21Nasrin“Will my brothers scold me?” Zara asked, her voice small, sulking in the chair. “For what?” I asked, watching the hairdresser snip away at her roughly cut hair. I had called the best hairdresser in Azmia, offering a bonus if she would cut the Princess’s hair in her room and keep it a secret. I was sure Zain wouldn’t want rumors about Zara spreading across like a wildfire. “For disappointing them,” she answered. “They are not disappointed in you, Zara. You are their little sister. You could never disappoint Zain or Khalid. They got a little mad because they thought they couldn’t protect you, and that you are hurt because of their carelessness.”“I don’t want them to be angry because of me, Nasrin,” she muttered. “How do I make them not mad? Khalid won’t even look at me.” Swallowing the lump in my throat, I squeezed her hand. “I asked Zain to talk to you after dinner and bring Khalid with him. You can resolve any conflict by communicating, Zara. I am sure your brothers wil
PART FOUR“Let your Sultan watch.” 22ZainThe atmosphere was tense, like the day before when I entered Zara’s room after my dinner with Nasrin. She had told me to be good and behave. I wasn’t expecting my sister smiling and talking with Khalid. Her hair was shorter than before, that suited her almost too well. She was going to break so many hearts. I already pitied them. After complimenting her on her new hairstyle, I asked her if she was okay. We talked about what had happened that caused all of us to be mad at each other. We both listened to her, soothing her in a calm voice when she told us about the heartbreak, some boy ghosting her. Khalid and I shared a relieved look when she told us how angry she was at him. We knew if it had been more than that, we would have to take action. After she calmed down, I asked her what she wanted to do next. She was excellent in all her academic subjects, but we knew none of them made her want to pursue it in the future. “I want to travel the
23NasrinThe way he said it and ordered my body to move on his command was surreal. His onyx eyes were pinned on me, raking over my body as if he was touching me and licking every inch of my skin. I watched him lean back, his powerful, muscular body glowing in the moonlight. Every contour of his abs and muscles of his golden skin were on display. Keeping my mouth from watering, I leaned back, my ass perched on the velvet fabric, and lowered my hand from my aching breasts to my waist. His eyes followed my hands, his own fingers working on the zipper of his pants. Lower. I sighed, closing my eyes when my fingers caressed the sensitive clit.“Open your eyes and look at me, Nasrin,” he said, his voice laced with arousal. I did, and watched him through my lashes. My powerful sultan. My handsome husband. My Zain. My eyes trailed over his body, his hands lowering the dark boxers. I licked my lips at the sight of his cock, the tip leaking with precum, when he gently stroked his veiny shaft
24ZainI had lunch in my study, trying my best to ignore the lingering scent of jasmine and musky feminine scent. I had told her that having a child, getting her pregnant, was a terrible idea. I was stupid.Groaning, I pinched the bridge of my nose. I didn’t mean to voice it like that, but I was annoyed with myself for forgetting to wear protection when I knew the risks. The risk of having a baby and turning into my father. Hurting both Nasrin and our child. I couldn’t bear to think about it.“You called me, Sultan?” One of the staff entered the study, bowing his head. “Arrange a different room for me tonight,” I said and added, “Don’t let Sultana worry about it.”He frowned, wanting to question me, but he knew who I was. So he agreed and left, leaving me to reflect on my choices.After seeing her hurt and angry with me, I knew spending the night together in one room was the last thing she wanted. I didn’t want to cause her any more trouble than I already had.***“Why didn’t you hav
25Nasrin“You have to eat something.”As if prodded by my younger brother’s command, my stomach growled. “See? Starving yourself won’t bring you any joy, Nasrin. Eat,” Imran said, taking a piece of my favorite sweet kunafah, and twirling it across my face. “Stop it,” I grumbled and shuffled on the bed. The same old white-washed, simple bed in the Maahnoor palace. “I don’t want to eat anything right now.”Imran sighed. His warm brown eyes had lost the gleam they had since the news of my father’s crime. “You have been saying that for the past three days. Look at yourself in the mirror, you look worse than Sadiq did when he woke up after Hussain pranked him with the laxatives in his food for his thirtieth birthday.”I cracked a small smile, remembering that day. Hussain was a year older than me and younger than Sadiq. Both of us were middle children, and we loved to spend time together.“Where is he? He would be questioned too.”Imran shrugged. “Last we heard, he was in one of our oases
26Zain“What other crimes have you committed?” I asked, the dim light of the prison casting a yellow shadow on Hamid Elbaz’s bruised face. The stench of sweat, blood and something rancid coated the air, making it hard to breathe. These dungeons, under the palace of Azmia, were used by our ancestors during the wars to keep the prisoners, and we had kept them just in case we had to use them again. Khalid didn’t want him to sit or sleep, but I had been merciful to allow him a chair and sleep and food. “I already told you,” he rasped, his voice scratchy. He tried to move, but his hands were tied behind the chair and his ankles to the legs of the chair. The interviewer shuffled forward, scared of me and my brother more than the person who sat in the chair. “Right.” The man cleared his throat and fixed his tie. “Can I start now?” “He is all yours,” Khalid drawled, sliding his hands in his pockets and watching the interview take place. It had been four days, six hours and forty minutes
27Zain“Why did you wake us up so early?” Zayed yawned, his hair all over the place as he entered the study wearing pajamas, with bananas all over them.We all stared at him. Me, Khalid, Zara, Rahim and our grandmother. Only he was the one wearing pajamas, while all of us were dressed up, ready for the day.“It’s ten in the morning,” Zara deadpanned. “Is it?” He looked out of the balcony to see the sun and squinted his eyes. “Yes, it is.”“As I was saying before Zayed interrupted us. I want to bring Nasrin back and by the way I treated her, she is mad at me,” I announced. “She definitely hates you,” Zara agreed, nodding her head. “Probably punch you when she sees you.”Everyone murmured their agreement while I gaped at them. “That doesn’t help me.”“We are not here to tell you pretty lies, Zain. You fucked up and you are owning your mistake,” Khalid said, and rolled out the map of Azmia and Maahnoor. Rahim helped him with pointing out the capitals and making a red circle where our p
28Nasrin“It’s okay,” Zain lied as his eyes met mine briefly before he dived, my heart lurching in my throat at the sight of him falling down. I glanced down, watching him run in the empty hallway and turned back, hiding the bottle of the perfume when guards stormed in my room. I couldn’t believe that he was here. His scent of cologne lingered in the air. I answered numbly to the guards, pointing towards the gardens when they asked me where the Sultan of Azmia was hiding. Please be safe. Zain was here, and he had confessed that he loved me. I love you. I never knew such a sweet sound existed until I heard him whisper those words. He came all the way from Azmia to my room to sneak me away back to Azmia, and I hadn’t even given him a proper reply before he left. “They found him near the gates!” The guards shouted, making me snap my head at them. Zain would be as good as dead if the guards of Maahnoor found him. They were angry with Azmia for taking my father as hostage when he came
Explicit Bonus SceneNote: This scene has a bit of anal play with a use of sex toy.Elena“How much… longer?” I gasped, scrunching the sheets with my fingers. My knees buckled at the new sensation of being touched and—oh.Zayed’s fingers moved inside me, teasing and twisting them as various sensations of being invaded at such a part of my body. “Shh, my little witch,” he crooned, his hot breath on my neck making me shiver. His other hand soothed the burn of his spanking on my cheeks from moments ago when he was driving inside me, shooting his load in my pussy, which I felt sliding down my inner thigh. “You’re doing so well, my Sheikha,” he praised me, more cold lube coated over my puckered hole. “Take a deep breath.”I did, biting my lip and gasping when he spanked me at the same time I felt the cold press of something bulbous and held my breath. Zayed hushed my whimpers, ordering me to take another deep breath and relax when he slowly pushed the small toy inside me. Perspiration for
Epilogue“Finally, the pretty witch has graced me with her precious presence.”I hummed and sat on his lap, snuggling into his chest. “It’s supposed to be sleeping beauty.”He peered down at me, stroking my hair. “I know, but you are my darling witch.”“You made me stay up all night,” I glared at his handsome face, caressing the scar on his brow from the day The Golden Palace had fallen. “You weren’t complaining, love,” he smirked, kissing my hand that glinted with a small ruby ring. I bit my lip looking at it and asked, “Are you sure about marrying me, Sheikh Zayed?”He raised his brow and turned me around so I could straddle his hips, his eyes lowering to his shirt I had worn, unbuttoning it with his expert fingers. “I proposed to you when we were sixteen, my enchantress. It feels like a dream to marry you… even though you can be annoying sometimes.” I glared at him but he chuckled and continued, “But I have never been surer than ever before, Elena. My Sheikha.”I smiled and kissed
33ElenaMy heart shattered seeing The Golden Palace fall to the ground, dust and debris rolling in waves even when we were waiting at the stables that were far away from the palace. I clutched my heart and closed my eyes, praying, hoping he was safe. He was alive. Yes, I hated him for his antics, paralyzing me before running into the palace and keeping me safe with others. The absolute idiot. But I wanted him back, to kiss me again and hold my hand, flash me his boyish dimpled grin. “He is okay, Elena,” Valeria whispered softly, touching my shoulder and giving me a side hug. “She’s right,” Khalid said. “He is too stubborn to die.”“He will be okay,” Zain said, “He promised he would save Riaz so he will. I have sent your guards to look at the explosion. We will find him ourselves if we have to.”I thanked them for their support and stood up, shaking off my nerves. “I will come too.”They knew better than to stop me.The Golden Palace was in a shambles with each step we took closer
32ZayedI held my breath with each turn we took, my heartbeat pounding in my ears with the anticipation of finding Imran and relief to find Riaz. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill Imran if he touched Riaz. That kid was forced into this world and deserved nothing that had happened to him. “You love that Elena, hm?” I eyed Hamid and nodded. We had already looked for Riaz in the dungeons, but he wasn’t there, so we were looking in the empty library. “She suits you well, son, but you need to stop poisoning her from protecting you.”“This was the last time,” I promised and added, “I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t want her getting hurt because of the choices I made. Mistakes I made.”“If you love someone, all you have to do is be honest with them. That’s why she wanted to be here with you, because she wanted to keep you safe just as much as you want to keep her safe. If not more.”I stayed quiet, hearing his words, processing them and following him out of the library. Swallowing the lump in my th
31ZayedI was surprised to see the dark-haired man sitting beside Rahim and talking to him. He looked very familiar, but I didn’t know where I had seen him. He was tall with a thin shirt hugging his lean, muscular frame, and he looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties. “Ah, Zayed,” Rahim finally noticed me standing by his tent. “This is my friend I wanted you to meet.”The man stood up, smiling at me, his golden-brown eyes twinkling in the morning sunlight as he bowed. “I have heard so much about you, Sheikh Zayed.”“See?” I turned around to see Elena enter the tent, her hands tying her golden hair in a ponytail. She was wearing my shirt and pants, rolled up at the hem as I hadn’t planned a perfect kidnapping. “Everyone knows about your pranks—oh, it’s you.”The stranger tilted his head and I resisted the urge to step between them, ripping my shirt and puffing my chest at him like some wild animal. “It is me?”“You two know each other?” I asked Elena, frowning when
30ZaraI caressed the bump on my stomach, feeling the excited kicks of my baby. Hayden had guessed that it was a girl while I had guessed the baby’s gender to be a boy. A little prince like him. Like us. With my dark black hair and his sparkling blue eyes. “You should thank me for not killing him off, you know.” I straightened up on the armchair when he entered the room. A small space, enough for a bed and a bathroom without locks with a tiny window to breathe fresh air. They separated me from my family with Aya, who was thankfully sleeping on the bed, curled around her stuffed toy. I had woken up in the room the day before, my head groggy, and I knew he had drugged me and everyone else. But why?“Maybe I should thank you for sparing my life too,” I replied with a smile, but he was smart enough to catch the sarcasm. Imran chuckled, walking closer to me, his men keeping guard on the door. “One day, princess, I will hear you begging.”“I pity you, Prince Imran.” I looked at him for
29Zayed“Ah, so glad to see you are okay.”Riaz stayed in the tent when Rahim stood up from the chair and smiled at me. He wasn’t present when I had run away from the Maahnoor palace. “What are you doing here?” “Here?” He looked around the tent, the table strewn with papers and maps and blueprints of Maahnoor palace. “You mean, in the middle of the desert, Sheikh Zayed?”“Where were you?” I poured a glass of water for him and handed it to him, leaning on the table, looking at him. He was dressed in his usual white clothes, his grey hair untousled with a warm look on his face. “I was trying to find the place where they took Nasir.”I frowned at him and he continued, “Nasir, the tiger? Unfortunately, I couldn’t find him and headed back. Before I reached the Maahnoor palace, I heard a commotion and saw you leaving the palace on a horse with Elena. At first, I thought you went out… for privacy, but news about Prince Imran travelled fast and I stayed hidden until this kid approached me.
PART FOUR“I love you, you infuriating, cold witch.” 28ElenaThe first thing I noticed when I started getting conscious was the cool heat, like sweltering summer heat during the night. It was cool but made me sweat, my entire body stiff and throat parched.I forced my lids to open, blinking at the empty bed. A small whimper tore out of my burning throat as I tried to sit up, my legs and hands straining with taut muscles. How long was I unconscious for?My eyes adjusted to the light pouring in from the open flap of the tent. By the looks of it, it was afternoon, and someone had taken a great care to build such a tent with a private bath area, small closet and a table. It looked like a royal tent.Royal… wedding. Memories came flashing back at me. Blood on the floor, Imran, Zara crying, missing my shot, and Zayed. He poisoned me. Handed me that wine, knowing what was going to happen and sided with Imran, who had fooled us all since the beginning and conspired against Azmia all that tim
27ElenaThe mood in the ceremonial hall was a cross between joy and confusion as everyone watched Imran and Iesha get married. The musicians were playing their instruments and food was great with a constant flow of arak, but everyone was shaken up by the events of the day before. I hadn’t even dared to look for Zayed after he had left the room early in the morning. I kept his promise of not following him even though I really wanted to, but how could I move when he told me he wished to marry me? I was too stunned by his confession to even breathe. I hadn’t left the bed until the maids asked to dress me for the wedding, even drawing a bath for me. When I had asked them about Zayed, they didn’t know where he was. “I heard Nasir will be sent back to a zoo,” Rahim said, standing beside me. “I will miss him.”I chuckled. “We can adopt and keep him in The Golden Palace. I am sure Zara would love that.”We both glanced at the pregnant princess talking with other ladies, Hayden keeping a c