He wore no cloak today. The muscles on his massive, bared chest flexed with every step his Fae-gift took, my soul mate’s warm, russet skin tone beautiful under the sun’s rays. His long, white hair was windblown and his cheeks pinked from his flight. He was a veritable feast for the wandering eye. I licked over my lower lip and watched his thighs tighten under his black leather pants as he leaned to the side and shoved a caster away.
Despite our surroundings, I sighed happily.
“Are you enjoying the view, elf?” King Athon smirked.
My lips twitched. “Shh. Don’t speak. You’ll ruin my daydream.”
My soul mate chuckled deeply. “And what, pray tell, are you daydreaming about with that look on your face?”
I lifted my eyes to his. “A handsome man. One who knows when to shut up.” I grinned, flashing my fangs. “As I said, it is a dream.”
King Athon kept chuckling and tilted in my direction. He whispered, “Why would you want me to be quiet? You like it when I talk dirty.”
As his severe, shifter voice rolled over me, a shiver ran down my spine and gooseflesh lifted on my arms. My eyes caught on his solid black gaze, and my breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t look away from my soul mate. I wanted to breathe him in right then.
With his handsome face close to mine, he inhaled deeply, like he was savoring my scent, and rumbled quietly, “If you don’t wish to sleep in your parents’ room again tonight, you know of another bed that is always open to you.” He bit his plump, bottom lip with his white teeth and slowly released it, his dark eyes never leaving mine. “I would like you there, elf.”
Swiftly, a thin stream of fire shot right between our two faces in a straight line. It only took a blink to capture and extinguish the flames, fear for my soul mate charging my royal firepower to act fast.
I jerked my face forward and shouted, “King Traevon!”
Father sat twisted on his seat again and wore the fiercest scowl. He pointed a finger sharply at my soul mate. “Thatwas not watching your Fae damned surroundings! Do try not to be a hypocritein the middle of a busy street!” More finger slashing through the air. “Truly, where is your Fae damned head at, King Athon? Oh! I know. That is right. My own personal nightmare to welcome to the family is trying his best to remind me at every bloody turn where his head is at.Stop. It.”
King Athon slowly leaned back from my person to sit properly on his Fae-gift, and then he rumbled pleasantly, “I’m welcome to the family? I didn’t know you cared so. Mayhap, we should knit hats together for the head we think the most with. I imagine yours would be very small, indeed.”
I groaned and rubbed at the back of my neck.
King Traevon’s nostrils flared. “Are you done yet?”
My soul mate lifted his black eyebrows ever so slightly. “Are you? We may do this all day, if you wish.”
“Just…enough. Do not let that happen again.” His emerald eyes turned to mine. “What was it you said last night?Try harder? Take your own advice, my heir.”
I sniffed down my nose at him. But I sat a little straighter in my saddle and surveyed my surroundings. It hadn’t gotten any better.
But as we started moving again, I stated clearly, “I’ll be there tonight, shifter.”
“I thought you might.” King Athon kept his attention elsewhere, but he wore the grin of a satisfied man. “Do take care to eat properly beforehand. We will be up all night.”
I laughed quietly and punched a caster trying to steal my slipper. “As long as there are no uninvited guests in the morning, I shall be quite happy with your plans, shifter.”
“Let us hope there are not.” My soul mate glanced at me quickly. “Have you, perchance, been able to purchase more of those bath beads from the Merfolk Kingdom?”
I muttered wryly, “I’ll bring two bottles. One for you, one for me. But don’t you dare use mine.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” King Athon sighed harshly and bent completely at the waist, leaning far down over the side of his Fae-gift where I couldn’t see. When he popped back up…he had a caster toddler in his arms who was wide-eyed in terror, with tear streaks running down her chubby cheeks. He held the caster close against his chest and pressed his lips to her sweaty head, murmuring softly, “You are safe, little one. No one can hurt you up here.”
My jaws clenched as I stared at her clothing. It was ripped and bloodied in a few places and the poor child had no shoes on her tiny, dirty feet. I whipped my head to and fro, searching for the parents.
I hissed, “Where in the Fae fuck are they?”
“In this confusion, who is to know?” King Athon soothed his hands down the toddler’s back when she whimpered. “I’ll hand her off to the guards at the castle’s gates. They’ll be able to locate them.”
Over the next two hours, Father and I took over keeping the craziness away, while my soul mate continued to soothe the lost child. When we finally reached the castle’s gates, she had found slumber somehow inside King Athon’s arms and didn’t wake when she was transferred to a caster royal guard. The three of us were fairly displeased by this point in time, tired and hungry and annoyed as all Fairy, as we dismounted in front of the castle’s front doors.
King Traevon growled under his breath, “I would hope the next time there is a traitor to be burned that Queen Mikko has learned to properly handle crowd control.”
“Let us hope that is true.” King Athonsnarled. He brushed at his arms, muttering, “I smell of filth. I could use a wash after that.”
