by T. S. Ryder
“I know them all. They sat on my husband’s council for years,” Jennifer snarled, her eyes flashing with rage as she began to take notes.
“We need to act soon. If we continue to wait, we’ll wind up just like the little whore I sent to kill her,” he growled, moving up to a counter and lifting a vial. “Tonight at dinner, we’ll poison the bitch.”
“That’s exactly what I needed to hear,” Jennifer smirked, moving to her feet and grabbing a cloak from her closet. Pulling it over her shoulders, she glanced back at Alice with a grin. “Come on, we’ve got to go fetch a few people,” she said, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Moving to her feet, Alice nodded as she followed Jennifer out of the room. She wasn’t sure what the woman had in mind, but whatever it was, she was sure that Jennifer was about to rain down hell upon the members of her son’s inner circle who had dared betray him.
Chapter Twelve
With a small army of guards behind them, Jennifer and Alice marched into the meeting room where several vampire lords had just settled down for a discussion on foreign policy.
Alice’s eyes immediately locked onto Eric as they stepped inside, her hands rushing up in front of her as she cast the spell.
“Consto!” The man froze before he could so much as make a move towards the door, anger, and fear on his face.
“Release me at once!” Eric snarled, swearing when the guards lurched forward to start arresting those who Jennifer had listed for them. The man’s eyes were filled with rage.
“You are under arrest for attempted murder.” Jennifer glared at Eric, moving up to him once he was restrained and lifting up his chin. “You know, I never liked you, but knowing that you were going to kill my son, my daughter-in-law and my grandchild, I don’t think I’ve ever hated someone more.”
“You have no proof,” Eric spat murderously.
“Oh, dear, I have more proof than I need to put your head on a spike,” Jennifer hummed, snapping her fingers at the guards. “Bring them all down to the dungeon. The rest of you are dismissed. I want this to serve as a lesson to you all.” She glared at them, earning nervous but obedient nods from the rest of the nobles in the room.
Turning around, Jennifer smiled at Alice, touching her shoulder gently and kissing her cheek.
“You’ll be a great queen. I know you’ll serve this kingdom as well as I ever did,” she whispered in her ear. “Now relax and take care of that child. Leave the rest of the defenses to me.” Whistling at the guards, she led them out into the hall. Alice wasn’t sure what she had planned for the men, but whatever it was, she was sure that it wasn’t good.
Alice smiled gratefully back at Jennifer, then moved over to Matheus and wrapped her arms around his neck. He looked startled but otherwise appeared to be unshaken. Wrapping his arms around Alice tightly, he pressed happy kisses over her face and shoulder.
“Did I ever tell you that you’re amazing?” Matheus mumbled, scooping her into his arms and carrying her towards their rooms. “How long have you known about Eric?” he asked softly.
“Not for long. Your mother is the one who has been investigating him. I just helped her collect the evidence to arrest him properly.” Alice shrugged, kissing her lover sweetly and humming as he opened the door to their apartments.
Lying Alice out on the bed, Matheus crawled onto the sheets beside her and pressed a few loving kisses to her face and neck.
“You’re a goddess,” he mumbled, trailing his fingers over her swollen stomach with a proud look on his face. Looking up at him with soft eyes, Alice let out a happy noise and trailed her fingers over his cheek.
“And you’re my king,” she breathed, pulling him down into a kiss and trailing her fingers through his hair. “You know we’re going to have to deal with the backlash of arresting so many of your nobles, right?” Matheus hummed at this and shrugged, his hand wandering slowly over her stomach.
“Yes, I suppose we will, but I like to think of it as clearing the slate. Bringing in some fresh blood will be good,” Matheus said, slowly rubbing Alice’s shoulders. “I had hoped that my father’s men would be more open minded, but after what happened today, I’ll be glad to retire those who are stuck in their ways.”
“You’re a good king,” Alice sighed, resting her hand on his stomach and letting her eyes close. “I’m proud to be your mate, and nothing will ever change that.” Matheus’ chest rumbled as he hummed, his fingers trailing over her back.
“I’m glad,” he whispered, kissing her forehead gently. “Now rest, my love. We’ve got a lot of changes to implement in the next few months.”
Chapter Thirteen
Over the next few months, Matheus put changes into place to weed out those who weren’t willing to bend to his rules. Several nobles were removed from their seats of power and replaced with those who would obey.
Relations with bordering nations were gradually starting to improve, and while Matheus agreed that they had a long way to go, the improvements were good enough for him to consider them a success.
At the same time, Alice had work of her own, transforming Matheus’ former harem into a school. She was teaching the girls how to read, write, and practice magic, creating a new form of guard to keep her family safe while also giving the girls she had come to adore a shot at being something more than servants.
“Remember, girls, love potions have different potencies and different reactions based on what sort of ingredients that you use,” Alice explained, balancing her baby daughter in the crook of her arm as she moved through the rows of desks between her students. “For example, Bachelor’s Buttons will help influence love and allow you to feel whether or not a relationship is meant to be, whereas cinnamon is an aphrodisiac. It will cause lust, but not love.”
Her daughter, Emma, squirmed and let out a whine of protest. At barely a month old, the girl had quickly become the light of her parents’ lives. Although she had her father’s strong features, her hair, eyes, and face were her mother’s. According to her father, she also had her mother’s voice.
“Alright, it looks like my little darling has decided that class should be dismissed for now,” Alice laughed as she shifted her daughter, who had started to fuss noisily in her arms. “Have a good night and remember to read that book on love potions by the end of the week! I won’t be held responsible if you wind up making your true loves turn purple.”
The class dispersed and Alice settled down behind her desk to feed her child, looking up when the door opened. Smiling as Matheus stepped into view, she leaned up and kissed him when he approached.
“How was class?” he asked, trailing his fingers through her hair and smiling when Emma looked up at him, making a soft noise between her eager gulps.
“Fine. The classes are coming along very well. Some of the girls are still having issues on remembering what does what, but for the most part, they haven’t made any major mistakes.” Alice beamed, proud of the girls that she had taken under her wing. “Lindsey especially is doing well. She’s learned how to cast basic fire spells already. Almost lit her hair on fire the first try, the poor thing.”
“Sounds like she has a good teacher,” Matheus said, helping Alice to her feet after Emma had finished feeding. Taking her arm, he led her into the hallway. “I was hoping that you would be free for dinner tonight, once our little one has gone to sleep,” he suggested, glancing down at Alice with a smile.
“I would love that. Maybe I’ll even ask your mother if she’ll watch Emma so that we can have a night to ourselves,” Alice sighed. Despite the fact that there was an ample supply of people to watch her child, Alice had insisted that she would be the primary caretaker. She didn’t want her daughter to remember being raised by a group of nannies.
“Great! We haven’t had a full night to ourselves since Emma was born.” Matheus kissed the back of Alice’s neck and smiled when she blushed.
“I suppose you figure that means we get to make love?” she mused, laughing when her husband shru
gged and looked hopefully back at her. Kissing him slowly on the lips, she nodded. “I’ve missed you too, my love.”
Leaning against her lover’s chest and moving through the halls of the castle, it was hard to think that only a year prior she had been living alone in a cottage outside a small town. Though she missed the place dearly, she was happy where she was. She had a family and was able to spread her knowledge to new students who were eager to learn.
“Where’s Talon? I haven’t seen him in a while,” Matheus noted, wrapping his arm around Alice’s waist as they walked.
“Pursuing another lady cat, I’m sure. He’s been enjoying the surplus of cats around the castle a bit too much.” Alice laughed, leaning closer to her mate as Emma started to doze off against her chest.
“Should I be expecting kittens come spring then?” Matheus asked, laughing when his mate nodded with a soft giggle. Kissing the top of her head, he opened the doors to their private apartments and slipped inside.
Settling Emma into her crib, Alice turned around and wrapped her arms around her lover’s neck, kissing him on the lips and smiling happily.
“You know, I was thinking that we should probably work on giving Emma a sibling,” she mumbled against his lips, earning an excited noise from Matheus. “I never thought that I would enjoy having a child, but now that I have one, I want more.”
“Well, I won’t argue with you on that one,” Matheus grinned wickedly, sweeping Alice off of her feet and leaning down to slide their lips together happily. “My angel, my queen, I love you more than life itself,” he breathed against her lips.
Cradled in her lover’s arms, Alice felt her heart flutter in her chest. Out of all the titles in the world that she could be given, being Matheus’ mate was the most important one.
*****
THE END
The Vampire Prince's Harem
Description
A curvy witch ready for love PLUS a hot vampire prince with a bitter heart PLUS a Harem in the dungeons of the vampire Fort
Born to filthy rich, stuck-up, self-centered parents, Lola is a young witch who has been deprived of affection all her life. After a childhood spent seeking love and pandering to her preening mother, it never occurred to her that she could be special to someone.
When her mother shuns her completely after her father’s death, Lola returns to work to get busy and forget everything. A quick make-out session with a hot stranger is just what she needs.
Valnoir is a 300-year-old vampire prince who has lost his zest for life. When the King announces his concern over the blood supply at the Fort, Valnoir signs up for a simple task. But he’s in for a surprise.
When he executes the task, Lola catches him red-handed and Valnoir ends up kidnapping her, locking her into the Harem. But his attempt to break her fails. As does her determination not to fall for him.
Their chemistry can’t be denied, but they also annoy each other immensely. Both of them get way more than they bargained for, more than they can handle. And as if that isn’t enough, Lola has a gift that the vampires need desperately.
Will Lola accept the task the vampires want her to perform or try to escape? Does she even want to leave, especially when a little surprise announces itself? Can Lola and Valnoir overcome their differences and love each other?
Chapter One - Lola
Saturday
It is seven in the morning when I wake up, exhausted and famished. It is true what they say about grief making you hungry. I tiptoe down the stairs, my feet cold on the stainless steel. While making breakfast and coffee, I find the day’s mail on the kitchen counter, carefully sorted into stacks: condolence cards and letters, bills, personal mail and tabloids. On top of one stack is a copy of People magazine. A photo of my mother is on the front page under the headline Mayumi May bids farewell to husband. At the bottom is a subheading, highlighted in yellow: Exclusive pictures inside.
For a moment I pause and question whether it is my mom who makes everything about herself, or whether it is the media. The answer comes to me immediately: it is my mom. She’s always insisted that I call her ‘mother’. It’s funny how the death of my father and his funeral have turned into a media spectacle, just like everything else in my life, with the spotlight on my mother. The tabloid hasn’t even bothered mentioning the name of my father, as if it doesn’t really matter who my mother was married to. I turn to the exclusive photos inside and read the details about my mother’s elegant Giovanni mourning dress that had been custom designed for the event. I don’t feel any revulsion or disgust. Growing up in this family I have gotten used to it. Everything in my life was artificial, including my father, Richard Windsor: he was distantly related to the royal family through his mother, and for obvious reasons he’d taken up her last name.
After breakfast, I join my mother in the living room. She is sitting on the Ron Arid stainless steel sofa — the most expensive sofa in the world, although I don’t know how anyone can stand to sit on it — with her ankles and knees together, legs slanted to the side and her hands resting in her lap. Her face is impassive, but even without any expression her Japanese heritage lends it an impressive look. She looks stunning, as if she were posing for a photoshoot. I can’t tell whether she is grieving or not, because it’s not the first time I’ve seen this look on her face. This is her usual look, her equilibrium state. But given that my father got cremated yesterday, I decide to be sympathetic.
“It’s going to be okay, mother,” I say. “I’ll be here for as long as you need me.” I get up to join her on her metal sofa when she finally speaks, looking straight at me.
“Don’t get up, I’m fine. I told you the day before, there’s no need for you to stay. I mean it, and I would like to be alone,” she says in her heavily Japanese-accented English. She gets up, her Jimmy Choos clacking on the black marble floor, picks up a cigar from a box on the mantel, lights it and returns to her place. She takes a casual puff, then says, “Lola, I’d like you to leave when you’re done grieving.”
She makes it sound like she is doing me a favor by letting me stay. In a moment of grief, I’d mistaken my mother for a person — my mistake. I find it funny how she pronounces my name. She always says it like ‘Law-lah.’ Other than that, her English is perfect, a combination of a beautiful accent and elite haughtiness. Her chocolate-brown eyes are filled with the disdain that she really feels for everyone. She truly believes she is superior, and she never tries to hide her dislike for me.
Her dislike for me is a result of things beyond our control. We come from a long line of witches, and since the witchy genes (or whatever it is that allows us to do magic) skip one generation, I ended up a witch and she didn’t. That is something she holds against me, even though the non-witchy generation gets the ability to predict the future. It was partly how she’d become so successful, but she would never admit it. Being an actor, a former top model, a philanthropist, one of New York’s elite and a trophy wife to my business tycoon father had thrust us all into the limelight. She publicly maintained that she wanted to keep her personal life personal and her only child out of the spotlight, but in truth, she just didn’t want any attention focused on me. Her personal life is, and has always been, very public otherwise.
While I got the witchy gene, I didn’t get her size-zero genes. We look more like sisters than mother and daughter, and she is the beautiful one. Growing up in her shadow had been difficult, and she made it harder by always excluding me from things. Even when we had parties at our place, she made sure that I stayed in my room. It was awful having the people I had massive crushes on, singers and divas who topped the charts, actors and actresses who played superheroes, across the hall from me when the closest I could get to them was looking at the pictures that made it to the tabloids the next day.
My parents didn’t really raise me or play any part in my life growing up, aside from paying for the live-in nanny and my college. My mother made a point of donating her designer dresses and shoes, reminding me constantly
, “You should lose weight if you want these. It would be a disgrace to the designer if you wore them the way you are.”
So, naturally, I turned out exactly how you’d expect me to, growing up in a fancy place among rich people who were always in a war to outdo each other. Unlike other kids of the same circle, I had zero confidence or belief in myself, and only began to have the semblance of a life once I moved out and got a job at a hospital.
“Fine,” I say. “There isn’t much for me to grieve, so I’ll leave and let you grieve alone.”
“O-negai shimasu, Lola, there’s no need to be so dramatic,” she says. I expect her to follow that by asking me to stay, to not leave so soon, or something like that, but she doesn’t. “I prefer my solitude. Unlike you, I have a very busy life. I prefer some quiet whenever I can get it.”
“Mother, had you ever been to visit father at the hospital, you’d see how busy hospitals are.” I run upstairs to gather my things.
“Arigatō,” she says, then calls after me. “Take the back entrance, there’s a camera crew gathered at the front one.”
I leave through the front door instead, passing my mother on the stairs as she dramatically broadcasts her grief to the cameras and microphones that are shoved into her face. None of the paparazzi bother about me, having no clue that I am the daughter. I don’t look the part.
When I get back to my apartment I immediately turn on the TV and switch to E! News in the hope of catching my mother’s press conference. I want to hear her speech to see if she’d mentioned me or anything about me. The only thing I catch is the sound of cameras clicking as her handsome agent places his arm behind her and guides her back into the brownstone house. She stops for a moment and looks at the camera, and it feels like she is glaring at me through the screen, although it is hard to see her eyes because she has black, diamond-studded Versace shades on. I go on my computer and find a clip of her speech on YouTube, complete with my supposedly dramatic exit. It doesn’t look as dramatic on the screen. She doesn’t mention me, doesn’t say anything about her ‘family’, just talks about herself, how she is coping, what she plans to do, etc.