by Alyse Zaftig
“What position did your house take when Emperor Bao Dai fell?”
The twins were absolutely still. Olivier leaned back from her.
“Why won’t you answer me?” She felt her eyes filling with tears. She was vulnerable, naked in bed with the two of them, and she was terrified by the total silence.
“We were babies, Phuong.”
The tears spilled then.
“Where was your father?” she whispered. “Where was he when the merchant Draka stole the Yore imperial family’s wealth?”
Olivier looked down at the bed, which still had some marks of last night’s passion.
“We’re not our father.”
They didn’t have to spell it out for her. She understood now. She wasn’t sure if their father had directly hurt hers, but she knew that their father had stood by while not lifting a finger to help her father. Why else would Olivier say that they weren’t like their father, a king of great power and renown, a warrior who had led the Draka in more than one war, according to her history lessons?
She knew that they were right, that it was unfair to blame them for things that had happened when they were babies. They weren’t responsible for what had happened on Vestra.
But what about their father? Had they been raised to despise Yore? Were they the right mates as she looked for a way to re-establish the Yore empire?
She knew that she would love them forever, but right now, it seemed more like a curse than a blessing.
57
Leaving
Phuong
Phuong spent the next day getting pretty. Beauty was a kind of shield against feeling like a helpless object. Hoa helped her get ready for the night, where she’d stand by the Thrones’ side while they came back to the auction house.
They were going to march in Marc’s front door. The action would publicly announce that they were mated, but she was worried about it becoming public before she was really ready.
She hadn’t had the opportunity to connect with any Yore beyond Hoa. Now she was going to announce that she was mated to two Thrones and that she was with child, two children who would be twice royal.
Hoa said that they would be legendary kings.
Then it was time. Gahariet came into her room and leaned against the doorframe.
“You look beautiful.”
She turned to smile at her mate. He came to her, put his hands on her waist. He leaned down to kiss her, but she pushed on his chest.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re going to mess up my makeup.”
“You’re stunning, Princess Phuong.” He slid his hand over the silk that flowed like water over the curves of her body.
“Thank you for this gown.”
“Only the best for our mate, princess, and queen.”
He was talking about himself and Olivier, but Phuong felt a twinge. She was supposed to be the Yore empress, and he didn’t know exactly who her father was, only that he was deposed Yore royalty.
She cleared her throat. “Are you ready to go?”
He offered her his arm. “Let’s go downstairs.”
Xuan and Olivier were waiting downstairs. Olivier let out a low whistle on her arrival.
He leaned in to whisper in her ear, “I can’t wait to get you naked when we come home later.”
She blushed.
“Keep it in your pants, Olivier,” Xuan joked. “Ew. Let’s go.”
They had to take the levi-car. Earlier, the twins had approached on wing and landed on the roof. It was probable that Marc would expect them to come the same way.
So they rode over the hills and towards the auction house.
The levi-car ride was extremely quiet, and Phuong knew why. Xuan wasn’t all that comfortable with the Thrones. They didn’t know each other. She still hadn’t met their father.
“This will be a peaceful recovery of goods, Xuan. Don’t worry,” she said, trying to reassure her brother. She smiled at him, but she didn’t think that it had any impact at all.
Gahariet reached for her hand, but she tugged it out of his grip and tucked a strand of hair behind her hair, before looking out the window.
“I don’t understand why you didn’t want the guards to come with us.”
“Perception is everything in our world,” Gahariet told him.
Xuan frowned at Gahariet. “In your world, that might be true. In our world, we like to stay in the land of the living. We should have covered every possibility.”
“Why are you suddenly so worried?” Olivier cut in, defending their choices. His eyes were fixated on Xuan.
Xuan shut up, but then he started talking again.
“I stole from him before. He might remember.”
“Do you think that he really will?”
“Did he see your face?” Gahariet asked.
“No.”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.” Gahariet readjusted the collar of his suit.
58
Infiltration
Phuong
Phuong felt wildly uncomfortable in the crush of people in the auction house. She was sick with worry. Her mates looked like they were having a good time, but she could see that their shoulders were tense. She could also feel their feelings through their mate bond, which was normally closed. Maybe the mission had made them open it.
If she could feel them, then Marc must be able to do so, as well.
She could feel the unfriendly gazes of the other Drakans in the auction house, almost like a heavy weight upon her.
Phuong held her head high. She wasn’t a servant. She was twice royal, once by blood and twice by mating. Yes, she had mated men that she wasn’t too sure about. All this time, they’d known where she came from, and Xuan had had to tell her.
She wondered if they knew she was imperial. They hadn’t told her that she was royal right away…they could easily have kept it from her.
She tried to refocus on the mission. She grabbed a glass of wine from a passing server.
Then Marc headed for them and she almost spilled her wine, her anxiety peaking.
Looking closer at him, he was a little shorter and more heavyset than Marc. The man heading in their direction wasn’t Marc at all.
He made a beeline for her mates, ignoring her outright before turning and assessing her thoroughly with his eyes. His eyes made her feel greasy, like she needed a bath.
A split second before he came, Olivier told Phuong, “Stay quiet while Lucien is here. He’s Marc’s bloodthirsty brother.”
“Your new mate is very beautiful. Is she related to Emperor Bao Dai?”
“We don’t know,” Gahariet said softly, his hand on Olivier’s arm to stop him from saying anything.
“She looks just like him.” Lucien grinned at her. It wasn’t nice at all. “How nice to meet you. Please enjoy the festivities.” He nodded at the Thrones before walking off to talk to a group of people huddled around a hunk of jade carved in the form of a dragon king.
He left behind a stench that made Phuong nauseous. His mention of her resemblance to her real father made the mood tense. Phuong still didn’t know if they had known, or if one twin had known and the other hadn’t. From the looks of it, Gahariet might have known while Olivier had been very surprised by the accusation and about to set it right.
She didn’t want to call them out, not right here, not right now. It wasn’t the right place or time. She’d talk to them about it later. She hated being kept in the dark.
Olivier took Phuong’s hand and pulled her around the auction house, gently guiding her around the little clumps of Draka who turned to glare at her, the only Yore dressed in fancy clothes besides Xuan. The other Yore were all servers here.
Phuong knew that she was safe with Olivier and Gahariet, but that was intellectual. Deep in her gut, she was terrified of being Marc’s doll. Marc wouldn’t physically assault Thrones, but she didn’t think that any of the Draka would shed a tear if Marc suddenly killed her. Gahariet and Olivier would take re
venge, of course, but she’d be dead.
But they were in polite society, and appearance was everything to the Draka.
“You could at least look like you’re enjoying yourself, Phuong. We are at a party,” Olivier nudged her. “I promise we’ll only stay as long as we need to.”
“I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not,” she said stiffly. “And if you didn’t realize that when you mated me, then you shouldn’t have.”
“When we mated, neither of us had any idea who you were.” Olivier rubbed his face with his hand. “But this isn’t the time.”
They looked each other in the eyes. Phuong knew that he was really worried about her and their mating. She instinctively wanted to reassure him that everything was just fine, but she knew that it would be a lie.
59
Marc’s Invitation
Phuong
A server came up to her, but he wasn’t carrying a tray.
“Marc would like to request the pleasure of your company.”
His tone wasn’t offensive, but it wasn’t the tone of a server. She looked at him closely. He was wearing a simple black suit, but the cloth was higher quality than the other servers.
“Sure, why not,” she replied. Gahariet and Olivier trailed behind her as they made their way through the crowd towards Marc’s office.
Phuong turned around and met Xuan’s eyes. He stopped obtrusively following them, hanging back a few steps and moving at a slower pace. With luck, Marc wouldn’t realize that they’d brought somebody extra. Yes, her brother was Yore and stuck out, but he was changing his body language right now to say that he was just a humble Yore server. She could hear one of the Draka ladies give him her empty wineglass and ask for a refill, which he did immediately. He’d be just fine on his own at this party. He had excellent instincts.
Then they were in Marc’s office. There were three chairs in front of Marc’s desk, and they all took a seat.
“Close the door, please.”
The Yore who had fetched them bowed to Marc before closing the door. Phuong was half-expecting to hear the click of a lock, but it never came.
“I think I know what you’re here for.” Marc pulled a chain out from under his shirt.
All three of them sat up straight in their chairs. There was a vial of blood on the chain. Phuong knew that it was her blood.
His eyes swept over the twins before resting on Phuong.
He sighed. “I had such plans.”
“They were your plans, not mine.”
Marc paused for a second. “Do you know what I found out when I spent a little extra time with your blood this evening?”
Phuong frowned at him. “What?”
“You’re the throneless queen of the Yore. You don’t have a kingdom.” He laughed softly. “It explains how you draw the eye so simply and unintentionally. You make men want you, to serve you, to please you. That’s your natural ability. It’s your game. You make the rules.”
“I’m not playing any games.”
“Oh, but you are. Or you wouldn’t be carrying the children of the Thrones.”
Phuong gasped while Olivier and Gahariet kept their cool.
“You aimed higher on the social ladder than a mere black market auction house owner. I’m fine with it. We all deserve to get what we want. You would have been…a crown jewel, if you will, but you’re more trouble than you’re really worth in the long run. I can’t wait until people find out what you are. This whole city will explode.”
Olivier banged his fist on Marc’s desk.
“Give us her blood.”
Marc looked at him.
“I’ll give it to you if you tell me why you really want it.”
Olivier lost it, pouncing over the desk. But Marc was a dragon, too, and he half shifted. Olivier shifted, too, and tried to pull Marc’s vial from his neck.
Finally, after a few minutes of struggling, he broke the chain and threw the vial at Gahariet. He fell on top of Marc’s body as the two of them crashed to the ground. Olivier was larger than Marc, and soon he had pinned Marc to the ground.
But the scuffle was loud. The door to Marc’s office opened, showing an immediately outraged Lucien.
“What’s going on here?”
Marc lifted his hand to stop his brother. Lucien pulled Olivier off of Marc.
He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes glowed with just a little bit of flame as he said, “Thank you for coming tonight. The price for the treasure that you’ve gained tonight will cost you in the long run. I hope you’re ready to pay the price.”
Phuong didn’t like the sound of that at all.
60
Kitchen Love
Phuong
Phuong was lost in thought and quiet as a mouse on the way back to the castle, just like her brother. There wasn’t much to say. She was mostly free of Marc now that they had successfully gotten her blood back. But he had said that he would take a huge price.
She knew that he would make trouble when she attempted to resurrect the Yore empire…which had no land at all. She was certain of it.
Marc hadn’t fallen in love with her, just simple lust. But he hated the idea of losing her to the twins, and his personality couldn’t stand being robbed.
Her mates had respected the distance that she had set, and she wondered if she should push them away even further. She needed to connect with her subjects with Xuan and Hoa by her side. If she could make the right connections, maybe she could do something.
Olivier helped her out of the levi-car, but she pulled her hand out of his as soon as she got on solid ground.
She wasn’t going to invite them into her bedroom tonight.
Gahariet came up behind her and gave her the vial of blood that had caused so much trouble.
Olivier said, “I’m going to get clean.”
“Me too.”
The twins went inside of the castle, leaving Phuong and Xuan outside.
Xuan said, “What are you going to do now?”
“Right now, all I want is some food and maybe rest. Maybe not in that order. I’m pretty tired.”
“Well, go to bed.”
She sighed. “I will. Good night, Xuan.”
“Sleep tight. It’s your first night of peace.”
She wondered if it really was. She knew that she still had a rocky relationship with her mates, the descendants of the people who had crushed hers.
She made her way up to her bedroom, got rid of her makeup, pulled off her dress, and snuggled under the covers.
* * *
When she woke up, there was a moonbeam shining directly on her eyes, which made her cranky.
Her stomach growled and screamed that she needed more food.
She pulled on a dressing robe and went downstairs. Maybe there would be fruit or something that she could eat, even if the kitchen staff was asleep.
She went downstairs and got into the kitchen, but she froze as soon as she was inside.
Gahariet was sitting right there, slowly eating gateau de xocolatl.
She approached cautiously, her shoulders tense. She didn’t know how to talk to him, her own mate, and she wanted to eat, but maybe not at the price of an awkward conversation.
“We’re not your enemies.” Gahariet’s voice was husky.
“I never said you were,” she snapped. “I’ve never said that.”
“Yet you keep it from us like it’s a secret. Don’t you understand how hard it is for us? We never anticipated that we’d mate a Yore.”
“What? Are we not good enough for you?” Phuong stuck out her chin, ready for a fight.
“We had no idea that we would mate a Yore princess or that we’d come to love you more than life itself. You know that we’re ecstatic about the babies. We’re consumed by you. Olivier shows it better than I do, but he’s also more deeply hurt by the emotional distance you’ve kept lately.”
“I’m suffering from not knowing who you really are. I owe the Yore a greater debt
than I owe you.”
Gahariet stuck the fork in his cake.
“We’re friends. We’ll stand right by you when you announce the resurrection of your empire and make a claim for a reestablishment of a Yore nation.”
His raised voice must have attracted Olivier, because Olivier, his eyes half open, drifted through the doorway.
He stood tall, though, as he said, “Our father stood by while he watched the Yore royals being destroyed. He didn’t support it, but he didn’t stop them, either. He knew that it would place him in jeopardy and set him against his own kind. But we are not our father. We are your mates, and we love you. We will love you until the end of eternity.”
Phuong’s eyes filled with tears at Olivier’s declaration of love, given from the heart. Her heart was thumping in her ears.
She didn’t know how to handle the overload of emotion, so she turned from the brothers.
But they instantly turned into smoke and circled her, pulling her into a three-person hug.
“We’ll love you forever,” Gahariet whispered into her ear before biting her earlobe and sending the beginning sparks of a bonfire through her body.
Olivier backed up from her and took a kitchen stool. He untied her dressing robe, letting it drop to the floor. The twins got naked, too.
“Put your stomach on the stool.”
She looked down at it. It was cushioned. It shouldn’t hurt the children. She still couldn’t really see a baby bump.
She put her stomach down on the stool.
She could feel Gahariet’s hands on her back, slowly massaging her as all the stress and tension left her body. She felt as relaxed as a cat in a sunbeam. Happiness spread throughout her body. They loved her. They would stand by her as she rebuilt the Yore people.
Then Gahariet’s cock was guided inside of her, stretching her to her limits, making her moan. Olivier immediately took advantage of her open mouth to push his own erection inside of her mouth.