Antonio thrust into Matilda who cried out his name, her eyes closing even as she continued to work her fingers in and out of Vitoria. She feasted eagerly on Vitoria’s pussy and as Antonio’s thrusts got harder and faster so too did her fingers and tongue. Vitoria watched as Antonio’s hand dipped down to Matilda’s pussy and a moment later Matilda threw her head back and screamed, “Yes. Fuck. Yes. Antonio.”
Her gaze met Vitoria’s and she added a third finger.
“Your turn, kitten. Come on my fingers.”
Matilda took Vitoria’s clitoris between her lips and sucked gently.
“Yes,” Vitoria screamed. “That. Keep doing that. Oh, my goddess.”
Vitoria felt another orgasm roll over her and was only vaguely aware of Antonio crying out:
“You belong to me. You both belong to me.”
Vitoria’s eyes drifted shut. Her body limp, her mind blown. Matilda crawled up her body, her legs nestled between Vitoria’s thighs and kissed Vitoria, her tongue demanding entry. She opened her mouth and allowed Matilda’s tongue to dance with hers.
“You did so well, kitten. We’re going to take the plug out now, okay?”
Vitoria nodded, but her eyelids were heavy, and she gave into the exhaustion that had settled over her and slept.
*
Vitoria woke from her slumber to find Matilda standing over the bed, wearing her sarong, sword sheathed at her side, her hair braided down her back. Her jaw was set, her brow furrowed, and she had a look of grim determination. Vitoria raised herself up on her elbows.
“There are troubles at the border,” Matilda said. “Stay here. There are guards outside the door. If you need anything, ask them. Do not leave this suite until you have word from us that it’s safe to do so. Lord Marello could come back while we’re gone.”
Vitoria sat upright and rubbed her eyes. “What kinds of troubles?”
“Kiiessans gathered at the border demanding that we hand over the Mazatch.”
“Are you going to?” She felt a flutter of anxiety in her stomach for the poor child who could be handed over to an angry mob.
“Of course not.” Matilda’s tone was firm, the tenderness was gone. This was Matilda the ruling Queen, not Matilda her mistress. “We are going to go and see that the Kiiessans are brought under control by their monarchs. This must be handled carefully.”
Antonio strode into the room, looking fierce with his long hair pulled back and tied in a knot at his nape. His muscles rippled as he walked towards them and stood next to Matilda. They looked like they were ready for war, and the anxiety in her stomach turned to all out fear. What if they didn’t come back?
She knelt up on the bed, wondering if she looked as terrified as she felt.
“Aren’t there other people who can go? Surely this isn’t a job for the monarchs.”
“Kitten,” Matilda’s voice was gentle. “This is what the ruling monarchs do. We are at the front of any battle.”
She knew that. She’d read it in the books. It was why you could only be ruling monarch until a certain age and why ruling monarchs were not allowed children.
“Stay here, do not leave the suite,” Antonio told her. “We will come back and you will be punished if you disobey us.”
“Yes, master.”
Antonio put a hand on the back of her neck and pulled her to him. His mouth was crushing, the kiss intense and desperate. She could taste her own salty tears in the kiss. It felt like a final embrace. Matilda’s kiss was softer, her hands tender as she stroked Vitoria’s arm.
“Don’t worry,” Matilda said when she pulled back. “We’ll be back before you know it. Nothing would keep us away from you.”
Vitoria wiped away hot tears and nodded. If they were brave enough to go to a potential battle, she could wait this out. After all, all she had to do was literally nothing. She stood and went with them to the living area. They kissed her again, and then they were walking out.
*
Vitoria didn’t allow herself the luxury of wallowing in self-pity. It would be easy to sit on the floor and cry because her master and mistress had gone, but that would be foolish. It wasn’t the first dangerous situation they had gone to and was unlikely to be the last. For Lencura’s sake, they had fought an entire war. She hoped this wasn’t the start of another. She knew from Antonio and Matilda, and the books she had read, that the war had been devastating and that peace between the monarchdoms was still fragile.
Every day she spent with them convinced her more that she was their mate. They said she belonged to them, that they intended to keep her. They had her read books that would only be useful to the mate of the monarchs, had her learn things she wouldn’t need to know if she was just someone they were fucking. And, if she was to be their mate and their Queen, she would have to become accustomed to this. She would have to trust that they knew what they were doing, that they had been chosen as monarchs for a reason, and they would return to her.
Instead of worrying about what was happening on the border, she would read the books they had asked her to read, even the boring parts. That was something that could be done from the safety of her rooms, once she had retrieved them from the office.
Vitoria opened the door to the suite. She recognised the guards who stood at attention outside of her door. Lucy was often assigned to her and she had met Thomas several times in the past. Neither guard turned to look at her, both watching the empty corridor vigilantly.
“Is everything okay?” Thomas asked.
“There are some books on my desk in the office, I just need to get them.”
“I’ll get them for you,” Thomas replied. “We’re under strict instructions not to let you leave the suite.”
“Okay.” Vitoria nodded, remembering her promise to Matilda and Antonio. “Thank you.”
She closed the door and made her way into the living room. She had barely settled herself on the sofa when she heard the door open. Thomas was faster than she expected, especially considering how heavy those books were. She watched the door expectantly, surprised when Lucy hurried in.
“Quickly,” Lucy said, her tone rushed. “We need to get you out of here.”
Vitoria stood up swiftly. “Why? What’s happening?”
“We’ve had word from the gate guards that the Kiiessans are approaching, we need to get you out of the city. Thomas is arranging for transport, he’s going to have it meet us beyond the wall at the back of the palace. Quick.”
Her heart was in her mouth. No time to pack her things.
“Matilda and Antonio?” What if something had happened to them?
“They’re fine,” Lucy said. “They just want us to get you out of here.”
Vitoria followed Lucy out of the suite. She turned left, towards the staircase, but Lucy turned in the opposite direction.
“This way,” she said. “We need to go out the back.”
Vitoria followed, walking as fast as her aching legs would allow her to. She knew there was another staircase, but she had never used it before. It was mostly used by staff, and she’d never had reason to head down that way. They reached the staircase. It was steeper than the main one so she slowed to climb down it.
“Hurry,” Lucy said urgently. “We need to get out of here.”
Vitoria picked up her pace, ignoring the twinge in her ankle. The staircase led to a short corridor and then a door. Lucy ran ahead and opened it. Vitoria moved as fast she could to the door and through it.
“This way,” Lucy told her. “We need to get beyond the wall to the car. There’s a way over just behind the palace.”
Lucy glanced around nervously and ushered Vitoria ahead of her, towards the wall. When they reached it, Lucy took hold of the rope ladder that hung there. If that was the way over the wall, there was no way Vitoria was going to make it.
“I can’t,” she told Lucy, shaking her head for emphasis. “It’s too unsteady, I’ll fall.”
“I’ll be right behind you,” Lucy assured her. “I�
��ll make sure you make it to the top.”
What choice did she have? Vitoria took hold of one of the higher rungs. Lucy reached around her and held the ladder in place. Vitoria shivered. She didn’t like being closed in by the other woman. She climbed the ladder slowly, her legs shaking from pain as well as nerves. Lucy followed, and when Vitoria slipped, she was right there behind her, holding her in place while she regained her footing.
When she reached the top she awkwardly flung one leg over and then the other so that she was looking away from the city and scooted along. The drop to the other side was at least ten-foot-high, and they would need to pull the rope ladder up after Lucy joined her on the wall. Vitoria’s whole body trembled and a wave of dizziness came over her as she looked down. She closed her eyes for a moment. Perhaps if she couldn’t see how high up they were she wouldn’t feel so terrified. It didn’t work. She felt like she would topple over and opened her eyes.
She glanced over at Lucy who had reached the top but remained on the ladder.
“A disabled woman is too weak to be Queen,” Lucy said. “I’m sorry.”
Vitoria felt a knot of dread forming in her stomach. The cocoon around her heart felt like it was buzzing as she realised that something awful was happening. She tried to move along the wall, away from Lucy, but the other woman reached out, grabbed her arm, and pushed her hard over the edge of the wall.
Chapter Fourteen
The room was dim when Vitoria woke, and everything felt wrong. The cocoon around her heart was buzzing alarmingly and the mattress beneath her was too soft. It wasn’t her bed. A sickly stench of cologne hit her nose. She looked around, her eyes adjusting to the dim lighting. Moonlight filtered through the only window, just enough to help her make out that the room was small and bare.
She turned her head to the right. A man sat in a chair.
Lord Marello.
“You were lucky,” he said. “The healer says you’re only bruised, nothing broken from your fall.”
Her fall. She was pushed. By Lucy. The guard. The guard who was worried she would be Queen.
“What am I doing here?”
She sat up in the bed, wincing at the pain. It may only be bruises but her body hurt like hell.
“I’ll be blunt. You’re here because I want your blood. I want the same arrangement you had with the King and Queen of Kiilasalia.”
“What arrangement?”
He looked at her as though she had two heads.
“Your blood in exchange for my protection and all your needs being met, of course.”
“That wasn’t my arrangement with Matilda and Antonio.”
“Oh, I know you provided them with sex too but I’m not interested in that from you. I just want your blood. Enough blood to keep me healthy and alive and everything will be provided to you.”
“Matilda and Antonio didn’t want my blood.”
That wasn’t why they had rescued her. It wasn’t why they had kept her around, provided for her.
“Oh.”
For a moment, she saw sympathy in his gaze.
“They hadn’t brought that up yet. Solviso, what else could they want from you? You have to realise that Solviso blood is very valuable. It extends our lives, cures our injuries. It can even save us from death. You didn’t think that it was you they were interested in, did you?”
The cocoon around her heart felt icy. Had she really believed they would be interested in her? That two monarchs would truly want a poor girl from Calibrai? They had spoken of keeping her, of her belonging to them, but never of her being their mate. Never of love. She had been foolish to let herself believe otherwise.
“I can offer you more,” Lord Marello continued. “You will have your own suite, an allowance, anything you could wish for. All I will require of you is your blood on occasion. Otherwise, you would be free.”
She didn’t want to be free. She wanted to belong to Matilda and Antonio. But she wasn’t their mate. One day they would find their mate, and what then? She would have to watch them with the person they truly loved. She would probably be put aside, used for nothing more than her blood. Perhaps it was better to avoid seeing that altogether.
“I want to know that they are safe.”
“Of course, they’re safe, why wouldn’t they be?”
“The Kiiessans…”
“Oh, that was not true.” He waved his hands dismissively. “We just needed something to lure them away from you. I’m not letting you go, Solviso. Even with the recent change in law allowing Solviso to move freely throughout Palici, it’s difficult to find one on Demalyn lands. Resign yourself to your fate.” He stood. “I will send a servant with food and a healer with more pain relievers. You will find that it is not a bad life here. You may even be happy.”
She knew that was not true. How could she be happy without her mistress and master?
*
Vitoria had been sitting in the same position on the bed since Lord Marello had departed, elbows rested on folded legs, head in her hands. When the pain relievers wore off her joints were going to ache, but for now she felt nothing. She knew she should probably try to get out, but the door was locked, and what would she do once she was out there? She had no idea where she was, no transport to help her escape, and she’d left her walking sticks back at the palace. She would be lucky if she made it out of the building never mind all the way back to Kiilasalia.
Matilda and Antonio would come. She didn’t doubt it for a moment. Even if all they wanted was her blood, they would rescue her. The best thing she could do was make sure she was there when they arrived.
And what then? When they had rescued her and returned her to Kiilasalia, what happened next? She wasn’t their mate. It seemed ridiculous now that she had ever entertained the idea. Their mate would be a demure Demalyn submissive who did as they were told. Their mate would be religious, like Antonio, and accept all the teachings in the Book of Lencura. Their mate would be everything Vitoria was not. She wondered how much time she had with them until they found that person. If she was lucky, she could have years or decades. They had gone this long without finding their third.
She might never be their mate but she could be theirs in another way. She would offer them, and their future mate, her blood. It would hurt to see them with another but not as much as being without them would. If she was lucky, they might never find their third, and she would never have to see another take her place in their bed.
Besides, what else could she do? Her only other choice was to stay with Lord Marello, and that wasn’t really an option at all. Drayga had broken her contract with Mira and it wasn’t like she could go back to Calibrai. She’d left for a reason, and nothing would make her go back there. She’d been willing to enter into a contract with Mira, she would do the same with Matilda and Antonio. It would be a business arrangement.
The cocoon around her heart got warmer and began to buzz. She heard a commotion in the corridor and jumped up from the bed, her leg gave out under her and she crumpled back down onto the mattress.
“Shit,” she muttered.
Antonio and Matilda were out there. She didn’t know how but she could feel them. She stood up slowly, holding onto the bed for support and placing weight tentatively on her weak leg. When her leg didn’t buckle she let go and walked slowly towards the door. She pulled down on the handle. She knew that it was locked but maybe she could force her way out. She had to get to them.
She pulled at the door, using every ounce of strength that she had in her. It didn’t budge. She could hear growls and roars and she knew it was them. She looked around the room for something she could use to pick the lock. Who was she kidding? She didn’t know how to pick a lock. She threw herself against the door, crying out when her bruised body hit it. She heard the lock turn and took a step back in surprise.
The door swung open and she ran towards it. Lord Marello blocked her with his body, then wrapped an arm around her waist, pinning her arms to her side and shuffling out of
the room with her in front of him. She struggled against his grip but he didn’t budge.
She looked out into the hallway. Matilda and Antonio paused, still in animal form. Antonio shifted. His eyes remained feral, locked on her captor.
“Let her go and we will spare your life,” he said.
The cocoon around Vitoria’s heart was warm, and despite the situation, she felt safe. Antonio and Matilda were there and she would be fine. They wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
She stilled. Matilda and Antonio would handle this situation. Lord Marello’s hands tightened painfully around her arms.
“You aren’t in a position to be negotiating,” he shot back.
Matilda shifted. She laughed, but there was no humour in the sound. Her gaze was steady, her expression determined.
“Lord Marello,” she said. “We have incapacitated your guards and destroyed your communication system. No help is coming for you and you are certainly no match for us on your own.”
“But if you come closer I will kill her.”
His words sent chills down her arms, but the cocoon around her heart remained warm. She felt him reach for his sword and knew that she had to do something. She kicked back against his shin and pushed her head back, hitting it against his mouth. He loosened his grip and she drove her elbow into his ribs. Matilda and Antonio vaulted towards them. Antonio took hold of Lord Marello’s arms and Vitoria sprang free, putting some distance between herself and her captor. She watched as Antonio pinned the other man’s arms behind his back and Matilda removed his sword.
“You are in Kiiessa,” Lord Marello said. “What you do is illegal and there will be repercussions.”
“Fear not,” Matilda told him. “We have sent for your monarchs.”
Bound to the Monarchs Page 13