The Plan Commences

by Kristen Ashley

His gaze moved over my face before he murmured, “I see this was not a sterling decision on my part.”

  “No,” I agreed.

  And it took not even a second for him to say his next.

  “I cannot begin to express how deeply I regret this, my wee monkey,” he whispered, his voice even heavier, indeed, positively dragging with repentance.

  I stared up at him.

  Did he just…?

  Apologize?

  And further, he had not called me his monkey in over a week.

  I had missed that.

  I had not wanted to.

  But I had.

  “I am new to being a husband as well, Silence,” he reminded me. “Though not new to being a king, that is not who I am to you. I am your husband, that is all I’ll truly be to you and it distresses me I have failed you so appallingly, not only in my actions, but in not understanding the entirety of the burdens you carry.”

  “I…erm…”

  I trailed off for I knew not what to say.

  Mars knew what to say.

  “I have mentioned this before, though did it in times most rife, so perhaps you did not take it in. Therefore, I’ll repeat it. You do not have to learn how to be a queen in but hours or days or weeks. Just be you. You are bright, and you are observant. You will find your way.”

  I hoped he was right.

  But it made my heart glad that he thought this.

  “Like earlier,” he carried on. “I was brimming with pride at how you handled Mercy. It may surprise you to know, but conversations like that over a simple breakfast can lead to situations that last centuries and include conspiracies, intrigues, battles and loss of life. If Wodell lost its crown prince to Firenze, matters that, as you know, are far from peaceable between our two lands could deteriorate irrevocably. True threatened that with I believe genuine intent. And truth be told, since she met her, Mercy’s behavior to Farah, who was raised beside me as my little sister, coming to a head like that over the breakfast table did not best please me.”

  Farah was raised beside him as his little sister?

  I knew they were close, childhood playmates, but…

  His little sister?

  “You asserted yourself,” Mars continued, “and reminded Mercy of her place, doing it as her niece, as well as the queen of a much more powerful realm than her own. You also reminded her of Farah’s place, which it is clear she should be much quicker in learning. True wearies of her prejudice against his bride and he does this swiftly. And last, in all, you are a queen of a powerful realm and I’m uncertain Mercy has come to understand that is who you now are. If she hadn’t, she is no longer under any illusions about that. It was firm, apparently offhand, thus a brilliant act of diplomacy.”

  “I was not attempting to be brilliant,” I admitted on a mutter. “I was just angry Aunt Mercy was being mean to Farah and not backing down from True.”

  “Well then, you’re a born diplomat.” He dipped closer. “Which was what I was keen to tell you when we arrived…together…at our tent. However, prior to that, you scampered away from me which delayed me being able to compliment my wife.”

  He was stalking me in order to compliment me.

  Now I felt like an idiot.

  Maybe because I’d been one.

  And perhaps, it was uncomfortable to note, I’d been thus much longer than said scampering.

  “I didn’t scamper either,” I mumbled.

  “Amore,” he murmured, his eyes dancing.

  How, precisely, could he be so vexing when he was also being lovely?

  These thoughts made me do the only thing I could in that moment.

  Roll my own eyes.

  “Silence.”

  I rolled them again to him.

  “Your father enjoys too much this unrest he senses between you and me,” he shared gently.

  When it came to my father, I could believe that.

  But I didn’t want to believe that.

  I wanted to find other reasons for his change in attitude toward me.

  “I don’t think that’s true,” I told him with more hope than surety. “I think he’s realized that the time has come he’s losing his daughter to another man, that other man is a man who will take her far away, and he’s utilizing the little time he has to be with her.”

  There was a different kind of regret in his expression when he replied, “I do not think you are right, bellezza, but I hope for your sake you are. And if this is what he desires, he will have more time with you as well as time to convince your husband his motivations are noble. But with the protection of your heart in mind, my love, I urge you to be on your guard if what you hope proves untrue.”

  This was good advice, therefore I nodded.

  “Good,” he murmured, his gaze drifting to my mouth as the hand not at my face which I had lost track of drifted elsewhere. “Now to correct the mistake I made last night.”

  Did he mean to…?

  I watched a different fire light in his eyes.

  He meant to.

  Eep!

  “My king,” I called.

  “Mm?” he answered, but he also didn’t answer seeing as he had no intention to listen to whatever I’d meant to say, and I knew this when his lips hit my jaw just as his hand cupped my breast.

  I felt the tip of his tongue trail to the skin below my ear, and this caused a delightful shiver.

  Then his thumb glided over my bodice at my nipple which caused a glorious shake.

  Oh my.

  “My king,” I whispered.

  His head came up. “Right here, Silence.”

  He was.

  Right there.

  And his thumb was right then circling my nipple which had begun to ache in a strange and wonderous way.

  It had also made another part of me ache in a lovely and glorious way.

  My gaze dropped to his mouth.

  I watched it move to ask, “Is that what you want, wife?”

  “Yes,” I breathed.

  Apparently, he told no lies last night when he said if I wanted something, I should tell my husband for I barely finished the word before I had his mouth, his tongue, as well as his finger and thumb closing on my nipple over the bodice of my gown and then rolling.

  Magnificent.

  I mewed into his mouth, rounded him with my arms and arched up.

  “Wanton,” he whispered against my lips, nipping the bottom one sharply with his teeth before slanting his head and taking my mouth in a much deeper, wetter, headier kiss at the same time he angled his lower half away and yanked up my skirts.

  My belly did an odd dip at these actions.

  And it did another, much stronger one, as his fingers found the top edge of my panties.

  But this time, he did not tease.

  He did not play.

  Mars dove in, firm and rough, found my nub instantly, and put delicious pressure on when he started to circle it.

  Beautiful.

  Oh gods.

  I tore my mouth from his on a gasp and pressed into his fingers, swaying my hips frantically back and forth against his touch.

  I heard his hoarse, “Ah, my Silence, yes. Ride that, mio ardente.”

  “Mars.” I clutched his back, my nails scraping against the supple leather there. Unable to find purchase as it was tight to his skin, I desperately glided them up and clamped them on the back of his neck.

  “Incantevole,” he purred.

  And I caught fire.

  “Mars!” I gasped, attempting to retreat from his fingers that were suddenly too much as the blaze overtook me, all I could see was orange and red and all I could feel was heat and beauty.

  When the flames receded, my husband was kissing me tenderly as his fingers played gently in the wet folds between my legs.

  He must have sensed he had me back from the place he took me for he sucked on my bottom lip a moment, let it go, cupped my sex and caught my slowly opening eyes.

  His were liquid again and an enchanting mixture
of aroused, replete and smug.

  And that look on him was so marvelous, I even liked the smug.

  “All better?” he asked.

  “Mm-hmm,” I mumbled.

  I saw his grin before I lost his hand.

  He righted my skirts, slid off and rolled me to my side, then fitted himself to my back before pulling a warm hide over the both of us.

  “Now, rest your eyes, my queen,” he murmured into the back of my hair as he pulled me deeper into his warmth. “When Farah comes to collect you, if you fall asleep, I’ll wake you. Yes?”

  “Yes.”

  He sounded simply smug when he declared, “I would keep you in a state of post-climax at all times, this daze I create is so endearing. Except I enjoy watching you come too much.” He paused as if considering before concluding, “And making you come even more.”

  My eyelids were drifting, and I felt I should give a response, but I couldn’t catch a thought.

  “And my point is proved, my wife is wanton,” he teased.

  I caught a thought at that.

  “Be quiet, Mars.”

  I heard him chuckle as he pulled me even closer.

  I was almost to sleep when he whispered, “I am glad to have you back, my beautiful Silence.”

  I wasn’t back. We would never be back to the dream I’d been building about us before reality set in.

  But I’d learned he could apologize.

  And I had forgotten he was a good listener and did it most avidly any time I spoke.

  So perhaps I was a step closer to being able to learn to live with the reality I had been dealt.

  Thus, on this thought, I snuggled into his warmth.

  And again, I was nearing slumber when his voice came.

  This time, it was low.

  But it was vibrating.

  “Today proves what I suspected. You and I will be formidable, Silence. Your fortitude vigilance, tact and cunning, my strength, strategy and my father’s vision, once we put down this Beast, we will leave a Firenze to our children that is strong and bold. I know it to my soul.”

  I closed my eyes tight, shocked he had these thoughts.

  “I hope you are right, my king,” I said.

  “I do not hope, my queen. As I said, I know it to my soul.”

  I found his hand that was pressed to my breastbone with my own.

  The instant I did, his fingers engulfed mine.

  The way they did, so strong and true, I knew one thing.

  He would be what he already was.

  A good king.

  As for my being a queen.

  That remained to be seen.

  51

  The Sisterhood

  Princess Elena

  Fifty Miles Inside the Southern Border

  WODELL

  Hera, walking point with bow in one hand, arrow at the ready in her other, her quiver on her back, turned to me with a look that said, Get on with it!

  Jasmine was at our right flank. True’s men Wallace and Luther were at our left. And Mars’s man Basil with Cassius’s man Severus were at our rear.

  Such was the guard one current and two future queens had while wandering a forest.

  It was suffocating.

  It would be good to be back home.

  In the meantime, I had this situation on my hands.

  Whatever this was.

  There had been a distance growing between Silence and Farah since Firenze, and now the feel between them was so awkward, it was hard not to cringe.

  This distance seemed neither of their style, but Farah had an excuse.

  And perhaps Silence did too. She hadn’t been immune to some traumas mixed with major changes in her life of late. Not to mention, she’d shared she’d never really had any friends so perhaps she didn’t know what to do when one of them was in need.

  But this had to stop.

  We might be parting, though only for a while.

  But in the end, the only ones who knew what we faced, what was happening, and why, were us.

  I had lived my life learning how important the sisterhood was.

  Standing together, we could not be defeated.

  They had not learned this.

  It was time to teach them.

  Thus, I rushed forward from where I strode in the middle of the two of them in our line, stopped, turned to them and declared, “Enough.”

  They both stopped too.

  Obviously, our guard stopped as well.

  Silence looked guilty.

  Farah looked uncomfortable.

  I crossed my arms on my chest and asked, “What’s going on with you two?”

  Neither said anything and they avoided looking at the other.

  It might not be fair, but I gave my attention to who I considered the culprit.

  “Silence?” I prompted.

  And the instant I did, she turned to Farah and proclaimed, “I have been awful. Not a good friend a’tall. I…I…much has happened that has taken my mind, but ’tis no excuse.” She took a step toward Farah, lifted a hand, dropped it and finished, “I’m so very sorry you lost Sofia. I had not had the chance to know her well. But I can promise you, of what I knew, I’d been looking forward to it. And I am so very sorry that I was of no comfort to you when you lost a mother as lovely as she.”

  Farah’s eyes grew bright and she pressed her lips together before she controlled her emotion, nodded to Silence and replied, “I understand. Mars is…” She seemed to be searching for words and then she found them. “A lot.”

  “He is,” Silence murmured.

  “Much of it is good,” Farah hastened to add.

  “Yes,” Silence agreed.

  “But he is, well…Mars.”

  Silence appeared to be about to start laughing and thus forced out, “He is that.”

  Farah smiled at her. “He’s most besotted with you. I can tell he cares very deeply for you. He’s never been that way, not close, not with even one of his other females.”

  Oh shite.

  I heard Hera emit a grunt and Jasmine curse under her breath.

  This because, from the look on Silence’s face, this was not the right thing to say.

  Farah saw it too and she took a step closer to Silence.

  “Of course, they were from before,” she said quickly. “Before you.”

  Silence lifted her chin a smidge. “Yes. Of course. Before me. He is a man, after all. And he would, erm…”

  “Dally,” Farah put in.

  Silence nodded sharply. “Dally. Yes.”

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned that,” Farah murmured.

  “No need to be sorry. It is but truth. And we should always be honest between us.” Silence looked to me, lifting her arm my way, then she turned to Farah, swinging her arm back. “We Sisters of the Beast.”

  “Yes, we should,” Farah agreed.

  “We should,” I entered the conversation.

  Both women looked my way, but it was Farah who asked hesitantly, “Is all going well with Cassius?”

  “No,” I said on a smile. “He’s a lout.”

  Farah smiled back, also hesitantly.

  Silence didn’t smile. She regarded me not hesitantly but openly.

  “Do you think you’ll be able to come to some accord?” she asked with concern.

  “I like him,” I declared.

  Both women stared at me, Farah with wide eyes, Silence was blinking.

  And Severus was not far away, and I had no doubt he was listening.

  So be it.

  I spoke truth, and if that got into Cassius’s ear, maybe he’d be less of a lout.

  “You…like him?” Farah asked.

  “He’s easy to look at,” Jasmine called.

  “There’s that,” I muttered.

  “There is that,” Farah muttered too, but now she was also regarding me openly.

  I stepped closer to their huddle and said my next in a way Severus would not hear.

  “There is something betwee
n us that cannot be denied.” I reached out and caught Farah’s hand. “Something, Farah, I see now I never had with True. He was but a friend, a kind one, a good one, but we’d never even kissed.”

  Farah looked shocked.

  “Cassius pinned her to the wall the second time he laid eyes on her,” Jasmine yelled helpfully.

  I sighed.

  Silence giggled.

  Farah smiled at me.

  “He did?” she asked.

  I tipped my head to the side. “As he says, we cannot keep our hands off each other, when we aren’t fighting that is. He is not wrong. Alas, we fight a great deal.”

  That was when Farah laughed.

  And I was relieved to hear it.

  I brought our huddle even closer.

  But my eyes were only for Farah.

  “What I wish to say is, it is not True. It never really was, Farah. And the way I see him with you, he’s realized this too.”

  Farah looked away.

  “You do not see this?” Silence asked her.

  Farah looked to Silence. “He is a kind man. He understands this situation is not optimal, but he wishes to make the most of it. And he helps me grieve. That is all.”

  “He helps you grieve while panting to get into your knickers,” Jasmine hollered.

  Farah’s eyes grew round again.

  “She has very good hearing,” Silence whispered.

  “She’s a witch and she’s using magic to eavesdrop because she’s also a pain in the arse,” I told her.

  “I heard that!” Jasmine shouted.

  I looked to my friend. “Stop listening!”

  It was then I sensed movement, turned to Hera and saw she had an arm lifted. From her hand, a streak of silver and orchid sparks shot Jasmine’s way.

  Jasmine grunted when they hit her.

  Hera looked to me and called, “Carry on.”

  I smiled at my friend and turned back to my Sisters of the Beast.

  “You are very lucky,” Farah said wistfully, eyeing both Hera and Jasmine.

  My heart hurt at these words.

  She might have had friends at some point in her life, but I’d noted not a one of them attended her at Catrame Palace. Therefore, it was clear she lost them due to what her father did.

  She lost nearly everything because of what her father did.

  The only thing she held onto was her mother.

  And now she was lost too.

  I squeezed her hand, reached to Silence’s and took hers as well.