The Royal Trials: Seeker

by James Tate

  “Little one,” he said in a soft voice, stroking his fingers down my face, down my neck, then shifting to rest them at my waist. “You’re so beautiful. I don’t care where you came from or who you were before this. You’re mine now, my Lo.”

  His words held a possessive edge that should have made me pause, but when I tried to work out why, the thought slipped away as fast as it’d come, and I nodded my agreement up at him.

  Reaching up, I clasped his face between my palms. His lips parted slightly, and I just knew beyond a shadow of doubt, that if I didn’t kiss him right that second, I might die.

  Our mouths met with a flurry of motion, kissing like we were literally the only thing keeping each other alive. I drank him in, the taste of him on my tongue more crucial than the very air around us. Fuck breathing, this was all I ever needed.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  “More,” I moaned between kisses. Or was that Ty? Our voices, our moans, sighs, and whimpers were mixing and blending to the point that I couldn’t pick us apart.

  Whatever the case, I was making quick work of Ty’s shirt buttons, shoving the cotton fabric off his arms even as he reached under my long skirts and tugged my underwear off, tossing them away into the flowers.

  I went for Ty’s pants, but needed to pause as his strong fingers stroked over my throbbing, eager pussy. Sucking a deep breath and taking a lungful of that potent floral scent, I let myself turn to liquid for a moment while he played my flesh like a master musician.

  My whole body lit up, hyperaware of every touch—the breeze lifting the fine hairs of my arms, the soft brush of flowers against my bare legs, the heavy, pulsing weight of the stones sewn into my pocket. Best of all, the firm stroke and rub of Ty’s weapon-roughened fingers on me, inside me, coaxing me to release all the desire building within me. It was all too much and at the same time, not enough.

  I needed more.

  Pushing him away with more strength than I knew I possessed, I stripped his pants off and threw them at the space where the tree had been, but no longer was. Some small, logical part of my brain shouted that disappearing trees weren’t normal, but I didn’t care. My sole focus was on Ty’s huge, glorious cock.

  I licked my lips, and Ty groaned.

  “You’re killing me,” he panted, cupping a hand around the base of his erection as I continued to stare with my mouth partly open. I couldn’t help it. As badly as I wanted to climb on top and sheath him inside me... I had to just taste him first.

  He’d halfway sat back up, so I placed a hand on his rock-hard chest and pushed him back to the ground.

  “Stay there,” I ordered him in a voice thick with arousal and dominance.

  He did as he was told, only raising his head enough to watch with wide eyes while I lowered my mouth to his cock. His hand was still wrapped around the base of his shaft, and he helped direct his hardened length into my mouth as I adjusted to the unfamiliar act.

  My sexual history was scarce and not at all varied. I’d done it enough to say I’d done it, but it had never, ever been this decadent, erotic act. Needless to say, I’d never felt compelled to take any of my prior lovers’ cocks into my mouth. But with Ty, I was quickly coming to enjoy the act.

  I was a quick study. The abrupt quickening of his breath, the low moans from his throat, the way his hands tightened in my hair and his hips pressed up, forcing more of him into my mouth... they were all such clear signs of encouragement that I was practically dizzy with satisfaction. The fact that I could hold such power over his pleasure turned me on to no end, and my own arousal lay wet on my thighs.

  Right when I thought he was about to explode, his strong grip hauled me up his body until our mouths met. Our tongues danced together, and I moaned with the knowledge that he was tasting himself.

  With impatience, I bunched up the long skirts of my dress, pushing them up to my waist as I straddled Ty’s broad hips and grabbed his slick shaft with my hand.

  “Oh, gods yes,” he groaned his encouragement as I lined him up with my core and teased by sinking onto him just a fraction.

  But I was only teasing myself, and I was way past the point of self-control. With a cry of relief, I lowered myself completely, sheathing Ty’s enormous cock fully within me.

  Whispered curses slipped from between his lush lips. I silenced him with another soul-consuming kiss and we began to move together in painfully perfect harmony. Our bodies were joined in the most intimate way, and I swore our souls were merging at the same time.

  Our breaths grew ragged, our hearts pounding together as one.

  Stars danced across my vision as potent pleasure filled me to the point of bursting. My skin was tight, aching with the need to release, yet we weren’t ready to give it up just yet. The moment we shared was too exquisite to ever want it to end.

  “Lo,” Ty gasped, his fingers flexing against my bare ass as I rode him like my life depended on it. “I can’t... I’m going to...”

  “Not yet,” I pleaded, “not yet.”

  He groaned a frustrated sound, burying his face into the crook of my neck and biting down gently—n

  urt, but enough to trigger a whole new wash of arousal through me.

  I was fighting a losing battle. It was all too much. How could any one person sustain such intense pleasure for any longer than I already had? To do so would be a death sentence.

  But gods, what a way to go.

  A primal, aching cry tore from my throat as my orgasm hit. My pussy clenched and pulsed, gripping Ty’s cock even as I writhed on top of him. Somewhere past the overwhelming sound of my pounding heartbeat, I heard Ty groaning with his own climax, his hips bucking with wild passion as he spurted hotly within me.

  Panting, I curled my fingertips against his bare chest, riding him slowly as the rolling waves of orgasm aftershocks pulsed through me.

  “Lo,” he moaned, his huge hands clasping my hips and holding me still. “Wait, I just need a second...”

  I grinned down at him with a wicked mischievousness. My lips parted to deliver a sassy quip, but I paused when an odd sound reached me.

  “What the…” I frowned, looking up from my green-eyed prince and squinting at our surroundings. It had sounded like someone shouting, but all I could see for miles was brightness. Bright, white light and purple flowers.

  “Shit,” I breathed, terror creeping through me as the euphoria drained away.

  Ty chuckled below me, his hands caressing my ass underneath the bunched up fabric of my dress. “Gods, Lo. You’re insatiable; I only need a moment to recover. I can’t seem to get enough of you...” He sat up a bit to try and kiss my chest, but I shoved him back down with a sharp push.

  “No, you sexy, royal moron,” I scolded as I climbed off him and let my dress fall back down to cover me. “This.” I waved a hand around us, bringing his attention to the fact that we seemed to be floating in a bubble of bright white light. “Something fucking weird is going on.”

  “Fucking was definitely going on,” Ty muttered, then grimaced when he looked around. “But I see what you mean. Shit. What’s that sound?”

  He had to have been talking about the same muffled yelling and thumping that I’d noticed, and I ran my fingers through my dishevelled sex-hair “I don’t know. I was sort of preoccupied...” I glanced down at him, feeling a blush rise in my cheeks as I did a quick mental recap of what we’d just done. “But I get the feeling these flowers weren’t so harmless, after all.”

  Ty muttered a curse to Sal under his breath, yanking his pants back up before plucking one of the purple blooms to inspect it. The flower didn’t even make it close to his face, though, as several things happened all at once.

  First, whatever magical bubble we were in burst like, well, exactly like a bubble. The meadow was suddenly right back where it was meant to be, along with all the sounds and smells associated. It seemed we hadn’t gone anywhere.We were exactly where we had sat down in the middle of the beautiful, lilac-flowered meadow.

 
Except when we’d sat down—before the mind blowing sex—we’d been alone.

  16

  Zan’s fist slammed into Ty’s face. Bone crunched and blood sprayed, splattering my face and dress as Ty was knocked from his feet and onto his ass with a grunt.

  “Zan!” I yelled. “What in Zryn’s name are you doing?”

  But it was like he couldn’t hear me. He landed several more solid hits to his brother before Ty recovered and turned the tables on him. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, we’d gone from sex-filled bliss to a full-on fist fight, and the whole thing was making my head spin.

  “Zan! Ty! Stop this!” I screamed as the brothers beat the shit out of each other, rolling around in those evil purple flowers. I needed to stop them, or they were going to kill each other.

  Just as I stepped forward to somehow break them up, Lee grabbed my arm and pulled me away a few steps.

  “Don’t try,” he warned me, wrapping me in a tight embrace. “They need to get it out of their systems. This has been building for a while.”

  Conflicted, I looked back at the two princes, who were now bruised and bloodied but showed no signs of letting up any time soon. Judging by the tension thrumming through Lee’s body, I guessed he wasn’t excluding himself from whatever this pissing contest was all about.

  Okay, it was pretty clearly about me. Or maybe the fact that I’d just had sex with Ty in the middle of a meadow in broad daylight? How much had Zan and Lee seen of that, anyway?

  “Did you see...” I winced as someone’s bone cracked loudly.

  Lee looked down at me, his face tight with anger or frustration or something. “We saw enough. Too much. It was made worse by the fact that there was some sort of invisible wall separating us from getting to you.” He grimaced. “I guess we’re not as open to the idea of sharing you as we’d come to think.”

  Bile burned in my throat. What the hell was wrong with me that I could cause these brothers, these best friends, to act like this?

  “I need to stop this,” I announced because if I didn’t, I was likely to drown in my own guilt before too long. Grabbing the leather flask of water from Lee’s belt, I marched over to the scuffling brothers, uncapped the flask, and upended it all over the two of them.

  Granted, it wasn’t as dramatic as I’d been aiming for, as the flask didn’t hold anywhere near enough water for an effective dousing. But it got my point across and they stopped their fighting to yell with outrage.

  “Stop fighting!” I bellowed back at them, drowning out their incoherent complaints about the temperature of the water. They did sort of have a point; Lee’s flask kept water crazy cold. “If you hadn’t been trying to kill each other, I wouldn’t have needed to do that!”

  Yeah, there it was. Logic by Rybet. The fact that I was the catalyst was something I’d ignore for the argument’s sake.

  “You two are acting like children fighting over a toy train! Well news flash, Your Highnesses, I’m not a gods-damned toy train!” I folded my arms over my chest as I scowled at them, but something caught my eye. Or rather, my ear.

  Someone was laughing.

  A quick glance at the wet and bloodied princes on the ground in front of me confirmed that they saw nothing funny about the situation they were in. Nor did Lee, who stood with clenched fists, seemingly on the edge of a temper explosion himself.

  So who in Aana’s name—crap, not Aana’s. Crazy bitch. Who the fuck was laughing, though?

  The giggling got louder, and my attention jerked to the tree some distance behind Zan and Ty. That same damn tree that’d seemed to disappear and reappear at random.

  A young woman sat perched on one of the branches, laughing so hard I worried for a moment she might fall out. She looked about my age, maybe older, with soft pink hair in lush ringlets to her waist. Her skimpy, silver dress was wrapped around her like it was made of liquid metal, but most startling part of her was the pair of huge red wings protruding from her back.

  Below her, a man leaned against the tree trunk with a smirk on his bearded face and strong, armor-plated arms folded over his broad chest. A massive sword hung from his waist, and a large, circular shield was propped against the tree beside him.

  “Okay, fine,” the girl finally said to him between giggles. “That was moderately amusing.”

  The man’s smirk spread wider, and he stretched out his open palm to her. “Pay up then, birdie.”

  Shock coursed through me as I stared at the pair, and it only got worse when I realized the guys were frowning at me in confusion.

  “Who are you looking at, Calla?” Lee asked in a gentle voice, making me aware that they couldn’t see the odd pair in the tree. Shit balls.

  “Them,” I replied, pointing at the tree. The winged girl and armored man both snapped their attention to me, and I groaned inwardly. Both of them glowed with that inner light that Aana had possessed.

  This can’t be good.

  “She can see us,” the man commented, scratching at the side of his beard. “I didn’t expect that.”

  “Jumping cocks on a tit cloud,” the girl cursed—or it seemed to be a curse—as she jumped out of the tree and took two steps toward me. “Is that even allowed? Shit, Walt, you don’t think this was from something we did, do you?”

  The man—Walt, she’d called him—shook his head but didn’t take his gaze off me for a second. For my part, I was just frozen to the spot, not finding any words to question these two. Not that I really wanted to engage them in conversation. That glow to their skin gave me a pretty broad hint that I might be dealing with yet more of those supposedly abstract gods that we’d all been praying to for so many years.

  “I doubt it,” he finally replied to the pink-haired woman. His gaze narrowed on me, then his whole posture relaxed. “I can see we’re not the first of our kind to mess with this human. Look closer, birdie.”

  The delicate woman with huge red wings squinted at me for a moment too, while I shifted uncomfortably on the spot and tried to block out the princes’ voices as they tried to ask me questions about who I was looking at.

  After a second, the goddess—because that’s clearly what she was—snickered a laugh and tossed her pink curls over her shoulder. “I see what you mean, Walt. Oh well, they gave me a juicy boost regardless.” She blew a kiss in my direction, and my lady parts seemed to clench and pulse in response—almost like an echo of my time with Ty.

  I gasped, taking a step toward them. Whatever she’d just done had broken me from my shock, and I was ready to hold one of them down and demand answers.

  It was too late, though. Movement across the meadow caught my attention for just a second, and when I looked back, the two unusual creatures were gone like they’d never existed.

  “Hey!” A woman yelled, running across the meadow toward us with dark hair streaming behind her and her skirts billowing. “Quick! You need to get out of here!”

  “Sage?” Zan puzzled, frowning at the running woman barrelling toward us. “What the—”

  “You need to—” She tried to warn us of something more, but her words were cut off as an arrow punched through her shoulder and she collapsed with a scream of pain.

  All around us in the peaceful, magical meadow, chaos broke out.

  17

  Chaos was probably too dramatic of a word to describe what’d happened, I decided when I reflected on it some time later while being marched through the gates of Ironforge with my wrists manacled together.

  One minute we’d been standing there in the meadow, then Sagen had appeared and been shot with an arrow, and all of a sudden we were surrounded by weapon-bearing women.

  Except... calling them “women” wasn’t even all that accurate. They were some sort of mutated hybrid between woman and beast with the rough shape of a human woman but with the fangs and claws of beasts. Some vaguely resembled wolves, others bears, and in some cases I couldn’t even work out what animal they were.

  None of them spoke, buttheir intentions had been pret
ty damn clear.

  We were their prisoners, and they didn’t give two hoots about the princes’ royal status. In fact, after Jules had shot her mouth off that they were imprisoning royalty, the treatment of the guys had gotten rougher.

  “At least they brought us to Ironforge,” I muttered quietly to Lee as they directed us through the streets. From what we could see, the town was considerably less unpopulated than we’d been led to believe.

  “Silver linings,” he agreed with a small smile. “It’s curious, though, what has happened to these women. Is this a direct result of the land’s magic going wonky? If so, why have we been told that the town was abandoned?”

  I nodded, not even bothering to be subtle as I inspected one of our guards. She was taller than me by at least a foot and had gray, tufted ears poking out from under her curly brown hair. Her mouth and nose had become a sort of half snout with fangs so huge she could barely close her lips, and a long tail swished back and forth from a slit in her skirt as she walked.

  “Maybe wherever they’re taking us, someone can answer some questions.” I said it with more hope than I was really feeling.

  Behind us, I heard the solid thump of something hard hitting flesh and looked over my shoulder just in time to see Zan grit his teeth in pain as he fell to his knees. I knew better than to try and say something, though. These beast-women had been taking random jabs at the guys the entire way here, and I sported a pretty awesome bruise on my face as a lesson in futility when it came to intervening.

  “Don’t stress,” Lee whispered to me. “Those two can handle a few hits, and I’ll heal your face as soon as our guards aren’t looking.”

  I gave him a small smile, trying to ignore the aching worry in my stomach from seeing the princes so badly roughed up. Just because I’d been about to walk away from all three of them after seeing what their jealousy was doing, didn’t mean I cared any less. In fact, every minute I spent with them was only cementing my feelings even harder.