Altair (Desert Sheikh Romance #5) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Altair (Desert Sheikh Romance, #5)

  About the Book

  Altair: | A Desert Sheikh | Romance

  Nine years ago

  Present time

  Three Years Ago

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  Author's Note

  You are probably unaware of this, but my first glimpse of you was not at the royal palace, with you standing tall and proud while my father came bearing gifts, one of which included...me.

  My father was of the old ways. He believed he was doing me a favor. I would be the envy of many, he told me, for I was to be bride of your cousin, the king.

  Your cousin, who already had a queen.

  But I digress.

  As I said earlier, that day was not the first time I met you.

  Our story, alshaykh, started much, much earlier than that...

  Note: This is a steamy marriage of convenience romance. No cliffhangers! If you enjoy sheikhs sweeping you off your feet in books by the likes of Lynne Graham, Jane Porter, Sharon Kendrick, Michelle Reid et al, then this book is for you. Be a princess for a day, beloved and cherished by the kingdom's most feared warrior sheikh.

  About the Book

  "Cards on the table," he said softly. "Deal?"

  Safiya nodded.

  "You know of the charges your father is facing?

  "Nem."

  "Do you believe him capable of treason?"

  "I believe he will do everything he can to make me queen."

  "Fair enough," Altair conceded. "And you? You truly do not wish to be queen?

  "Only if you wish to be king."

  "I don't."

  "Then I don't."

  "I matter that much to you?"

  "Nem."

  "Because I'm your hero."

  "Nem."

  "Why?"

  "Because you always do the right thing," Safiya said simply.

  "I am not a fucking saint—-"

  "I know, alshaykh. You are no saint."

  Altair stiffened.

  "Because saints die..."

  Her voice trailed off, but he heard the rest of her words all the same.

  Saints died, and the princess did not want him to die.

  The princess, who was a traitor's daughter, wanted him—-

  A man she thought was her hero, but also...

  A man who had been lying to her and was still lying to her—-

  She did not want him to die, and it was just one of the thousand things about her that did not make sense.

  Nothing about her ever made sense, but for now—-

  "May I kiss you, Safiya?"

  He saw her eyes start to shine at hearing him say her name, and when she finally spoke, it was that voice again.

  "Yes, please."

  It was the kind of voice that loved without saying the words.

  Altair:

  A Desert Sheikh

  Romance

  by Marian Tee

  Copyright 2021 by Streak Digital Publishing

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Nine years ago

  It was over.

  The war was finally over, and the thought had twelve-year-old Ahmad delirious.

  For the past two hours, he and the other children had hidden themselves under the wooden tables at the marketplace, wide-eyed and terrified as gunfire and screams reached their ears. While such noise was nothing new to them, today had felt different. Ahmad hadn't been able to think of a word for it, but if feelings were to come with its own melody, then he would've described this morning as one razed by a sickening cacophony of desperate violence.

  Ahmad had feared such noise would never end.

  And yet it did.

  Relief was a burning sensation in his chest as Ahmad watched military trucks emerge from the distance, and joyous cheers exploded from his people as they caught sight of the royal banner. The trucks rumbled closer, and Ahmad saw the older people of his tribe begin to weep. It was a heart-wrenching sight, and Ahmad's own eyes started to sting.

  The war was truly over then.

  He would no longer need to hide. No longer need to merely dream of playing with his friends like they once did. The war was over, and their tribe could finally reclaim their peaceful lives in the desert.

  Looking around, Ahmad saw his fellow tribesmen already hard at work, running back and forth to bring water to wounded soldiers.

  His heart swelled, and because he also wanted to show his gratitude, Ahmad quickly crawled out from his hiding space and broke into a run. There was only one jar of clean water left inside his family's tent, but he didn't hesitate to grab this, along with the cleanest towel he could find.

  Ahmad searched for a soldier who had yet to receive assistance, and the one he found required zigzagging through dead bodies. Such a gory sight might've curdled other people's stomachs, but not him. The corpses that littered the ground were all rebels, and so as far as Ahmad was concerned, these men deserved to die over and over for the way they had pointlessly murdered members of his tribe.

  The boy finally reached the soldier he had set his sights on: he was tall and powerfully built, and he was staring down at a decapitated corpse.

  "Alsyd?" Master?

  Ahmad offered the towel and jar up, in case the soldier wanted to clean his wound. "You are still blee—-" The boy's voice died when the man slowly turned to face him.

  Ahmad's knees sank down on the sun-baked sand. Standing before him was none other than Sheikh Altair Al-Atassi. The man was a member of the royal family, but more importantly than that, the sheikh was also the kingdom's strongest and bravest hero, and the realization had Ahmad feeling delirious once again as the sheikh bid him to rise.

  Altair took the jug and towel the boy offered with a murmur of thanks, and when he finished wiping his face, he heard the boy gulp audibly.

  "A-Alshaykh..." S-Sheikh...

  The horror in the boy's eyes made him raise a brow. "That bad?"

  Ahmad could only nod. The wound on the sheikh's face was still viciously raw, its edges crusted with blood, and ran from the sheikh's left eyelid all the way down to his jaw. It was almost as if someone had wished to carve off half of the sheikh's face, and the mere thought had Ahmad gulping anew.

  "Maehdina, alshaykh." I'm sorry, sheikh. "It is very bad."

  To which the sheikh only smiled, and when he spoke, his answer was just as cryptic. "Good."

  Ahmad decided not to answer. He could not see anything good about the sheikh's disfigurement, but he also knew better than to point this out.

  Altair briefly relayed instructions for the boy, and Ahmad, chest now puffed with pride, bowed to the sheikh and promised fervently he would do as commanded. Altair acknowledged the bow with a grave nod. The boy was never to know that his errand was only meant to give Altair a private moment.

  And now that he was finally alone...

  The sheikh turned to his attention back to the last man to taste the blade of his vengeance.

  It was over.

  Although the same words ran through the minds of the people around him, Altair's thoughts did not bring him a similar sense of peace. There was neither relief nor triumph to savor, and his thoughts had little to do with the Sand Wars itself.

  For Altair, today's battle was entirely personal: what was over was a promise given and a promise kept, and as soon as his eyes slowly closed, the past yanked him back into its tortuous embrace.

  He was twenty again, his father was dying, and it was all his fault.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  Even now, Altair couldn't bear the memories of Hadwin's death, and the sheikh forced his eyes open and gritted his teeth as he willed himself to focus instead on the black-and-white harshness of the present.

  He had promised to avenge his father's death, and the dead man on the ground was the last of the rebels that had kidnapped Altair.

  It was over.

  He had been a stubborn and reckless fool in his youth. A fool who had blindly trusted the rebels when they said they would consider entering into a truce if Altair joined them in the desert without his guards. And the price of his idealistic foolishness had been his father's life.

  And that, too, was over.

  He would never be such a fool again.

  Present time

  Interview Transcript #056

  Interviewee: Beatriz Yildiz (Code: BY)

  56, single, Filipino-Ramilian descent, formerly employed by the Sheikh of Farigha

  Interviewer: Detecti
ve Zahra Caplan (ZC)

  Witness: Fredericka S. Grachyov

  Legal counsel to Sheikhdom of Farigha

  Spears-Grachyov Law Firm PLLC

  Date: (Redacted)

  Place: (Redacted)

  Duration: (Redacted)

  Location: (Redacted)

  Excerpt 1A from full transcript of recorded interview

  ZC: How do you know Sheikh Mahmud Tannous?

  BY: I was his former mistress. He dispensed of my services when he married his wife. When he was widowed, he had his people look for me. He knew I could be trusted, and he offered me a permanent position in his household as his daughter's keeper.

  ZC: Do you mean her governess? Or lady's maid perhaps?

  BY: To be blunt, he employed me as the princess' warden. I looked after her at night while Urwa - a eunuch - looked after her during the day.

  ZC: Why did the princess need such looking after?

  BY: The sheikh was obsessed in guarding her chastity. His plan to make her a queen or at least consort to the king was years in the making.

  ZC: And was the princess in favor of these plans?

  BY: Safiya had no say over anything. She was a captive in her own home. Her room was no better than a prison cell, and she was never allowed to leave the estate. Urwa and I were the only ones allowed to talk to her.

  ZC: You've obviously become emotionally attached to your charge.

  BY: You'd have to be an unfeeling bitch not to. She's the purest person you'd ever hope to meet. The kindest. She's the last person to deserve the kind of life she's been given.

  ZC: Because of her father?

  BY: He was away almost the entire time. He was never around long enough to see what was happening.

  ZC: Did that make the relationship between the sheikh and his daughter contentious?

  BY: No. Unfortunately...no. The relationship between them is...I suppose the only word to use here is one-sided. He has forgotten she exists, while the princess...she loves him, fool that she is.

  ZC: What about Saul, the sheikh's right-hand man?

  BY: An asshole. I thought I knew what evil looked like...but that man...we all did our best to avoid him, and Safiya...she was scared of him.

  ZC: Did she believe he would hurt her?

  BY: He would rape her first before anything. The way he sometimes stared at her, when he knew the sheikh wasn't there to see him...it would make anyone's skin crawl. And it got worse after...

  (BY stops speaking.)

  ZC: Are you alright, Ms. Yildiz?

  BY: There was this girl. Saul abducted...and raped her.

  (ZC presents several photos to BY.)

  ZC: Are any of these girls the—-

  (BY points to the photo of Malina Atwan.)

  BY: T-That's her.

  ZC: You saw her in the sheikh's estate?

  (BY slowly nods.)

  BY: None of us knew her name. The first and only time most of us saw her was when Saul dragged her kicking and screaming to the dungeons. She would've died...if not for...

  ZC: Someone rescued her?

  BY: It was the princess. She was the only one with the courage to risk Saul's wrath by helping the girl escape.

  ZC: Did Saul find out about the princess' involvement?

  BY: No. But he suspected.

  ZC: What would Saul have done if he found out the princess was behind the girl's escape?

  BY: At that time, Urwa and I thought he was biding his time to turn the sheikh against his own daughter. And if that happens...he would've...he could've done a lot of things. Things that would've made the princess wish she were dead instead. But because he couldn't prove it, he made her watch instead.

  ZC: Watch what?

  BY: There was this little boy. Safiya was fond of him. He was the cook's son. And Saul...he had the boy taken from his home and made Safiya watch as his men...oh God, the child almost died that night. Saul wanted the princess to know that if she ever defied him, it would be others who'd pay the price, and...

  (BY starts to cry.)

  BY: He broke her that night. She changed. She wasn't the same. She never smiled again. And I was so terrified. If I thought there was a chance Urwa and I could take her away, or even speak to Sheikh Mahmud about Saul, we would have. But there was none. Saul had everyone terrified of him, and no one - not even the princess herself - could get to Mahmud without Saul being there.

  ZC: This change that you noticed in the princess' behavior...is she still the same today?

  (BY shakes her head.)

  BY: Sheikh Altair changed that.

  ZC: When they became betrothed?

  BY: No. Before that.

  ZC: When they first met in the palace?

  BY: That wasn't the first time she saw him. That was the second time.

  ZC: But Princess Safiya has never left Farigha before the day her father took her to the royal palace.

  BY: Sheikh Altair visited Farigha once. When the Sand Wars ended, and people from every sheikhdom was clamoring for him.

  ZC: Then this was...the year after Malina Atwan's escape?

  BY: She was still withdrawn at that time, but when news broke out of the sheikh coming to Farigha, and people around us started excitedly sharing stories about the sheikh...it was the first time I saw a spark of life in her. It made Urwa and I so happy, so relieved we had a chance to get the old Safiya back, that we did everything to get our hands on anything about the sheikh. Every newspaper and magazine, everything that had the sheikh in it, we gave it to her...

  ZC: Was her interest in the sheikh romantic in nature?

  BY: A little, I think. Urwa was convinced it was so. But I wasn't. I think at that time she simply wanted to believe that someone good and brave...could also be strong. Enough to win over evil.

  ZC: And when they finally met?

  BY: They didn't.

  ZC: But you said...

  BY: I said it wasn't the first time for the princess to see Sheikh Altair. The first time was when the sheikh came to Farigha, and we helped Safiya to disguise herself and slip out.

  ZC: So she saw him but didn't meet him.

  BY: Exactly.

  ZC: And you mentioned earlier that this was what caused her to change?

  BY: When she returned to us, she was crying, and we were worried at first, until we realized, no...it was when we saw her eyes, and they were shining.

  (BY starts crying again.)

  BY: I still remember how she described him. A guardian angel. That was how perfect he had been to her. And yet—-

  (BY turns to the two-way mirror.)

  BY: You're there, aren't you? You heard everything, haven't you? Damn you. Goddamn you. How could you, damn you? She loved you. And yet you hurt her.

  Three Years Ago

  Chapter One

  A pair of palace guards quietly shut the door as soon as the Emir Sheikh and all of his vassals were inside the war room. The five Al-Atassi sheikhs were the most powerful men in the kingdom, and together they made Ramil what the media liked to refer to as one of the world's "modern superpowers".

  The meeting began with a quick recap, the king and his cousins going over the details of the recently concluded elections. Its results had been more than what they had allowed themselves to hope, with the council voting 120-0 in favor of Khalil remaining as Emir Sheikh. And as the laws of their land went, no council member from hereon would have the power to impeach Khalil and force him out of the throne.

  One battle won, Khalil thought, but the war had just begun, and everyone in this room knew it. He glanced at Altair, who served as the kingdom's security adviser and highest-ranking military officer as commander of the Ramilian army. "I believe you have something for us?"

  "Nem." Yes. "It's about Mahmud."

  At Altair's nod, the female lieutenant standing behind him began handing out case folders to the sheikhs. Altair waited as his cousins went through the security report, and judging by the way their expressions simultaneously hardened, he knew the other sheikhs had come into the same conclusions as he had.

  "The evidence against Sheikh Mahmud..." The first to speak was Rayyan, the blue-eyed Al-Atassi sheikh who headed the kingdom's finance department. "It's sufficient to establish an indefensible link between him and the coup, isn't it?"

  "Nem." Altair's voice was underlined with cold contempt.

  "What do you propose we do next?" Altair's younger brother, Malik, asked quietly.