“Do you serve willingly?” I asked, since she hadn’t answered the question.
“We all do. This is an honor and a mark of respect that we show our families by being chosen, and serving,” Darynda said and dropped into a curtsey. She then introduced the other women who stood behind her.
Keeley had to be a Brownie; I could tell by the way her giant hazel eyes darted around the room looking for anything out of place; not to mention, she looked no bigger than a twelve year old, much like the Brownie at Ryder’s mansion had. Her hair was short chestnut brown with light blonde highlights that were scattered throughout it. Faelyn was a Pixie, and she stood with an awkwardness developed from being able to fly instead of walk. The Pixie had bright blue eyes in a shape of a saucer, and blonde hair with pink tips that looked like she’d dipped them in dye recently, judging from the brightness of the color. Her wings twitched nervously.
Meriel looked to be Fae, but I couldn’t judge from her appearance which Caste she belonged to. Her black hair had green and blue highlights to it, and she had a sensuality about her that seemed to surpass many of the Fae women I had met to date. Her green and gray eyes seemed to be tracking Ryder, and I wasn’t quite sure of what to make of that.
They seemed willing to be here, and happy about it even. I was still reeling from the news that I was pregnant, and probably wouldn’t be the best company at the moment. I actually felt sorry for them having to serve me.
“I’ll leave you to get settled in, Pet. If you need anything, they will get it for you. You’re not to leave this room without an escort, do you understand?”
“Whatever,” I said, lowering my eyes.
“I’ll be back tonight. Sinjinn will be close by; if you need me, just tell him. Otherwise, the only part of the castle you are allowed in is the pavilion for now.”
I watched him sift from the room before turning my eyes back to the four women who all stood silently, staring at me. We stood awkwardly taking each other in, before the one that had been called Darynda started up a conversation with me.
“So, you are what all the noise is about?” she asked in a smooth voice.
“I guess,” I said, not wanting to get into why I was here. I was still in shock and reeling over what had just been dropped in my lap.
“Okay, all we know is that you seem to have the castle in an uproar, and we were wondering why?” she asked as she tilted her head and smiled.
“Because I’m the Blood Princess would be my guess,” I replied. At the expulsion of breaths, I figured they knew what that meant to the Horde and Faery. They broke into excited chatter until the door of the room was opened, and Claire popped her head in.
She’d been friendly on our last meeting, and even under the circumstances, I’d played nice with her. Of course last time, she probably thought I’d just been someone else to feed Ryder.
She walked in, looking spectacular, her long frame decked out in a seafoam green silk dress that was far more lavish than anything I had ever seen her dressed in before. Her eyes threw angry sparks as she looked me over, which caught me off guard. “I was sent up to explain your position here.” The look on her face said she wasn’t happy about it at all.
“And what is it that is expected of me?” I asked, giving her the benefit of the doubt.
“You’re his whore, of course. You serve his needs, and as his concubine, you do anything he wants. You will be moved from the pavilion soon, where you will be expected to service the men who he deems worthy of fucking you. Now I know you think you are special to him, but we all were at one time. His passion is fleeting, and we all play our parts here.”
“Is that all?” If he thought he could put me in the harem to feed his elite guard, he had another thing coming.
“Listen, you are nothing new to us. You think you are so fucking special. You’re nothing, less than nothing, really. We are taking bets; you know what bets are right? You should, since it’s a human term. Many of the women in the pavilion give you a week of holding his attention before he moves on to someone of the Horde.”
“Considering I’ve held his attention for a few months now, and that he’s the one who brought me here…put me down for six months.” I smiled coldly. She wanted to be a total bitch? Bring it, I could play this game. “Now if you would excuse me, I’d like a bath.”
“I don’t think so!” she screeched, losing all sense of playing it cool. “He won’t be coming for you tonight. He’s made other plans.” She hissed but sheathed her claws. “He’s made plans that include me tonight.”
I felt bile rise to the back of my throat. “Then that is his choice. You think it bothers me?” It did, and I was doing my best to act nonchalant.
“Watch your back. You are not going to make many friends here, Witch.”
“I’m not just a Witch anymore. Haven’t you heard? Turns out I’m the Blood Princess, Claire. I didn’t ask to be here, Ryder made a contract with my parents for me. It’s a simple matter for him to fix, since he is the only one who can undo it.”
“Wrong; here, you are only a meal for the newly crowned Horde King,” she argued.
“Whatever,” I quipped and turned to my helper gals.
“He was with me last night, gaining strength to travel to the Blood Realm,” she cooed with a nasty taint to her sweet tone.
Ouch!
“He fed from you?” I asked, trying my best to hide the hurt that was even now burning in my chest.
“Yes, and he was very hungry,” she said, watching me as I turned around to face her.
“You slept with him?” Yes, I was a sucker for punishment.
“How else does one feed?” she replied coyly.
“He’s the King, it’s his choice,” I replied, trying to keep my face from betraying my feelings.
I’d slept with Ryder right after he’d been with Claire, but then he’d come for me and in doing so, he would have needed to be strong and ready to fight if presented with a worst case scenario.
I felt sick to my stomach; worse, I felt like I was going to…I threw up all over the bed with Claire watching me. She cringed and recoiled as if I’d thrown up on her. Fucking Fairy was dead! This was his fault, his stupid doing.
He’d gotten me knocked up!
This was going to go badly.
Chapter Six
I’d retched until I’d dry heaved. Someone had cleaned up and another had wiped my face with a cold cloth. They had tucked me into the fresh bedding, and I could hear whispers from the doorway. Hours went by, and when Ryder didn’t come to get me, despair kicked up its ugly head. Why hadn’t he come to get me?
Eventually, I’d fallen asleep as comforting hands soothed my hair as my mother had done many times when I’d been a child. It was comforting, but when I’d woken up, only Eliran was in the room with me.
“You were sick again,” he stated the obvious.
“You think?” I replied harshly and instantly regretted it. “I’m sorry, Eliran.”
“It concerns me that you are still getting sick. You are fully Fae now. You should be fine. Ryder seems to think that the first few times had to do with the wards inside your Human abode.”
“Home; it was my home, Eliran,” I whispered.
“Right, well, since you are newly out of Transition, we need to keep a close eye on your pregnancy. The first two months are the equivalent to a human’s first trimester of pregnancy. If you were to miscarry, this would be the time that it would happen.”
“Any idea why I am throwing up so much now that I am no longer in a house warded against the Horde?” I asked, finding myself concerned. I hadn’t wanted to be a mother, hadn’t even wanted to think about it. I may not have wanted it, but the thought of losing it brought tears to my eyes.
It was amazing how soon you could become attached to something you hadn’t wanted. I felt the tears flooding my eyes and tried to stop them, but failed.
“Synthia, you shouldn’t cry. I promise to do everything in my power to ensure that you a
nd the baby are both healthy and fine.”
“I don’t even know why I’m crying,” I replied honestly.
He smiled softly. “It’s the hormones. Normally they wouldn’t be this bad, as you haven’t been through your second heat cycle yet. The hormones can be worse in a newly Transitioned Fae. I tried to explain that to Kier as well, but he thought it better we not include that. You had enough pressure already on your slim shoulders. Fae pregnancy in the first heat cycle is rare, and yet we’d held hope that you would be different. You are, lucky for us.”
“I thought the plan was for me and Adam to have a child right away?”
“Plans usually are grand when they start out. We only hoped you would be able to, Synthia; hope is all we have left. You are different, though, as you can see. It is very possible that you could have done exactly as they had planned for you and young Adam. The only downside is that you are a newborn in our world and your newly found senses will be overwhelming for a while.”
“Great, so basically, I’m going to become a freaking water faucet!” I asked, drying the tears—or trying to. Poor Eliran patted my hand and made promises to return later. He looked a little uncomfortable and almost tripped over himself to get out of the room and away from me, and I didn’t blame him. I felt unlike myself, and now at least I had a reason for why I felt the way I did.
I’m not sure how much time had passed when Ristan came in slowly, as if he were afraid of what he would find. I looked up with puffy red eyes and started crying again.
“Well shit, Flower. Never took you for the sissy type,” he said, as he sat beside me on the bed and pulled me close to his shoulder. His dark blue button down shirt got an immediate soaking. At least he looked the same; the only thing different was a gold medallion on a thin chain around his neck that had the same design that was on the mark Ryder had given to me of the two dragons on the Celtic cross. This made me cry harder.
“It’s his fault!” I cried.
“Takes two to play hide the snake in the cave,” he replied.
“Hide the snake in the cave!?” I blinked, before I started laughing.
“That’s my girl,” he said with his shoulders shaking from suppressed laughter.
“This is crazy, Ristan. I didn’t ask for any of this. I’m not ready to be a mom,” I said, wiping at my eyes.
“I don’t think anyone is ever ready. You will be used to the idea when the child comes. He will be very protected, and cherished.”
“Who says it’s not a girl?” I asked, pulling away from his shoulder.
“The vision,” he said.
“The one with me having Adam’s baby? Yeah right, like I’m going to buy that crap. No offense.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Sometimes I don’t know whether Danu hates me, or if she just likes screwing with my head. Either way, she’s a bitch. If I got a choice in the visions, I’d have you married, and in my bed so fast your sexy little puffy eyes would roll.” He wiggled his eyebrows and kissed my cheek. “Now, Flower, no more chasing off the boys with tears. You’re so much more badass than tears, at least send em running from punches.”
“Ryder didn’t come for me. He said he would last night,” I replied ignoring his comment.
“He was otherwise busy. He has a lot to do, now that he is King,” he explained.
“He promised, and Claire said they had plans together?”
“That’s doubtful since he was with me, and we were doing Court business that ran much longer than it should have as far as I am concerned.”
“So Claire can lie?” I asked, wondering why she could and I couldn’t.
“No, but she’s a lot older and excels at word play.”
“Is Ryder going to grow tired of me?” I wasn’t sure why I’d asked, but I had a feeling Ristan wouldn’t lie to me.
Ristan turned to look at me closely. “Is that what you think? He went fucking crazy when you were taken. He went berserk and took the throne when we could have easily gotten you away from the Blood Realm, but he couldn’t wait to get you back. He wouldn’t even give us a day to make a plan and see it out. You really think he’s going to just lock you in the pavilion and take someone else?”
“He was ready to take his throne, anyway. You guys were coming back here to do just that. I’m blonde, Ristan, not an idiot.”
“You’re smart, Flower. Never said you weren’t. Ryder’s been putting off claiming that throne for more than twenty years. No, once he knew where you were, he called the full assembly of the Horde and marched right up to the throne. He manifested the crown of the Horde King and announced that Alazander was dead. We plan on something more formal down the road, but he was in too much of a hurry to do more than an announcement right then. Alazander was a bastard. This isn’t something he wanted to do, ever. Keep that in mind for the next few weeks. He has a hard road to walk right now. Everyone will be challenging his right to take the throne, even with him being the Heir of the Horde. It is one of the reasons for the “shock and awe” display yesterday. We couldn’t give them any time to think for one moment that he wasn’t Alazander. As it was, your brother was figuring it out when Ryder decided it was time to leave the party. If for one moment your father thought that the Horde King wasn’t Alazander. It would have been all over, and our departure would have been far bloodier.”
“Does Ryder look that much like Alazander?”
“In Fae form, not really, but in the Horde King form they look very similar to one another. Over the last few centuries, Alazander was rarely not in the form of the Horde King. Those that had been up close and personal with him would be able to see the differences, but not many lived to tell of it.”
“Seriously, you think they would have challenged him?” I asked, unsure how I would have felt about it since I’d thought he was Alazander at the time, too.
“Absolutely. Alazander terrified this world, but one of his sons would be another matter entirely. Any Fae Lord worth his salt would be compelled to test him, much less your father who had been battling Alazander for centuries.”
“Ryder would kick ass while chewing bubblegum, Ristan. I’ve never met anyone with a head made of rocks like his. Shit, he could probably just head-butt them with that box of rocks he has and be just fine.”
“Oh he would, but some things are worth a good ass kicking,” Ristan said with an evil smirk on his face.
“He’d kick your ass, Demon.”
“But it would be so worth it,” Ristan smiled and winked at me.
Ristan wiggled his finger, and the entire room grew thick with magic as he turned it from blue, to more appealing shades. Turquoise sheets now matched the beds canopy, and a white couch with matching turquoise pillows lined the far wall. There was a huge claw footed tub that dominated one corner of the room. No dressers here, not when you could glamour on clothing…not that I could do it well yet.
“That’s better; the other was too depressing. Come with me, there’s someone I want you to meet. She was much like you when she came here,” he said, getting up and pulling me out from under the warm covers. He stopped and looked at my silk robe for a moment. He smiled slyly, and pantomimed his fingers into a finger gun, took aim, and as he said “Pow,” the robe changed to a red silky top and pant set with soft leather slippers that matched in color. He blew on his fingers as I laughed at him and his crazy antics.
“Thanks.” I grinned at him.
“Don’t thank me. I wanted the naughty little school girl outfit, but this is more appropriate.” He smirked and held out his hand. I took it, and we sifted into the pavilion.
We walked through the pavilion and Ristan pointed out anything he thought I might like to explore, like gardens and pools. There was a bustle of activity here and so many creatures that I had never seen before. Dryads, sprites—all female, and the Demon seemed to know every one of them as he had to keep stopping to give a little kiss or some sort of affection to the giggling women as we walked. At one point, a faun with dainty hooved feet
and fur up to her small waist and nothing covering her chest, kept pace with us. She batted big brown eyes at Ristan invitingly, before running her finger over her lips seductively. Her breasts were lush and hardened as she made an inhuman noise at him before she turned and scampered away.
I turned my eyes to Ristan and shook my head. “Is there anything you won’t do, Demon? She has freaking hooves!”
“Hey, a Demon has to catch his dinner somehow, and don’t let her fur deter you. She’s a wild cat in the sack,” he teased good naturedly.
I held up my hands and shook my head. “Oh please, no details! Keep it to yourself,” I joked.
“Hey, I get it where the getting is good.” He wiggled his brows as he laughed. “Dacey and I were just playing with you; however you can’t judge anything around here. Most of the ladies have other shapes that they take.” His face saddened for a moment. “This is such a different place than what it used to be.” He sighed.
“How so?” I asked, wondering what it could have been like to put that hurt in his eyes.
“Flower, when Alazander ruled this world, this was a place of sheer terror. We have done what we can to fix the damage, but some hurts will never heal,” he said quietly, with a distant look of melancholy.
“You’re speaking of the Gifts?” I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to know about what had happened here.
He nodded slowly in answer. “The Gifts, wives, and his concubines. Ryder released them all upon Alazander’s death; however many could not return to their homes. Some because of the fear of how their families would treat them and some because of the relationships they had found here. This is a sanctuary as much as anything else these days. Please keep this in mind when you think of this place. It’s more than a harem as you have called it, Synthia. To these women, being removed would crush them more than they already are.” His swirling eyes begged for understanding. In all of my imaginings of the harem, this was the last thing I had expected.