I don’t care to repeat it ever again.
“Icannot stay in here forever,” Bishop snarled irritably. “This is a Fae fucking mess.”
The shifter’s shoulder length black hair was sticking up at every angle from the all-day sleep we’d fallen into after the attack. There were even bits of grass woven in the soft strands—making me paranoid and quickly finger combing my own hair. Bishop paced the confines of the elegant bedchamber inside King Traevon’s castle I used as my own when staying here, my father having been smart enough to keep us together.
When the shifter and I had awoken with the jerk of revival—my father smacking us in the faces, done waiting for us to wake naturally—we’d both fucking started frantically searching for each other…and found the other right there beside us.
My father scowled and snapped, “We must wait until King Traevon and King Athon return from Fairy. We need their royal power to kill the beast from afar since the punisher can take you two down so easily.” His violet eyes glared back and forth between us. “It is the safest option for you two, and you well know it.”
I flashed my fangs in a fury and rubbed at my chest. “That motherfucker’s howl is the problem. It hits too hard and fast.”
Bishop grunted and leaned back against the wall, grumpily crossing his arms over his chest. “It’spowerfulas well.”
“I would imagine so,” Marlon muttered, rubbing his forehead. “He is supposed to exact punishment for the Fae. They wouldn’t send a weakling to this realm to handle issues.”
My lips thinned as I looked out into the darkened night sky…and then I froze at the sight down below. I muttered in horror, “This day just gets worse and worse.”
Father’s and Bishop’s heads snapped in my direction, and then their footsteps were swiftly pounding across the room at the horrified expression on my face. They squeezed beside me and instantly glared at the blazing view lighting up the dark, night sky.
“Isn’t that the apple orchid?” Bishop rested his left hand against the windowsill, leaning forward to see the flames leaping into the air and spreading. “Do you think the punisher started a fire to draw us out? Or is it a coincidence that shit’s gone this wrong twice in one day?”
Father snarled nastily at the flames and turned on his heel, growling, “I’ll ask the guards outside what in the Fae fuck is happening now.”
“Wait.” I snapped my fingers, grabbing my father’s attention. I pointed to the right and severely said, “The heir’s castle. There are lights on in Princess Trixie’s bedchamber.”
Marlon stiffened in place. “Fuck.” Then he raced from the room while Bishop and I looked between the blazing orchard fire and the heir’s castle.
I leaned on the side of the windowsill the shifter wasn’t occupying, muttering snappily, “Either King Traevon is already back and burning shit down, or the punisher is causing havoc.”
Bishop narrowed his eyes at the royal grounds, watching Father storm across the field and pull four guards aside. His attention was whole and absolute, evaluating each person down below, the way their body language told a story all on its own.
The shifter blew a quiet, relieved breath when my father nodded and walked back calmly to the main castle. “It appears Fairy could not stop King Traevon from saving his heir.”
As I looked toward the heir’s castle to my cousin’s lit room, my lips curved viciously with pride. “Of course, it couldn’t. He would do anything for her.” I turned my head and raised my white brows at the shifter. “I’m sure it means King Athon is back as well. Considering the truth, my king would not leave him behind.”
Bishop grunted and turned his attention toward me, his honey-brown shifter eyes scanning over my features. Finally, he asked softly—too quietly to be heard by anyone else, “You know then what King Athon and Princess Trixie are to one another?”
“Other than when the urge fucked them the same way it fucked us?” My smirk was slight and ugly, both of us done dancing around what we’d been saying for the last forty-eight hours. “Yes, they are soul mates. I know, shifter.”
“Hm.” Bishop stalked closer before stepping behind me and wrapping his large arms around my waist. I stood completely still in surprise as he propped his chin on my head, silently watching the orchard burn in a blaze of King Traevon’s royal firepower. When I started to relax against the brute of a man, he murmured absently, “I’m starving. Mayhap we can talk a guard into spit-roasting one of those pigs out there in the blaze.”
I choked on a laugh and began snorting extremely inelegantly. “My king’s soul mate is going to be very cross about their deaths. She loved those stinking pigs.”
“Then Minnie will never know.” The shifter chuckled with me. “That elf scares me for some unfathomable reason. She seems like the typical artist, but I get the feeling there is much more behind her eccentricities.”
“That, shifter, is a wise feeling to have.” I snorted again and turned around in his arms, tilting my head back to peer into his wild eyes. “What are you hungry for exactly?”
The shifter carefully lifted a black, cocky eyebrow. No words came from his smirking mouth.
“Food, Bishop,” I clarified quickly. “What would you like to eat? I’ll have the cooks rustle something up.”
“Let us go down and eat with your father,” the shifter said far too kindly. “It would do him well right now to keep you in his sights.”
“Agreed,” Marlon unexpectedly growled from the doorway, leaving me snapping my head in his direction. His violet eyes scanned our persons, eyeing how the shifter had me in his arms. Father snorted at the motherfucking blush that overcame my pale face, muttering, “You’ve really got to work on that, son. It’s a dead giveaway.”
I blinked slowly and muttered, “Please excuse the natural reaction my body is having. I shall try my fastest to overcome the grand surprise and twisted kink of shifter dick doing it for me in the future.”
Bishop gurgled deeply in his throat.
