The red glow began to fade a bit until Jagger stepped around Nikolai with a princely swagger to stand in front of him with his sword drawn. He literally growled back at the big Lycan. “How dare you come here and threaten my father and our court? Maybe you need reminding that we hold your stepbrother as a hostage, and he’s in my power. This slave belongs to me! You’d do well to remember that fact and show some fucking courtesy. You’ll never get your cruel hands on him again, if I have anything to say about it!”
“Cruel?” Lucas asked incredulously. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Niki has told me how wickedly you all treated him. He told me how hard you made him work and how you made him sleep in the cinders of the fireplace to keep warm. He told me how mean you all were to him because of your jealousy, and because he was just your poor stepbrother. All that is over now, because he has me to protect him! Go back to your ship and count yourself lucky that I let you live to tell the tale. ”
Lucas’s eyebrows rose and his mouth fell open. Before Nikolai could intervene, he removed the two guards with a sweep of his hands and picked Jagger up by his tunic, ripping the sword from his hand and holding him up in the air, snarling in his face. He shook him so hard Jagger’s head snapped back. Nikolai reacted instinctively, grabbing Jagger around the waist with one hand and pushing Lucas back from him with the other. Nikolai shifted before he even thought about it and thrust Jagger behind him. “Mine!” he snarled. In a low, bestial voice, he rasped, “Don’t touch him!”
Lucas and the rest of his family gaped at Nikolai in amazement. Kyle and the cousins rushed over to help Lucas to his feet and all four of them stared at Nikolai with both surprise and dawning awareness.
Nikolai struggled to calm himself and shift back to his human form, aware that all around him the Jayronians, including the king, were screaming and crawling all over each other to get away. He glanced back at Jagger and found him pressed against the wall, his eyes round with fear and shock. Lucas came forward quickly and embraced Nikolai, whispering in his ear. “Your mate? This arrogant young pup is your mate?”
Nikolai nodded, still unable to talk plainly with a mouthful of extra teeth.
Lucas grinned at him. “Take him then, and let’s get the hell out of here before they recover. Since these are your mate’s people, we’ll try not to kill any more than is absolutely necessary. ” Lucas gave him another feral grin and turned to the rest of the family. “Okay boys, show ’em what you got. ”
All of the Lycans shifted, and the few guards who had bravely remained behind to protect their prince scattered like fallen leaves. Nikolai turned and crossed over to the wall where Jagger was still pinned. Jagger looked up at him with abject fear evident in his eyes. Nikolai tried to smile at him to reassure him, but it must have seemed to Jagger as if he were baring his teeth, because his eyes rolled back in his head, an
d he fainted dead away.
Nikolai caught him, slung his limp form carefully over his shoulder, and followed his family as they left the castle. Encountering no one, except a few servants, who mostly ran screaming from the group, who were still in their bestial forms, they made their way outside to their waiting land transport. The keys were still in the ignition so they drove off at a high rate of speed, with Nikolai holding a still unconscious Jagger carefully in his lap, pulled up close to his chest. The ship was docked at the same landing site as Nikolai remembered, and they all ran inside and secured the hatches, although by this time, they were certain no one was following.
Nikolai carried Jagger to his quarters and laid him gently on the bed. Catching a glimpse of himself in the full-length mirror on the back of the door, he shook his head ruefully, realizing just what his little prince had seen. Looming about seven feet tall in his Lycan wolf form, his upper body was covered in stiff black hair and his head was that of a wolf with glowing red eyes. He was still wearing the flimsy black harem pants Jagger had given him to wear, though they now hung mostly in tatters. He took all the weapons from his mate and pulled the covers over him before grabbing some clothes and boots from the closet and locking the boy inside. Jagger was already stirring, and the next time Nikolai saw him, he needed to be completely back to his human form.
Leaning against one of the interior walls, he took a couple of deep breaths and forced himself to change back to his human form. When he felt like himself again, he pulled on the clothes and boots and made his way to the comm deck where he knew his family would be waiting.
As the door opened, Kyle stood and came over to give him a rough hug. “You scared the shit out of me, little bro! When you sent your emergency signal, I didn’t know whether you were alive or dead out there. ”
“Well, hell, Kyle, I couldn’t have sent it if I’d been dead, now could I?’
Kyle cuffed him on the side of the head. “You know what I mean, damn it. I was worried about you. ”
Larsson laughed. “I only wish I had a picture of you in that dress!”
“Damn it, it wasn’t a dress! It was harem pants. They didn’t have anything else in my size, so I said I’d wear them. I didn’t know Lucas was going to blow a gasket when he saw them. ”
Lucas smiled and shook his head. “Harem pants…leave it to you to be kidnapped and wind up in a harem!”
Nikolai grinned back at him and came over to lean against the rail. “It wasn’t a harem exactly— just me and my mate, and I was his concubine—it’s kind of a long story. ”
Lucas regarded him fondly, a look of relaxed relief on his face now that they had him back. “You just couldn’t stand to be outdone by Blayde, could you? You had to go and get yourself a prince. ”
“Prince Charming at that!” Konnor said, bent over laughing. “I thought I’d bust a gut when your handsome prince was talking about you sleeping in the cinders! I remember that old fairy tale Nanna used to tell us. ” Nanna had been the human concubine of their Lycan great-grandmother, purchased for her by their notorious great-grandfather to help distract her from his sexual exploits. She had been a sweet woman with a wide, comfortable lap, and she would tell the cousins stories for hours. The story of Cinderella had been one of their favorites when they were all quite small.
Kyle and the others joined in the general laughter, and Nikolai shrugged. “Well, he wondered why I wasn’t fighting him about being his love slave. I had to come up with something. Thank goodness he’d never heard the story of Cinderella before. ”
“Cinderella…” Lucas shook his head, still grinning. “With me as the wicked stepmother, I guess. ”
Nikolai returned his grin. “Yep—and all the rest of you as wicked stepsisters. ”
Lucas shook his head. “I guess the wicked stepmother role is marginally better than being the fairy godmother. ”
The on-board computer interrupted then, the monotone female voice reporting calmly. “Attention, please. Disturbance on deck two, cabin four. ”
Nikolai recognized his room location with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “What kind of disturbance, computer?”
“The life form inside the room is trying to break down the door, sir. ”
“How in all the hells is he doing that?”