“You taste like them,” she whispered. “Like us.”
“We’re all one now,” I replied, positioning myself between her thighs. My cock slid into her pussy easily, still slick with Laurent’s seed and her own release. “Bound in ways no one has ever been before.”
She wrapped her legs around my waist, pulling me deeper. “Do you think we’ll ever leave this room?” she asked with a small smile. “Or will we just stay here forever, learning each other’s bodies?”
I rolled my hips, drawing a gasp from her lips. “Eventually, we’ll have a kingdom to run, a forest to protect, a sister to find.But right now?” I thrust deeper, feeling her clench around me. “Right now, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
We moved together with increasing urgency, her nails scoring lines down my back that would have barely registered on my bestial form but now sent shocks of pleasure-pain through my human nerves. The claiming bond pulsed between us, stronger somehow without the others present, more focused, more intense.
“I will always be worthy of you,” I promised against her lips, feeling my climax approaching. “My queen. My goddess. My everything.”
Her eyes glowed amber in the dim light, the magic in her blood responding to the intensity between us. “I love you,” she whispered, the words hitting me like a current pulling with the moon. “I love all of you, but right now, in this moment, I love you, Marcel.”
That was all it took to send me over the edge. I came with her name on my lips, emptying myself into her as my knot swelled, locking us together just as Laurent had been locked to her before. Something in the magic between us demanded it, required this final act of claiming like we’d forever be part beast.
She thrashed below me, another wave claiming her, making her legs tremble around me. She screamed my name, now writhing below me. Her beauty naked for only my eye now. And she was beautiful with her glorious curves and large tits that bounced with every thrust. Then I saw her flat stomach as my seed pushed into her.
The thought of her stomach swelling with my child, with our child, made me press deeper still, grinding against her as my seed filled her womb. I wanted to breed her, needed to mark her in this most primal way. The others would feel the same, I knew, but right now, in this moment, she was mine alone.
And by some miracle, despite everything, despite the curse and the separation and the complexity of our situation, she loved me. She loved all of us, but she loved me individually.
It was enough. It was everything.
sixty-nine
Laurent
The forest breathed differently now. I stood at its edge, watching sunlight filter through leaves that had once been gnarled and twisted with corruption but now stretched toward the sky with vibrant life. A week had passed since we’d broken the curse, since we’d reclaimed our human forms and our kingdom, since Isabeau had bound us all together with a magic older than time itself.
My fingers traced the claiming mark on my shoulder, still warm to the touch, still pulsing with the connection to my brothers, to Alain, and most importantly, to her. Everything had changed, and yet somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the most significant transformations were yet to come.
Marcel and Bastien stood nearby, their naked bodies dappled in shadow and light as they surveyed what had once been our prison and was now our kingdom reborn. We’d come far enough from the castle that servants wouldn’t stumble upon us, yet close enough to see its gleaming spires rising above the treeline. The last thing we needed was to scandalize the staff who were still adjusting to serving princes again after decades of imprisonment.
“The stonemasons have nearly finished the modifications to the throne room,” Marcel said, his voice carrying that edge of authority he’d never lost even as a beast. “Five thrones instead of two. Father insisted.”
“Five fucking thrones,” Bastien muttered, though I detected no real anger in his tone. Just his usual bristling at change, at formality. “Like we’re all going to sit there in a neat little row.”
I smiled, knowing Bastien would sooner prowl the perimeter of the throne room than sit still during court. “It’s symbolic. A statement to the kingdom that we rule as one.”
That was the compromise our parents had reached. They would step aside, allowing us to rule the Enchanted Realm together, with Alain as the bridge between our kingdom and Durand. The claiming bond made us one in the ways that mattered most, but the rest of the world needed visual reminders, physical manifestations of power and connection.
“King Geraint seemed skeptical,” Marcel observed, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Though he couldn’t argue with the results.”
The King of Durand had returned to his own kingdom three days ago, taking most of his men with him. The alliance between our realms had been reestablished with formal treaties that acknowledged the sovereign nature of the Enchanted Forest and its magic while establishing mutually beneficial trade agreements. Decades of separation had changed both kingdoms, created different needs and priorities, but the foundations of friendship remained.
“Alain promised to return to Durand within a fortnight,” I reminded them, thinking of how the youngest prince of Durand had looked torn as he watched his father leave.
“He needs to settle affairs about magic there first before we discuss our alliance,” Alain stepped forward.
Bastien snorted, kicking at a fallen branch. “You mean come to terms with you sharing a bed with three other men and a woman isn’t a reason to disown you.”
“Bastien,” Marcel warned, though we all knew there was truth in the statement. Royal marriages were complicated enough when they involved only two people from different kingdoms. Our arrangement defied all convention, all precedent.
“King Geraint understands more than you give him credit for,” I said, remembering the private conversation I’d had with the aging monarch before his departure. His shrewd eyes had assessed me not as a beast or even a prince, but as one of the men who had claimed his son’s heart. “He cares more for Alain’s happiness than for tradition.”
“And I am not the heir to the throne. My brother gains Durand,” Alain added. “My merge here benefits our kingdom too.”
The forest rustled around us, a gentle breeze carrying the scent of wildflowers and fresh earth. In just a week, the land had transformed itself beyond recognition. Where once stood dead trees and poisoned soil now flourished life in every form. Themagic ran deep, repairing damage that had festered for decades under Enid’s curse.
