The Masked Prince

by Faith Ryan

  Alek and I grab our discarded clothing and pull it on. Once we are more or less presentable, I gesture for my father to have a seat. He does, but the look of disgust never leaves his face.

  “All right Jairo, I’m here, what’s going on?” my father asks.

  “We’re just waiting on Rafe and Nero.”

  As if Jairo conjured the men from thin air, they enter the room without knocking.

  “What is this about, Jairo?” I raise a brow at him.

  “Sorry, Jess, but Rafe has the answers we need, and even a few we didn’t know we needed if I had to guess.”

  The wait for answers is delayed a few minutes while everyone situates themselves and stares around at everyone else. No one wants to be the first to start this conversation, but the only person whose words I want to hear are Rafe’s, since he seems to have all the answers.

  “Well?” I wave a hand at him, indicating he should get on with it.

  “So we all know the gist of the curse.” Rafe looks at each of us for confirmation.

  “Jairo filled me in on this nonsense. If that’s what this is about, I want no part of the ridiculous myth.”

  “That’s partly what this is about Kassem, but there’s more. We have no way of knowing if the curse is real without testing it with the lamp and the descendant. As impossible as it seems, the slightest chance that we could change our lives and world means we must take precautions. The lamp and the descendant will need to be kept far from each other and under constant guard.”

  “Mine and Rafe’s families will stop at nothing to remove the curse. They believe it is the key to their wealth and happiness,” Nero cuts in.

  Rafe nods. “He’s right. Nero has agreed to take the lamp and keep it safeguarded.”

  “What about the descendant?” Jairo asks, but I’m fully invested in the answer. If Alek is the believed descendant, precautions will need to be made to ensure his safety.

  “Right. The descendant. Alek is not the descendant. At least not of the cursed hero.” Rafe drops that bomb and goes silent.

  “What does that mean? Whose descendant am I then?”

  Rafe looks at my father and I feel the blood drain from my face.

  “Kassem, meet Linneah’s son and your heir.”

  “You found him?” my father sounds awed and relieved. “I searched for you for so long.”

  Alek glares at my father but keeps quiet. But I have no plans to keep my mouth shut about this.

  “I have a brother,” I scream at him. “When were you going to tell me? Oh, God, you’re my brother.” I stare at Alek, the memory of what happened moments before this revelation marched into our lives replaying in my mind.

  “Calm down, Jess,” my father commands. “He’s not your brother.”

  “Half-brother, same difference.”

  “No, I mean, he’s of no blood relation to you.”

  “Explain.”

  My father—Kassem—sighs heavily. “Alek’s mother, Linneah was a poor girl from another town. I met her on a business trip and fell in love. She had no idea who I was, even after I told her my name. I was betrothed to a woman of my father’s choosing, and we married, but I continued my affair with Linneah. Then one day she told me she was pregnant. I was ecstatic. I went straight to my father and told him about Linneah and my soon to be child, and my plans to divorce my wife and marry her. He was furious and demanded I help her end the pregnancy, then never see her again. I refused. I found out later he took matters into his own hands. When I went to see her next, she was gone. I searched for years and found no sign of her or my child. I’d assumed my father had them both executed for some false crime.”

  A few tears had leaked from his eyes as he told us his story. I’d never see such emotion from him before.

  “That’s bullshit and you know it,” Alek shouts.

  My father looks startled at his outburst. “I don’t know what you mean, son.”

  “Don’t call me son,” Alek says through clenched teeth. “You hunted my mother for years. We were constantly moving because she was afraid you would find us. And then you did. We were meeting with a man named Malikem, he was going to help us. Then you showed up and slit his throat, and my momma’s. I hid so you couldn’t do the same to me.”

  “Malikem’s dead? I thought he found a way to get out from under our father. We’d talked about it. If we ever had the chance we would run and never look back. I’m sorry, Alek. I should have been there for you, but I promise I was not the one to kill your mother and my brother, I would never.”

  “I heard her call out Kas before she was silenced. She was talking to you. Stop lying to me.”

  I wrap my arm around Alek to calm him. Kassem shakes his head sadly. Tears are streaming from his eyes now.

  “Not me. She always called me Amir. It’s my middle name. I didn’t want the taint of who I was to reach her, so I used my second name with her. My father, Kassius, went by Kas.”

  Neither man says anything else and we sit in terse silence. I guess they got the answers they needed on that matter, but I need to know who I am if I’m not Kassem’s son.

  “If Alek is your true son, what does that make me?”

  20

  Alek

  I’m confused and trying to process the reality of Kassem as my father. If what he says is true, then my momma wasn’t running from him, but from my grandfather. Jess’ quiet question reaches my ears. I’ve gained the family I always longed for, but he’s lost the one he thought he had.

  Kassem—I can’t think of him as my father, not yet—smiles at Jess. “Growing up, my only friend besides Malikem was one of the maid’s daughters, Salena.” The smile leaves his face. “She was in love with a drifter. He made her promises of returning for her and their baby. He gave her hope she would have a life with him. But he never returned, and Salena died shortly after delivering you into the world. She made me promise to raise you as my own. Her gift to me, she said, for losing my own child.”

  Jess leans his head on my shoulder and the sobs that wrack his body vibrate through mine. Both of our lives have been flipped upside down, but we still have each other. I turn my head enough to place a kiss to his temple.

  “That was a lot of deep shit, but who the fuck is the descendant?” Nero’s crudeness breaks through the intensely emotional fog that has fallen over the room and all eyes turn to Rafe.

  “The descendant, right. So, it took me a while to put it all together. But Jess is the descendant through his drifter father’s blood. You lucked out with Kassem claiming you as his own, it kept everyone from discovering the truth sooner.”

  “You got any more revelations hiding up your sleeve, Rafe?” Nero demands.

  “That’s it. Now we just need to separate Jess and the lamp. I’ll guard Jess since I’m already able to do so, and Nero will take the lamp.”

  “How do you know you have the right lamp?”

  “Why wouldn’t I have the right lamp, Alek?”

  “Well, perhaps because there was more than one lamp in the safe.”

  Rafe looks to Kassem. “Is this true?”

  “Yes. There were two. Ancient relics my father acquired from some museum.”

  “Shit. There are no distinguishing marks that I know of. I’ll have to do more research, until then Nero will take both.”

  “Nero should have help in guarding the lamp,” Jairo speaks up for the first time since the bombs started dropping from Rafe’s lips.

  “I don’t need help to guard a damn lamp.” Nero rolls his eyes.

  “Jairo’s right. Jess is surrounded by guards, making him less likely to be taken or confronted. You’re a big man, and you have the skills, but you are only one man, Nero. I’ll vet a guard to send with you.”

  “I’ll do it. What? Jess won’t need me, he’s got Alek and you, not to mention Kassem and all of his men. Besides, someone needs to make sure he keeps his side of the deal. I don’t trust him for a minute.”

  They argue, and I slip from the roo
m while they’re distracted, pulling Jess with me.

  “What are we doing?”

  “Taking a time out from the curse.” I pull him into his bedroom and close the door behind us. “Have I told you how beautiful you are to me?”

  Jess gasps when I fall to my knees before him and run my hands up his legs, pushing up his skirt to reveal his thick cock. I bunch the material at his hips with my hands and lean forward to run my tongue over him.

  “Fuck, yes. Suck me, Alek.”

  I swallow him down until he hits the back of my throat. Humming along his length, I slowly retreat, stopping when just his head remains between my lips. I swirl my tongue over the underside where the head meets the shaft and give a little suck before taking him down my throat again. I repeat the motions over again, sucking harder and bobbing my head faster.

  Jess’ fingers grip strands of my hair and he uses the hold to keep me still while he fucks my mouth. It doesn’t take long for his rhythm to falter and he rams his cock down my throat and my nose into the hairs around the base of his cock. Jess shoots his release into my mouth and I greedily swallow every drop. When he releases my head, I gulp down air and smile up at him.

  “Fuck. Your turn.”

  Jess pulls me to my feet, and I take his mouth in a kiss, sharing his taste as my tongue dances with his.

  “I already got mine,” I tell him as I break the kiss. He questions me with his brows, and I laugh. “I came when you did.” I gesture to the wet spot at my groin.

  I strip Jess of his clothes and rid myself of the soiled sweats before climbing into bed and wrapping my body around his.

  “I don’t know if I believe in cursed heroes and their descendants, but I believe there is magic in the world.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I do. How else would I know I love you so soon? It’s been such a short time since I met you, but this feels right. Must be magic.”

  “You love me?”

  “I do. I love every inch of you, pink lace panties and all.”

  “I love you too, Alek.”

  From a homeless street rat to the heir of the Salib empire. My life has changed so much in just a few days, but I wouldn’t change any of it, good or bad, because it brought me to the gorgeous man in my arms.

  Epilogue

  Nero

  “I don’t need a babysitter. You should stay with Jess and Alek. Rafe will have his hands full with them. He’ll need the help.”

  “I’m coming with you. Stop trying to convince me otherwise,” Jairo snaps at me.

  “Fine.”

  I grab my bag and walk out the doors of the Salib estate. Smiling as the sun hits my face, I soak in the warmth. Setting things right while trying not to undo a curse that would destroy the world as we know it is hard work.

  I feel the magic from the lamp pulse from my bag. That idiot queen took my magic when she unleashed evil into this world. As a Djinn my power stems from the lamp, and I’ve been too long without it. I’ll need to let my power source replenish my reserves before I can move on to the next part of my plan. It would be easier without my tagalong, but not impossible.

  For now, I’m content that Alek and Jess are where they belong, together.

  Jairo

  I don’t like leaving Jess, but I know he’s in excellent hands. There was more to the curse than the others know. I thought perhaps Rafe had discovered it, but either it didn’t stand out as important to him, or he overlooked it.

  Nero thinks he has everyone fooled, but I know what he is, and I know what he’s planning. That’s why I volunteered myself to help him guard the lamp, or more accurately, guard him.

  The lamp isn’t part of the curse, the Djinn it belongs to is, and if something happens to him, we’re all screwed. And it will be worse than hitting the reset button on life as we know it.

  The End…

  Hunted - Sneak Peek

  "It doesn't matter how far you run.

  This is my forest, and I always catch my prey."

  This is my forest, and I always knew when I finally brought a girl out here it would be special.

  She would be special.

  ONE CLICK

  Acknowledgments

  I want to give a big thank you to Murphy for inviting me to be a part of this amazing collection.

  Much gratitude and love to my editor Ally for her constant encouragement, especially during those times when I doubted myself and my words. She makes all my words flow better with her editing.

  My wonderful PA Ashley deserves so much more than a thank you and anything I can give her for putting up with my weird ass every day. Girl, I don’t know how you deal with me.

  Thanks to Dani for formatting such gorgeousness.

  To all the authors involved in this collection: thank you for allowing me to tag along with your greatness.

  And finally, thank you to all you readers who took a chance on this story. I hope you enjoyed my twist on a classic.

  About the Author

  Faith Ryan is wife to a handsome bearded man and mother to three, yes three, teenage girls. She lives in a small town in Ohio and is a weirdo to the max. She is in love with love of all kinds, especially the dark, dirty, and forbidden. She enjoys torturing her characters, sometimes figuratively and other times literally. Faith's writing leans to the weird, dark, and unconventional. If you like your stories with a bit of blood and taboo, you're looking in the right place. But don't worry, Faith also has a sweet side she lets out on occasion.

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  Also by Faith Ryan

  Kiss My Luck Anthology*

  Dress Blues Anthology*

  Christmas Snacks Anthology*

  Bad Deal - with Ember-Raine Winters

  Giving Up the Fight

  Fighting Chance

  Thou Shall Not Anthology*

  Tainted Tales Anthology**

  Storybook Pub Anthology**

  Scream Queens Anthology**

  Tempt Me Anthology**

  Inhuman Behavior

  *Denotes as Out of Print

  **Anthologies are Limited Time Only Releases