Had I passed out in the King of Shifters’ bed?
I think I had. I remembered not being able to move after the last time we’d had sex, the sunrise starting to spring over the horizon.
I sat up in a rush, the blanket tumbling to my waist.
My eyes rounded on my face, fear catching my breath.
This was King Athon’s bedchambers. It was daytime.
And a gremlin was perched on top of the footboard of the shifter king’s bed, one of his green, bony hands clutching the comforter, not two feet from where my toes hid under it. A gremlin who was not one of the Misfits, his eyes blue, a red cap on his head, and only black leather pants on his lower section.
His overlarge, blue-eyed gaze ran down my body. He smirked.
I sputtered, “A-Are you hungry?”
The gremlin shook his head.
I yanked the comforter up over my bare chest, and, not taking my eyes off this dark Fae, I frantically smacked my damned soul mate’s ass with the back of my hand. He slept next to me on his stomach but faced the opposite way, with his head near my feet—and no blanket over his naked body—close to the gremlin.
“Hm?” King Athon grumbled, not moving.
I kept smacking his ass—harder this time. “Get up!”
“Huh?” He lifted his head and peered down at me, blinking repeatedly, barely coherent.
I flicked my gaze above his head, then back down. “There is someone here.”
His black eyebrows flew together, and his nostrils flared. A tiger’s snarl instantly erupted. His head whipped around with his tiger fangs bared, right at the gremlin, his body already rising to attack with his muscles coiled.
The gremlin ticked a finger into a ray of sunlight, his voice dark with power that shook the air with each word spoken, chilling my flesh in the strangest way. “You don’t want to do that.”
Suddenly, Red Louie’s comments sprang to mind. He had said the others of his kind were far worse than the Misfits. With the power radiating off this new gremlin, I didn’t want to know how bad he truly was.
I scurried back on the bed, taking the comforter with me with each quick scoot until my bare back hit the headboard. My traveling bag was still under King Athon’s desk in his personal study, where my daggers were stashed. I had no blades to hold close.
The King of Shifters didn’t stop growling. He slowly moved his body to the side…placing himself between me and the gremlin. He rose to his knees, and his claws unleashed. He utterly blocked my view of the dark Fae.
King Athon snarled, “Who are you?”
The gremlin hopped twice to his right, smirking at the shifter king when he stopped, now able to see us both again. “My name is Bortia. And who would you two be?”
I removed any expression from my features.
This dark Fae didn’t know who we were.
I’d yanked King Athon’s crown off during our third bout of hardcore fucking. It had to be on the floor somewhere, but I had not the foggiest which direction I had flung it.
The King of Shifters growled again, not answering.
“I suppose that is unimportant.” Bortia smiled. It was hideous. “I know there is power here, though. I followed the signature, and it led me to this room. But which one of you actually holds the power?” His large, blue eyes flicked back and forth between the shifter king and me.
King Athon moved his body over, once again blocking the line of sight between the gremlin and me. “What are you talking about?”
“I am talking about Ruiuen. The old bitch would only pick the most powerful in this realm. So which of you is that?” Bortia hopped to his left this time, back where he had started. His attention stalled on my person. “This one protects you, elf. He must be your guard, but why you would pick a shifter does not make sense to me. And neither does the state of your undress in the same bed together. Would you care to explain that?”
“She owes you no explanation.” King Athonhissed.
“She does.” Bortia’s blue eyes never left mine. “Now hush, shifter. Learn your place. I am talking to the elf in charge.”
