“Sire?” Montfort stumbles back, shocked, not only at the King’s accusation but also at his threat of attack. The King has never done this to him before. What has this female done to him?
“You were told to have rooms prepared.” Grim shoves him into the girls’ room. “Does this look prepared to you?” He demands.
“Sire! I had the upper level prepared! The female level!” Grim turns running rough hands across his face.
“I am sorry Montfort. I should have been more specific in my instructions. We will all be staying on this level.”
“Yes sire I’ll have a room for each female prepared.” Montfort bows stiffly.
“Just this one.” Grim corrects.
“Just one sire?” Montfort is very confused. “All three wish to share a room when others are available.
“Miki and Carly will rest in this room, Lisa will rest with me.” Grim informs him, knowing he will be shocked.
“I…sire…” Montfort can do nothing but sputter.
“Tomorrow, Lisa will direct you on how to prepare the room for our offspring.”
“Lisa…” Montfort is so stunned he doesn’t realize he’s used the Queen’s first name. “She is to direct us sire?”
“Yes. She knows what’s best for our girls. What makes them happy.”
“Girls sir?” He questions.
“It’s what young females are called on Earth.”
“Yes sire. Is there anything else sire?” Montfort isn’t sure he can take more. A female resting with a male…what is the universe coming too.
“I will contact you in the morning when they are ready.”
“Yes sire.” Montfort quickly leaves.
Lisa rises from the table when Grim reenters the room. She can sense his unhappiness at the girls’ reaction to his home. Walking over she wraps her arms around his waist at least she tries too.
“I’m sorry my Lisa.” Leaning down, he rests his scared cheek on the top of her head.
“It’s alright.” She tells him.
“No, it is not.” He denies. “Montfort misunderstood my instructions and I was too concerned about getting you here to realize it.”
“Our safety is more important than some dust Grim. Tomorrow the girls and I will take care of it.” She reassures him.
“Montfort has been informed and will be available to you.”
“Oh, well I guess that would be good, the more hands the better. Come on now, you need to eat too. I’m sure your warriors have hundreds of things they want to discuss with you.” Taking his hand, she leads him to the table.
“Yes, there will be many things I must attend to tomorrow.” Approaching the table, he sees two empty plates. “You haven’t eaten yet?”
“I was waiting for you.” Grim doesn’t know what to say, so he leans down and kisses her.
“You are too good to me my Lisa.”
“Not possible.” Filling a plate, she puts it in front of him then takes one for herself.
“We’re done mommy.” Lisa looks over at the empty plates and smiles. They are adjusting well to the different food.
“Do you want more?” She questions.
“No we want to explore.” Carly jumps down from her chair.
“Well…I don’t know.” She shoots a concerned look to Grim.
“They’ll be safe.”
“Stay in this room okay.”
“Yes mommy.” The girls head off to explore.
”Eat my Lisa.” Grim urges, nodding she does.
The evening passes quickly as the girls explore and Grim patiently answers their questions. Soon their eyes begin to droop.
“Bedtime.” Lisa announces.
“No mommy!” Miki cries. “I don’t want to sleep in that room!” Tears run down her face.
“Oh Miki.” Lisa’s heart breaks at Miki’s fear.
“You will not sleep there tonight Miki.” Grim squats down in front of them. “Either of you. Tonight you will sleep in here with your mother and me and tomorrow the room will be properly prepared for you.”
“So it’s into the shower, both of you, while I find your bags.” Lisa tells them.
“Yes mommy.”
The girls are asleep before their heads hit the pillows on the couch. The excitement and stress of the day having worn them out. Double-checking the covers Lisa rises to find Grim settling the fire the girls had begged for earlier.
“They’re out for the night.” Walking up behind him, she wraps her arms around him.
“I should have realized traveling would tire them, tire you.” Turning he pulls her against his chest.
“You did fine. You’re new to this parenting thing, give yourself a break.” She looks up and sees the regret in his eyes.
“I am sorry for their room not being prepared." He sends a sad look towards the couch. "They must think it wasn’t important to me, not have seen to it.”
“Grim stop!” She demands. “You said it was a misunderstanding, that they prepared the wrong room.”
“Yes, the female level.” He tells her.
“Female level?” Seeing her confusion, he takes her hand, leading her to a staircase behind a door. “What?” She looks at him confused.
“It leads to the female level. It is where Montfort assumed you would be staying.” Increasing the light he lets her precede him up a narrow, winding staircase. At the top, she freezes, unable to believe what she’s seeing.
“What the hell! Grim…” She looks at him in shock.
“This would be where my female would reside, if one had chosen me.” Lisa sees the little glint of hurt in his eyes, that he’d been considered unfit by the Tornian females. She gently cups his face.
“They are fools.” She tells him.
“I am glad they considered me unfit my Lisa." He looks down to her. "If they had not then I wouldn’t have been able to give all this to you. My Queen.”
Turning back, Lisa looks at ‘all this’. The room takes up the entire length of the wing. It not only sparkles and shines but is also filled with beautiful things. Rugs, all sizes of furniture, bolts of fabrics in every color and texture imaginable. Jewels and gold chain lay in bowls scattered around the room.
“Why?”
“Why what my Lisa?” He pulls her back against him enfolding her in his arms.
“Why is all this here and not being displayed throughout Luanda?” She looks at the statuary and paintings.
“It is for the sole enjoyment of the female.” Lisa looks up at him astounded. “It is hers to take with her when she joins with another.”
“You’re kidding right?” She can't believe what he's saying. "No woman needs this much, can be this selfish.”
“It is the Tornian way.”
“Thank god…the goddess…that I’m not Tornian. Once the girls’ room is done we’ll have to decide where to put the rest.”
“It is for you my Lisa. It is yours.”
“Oh no it’ not.” Lisa shakes her head in denial.
“You refuse my gift?” Turning in his arms Lisa can tell she's hurt him. Framing his face with her hands, she makes sure he understands her.
“You are my gift Grim, this….” She gestures behind her. “I don’t need this to want to stay with you, I love you. I only need you and the girls.” Grim looks at the room that contains the riches of his planet and realizes she’s just given him the most priceless thing there is, her love. Capturing her mouth, he gives her a deep kiss.
“Do with it what you wish my Lisa. All I want is you...you and our girls.” Swinging her into his arms, he carries her to their bed.
Chapter Six
Morning dawns to find the King and Queen entangled in their bed, watching the sunrise. Pulling her gaze away from its beauty, Lisa props herself up on an elbow to look at him.
“What’s your question my Lisa?”
“Why is everyone so shocked when you say I am your Queen? You’re King Grim, why wouldn’t I be your Queen?” Grim’s eyes are full of indecisi
on. “Grim?” He feels her start to tense. “What don’t I know?” With a deep sigh, he sits up keeping her close, his hands caressing.
“In ancient times, when the King chose to join with a female, she always became his Queen.” Saying nothing, she waits. “Once a female accepts the title she is forever bond to that male, unable to join with others. When females became fewer, it was decided that the title could no longer be forced on the female. She must willingly accept it. It’s been over five hundred years since there’s been a Queen on Luda. Only in joining with the Emperor is the title still mandatory.” He can see Lisa’s mind working, sorting through what he’s told her.
“Why wouldn’t she what the title? Wouldn’t it secure her place in society? To be Queen?” Her fingers move absently across his chest.
“Perhaps, but to do so ends her chance of becoming Empress and that is the goal of all females.”
“I thought your females choose who to join with, not the male.”
“A male can refuse. It’s just unheard of, except for the Emperor.”
“Because there are so few women?”
“Yes. For a male to refuse a female’s joining request can be done but then the male’s chances of every joining are slim.”
“Except for the Emperor, he can refuse.”
“Yes, and Wray did after the death of his first Empress. He had two male offspring and decided others should be given the chance to join.”
“His first Empress died? What happened?”
“She was on an outing and somehow ingested a skua berry. No one knows how. There were bushes in the area but they hadn’t gone near them. Some think a bird dropped them on her plate. There was one on Risa’s also but she had yet to eat it.”
“Risa? Your Risa?” Lisa stiffens.
“She was never mine.” Grim denies.
“Don’t argue semantics with me Grim. If you hadn’t been ambushed she would have been.”
“You are upset.” He gives her a confused look. “Upset that she was there?”
“No.” However, Lisa realizes she is. She’s jealous that Grim would know where the woman was who had rejected him. That he’d keep track of her.
“My Lisa," He tilts her face up to his with a firm finger. "Tell me.”
“You still care for her.”
“For who? Risa?”
“You keep track of where she is.” She finds she can’t meet his eyes. She has no right. When he’d been alone, she’d had Mark. God she is no better than a Tornian female.
“Look at me my Lisa.” He commands. “Why are you upset?”
“Because I’m a bitch.” She tells him impatiently. “I’m jealous that you’ve kept track of a woman who hurt you so badly and I have no right.” As she bares her ugly side, Grim slowly grins at her. “Stop that!" She demands. “You shouldn’t be smiling. You should be yelling at me for being so selfish.”
“You think I care for her.” His grin grows. “You are jealous of someone I haven’t seen since she was a child.”
“I thought you said you’d never met her.” She counters.
“I never have, I said I’d seen her. Risa’s father was Captain of my father’s Elite Guard. She grew up in the Palace.”
“But you never met her?” She can’t keep the confusion out of her voice.
“It would never have been allowed. Not until she was willing to join.”
“How old was she when she contacted you.”
“Seventeen.”
“I thought eighteen was the earliest a female could join.”
“It is, but when I was proclaimed King, Risa petitioned Wray to be allowed to join. Her father had been killed in the same battle as King Rask, my father's brother, the former King of Luda. She feared she’d be forced to join beneath herself due his death and since Wray was already joined she chose me.”
“Wait…wait…let me see if I understand this. Risa grew up in the same house you did.”
“Torino is the House of the civilized universe yes.”
“Quiet. But you never met her, just saw her, and when her father was killed she wanted to secure her position so she chose you because you’d been named King.”
“Yes, but if Wray were to die without an heir I would replace him so she could still become Empress.”
“Returning her to Torino.”
“Yes.” Lisa shakes her head.
“Your females are a conniving group Grim.”
“They are but they are essential to our survival.”
“So back to the original question. Your people believe I’d rather have the chance to be Empress than to be your Queen…then to be with you.”
“Yes.”
“Guess we’ll just have to show them huh.” Lisa grins at him.
“No. You only show things to me.” His sexy grin has her blood pumping, reminding her of how she’d shown him his scars didn’t matter.
“I can live with that.” She whispers, stretching seductively up to kiss him. Grim latches on to her lips ready to roll her over when giggles freeze him. Tearing his lips away, he looks to the edge of the bed, to find two little girls avidly watching them. Panicked eyes flash to Lisa, who lets her head fall onto his bare chest.
“Good morning girls.” She says, turning her head to look at them.
“Morning mommy…morning Grim.” The giggling returns.
“Morning little ones.” Grim moves stiffly under her.
“Girls, why don’t you go get dressed in the cleansing room while we get breakfast sent up.”
“Okay mommy.” Still giggling, they grab their bags.
“Welcome to the world of parenthood.” Lisa smiles up at him.
“We will lock the door.”
“They'll just pound on it. Come on, we only have a few minutes before they’re back and trust me, as nice as your bare ass is, they don’t need to see it.” Lisa disentangles herself from him.
“You like my ass?” Grim asks pulling on his sleeping pants.
“You know I do.” Pulling on her nightgown, she moves to make the bed.
“Come here.” He orders, pointing to the spot right in front of him.
“Grim…” Although she protests, she obeys him.
Sinking his fingers into her hair, he captures her mouth for a deep kiss. “Good morning.” He whispers against breathless lips.
Breakfast is a noisy affair. The good night sleep has the girls refreshed and full of energy.
“So girls, today we are going to clean your new room.”
“Ahhhh…” They groan.
“Don’t you two 'ahhhh' me. Grim has some of his men coming to help so it shouldn’t take long and once it is clean Grim has a surprise for you.”
“You do?” Two heads turn as one to him.
“It’s your mother’s to give.”
“Grim.” Lisa gives him an exasperated look. She thought they’d settled this.
“It is yours my Lisa.”
“Mommy what’s Grim talking about?” Carly demands.
“You won’t find out until your room is clean, so what do you say? Shall we get started?”
Lisa decides the room doesn’t look any better in the day light. Taking a deep breath, she walks further in and turns to her girls.
“Well don’t just stand there. We have work to do, starting with opening these windows.” Moving to them, Lisa pulls the heavy curtains apart sending a cloud of dust billowing across the room. Coughing she unlatches the window, the fresh breeze sending even more dust flying out of the curtains.
“Mommy!” Her girls are laughing and coughing.
“Well this is just ridiculous.” Reaching up she grips the curtains pulling them down. “Come on girls, they’re all going.” Giggling they rush over to help her pull and that’s how Grim and Montfort find them, covered in dust, laughing.
“Lisa…” She turns around guiltily then beams at him.
“Oh Grim, there you are. We thought we’d get started without you.”
“I can see that.??
? He frowns at the curtains that are now on the floor, they could have been hurt.
“Yeah well the curtains have to go, they are so full of dust I doubt they’re even cleanable.”
“You could have been hurt.”
“Only by dust inhalation, so now that they’re down we can get to the serious cleaning.”
“Trusted males will be here shortly to prepare the room sire.” Montfort addresses Grim. “If you would tell me what your females want done, they can retire to your room. I will let them know when we are done.”
“I don’t think so.” Lisa speaks first. “The girls and I will be right here helping.”
“Sire,” Montfort sends him a desperate look. “They’re females.”
“Glad you noticed Montfort.” Lisa reports sassily. “But that doesn’t mean we’re helpless. The girls will help, otherwise they won’t appreciate what they’re being given.” Montfort’s mouth drops open, not only because of what she’s said, but because she is addressing him, directly.
“What have I done wrong now?” She looks to Grim in exasperation.
“Females only address males directly when they wish to join with them.” Grim rubs the back of his neck. He should have anticipated this.
“Then how am I supposed to tell them what I want done?”
“Through me.” He tells her, knowing he needs to change his plans for the day.
“Well that’s just silly!” Hands on her hips she tilts her head. “You need to meet with your warriors. You don’t have time to be here.”
“My warriors can wait.” The look on Grim’s face tells her she’s going to have a battle on her hands.
“Grim,” She moves towards him, stopping just short of touching, when she remembers she’s covered in dust. “I love you. The girls and I know we come first to you, but we also realize you have other responsibilities and right now you need to see to them.” Lisa sees he’s listening. “Montfort and these ‘trusted’ males you’ve selected will just have to get used to females talking to them and really,” She waves her arms sending up another wave of dust. “How are they supposed to attract a female if they’ve never even talked to one?” That has Grim’s frowning.
“They will not attract you.” His eyes harden.