The Mad King (The Dark Kings)

by Jovee Winters

  Seemed that no matter which timeline my great-grandmother moved in, she existed only to make others miserable. I was happy Hatter hadn’t killed her when Galeta had given him the chance—I would not want that harridan’s death on his conscience—but I was ecstatic that, for now at least, I would not have to actually see her face-to-face. It would take me at least a hundred years to get over the betrayal of what she’d done to her family and to my mate.

  I was no saint by any means. A part of me greatly resented the fact that while I lay dying on Earth, she’d been playing patty-cake with my Hatter. But I found that I could move past it, knowing just how deeply he truly did love me and that all this was the result of a curse neither one of us could have circumvented.

  “Never said she was, now did I, O mad one?”

  Hatter’s brows furrowed, as did mine.

  “What?” I asked. “You remember? But how is that poss—”

  Lumberjack held up his hands, stalling my question. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s just say I have my ways and leave it at that. Been waitin’ a long time for you to return, True Alice.”

  And this time when he nodded at me, a beam of sunlight struck his eyes, causing them to flash liquid silver.

  I gasped. “Cheshy?”

  Lips curling up wickedly at the corners, he grinned with that familiar grin of his I’d known near all my life. There was now no doubt in my mind that this stranger was none other than the mad, sometimes vanishing feline who’d taunted and teased all of Wonderland so mercilessly for so long.

  “Cheshire?” Hatter said quickly, coming to the same conclusion I had. “But—”

  “Miss me?” He winked.

  “Yes. You’re, you’re—”

  “Hm, an unfortunate circumstance living in a world with very little magic. Return us back to what we once were, a place brimming over with madness, lunacy, and folly, won’t you, my dears?”

  “How?” Hatter stepped forward. “Alice has already tried that—”

  He snorted, rolling his eyes to the heavens and looking like we were too stupid to be in his presence much longer. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he murmured, “You daft fools, you pay Wonderland in the only currency it ever accepted from the two of you.”

  Looking at us expectantly, he waited. But I wasn’t exactly sure what he was getting at, and neither was Hatter. We both stared at him as if he’d lost his marbles.

  Tossing wide his arms, he growled at the two of us. “I canna believe you’re going to make me say it. In love, you blathering simpletons! In bloody love. By the gods, you’re both unmitigated pains in me arse. But then you’ve always been. How Wonderland chose you both, I’ll never ken.”

  I laughed. Because this was so achingly familiar that for just a moment, I was able to forget the pain of all that was still lost to us.

  “I missed you too, Cheshire.”

  “Pft.” He snorted, but just before he turned on his heel and marched off, I caught a glimmer of moisture lingering in the corners of his eyes.

  Whether that grumpy cat wanted to admit it or not, he’d missed us too.

  Only once we were well and truly alone did we look back at each other. Blazing in Hatter’s eyes was raw truth, honesty, and love.

  “Alice, I believe I still have one question left to ask.”

  I giggled, remembering that game and shocked that in this moment that’s what he’d choose to dwell on. But I shrugged and said, “Yes, my love. You do.”

  Clearing his throat, he asked, “What is it that you love most in all the world?”

  And finally I understood that question as I hadn’t been able to before. Touching the tip of my finger to his peaked devil’s brow, I whispered, “Our life together, Hatter. Every wonderful and impossible part of it.”

  Pleasure suffused his face, and for just a moment he looked youthful and happy, practically dancing on his toes. Wrapping me up in his big strong arms, he whisked me around, holding on so tight that I could scarcely breathe, but breathing hardly mattered at a time like this.

  Tilting my head back, I laughed with joy. I still ached for the loss of our child and prayed to the gods for a miracle but relished this stolen moment of pure happiness I thought I’d never feel again.

  His laughter mingled with mine, and only after we’d twirled so many times I’d grown impossibly dizzy with it, he finally set me down before gently tracing his thumb across the smooth expanse of my cheek, causing a slow burn of heat to ignite deep inside me.

  “Then you heard what the cat had to say,” he began with a whiskey-thick drawl, and I nodded, shivering from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet.

  “Mm-hmm. I heard.” And as I laced my fingers through his and leaned up on tiptoe I whispered against the curve of his luscious lips. “Do you really think it could be that simple, my love?”

  He leaned forward until the tip of his nose pressed to mine, the wash of his minty breath feathering against my mouth as he whispered, “All we can do is try our best.”

  I laughed, the sound spilling from me with effervescent joy. And as I did, I began to glow golden.

  Hatter’s eyes widened and his voice grew thick and scratchy. “It’s our joy, Alice. It’s our joy that brings our world alive.”

  “Yes,” I breathed, sealing our words, our hearts, our minds, and soul with a kiss.

  Song began to play.

  Gentle at first. In the breeze. Bells. Chimes. Winds.

  His large, warm hand slid up my arm, and even through the gown my body broke out in a delicious wash of goose bumps.

  “Too many clothes,” he whispered between nips.

  I sighed, wiggling against his large, broad form, telling him without words to fix that immediately.

  But Hatter was tasting me, reacquainting himself with my form. His touch was slow, meandering, hot, and possessive. When his hand covered my breast, I hissed, and the music grew louder. Percussions and strings were added to the mix.

  Creeping vines began to slowly wind up my legs, but I remembered their touch, their warmth, and I welcomed them. Happiness bloomed inside my soul as Hatter finally found the zipper at the side of my waist and slowly, so incredibly slowly, unzipped me.

  I took a deep, unhindered breath the moment the wind brushed against my heated flesh.

  “Dammit, Alice, want to be slow,” he mumbled and I nodded, then cried out when his hot mouth latched onto the vein on the side of my throat and he gently bit down.

  We’d already had wild sex back in the underworld. But, like I’d always known, Hatter and I were incapable of anything other than wild and raw.

  I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of him, and that was okay with me.

  Delirious with images of him pushing his way deep inside me, I shook my head and violently shoved the jacket off his shoulders. “Softer later,” I grunted. “Want you now.”

  The sounds that spilled from us mingled with the song of a slowly awakening realm, long dormant but now coming alive.

  Our movements were volatile as we ripped, yanked, and shucked all clothing off each other. By the time we’d finished, we were gasping and staring at each other’s naked bodies.

  I’d seen his lean, strong form so many times, and yet it was like looking at him for the first time all over again.

  Muscled, but not overly so. Slightly furred on his chest and legs. The perfect specimen of a man.

  His gaze was hot and raking as he stared me up and down, possession gleaming in his eyes. I should feel shy at the look burning through him, but I knew that Hatter had always seen me as so much better than I was.

  He didn’t see the short legs. Or the tiny bulge in my lower stomach. The not quite perfectly shaped breasts or the arms lacking the type of muscle tone I wished to have.

  “My goddess,” he breathed. “Alice, you’re perfect.”

  And this time when I cried, the tears were not of sorrow but of joy. The light of Wonderland’s magic glowed through my pores, and with each movement that brought me closer and c
loser to him still, the very soil beneath my feet began to stir with life.

  The very moment that I fell into his arms, Hatter too began to glow. I touched his devilish brows, and a lock of his black hair, in awe of the mad creature I’d tamed so long ago.

  “I love you,” I whispered. “I always have. And I always will.”

  He nodded. “And I you, my dark rose.”

  There were no more words after that. Hatter lifted me high into his arms, and before I knew it, the vines that’d lazily been creeping up my calves were now thick cords of ropes creating a canopy and bed for us.

  Gently, reverently, he laid us down, covering my smaller body with his much larger one, framing me in his arms and looking at me as though he’d never seen me before.

  Then with a groan of reverence and need, he covered my mouth with his. I tasted his mint and licked at the sherry tinge of his tongue. Flame poured down my throat and made my body sing.

  That golden wash of magic began to pour out of us both, into the ivy, into the soul, the trees. The plants. The animals.

  Our love was transforming our world.

  Grabbing my breast, he covered my nipple with his hot, hot mouth, and I cried out, undulating my hips beneath him. Another powerful wave of magic sank into the realm.

  Lost in a haze of delirium, I clawed at the back of his neck as he suckled at my breasts. First one, then the other, leaving a wet trail of kisses behind.

  The music in the air converged with the perfume of flowers all around.

  Hatter nuzzled my throat with his nose before lazily laving my flesh with kisses. Wherever he could touch me, he did, planting row upon row of love all over me.

  He was thick and hard, and I was so, so ready. Bumping my hip into that perfect bit of male flesh, I nudged him toward the very heart of me.

  Hissing, he stared down at me with lust-glazed eyes full of starlight. “You ready?” he said in a drawl only I would ever hear or had ever known.

  Because this was the look of man in love. And I was his heart. I always had been.

  “I’ve always been ready for you, my Hatter.”

  With one powerful thrust, he entered me and I keened, feeling like I would come crawling out of my skin from the unbelievable pleasure of it all. I dug my nails into his back and scored his flesh, maybe even drawing blood. But I’d never been a gentle lover. Hatter and I existed in a different plane of reality when we came together in love.

  We were lust, love, and pleasure in its very purest and raw form.

  The darkness of oblivion encroached as he thrust deep, deep, deeper inside me. I wrapped my legs around his hips, urging him to slip in even farther, wanting everything I could get from him. Wanting to give him all of me.

  My eyes were closed now, but I could see the radiance of our power glowing from behind my eyelids. We were a nova about to burst.

  “I can’t”—he grunted—“can’t hang on much—”

  “Come! Come, Hatter, come!” I cried out before I lost myself completely and tumbled over the cliff of sexual oblivion.

  “Alice!” he roared.

  And only then was I able to open my eyes. Even as my own pleasure still tore violently through me, I watched my mate sink into his own little death.

  I’d always loved to watch him come. Loved to see the veins in his neck go rigid, to see his face flush with a rush of blood, to see his brows and forehead dot with sweat and how he’d bite down on his back teeth, sounding in pain, even as I knew he was in the ultimate thralls of pleasure.

  And because I had my eyes open, I saw the rebirth of our world happen right before my very eyes. A powerful wave of golden power ripped out of us, shooting like a wave in all directions, slicing through the trees and turning them instantly into a chaos of colors. The leaves turned from green to fiery flames of bronze.

  The birds winging through the sky above shifted, instantly becoming things of unnatural beauty and wonder. The flowers in the gardens beside us took deep, gasping breaths of joy and then began to sing, adding their voices to the music still playing all around.

  “Alice and Hatter!” they cried. “You are back. You have returned!”

  That power flowed like water through every crack and crevice of Wonderland, and though I could not physically see it all, I felt it move through my very soul.

  Hatter looked at me and I at him. There was such joy in his eyes that it brought tears to my own. “We did it, Alice. Together,” he said, sounding elated and stunned.

  And I could only laugh, because I was too overcome to do much else. I no longer brimmed over with so much magic, but I felt a seed of it stir through my soul, and above me I felt Hatter’s power bloom too.

  Leaning over, he kissed me tenderly, so softly it was almost a whisper. But something potent and powerful filled my mouth. Blinking, I shoved back on his chest to get him to rise so that I could too.

  “Alice?” he asked quickly, but I was shaking my head and spitting out whatever it was that was now in my mouth.

  In my palm rested a perfectly brilliant, lambent-colored pearl.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  I shook my head, not knowing what in the world it could possibly be, but also strangely protective of whatever it was.

  Only a second later, the wind at our backs stirred as the music finally began to die down. The air gave a squeeze, and I knew a fairy was around.

  Covering my breasts with our blanket of ivy, I whirled, and there stood Galeta the Pink smiling down on us both with love and relief in her gaze.

  It would take me some time to not cringe when I saw her. My only memories of this particular fairy weren’t very good ones, but I knew—thanks to the magic of reawakening—that Galeta too was completely transformed.

  “And so you have restored your happily-ever-after. Praise be,” she said with a tinkling laugh that caused the flowers to respond in kind. “Wonderland looks good on you both.”

  I blushed and Hatter coughed.

  Galeta was such a beautiful creature I found myself lost in studying this blond-haired demigod instead of asking the obvious question, like why was she here?

  Her strangely golden-colored eyes glanced down at the pearl I still held lax in my hand and she smiled, nodding at it.

  “Do you know what that is? Do you understand what you two have done?”

  I felt Hatter shake his head. “What is it, Galeta?”

  “It is a wish born of wild magic and perfect love. Hand me the pearl, Alice.”

  It never crossed my mind not to do as she commanded, though my soul yearned to have it back the moment the pearl slipped from me to her, and I trembled almost violently for want of it.

  But the second that little pearl landed in the fairy queen’s palm, it began to glow an ethereal blue.

  Rose-red lips tipped up. “Now then, make your wish. Though I’m fairly certain I know what it will be.”

  I looked at Hatter and he looked at me, and in his gaze I read my own heart’s truth.

  Without tearing his eyes from mine, he said, “We want our daughter back.”

  I nodded once, framing his beloved face at the hope that now painted his features, easing the strain of lines that I’d feared would never leave him.

  “And so it shall be,” she said.

  And for the very first time since that curse ripped us apart, I knew we would be okay. No matter what came for us, Hatter and me, would always find a way back to each other.

  ~*~

  Hatter

  This was who we were.

  Alice and Hatter.

  Always one.

  Always our love would be truer than anything else in all the worlds. So powerful, so magical, that not even a curse could keep us apart. For I was the Mad Hatter and she my Alice in Wonderland.

  ~*~

  Love my stories? Want to know when the next Kingdom book will release? Make sure to sign up for my newsletter. Also, as a bonus I’ve included both Her Mad Hatter (the original Kingdom story that started it all) and “
Hatter’s Treasure” (a companion short story to the continuing romance of Hatter and Alice), written by my alter ego, Marie Hall. Also, if you love to bake, Alice has included a couple of her custom cupcake recipes in the back for you to enjoy.

  ~JW

  Other Books written as Jovee Winters

  The Sea Queen

  The Passionate Queen

  The Ice Queen

  The Magic Queen

  The Dark Queen

  The Fairy Queen

  If you love Fairy Tale Romances, then make sure to check out my other fairy tale themed stories written as Marie Hall

  Her Mad Hatter

  “Bad boys need love too.”

  Alice is all grown up. Running the Mad Hatter’s Cupcakery and Tea Shoppe is a delicious job until fate—and a fairy godmother with a weakness for bad boys—throws her a curveball. Now Alice is the newest resident of Wonderland, where the Mad Hatter fuels her fantasies and thrills her body with his dark touch.

  The Mad Hatter may have a voice and a body made for sex, but he takes no lovers. Ever. But a determined fairy godmother has forced Alice into Wonderland—and his arms. Now, as desire and madness converge, the Hatter must decide if he will fight the fairy godmother’s mating or fight for Alice.

  Her Mad Hatter

  by

  Marie Hall

  Chapter 1

  Danika, fairy godmother extraordinaire, ran her glowing hand over a shadowy bump in the mushroom-cap wall of her home. It was the hiding place for her most treasured and valuable item—her wand. She grabbed hold of the smooth wood, the hum of its power echoing down her fingertips like the swelling vibrations of water dripping on thin metal. And though the wand was worn down from years of granting wishes, there could be no doubt she was the best at what she did.

  Of course, that stupid fat cow—oh, what’s her face, the one who worked with Cinderella—thought she was the best. But honestly, what was her claim to fame? Turning a pumpkin into a coach? Or how about making mice footmen?