Guardians of Moonlight: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Guardians of the Fae Book 3)

by Elizabeth Hartwell

  I don’t think anyone could, though. The more I think about the pulsing light of the Moonstone, the more the images in my head shake me. When I touched it, there was so much power in that momentary jolt before we were swept into Nanking that I couldn’t believe it. The only experience that I’ve had that’s even close to it was when I felt the two halves of my own power merge to blast the Dark Rider back to Hell, but the Moonstone’s power was magnitudes beyond that.

  For that brief moment, before the Moonstone swept Kaelen and me into the past, I felt infinite. I felt like I was connected to everything, everywhere, and everyone. I don’t know if the Fae mythology about Sun Gods and Mother Trees is accurate or not, but I do know that whatever created the Moonstone is immensely powerful. I also feel like I have a connection with it, an attachment that seems to tug at my mind gently, constantly.

  Maybe Kaelen’s right and the Moonstone is sentient. Maybe it has chosen me, but as I keep pacing, I think about how it can help me. If it’s a window to the past, or a doorway or whatever, maybe I can learn to steer it? Maybe I can learn the answers to questions that have haunted me my whole life.

  Can I learn who my birth mother is? Can I learn how she and the Hell King ended up together, even if it was just a one-night stand? Can I prevent my abandonment?

  That question brings me back to the moral conundrum that I asked Kaelen in the chamber. What about paradoxes and the butterfly effect? If I go back and change one thing, what would the cumulative effect be? Would I never know my family? Never have a sister?

  On the other hand, what if by never knowing my family, I could prevent Mom’s and Dad’s deaths? Or maybe even prevent the Para Wars?

  I have to find out. And to do that, I want to see the Moonstone again. I need to use it again. It’s scary, because that need feels like a compulsion, but it’s there nevertheless, and I need another compulsion like I need a hole in the head.

  But it doesn’t matter. Because the bigger thing I keep thinking about was seeing the Dark Rider in Nanking. If he was there and it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination, then his plan really has been in place for millennia.

  I need to know more to figure all of this out.

  “You know, it’s not all bad,” Daelera says as I keep pacing. “His Excellency obviously fancies you.”

  “It’s not like that, Dee,” I protest, but she just rolls her eyes at me.

  “Whatever. You’re not noble so I will speak plainly with you. Pull your head out of your ass, girl! For the fifty years since he’s been on the throne, the man’s been as close to celibate as a Fae can be. He has his comfort partners, of course, but other than that, he’s never so much as looked at a woman. Now he not only makes you his honored guest, but his ward? I know you may not understand this, but there are millions of Fae women who’d fall on their knees to worship his glorious cock for half of what he’s given you.”

  “It’s not like that!” I growl, wishing I could tell Daelera why Kaelen’s taken such an interest in me. I know what she thinks, that he’s so head over heels in lust with me that he’s using every Alpha move in his considerable arsenal to sway me into submitting to him. He doesn’t want to take me to bed. He wants to take me to the deepest corners of Fae mythology and magical power for some ulterior motive I still don’t quite understand.

  “Well, then, what is it like?” Daelera asks, and I throw my hands in the air. I can’t tell her and she’d never understand even if I did. Daelera might be a good body servant, but she’s just not the kind of person who’s going to concern herself with the finer points of magical power or the fate of the realms.

  “Listen, Dee . . . I have to see my Guardians,” I finally tell her, trying to find some outlet for this tension going on inside me. It doesn’t have to be sex, but I could use their wisdom and council. Even Jacob at his most pervy has a mind that would put most philosophers to shame. He just reveals it in his own unique way. “I’m going to go nuts if I can’t talk with them, if I can’t be with them. You have to help me.”

  “Eve, you’re under double-guard out front. They practically strip-searched me to let me in here . . . not that I minded with the one of them,” she says, looking like she’s absolutely shocked that I’d even suggest such an idea. Maybe she’s still caught up in the idea I should be on my knees for Kaelen’s royal scepter and thinks I’m desperate for relief from raging hormones. “Just how do you think I’m going to get you out of here or a couple of Lunarians in here?”

  “Because servants know things that nobles don’t,” I counter, lifting an eyebrow when she doesn’t reply. Yeah, I’ve watched enough BBC movies and other stuff like them to make an educated guess. Gotcha! “Come off it. You said it yourself that your mother was a servant here, and you’ve been in this castle since you were born. Well, in all that time, you had to have figured a few ways to sneak around this place.”

  Daelera thinks, then lifts an eyebrow. “And if I do? What’ll it get me?”

  I laugh at her playful tone and question. “You know I’m dead-broke and don’t have anything to offer you other than my thanks and appreciation.”

  Daelera grins. “So . . . does that mean I get to be your bestie?”

  Her attempt at using human slang is cute, and I nod, giving her my most serious playful expression. “Yes, but Dee, if you can’t . . . I swear I’m going to end up hurting myself.”

  “I can see that. You’re about ready to walk your legs into stumps as it is,” Daelera quips, standing up and brushing her hips off. “Fine . . . over here.”

  Daelera leads me to the bathroom, where on the wall behind my toilet she presses a button and a seam appears in the panel. “This is supposed to be for the plumber, but it runs the whole length of this wing,” she says, “and if you follow the branch to the left first and then down, it’ll take you to a main shaft that’ll let you out. But you have to be back soon. I can’t exactly delay those guards if they want to check on you.”

  “Thank you, Dee.”

  I slip into the crawlspace, and before I’m halfway down the narrow tunnel, I wish I’d changed clothes, but Daelera’s already closed the panel behind me.

  “Guess I’m just going to have to trust in luck,” I mutter before hearing a scraping sound up ahead. I freeze but relax a moment later when a Faelight springs to life and Tyler’s face looks back at me.

  “Sometimes, Princess, luck finds you. Come on, let’s get out of here. We know a place for now.”

  The room is small but cozy, with wood paneling on the walls and a comfortingly sane gray ceiling. There’s no furniture, but that doesn’t matter as I sit in Noah’s lap, leaning back against his massive chest like the world’s sexiest recliner.

  “And then in a flash, I was back in the invisible chamber,” I finish, looking over and taking Cole’s hand. Since seeing him, I’ve been unable to let go, just to reassure myself that he didn’t actually die like I saw in my trip through the Moonstone. I know it’s a foolish gesture. This simple physical contact doesn’t mean a thing about a vision of a man who may or may not have died in 1937. But running my fingers through his hair, reassuring myself that I didn’t see my actual Declared love die, is more important to me than anything else right now.

  “Sounds like quite the experience,” Jacob, who’s sitting across from me, says. “I don’t want to sound like the doubter here, Eve, but are you sure it was real? Like you said, you know Cole was alive in 1937. In fact, I can pretty much tell you where we were back then. We’d been sent on a patrol to deal with a wood dragon that was messing with some villages on the border between Lunaria and the Southern kingdom. It took us what, six months to deal with that?”

  “Roughly,” Cole agrees. “But there may be an explanation.”

  “What?” I ask, eager for some support. I’m not angry at Jacob, but I can tell that Tyler’s also doubtful, and Noah is so hard to read until he makes up his mind that I’m not sure what’s going on with him.

  “There’s a theory, just a theory, mind you,
that some Fae share connections with humans,” Cole says. “Some even take it further and say that the Fae, humans, and demons share threads that carry through all three realms. It’s why there’s any path between realms at all.”

  “I don’t care what it was, an illusion or your spiritual buddy or just my own head putting your face on someone else’s body. I know what happened.”

  “Do you, though?” Tyler asks carefully. “Eve, he’s a wizard. And anyone with telekinesis has rare levels of power. He might be tricking you, especially if he already controlled the Sun Crystal.”

  “Tyler, it wasn’t Kaelen that triggered the jump to the past. It was the Moonstone interacting with me. But the worst part of it was that I saw the Dark Rider. I spent the whole ride back to the castle hoping that I was just screwed up in the head, that I imagined it. But the more I think about it . . . I’m going to be honest, guys. I can’t be sure.”

  “It’d be easier for us if it was just a delusion,” Noah rumbles, rubbing my shoulder and kissing the top of my head. “Because if you’re right—”

  “Then he’s not gone, or I’m dealing with a previous version or something. I don’t know, but it’s not good either way.”

  “You need to stay with us,” Jacob says. “I don’t trust this bullshit ‘ward’ deal.”

  “I can’t,” I reply softly. “Daelera might cover some, but those guards can’t be put off all night.”

  “But he’s trying to pull you from us,” Cole says, his voice dropping down to a dangerous level. “To not even talk with us other than what, as comfort men? I don’t care if he’s royalty or not. That is not acceptable.”

  “We share a bond,” Jacob says, agreeing. “To deny that to you is . . . it’s nearly a crime. We need to go now.”

  “I understand, guys, but I’m still bound by these bracers and collar. They’re locked magically, and I don’t think having someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing fucking around with magic near my neck is all that smart a move.”

  “It’s your perfect neck we’re worried about,” Tyler says before taking a deep breath. “Eve, earlier today, someone tried to assassinate Cole.”

  “What?” I ask, sitting up hard and staring at Cole. “And you guys didn’t tell me right away?”

  “He’s dead, and he didn’t even lay a scratch on me,” Cole reassures me, “but it underscores the danger you’re in.”

  I know I’m in danger. If we stay, there are apparently assassins who want my head. But if I leave, then Kaelen’s going to come for me too. I could see how important I am to him, and whatever his plans are, I still feel they’re inherently good. He wants peace and he wants to preserve life as much as possible.

  Also, I want to hold the Moonstone again. The power locked inside it is going to be a key to my future, I know it. And if the Dark Rider isn’t gone, if I have to confront the Hell King again, I’m going to need that much power on my side.

  “We can’t leave,” I tell them, looking around. “This is too important. Cole, the you I saw in Nanking, he was flawed. Like you, he loved me, but that love drove him to ignore his duty. And this is one duty we can’t ignore. We have to do what we can to protect this realm, to stop Hell and their king’s plans.”

  “Eve—” Cole says but stops when I hold up a hand.

  “No, Cole. I know what I’m saying. There’s not going to be any throwing me over Noah’s shoulder and hauling me out of here this time. But I will tell Kaelen about the attempt on your life and the threats the Council has posed to him. I’m going to use it as leverage.”

  “Leverage?” Jacob asks, and Eve nods.

  “Either he does something about it and finds out who tried to kill you, or he can kiss my help goodbye. I’ll sit in my room all day and sneak you up one by one to take care of my womanly needs until he does.”

  Jacob sniggers, but his eyes are still serious. “I wouldn’t, Princess. Not saying I wouldn’t mind doing nothing but pleasing you, but if Kaelen goes public on this, the conspirators will just melt into the shadows. We know Cassina, Eve. If we want to stop her, she’ll need to be caught in the act.”

  “If we want that, we have to be here for the act,” I retort, looking around. “Come on, guys, we’re all trained, and I’m not helpless. I can handle my own, remember?”

  Cole sighs, and I can see he still needs reassurance. Pulling him closer without leaving Noah’s lap, I kiss him softly, pushing my hips down onto Noah and rolling my hips. Cole holds back, but when I take his right hand and place it on my breast, he gives in to my needs, and soon, the three of us are moaning.

  “Eve . . . you said you have to hurry,” Cole gasps when he pulls back, his eyes wide and filled with lust. “What are you—”

  “What I need, which is you,” I whisper, reaching for the laces on my dress. “This isn’t about trying to convince you or playing you. I need you. If we’re going to survive this, I need you. But yeah, we have to be quick.”

  Jacob grins, and I can see he’s already reaching for his belt. “Sometimes, the best foreplay is no foreplay at all.”

  Chapter 16

  Eve

  I really do wish that I could take all night, caressing and kissing these four men. Every time I do, it’s an exploration of pleasure, of the intense need that they’ve awoken inside me. I wish I could give them the attention they deserve, the one on one intensity that they deserve.

  But they’re magical. I don’t mean that in any sort of diminishment, or saying because they have magic, they don’t need attention. What I mean is, as they strip off their clothes, there’s no jealousy, no frustration in their eyes. They just look at me with total commitment and love. They look at me as if somehow, I am more than equal to all four of them. They look at me the way I’ve dreamed.

  “You don’t have time,” Jacob says quietly, stepping closer and running a hand up my back while kissing my shoulders, “so which one of us do you want?”

  I know this has to be intense, and while each of my Guardians is intensity personified in their own way, right now, my body yearns for one particular type of intensity. “Noah . . . on your back.”

  Noah nods, but before the others can back off, I reach down, taking Jacob’s cock in one hand while finding Tyler with the other. “I didn’t say I was going to ignore you guys. Tyler and Cole get my mouth. Jacob, my sweet ninja, can you be content for a day or so with just my hands, or would you like to make it a three-way?”

  Jacob chuckles, slinging an arm around Tyler’s shoulder as I draw them closer to Noah, whose huge cock stands full and hard, a log emerging from between his legs. I step over Noah, squatting until I can feel the head of his cock rub between my lips, teasing me and helping stoke the warmth inside me until I can feel my juices oozing over his head. I sit down, and as always, the first few inches feel like I’m being ripped in half.

  I know a lot of women say that it can be too painful, that a cock like Noah’s might be something you admire, but unless you’re drunk or have half a gallon of lube, you’d never try. But looking down at Noah, the calm assurance in his face as I start to slip up and down, I recognize the pain for what it is, the thrill of my body accepting a man who is strong, wise, and virile.

  “You’re so tight,” Noah hisses as I pause halfway down his shaft. “How?”

  “Demonic pussy?” I tease, licking my fangs as I give in fully and drop down all the way onto Noah’s cock. I feel pain and pleasure and pure sensation explode up my spine, ripping my breath away as white light overwhelms my vision while my body adjusts. “Fuck!”

  Noah stays still, his hands resting on my thighs as I let my body adjust, opening my eyes to look at my other three men. I lean forward, Noah’s cock sliding a bit out of my pussy and sending a shiver through me as I give Cole, Jacob, and Tyler my naughtiest grin, my tongue sensuously licking my fangs as I urge them forward. “Just don’t drip on Noah,” I tease as I take Cole in my hand and lick him from balls to tip.

  “That’s just not polite.”

 
; I alternate licks, pumping with my hands while I work my way around all three cocks, my hips rolling on their own. Noah thrusts up into my body as I do, adding to the pleasure building inside me as I urge Cole and Tyler closer together. They’re closer in height, and their cocks are so close that I can open my mouth wide, sucking on both heads without barely moving my head from side to side. They’re both too big to fit both in my mouth at the same time . . . but I want it.

  Jacob’s cock throbs in my other hand as I swallow Cole to the root, letting him fuck my mouth while I ride Noah, urging Cole to give it to me quickly. He does, shuddering as my pussy clenches on Noah’s cock and I feel my first mini-orgasm roll through me. I suck down Cole’s seed greedily, popping him out before devouring Tyler.

  My sweet archer, too tall to be Cupid but three times as romantic, gasps as my fangs run along the sides of his cock, just the way I know he likes. I look up at him, urging him to take me. I love you, Tyler, and I love your nimble, beautiful mouth and tongue . . . but sometimes, I don’t want to be worshipped. Sometimes, I want to worship you too. I want you to use me the way I use you, to consume each other and to fulfill all our desires. Tyler nods in quiet understanding, my moans communicating all I need as he pumps his cock in and out of my mouth. I feel him shudder, and then I’m rewarded with the sweet cream of my sweetest Guardian.

  I kiss his cock tenderly, fondling his balls as he steps back, and I look down at Noah, who’s looking almost in pain. “Princess . . . I’m trying.”

  “I know, Noah.” I groan as I ride him faster, my pussy squeezing and massaging the awesome shaft inside my body. “After Jacob, don’t hold back. I want all of your strength. I want you fully.”

  Jacob’s eyes are full of emotion, vulnerable as he steps forward, and I look up at him.

  I nod, smiling. Reaching between Jacob’s legs, I tease his balls, rolling them with one hand while reaching around and running my fingernails over his ass cheek.