Glenn, Stormy - Mating Heat (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)
Page 17
"Magic, my dear." Vasile grinned. "Pure and simple magic."
Nix didn't know if Vasile spoke the truth or not, but she wasn't about to annoy the man until she absolutely had to. She needed a plan, and she needed one quick. "Why didn't you kill me then?"
"Unfortunately, my dear, I needed you. The throne can only be passed down through family members."
"That's why you wanted to marry me, so you could take the throne."
"Very perceptive, Princess," Vasile said as he pressed his fingertips together. "As your husband, I could assume the throne, with you by my side, of course. I just needed to wait until you came of age. It was a rather ingenious plan if I do say so myself."
"I won't marry you," Nix said. "I'm already mated."
"Easily taken care of." Vasile flicked his hand, and Cort and Boone flew through the air again.
Nix spun around, crying out as she watched her mates hit the floor with a sickening thud. They didn't move. With the odd angles their bodies lay in, Nix didn't have any hope that they lived. She felt like her heart froze in her chest at that moment, a deep cry of anguish falling from her lips.
She started to fall to the ground in despair when an arm suddenly wrapped around her waist, holding her up against a hard body. Nix whimpered in pain as Vasile grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back.
"Seems you're free to marry me after all, Princess," Vasile growled.
"Never!"
Nix yelped when she was suddenly spun around to face Vasile. Vasile's anger seemed to make his eyes glow. Nix absently wondered if it was the life forces he'd absorbed or the evil surrounding his soul.
"You will marry me."
"You can't make me," Nix spit out. "You just killed any leverage you might have had."
Vasile's eyes strayed to Cort and Boone, then back to Nix. "Do you really think I need them to get what I want?" Vasile raised his hand in the air and slowly closed it into a fist. Nix choked, clutching at her throat as it seemed to close up, blocking the air from her lungs. "I will have the throne, Nixona. Do not doubt that. I will be King."
Nix's vision began to blur. She could feel tears of desperation fall down her face as she struggled for air. When her legs buckled, Vasile stepped back and let Nix crumble to the floor before walking back up the steps to sit in the throne again.
"You see, Nixona, I have planned for this far too long to let you or anyone take it from me."
He seemed so casual to Nix as she lay on the floor gasping for air. When he finally waved his hand, Nix gasped as fresh breath filled her lungs. She coughed several times, her chest aching.
"Now, come, my dear," Vasile said as he waved his hand again.
Nix barely managed a squeak as she was lifted into the air and floated across to the floor in front of Vasile's throne. Against her will, her body was forced to kneel at Vasile's feet. Nix cringed when Vasile's hand began to stroke through her hair. Just a single touch from the man made her skin crawl.
"You will come to appreciate my touch, Nixona."
"Not in this lifetime," Nix whispered hoarsely. "I will never want your touch. I'd sooner see you dead."
Vasile's hand closed into a fist again. Nix clutched at her throat as the air once again left her body. She dropped down onto the floor to writhe at Vasile's feet, all hope starting to leave her as she realized she couldn't win against Vasile. He really was too powerful for her.
"Have we come to an understanding, Princess?"
Nix used the last of her strength to nod her head. She took in deep gulps of air as the restriction around her throat suddenly lessened. Nix lay there on the floor, anguish filling her as she rolled her head to one side and spotted Cort and Boone.
Just the sight of their unmoving bodies gave Nix back a bit of her strength. If nothing else but revenge for the killing of her mates, Nix would make Vasile pay, and pay dearly. Nix rolled to her hands and knees and looked up at Vasile's smiling face through the fall of her hair.
Vasile was once again pressing his fingers together as if he didn't have a care in the world. He seemed to be looking out over the throne room as if in deep thought. "I believe we will plan the wedding for next month, Nixona. What do you think, my dear?"
Nix nodded as she crawled closer to sit at Vasile's feet. She barely suppressed her cringe as Vasile started running his hands through her hair again. She just might cut the damn stuff off after this.
"We need to give the kingdom time to mourn the passing of your dear departed father, and then we will give them something to celebrate when we marry and rule together."
As Vasile continued to talk, Nix slowly reached under her long skirt for the gun Dane had given her when they first arrived. She never really thought she'd have a use for a gun no matter how much she complained about not having one.
She wrapped the gun in the cloth of her skirts to hide the sound of her cocking it, then slowly raised it up until she pointed it at Vasile. She was surprised that she didn't feel guilty or remorseful that she was about to take someone's life. Vasile wasn't a man. He was a monster.
She tilted her head back and glared up at Vasile, grinning wickedly at his surprised expression. "I hope you rot in hell," Nix whispered right before she pulled the trigger. She pulled it over and over again, uncaring that blood splattered all over her. She pulled the trigger until it clicked, signaling that it was empty.
Dropping the gun to the floor, Nix didn't even spare Vasile's bloody body a glance as she rolled to her feet and raced across the room to her mates. Using what strength she had left, Nix moved their bodies closer to each other and straightened them out the way they should be.
Nix knelt down on the floor at their heads, reaching down to gently brush the hair back from Cort's face, then Boone's. There was no blood, which surprised Nix. They looked like they could have just been sleeping.
Nix wondered why she wasn't crying until she realized that the anguish she felt went too deep for tears. She was frozen in limbo, where all actions and decisions were impossible. She had seen too much, lost too much.
She leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Cort's lips before stroking her hand down his cooling cheek. "Love you, Cort," she whispered. Turning to Boone, she also kissed him. "Love you, Boone. Love you both so much."
Her heart weighted down with despair, Nix reached for the knife on Cort's hip. She hissed a little as she pulled the knife across one wrist, then the other. As blood began dripping from her skin, Nix dropped the knife and once again began stroking her mates' faces.
Cort, with his beautiful, dark chocolate eyes, was always so strong, so protective, and in need of so much love. Boone, with his pale green eyes that expressed everything he felt, especially his desire to be loved and needed, and his warm, giving heart.
Neither man deserved to die in such a manner. They should have had full, loving lives. Nix felt tears finally begin to stream down her face as she rubbed her fingers across their lips, their cheeks, their closed eyelids.
As her eyelids began to droop, Nix hoped that death took her to her mates quickly. The aching hole in her heart needed to be filled with their presence, by the love she knew Boone and Cort felt for her.
Just as the edge of her vision began to blur, Nix felt a mind-numbing pain shoot through both of her arms. She looked, crying out when she saw both Boone and Cort holding one of her bleeding wrists to their mouths.
"Cort?" she whispered. "Boone?" Dark brown eyes flickered up to hers, then pale green. Both men continued to suck in the blood from Nix's wrists. Nix willingly gave them whatever they wanted, whatever they needed, offering no protest, not even when she felt herself start to get dizzy.
Cort and Boone were alive.
As Nix started to fall to the floor, she was caught by two sets of hands and gently laid down. When she looked up, Cort and Boone hovered over her, deep frowns on their faces. Nix tried to lift her hands to caress their faces until she realized both men were busy tying pieces of her skirt around her bleeding wrists.
&
nbsp; Funny, she hadn't even heard the fabric tear.
"Geez, what the fuck did you do, Nix?" Cort said when he finally looked at her.
"You were gone, both of you," Nix whispered. "I couldn't—" Nix pressed her lips as a new anguish hit her. The pain she felt when she knew her mates had been taken from her was just too new to speak of.
"Well, apparently, we're not gone," Boone said sternly, "but you might be if we don’t get you to a doctor. I think you need stitches."
Nix let out a broken laugh and held her bound wrists up. "I'll be okay."
Cort scooted over and sat down, grabbing Nix and pulling her into his arms. Nix turned her face into Cort's neck and took a deep breath of his musky scent, still reeling from the fact that her mates were alive.
"I still think you need stitches, Princess," Boone murmured into Nix's ear.
Nix turned her head to answer Boone when Cort suddenly grabbed her by the arms and shook her. She looked up at him in shock. His face was nearly white.
"If you ever do something so stupid again, so help me, Nix, I will paddle your ass," Cort snapped as he shook her again. "Do you understand me?"
Nix nodded, stunned by the anguish she could see in Cort's face. She quickly reached up and pressed her cheek against Cort's, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I can't live without you and Boone. Don't you know that?"
"Well, this is no way to solve it, Nix," Cort whispered, his voice sounding deep and shaky. "We can't live without you either."
"Hopefully, that won't be a problem again," Nix replied. A sudden commotion at the side of the room drew her attention. She looked over to see Dane, Chase, and Sal come running into the room, weapons drawn. They skidded to a stop and looked at the destruction in the room with shock.
Dane's mouth hung open for a moment before he arched an eyebrow and looked at them. "What'd we miss?"
Chapter 15
Boone looked over at Cort and rolled his eyes as he listened to Nix and Dane have yet another fight. In the two months since they had killed Vasile, Nix and Dane seemed to fight almost every time they were in the same room together. Personally, Boone thought the two of them enjoyed it.
"I don't agree," Nix shouted as she pushed her finger into Dane's chest. "Closing off the valley to outsiders will not solve any of our problems. There are a lot of Others out there that need a safe place to live, to raise their families. Some of those family members are human."
"But we don't know if these humans will keep our secret, Nix."
"We don't know they won't either."
"We need a place where Others, like the ones we freed from Vasile's laboratory, can live without fear of being turned over to any insane monster that wants to experiment on them."
"Like everyone was safe here with Vasile in charge." Nix snickered.
Boone raised his hand. "Can I say something?"
"No!" both Dane and Nix shouted at the same time.
Boone looked at Cort again and shook his head as Dane and Nix went back to arguing. Nix had been crowned the reigning queen of Dorthon with Boone and Cort as her royal consorts. It wasn't a job any of them really wanted, but there wasn't anyone else to fill the position.
Nix had asked Dane to be her advisor. He'd agreed until someone else could be found to take over. Boone pretty much felt the same way. He didn't want any part of the royal life, but it was what it was, and his mate was queen.
While they had plans to bring a lot of changes to Dorthon Valley, including elections of a council instead of a single monarch, those changes would take time. In the meantime, Boone was tired of listening to Dane and Nix argue. He could think of several much more pleasurable pursuits, most of them involving the three of them being naked.
He motioned to Cort, and they both stood. Walking around the side of the table, Boone reached over and grabbed Nix, lifting her up over his shoulder. He started for the large double doors, stopping to glance over his shoulder at Dane's stunned expression.
"Court adjourned."
THE END
WWW.STORMYGLENN.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stormy believes the only thing sexier than a man in cowboy boots is two or three men in cowboy boots. She also believes in love at first sight, soul mates, true love, and happy endings.
Stormy lives in the great Northwest region of the USA, with her gorgeous husband and soul mate, six very active teenagers, two boxer-collie puppies, two old biddy cats, and three fish.
You can usually find her cuddled in bed with a book in her hand and a puppy in her lap, or on her laptop, creating the next sexy man for one of her stories. Stormy welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website at www.stormyglenn.com.
Also by Stormy Glenn
Wolf Creek Pack 1: Full Moon Mating
Wolf Creek Pack 2: Just A Taste Of Me
Wolf Creek Pack 3: Tasty Treats: Volume 3, Man to Man
Wolf Creek Pack 4: Blood Prince
Wolf Creek Pack 5: Love, Always, Promise
Wolf Creek Pack 6: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
Tri-Omega Mates 1: Secret Desires
Tri-Omega Mates 2: Forbidden Desires
Tri-Omega Mates 3: Hidden Desires
Tri-Omega Mates 4: Stolen Desires
Tri-Omega Mates 5: Unspoken Desires
Lovers of Alpha Squad 1: Mari’s Men
Lovers of Alpha Squad 2: The Doctor’s Patience
Lovers of Alpha Squad 3: Julia’s Knight
Lovers of Alpha Squad 4: Three of a Kind
Love’s Legacy 1: Cowboy Legacy
Love’s Legacy 2: Cowboy Dreams
Sweet Treats
Mr. Wonderful
The Katzman’s Mate
Sequel to The Katzman’s Mate: Dream Mate
My Lupine Lover
The Master’s Pet
Wolf Queen
His Gentle Touch
Fire Demon
Also by Stormy Glenn and Joyee Flynn
Delta Wolf 1: Chameleon Wolf
Delta Wolf 2: Mating Games
Available at
BOOKSTRAND.COM
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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