The rest of the handmaids trailed after us, keeping a distance from me.
“I didn’t expect our lost princess to be so…” one of them whispered.
“I heard you,” I said, turning to scowl at them. “Rude is my middle name. Crazy is another one. Get used to it. But if you make yourself fucking useful and efficient, then I don’t need to show that side to you.”
“She said fuck.” One of them giggled. “I like fucking. A lot.”
I’d seen how their seductive eyes roamed on Zak’s and Héctor’s hot bodies and glued to their groins.
“You won’t be screwing any of my mates unless you don’t mind losing a tit or both,” I said heatedly. “They’ve been taken for a while now. They’re all mine.”
I slanted a sidelong glance at my mates to see if they found this dominant, possessive part of me a turnoff.
“I like your defending us, Rosebud,” Zak said. “You’re the perfect mate for me.”
I grinned at him shyly. “If you say so.”
“Staking a claim on your mates is the right way, Lamb,” Héctor confirmed. “Show them fangs and don’t be afraid to tear a chunk of flesh. If you desire to kill a few to set an example like you did in Hell, you’ll have my full support, my love.”
Crystal started jogging and no longer swung her shapely hips in the slightest, and the other gorgeous handmaids peeled further away from us.
The guards remained motionless like stone statues and the golden gate with an archangel’s formidable image sprawling all over it closed behind us. I was less concerned about being trapped inside this fort than about the prospect of all the boobs bumping and rubbing against Axel and Paxton.
They wouldn’t choose to cheat on me willingly, but with all the temptation around them in my absence, I wasn’t so confident they wouldn’t slip once in a while.
Few men could resist the sexual advances of pretty women, and my mother had sent succubi—the most advanced seductresses of all species—to get into Axel’s and Paxton’s pants. If they had succumbed and gotten in bed with other women, what was I going to do with them?
And Paxton was at his most vulnerable state. We hadn’t finished mating, and the universe seemed to try to prevent our union. He was barely hanging in there and his need for a release was desperate.
With a horde of temptresses surrounding him, gorgeous and skilled in all things sensual, more than willing to quench his thirst and sate his burning lust, how could he not fall?
Images of Paxton tangling with other women between the sheets had me close to exploding, and I shook them off. If that turned out to be a reality, it would crush me. Paxton would break my heart a second time.
Anxiety, dread, and fury buzzed in me like an unceasing alarm. I could barely remember which grand hall I entered and what corridors I passed. My only thought was to reach Paxton and Axel before it was too late, before they chose other women over me.
And then I was climbing stair after stair toward the peak of the tower, following the handmaids. They stopped before reaching the top floor.
“This is as far as we’re allowed to go, Princess,” Crystal said, no longer smiling. She led the other handmaids toward a long hallway and vanished from sight.
I kept ascending, two steps at a time, shoving back my exhaustion. I needed to get to Paxton and Axel.
A full window came into view though I hadn’t reached the landing yet, the glass glinting with golden light from outside. I paused on the step and peered out at a fairy forest with blue blossoms that sparkled like stars. It was exactly the illusion I’d shown Lucifer to lure him into the Void. Only what I saw now wasn’t an illusion.
“This place can bend reality and defy the laws of physics” I said in awe. “Someone created—”
I turned away from the view to address Zak and Héctor, only to find they weren’t with me anymore.
Panic and apprehension washed over me, then rage. “Where are my mates?” I roared.
Echoes of my anger bounced off the walls of the ivory tower in response.
Remorse and guilt beat in me.
What kind of mate was I that I couldn’t even guard the mates by my side? Those months of being alone in Hell were the worst period of my life. I wouldn’t go through it again. I didn’t do well without my mates. I’d get all of them back at all costs.
The only option was to keep going, find Mom, and challenge her, since this was obviously her domain.
I ran up the stairs. Reaching the top, I shouted my mates’ names in uncontainable rage.