming off as friendly.
    “Ouch,” Rhys pretended to be offended,
though he was not. “That’s a bit harsh.”
    “Being treated like an object, and not a
human, isn’t?” Arianna didn’t really want to get into debating the
issue of the competition with anyone. She had already resolved
herself to her fate when she agreed to.
    “Touché.” Rhys’ retainer leaned over and
said something to him, trying to stop his attempts to talk to
her.
    “Can’t blame a man for trying. By the way,
princess,” Rhys added, toning down his words to a whisper just for
her. “I’m not here to win you over, just to make a show for my
people that I tried. I have no intentions of making a woman marry
me when she doesn’t want me.” Rhys was interrupted as his retainer
dragged him off to the corner of the room.
    Arianna couldn’t help but smile. Rhys wasn’t
as bad as she thought. In fact, most of the competitors around the
room seemed to be more curious than anything. Arianna sensed it
from all of them. Only a few held other emotions than curiosity. It
didn’t stop Andrew from fuming over the issue. Arianna knew, along
with Andrew, the truth behind the stares was also a deep desire to
control her power. The men believed that competing would lead one
of them to be the victor to win her, but that wasn’t how it was
going to turn out if Arianna had any say in it.

Chapter 7
     
    After breakfast, Arianna led the men to the
training room without their retainers. She stood waiting as the
competitors shuffled in behind her. Andrew stood off to the side
with the rest of her security detail, though he wasn’t happy to do
so. No one felt safe allowing any type of weapon around Arianna,
but now there was a table full of them. Arianna didn’t feel the
same increase in unease by having the weapons present, as she knew
by looking at each man