by Katie May
hands grabbed at my body, my hands, reaching futilely for my neck as if
checking me for injuries.
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" he bit out. I knelt down so he could
touch me easier, and his arms tightened around my middle. Before I could
reply, he lifted me up and put me on his lap. His arms remained tight around
me, and his face nestled against my neck. Unlike with his brother, this felt
right. A piece of the puzzle clicking into place.
"I'm fine," I assured Dair softly. I lifted his face up, tracing the planes of
his handsome face with my fingers. His golden hair glinted in the artificial
lighting, and his blue eyes hypnotized me. He was so beautiful, so perfect,
that I wanted to skip the ball and memorize every line of his face. "He didn't
do anything."
That was technically a lie, but I could see how precarious Dair's grip on
control was. I didn't know what would happen once he realized the truth - that
his brother had been seconds away from attempting to rape me.
I knew I had made the right decision to hide the truth when Dair's body
physically deflated. The next second, Dair's hands were cupping the back of
my head, and his lips were desperately attacking my own. I leaned into the
kiss, tangling my tongue with his. Desire set every nerve alive as I leaned
further into his bruising kiss. His hands moved to my hips before lowering,
curving around the shape of my ass. He gave my cheeks a squeeze, and I
moaned into his mouth.
Finally, he broke away, planting sweet kisses to each corner of my lips,
down to my jaw, and then across my neck.
"You look beautiful," he whispered huskily. He bucked against me, and I
felt something hard brush my sensitive mound. "So fucking beautiful."
Those hands of his continued to knead my ass, and that desire and lust
transformed into something else. I couldn't discern what it was exactly, but
my entire body went up in flames. And my heart? It threatened to break free
of its cage.
"And," Dair continued in a rasp, "you're wearing my color."
"You like it, don't you?" I whispered. I didn't know if it was the dress or
Dair himself that made me feel brave. Maybe it was the incident with Tavvy
that made me see things differently. I felt...sexy. Powerful. Every inch the
badass assassin and mate to seven princes.
A fucking queen.
I removed myself off of Dair's lap, straightening my dress and patting
down my disheveled hair. Dair let out a painful gasp, reaching for me.
"You like it when I wear your color," I whispered, barely recognizing the
seductive lilt to my voice.
Dropping to my knees, I touched his bulge.
Like his brother, he was dressed in a black suit and white shirt. His
golden blond hair was slicked back, showcasing his lightly tanned face and
cerulean blue eyes. Eyes that reminded me of long nights on the beach.
With a quick glance down the hallway, assuring no one was in sight, I
unzipped his pants.
Dair let out a harsh breath.
"Someone could walk down and see us," he whispered hoarsely. His chest
heaved with each of his breaths. Despite his words, his hands settled on my
waist, pulling me even closer.
"Then let them see."
I released his cock from its confines, groaning at the sight of it. It was
long and thick, the same tawny gold color of his skin. Pre-cum dusted the tip,
and I lowered my head to taste it. Taste him.
His hands left my waist to tangle in my hair. His breathing was erratic,
unhinged, and I smiled at being the cause of seeing him so unkempt.
I reached further into his pants to cup his balls, testing the weight with my
hand before giving it a light squeeze. He hissed, eyes flashing with heat,
before he tilted his head back with a groan.
I licked the tip slowly, using my saliva and his own cum as lubricant. His
labored breathing reached my ears, eliciting my own goosebumps of desire.
There was something immensely attractive, sexy, desirable, about knowing
you were the one tearing a man apart. Making him succumb to desire.
I used one hand to lift his thick girth as I licked the salty underside. His
cock twitched with each lick, suck, and kiss. My other hand continued to
fondle his balls.
"Please," he whispered breathily. I wrapped my mouth around his length,
taking him in as far as I could. The tip of his cock touched the back of my
throat, but I knew I could take him even further.
"Fuck!" he screamed. He grabbed at my hair and began to fuck my mouth
in earnest. I allowed him to, staying still, as his cock entered and exited me
erratically. When my hand squeezed his balls tightly, he exploded. He tried to
pull away, but I held him in place, swallowing everything he had to offer. His
body shook as he released his seed inside my mouth.
Finally, I pulled away, smiling in satisfaction. Dair's eyes were dazed,
hooded with desire, as they rested on my face. That desire and lust turned
into something else, something that caused my breath to leave me in a
swooping exhale.
Because the expression on his face looked an awful lot like love.
Love.
For me.
As he continued staring at me, I ducked back into my room, grabbed a
washcloth, and returned. His dopey expression didn't leave as I cleaned him
up and gently placed his half-erect cock back into his pants.
"Z..." he whispered hoarsely, and I just knew what confession would
leave his lips.
"We need to get to the ball," I cut off, staring everywhere but at him. I
managed a humorless laugh. "I am the guest of honor, after all."
"Z." This was said with a heavy, resigned sigh.
Ignoring it, I grabbed his chair handles and pushed it down the hall.
We passed a few elegantly dressed Nightmares, all of which stuck up
their noses when they caught sight of me. A human. With the crowned prince
of Mermaids.
The chair-bound crowned prince of Mermaids.
We reached the large, ornately carved wooden doors that would lead to
the ballroom. From the other side, I heard music playing and people chatting
with one another.
I stepped away from Dair to open up the door, but he grabbed my hand
and pulled me back.
His eyes were somehow able to see through every flaw I had, every
mistake I had ever made, every layer of doubt and self-loathing. I felt
stripped bare beneath his penetrating gaze. Naked and vulnerable.
"Z, I love you," he whispered. Before I could reply, the ballroom doors
were thrown open to reveal the Shifter King smiling down at me.
"Z!" he said jovially. "We've been waiting for you."
FOURTEEN
Z
The Shifter King leaned over, taking my hand in his large paw. With a
cant of his head, he pressed his lips to my knuckles.
"We're happy you could join us," he said, smiling. I didn't trust
that smile for a damn minute. This was the same man who avidly supported
human work camps and stricter laws for human disobedience. He was evil
personified; no amount of smiles could curb the malicious glint in his eyes.
"I didn't know I had a choice,"
I said lightly, feigning a laugh. His own
smile thinned, eyes darkening. He pulled his attention off of me to face Dair.
He extended a hand, and my Mermaid mate shook it. With great reluctance, I
noted somewhat amusedly.
"Dair! How are you faring today?" he asked. I wished I could see Dair's
face, articulate his emotions through his facial features. Instead, I placed my
hands on his shoulders, unsurprised to feel them stiff.
"I'm doing good, your majesty."
Awkward silence descended. The Shifter King remained standing in the
doorway, a glass of what looked like wine in his hand. Behind him, I could
see a sea of color as people twirled, danced, and chatted. Each of the ladies
was bedecked in a dress that put mine to shame. For the first time that
evening, self-consciousness crippled me.
I fucking hated that feeling. The feeling that no matter what you did, you
would never be good enough. Was that normal? Did females normally feel
like that?
Huffing, I smoothed my hands down the silk skirt. I prayed that my hair
wasn't still mussed from my rendezvous with Dair a few minutes earlier.
Or that the evidence of my arousal wasn't particularly pungent with all the
enhanced senses around me.
"If you don't mind, your highness, I really should get to the party," I said.
The Shifter King's eyes widened in surprise, but I couldn't decide if it was
shock that I had somewhat spoken back to him or realization that he was
blocking the doorway. Either way, his lips curved up cruelly, and he stepped
aside with an elaborate, sardonic wave of his hands.
"By all means..." he said curtly. I prepared to wheel Dair in, but a hand on
my shoulder stopped me.
"There are stairs here, dear." He said dear as if it was a curse word, not an
endearment. Unease prickled beneath my skin, but I kept my smile pleasant.
"Dair is going to have to enter through the side entrance."
"Then I'll go with him," I said resolutely, already turning his chair around.
Dair's hands were white where they gripped the seat handles, but he didn't
interrupt our conversation. Trusting me. Allowing me to take the lead in this
fucked up game with a fucked up king.
Said King chuckled darkly.
"But you're the honored guest! Of course you have to make a grand
entrance." He roughly shoved my hands off of Dair's chair, ignoring my yelp
of protest, before linking his arm with mine. "He'll meet you there."
I glanced helplessly at Dair, but he begged me with his eyes to play
along. Be the good little assassin that everyone expected me to be. And good
little assassins didn’t castrate kings. No matter how tempting it might've
been.
Flashing a smile I had perfected in the mirror, I allowed the Shifter King
to guide me to the top of the stairs. It was a Cinderella moment...only I had
seven princes instead of one.
And a murderous, sadistic king leading me down the stairs.
The ballroom was beautiful, I noticed immediately. It was a different
room than the one we had held the feast in so many weeks ago - the feast that
had resulted in hundreds of deaths and my position as the Kings' assassin. A
powerful Mage had performed a spell that had killed everyone in the room,
including the young ladies participating in The Matching.
The Matching was a competition for the princes, my mates, to find their
wives.
My jealousy, once more, prickled into awareness, but I pushed it aside.
They were mine now. Any woman they might’ve been with in the past was
only that...a part of their past. Heaven only knew I hadn’t arrived into this
relationship a virgin.
Shaking my head, I focused once more on the spacious room. A seven-
tiered chandelier hung directly in the center of the room, providing the only
light visible. The ceiling was an intricately crafted combination of gold and
wood. Tiny angels were intermingled with carved flowers and swooping
vines. The walls, too, were made of wood, various pillars protruding
outwards.
The entire space felt elegant, as if I had stepped back in time thousands of
years ago.
The second thing I noticed was the people. Hundreds of them, all
elaborately dressed. The women wore puffy dresses, a variety of colors, and
the men wore suits similar to Dair's. Hair was coiffed, slicked back, curled.
Everyone was the epitome of beauty and perfection.
And all eyes were on me as I descended the staircase. Shock, curiosity,
horror, desire...they all blended together as the Nightmares looked, for the
first time, at their new assassin. I wondered who these people were.
High-ranking officials? Nobles?
I tried to keep my anxiousness in check as I met each person's gaze. Men
and women alike were staring at me, enthralled. Why wouldn't they be? I was
an enigma. A woman and a human who had won The Damning.
I wondered how many of these people knew the truth of who I was, and
how many thought I was a normal noble.
Devlin's violet eyes peered up at me from the back of the crowd. His
mouth was parted slightly, wonder and awe emanating from him in palpable
waves. Beside him stood Killian and Bash. The two of them had similar
expressions on their faces, though Bash looked pissed too. Probably because
he felt desire towards me at all.
I scanned the crowd with a newfound eagerness now that I knew my
mates were lurking nearby.
I spotted Jax next, arm linked with Atta's. I normally would've been
jealous, but his gaze wasn't on the beautiful woman beside him. It was on me.
Only me. As if I was the only girl in the entire world.
It took me another moment to find Lupe. His large, burly body was
leaning against a wall. His eyes roamed me from head to toe, lust darkening
his features. He took a step closer, as if he intended to grab me from his
father, before releasing a pent-up breath and stepping back into his corner.
A Shadow stood beside him, clothed in darkness.
For a brief moment, those shadows departed to reveal the face of my mate
I had only ever seen once. Just for me, Ryland released the shadows. Just for
me, he showed me his face. I gaped, stunned, as he smiled cheekily at me.
Just as quickly, the shadows reappeared, once more obscuring his face from
view. I was momentarily struck speechless, and I couldn't help but wonder if
I had imagined the exchange.
"We have some people we want you to meet," the Shifter King said
coyly. A sinister smile lit up his face.
He led me to the center of the room where the Mermaid King and Incubus
King were laughing. Both men stopped when they saw me, and their eyes
flashed with something akin to hunger. It made the previous prickle of unease
turn into full-blown wariness.
"Z! As lovely as ever!" The Incubus King took a step towards me,
planting kisses on both of my cheeks. I held perfectly still until he finally
pulled away. His power briefly caressed me causing my nipples to harden.
His smirk told me he knew exactly what he had done.
Asshole.
"Z." The Mermaid King nodded in greeting, but his eyes were hooded as
&nb
sp; they made a slow perusal of my form. I was modestly dressed, but I felt as if I
had walked into the ballroom naked.
"I should wait for my date, your majesties," I said, once more scanning
the crowd for my mates. I could see Devlin, Bash, and Killian lunging
forward on one side, and Lupe parting the crowd on the other. I didn't see
Ryland, but that didn't necessarily surprise me. For all I knew, he was already
beside me, invisible to the naked eye.
"Date?" The Mermaid King straightened with interest. "Is Tavvy treating
you good?"
"Tavvy?" I blinked once. "No, Dair is my date."
The King's face puckered and pursed as if he had eaten something sour. A
vein in his forehead throbbed angrily.
I realized, then, that I had said something I wasn't supposed to. It became
abundantly clear that Dair had been lying when he had stolen me away from
Tavvy.
Shit.
Feigning nonchalance, I shrugged. "Nobody came to pick me up, so I had
to walk to the ball by myself. I met up with Dair near the entrance. He agreed
to escort me." I shrugged once more, infusing as much sincerity into my
words as possible. If there was one thing being an assassin had taught me, it
was how to lie expertly. How to twist words to fit my own needs.
I was an expert liar, able to spin my webs until every helpless fly was
captured.
The skin around the Mermaid King's eyes smoothed over, and he nodded
once, accepting my story.
"Z," the Incubus King cut in. A new man had joined the group, and I took
stock of his muscular form, cropped black hair, and piercing eyes. "This is
Axel. He was our previous assassin before his retirement this year."
He looked young, a few years older than myself, and definitely not old
enough to retire. However, I knew things worked differently here. A new
assassin was chosen every five years through The Damning. He must've been
my predecessor.
"Axel," I said with a respectful bow of my head. He held himself still,
coiled tightly, and his muscles flexed with each movement he made. Despite
that, I knew he wasn't a Shifter. No, the way he held himself, the agile way he
moved, the flashing of his eyes, I deduced he was a Shadow.
"Z." He brushed his lips over my hand, and behind me, I heard a low
growl.
Lupe.
The Shifter King's smile widened.