by Erin R Flynn
I flushed, nodding, feeling how much he wanted to. He kissed me as he undid his pants and spread me wider. I gasped as his hard dick was suddenly pushing in me. It was a bit too fast and I ached from my period, so it didn’t really make it fun for me with my cramps as well to jump right in.
But then he moved, and I felt how happy he was. He was desperate for me even as he was gentle. Something happened though, and the cramps stopped. I didn’t ache, better than over the counter drugs I’d taken for my period in the past when I could find them. No, it felt amazing, like a shot of pain killers and muscle relaxers or something.
I wasn’t sure, but I did want more when I saw how good my blood was making him feel. I took off the sweater and bra, and he moaned loud enough I felt it from where we touched.
“I never dreamed it would feel this good to have my princess bleed on me,” he said against my lips. “I love you, Inez. I’m so completely in love with you. Please let me stay at your side forever.”
“Okay,” I breathed, feeling the same. Darius was everything to me. “I love you too.”
“Thank fuck,” he moaned, cupping my breast while his other hand pushed against my butt so I didn’t slide on the counter. We came at the same time, both of us shaking and gasping for air.
Until I had to ruin the moment. “Um, I can clean up, right? If I have to leave your stuff in me, that will absolutely be more than I can handle.”
“No, I will clean you,” he chuckled. “If your blood ends up on the towel, it will absorb in my skin so none is wasted. It’s why I’ve heard nobles love taking long baths with their princesses as we feel any blood in the water.”
“Shark. I swear you’re all just shark shifters,” I teased him, smiling when he laughed. “Thanks for being gentle with me this time too.”
“I love you,” he told me as if that said it all. Yeah, it sort of did.
12
Darius quickly cleaned me up, and I redressed, grabbing something when I thought of it before leaving the camper since the others were already gathered outside. I handed Trisha the container with a smile.
“Vance shared your cookies with me when I needed them,” I explained. “They were amazing, and I could taste how much he missed you in them. He missed you both very much.”
“Thanks, we missed him too,” she rasped, taking them from me with a smile. “Good to know he would keep making them in my memory.”
“The moment we had butter,” Vance said as he hugged his sister.
I moved over to the shifters, laughing when the ocelot immediately hopped up in my arms. They were all trying to get my attention, and I gladly gave it, laughing when I told a few to show me their bellies and they did, being goofs and kicking out their feet.
“If bears come to our camp, I’m trusting you guys to eat all of them,” I told the group, biting back a giggle when they nodded. “Okay, go stretch your legs and hunt. You need it. We’ll be here when you get back, I promise.”
I got licks from each of them, but then they took off, even the small ones. I turned back to our group, noting there were extras.
“Princess, I am—” that same guy from earlier started.
“Uninvited,” I said dismissively. “I believe my fiancé said we were inviting the family of my knights and the friends I wanted to meet. And you will apologize for chastising the nobles with me that they ‘brought’ me there. I brought them. I’m young, but I’m still princess. Do not be rude to me again even if we’re not at my court and travel.”
“Yes, Princess, forgive me,” he muttered. “I apologize to your nobles as well.”
I realized he didn’t know what to say to whom. I gestured to Jaxon and Darius. “We’re engaged.” I pointed to Cerdic. “We’re courting.”
“And we’re complicated and not your concern,” Kristof said, and I was relieved he did answer because I’d been blanking on what to say. “With your permission, Princess Inez, I would take these nobles with me hunting more corrupted, and then we can invite them for dinner so introductions can be made at your leisure.”
“Thank you, that’s perfect,” I said, giving him a smile while not meeting his gaze. “There is a matter I would like your counsel on later and maybe something you can assist me with.”
“Anything my princess needs, I will of course do,” he said and then led the nobles to the trailer to offer them weapons.
I held my finger to my lips, winking at Trisha and James. Once Jaxon nodded they were gone, I let out a sigh. “I’m so not good at the uptight bitchy princess shtick.”
I yelped as Darius pulled me onto his lap. I realized he was only in his boxer briefs and a sweater… And he situated me to sit on his thigh so the skirt wasn’t under me so my skin was touching his.
“Pushing it,” I warned, crossing my legs. “Seriously? You want our skin touching like this when we’re talking to people we don’t know?”
“Oh, your fiancés would have you sit on their dicks your whole period if they could get away with it,” James teased. “So this is your first period around nobles?”
“You can trust them, I swear it, My Princess,” Vance promised. “They will keep all your secrets as our clan.”
I nodded. “I didn’t know I was a vampire or princess, so yes. It’s my first for just about everything.”
“Start at the beginning please,” Trisha whispered, accepting the cold beer Wolfe offered them. “And where have you guys been?”
“Let us explain after she does as there aren’t ears,” Vance said, nodding for me to go ahead.
So we did. We gave them the very short version, brushing over the finer points, including my guilt that we’d threatened the leopards originally. Wilson seemed to know what I was feeling because he started making funny faces at me, which eased my anxiety of the topic.
“This is all because of you?” James asked a few minutes after we were done, gesturing to the camper and our vehicles.
“It was a team effort, but if you meant the electricity and fixing what was blown by EMPs, yes, that’s me.” I held up my finger when they went to ask me more. “How is your fuel situation? Could you make it to say, Boston and then Ireland?”
“Yes, easily, why?” he muttered, searching my face for answers.
“Well, that’s one way to handle the present you promised Mother,” Jaxon chuckled, guessing where my head went. He burst out laughing and threw back his head, leaning in and kissing my cheek. “What are you thinking?”
“Sending some of the vehicles I fixed there along with a few of the trailers of solar panels, batteries, and weapons,” I answered. “If they had that and working, they could get what they needed better. There was a lack of weapons and ammo in Ireland and the UK when I was there. The corrupted might not come for them, but they go for the power plants and still will eat people who are there, right?”
“Yes. Shit, Inez, that’s a massive present,” he muttered.
I shrugged. “Yes, but it’s no big to us if someone trusted will handle delivering it. Anything with electronics were fried when plugged in, but I’m sure they can find new fridges and freezers, but it’s getting the way for power. It’s a start for sure.”
“What are you offering for us handling your errand?” James asked, but then his eyes went bug wide. “You’ll fix everything on the ship?”
“You’re tired, Brother, I caught that one minutes ago,” Trisha teased. “How much can you fix?”
“Everything,” Callum assured them. “Her power basically unmakes what’s broken and remakes it. It’s an advanced form of what we’ve heard of princesses crumbling old buildings into new building materials.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I can try. I mean, it’s not like I’ve tried weapons systems or whatever. Once the trailer had power, the pumps all worked for water and sanitation, but I’ve got to think that’s ridiculously more complicated on a huge ship like that.”
“Yes, but fuck, even if you fix some of it, we can stop having shit buckets,” Trisha said wistfully.
“Gross,” I gagged.
“What would you guys think of meeting up with us after?” Vance asked, his tone hopeful. “We’ve got all kinds of plans and ideas about the new coven.”
“Where? How will you do any of this?” James asked, sounding worried and sharing a glance with Trisha. “If she can do all of this, she’s powerful and people will come for her, Vance. You just put yourself as the first line to get cut down to get to her.”
“I wouldn’t let anyone hurt them,” I rasped, rubbing my chest. “They’re my friends.”
“And that’s why it’s important she build her coven the right way,” Jaxon interjected. “Making friends with my family coven is a good first step. The house of Wessex is two powerful covens. Kristof fucking Priest is protecting her. I mean this with no disrespect because your clan is a well respected one—”
“But our baby brother who’s not even a hundred and four cousins the same age won’t do much against those who would come for her,” Trisha muttered, nodding and looking at me. “You get that’s what knights are though, right? They’re the first line to protect you.”
“Yeah, and they will, but protection doesn’t always mean physically jumping in front of the bullet,” I answered firmly. “They’re fucking engineers. They could do tons to protect and make the coven strong. I know we’re sort of winging this and I feel like a fucking mouse in a maze but—”
“You’re not a mouse,” Darius comforted. “You’re choosing to take the path.”
I glanced at him and scrunched up my nose, making my mouse point. “Right, and that sick feeling if I don’t go to what’s next on the map someone plotted out with my blood?”
He winced. “Right, okay, so the quest part is, yeah, that’s a bit mouse and maze like, but the rest you’re choosing, Inez. You chose us. Yes, maybe we were put in your path or you chose to go to Anchorage. You chose to release the leopards to their family if they wanted. That’s you. That’s you refusing to be like other princesses and covens, and we’ll be here to help you do that.”
I nodded, looking between Trisha and James. “Look, I get you guys get treated like second class citizens and expendable soldiers, but I couldn’t ever, not ever just toss any of them in the way of trouble. I won’t be like that, and I think I showed that when I told those vampires to take a time out because I wanted to meet with you. I didn’t just do that for me—”
“But James is captain of the ship, and it was rude of them to brush that off because they’re now around a princess where they think they matter more,” Vance surmised. He smiled when I nodded. “You are so cool. We woves you most too.”
“You made me cookies. That’s all it takes,” I joked, touched he did it for me. I was going to say more, but I felt Darius’s hand move under my skirt and cup my ass. “I swear if you try to finger me while we’re sitting here talking serious stuff, I will bite you and not in the fun way.”
“Sorry, wasn’t going to but didn’t realize I was groping you either,” he muttered. “I just needed to touch you more when you’re upset.”
“He’s the youngest, and it will affect him most,” Cerdic told me. “And that noble who kept opening his trap isn’t much older than you. You might be the first princess he’s been around during menstruation.”
“That might be true,” James agreed. “I’ve never seen Eddie act like that before. He was a young officer before it all went tits up.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty reserved and not a normal full of himself noble,” Trisha agreed. “Which is shocking since he’s from the house Pinault that has a long history of being assholes.”
“Wait, that boy was the little baby Pinault that got booted by his mother?” Cerdic asked, his eyes wide.
“We didn’t know he got booted, as nobles don’t really talk about that stuff with shifters, but he’s the youngest of that house and his mother is princess,” James confirmed.
“A powerful ally,” Cerdic muttered, giving me a look he wasn’t kidding.
“But he got booted, whatever that means.”
“Yeah, but normally nobles get booted for not behaving, and not in the way you would normally think,” Jaxon defended. “Most I’ve heard it’s because they wouldn’t give their oath to the coven their mothers wanted like they’re pawns to trade out. Alliances happen and people push and hope, but forcing a noble to swear their oath of forever to a princess is horrible.”
“And booted is only if they’re under a hundred, and that’s a harsh punishment that follows them,” Darius added. “You’re expected to leave the nest after you turn a hundred and make your own way, find the right court for you and align houses and all of that.”
I made some fireworks sounding noises and flicked out my fingers near my head, staying they were frying my brain basically and my head might explode soon.
“Right, but just give the guy a chance to really apologize. You get being young and jumping on people a bit when you’ve had issues,” Cerdic said.
I nodded, reaching over and grabbing one of the chocolate muffins I’d made. “I’m struggling with this all too, so I get it. But what’s your other option? Stay on that ship forever? The world won’t fix itself, and no one believes the corrupted die on their own. What was my other option? Keep running and barely surviving? No thanks. Even if I fix your ship to do more than move, you know that’s not long term.”
Trisha waved off James. “Why are you giving us the hard sell? You don’t need us. Fine, more people are always helpful for any situation, but you could find others.”
I shot Vance and the leopards a guilty look. “You’re their family. I don’t want to be the reason you’re apart, and they obviously love you guys.”
She burst out laughing. “Oh fuck, she’s so not the selfish and horrid princesses Ma and Grandma used to speak of. She’s giving us all the ins to their whole rebuilding plans so Vance has his siblings. You are so sweet and full of heart I’m honestly worried for you, Princess.”
“Yeah, she’s definitely not that,” Vance promised. “She’s soft and squishy and sometimes doesn’t always get the line of remembering we’re still men when we shift. We want to play and she does, loving on us and petting us, offering to brush our fur and not at all thinking how dirty it would be if in our other forms.”
“I would brush your hair as a man if you wanted it,” I said, blowing a raspberry. I knew I went overboard a bit, but they were so cool and cute and fluffy.
“Softie,” he teased.
“She can be harsh when it’s needed, believe us,” Jaxon promised. “She simply isn’t cruel, and your family is loyal to her because she’s so sweet and full of goodness. Others will feel the same.”
“And you don’t have to sign up for the whole deal like your brother and cousins did,” Cerdic added with a shrug. “Do the run, and she knows where we’ll end up. No one said you had to be knights, but you could be coven. They’ve been collecting just about everything the coven will need, and there are a couple of electric semis she fixed in Boston. You’ve got to have someone who could rig batteries.
“So start hauling cargo to help the coven. The camper we have is a much sweeter setup than that ship. You could have a caravan raiding and clearing like we’ve been and avoiding settlements and help us map them out.” He shot me a smirk. “That’s a lot of help retrieving your buried treasures.”
“Is that this quest?” James asked with a sigh. “This is really very—”
“Fucking trippy and making you wonder if you’re losing your mind to maybe accept it?” I offered with a snort. “Yeah, I felt the same, and I’m still catching up that there are people who shift into animals, so sometimes I think I’m in a padded room and this is all in my head.”
“Yeah, I might too,” Trisha agreed.
We went over the whole map and quests everything instead of just skimming it over. I was glad they were fairly accepting especially when they saw the atlas.
“Wait, where the fuck are we?” someone shouted as I felt that p
opping sensation on my skin and gave a yelp. “This isn’t where we were heading.”
I turned and locked gazes with the first ghost, focusing and dissipating him before he could get upset. I hopped off Darius’s lap and picked up the seed that was dropped, not recognizing it and getting fairly good at having a guess with them normally.
“Hey, did you kill us?” a woman seethed behind me. “Did you kill my kids too? You’re one of the monsters who took my kids, aren’t you?”
I focused and got her too, hating that they were so angry when there were a lot of them coming. That wasn’t the case when it was a few. Was it because they’d died in a pack of corrupted? Did the energy somehow know they were around death and evil for a while?
I picked up her seed, and two more appeared. I quickly got them and then brought the seeds to the table, realizing they were all watching. “Sorry, they’re coming and fast. I think it’s time to go, and I need an answer if you’ll deliver the present.”
“Yeah, we’ll agree to that for sure,” James muttered, studying me again. “I’ll come with. I want to see this, and I can show you where to start on the ship.”
“Crap, I promised to be here when they got done hunting,” I muttered as Darius guided me to the SUV. Except he got in the back seat first and pulled me onto his lap. “Really? We’re doing this on your lap as well?”
“Please? I’m not sure I can leave you at the moment,” he admitted. “It is worse than I would have thought. I’ve never clicked with other princesses I’ve been around, and I think I’ve only been around two that were bleeding. It wasn’t anything like this.”
“Fine, but you owe Jaxon a foot rub or something, as he’s not pushing when he wants to.” I snuggled against him as the next ghost appeared. “You’re not screwing me in front of all the shifters after I drink from you so I can fix the ship. And someone be the adult and decide how the fuck we’re explaining that to everyone in a way that won’t get me dead.”
Darius kissed my temple, and I realized I’d started to get loud over the ghosts and feelings of that energy appearing and dissipating on my skin. It was sort of like my ears popped with it and everything took a moment to adjust. That was the best way I could think to describe it. It felt like taking an ocean voyage where the waves shoved you around a bit and your ears popped now and again.