“Charles!” I gasped. “Since when did you get so pervy?”He chuckled, leaning in and kissing at my ear. “I’m a man. We may not say it, but we’re all perverts in our own heads.”I sighed and let my knees fall apart so that he could get easier access to my lady parts. “The time I overheard them, they were trying to be kept quiet in the second bed in the single bedroom. But I kept hearing him slap against her.”“Did it turn you on?” Charles whispered in my ear.
I woke up pounding on the door. A moment later, Theo burst into the room, a look of panic on his face.“What’s wrong? Charles asked, bolting upright in bed.“There’s trouble!” He rushed over to the bed and leaned down so he could whisper loud enough for Charles to hear but quiet enough so that whoever was in the living room wouldn’t be able to.“There must have been some kind of mistake,” he said. “There are palace guards here, and they’ve been ordered to arrest you.”
When I checked my dark web inbox the next morning, I nearly cried with what I found. Inside were dozens of responses to my ordeal yesterday.Somehow, the news of my being taken in for questioning had gotten out, and support had come flooding back in. Truly, it just went to show that the dark web wasn’t something evil but a place where the citizens of Packhaven and Southhaven had come together to show support for one another. And now that included me.Their response also brought up a new resolve. But before I could act on my idea, I needed to double-check with Charles because there was no way that I wanted to implement it without checking with him.
Charles and I were midway through dinner when the door to the apartment burst open, and five officers stormed in, weapons raised.“What’s the meaning of this?” Charles demanded.At the same time, both David and Theo jumped into action but were brushed aside by the officers. The one toward the back stepped forward, holstering his gun.“Elena Laurentia?” he asked.“Yes?” I answered, unable to feel my lips.
Time passed in an incoherent haze of misery. Since there were no windows in the room they’d locked me in, I had no idea how long it had been since they dragged me in there and started torturing me.Every so often, I would awaken back into the nightmare of my incarceration. My eyes were so swollen from the beatings that it was hard to see clearly. Not that it would have mattered. There was nothing inside the cement cell but me.Then, out of nowhere, the guard showed up one day and didn’t go straight to beating me. I knew it was him even though his image was blurred in my vision because I could smell his seaweedy, low-tide scent. It didn’t turn my
I watched the news on and off for the duration of my first day in the infirmary, shocked by all of the changes in Packhaven. Officials were being arrested and brought in, along with CEOs and other high-ranking individuals in various companies around the country.And it wasn’t just Packhaven—the round-up of corruption spread beyond to Lustrum and even Lupinton.All the while, I was being hailed as the hero who had enabled all of this to happen. I gasped when news reporters cited pieces of my articles from the dark web, hailing how I had compiled the evidence in the face of great personal danger.
Two days later, I was sitting in my bed playing cards with Theo when the door opened, and my nurse poked her head in. “Ms. Elena? There’s a Wendy Lowell here to see you.”I smiled. “Sure. Send her in.”Theo’s face went pale. Maybe I should head out or see if David can switch me for the rest of the day. He and Charles ought to be here to eat lunch with you soon.”I laughed. “You’ve been single for a while now. If she’s still that desperate, maybe you could get lucky before she leaves.”
The hospital discharged me four days after Wendy told me about my interview. I’d called Bruce Conroy and asked if he could switch the interview. Not that I’d tried too hard. When he said no, I simply accepted the answer and told Charles he’d denied the request.Charles left the hospital, furious, when I told him the arrangements were for Anthony to pick me up and do the interview, then take me home. He’d slammed the door on his way out, making all the nurses shriek.I knew Anthony had arrived when one of the nurses came in, flushed and fluttering her hand to fan herself. “Elena. He’s here. And you could fry bacon on him he&rsquo
For one moment after I arrived in the garden, the sun blinded me, and then my eyes cleared. Before me spread an amazing event: the wedding of our country's princess.It still hadn't fully sunken that I was that princess.The guests sat in orderly rows of brilliantly white chairs festooned in lovely shades of blue and lavender. I had chosen them because they most reminded me of the moon, and I wanted to honor the goddess at this event, as well. Without her, I would not only not have been at this wedding, but I wouldn't have been alive. She had done so much for me. The least I could do was throw a little recognition her way.I clutched the bouquet in my hand, and Theo hooked his arm through my elbow. “Are you ready?” he asked.“I'm ready.”We took a step toward the altar on the red carpet spread out in front of me, and the music swelled. The quartet played a beautiful melody full of promise and love.I didn't see the people looking at me, specifically, only that all eyes were on me. My
I signed and kept my head tipped back, inviting him to kiss my neck. Charles obliged, working himself inside me with the magic he always seemed to conjure up, driving my excitement higher. My heels fumbled for a place to rest, and finally, I settled for wrapping my legs around him, gripping his hips with my thighs and locking us together.Charles groaned and pulled us as tightly together as possible. And I wouldn't let him go. This left his movements small but the pleasure intense.His rubbing quickly brought me to orgasm, and I tried not to make too much noise and call attention to what we were doing. I really didn't want to be held in contempt for defiling the judge's bench or some such.A moment later, Charles got his release. He stepped back and tided himself, allowing me to do the same.“Now,” he asked with a grin, “Are you ready to go outside and face your adoring public, my princess?”“As long as you're by my side, I can face anything,” I agreed, hopping off the judge's bench.
“Of course,” Queen Yarrow said, “details like training successors aren't left to chance. The king and I already had arrangements made for a royal tutor, assuming that I would get pregnant one day. I'll connect you both with him. Hopefully, you can get started right away.”“So?” I asked the judge. How exactly does this work? What do you mean? She asked, looking quizzically at me. “I mean, what do I do with myself? Where do I go from here? When does all of this happen now?”She said, “The king will be escorted out of Orlune. They're probably already helping him pack. From there, he'll be on the next flight off the vampire kingdom. You get to move straight into the castle if you wish. It's essentially your house now.”“There's no, there's no legal paperwork or anything like that?” I babbled. “It just seems so abrupt.”The judge grinned. “I'll have all of that taken care of taken care of for you. So you don't have to worry about it, your majesty.”“Come, my dear,” Queen Yarrow said, putti
By now, the king’s lawyer had a hand on his shoulder, whispering furiously in his ear. The king gripped the arms of his chair so hard his knuckles were white. And if he could have turned people to stone with a look like a gorgon, the judge and I would already be statues.Still, the judge spoke as if unafraid. “The former king will serve out his sentence off the shifter continent, in the vampire countries,” she announced.A murmur went up from everyone in the gallery at that, but the judge held up her hands. “I chose that location specifically. It has been a standing tradition for generations upon generations that vampires and werewolves do not get involved in one another's politics.”“I would imagine he will find it very difficult to sway anyone into doing his dirty work for him in a country that holds itself neutral. Thereby providing anyone in Orlune that the king feels has wronged him in the safest position that I am able to leave them in.”Further murmurs rose up from the crowd, a
I hadn't even caught my breath when Charles scooped me up in the hardest hug I'd ever gotten from him. It was so hard that it almost drove the remaining air from my lungs.The rest of that morning flew by as Charles and Gwen helped me to avoid questions I couldn't answer from the press while Theo, David, and the other four guards pushed a path through the paparazzi so we could navigate our way back to the safehouse.We decided it was better to stay there than go back to our apartment, yet, at least until we made sure that any of the king's remaining supporters were under control.Gwen wore a mysterious smile on her face for the rest of that night and into the following morning. But I couldn't get her to confess to what she was up to. We'd barely finished breakfast when someone knocked on the door.Gwen hurried to answer it and admitted two people who took my breath away. One of them was Cathy!Since I didn't know the other, I ran straight to Cathy, hugging her as tightly as I could. T
It took me a long time to fall asleep that night, plagued both by worry and growing apprehension over how the next day was going to play out. It could end up being the longest, most brutal day of my life, if I had to spend it waiting and wondering what the jury was going to decide.Worse, what if they took weeks? Months? I’d go crazy before I found myself free from this mess.When we woke in the morning, Charles distracted me by teasing me in every possible way before bringing me to yet another overwhelmingly intense orgasm. I would never have thought that pleasure and pain could be such close neighbors, but he managed. However Charles and I were connecting in bed right now, it was certainly coming very close to more than I could handle.Theo must have told the chef what my favorite foods were because when Charles and I left the bedroom, breakfast was waiting for us. And it was one of my favorites. Belgian waffles with lots of fresh strawberries and whipped cream.I sat down and ate r
I kissed Charles, and he pulled back, eyeing me. “Should we be careful or anything?” he asked. “You know, for the baby.”I shrugged. “It's not like I've been pregnant before, but I would guess not. The doctor didn't say anything about that.”“And you haven't even searched things like that online yet?”I shook my head. “How could I? I've been so busy, not to mention the fact that I'm trying to keep certain people from finding out.”“Then we'll go slow and be careful,” he said.His kisses came soft and gentle, and his caresses all over my body were the same. Keeping secrets from him had been a bad idea. Now that they were out in the open, just these small touches made the connection between us feel so much more real as if I had closed some invisible distance between the two of us.This drove me to smash our lips together, desperately seeking the rest of the connection that I hadn't even realized I'd been missing.He chuckled and pushed me back. “What happened to taking it easy?” he teas
All of a sudden, a whisper of a breeze rippled through the courtroom and around my head, whispering reassurance in my ear. This breeze wrapped itself around me and then swirled out into the courtroom, where it produced an answering wind of murmuring whispers. Suddenly, everyone was shaking their heads, turning toward one another. Members of the jury shook their heads as if trying to clear them.Again, I heard a whisper in my ear, and I recognized the voice of the moon goddess. “Don't fear,” was all she said. And then her presence was gone. But the entire courtroom, everybody in the gallery, the jury, the judge, the lawyers, and even the king had all relaxed.The judge brought her gavel down and dismissed the jury to go deliberate. But this time, I wasn't frightened. The goddess had never steered me wrong yet. And she told me not to fear, that I needed to trust her and the fate surrounding her and me.I scurried out of the witness stand and back to my spot beside Mr. Wilcox. “What was
When I exited the bathroom, the importance of the day hit me in full measure. Today I was going to court. What and God's name was I supposed to wear?Someone knocked on the door, and I wrapped my towel tighter. “In a few minutes,” I called.“Elena?” I recognized Gwen's voice. “I brought you a suit for today. May I come in?”“Yes,” I said.She opened the door and entered the bedroom.“I'm just fresh out of the shower.” I bit my lip, feeling foolish. As if she couldn't gather that by my wet hair. But I seem to need something to fill the silence.She held up a garment bag. “You'll want to look your best today,” she said.I let Gwen dress me, taking comfort in the fact that she knew her way around important functions as a luna. When she finished, she grabbed my face and gave my forehead a kiss.“Do exactly what the lawyers, Charles, and I tell you to,” she said. “I don't want you to leave my son a widower before he's even officially married.”I patted her hands, which still rested on my c