“I love you.”
“Say it again.” He moved. Just enough, and I gasped, closing my eyes.
“No. Open them, love. Say it again. Look at me and say it again.”
I couldn’t deny him, the words a joy as they sprang from my lips. I stared into his eyes and hid nothing. Squeezed my pussy and clenched him, held him deep. “I love you, Thordis Jax. I love you and I’m never letting you go.”
He didn’t move, not an inch, but an orgasm rocked through him when I spoke. I felt the hot spurt of his seed as he came. He held my gaze as he emptied into me, as his body claimed mine. We were one now. No more questions. No more uncertainty.
“I love you, Faith. I don’t care if you’re a princess or a maid, you’re mine.”
Amen to that.
6
Faith, Transport Center
The EMV slid to a stop in front of one of the small, public transport stations and Thor’s grip on my hand tightened. Or maybe my hold on him. A few hours ago I’d been in bed with Thor, wrapped in his arms. Warm. Safe. Loved. The queen’s guard reported that Lord Wyse had been captured that evening and I’d been content. Happier than I could remember being since before our mother had been kidnapped and we’d left Earth behind.
But then the knock on our bedroom door two hours ago ruined everything. Trinity stood on the other side, her eyes dark and tormented. I’d known before she opened her mouth that something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Lord Wyse wanted to make a deal, our mother’s location for his life.
And Trinity, being the analytical hardass I loved, had agreed, placing our mother’s life above the need for vengeance. I admired her strength but wasn’t sure I could have made the same choice. Perhaps that was her Aleran blood.
No. It was my father’s influence, Trinity’s stepfather, and their shared study of the law. Her discipline. Perhaps she’d been shaped by the knowledge that one day, she would be a queen. That hard choices would be an inescapable part of her future life.
But then, I’d seen Lord and Lady Jax die before me, witnessed my mate’s agony over that loss. Lord Wyse had tried to kill me, my sisters, and had hurt Thor in a way that would never be fully mended. The fact that Lord Wyse helped kidnap my mother was just the icing on the cake.
I remembered Lord Wyse well, the interrogation, his readiness to drag me to some secret cell to probably torture answers out of me. And kill me, never to be seen again. Never to be known as a princess.
I’d felt the intensity of his intentions, the almost… eagerness to destroy the royal line. And take over.
Trinity had met him as well, but she hadn’t been his prisoner, barely escaping his clutches. She’d seen his lies, his falsehood. And Thor had known him since he was a boy. God, Wyse had been trying to take over the throne for almost thirty years—that we knew of—and wore his evil like a coat. I had to wonder if, after so long, he now believed his own lies and justifications for his actions.
Of course, he did.
He was the man behind Lady Jax turning against the queen. The man who had ordered her to send Zel to kill my sister. The man who had made Thor’s mother so insane that rather than see her son happy, she’d been so hungry for power, she’d tried to kill me.
She’d killed her own mate instead. Lord Jax had been an innocent in all this and was now dead. The devastation she must have felt, the pain so intense that she’d decided to take her own life rather than live with herself and face her son.
Still, I could forgive her all that. In her own, twisted way, she’d loved Thor beyond what I would consider healthy. But at least I could understand it. What I could not forgive was the pain I saw every time I looked into my mate’s eyes. The torment ran deep, at the very core of him. I’d lied to the people of Alera to protect him the best I could, but some things only time could heal. He had yet to begin to mourn.
“You ready?” He spoke to me, his thumb stroking the back of my hand almost absently, as if trying to reassure me, but his gaze was moving rapidly, searching the walkways for anyone who shouldn’t be here. He’d lost his parents; he’d vowed he wouldn’t lose me.
This was queen’s business, with Nix, Leo and his father arriving ahead of us to secure the prisoner and now waiting for us. There were two queen’s guard standing at the entrance and they waved to our driver, signaling it was safe for us to go inside.
I took a deep breath, let it out. Knew that it came down to this. Caught, Lord Wyse could tell us where Mom was. We could get her back, get her on the throne. Get Dad here. We could be… free. It could all be fucking over. It was like a soap opera on daytime TV gone bad. Really bad.
“I’m ready.” I looked from him to my sister, who sat on my opposite side in the back of the large vehicle. Trinity’s normally fair skin was flushed pink with what I had to assume was anger. Eagerness to have this finished, too. I recognized that look. Destiny and I had made her angry on more than one occasion growing up, relentless in our teasing and pranks we liked to play. “Trin?”
“I want to gut the asshole, not let him go. He killed Thor’s parents in a roundabout way. Zel, too. He put an entire planet in turmoil and killed a king. God, if he hadn’t gone after her all those years ago, my dad might still be alive.” The display of rage was rare. She was the lawyer. Due process and all that legal jargon she and my dad liked to debate for hours when we’d been back on Earth.
“And I wouldn’t be born. Destiny, either. Trin, you can’t play the ‘what if’ game. Let’s get him, get Mom back. He’s our only link to her.”
I think I heard her growl. “I know. But I still hate it.”
“We do not need to honor the bargain,” Thor said, his voice cold. Resolute. “He does not have to be transported off Alera and given his freedom. Once we have the information on your mother’s location, we can detain him. Just in case. Fuck, I say we just kill him. Slowly.” Thor turned away from the window and glanced from me to Trinity with a grave look. Outside the vehicle, a group of guards surrounded the EMV. Any moment, they would open our doors and escort us inside. I felt safe, if a bit smothered, but we were seeking out a traitor and murderer. This wasn’t a visit to an ice cream shop. I guess we’d all get used to it now that we were royal.