Ascension (Royals of Aeterna Book 1)

by J Haney

  “Not every whim, but sometimes it would be nice if you didn’t have a hissy. What?” She pulls back, looking at me.

  “The cum of your lovers,” I whisper, smiling against her tender flesh. “Will you permit me to remove this adornment so that I may give you my ample supply?”

  My Queen nods, kissing me. Her hands pull at my suspenders, locking up my arms. I see the mischief in her still very feline eyes. She pushes me back, my knees tucked under me as she unzips my pants. “A little help?” She says to Valaria. I watch as bound to the floor, the two women strip, then both on their hands and knees crawl to me. Stalking my fully erect cock. The slightest ping and my balls ache. Tongues tangle around my sensitive head, and my eyes roll.

  I was not ready to be touched again. I honestly thought that Valaria and I were a one-off, but then we were told to lay claim. I do feel a pull toward her, similar to my Queen. My Queen. My Maya. Her slender fingers work me, and even with this wand in place, I begin to come. My entire body feels the eruption that, with the multi-holed opening at the head of my cock lets my cum spray. I send the thick sticky liquid all over my Queen. She laughs at me, and I get to watch as Valaria cleans up every last drop.

  17

  A pparently, my tiger is trying to come out to play. She’s back under control now as we portal back to Aeterna. Grandpa greets Zane, Val, and me. He looks me over.

  “I think a change of clothes would be necessary as the procession has started.” Grandpa gives Zane a look. “You’re supposed to discourage this.”

  Before, Zane can say anything I do. “He is not here to control me. Grandpa, I love you, but this is me. I will wear what I see fit. I’m in white as we should be but will not go put on one of the frumpy dresses. Those that service me will not wear those stuffy suits and raggedy dresses. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but this is me.”

  Grandpa shakes his head. “Just like your parents. They had to do things their way as well.”

  We’re led through the castle grounds to the back garden. I stand taller as we take our places. My parents are lying on top of the pyre. Lesser King Feyer Charind looks at me after a prayer is done. I nod for him to go ahead, and if it weren’t for Zane standing behind me, I would have fallen over. Just the lightest touch holds me up.

  It’s all just so much. Between my tiger and watching my parents burn, I have to bite my lip to keep it from quivering. As everyone mills about, I wait for my moment to break free. Even just a bathroom trip gives me a moment.

  I turn to Zane, letting him know I’ll be back, and he nods.

  “Take your Lady in Attending.” He says softly.

  “Of course.” I try to smile, but it doesn’t really show.

  Val walks with me but is very quiet. She stands outside the door. I stand at the sink staring into the mirror for Gods know how long when I hear a knock.

  “My Queen?” Val sounds concerned.

  “I’m okay.”

  I turn the knob on the sink, and the water flows freely. Bending, I wet my face. My hot springs would be a beautiful place to be about now. It is one of my thinking spots.

  All of a sudden, I feel as if I may be sick. I open one eye and then the other. What the fuck? Worry knots into my stomach, and I freak plum out. I’m too far from home for anyone to hear me. How did I get here? Looking down at my feet, I wiggle my toes as the water is warm against them. It’s now that I’m hit with unbearable pain, and my entire world goes black.

  18

  T he procession was filled with anxiety, not mine, but my Queen’s. I thought for an instant, she was going to cry when her father’s crown was placed on her head. I do know her stomach lurched. The Lesser King from Arid Dykuma saved her the duty of lighting the pyre, but it did not resolve her of her sorrows. I have stood by her side, wanting nothing more than to have her lean on me, but it is still forbidden. Valaria was her rock, while I have been her hard place. I am in conversation with Cale, Valaria’s former guard, and he is quietly telling me how she came to be with us instead of her own people.

  A roar fills the throne room from afar as I am suddenly slammed with feelings of fear, confusion, and rage. My head whips toward the hall entrance, and I try to seem calm as I swiftly move toward the roaring. Entering the hallway, I see a couple of servants cowering in a far corner as the sound of wood splitting, and glass shattering comes from a room beyond. Reaching the entrance to what I now realize is the bathroom, I see it is being torn to shreds by a huge brown bear.

  I do not see my Queen. “Valaria?” I question, and the bear shakes its head with the sink in its mighty mouth. “Valaria, where is our Queen?” I ask as she stomps on the remnants of the shattered door. “Okay, you don’t know.” I interpret her bear dance. I don’t actually speak Mechkan, so I’m left to guessing.

  “What is the meaning of all this racket? This is a funeral, not one of those frat parties the Queen is so fond of.” Lady Adria appears with venom in her voice.

  “Everything is under control.” I lie with total confidence.

  “Is it?” I see Lord Wasi as he too appears in the rapidly narrowing hall. “It would seem you have misplaced our Queen, much like the other guards would misplace her as a child.” He sniffs and then chuckles. “Do you smell that? The Magick signature? There was a portal opened. I’m betting if you go up to the security hall and search for an undocumented signature, you will find our Queen.” Lord Wasi grabs Lady Adria. “Come, my dear, I shall take you up on that invitation for tea.” He leads the crazy cat away.

  My attention turns back to Valaria. “Something tells me you won’t be turning back anytime soon, so you may as well just come on.” She snorts but ambles behind me. Her bear may be powerful, but it sure isn’t nearly as graceful as her natural form. I certainly will not be trying to mount her in this state, that is for sure. As I walk, I hear glass shatter. Turning my head, I see she has knocked into an alcove and broken a stone vase of wandering plumrose. “Really? I can maneuver these halls when I have a three-foot tail and don’t knock shit over, can’t you tuck in a tummy or two?”

  She gruffs at me, kicking the broken bits to the side, like a little kid trying to hide the evidence.

  “Come on, Gracie.” I tease and feel the ground shake.

  Bam!

  I’m tossed like a rag doll into the door in front of me! “What did you do that for?” I rub my ass as I landed on it. She chuffs at me, stands on her hind legs, which makes her about nine feet tall, and roars at me, throwing saliva and bombarding me with her horrible bear breath. “Uggh! Eat a mint! Fuck eat the whole fucking bush!” I try and wave the stink away, but it’s no use. I’m covered in it.

  I stand as she drops back to all fours. “You think you’ll fit in the elevator?” Yeah, I might be asking for it, but she makes it so damn easy. She lifts a massive paw and wiggles her razor-sharp claws at me. I laugh and show her mine. “I got those two, and if you don’t get your fuzzy wuzzy ass on the elevator, I’m gonna show you what big teeth I have too.” Okay, wrong Fairy tale, but I think she gets the point. The elevator doors open, and in she goes, taking up most of the space, she turns around, backing that massive ass up. “See you up there.” I slam my hand on the button to send her up alone. No way was I trying to test the weight limit on that mechanical death trap. I scale the stairs two at a time and find a very naked and angry Valaria tapping her foot, waiting on me.

  “You got jokes, huh?” She shifts her weight from one foot to the next. Her crossed arms making me feel rather scolded even as I note she’s due for another waxing. I can’t help but smirk. She looks down. “It’s hair! I’m a Mechkan. Get over it! We need to find May! Now give me your shirt!”

  Walking toward the security room, I take off my button-down, and she slips into it. My height to hers has it looking like a damn dress. One I’m sure our Queen would totally wear with just FMP’s. We enter the room, and three guards sit idle. Seeing me, they straighten up and salute.

  “General Zane.” One says, looking at me in surpr
ise. “We got a report of a Mechkan in the bathroom. Should we try and contain it?”

  I roll my eyes. “She’s contained. I need you to do a scan for an unidentified magick signature. Can you do that and then track it down?”

  “Yes, sir.” I’ve been saluted again, and then the three get to work. The feelings of worry and extreme anxiety in me are still high, but there is something else too. I’m not sure what it is.

  “Contentment is brewing,” Valaria whispers as idiot three looks up.

  “General, the magickal signature is currently at a standstill, at the mineral springs on the edge of Rinewalled.”

  “I need a portal. Now.” I bark, and Valaria grasps my hand.

  “She’s in her favorite place. I’m sure she is okay.” She gives me a gentle squeeze.

  “She isn’t okay until I have eyes on her,” I whisper back. I need to get to my Queen as fast as possible. If she really did open her own portal, then there is a strong chance she has awakened her tiger, and no one should go through that alone.

  19

  “I

  t makes sense.” Lord Wasi, May’s maternal grandfather, nods his head. We are in the private meeting room across from the security suite. His lover, the Lady Darlia, is a mage and our portal keeper at Rinewalled Castle. I think she’s a little shifty, but then most of the Cha Cooah, or as the Normals call them, Jaguar shifters, tend to give off that vibe. Maybe it’s because their spots look more like eyes, and they tend to have more magick than the other feline castes.

  “How does her popping halfway across the region make any sort of sense?” I cry.

  “Her mother, the Duchess, my daughter had powerful ties to those springs. Hell, Maya was born in one. The flowing water was the catalyst to her magick. So it makes sense that it may be so for our Queen as well.”

  Zane nods. “I used to track her there when she was a child. She liked stealing the Inokoni mares since the stallions roam the springs freely. She was constantly trying to get them to have babies. She wanted a purple stallion.”

  I can’t help but smile. The Inokoni are sort of like horses, only their hooves were solid gold, and the stallions had a set of glittering horns, not unlike the Normals renditions of a unicorn. They oozed magick and were said to be able to raise the dead. Though the reports of that were sketchy.

  “I need a bit of soil if I’m to open a portal to the springs. All this stone is so confining.” Lady Darlia waved her hands around herself.

  “You heard the woman, get her soil, take it from the butterfly atrium,” Zane ordered, and Lady Darlia smiled.

  “Let us simply go out there. Being surrounded by beauty and not the despair these walls hold would help greatly.”

  I can feel the frustration rolling off Zane in waves. If he had it his way, he would have surely turned to his tiger and ran straight for Maya. This, however, would have outed them. Something none of us are ready to deal with. Zane pretending to be patient and calculating is better than Zane in stocks in the castle square to be tortured for laying his paws on the High Queen.

  The butterfly atrium was built when May was seven. She had spent her first summer in California, where they hold a butterfly and pollinator festival. She fell in love with the fluttery little creatures, and so King Meleke introduced them and honeybees into Aeterna. Our own pollinators were not really doing so well. The cross-breeding of the insect similars has produced some beautiful and super tasty results. I thank the Gods every day for honey.

  In the atrium surrounded by hundreds of flowers and running streams, Zane stands as stoic as ever, well at least to those who cannot feel him screaming on the inside for them to- hurry the fuck up.

  See, while mated either in pairs or other combinations, Vēsṭigara can often feel their lover's emotions as it is not just their body but their souls that bond. With we Mechkan, there is also a telepathic bond. One which allows us to hear and sometimes speak to our lovers, when both are Mechkan, the line goes both ways, and entire conversations can be had, even over great distances. If one mate is not Mechkan, we can only pass messages, with no real response. It’s why I haven’t communicated with Zane, only tried to send him thoughts of calming and love. It has not worked; he is still fighting our claim, pushed by May. It will come perhaps with time. I have found our Queen, but I think her tiger has risen because I do not understand her thoughts.

  The portal opens almost instantly as Lady Darlia wiggles her toes in the fertile soil beds. Zane’s eyes go wide, and he practically dives through it before it’s large enough to fit him. Did I just see a tail?

  Son of a bitch in heat!

  My eyes adjust as I look through the portal. Yup, two massive tigers, one white the other- I tilt my head, not sure what I am looking at exactly. Lady Darlia shifts the portal so that I am consumed. My body lurches, and with a spinning head, I drop into the hot mineral springs.

  “Valeria? Valeria, can you hear me?” When I come around, May is leaning over me very naked. Her long dark hair is dripping down into my face. With bleary vision, I reach up, trying to grab it but keep missing. I can hear Zane laughing in the distance, or do I just have mineral water in my ears?

  “May, I was so worried!” I say, trying to sit up, but the world is still rather spinny.

  “I’m okay. I was just freaked out when I wasn’t still in the bathroom.”

  “I saw-” I shut my eyes, trying to focus. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.” I sigh as May gets down into the water with me, wiping my face. It’s warm and feels really good. I look down at myself. “I broke the bathroom and a vase,” I say, full of shame.

  May looks at me with a smile. “Was it at least an ugly vase?” She turns her head. “Zane shut up! We need clothes.”

  Zane continues to chuckle. “Relax, clothes are overrated. How would you like to ride an Inokoni home? Damn things practically run on portal magick.” My eyes adjust, and I see he is sitting with his lower half fully submerged. From what I can tell, he’s just as naked as May. That’s the thing about unplanned shifts, shreds your clothes to bits. Well, unless you’re a Rodental. They turn into cute fluffy creatures. Sometimes they accidentally get eaten too.

  "Zane say something useful, will you?" May looks back to me. "I don't know what is going to happen when we get home. Maybe we should just leave altogether?" May is worried again.

  “And go where?” I say wide-eyed. “Your face is known in all the realms. Your powers are just beginning to manifest. You need tutors.”

  “You have an entire kingdom that depends on you.” I hear the water slosh, and Zane comes into view. He pulls May and me into him. “You are our Queen, our light and life. We can get through this. It just will take time. This-” He looks around, “Is nothing. When your father came into his powers and had his first turn, he was eighteen, and not only did he terrorize your grandmother, but he managed to eat half the common room couch. Believe me, that was not a good week to follow him in the toilets.”

  May pushes him away from her. "You shouldn't have done what you did! They will kill you, you idiot." She covers her face to hide from us.

  Zane pulls away, the look on his face is sad, but his feeling isn’t. He’s angry and annoyed. “So I can touch you, but he cannot? We are one and the same. You are mated to us both. It will be our children you may one day birth.” He stands as he roars. “You want to run, or accuse? Fine. Don’t expect me to enable you any further. Me or my tiger.” Bareassed, he storms away, and May just screams in frustration.

  “Wait- what did I miss?” I shake my head, take one little nap, and now my world is about to shatter...

  20

  Z ane is an asshole! Even if he did find me a purple stallion. I had only been trying for years to get one. I hear a knock at my door. Zane, Val, and I all split to clean up. I open it. See, Zane can get into my playroom but not my bedroom without my permission like my door being open.

  “Can I help you?” I’m still angry with him and refuse to look at him.

  “I- I came t
o help you dress.” Val stutters.

  Okay, not him... “I’m fine. I’m just working on my face. How is he taking this so easily? If anyone found out, they could kill him. It’s like he seemed to forget that!”

  “Not forget. Honestly, it’s all he really thinks about. All either of us thinks about,” She says softly, as her hands tighten the ties to my backless sweetheart top. My tits are on display, as is pretty much all of my ink. Zane wants to mount me in the middle of the mineral springs. Fine, I can be defiant too.

  “Where everyone can see? So, he gets to claim me anyway he sees fit but at the same time treats me like some, some. FUCK!” I roar, tossing my makeup. “Why does he make me feel like this?”

  “Your soul is unsettled. We have claimed you, expressed our love for you. You, however, have not reciprocated those affections. Sure, you have aided in lustful intents, but you have done that and more with Normals. We are not them. Claiming is not just like saying we’re going steady. Claiming, as we have, puts us at risk, and not knowing you-our Queen is leveled makes all of our souls miserable. So, my Queen has things to think about. Laws to examine, perhaps?” Val’s eyes are sad, and I can feel something else. Though, I’m not sure what.

  “When have I had time Val? I’m being torn in so many fucking ways I can’t breathe. You usually make me feel calm. With Zane, I-I don’t know. I want him, but at the same time, I want to bite his head off. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve lost my parents.” My tears finally fall. “I feel so alone. I hate being alone.”

  “You will always be alone.” I hear Zane but refuse to look at him. “You are the High Queen. I know you try to pretend you are just Maya Wasi, Brown University Graduate, but this is a fallacy. You are not a Normal. You are Vēsṭigara. Not four hours ago, you portaled yourself across the region and were covered in black and white stripes with a three-foot tail. You cannot expect just to be left to your own devices. Until you accept who you are, what you are, no one, not even your mates, will ever get through the barrier.” I feel his hands on my chair. “Walls are built to keep others out, I am sorry, but I was built to tear them down.”